Festival of Shavu’ot

Reflections on the Jewish Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Thursday night, we observe the holiday of Shavu’ot, the “Festival of Weeks,” traditionally called “the time of the Giving of our Torah.”  Since 1822 in Hamburg, Germany, Reform Jews have celebrated the Confirmation of teenage boys and girls on Shavu’ot, because, according to Jewish tradition, it was on this day, more than 3,000 years ago that the entire Jewish people stood at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, and enter into our covenant – our holy relationship – with God.  At Mount Sinai, we accepted the Torah and its teachings.

In every generation, each person, must receive the Torah anew for him or herself, on an on-going basis, every day of our lives.  Each one of us must affirm that we, too, accept the Torah for ourselves; we ‘confirm’ our commitment to bring Torah into our own lives.  The Confirmation ceremony marks the journey of our young adults ever toward this commitment, and, Thursday evening, we hear their personal statements about their relationship with Judaism, the Jewish people, Torah and God.  But for all of us, regardless of our age, the journey continues.  We are always growing as Jews, and on Shavu’ot this year, each of us re-affirms our commitment to Jewish learning, acts of justice and hesed, and reaching out toward our God.

Sinai Update – Week of May 21-27, 2006

Parashat B’midbar (Numbers 1:1 – 4:20)

Reflections on the Torah portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

We begin a new book of the Torah this week: Numbers, known in Hebrew as "B'midbar," literallly, "In the desert."  If we are expecting this book of "In the Desert" to provide us with a description only of the wanderings in the desert, however, we will be surprised by the wide-ranging array of texts the book includes.  Numbers begins with a census report (hence the book's Greek name, "Arithmoi," translated in English as Numbers), but it continues with legal texts, poetry, rules for rituals and much rich narrative.  Numbers includes laws about ritual purity, vows and their annulment, and sacrifices.  It tells a series of stories regarding the Israelites' revolts against Moses and God, and a fascinating case study on women’s right to inheritance.  Numbers includes the comedy about Balaam and his talking donkey, which prominently features majestic poetry.  And the book begins with long lists of the census.  The diverse literary assortment found in Numbers invites us to unravel its texts, and investigate their connection to one another, as we seek to illumine our own lives by studying it.

Sinai Update – Week of May 14-20, 2006

Parashiyot B’har-B’chukotai  (Leviticus 25:1-27:34)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

The closing verse to this week’s double Torah portion raises the question of where, and how, we experience God’s will for us.  While continuing their journeys through the desert, far away from Mount Sinai, Moses explains new laws to the Israelites, but then adds a line that “These are the commandments that Adonai gave Moses to the Israelites at Mount Sinai”   (Leviticus 27:34).  But this week’s laws were not given to Moses at Mount Sinai, they were in the desert!  How can we reconcile this inconsistency?

Rashi (1040-1105, Troyes, France) explained the inconsistency saying somewhere in the desert Moses decided to inform the Israelites of the additional laws found in this week’s portion, and that these, too, God had told him on the mountain.  Nachmanides (1194-1270, Spain), too, smoothed over the discrepancy, saying this was God’s reaffirmation of the second covenant with the Israelites after the sin of the Golden Calf.  But modern Jews have offered different views.  In 1999, Reform rabbis approved a “Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism,” and said that Torah is “God's ongoing revelation to our people and the record of our people's ongoing relationship with God” (emphasis added).  In every age, we are witness to the Divine, and we add our experience of it to all that has come before.  In that sense, perhaps, we are always standing at Mount Sinai, all of us, and the sacred heights of Mount Sinai are wherever we open our hearts to that experience.

            - Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of May 7-13, 2006

Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21:1-24:23)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

A listing of the Jewish holidays and how to observe them is a central piece to this week’s Torah portion (Leviticus chapter 23).  The festival holidays listed are familiar to us:  Shabbat, then, beginning with the springtime holidays, Passover, the Omer period and Shavu’ot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.  Of course, only Biblical holidays of a certain time period are listed; added to our ritual calendar later than the development of the book of Leviticus were Simchat Torah, Hanukkah, Tu B’Shevat, Purim, Yom HaSho’ah, Yom Ha’atzma’ut, and Tish’a B’Av, among others.

Oddly, inserted between the description of Passover and Shavu’ot (which is observed this year Thurs.-Fri., June 1-2), we read a seemingly misplaced paragraph of laws about reaping our harvest (Leviticus 23:22).  Why is this included?  The 2nd century Midrash Sifra suggests that just as ancient Jews brought their sacrifices to God on the holidays, when we share our good fortune with the poor, it is as if that, too, were offered on God’s altar.

            - Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of May 6, 2006

Parashiyot Acharei Mot-Kedoshim

Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Israeli Independence Day) – Wednesday, May 3

Reflections on the Jewish Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Happy Yom Ha’atzma’ut!  Exactly 100 years ago, at the 1906 World Zionist Conference in Helsinki, looking to the future, Zionist leaders proclaimed that “Zionism must address itself to all aspects of Jewish life, and respond to all issues besetting Jewry.”  Today as we celebrate the 58th birthday of the State of Israel (on the Jewish calendar, the 5th of Iyyar), we step back and chart Israel’s growth.

The nature of Zionism and its purpose have fundamentally changed in the last 58 years, but the statement from 100 years ago is remarkably prescient.  The first era of Zionism was meant to establish and secure the State of Israel (and today Israel’s security concerns continue to occupy a great deal of her – and our – resources and energies), but we note that many Israelis talk today about “a new course” for Zionism.

Israel remains the most compelling Jewish project ever in the history of our people, but she has just beginning to reach the goals her founders set out for her.  Israel is a radically different country than when she began her life in 1948; today, as Israeli writer and poet Natan Yonatan said, “the young State of Israel is [just now] taking its first steps toward realizing its national aims.”  In those baby steps we begin to see the fulfillment of the dreams of the Zionists of 1906:  that the Jewish state would provide new spiritual, religious, educational and cultural leadership to Jews all over the world (even here in America).  On this her birthday, we look to Israel for spiritual leadership and continued growth and maturity, and we pray that we might lend a hand in providing for her security, prosperity and vision as this great project continues.