Friday, November 22, 2019

Psalm 136 Interpretive


This is an interpretation of Psalm 136 I have written for an Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. It inspires us to do better, and at the same time to try to seek gratitude. It is in opposition to the queer Midrash I have written on the same Psalm, where I struggle to see gratitude.

 

    הודו לה' כי טוב... כי לעולם חסדו
Give thanks to God, for God is good                For God’s mercy is everlasting
God created humanity in God’s image              For God’s mercy is everlasting
God feeds all living things                               For God’s mercy is everlasting
God cares for all the oppressed                       For God’s mercy is everlasting
God requires and inspires us to do the same    For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the food insecure                           For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the unhoused                                For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the indigenous                               For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the disabled                                   For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the people of color                         For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the disadvantaged queer                 For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the elderly                                     For God’s mercy is everlasting
To care for the orphan                                    For God’s mercy is everlasting
To not eat factory farm meat                           For God’s mercy is everlasting
To eat sustainable local produce                      For God’s mercy is everlasting
To pay living wages to workers                        For God’s mercy is everlasting
To free the immigrants in illegal detention        For God’s mercy is everlasting
To heal the broken planet                                For God’s mercy is everlasting
To overall repair the world – Tikkun Olam         For God’s mercy is everlasting
Give thanks to God for God is good                  For God’s mercy is everlasting

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Dvar Torah – TDOR 2019 – Vayeira – Hayyei Sarah


Every year on November 20, Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is commemorated globally to remember those transgender people lost the previous twelve months to violence. In the United States, the list has been larger this year than in any previous year records were kept. This list is available at http://www.rabbahrona.us/2019/11/tdor-2019-memorial-list-as-of-november.html

A close look at the murders on the list reveals that the majority of these people were African American women, killed in the South. The sad reality is that these murders often go unsolved. Because of this, we do not know the definitive motivations for these deaths.  But we can presume two causes: White Supremacy and Religious Extremism, both of which are on the rise in the US and globally in the current era.

I would like to focus on religious extremism from the standpoint of our Torah readings. Last Shabbat we read Parashat Vayeira, which coincidentally was my B’Mitzvah[1] parasha. It is also the source of the Torah readings for Rosh HaShanna, so the text is very familiar. To me, Sefer Bereshit, the Book of Genesis, is the most difficult book in Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, and this Parasha, this section, is the most difficult parasha

We find that God reveals to Abraham the plan to destroy Sodom and ‘Amorah. Abraham then bargains with God to save the cities, if only a few righteous people are found, starting at 50, and working his way down to ten. At one point he says to God, Hallila Lakh, it would be a desecration of Your Name, to do this.

Yet, in Parashat Lekh L’kha, read two weeks prior, and twice in Vayeira, when God tells Abraham to drive out Hagar and Ishmael, and when God tells Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, Abraham doesn’t argue with God, he doesn’t tell God this would be a desecration of the Divine Name. His response? He gets up early in the morning and eagerly does God’s bidding.

Further, Jewish tradition tells us that Abraham studied and followed ALL of Torah in the Academies of Shem and Eber.  I have a huge problem with this tradition. Surely if this were so, Abraham would have challenged God, saying, “Are You not going to prohibit child sacrifice? This would be a HUGE desecration of Your Holy Name!” But Abraham does not do this. He speedily and eagerly carries out God’s command.

One Midrash even states that Abraham actually DID kill Isaac. It was only through the resurrection of the dead, a theme repeated in last week’s Haftarah, or prophetic reading, that Isaac survived.
So, if we examine the outcome of the Aqeida, the binding of Isaac we see some startling results.  Our tradition teaches that Abraham passed this tenth and final Divine test, but did he really?

  • When Abraham goes back down the mountain afterwards, Isaac does not go with him
  • The Torah never records Isaac speaking to Abraham again.
  •   The Torah never records God speaking to Abraham again.
And moving into Parashat Hayyei Sarah, this Shabbat’s reading, we find that Sarah dies immediately after the Aqeida. In Rabbi Yishmael’s Barraita on homiletics we learn that adjacent sections of Biblical texts are thematically related. We can thus presume then that the Aqeida was the proximal cause of Sarah’s death.

Further, when we next encounter Isaac in the Parasha, in the fifth reading, he is found in B’er L’hai Ro’i. This is critical. This is where Hagar, his co-mother, and Ishmael, his half-brother live.  Presumably Isaac was so traumatized by the events of the Aqeida that he went to live with Hagar because he needed motherly comfort. The text states that when he married Rebecca he was comforted for the loss of his mother.

The Rambam, Rabbi Moses Maimonides, teaches in Hilchot De’ot, the Laws of Human Characteristics, Chapter 1 Law 4, that we are to take a middle of the road approach to all of our characteristics. We are not to deviate from that in any way in either direction, because to do so can lead to disaster. Those who follow this law are considered wise.

Only a few very righteous people are able to take extreme positions.  Note that while permission is given to deviate from this middle permission, that does not mean that it is required. The Rambam goes out of his way to emphasize how important the middle of the road position is.

We see elsewhere in Torah, such as in the case of taking the captive war bride, that permission is given because human nature is understood. This doesn’t mean it is encouraged, and in fact the Torah states that bad things will happen if one does this.

The same is true here. If one takes any extreme position, bad things will occur.  Such is the case with Abraham.  He took an extreme position in his relationship with God, and he lost everything that was important to him.

In Avot, the last book of the Talmud we are told to turn it and turn it because everything is in it. We cannot take Torah at face value, but rather we must challenge it deeply.  Such is the case here.  It is easy to take our tradition for granted. But when anyone takes religious traditions for granted, tragedies occur, be they the Aqeida or senseless killings by people who claim to be defending God’s honor.

We are obligated to save lives over all Torah commandments, so we must challenge the traditions and texts such as the Aqeida.

We pray for a time when we no longer need to mourn over the loss of anyone killed through Sinat Hinam, senseless hatred.

Shabbat shalom.



[1] Note that the term B’Mitzvah is a gender neutral replacement for Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah, coined by Rabbi Joshua Berkenwald of Congregation Sinai, San Jose CA.

Monday, November 11, 2019

TDOR 2019 Memorial List as of November 11, 2019







Date
Name
Age
Location

Cause
Demographics
14 Oct 2019
30
Kansas City, Missouri

Shot               
African American woman
11 Oct 2019
44
San Francisco, California

suicide
White? woman
10 Oct 2019
23
Mankato, Minnesota

not reported
Woman of color
6 Oct 2019
23
Paducah, Kentucky

suicide
man
27 Sep 2019

Warner Robins, Georgia

shot
African American woman
20 Sep 2019
29
Houston, Texas

shot
African American woman
16 Sep 2019
46
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

not reported
African American woman


13 Sep 2019

Kansas City

shot
African American woman
4 Sep 2019
19
Pomona, California

Suicide
Latinx man

2 Sep 2019
17
Baltimore, Maryland

shot
African American woman
1 Sep 2019
21
Clewiston, Florida

shot and burned
African American woman
10 Aug 2019
25
North Carolina

not reported
African American woman
4 Aug 2019
24
Allendale County, South Carolina

murdered
African American woman
4 Aug 2019
22
Dayton, Ohio

shot
White man
31 Jul 2019
21
Miami-Dade County, Florida

shot
African American woman
30 Jul 2019
22
Houston, Texas

murdered
African American woman
27 Jul 2019
54
Charlotte, North Carolina

murdered
African American woman
20 Jul 2019
29
North Charleston, South Carolina

shot
African American woman
5 Jul 2019
48
South Orange, New Jersey

Suspicious house fire
White woman
25 Jun 2019
32
Kansas City, Missouri

murdered
African American woman
13 Jun 2019
23
Fairmount Heights, Maryland

shot
African American woman
7 Jun 2019

Rikers Island, New York

died in custody
African American woman
5 Jun 2019
23
Lumberton, North Carolina

shot
African American woman
4 Jun 2019
19
Evansville, Indiana

suicide
White man
1 Jun 2019
26
Dallas, Texas

murdered
African American woman
1 Jun 2019
25
El Paso, Texas

died in custody
Latinx woman
27 May 2019
31
Portland, Oregon

possible suicide
African American woman
25 May 2019
20
Detroit, Michigan

shot
African American woman
19 May 2019
40
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

shot
African American woman
18 May 2019
23
Dallas, Texas

shot
African American woman
14 May 2019
21
Cleveland, Ohio

shot
African American woman
30 Mar 2019

Fairmount Heights, Maryland

shot
African American woman
25 Mar 2019

Memphis, Tennessee

murdered
African American woman
24 Feb 2019

Florida

suicide
Puerto Rican woman
31 Jan 2019
38
Saint Augustine, Florida

shot
White woman
6 Jan 2019
31
Montgomery, Alabama

shot
African American woman
7 Dec 2018
35
Detroit, Michigan

shot
African American woman
26 Nov 2018

Baltimore, Maryland

shot
African American woman