This week is the anniversary of the murder of Israel’s prime-minister, Yitzkhak Rabin, and it also is the time to remember the focal point of the conflagration against the Jews -- Cristal Nacht, the night of broken glass, when synagogues all over Germany became ruins, and Jews became legitimate game for anti-Semites. This week we read the third portion in the Torah -- the portion of Lekh Lekha. In the Hebrew the two words, without vowels, look like twins. The same word twice, with a little change in the ‘sound’ of the consonants. Yet, the little difference makes all the difference in the world. With these two words, lekh lekha, God asks, or invites, or prompts our father Abraham to leave all that he knew and was familiar with for something radically different and more difficult -- to strike out on his own and carve out for himself something new, unique, and long lasting. I am sure that his neighbors, in the suburbs of Ur of the Caldese were shocked and surprised to see the talented and bright young son of Terakh move from the ‘center of civilization’ to that far off place that was no place, no where...

Abraham was told, "Va’yomer adona’y el Avram, lekh lekha me’artzekha umimoladetkha umibeyt avikha -- Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." [Gen. 12:1-3] There is a comment on the twin words, lekh lekha. As you know, the Hebrew letters have a numerical value. The components of lekh lekha are ‘lamed’ with a value of 30 and ‘khaf’ with a value of twenty. Add the two numbers and you have 50. Thus, the words of God to Avram begin with 50-50. So much for all those who, resentful of the relationship between God and Israel always went out of their way to treat the Jews with cruelty and rancor, to prove that God did not chose them, did not extend to them the tabernacle of His protection.

It may have been Nebukhadnezar, king of Babylonia -- or maybe even a Pharaoh of Egypt, who found a challenge to his complete and godlike powers in the faith of the Jewish people. We Jews tell a legend of a time in the life of our progenitor, when he was first teaching of the existence of the One God, when he was challenged by the local king, Nimrod.

"Is it true that you believe that there is an almighty God who is greater than the God of our town, of whom I am the living manifestation?"

"Yes, that is true." Replied the young Abram.

"Well, my divinity is manifest in the holocaust furnace God, Moloch. Let him decide between us. We shall place you inside his loving mouth. Should your God spare you, we shall reconsider your claims." Abraham was placed in the furnace, and God protected him from the flames as he walked to the door where the ashes were removed. He opened the door and walked out. God then said to him, "lekh lekha me’artzekha umimoladetkha umibeyt avikha -- Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land" to avoid another challenge. However, the commentators go on to say, God’s offer to Abraham is for a partnership. "You will do for Me, and I shall do for you." A fifty-fifty proposition. Another way of seeing this is to say that Abraham and his seed have a fifty fifty chance of doing well. What will make the odds better is the action of Abraham and his seed. If they are active, and positive in their attitude, they will be under His protection, and will find that they are a "blessing to all the families of mankind."

Why was the second Temple destroyed? Our sages said that it was caused by "sin’at akhim" -- brotherly hatred, and "sin’at khinam" -- baseless hatred. And I would add to it the lack of unity and self respect for our heritage and history. It is well-known that it was Hellenized Jews who went to Antiochus and suggested to him to "cancel" the right of the Jews to worship in the Temple, turning it into a Greek temple. It was likewise Jews who invited the Romans to become involved in the politics of the Maccabeean rule over Judea -- and the destruction of the Temple followed in less than a hundred years. It is rumored that Torquemada, the chief of the inquisition, was a convert out of Judaism. There is no question that the whole issue of Christian hatred to Judaism stems from Christianity’s Jewish roots and an attempt to prove that the new religion superceded and replaced the ‘old faith.’

"Lekh-lekha," -- a fifty fifty proposition, "You will do for Me, and I shall do for you" is something that we refuse to believe in, because it presupposes a manipulative God. We ask, "Where was God" when their enemies did all their nasty, evil deeds to the Jews -- from the killing of innocents in Jerusalem to the sins of the mobs during the crusades -- who put to the flame synagogues filled with Jews, to the blood libels in France and Iraq and the riots of killing and pillage that followed it, to pogroms in the Ukraines and the riots in Damascus, to the Warsaw Ghetto and the death camp of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Bergen-Belzen. We proclaim that if He kept silent then -- surely He will not intervene ever again.

But we never ask an embarrassing question about our survival. We never ask how we have managed to live through all those hard times, to emerge into the sunlight of the end of the twentieth century strong and vibrant and creative. We see nothing special, nothing supernatural, no providential intervention when every time a door closed in our face another opened; when we not only survived and overcame our persecutors -- but lived to see their downfall, one and all. Empires and world conquerors have turned to dust, but the seed of Abraham, that "crazy boy" who defied Nimrod and put his trust in a God that invited him for a march that began four thousand years ago, and that continues to this day. Furthermore, we don’t admit that if mankind have ‘free will’ they also have a responsibility that is outside the realm of "God’s plan for His world."

Let us reconsider, let us look at the big picture. Am Yisrael Kha’y. The people of Israel, heirs of Abraham, scions of God’s promise, "I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" -- which has held true through all the "free will" wickedness of Godless people in thirty centuries -- the People Israel lives, rejoices and celebrates. Do we have good cause to believe -- my answer is a resounding yes! As for your answer, think about it! Can you deny the facts? Can you avoid drawing the same conclusions. Barukh hashem! Blessed is our God, who keeps His promise to his servant Abraham, and to his seed -- for ever! Amen -- El Melekh Ne’eman, God IS a Righteous Sovereign. Amen, indeed, Amen!

5759

I was in Israel because of my mother's illness on this date.  I sent the following message which was read by students who were leading the service that Shabbat.  Ilisa and Randy Lebowitz -- thank you!

***

Rabbi Ben-Yehuda is not here this week - this is evident. However, his absence in person does not mean than he is not with us in spirit. The words I speak to you right now are his words, transmitted to me electronically, over the internet, so that he could share his thoughts with us this evening, and so that we would all know that even far away he still considers it his duty to have a message and a lesson for shabbat for us.

There is even a physical manifestation of his presence among us this evening, because he has passed on some of his knowledge to us, so that when we lead the service, there is a little of our Rabbi in everything that we do. Just as he is the product of generations that came before him, so we are a manifestation of his knowledge and his work to transmit that knowledge to coming generations.

We read in the Torah this week, in the portion of Lekh-Lekha, that God spoke to Abraham and said to him, "Va’yomer adona’y el Avram, lekh lekha me’artzekha umimoladetkha umibeyt avikha -- Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." [Gen. 12:1-3] This is the time for departure. One can stay put in the same place, as countless generations of humanity have done, and nothing much changes from generation to generation. Little, minute variations may occur, but change, in the same place by people who accept the status quo is never noticeable. Change, and coincidentally progress, usually occurs with departure, with daring, and with purpose. The history of the Jewish people is a story of movement, of departures, of changes, and of advancement. One thing you cannot say about Jewish history is that it has been boring.

Take Abraham, our first father. He was the son of a great man, an advisor to the king of Ur, one of the great city-states in the ancient world. However, everything seemed wrong to him about his life: his father made and sold idols, the "gods" of the people of the city. The king, his father’s friend and protector, was supposed to be "god’s manifestation on earth." And the people used to offer human sacrifices to the god of the city, Molokh. This was all wrong in the eyes of our first father -- even his name was wrong, for he was called Avram -- great father, when he was, in fact, only a little kid. So he began to search for truth, and he found God. He convinced his father, terakh, to leave Ur, and they started to travel to the future, to all that would happen after. They set the future in motion. In fact, in this week’s portion, and in all the history that we find in the Torah and in the rest of our holy scriptures there is constant motion, travel, struggle, and change. Some of it is good -- much of it is unfortunate and bad. War and exile, strife and flight from those who wish us ill.

History is measured in different ways, one of which is the calendar. This Shabbat is the beginning of the month of November -- a fateful month in the history of our people in modern time. The beginning of this month is the anniversary of the Balfour declaration, the time when a great nation, Britain, first recognized the right of the Jewish people in the twentieth century, to return to their ancient homeland and rebuild their ancient commonwealth there. This Balfour declaration was later passed as a resolution of the U.S. Congress as well, and was given the final stamp of approval by the League of Nations, the U.N. of the end of the First World War. Also in early November we have Crystal nacht, the night of Broken Glass, when Nazi anti-Semitism finally broke into the open and the flames of the Holocaust had been ignited. Finally, the beginning of November marks the anniversary of the murder of Israel’s prime-minister, Yitzkhak Rabin, may he rest in peace -- whose death was caused by a young man twisted by the level of terror and unrest that continues in our ancient land in spite of the promise of peace, a peace that still eludes us.

Lekh lekha, ‘get going,’ also brings to mind, especially for us here in Florida, the excitement of the launch of the shuttle just yesterday. An elder senator from Ohio, who is already a hero of the space effort of our nation, John Glen, is orbiting the earth right this minute. We wish him well, even as we ask ourselves, "why did he choose to make this effort and take this risk to his life and well-being?" What does John Glen have to do with our Torah portion, you ask... Well, you may be sure that he is both buoyed and inspired by it. He has gone on this mission to do his part according to what he believes God wants him to do. He heard the call, even as Abraham did. We wish him well and Godspeed.

Wait a minute, just wait a minute, you may say... Do you mean to suggest that John Glen and Abraham are similar and both are doing and have done the bidding of God. Well, that is exactly what I mean. And I also mean to tell you that you can hear the call, too. Find a good purpose, and follow your call to do something for that purpose. Take up a good cause, and you shall grow and become heroic with it. God is calling to us, every day. The prophets have not ceased from the land, we just call them by other names. These days they get Nobel prizes for medicine and physics and literature. They are given Oscars and Emmys and Pulitzer prizes. They are the John Glens and the Bill Gates -- and they are even kids like the ones who lead our service this evening. Shabbat shalom and Amen!

5760

5761

This week we read in the Torah, once more, the beginning of the history of the Jews – an ancient people, dating back four thousand years. Our story began in Ur of the Chaldeans, a far off place: according to most historians it was somewhere near the present town of Basra, in south-east Iraq near the Persian gulf. We read in the text, "And the Lord had said to Abram, Get out from your country, and from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you; And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you; and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed." [Gen. 12:1-3]
Our Father Abram set out on a journey four thousand years ago, and his challenge, and his goal, was to get to "a land that I will show you." He has yet to arrive. Why is that? Because to "arrive" we must find peace and contentment - and that has not been achieved yet, anywhere, by anyone. God, in speaking to Abram, said, "in you shall all families of the earth be blessed." What does this mean?
Many people, Jews and non-Jews alike, believe that our country, the United States of America, is the promised land. It is, truly, a land flowing with milk and honey. A land that is blessed from God with the possibility of success and a good life for those who will work and bring forth bread by the sweat of their brow. Of all the nations on earth, ours is the only one that was established on the principles enunciated and articulated in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, promising justice and equality to all. It is the one nation that has not established, ever, a state religion, but promised all religions and creeds the right to exist side by side as good, law abiding members of the same accepting and understanding realm.
So forgive me please if I engage in a flight of fancy for a moment, and trace a direct line from Ur of the Chaldeans to Washington D.C. - and from the shores of the Persian Gulf to those of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific shores that kiss the land that we call home. We are a diverse people, a nation of immigrants, a people of industry and intensity, and invention and imagination. We are, in the words of Emma Lazarus, the "tired and the poor, the teeming masses yearning to breathe free" - who came to build and be built up by this land of promise. I will not talk of our beginning: maybe we were not the original inhabitants, and I am aware that those who were did not receive fair treatment. I am well aware that this nation began in the colonialist encroachment of European nations upon native peoples who lost their lands and lives with total disregard by the newcomers. However, that was a long time ego, when this country was very young. We have paid for the folly of our youth and we matured in the crucible of war and civil strife.
What is important is that we learned from our mistakes. We created a land that is regulated by a constitution and a system of government that is second to none. Our democracy, founded on the three levels of authority - executive, legislative, and judicial - is the envy of and model for all freedom seeking people. We have been most grateful to the lands of our origin. We have sent of the fruit of our labor "back home," we return there to visit or to retire, or to bring to our teeming shores our brothers and sisters and old parents and cousins, and even the poor and the destitute who needed a helping hand. We have spread the word from our neighbors to the north and south, to the furthest corner of our world - that the blessing of God to mankind is real and ever-flowing. We have been kind and generous in support, we have been moderate and forgiving in war. We have not sought to establish our domination over people beyond our shores.
We have done it through the ideal of citizen participation. We see this participation in the activity of our armed forces who are engaged in a war with international terrorism this very day in the farthest parts of the world - from a totally volunteer army. We do not require our young men and women who reach maturity to arbitrarily enter military service and place their lives in jeopardy. We find sufficient numbers of young people who willingly accept the call to defend the flag and the ideals that make it the symbol it is of the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are proud of our service men and women, and we pray for them, and for all who have answered the call and are serving in the battle to preserve our democracy. From the Chief of Staff and the Commander in Chief - the President of the United States, to the lowest ranking soldier on the line - they are all gallant heros and deserving of praise. God bless and keep them, and may He bring them home safely when the battle is won.
Now our nation has been put to the test. Our land has been attacked by an enemy who took advantage of its very greatness: The freedom to personal anonymity was abused by the men who planned and executed the plane hijackings. The freedom of information and commerce continues to be abused by those nefarious malevolent who send letters laced with anthrax. Our nation has to marshal its forces and its resources to the task of routing out this international threat to civilization. Somewhere, this minute, an American serviceperson is putting his life in harm's way - to protect and defend our way of life, our freedom, our civilization. This is not an exaggeration, and it is not bravado. It is the plain and simple truth. That serviceperson is apprehensive, and is aware that life, as well as liberty and free choice hang in the balance. Yet there is no fear, and there is no hesitation in the heart and mind of that serviceperson. Duty has called, even as Abram heard the call that long ago - and the journey toward the "promised land" has begun. We wish God-speed and good luck to our American men and women in the service of their nation. We pray that they fulfill their goals and achieve their aims - and return home safe and sound. We know from our own experience, how very important the call is, and how sacred the principles they uphold.

Amen

5763

A story is told of a young man, about nineteen years old, who came from Warsaw to Vilna to the great Rabbi and sage, and asked to learn with him. He came before the Rabbi for an interview and said, "Revered Rabbi. I was the genius of my school in Warsaw. By my eighteenth birthday I had learned the entire Torah by heart, and I had been through the Talmud twice..." The great sage looked at the student quizzically and asked, "Yes, yes, I can see this. But how many times has the Talmud been through you?"
I will get back to this matter in a minute - but for now, let's look at this Shabbat and its lesson.
This Shabbat we read in the Torah the beginning of the story of the Jews – an ancient people, dating back four thousand years. Our "journey" to this evening began in Ur of the Chaldeans, which is a very far off place: according to most historians it was somewhere near the present town of Basra, in south-east Iraq near the Persian gulf. Our text reads, "And the Lord had said to Abram, Get out from your country, and from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you; And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you; and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed." [Gen. 12:1-3]
While this is the beginning of the story of Abram, it is not the beginning of the "family" story. That story began at the end of last week's portion, where we read of Terakh, the father of Haran, Nahor and Abram. The text read, "Now these are the generations of Terah; Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran, and lived there." [ibid 11:27-31]
Our sages explained the "history" of Terakh through legends and folk-tales. They said he was an idol maker, and an advisor to the king. They told of Abram breaking the idols his father made, to prove the point that they were NOT real "gods." And they told of how the god-king, Nimrod, hearing of Abram's discovery of the Holy One, Blessed be He, felt compelled to challenge him to pass through the furnace protected by his God to prove His power. They also told of Haran, the brother who "died before his father Terah." They said that Haran did not have Abram's faith - and had stood on the sideline to see what would happen to Abram in the furnace. If he would perish, Haran would continue to believe in the God-king of Ur, and if Abram survived... Well, that would prove something, too. When his brother came out unscathed, Haran proclaimed himself a believer – but, of course, his faith was skin-deep. He saw something that was beyond his understanding, and that grand event became his faith. The sages said that Nimrod next put him in the furnace, and he, too, came out intact. The two brothers hurried home, and there Haran collapsed and died. His faith was shallow, and his survival was just as shallow, lasting only long enough to prove the power of God to Nimrod and all his retinue. His skin and frame were intact, but his vital organ were damaged beyond survival.
That is why, said the sages, Terakh resolved to leave Ur. He realized that his family was in great danger there. He escaped the danger of Nimrod. Only Abram left because of the call of God.
Father Abram set out on a journey four thousand years ago, and his challenge, and his goal, was to get to "a land that I will show you." But the land is NOT really the object of the journey. Rather, it is a quest, a search for truth and peace, for the meaning of life - and its purpose. God invited Abram to go to a place where he will discover more of what was first revealed to him at Ur – that there is one God, that he is the creator and master of all that exists, and that the world exists in an equilibrium that He made and maintains. Except for humankind. We are the fly in the ointment – the Nimrod who casts believers into the furnace, and Haran, who, like so many after him, rushes in unprepared and unprotected.
Which brings us the Abram, our progenitor, the one to whom God promised,"in you shall all families of the earth be blessed." And to the story with which I opened this treatise. All too many people read the Torah and think that they understand and know it so well. Yes, "they have been through it twice before they were eighteen years old." Of course, "they know the full text by heart, chapter and verse." Yet, the text has not been through them – they don't get the message.
God did not "sign an exclusive contract" with our patriarch! Indeed, He made His covenant with Abram as a first step to regain a relationship with all of humanity. God thought to Himself that if people would only see this humble man, a nomad and a stranger in a land filled with evil – and note how he conducts himself with grace and loving kindness, with equanimity and honesty – they would surely "buy in" to his message of the universal God who loves all His creation.
Instead, Abram and his seed, the source of blessing for humanity, have been rejected and persecuted, despised and cast off, hated and estranged, shunned and expelled. Mighty nations made it their task to "prove" that God's word is not everlasting. And God, true to His word, cursed those who cursed Abram, and cast them on the garbage heap of history.
Still, the seed of Abram remains true to the original call of our God, to be a people who live by His teaching, to fulfill the mitzvot brought down from Sinai by His servant Moshe, to be His people and serve Him with all our heart and all our might - with love.
We cannot do it in ignorance. We cannot do it by accident. We cannot do it simply by having good intentions. We can only do it through education and practice. We must arm ourselves with knowledge – knowledge of our ancient texts, still cogent and powerful today as they were when they were given. We musyt fortify our resolve by becoming familiar with our history, our traditions, our holy tongue, and by knowing and loving one another. We can do nothing less and keep God's promise alive.

Amen

Lekh-Lekha 5765
We continue read in the Torah this week, as we have done for the last three weeks, the opening chapters in the first book, Beresheet. This week we read the portion of Lekh-Lekha, which begins with the words, “And the Lord had said to Abram, Get out from your country, and from your family, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you; And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you; and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go to the land of Canaan; and to the land of Canaan they came.” [Genesis 12:1-5]
Many people do not believe what they read in the Torah, and have a hard time believing in God. They point out that they have not heard God speaking, and how can anyone believe that God “watches over us?” Surely not over us! They ask, "Where was God" when their enemies did all their nasty, evil deeds to the Jews – from the killing of innocents in Jerusalem to the sins of the mobs during the crusades – who put to the flame synagogues filled with Jews, to the blood libels in France and Iraq and the riots of killing and pillage that followed it, to pogroms in the Ukraine and the riots in Damascus, to the Warsaw Ghetto and the death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Bergen-Belzen, to the victims of terror in the Sbaro Pizza parlor, the Number two bus filled with children and adults returning from prayers at the Western Wall, the only remnant of the glorious Temple of Solomon and Herod. They proclaim that if He kept silent then – surely He will not intervene ever again.
And yet... And yet, the words are there, written after the revelation at Sinai, repeated over the millennia in good times and in bad times, bearing witness to a covenant between od Almighty, Master of the Universe, and the people Israel, the Seed of the Man, Abram, who was called by God, to “Get out from your country, and from your family, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.”
God despaired of man more than once. He flooded the earth because of man’s transgression, and “the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” [Ibid. 8:21] Yet he did not give up on mankind, and ten generations after the flood he discovered a man of truth, the son of Terakh, and he chose to make him a messanger to humanity, “in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.” God did not promise Abram an easy time, nor did he assure him that he and his seed will be spared trouble and travail. Having given mankind free will, God could not, by definition, restrict that free will to good acts toward His covenant family. He could, and did assure Abram, and his seed after him, that He will save a remnant, no matter what the design of men shall be.
Our portion this week begins the history of the Jewish people, and we need to remind ourselves of that begining. We need to mention and learn well that we are a partner to a three part covenant: there is God, creator and master of all that exists; there is Abram and his seed after him, and there is the land – Canaan, the Holy Land, Israel. Abram and his seed cannot exist without God, and they cannot flourish without the land. Canaan cannot be a “land of milk and honey” without the seed of Abram to make it so. And God would not be God Almighty, owner of heaven and earth if He did not keep His word to His people about their land.
We can find many different commentaries on the two look-alike words that open our portion this week, Lekh Lekha. Let me remind you of one I have presented before, which teaches that God said to Abram "Lekh," ‘go,’ "lekha," meaning ‘for yourself’ – which means that Abram was to ‘use his energy and his initiativeto make his own future.’ God blessed Abram with enterprise, with insight and industry – and as a result his going became a success story. As you know, the Hebrew letters have a “numerical” value. The components of lekh lekha are ‘lamed’ with a value of thirty and ‘khaf’ with a value of twenty. Add the two numbers and you have sum of 50. Thus, the words God used to send Avram on his way begin with 50-50. This is viewed by the mystical commentators as an ‘arrangement’ in which two forces interact. God will perform His fifty percent conditional upon Abram doing his fifty percent.

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