Sinai Update – March 23-29, 2008
Parashat Shemini (Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47)
Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Why is eating pork prohibited in the list of forbidden species in this week’s Torah portion?  For most of the rules of kashrut, no rationale is given by the Torah, and we are left to decide for ourselves why (and for some, whether) to follow the dietary laws.  For example, no reason is given for prohibiting lizards, moles, camels, rabbits and hares or ostrich from our diets.  For land animals, we are only told that permitted species must have cloven hoofs and chew their cud.  
  

When it comes to banning pork, the Midrash saw pigs as symbolizing a particular quality to be avoided.  The Torah goes out of its way to specify that “the pig, although it has true hoofs that have a cleft, it does not chew the cud, and it impure for you” (Leviticus 11:9).  The Midrash imagined that “when the pig is resting it stretches out its legs in front of it, displaying its cleft hooves.  ‘How kosher I am!’ it seems to say,” imagines Midrash Leviticus Rabbah, “making no mention of the fact that it does not chew the cud.”  Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut explains: The pig symbolizes hypocrites who parade their virtues but conceal their faults.  If the dietary laws do not appeal to us merely on the level of ritual, perhaps we can follow Rabbi Plaut’s interpretation, that avoiding certain species symbolically reminds us of ethical characteristics we may also want to avoid, and thus strive to be holy in our daily lives.
-          Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – March 16-22, 2008

Parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36)

Reflections on the Jewish Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Purim is celebrated tomorrow evening, Thursday, March 20!

Purim begins this Thursday evening, an upside-down celebration based on the story of the Book of Esther, filled with merry-making, silliness and abundant feasting.    We’re even told we should celebrate so much that we come to confuse the characters of Haman and Mordechai.   Why?   

Why, yes, why?   This is such a critical question to the essence of Judaism that there is simply no answer.   A descendant of Amalek, the Biblical arch-enemy of the Jews, Mordechai’s wickedness was only surpassed by his fidelity to his niece, the beautiful Vashti, queen of all Persia , so that we, in our great intelligence, are astounded.   On the other hand, Haman, our role model in righteousness, bravely stood up for principle, much like other leaders in Jewish history, such as Heschel, Buber, Shabbetai Tzvi and Mel Brooks.   Does anyone really read these musings anyway?   One may never know.   We can only be sure that, with Purim, which begins tomorrow, we can find the inner truths to our hidden identities, each of us, and continue to fill the world with the Hamentaschen filling.   Such is our sacred task as Jews.   Chag Purim same’ach!

-           Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – March 9-15, 2008

Parashat Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Living in the modern world, the book of Leviticus challenges us.   It deals with strange ancient rituals, the bloody sacrifices of animals, purgation rites, and its concerns about impurities and purities.   What do we do with these seemingly foreign texts (see Leviticus 1:1)?   Reform Jews have historically tended to focus on the ethical aspects of Judaism.   We tend to echo the words of the prophet Amos, who taught that “though you offer Me burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them / and I will not notice your sacrifices of fat beasts... / But let justice roll down like water, righteousness like a perennial stream” (Amos 5:22 -24).   Without a doubt, the requirement in Judaism to be righteous continues to stake its claim upon us in all aspects of our lives.

And yet... ritual, too, may be meaningful to us as Reform Jews (although we might not desire the sacrifice of animals either!).   The essential purpose of Jewish ritual is to help us transcend ourselves, to awaken within us a consciousness of a greater or better reality of which we are a part.   The Hebrew for “sacrifice” is korban, which literally means “to come close.”   If Jewish rituals, whether ancient or modern interpretations of them, can help us come closer to God, to our own essential purpose in life or our lives’ meaning, if it can help us achieve an awareness of who we are, then we have also participated in coming closer to God.  

            - Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – March 2-8, 2008
Parashat Pekudei (Exodus 38:21-40:38)
Reflections on the Jewish Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel

"Be happy! It's Adar! (Again!)"  This Friday night we begin, with the appearance of a new crescent moon, the second go-round of the Hebrew month called Adar.  Not only is 2008 a leap year that adds one day to the secular calendar, but this year 5768 is also a Jewish leap year which adds a whole month, and so we have an additional month of Adar, called Adar Bet, which is the month that begins this Friday.  Since Adar is understood to be the month of happiness (Purim, our day of holy silliness, is approaching), we get a second helping of joy this year.  “K’she’nichnas Adar, marbim b’simcha” – “When Adar begins, we increase our joy!” goes the traditional phrase, now made a popular Hebrew song. 
   

Often, we need the reminder to celebrate joy – to diminish or overlook sorrow, if possible, and replace it with a positive outlook, hope, happiness and joy.  This, certainly, is the outlook of the book of Esther, read during Purim in about two weeks (on Thursday evening, March 20), the story of doom turned to rejoicing.  So, be happy – we get a double portion of Adar this year, and the time for gladness is with us!

 - Rabbi Andy Vogel