On This Day: Go West Young Jew Style

I love how Facebook lets you see your "On This Day" memories. It's (mostly) good to look back and remember where you were in this season over the years. I wish blogs did the same, but looking back for bloggers is a manual chore.

Five years ago I wrote this drash/good-bye speech for the graduation Shabbat at my synagogue.
One year ago Ellie chanted and studied from the same portion (Behar) and I was her tutor.
This year I helped another family shepherd their son through Behar for his bar mitzvah.

Three points in time. Same portion. Same Torah. Much different (perhaps) me.
GoldaLeah (2017)

Original Post (June 2011)

When my office was right over there, in what is now the kitchen. I used to have a sign hanging on my wall. On it was a quote from Rabbi Mecham Mendel, about whom I know next to nothing. And I mean that – nothing is over there, and over here is what I know. But I know he spoke Truth. The quote was, simply,

“If you truly wish your children to study Torah,
study it yourself in their presence.”

That sign got lost in the move, and I never did bother to make another one, and now the time for that has passed, but that saying was always in the back of my mind – it was my guiding principle as principal.

Rabbi Mecham Mendel was a sneaky one, of course. Any parents who takes upon his or herself the study of Torah because they want their children to also study gets a double benefit – they get to study Torah, and they raise someone to study it with.

In this way, I have learned so much more than I could have ever imagined teaching in the walls of these buildings, this school, this shul.

Crop rotation patern from Behar. https://www.etsy.com/shop/DrashDesigns

Every time some pesky high school kid asked me a question that required grabbing the Chumash for an answer, I was blessed.

Every time a young child imitates a madrichim’s movements during shira, or follows them in a dance, learning is happening…twice.

Ghandi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Rabbi Mecham Mendel tells us: Be the Jew you want to see in the world. As Jewish parents and educators, this is important … much more so than the stories we tell, or even the Torah we read. You never know what a child will take from those.

A quick story:

One year, a fourth grader, Isaac, was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School.
"Well mom," says Isaac, "our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his combat engineers build a pontoon bridge and everyone walked across safely. Then, he used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters for reinforcements. They sent Seal Team Six to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved."
"Really Isaac," says his mother, "is that really what your teacher taught you?"
"Not really mom," replies Isaac, "but if I told it the way the teacher did, you'd never believe me."

The Judaism you tell your child may be dismissed; the Judaism you live will get into them, down in the kishkes, and that stuff never leaves.

Speaking of leaving, then. This week's Torah portion, Behar, is not one that will inspire much disbelief. There are no talking snakes or donkeys; no magical splitting of the sea, just what seems like mundane advice for a future agrarian society, what I like to call the TRFF (turf) -- Torah Rules for Fair Farming.

God tells Moses, while they're having a chat on Mount Sinai that every seven years the land gets a year off, a shmitah year. No tilling, no planting, no sewing, no hoeing. It is, literally, "released" from its burden.

We are guarantors of a sacred trust -- this land, this earth -- and we must find a way to balance productivity, reset, and release.

After seven series of seven years, in the 50th year, the Jubilee year, not only does the land lie fallow, but ownership returns to the original owner. Indentured servants and slaves are freed, and everyone returns to their homes, their families.

And we rest.

And the land rests.

And we enjoy the work of our labors that we have stored up for six years...and we breathe

kol ha neshaman tehalel yah ... halleluyah ....

Punctuating the productivity of life with long pauses lends perspective and encourages us to express gratitude for our bounty, and what can be produced without our work, but with our gratitude

kol ha neshama tehalel yah ... halleluyah

And so this time in my life is a punctuation mark as well. At this point, I'm not sure if it's a comma, a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or one of those little smiley face emoticons.

I imagine many of the other graduates in the room feel the same way. It is the end, and the beginning. The path to many hellos and perhaps a few too many good-byes. Accomplishments writ on paper and your hearts, and blank pages to come before you. Change happens.

But I'm not too worried about feeling like I have a good grasp of the ways and workings of life just yet, although some of you here perhaps should be.

Between Pesach and Shavuot, in the afternoons, we are to study Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers. If any of you have seen Yentl, this is the book she and her father are studying. Who is rich? He who is happy with lot, etc.

Near the end of the book the rabbis get presumptuous and lay out the milestones of a life, by age.

At 5, a child is ready for scripture.

at 10, mishnah

at 13, an observer of the commandments

at 15, gemara

at 18, chupa

at 20, pursue a livelihood

at 30, full strength

at 40, understanding

at 50, offers counsel

at 60, attains seniority

at 70, tips old age

at 80, strength

at 90, stooped over

at 100, as if dead...

So, I am a full 7 months away from full understanding.* But to quote the great tzadik of our time, Oprah Winfrey, there is one thing I know for sure.

Delve into Torah

and delve into it again

for everything is in it

look deeply into it

grow old with it

and share all of this, as I have shared it, with your children.

Shabbat Shalom.

*I was 39 when I wrote this. Understanding didn't magically come at 40, but at 45 I do feel half-way between understanding and offering counsel. 

A Schaibly does a Dr. Seuss Shavuot

Every Jew down in Jewville liked God a whole lot

But the Pharaoh building the pyramids, oh no he did not!

The Pharaoh hated the Jews! He accused them of treason!

Now, please don’t ask why.

No one quite knows the reason.

It could be that his head wasn’t screwed on just right.

It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.

But I think the most likely reason of all,

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

Whatever the reason, His heart or his shoes,

He sat on his throne, just hating the Jews,

Staring down from his palace with a sour Pharaoh frown,

At the warm lighted windows below in their town.

For he knew every Jew down in Jewville below,

Was hoping he’d give them permission to go.

“They’ve smeared their doors with lambs’ blood” he said with a sneer,

“They say Moses’ last plague is getting quite near!”

Tomorrow, he knew, all the Jew girls and boys,

Would wake bright and early. They’d rush from those goys!

They would feast on Jew-bread, and Jew-bitter herbs

Which was something that got on his last Pharoahy nerve!

And then they’d do something He liked least of all!

Every Jew down in Jewville, the tall and the small,

Would stand close together, their voices raised and ringing,

They’d stand hand-in-hand. And the Jews would start singing!

They’d sing! And they’d sing! And they’d SING some more!

They were singing as they walked right out his front door.

Now it’s 90 days later and the Jews are free

They ran for their lives as Moses split the reed sea

In Rephidim they stopped and gathered their thoughts

Now at the base of Mount Sinai they’re feeling distraught. 

Waiting for Moses, who’s up talking with God

And hearing the rules that will seem very odd

To the Jews from Jewiville who started in Egypt

They were starting to wonder if maybe they’d be gipped

Moses came down the mount and spoke the words of the lord

“If you obey me and follow my rules, I shall treasure you most

And you’ll never be bored.

A holy nation you shall be, with free will and free choice,

Now say yes to my proposal, though what it is I've not said

Or I’ll drop this holy mountain straight down on your head”

"We’ll do it! We’ll do it!" the people agreed

and waited to hear details of their new-fangled creed.

Would they still worship Rah and Osiris, Anubis and more?

Or were those things they’d have to learn to abhor?

The festival of Opet was centered in Thebes,

If they continued to celebrate would God think them dweebs?

Moses told all the Jews to be prepared

God would come down the mountain and become their laird

Wash your clothes!

Wait three days!

Don’t touch your spouse!

And don’t you even think about starting to grouse. 

When the Jews looked up at the dawn in the morn

They saw thunder, heard lightning, bar-ba-bloots from a horn.

The mountain was smokin', God descended in fire

The people did tremble - this was looking quite dire!

The people were freaked out by the voices and blasts

The mountain was smoke and the people were aghast

How long would it last?

How long would it last?

They giant steps back and stood from afar

"Hey Moses!" they said, "You go up, get the word.

We don’t want to be charred by the things that we’ve heard."

When Moses came down from the mountain that day

He climbed up on a rock and had something to say,

"Your attention, please! All of you, I demand it!

I bring to you this list of commandments!

The Lord passed these to me, and now I to you,

So gather around, you big tribe of Jews!

"First, there's just one God for all of creation,

Not one for your house and one for vacation

Not one for the lowlands and one for the side hills.

And speaking of which, don't make any idols.

"And regarding Him, in His name please don't curse.

If you go against this, things will get so much worse!

Instead, just relax and keepeth the Sabbath

I think that you'll find it's a pretty great habit.

"Be kind to your parents, for it's you that they raised

And try not to kill folks - it's pretty depraved.

Don't schtup anyone you shouldn't be schtupping!

And away with your neighbor's things don't go trooping.

"Do your best not to lie, and be a false witness.

Stop coveting things, it's a pretty bad sickness."

And with that Moses finished, and put down his tablet,

Sighed a sigh of relief that the rules were established.

The crowd stood there stunned, every one was so quiet

Processing these rules and their upcoming compliance.

Then they smiled, they cheered. How hard could this be?

There are only ten rules, not thirty and three.

It was then that Moses delivered the news

Six-hundred and three more rules were awaiting these Jews

From the back of the crowd, a throat cleared with a hork.

"Yeah, that's great," sneered a voice. "But what about pork?"

(Hat tip to reddit for their Seuss Bible thread
It inspired as I required, when the rhymes were just dead.)