Category Archives: Genesis (בראשית)

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 2, 2013

Posted under

Divrei Torah (Weekly Sermons), Genesis (בראשית), Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a comment

25th Anniversary of Women of the Wall – Toldot 5774

There are not many heroines in the Torah, so we must pay special attention to those we do have.

In Parshat Toldot, Isaac is the passive figure.  Rebecca is the one who takes charge – from the very beginning.  When her pregnancy is more than she can bear, God reveals to her that she is carrying twins, and that the older will serve the younger.

God entrusts her with the prophetic knowledge of who would recieve the blessing, placing her in a position of having to act in a bold and urgent manner

She sees what her husband does not – that Esau’s personality is not compatible with the blessing from God that Abraham has passed down to Isaac.  Esau, the hunter, is impulsive, and not much of a thinker.

It is Jacob, the thoughtful, intellectual, crafty son who will make a better person through whom to transfer the promise of blessing.

Later, after she has orchestrated Jacob’s theft of the blessing that Isaac meant from Esau, it is Rebecca who identifies the danger that her younger son now faces.  She counsels him to flee from Esau’s wrath by leaving home.  To achieve that end, she concocts a ruse to convince Isaac to send Jacob away.  She complains that there are no good women in the land of Canaan for Jacob to marry, and so Isaac sends him away to Rebecca’s family in Haran.

Once again, Rebecca’s clear perception of reality, her confident recognition of what needs to happen, and her quick response save the day, and quite possibly her son’s life.

It should not come as a surprise to us that the midrash identifies Rebecca as a Prophetess.

I have spoken about Women of the Wall before.  Last Spring, we held a Living Room Torah dedicated to learning about the history and struggles of this movement.  Rosh Chodesh Kislev, which will occur tomorrow, marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the founding of Women of the Wall, or N’shot Ha’Kotel in Hebrew.  Not only is it a significant anniversary, but it is also a time of great change and tremendous promise, not only for Women of the Wall, but for any Jew who believes that women should be able to play a public role in religiuos life.

Women of the Wall got started in 1988 during an international conference on women’s issues held in Jerusalem.  Rivka Haut, an Orthodox Jew from New York, presented an idea to borrow a Torah from a progressive synagogue and have a prayer service in the women’s section at the Western Wall.  She persuaded some of the conference participants to join her.  It was a diverse group made up of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and even secular Jews – mostly from America.

People at the Kotel were shocked.  Some event reacted by throwing chairs.  The police allowed the women’s service to take place for a while, then they arrested a few of the women for disturbing the peace.  In fact, what they had disturbed was the status quo.

And thus, Women of the Wall was born.

They have spent most of the past twenty five years arguing in the Israeli judicial system for access to pray at Judaism’s holiest site.  More than two decades ago, the courts issued a regulation prohibiting any prayer that is not in keeping with minhag hamakom (the custom of the place).

What is minhag hamakom?

It is difficult to say.  The Western Wall never functioned as a synagogue until after 1967.  In a de facto arrangement, Israeli secular law supported the Orthodox establishment’s total control over the site.  The ultra-Orthodox Rabbi of the Wall gets to define the minhag hamakom.

In 2003, courts designated the Robinson’s Arch area, which is in an archaeological park next to and below the Western Wall plaza, as a place where men and women could pray together with a Torah.  While egalitarian prayers could take place there, there were a lot of problems with the location.  People had to pay admission fees to get into the park.  They had to make reservations.  They didn’t get government funding.  It was not really a solution.

Plus, Women of the Wall did not want to have egalitarian services.  They wanted to have women’s only services.

Things have escalated over the past five years.  Until recently, the Israeli police followed the directives of the ultra-Orthodox Rabbi of the Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, an Israeli government employee.

There have been arrests nearly every month during Rosh Chodesh services.  Ultra-Orthodox Jews opposed to public women’s prayer would come out specifically to disturb them – shouting, spitting, and throwing chairs.

Women were forbidden from wearing tallitot, tefillin, reading from the Torah, and participating in public prayer in the women’s section at the kotel.  Women who violated this would often get arrested.

Over the last year, things have changed at an even more accelerated pace.  With increasing tension in Israel between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the rest of Israeli society over a host of issues, the government has begun to take on some of the sacred cows that it has left alone in the past.

For the first time, none of the ultra-Orthodox parties are in the ruling coalition in the Israeli government.  A few months ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Jewish Agency, to come up with a compromise solution.  He developed a plan with three sections: men’s, women’s, and mixed.

Shortly afterwards, on April 14 this past Spring, five women were arrested for “disturbing the peace” during services for Rosh Chodesh Iyar.

The Jerusalem Magistrate Court wanted to release them immediately, but the police petitioned against it.  So it went to Judge Moshe Sobel of the Jerusalem District Court, who happens to be Orthodox.

He ruled that women wearing tallit and tefillin, and reading from Torah in the women’s section did not constitute “disturbing the peace” –  and were not breaking the law.  Women praying out loud as a minyan did not contradict what the law defines as “local custom.”  In fact, it was those who tried to stop them who were disturbing the peace.

Since then, Women of the Wall has continued to hold its monthly services, now with police protection.

There are still many ultra-Orthodox Jews who come to disturb them, including, in a recent development this summer, bussing in yeshiva girls to fill up the women’s section at the Kotel and hiss when members of Women of the Wall try to pray.

Despite Judge Sobel’s ruling, Women of the Wall is still not allowed to bring a Torah into the Women’s Section

Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit has been appointed to find a resolution – it is expected that they will adopt Natan Sharansky’s recommendations from last Spring to create a third, egalitarian section that is of equal status to the men’s and women’s sections

This solution has been very controversial for Women of the Wall.  Many members feel that they should stick to their goals of having full, equal access for women in the women’s section.

The leadership voted several weeks ago to compromise on some of their positions.  They realized that they were uniquely positioned to play a leadership role on behalf of Jewish groups and denominations that represent a majority of Jews around the world, including the Conservative and Reform movements.

Their compromise comes with conditions.  On Monday, they issued their demands.  Here are some of them:

• The new egalitarian space will need to accommodate at least 500 women and provide for direct physical contact with the Western Wall. It should be at the same level as the existing women’s prayer section and a natural extension of it.

• The new space should be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Entrance should be free of charge without the need to book the area in advance.

• The new space will be renamed to include the word “Kotel” in it. Instead of being called “Ezrat Yisrael,” it will be called “the Kotel – Ezrat Yisrael.”

• Half of the members of the authority administering the new space will be women, including members of Women of the Wall.

• The authority administering the new space will receive at least the same level of government funding as the Orthodox-run Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which today administers the entire area of the Kotel.

• The government will take active measures to refer visitors from abroad, school children, soldiers and visiting dignitaries to the new space. It will also hold official ceremonies there.

• Women of the Wall will participate in designing the new space to ensure that those women who wish to pray together, and not as part of a mixed service, have the means to do so, and that individuals with disabilities are provided with convenient access to the area.

• A sign will be displayed at the Western Wall commemorating its conquest by Israeli army paratroopers in 1967 (something that does not currently appear, anywhere, by the way).

• The authorities administering the different prayer spaces at the Western Wall will hold joint meetings six times a year.

• Control over the upper plaza of the Kotel (the area just above the segregated prayer spaces) be wrested from the hands of the Western Wall rabbi and be transferred to a new authority that will also administer the egalitarian space.  This would restrict the authority of the Kotel rabbi to the men’s and women’s sections only.

Until the demands are met, Women of the Wall will continue to hold their services in the women’s section, once a month on Rosh Hodesh.

They also demanded that the Mandelblit Committee address and prevent the actions of the Rabbi of the Kotel and ultra-Orthodox leaders who are organizing the monthly demonstrations against the Women of the Wall.

Women of the Wall’s plan would transform the overall Kotel area into a space that truly belongs to all of the Jewish people, giving control over the particular areas directly to the people who most need to use them.  It would give equal status and access to all expressions of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and more.

As of a week ago, over 450 women had already registered to participate in Rosh Hodesh services on Monday morning at 8 am, Jerusalem time.  They will be streaming it live if anyone wants to watch from San Jose

As a Conservative Jew, I am grateful that Women of the Wall has taken the lead in the struggle for equal access to Judaism’s holiest and most symbolically significant site, even if I, as a man, cannot participate in their services.

I am reminded of Rebecca, who did not keep silent when she saw the urgent need and opportunity that was before her.

She knew, through prophetic encounter with God, and perhaps through the wisdom that only a mother can have, that blessing needed to flow to someone who would not otherwise be in a position to receive it.  And that person was Jacob.

Where would we be if Rebecca’s voice had been silenced?  Without her courage, and her unwillingness to be placed into the subservient position that she would otherwise have occupied, Jacob would never have fulfilled his destiny, and the Jewish people would never have come into being.

We are witnessing a remarkable event unfolding.  If the trajectory of the last year continues, if Women of the Wall continue to lead this struggle, and if the Netanyahu government continues to try to broker a fair compromise, we will see public recognition of feminist and egalitarian expressions of Judaism in the near future.

And that would truly be a continuation of God’s blessing.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 19, 2013

Posted under

Divrei Torah (Weekly Sermons), Genesis (בראשית)

Comments

2 Comments

Becoming That Kind of Person – Vayera 5774

Parshat Vayera begins with Abraham sitting in his tent, during the hottest part of the day.  Last week’s parshah ended with Abraham performing a brit milah on all of the male members of the household, including himself.

The midrash connects them together, explaining that it is the third day after Abraham circumcised himself, at 100 years of age.  This is when the pain of the recovery is most intense.

So there he is, sitting in his tent.  It’s hot.  He’s in pain.  He looks up, and he see three distant figures approaching.

So what does he do?  Remember, this is the Middle East.

He does not reach for his shotgun.  He does not turn the other way, and pretend he didn’t see them.  He does not send one of his able-bodied servants to go find out who they are.

No, he rushes out to greet them.  He bows to the ground, and insists that they come in to rest.

“You must be tired, come in for a while.  Relax in the shade.  Wash your feet.  Have something to eat and drink.”

The three men agree, and Abraham starts rushing about, instructing household to to prepare food and drink for them.  He slaughters a calf himself.  While they are eating, Abraham stands before them, waiting on them like a servant.

Abraham’s behavior is remarkable.  While there is a code of hospitality in the Middle East,  Abraham goes above and beyond it.  It is not only that Abraham and Sarah had an “open-door” policy, welcoming visitors to their home.  They practiced radical hospitality.

This is not normal behavior.  Most of us, if we were recuperating from surgery, would not want to throw a dinner party and invite all our friends, not to mention strangers.  The kind of person who practices radical hospitality is the kind of person who has that quality down to his core.  Abraham is that kind of guy.

How does a person get like that?

Well, there is the rare person, like Abraham, who is simply born with that kind of generous spirit  But for most of us, it takes education from an early age.

Perhaps that explains the blessing that comes at the end of Abraham’s encounter with the three men, who turn out to have been angels.

“I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right, in order that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what He has promised him.”  (Genesis 18:19)

Character is built through education.  Part of God’s blessing to Abraham is a charge to instructs his children so that they become “that kind of person.”

What does it mean to be children of Abraham?  To serve.  To recognize that our obligations to others go beyond the narrow circles of our families and friends.  It extends to people we don’t know.  It may even extend to people who hold different values than us.

Two of the angels leave Abraham’s presence, and Abraham is left talking with God.  God reveals the plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, two depraved cities whose wickedness has provoked God’s anger.

Abraham boldly responds to God’s revelation with a challenge.  “Ha-shofet kol ha-aretz lo ya-aseh mishpat?  Shall the judge of all the earth not perform justice?”  This begins Abraham’s pleading with God to save the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah on account of the merit of 50, then 45, 40, 30, 20, and finally just 10 righteous people living among them.  Abraham is making this argument on behalf of people who do not share his values, people who probably deserve the punishment that God is about to mete out against them.

Indeed, Abraham has lived up to the blessing that God has just bestowed upon him.

As Jews, we look to Abraham as our Patriarch.  God’s covenant with him, and Abraham’s behavior, model for us the kind of role we are asked to have in the world.  And the message is that our compassion towards others, our concern for justice, must not be limited to our own.  It is clear from both of these stories that compassion must extend to people outside the circles of our families and friends.  Our pursuit of justice must reach those who do not necessarily share the same values and beliefs as us.

As Abraham’s descendants, we are asked to instruct our collective children about was is just and right.  The goal is to turn them into the kind of people who would rush out of their homes to take care of someone whom they did not know, or stand up to shout for compassion and justice on behalf of others.

That kind of training happens when we surround the next generation by a community that expresses those values through action on a regular basis.

The Torah subtly demonstrates how this kind of moral education can be successful.  One chapter later, the scene shifts to the city of Sodom.  Abraham’s nephew Lot happens to live there.  Lot’s father had died young, and so he grew up in Abraham and Sarah’s household, where he was raised by his Aunt and Uncle.  He must have learned something by their example.

When two of the three angels that had visited Abraham continue their travel, they go to Sodom.  This is how the Torah describes what happens when they get there:

“The two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them and, bowing low with his face to the ground, he said, ‘Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet; then you may be on your way early.'”  (Genesis 19:1-2)

It seems that Lot learned a lot growing up in his aunt and uncle’s home.  He has become the kind of person who practices radical hospitality.  God’s blessing of Abraham was well-placed.  May we live up to it.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 22, 2012

Posted under

Divrei Torah (Weekly Sermons), Genesis (בראשית)

Comments

Leave a comment

Connecting the Dots – Vayigash 5773

We would expect Joseph to be furious with his brothers. Several parashiyot ago we hear them say “come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we can say, ‘A savage beast devoured him.’ We shall see what comes of his dreams!”*1*

It is only thanks to Reuben and Judah’s desperate intervention that Joseph is sold into slavery instead.

Even though things eventually turn out pretty good for Joseph, just try, for a moment, to imagine what it must have been like for him when his brothers threw him into that pit so many years ago. Imagine the insults they must have shouted. The taunts. The hatred.

Even if, physically, Joseph comes out on top, I can’t imagine the emotional trauma that a younger brother would experience when his older siblings abuse him like that. We would expect that rejection to stick with Joseph throughout his life.

That is why his reaction to his brothers in this morning’s Torah portion is so remarkable.

When he finally reveals himself, listen to what he says: “I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you… God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth… it was not you who sent me here, but God…”*2*

Just contrast Joseph’s attitude to the brothers’ attitude years before. They are extremely short-sighted. They are thinking only in the moment. Here is this annoying little brother of ours. He thinks he’s so great. Just look at that ornamented tunic that he is always prancing about in. Father loves him best.

The brothers are stuck in their own anger, in the moment. When they act, they don’t consider the repercussions.

Not so Joseph. He is focused on the big picture. If there are any leftover emotions of anger, or desire for revenge, we do not see them.

Instead of his brothers comforting him and apologizing to him, it is Joseph who is doing the comforting! They don’t even have a chance to apologize. He absolves them of guilt, explaining their horrible behavior as God’s plan. It had to happen that way so that Joseph could be brought to Egypt, become vizier to Pharaoh, and save their lives.

The entire Joseph story is marked by peaks and valleys. Joseph rises to the top, and then is cast down, only to rise again in most remarkable fashion. We see this pattern repeat itself in his father’s house, Potiphar’s estate, and Pharaoh’s court. Throughout, Joseph sees the active hand of God in his life. We, the readers, do not see God’s direct intervention in Joseph’s life at any point in this story.

It is Joseph himself who connects the dots. He chooses to see a pattern in the random events that befall him. That pattern points to a Divine purpose. A purpose that is first foretold in his boyhood dreams of his brothers bowing down to him. Now we discover that those dreams have been fulfilled, in the most extraordinary way.

Unlike the rest of the Book of Genesis, in which God’s hand is much more apparent, the Joseph saga is like the world we know. We, like Joseph and his brothers, choose how to see the peaks and valleys of our lives.

Are they a series of random dots, ultimately patternless and meaningless. Are we alone to make decisions by ourselves? When outside forces impinge on our lives for good or for bad, are they essentially random and unpredictable?

Or, do we connect those dots in a way that points to a purpose for our existence? Do we see the things that happen to us in the context of Jewish history? Do Jewish beliefs, traditions, and practices help us contextualize the blessings and tragedies that we all face? In short, is God involved in a purposeful way in our lives?

*1*Genesis 37:20

*2*Genesis 45:4-8

I got some ideas from a D’var Torah called Unanticipated Consequences, by Rabbi Marc Wolf, Vice Chancellor and Director of Community Engagement for the Jewish Theological Seminary

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 20, 2012

Posted under

Divrei Torah (Weekly Sermons), Genesis (בראשית)

Comments

Leave a comment

The Cooperation of Sun and Rain – Noach 5773

I find it amusing how companies that produce baby toys use the theme of Noah’s Ark so much. You know, an old guy in a big wooden boat and two of every animal. It makes one wonder if the folks who use that imagery have ever actually read the story of Noah’s Ark. It does not paint a pretty picture. And it is certainly not a baby story.

There is an important thread running through this morning’s Torah portion, Parshat Noach, that captures the essence of the human condition, as well as God’s most basic hope for humanity. It is a theme that is revealed in God’s decision to wipe out life on earth, in God’s promise to Noah never to do it again, and in the later story of the Tower of Babel. What does God want from us? What is our purpose in being here? Parshat Noach teaches that the primary obligation of humanity is to build a society that enables every one of its members to flourish. That is what we are here for.

Ten generations after creating the world, God looks at it and is filled with regret. Humanity has corrupted the earth and filled it with violence and lawlessness.

And so God decides to wipe out all life and start over.

What is different before and after? How can God be certain that the near universal corruption that characterizes Creation 1.0 will not reemerge in Creation 2.0?

As commentator Robert Saks describes it, Creation 1.0 is a “pre-legal world.” There are no laws, no external rules telling people how to distinguish between good and bad. God expects people to just kind of know for themselves. Perhaps the quality of having been created in the Divine Image was supposed to have enabled us to figure things out on our own. It finally reaches the point at which the entire world has become inundated by evil. God regrets having made humanity. God’s entire assumption about life on earth, that human beings would know, by some internal moral barometer, how to behave, is flawed. The Divine Image in which every person was created seems to have been repressed.

This is not a judgment and punishment of the world. There is no language of that. The text of the Torah does not dwell on human wickedness, and God does not send them any warnings. While we might be happier if people had been given a chance to mend their ways, that is not the purpose of this story. God is sad and regretful. So God decides to wipe away life on earth. As in, with an eraser. Think of it as reformatting the hard drive.

But there is a problem. There is one man who is righteous, the only one in the entire generation. It is not so much that God saved Noah. According to Saks, God sees Noah and “knows that [God] will have to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent.”*1* Indeed, this will become the major ethical question of the new world that is about to emerge.

So God instructs Noah to build an ark for himself, his family, and representatives of every species of animal on earth. What is an ark? Basically, it is a floating box with no rudder, sails, or helm.

Once Noah and the others enter the ark, God seals it from the outside, and promptly forgets about them. In the ark, they are in a different dimension than the rest of the world, so that when the waters of chaos rush in to erase the earth, those in the ark are not part of it.

Eventually, after the floods have risen to submerge the highest peaks, God remembers Noah, and causes the waters to gradually recede.

When Noah emerges from the ark, he immediately offers a sacrifice to God. God then pledges to never again doom the earth because of human beings. “So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.”*2* God is not going to erase creation again, even though human beings are imperfect. This is incredibly significant. In the new world order, God has given human beings a certain amount of security in knowing that the earth will be here for the long haul. God strikes a covenant with Noah. A covenant is a solemn promise that establishes a permanent relationship between two parties. That is what God is offering humanity – a permanent relationship.

But of course, there are some stipulations. Human beings will have some obligations in this new world order. Among them, we have to establish rules. The Torah states it in the most basic of terms: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in His image did God make man.”*3* This poetic verse is the basis of civilization. There is a fundamental equality between every human being, and we humans have an obligation to create societies with rules that we enforce to protect that fundamental equality.

That is God’s plan for humanity. That we should learn to live together in such a way that the part of us that is made in the Divine image can flourish.

We saw what happened when there were no external rules. That was the state of things before the flood. Humanity embarked on a destructive path that could not be sustained.

We are given the first clue that something is different as soon as the animals take their first steps on dry land. Instead of coming out as they had entered, l’minehu, as different species. when the animals emerge from the ark, they come out l’mishp’choteihem, as families.*4* Instead of highlighting the distinction, the separateness, between the different species, the Torah nows emphasizes family relationships. The new world order will depend on people coming together as families, as cultures, and as communities with their own traditions. This is highlighted in the story that comes at the end of the Parshah, the Tower of Babel. It is the origin myth of the diversity of human culture. After banding together to try to build a tower to the heavens and overthrow God, God confounds peoples’ speech and scatters them across the earth.

We might be tempted to see this as a punishment for rebellion. But the scattering of humanity has its positive side too. Because it results in the development of different languages, and different cultures. And families that pass on traditions. And human societies in different parts of the world that are unique and special.

Today, we are living in the same world: post-flood, post-diluvian, if you want the fancy word. Our society is struggling to find that formula of laws and traditions that will enable every human being to flourish, to bring out that aspect of each of us that is made in the Divine image.

This all goes back to the covenant that God made with Noah, which is really a covenant with humanity.

The viability of a covenant is dependent on memory. Every covenant needs a sign. The sign of this covenant, of course, is still with us. It is used in all of those baby toys I mentioned earlier. God placed a keshet in the sky, a rainbow. It is interesting that the purpose of the rainbow is not to remind humans about anything. God says that the rainbow will remind God of the promise not to wipe out the world again. For humans, then, seeing the rainbow is a reminder of God’s promise. It reassures us that the world will continue to follow the rules of nature, and that we are free to continue our efforts to flourish.

What is it about a rainbow that makes it such an appropriate sign for this covenant?

Think about how God created the world, and then wiped it away. We read at the beginning of Genesis that the world was filled with primordial waters of chaos. God pushes these waters out of the way in order to make space for the world, and for order. When God decideds to erase that world, God releases those waters of chaos that have been held at bay. The new promise is to never do it again.

So what is so special about a rainbow? Think about how a rainbow is formed: through the cooperation of sun and rain. Of light and water.

It evokes balance, with everything in its proper place.

As Jews, we have a particular way of fulfilling our part in God’s covenant with Noah. At the very end of this morning’s Parsahah, we meet Abraham, whose children eventually become the Jewish people and receive the Torah, entering in a special covenant with God at Mount Sinai. Through living by our Torah, we fulfill that vision that God shared with Noah after he walked out on dry land: that human beings could create societies in which they truly respected the holiness of everyone.

May sun cooperate with rain. May people love and respect differences. May the vision of a rainbow-infused world become a reality.

 

*1*A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Robert D. Saks, p. 53.

*2*Genesis 8:22

*3*Genesis 9:6

*4*Genesis 8:19

 

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 11, 2010

Posted under

Divrei Torah (Weekly Sermons), Genesis (בראשית)

Comments

2 Comments

Joseph’s Land Reform – Vayigash 5771

Wherever you see yourself on the political spectrum, I think you will probably agree with me that we are facing serious economic problems that need to be addressed.  Problems of long term debt, of expenditures that are far exceeding revenues.  Our elected leaders are going to have to do something pretty dramatic to deal with these problems.

And it has been so frustrating watching both parties in Congress  quibble over politics.  First the Republicans promise to block anything that President Obama sends their way, even if it is an idea that originated in the Republican Party, and then when he finally gets them to agree to a compromise, the Democrats refuse to accept it.

California is even worse.  We have seen the budgetary problems pushed off from one year to the next, with the State Legislature refusing to ever actually address the real issues.

Perhaps there is some wisdom to be gleaned from an ancient source.  We read this morning of one of the most remarkable, peaceful, successful, and well thought out national economic transformations in history.  And it all happens in just fourteen years.

7 years of plenty, 7 years of famine

Joseph was appointed as Prime Minister because of the plan that he outlined to Pharaoh after he interpreted his dreams

Let all the food of these good years that are coming be gathered, and let the grain be collected under Pharaoh’s authority as food to be stored in the cities.  Let that food be a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will come upon the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish in the famine.  (41:35-36)

When the famine hits after seven years, Joseph, and the Egyptian government, are ready for it.  People start flocking in from all over the Egyptian empire, and even from surrounding lands.  Enough food was saved to feed everyone, even the foreigners.

The Torah describes how it played out.  First, the people bring their money to pay for the food.  When the money runs out, they pay for food with their livestock.  When the livestock all belong to Pharaoh, the people beg Joseph to feed them in exchange for their land and their selves.  They ask to become serfs to Pharaoh.  As part of this plan, the population of Egypt is resettled, town by town.    Joseph then gives the people seed to plant their crops, and requests that they turn over twenty percent of their yield to Pharaoh.  Only the Egyptian priests are allowed to keep their land, along with receiving their food allotment from the government.  The end of the account informs us of the Egyptian people’s gratefulness to Joseph for his successful guidance of them through the famine.  In a postscript, we are told that it is still the law “today” that one fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh, except that which is owned by the priests.

How do we read this story today?  One twentieth century Israeli writer called it “State Communism.”  “Control, centralization of food supply, and equal distribution accompanied by the nationalization of private property, first of money, then cattle, and finally, land.  Henceforth all the lessees of Pharaoh’s lands pay him “the state” ground rent, and live on the residue.”  (Nehama Leibovitch, New Studies in Bereshit, p. 525)

I think there is a modern tendency to read this story too negatively.  To blame Joseph for strengthening the power of the central government, and for ultimately turning the Egyptian people against the Israelites.  This sets the stage for the eventual enslavement of the Israelites by a populist, and possibly fascist Pharaoh who the Torah reports “did not know Joseph.”

Of course, interpretations like this reflect more about twentieth century political discourse than they do about the ancient world.  If we want to understand Jewish values, then we have to look at how this episode has been understood by our tradition.  We will find that the tradition views Joseph’s actions quite favorably.  It suggests something about the values that society and its leaders ought to bring to public crises such as the famine in ancient Egypt, and perhaps even the economic situation that we are facing today in California and in the United States.

There are some interesting details of Joseph’s plan that the midrash and commentators do not overlook, and nor should we.  The Torah notes that he had the grain collected and deposited “in the cities.”  The midrash explains that Joseph decentralized the food distribution system by locating the storehouses in local cities and towns.  That way, people did not have to travel all the way to the capital for food.

Another midrash describes how he collected all sorts of different kinds of foods, from various grains, to raisins and figs.  And each type was stored in a way that was most appropriate to avoid spoilage.

Joseph oversees the rationing system to make sure that everyone in society is able to get through the lean times.  Most of us in this room have not had to live through periods of food rationing.  The great twentieth Israeli Bible commentator, Nechama Leibowitz,  who knew scarcity, writes, “For those who have experienced one and even two world wars, Joseph’s rationing operations are no novelty, but for previous generations they were, and we may presume that they constituted something entirely revolutionary in his own time.”  (New Studies in Bereshit, p. 520)

Without the rationing, I think it is safe to assume that the wealthy would have gotten through ok, and the poor would have starved.  It seems to be the way of the world.

And without careful administration, profiteering would have been rampant.  Indeed, a midrash explains how Joseph prevented price gouging by restricting people to enough food for their own needs, but not extra that they would be able to sell on the black market.  Further, nobody was allowed to enter the country without first registering his name and that of his father and grandfather.  In other words, he established a passport control system.

But if everything was organized so well that nobody was left to starve, why does the Torah describe the Egyptians as crying “out to Pharaoh for bread”?  (41:55)  The 18th century commentary Or-Ha-hayyim answers that the cries were more for psychological reasons than for physical ones.  And Joseph responds to their cries appropriately:

Since a person who has bread in his or her basket cannot be compared to one who has not.  [Joseph] therefore meant to satisfy the psychological feeling of want by opening the granaries for them to see the plenty garnered there and rest secure .

Now one might be inclined to assume that Joseph reserved special treatment for his own family.  After all, the Torah describes how he gave them the best land for raising livestock.  Not so, says the commentator Sforno.  The Torah states that “Joseph sustained his father, and his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread, down to the little ones.”  But Sforno quotes the Talmud to explain Joseph’s honesty.  “When the public experiences calamity, let no person say, I shall betake myself to eat and drink and couldn’t care less.”  (BT Ta’anit 11a)

Furthermore, the text describes how Joseph collects all of the money, and brought it faithfully to the house of Pharaoh.  He does not skim anything off the top to build up his own private hoard, explains medieval Spanish commentator Ramban.  Joseph is an honest civil servant.

When the Egyptian people beg to sell themselves into slavery, Ramban explains, Joseph actually refuses.  He purchases the land from them, but not their bodies.  Normally, Ramban claims, the King would keep eighty percent and the serf only twenty percent.  But he treats the Egyptian people like landowners, and the Pharaoh like the serf, reversing the relative percentages.

Ramban’s numbers are a bit exaggerated, but we do have some data from the ancient world.  A tax rate of twenty percent would not at all have been considered excessive.  During the reign of Hammurabi, the state received between half and two thirds of the net produce, after deduction of expenses.  Interest rates in Babylon for loans of produce were thirty three percent.(Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary:  Genesis, p. 322)  It seems that Joseph’s economic policies, in light of the times, were quite reasonable.

And I think we have to take the Torah at its word when it says that the Egyptian people were grateful to Joseph.

But is this the Torah’s final word?  Is it presenting for us an ideal model of the economic makeup of a society, or of how to get through a national crisis?  Is this a model that we ought to be looking at for moral guidance today?

There are some internal hints that suggest that the answer is no.    That the Israelite approach is different than the Egyptian one.  The first hint is in the role of the priests.  The Egyptian priests come off as a privileged elite.  They get to keep their land, and they continue to receive their regular allotment from Pharaoh.  Compare this to the tribe of the Levites, about whom it is written, “they shall have no territorial share among the Israelites.”  (Num. 18:23-24)  In exchange for their service on behalf of the nation, they receive tithe payments, but they do not get to own land.  So what is their inheritance?  According to Deuteronomy, “the Lord is their inheritance.”  (Deut. 10:9)  The Torah seems to be concerned with not allowing them to take advantage of their status to become overly powerful.

Another way in which the Torah signals that this is not the ideal is in subtly emphasizing the role of the Egyptian people in the economic transformation.  It is the people who offer themselves to be serfs to Pharaoh.  Rather than take responsibility for their own redemption, they willingly turn over responsibility to the state.  As Nahum Sarna explains:  “The peasants initiate the idea of their own enslavement and even express gratitude when it is implemented.”  (Ibid., p. 323)

In contrast, what does the Torah say about land ownership and serfdom in the land of Israel?  In Leviticus, God states:  “The land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me.”  (Lev. 25:23)

And regarding serfdom, it states:  “for they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they may not give themselves over into servitude.”  (Lev. 25:42)

The ancient Israelite economic model is based on private ownership, with limits.  And it works pretty strongly to prevent citizens from becoming enslaved to one another.

Where does this leave us?  Do we find anything in Joseph’s shrewd leadership that might help us in our current predicament?

Well, everything I have been reading seems to suggest that the only way to really solve our economic woes is through pretty radical changes to some very expensive programs, as well as a significant reworking of our taxation system.  I don’t think anything that is currently before Congress or the State Legislature comes close.  When you compare it to about what Joseph managed to accomplish over a fourteen year period of time, it seems pretty remarkable.

The important thing to remember is that Joseph, at least the version of him that is presented by the Jewish interpretive tradition, is being guided by certain core values:  That nobody will be left to starve.  That regulation should prevent profiteers from taking advantage of the system.  And that special interests are not given special treatment.

It is also important for us to remember that the Torah’s ideal is  ultimately not what is to be found in Egypt, but rather that which is to be found in the Promised Land.  It is the establishment of a society in which the fundamental equality of all human life is valued, regardless of one’s socioeconomic status, and in which freedom is a core right.

I pray that sooner, rather than later, we will be able to responsibly, and effectively, address the current problems in our society with the same kind of courage, commitment to morals, and compassion for all human beings that our ancestor Joseph once did in Egypt.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 19, 2009

Posted under

Divrei Torah (Weekly Sermons), Genesis (בראשית)

Comments

Leave a comment

Pharaoh’s Dreams and Bold Leadership – Miketz 5770 (8th Night of Chanukah)

One recurring feature of the story of Joseph is his continual crediting of God with directing the many unlikely events that take place. God sends Joseph to Egypt. God interprets the dreams. God places Joseph in the role of Prime Minister. God is directing the show.

If God is secretly pulling the strings anyways, the midrash asks, why not bring Joseph out of prison right away to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, instead of having the magicians and wise men of Egypt have a first crack at it?

Well, it turns out that God has a flair for the dramatic. If Joseph had shown up right away and simply solved Pharaoh’s dream, then all the magicians and wise men of Egypt would have said: ‘Oh, we knew that, we could have told you if you had only asked us.’ Instead, they have to go first, and their incorrect explanations send Pharaoh into an even deeper funk than he is already in. So when Joseph shows up, he is seen as that much more of a hero.Pharaoh was having a tough time. He was dreaming of fat cows being eaten by skinny cows, and engorged ears of grain being consumed by shriveled stalks. He couldn’t sleep. He knew that his visions were unusual, and he sensed that they meant something big. But he did not know what. As the king of Egypt, the largest and most powerful empire in the world, Pharaoh was the most important and powerful man alive. The fate of millions depended on him. He could not afford to take such visions lightly.

The next steps that Pharaoh takes embody the qualities of a great leader demonstrates facing a crisis. Pharaoh demonstrates vision, wisdom, humility, and decisiveness in what comes next.

Our Torah portion describes what he does upon the arrival of dawn:

Next morning, his spirit was agitated, and Pharaoh sent for all the magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men; and Pharaoh told them his dreams, but none could interpret them for Pharaoh. (Gen. 41:8)

Does this mean that they did not offer interpretations?

Of course not! These guys are professionals. Dreams are their bread and butter. If Pharaoh has a bad dream and asks them to interpret it, that’s their shot at the big time. You bet they gave explanations.

Although the Torah does not go into the details, the midrash (B’reishit Rabbah 89:6) does. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sichnin in the name of Rabbi Levi says that they gave their interpretations, but they did not penetrate into Pharaoh’s ears. What were those interpretations?

In dream #1, the seven fat cows are the seven healthy daughters that Pharaoh is going to have. The seven skinny cows are the seven daughters whom he will bury. In dream #2, the seven full ears of grain are the seven nations that Pharaoh will conquer, and the parched ears are the seven districts that will be taken away from him.

So why doesn’t Pharaoh accept their explanations? They seem reasonable. Is Joseph’s interpretation, of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, so qualitatively different?

Well, yes. When Joseph is brought up out of the dungeon, cleaned up, and presented to Pharaoh, the first thing he says is that he himself has no special abilities. “Not I!” says Joseph. “God will see to Pharaoh’s welfare.” (Gen. 41:16)

Impressed, Pharaoh tells Joseph his dreams, and Joseph immediately recognizes something about them that none of the magicians or wise men of Egypt has seen. But something that Pharaoh himself has seen. “Pharaoh’s dreams are one and the same: God has told Pharaoh what He is about to do.” (Gen. 41:25)

You see, there are subtle clues in the text that Pharaoh has already recognized that he has only dreamt a single dream. After the first half about the cows, the Torah says simply: וַיִּיקַץ פַּרְעֹה – “Then Pharaoh awoke.”

Then, after the second half about the ears of grain, it says: וַיִּיקַץ פַּרְעֹה וְהִנֵּה חֲלוֹם – “Then Pharaoh awoke: it was a dream.” Only after both parts have been dreamt does the Torah call it a dream. In other words, the two parts together make up a single dream. And Pharaoh knows this.

So when the magicians and wise men of Egypt start talking about him having and losing daughters, or conquering and losing countries, their words do not penetrate into his ears.

But there is something else that clues Pharaoh in as well.

For that, we turn to a medieval Rabbi, poet, and Bible commentator from Orleans, France named Joseph ben Isaac B’khor Shor. B’khor Shor’s commentary is focused exclusively on the p’shat, the plain meaning of the text. He comments on the inability of the magicians and wise men to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. “They thought that the two dreams were for Pharaoh’s benefit, about him personally; but he thought that all they told him was nonsense.” In other words, they were sycophants, kissing up to Pharaoh. The dreams are about you. You are going to have and lose daughters, and you will conquer and lose cities. But the problem is that Pharaoh does not actually appear in his own dreams.

Contrast this with the other dreams in the Book of Genesis, where the dreamer is always at the center of the dream. Jacob dreams of himself at the foot of a ladder going up to heaven, having a conversation with God. Joseph dreams of his sheaf standing up for the other sheaves to bow down to. Or he, as the sun, being bowed to by the moon and the stars.

Because Pharaoh is not at the center of his dream, he knows that it has much wider significance than his own person. And so he quickly dismisses his brown-nosing advisors.

And what really impresses Pharaoh, and seals the deal for Joseph’s rise from the dungeons of Egypt to become Prime Minister of the empire, is what Joseph says at the end of his interpretation:

As for Pharaoh having had the same dream twice, it means that the matter has been determined by God, and that God will soon carry it out. (Gen. 41:32)

Pharaoh, as the leader of Egypt and the most powerful man in the world, knows that his dream means something big. He does not know what exactly, but it is definitely significant. When Joseph confirms what Pharaoh senses, that his dream is a message from God, one that will be acted upon soon, he immediately takes action.

He asks this young Hebrew slave who stands before him for advice, and Joseph rises to the challenge, outlining a long range economic plan to use the budget surplus that is forecasted for the next seven years to create a rainy day fund that can be drawn upon during the economic recession that will follow. Not bad advice. Maybe someone in Sacramento should take notice.

Everyone in the room, not just Pharaoh, is impressed, and leaps into action by appointing Joseph to run the program.

Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz, of the Jewish Theological Seminary, who writes a weekly d’var Torah on Bekhor Shor’s commentary, identifies “five distinct steps in this brilliant narrative.”

First, is Pharaoh’s dream, which “represents a call to action.”

Second, is his “assembling of interpreters,” including hearing the voice of a forgotten foreigner who is languishing in prison.

Third, Pharaoh’s “discernment,” his ability to distinguish between the good and bad advice of his advisors.

Fourth, “his recognition of God’s presence.”

And fifth, the adoption of a “concrete plan” that addresses the situation directly and effectively.

Rabbi Berkowitz goes on to suggest the implications of this narrative to our world.

Each of us would do well to learn from the model of Pharaoh. When we are gifted with a vision and a dream, it is a call to action. The challenge is being able to seize the moment, assemble the proper group of interpreters, and implement an effective plan. Pharaoh and Joseph become partners in saving civilization—thereby affirming God’s Presence.

We are at a time of many crises facing our world. As we speak, global leaders have left Copenhagen with a relatively weak deal to manage climate change. We still face great unemployment and an uncertain economic future. We still don’t have a health care reform bill. And Iran continues to defy the rest of the world on its nuclear program.

At such times, the definitive leadership of Pharaoh in this morning’s parshah is be a model to us, and especially to our leaders.

To have vision, to listen to a wide range of voices and opinions, but to be able to discern the wise, visionary voices from those that are self-serving. To have an awareness of God’s presence, which I would suggest means being humble in one’s role as leader. And finally, to have the willingness, and the commitment to make a decision, and carry it out despite the hurdles that will definitely present themselves.

On this eighth day of Chanukkah, when we remember the decisive leadership, through both clear vision and bold action, of the Maccabees, may we and our leaders also find the strength to affirm God’s presence in the world by responding to the call to action to address the pressing needs of our day.