The Beatles and Bo

2020 “Speaking Words of Wisdom”

When I was writing this, I kept having visions of Father Mackenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one would hear. 

So, thank you for lending me your years, letting me sing you a song, and not standing up and walking out on me when I sang out of tune. 

I get by with a little help from my chaverim.

Todah Rabah.

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When I find myself in times of trouble, words of Torah speak to me. Speaking words of wisdom, “Set them free.”

I read the news today. 

Oh boy.

A tyrant is in charge of the highest office in the land. Repeated calls from the people to do the right thing have been ignored. Day after day alone on the hill,

The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still,

Nobody seems to like him

They can tell what he wants to do.

His courtiers, with one or two exceptions, are standing fast in their support. His heart is hardened and, despite repeated pleas, warnings of impending disaster, and the destruction of his nation, he refuses to yield. An enslaved nation waits.

The tyrant? Pharaoh.

The people? Israel, the God wrestlers.

One has a hardened, stubborn heart. The other just wants to go live in the desert and worship their God and live in peace. The back and forth has been going on for 7 plagues now.

You say yes.

I say no.

You say stop

I say go

I say high

You say low

You say Why, and I say “I don’t know!”

7 plagues upon the Egyptians, and still Pharaoh will not yield.

Go again, God tells Moses. 

I’ve made his heart hard and stubborn and heavy and strong, but go. 

Moses is tired. It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog. It’s been a hard days’ night. God. I should be sleeping like a log. 

Weren’t you the one calling out into the night, God reminds him. I heard you: Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. And here I am. Not just here, actually. Here, there and everywhere!

Yes, My sweet Lord

I really want to see you

Really want to be with you

Really want to see you Lord

But it takes so long, my Lord

Go, God tells him again. 

Moses, the prince raised in the palace, the recently-appointed spokesperson for the people, goes up to give his once-upon-a-time brother one more chance:

For though we may be parted there is

Still a chance that he will see

There will be an answer

Kein yehi

The Beatles were all about love. In fact, they used the word “love” 613 times in their lyrics. It’s no magical mystery -- 613 repetitions of love. 613 mitzvot in the Torah. A gift from God with a note attached saying, “with love from me to you”. Mitzvot which we do -- freely -- with love in our hearts. 

God may as well have said: Love me? Do. 

You know I love you. I’ll always be true. 

So if you love me. Do. 

In this story, no one is free -- not the people, not Moses, not Pharaoh. 

But Moses knows the value of freedom, the innate desire for freedom, and so he goes to the Pharaoh.

He say, "I know you, you know me"

One thing I can tell you is we got to be free. 

You say you want a revolution? Pharaoh scoffs.

Well, you know. We all want to change the world

Don't you know that you can count me out

Two of Pharaoh's own advisers plead with him. Egypt is already destroyed! We’ve suffered 7 plagues. How long will you let this go on? There’s gonna be more! Locusts! That’s what the man said. But will he listen to what the man said?

Pharaoh seems to waver. He tells Moses to go! Picture yourself on a boat on a the Nile, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

Moses says, Thanks Pharaoh, but before I punch my ticket to ride, just so you know, we’re taking our young. And the old. And the cows, the goats, the lambs. The Walrus. The octopus and his garden.

Oh, Pharaoh says. I’ve got to admit, It’s getting better. It’s getting better all the time! You know what? You can only take the young. Everything else stays.

You’re a mean Mr Mustard, says Moses!  

Pharaoh tosses them out. Get back! Get back! Get back to where you once belonged.

Bring on the locusts. They covered the face of the whole earth and there remained not any green thing, either tree or herb of the strawberry fields, forever. 

Pharaoh is shook. He summons Aaron and Moses to him once more.

Can we Come Together on this?

Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friend. 

I get it, Moses says. I used to be an angry young man. Hiding my head in the sand. God gave me the word, I finally heard. I'm doing the best that I can.

But then God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Or did he? Whether or not he had a little push from God, Pharaoh was well down the long and winding road to a stubborn, heavy heart on his own. I won’t back down. I will stand my ground. You can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won’t back down. 

Hatred.

Cruelty 

Narcissism.

The Thirst for power. 

You let too much of that into your heart and it will harden and calcify beyond repair.

Our rabbis taught mitzvah goreret mitzvah. Good leads to good. Love leads to love. Love is all and love is everyone. It is knowing, it is knowing...

But they also taught, averah goreret averah. Evil leads to evil. At what point could Pharaoh have gone back? After the first cruelty? The seventh? The thousandth? That boy won't be happy Till he's seen you cry 

And it really doesn’t matter to Pharaoh.

If I’m wrong, I’m right…

Where I belong, I’m right! 

Nothing’s gonna change my world!

But the heart of love, Moses’s heart, keeps trying: 

Think of what you're saying

You can get it wrong and still you think that it's alright

Think of what I'm saying

We can work it out and get it straight, or say goodnight

And Pharaoh says, Goodnight.

His hardened heart secures the 9th plague. Number 9. Number 9. Number 9: Three days and nights of Darkness so thick you could feel it. Here, there, and everywhere. 

Except in the Jewish neighborhood, where they sang: And though the night is fraught with darkness, there is still a light that shines on me. 

Shine until tomorrow. 

Let it be!

On the fourth day, in the light, Moses tries one last time.

When you were young and your heart was an open book

You used to say live and let live

(you know you did, you know you did you know you did)

But I guess Living is easy with eyes closed

Misunderstanding all you see

The rabbis talk about how God writes the words of Torah on our hearts. Why on and not in? Because we’re collecting those words, like love notes from our sweethearts, for when our heart breaks open, all the words of love fall into the empty space and heal us. 

All you need is love, love. 

Love is all you need.

But hardened heart can’t break, and a hardened heart can’t be healed.

The people of Egypt paid the price for their leader’s inability to try to see it my way. Love’s way. With the final plague, An entire nation lost its first born. They're going to carry that weight -- the weight of a hardened heart -- for a long time.

And Pharaoh? Did he look back? Wishing for yesterday, when all his troubles seemed so far away? 

Or did his heart harden even more, his only pity reserved for himself? The world is treating me bad... Misery! Leave me here in misery. 

In the end, it’s not the job of the downtrodden to soothe the bruised ego of the tyrant. Moses and Aaron had better things to do and went to deliver the message to the people: 

Yisrael, singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

The Weeping Prophet of El Paso

This week's haftarah portion, a selection from the prophets, is from Jeremiah. Often described as the "Weeping Prophet," Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE.

He preached through the reign of five kings, and he is said to have authored the books of Kings and Lamentations, in addition to his own book or prophecies.

He is often compared to Moses, and his son Ezekiel followed in the family business: scolding the Jewish people. From his name we get the English word jeremiad, "a cautionary or angry harangue."

AJ Heschel saw Jeremiah as a middle-man of sorts, writing,
"Standing before the people he pleaded for God;
Standing before God he pleaded for his people."



In this week's verses, there is rebuke and warning, and great disappointment on the part of God.

וָאָבִ֤יא אֶתְכֶם֙ אֶל־אֶ֣רֶץ הַכַּרְמֶ֔ל לֶאֱכֹ֥ל פִּרְיָ֖הּ וְטוּבָ֑הּ וַתָּבֹ֙אוּ֙ וַתְּטַמְּא֣וּ אֶת־אַרְצִ֔י וְנַחֲלָתִ֥י שַׂמְתֶּ֖ם לְתוֹעֵבָֽה׃

I brought you to this country of farm land 

To enjoy its fruit and its bounty; 

But you came and defiled My land, 

You made My possession abhorrent.

Jeremiah 2:7

I imagine Jeremiah standing in the paring lot
of a mall in El Paso, surveying a
country of farm land defiled.

Jeremiah counts the victims
20 dead
26 injured
blood in the aisles of a WalMart
lights
     cameras
          news helicopters covering the
              action

"To enjoy its fruit and its bounty,"
he quotes himself.
Is this how they farm the land?
If this is what they are reaping,
What kind of seeds did they sow?

Perennial fear
Annual hatred
Succulent violence
Climbing vines of supremacy
Deeply rooted suspicion
Shade-hardy racism

And the land is defiled
and abhorrent
before its creator.

Standing before the people
Jeremiah pleads

Standing before God
Jeremiah pleads

For the Kid with a Gun

Hi,

You don't know me. I'm just some random adult on the internet who is thinking about you today.

I am wondering if you will be inspired by the school shooting yesterday in Highlands Ranch.

I am wondering if you have spent today on the Internet, looking up the details of Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Arapahoe and imagining yourself with the gun, wandering through the hallways, shooting your fellow students, your teachers, your principal.

I am wondering how the fantasy ends for you -- shot down in a blaze of glory? Wrestled to the ground and walked out in cuffs? Blasting off your own head with your final round?

I am wondering if you go to my child's school.

I am wondering if your parents own handguns or rifles they don't secure properly. And I am wondering if they taught you how to handle them safely as a child and are trusting you to remember those lessons, so you don't shoot yourself or a friend accidentally, tragically.

I am wondering if they every imagined that you would shoot someone on purpose, and that learning how to handle a gun safely wasn't enough.

I am wondering if you have made a plan you're just waiting to carry out. I am wondering if there is a sign or signal you are waiting for.

I am wondering if you have tried to tell your friends and family about your intentions and have they missed the cues.

I am wondering if any of us really know the signs to look for.

I am wondering if there are any signs at all.

I am wondering if you idolize previous mass shooters, see their 'fans' on the Internet and think, I want that for myself.

I am wondering if you walked up to me right now, would I sense anything was off? Would I be able to tell murderous intention from teenage sulky reticence?

I am wondering if you are cruel. I am wondering if you are violent. I am wondering if this will be the first time you injure another human being.

I am wondering whether you're broadcasting your intent on the dark corners of the internet and are people are cheering you on, encouraging you.

I am wondering if your parents know about your struggles and have done everything in their power to help.

I am wondering again if they've locked up their guns.

I am wondering if you understand mortality on more than a superficial level.

I am wondering if we have failed to teach you the value of one human life.

I am wondering if we have failed to teach you how to be kind, and how to accept kindness.

I am wondering if we have simply never said clearly enough that hurting other people is not OK.

I am wondering when you learned, and when you forgot, the lesson about treating others as you would want to be treated.

I am wondering what else on earth could satisfy your blood lust and enable you to solve your problem a different way.

I am wondering if we glamorize villains to our own detriment. I am wondering how many docu-series, documentaries, and 'tortured hero' shows you have watched.

I am wondering if I should have any sympathy for you at all.

I am wondering if you can be stopped.

I am wondering again if you go to my child's school.

Dear Parents (II)

Shalom Religious School Families,

It has been exactly six months since I wrote a very similar letter to you on a somewhat similar Saturday night. Once again, we come out of Shabbat reeling from news of another shooting at a Jewish institution -- this time the Altman Family Chabad Community Center in Poway, California.

Today was not only Shabbat, a day of peace, it was also the final day of Passover, the holiday where we teach our children a story of terrible oppression and a miraculous journey to freedom. We are all wrestling with and trying to process this latest shooting. The early news is that the killer, a 19-year-old male, hated Jews and espoused some of the most harmful and ludicrous conspiracy theories about us.

One person lost her life and at least three people were injured. These congregants had come to synagogue for the exact same reasons we do: to study, to pray, to observe the ending of a holiday, to say Kaddish and observe Yizkor, the Jewish memorial service.

Some have physical wounds to recover from, and we will pray for the complete healing of the victims:
We will mourn the dead.
We will come together as a community to grieve, question, and try to wrap our minds around yet another violent attack on Jews.
We will fight against all forms of anti-Semitism and not shy away because the task is hard. As our sages taught,
      It is not your duty to complete the work.
      Not up to you to finish it.
      But neither are you free to desist from it. (Pirke Avot 2:20,21)

My continuing task is to create a supportive and welcoming Jewish community for you and your children. In that spirit, Religious School will open tomorrow morning as usual at 9:00 am. Please come inside with your children for the all-school shira, which this week includes a special performance by the kids in our PreK/B'resheet program.

Security
... Remind your children that the adults who work at Har Shalom care about their safety. We do this in all sorts of ways: having buildings that lock, having an adult with them at all times, having a security guard onsite, etc. Their teachers will review safety procedures with them -- not to alarm, but to reassure.

A Space for Parents
Please take the time to escort your children into the sanctuary tomorrow and join us for our beginning-of-the-day shira (song) and tefillah (prayer) sessions. We will sing songs of peace and hope, and songs that remind us of our place in healing the world.

After the children are dismissed, we will have time to gather as parents before the community-wide service at 10:00am. We will have an opportunity to draw strength and ideas from one another, and we can discuss how to talk about these events with our children.

Letting the Children Lead
I know not every child will be aware of the attack in Poway, especially the littlest ones. In the classrooms, the teachers will let the children be the guides. There will be space for them to express their feelings and share concerns, and the teachers will be a calm, reassuring presence.

If you have any questions about tomorrow's schedule, security, or just want to let me know something about your children in particular in advance of school, just reply to this email..

You and your children are dear to me, and I look forward to seeing you at school, where we will learn, pray, sing, and study the ways of peace together. May we be strengthened by our kehilah kedosha, our holy community.

B'shalom,

Susan

Haftarah-telling, 5779. Hannah demands some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Dear Sarah, Mother of Isaac, Wife of Abraham,

Chana here. It’s our day again – Rosh Hashanah, Take 1. The rabbis must have had something special in mind when they added two of the most famous barren women in the Torah to have their stories told on one of the highest traffic days in the synagogue. 

Did you ever think they’d be telling our stories, Sarah? My son? Yes. But me?

We lived 800 years apart, you and I, and I was around 3,000 years before any of the people in this room were born. But our stories are all here, together, now. (Your family’s story continues tomorrow, but you may not want to read ahead. At the very least, if Isaac asks to go on a hike to Mount Moriah with his Dad, say no.)

We are all here in conversation together. We barren women. We women of hope. You. Rivkah. Rachel. Me. Michal. And Samson’s Mother (Z’llppunith – such a name. No wonder we all just know her as “Samson’s Mom”.) But she had a name, and she had a story.

I am not a prayerful woman, Sarah. My approach was always a little more “Are you there, God? It’s Me, Chanah” than pious devotion. And unlike you, I don’t get angels as regular visitors to my home.

We come to Shiloh, to the temple, this ridiculous family of mine. My husband, Elkanah, always offers the right sacrifices, enough for that wretched second wife of his, Peninah, and all  of their children. I get one portion. I deserve a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T. You’d better Think, I wanted to tell Elkanah. Think about what you’re tryin to do to me.

Peninah’s worth increases with every child she has following her skirts.

My worth withers as each season passes. And all the while Elkanah is telling me I am his favorite. Do you know what he says to me, Sarah?

“Am I not more devoted to you than ten sons?”

Well, yes. And… no.

And Peninah… year after year she taunts me, reminding me of what I can never forget.

I can usually save face, but this year…this year my heart was overflowing with anger, bitterness, and anguish. I was distraught, Sarah. I could not sleep. I could not eat. I could not stop crying. And all the while Elkanah asking me, why? Why? Why?

My heart broke--it broke into more pieces than I knew it had.

So I left the feast and came to the temple alone.

I can admit this to you, Sarah – I did not have faith, but I had hope, a desperate hope that drew from me an unimaginable promise. I made a deal, a bargain. If God would remember me, notice me, and give me a son, I would dedicate the boy’s life to the service of the Lord. I would have promised anything in that moment. Anything to make the pain stop.

There will come a time, Sarah, when prayers are written down, and people will follow along to someone else’s words. I doubt I could have read anything in that moment.

No, that prayer was ripped from me like a terrible sickness. I threw myself onto the Temple steps and let my despair rush out of me. 

Fall on your knees.

Oh Sarah, you should have seen the priest Eli as he approached me. He thought I was drunk! Can you imagine?

"How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? "’Sober up!".

I told him, “I am not drunk! I have been pouring out my heart, my anguish, my distress.”

He didn’t apologize, but he gave me a little blessing as he gently escorted me out. "…may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of Him."

At that moment I had no way of knowing if my prayer had been heard, but it had been said. God didn’t answer right away. I had no surety, Sarah, but… maybe even if the gates of prayer are shut, the gates of tears are not.

Elkanah’s ritualistic sacrifice had given me no comfort.

The festive meal no joy.

But the moment of desperation, pleading to be remembered, to be noticed…getting all that ugliness out was like a purge.

I got up off that floor, dried my tears, and went home with Elkanah, Peninah, and her children.

By the time the next yearly pilgrimage came around I was a mother of a son, Samuel (Shmuley to me), whose name means: "I asked the LORD for him."

As soon as I saw him, though, I was sure I’d made a terrible mistake by dedicating him to Temple service. How could I have made such a vow? How would I keep it?

Every year when we returned to the Tabernacle, Elkanah would ask, “So? Are you bringing the boy this year?” and every year I’d put him off.

He’s not old enough.

He doesn’t know his aleph-bet!

He’s not ready.

The truth was, I was not ready. But I did it, Sarah. I kept my vow. I brought him to the temple, and I left him there.

We all do it, don’t we?

We mothers.

We fathers.

At some point we all release our children.

Oh, it’s not always as dramatic as dropping them off for a lifetime of temple service…sometimes it’s the first day of preschool, the bus stop for summer camp, the end of the driveway, an airport gate, a college dorm room. 

We all do it. We open the circle of our embrace and let them walk out into the world. And we stand there, arms wide, waiting for them to step back in.

You did let Isaac go on his trip up the mountain with Abraham. It may have butchered your heart, but you waved good-bye, and you watched them go.

They all go. They all find other men and women to love; they leave our houses and make homes of their own. We give them to the universe and we hope, and maybe pray, that the universe treats them kindly.

Parenthood can make anyone turn to prayer:

Lord, help me get through this day!

Lord, keep her safe…

Misheberach…Please, God, heal him.

So many of the stories we tell from this bimah end in the middle. (Most good stories do.) 

You died offstage, Sarah.  There are 54 parshas in the Torah. One is named after a woman, and you die in the first verse.

After my triumphant declaration of victory at the end of this haftarah, I’m never heard from again. 

My first prayer was the anguish of my heart

My second was a record of my joy, my thanks, my conquest!

It’s not how I’d wanted to be quoted, honestly, and if I could go back and change it, I would.

There’s a little too much bragging.

It’s very self-serving, all “I gloat over my enemies… the barren woman bears seven; the mother of many is forlorn…”

That barb for Peninah was unnecessary. I know you understand the sentiment, Sarah.

It’s so easy to say yes to that ugly impulse inside us, to want to win.

To want someone else to lose.

I understand Peninah much better now.

I’m betting you “get” Hagar as well.

When we felt unnoticed, we were cruel.

When we were blessed, we forgot to be kind.

It was a miserable journey home after leaving Samuel at the temple for the first time. My arms ached with the weight of his absence, feeling his phantom body in my embrace.

We returned to Shiloh every year, and as time passed I had more children to shlep along.

And every year…. Every Year… I’d bring Samuel a new set of robes, guessing how much he’d have grown.

Before I knew it, he was taller than me.

He’d tease me, but I secretly enjoyed looking up to my son, the leader, the prophet, the musician, the artist.

I hope he does not judge me too harshly for my vow, my promise made for him without his permission. It was my words, but his life.

He went on to become a big deal, a real macher. 

He was the last of the judges, and he appointed the first of the kings.  He fought with his elders, and he was a warrior who protected the holy ark, and the covenant inside.

He was gifted with prophecy, but he was always my baby, my little Shmuley. 

My first born. 

My gift from the universe and back to it… the prayer of my heart.