RESPONSIBILITY

An employer interviewing an applicant for a position said to the candidate, “For this job we need a responsible man.” The applicant responded, “Then you want me, because everywhere I worked, whenever something went wrong they said I was responsible.”

 Funny as this may seem, the question we need to pose to ourselves:” Are we truly responsible for our life’s decisions?”

Responsibility means; ‘The ability to respond to life’s demands. How we respond will determine life’s requirements.’

Abraham Heschel noted that the Hebrew word for “Responsibility” is “Achrayut,” and the word for “Freedom” is “Cherut.” He then suggested that only the free man is responsible, for it is the responsible man who is truly free.

Ultimately, personal freedom demands a voluntary acceptance of accountability. As Jews, we are to be proud.  It was the Jew who brought the concept of freedom to mankind and consequently demanded man to be responsible for his life’s actions.

This thought comes to mind as we read the last few sentences in this week’s Parsha of SHOFTIM. Herein, we are told of the law of Eglah Arufah - when a murdered man is found in an open field and the murderer is not known there is an act of expiation performed by the elders and the judges and the people of the city nearest to where the crime took place. Then there is a ritual ceremony with a heifer. After this act of expiation, the elders and the judges and people of the city wash their hands and are required to declare;

ידינו לא שפכו את הדם הזה ועינינו לא ראו

“Our hands have not shed this blood nor have our eyes seen it, forgive us O’Lord.

 ואתה תבער הדם הנקי מקרבך כי תעשה הישר בעיני הי 

“So shall you put away the innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right in the eyes of Hashem”  

This is an amazing doctrine, for we are sure that the leaders of the Jewish People would not spill innocent blood and yet the Torah requires the leader’s to go through this ritual and declare their innocence.  The idea is very cogent in a true and safe society. In Judaism, all of society, especially the leaders, are responsible for “that which happens in our midst”. We cannot claim we did not know about it.  On the contrary, to prevent  crime and mistreatment to our fellow man is the responsibility of all, especially our leaders. Beyond this, we are all affected by this act of indifference and cruelty, not only the victim. These are critical times and all of us must share responsibility and we cannot, and more so, we must not absolve ourselves from the blame.

It is important to begin to take responsibility, and to confront our social and religious obligations that have influenced us in the past and to act, in such, that will build a glorious future for the People of Israel.

The first sentence in the Parsha when it speaks of appointing Shoftim, Judges ,

Chazal say,

קשוט עצמך ואחר כך קשוט לאחרים 

“First we need to be introspective into our own behavior”

Life is in our hands and we are to do the most with this Blessing of Life that Hashem has granted us.

 With a strong belief in Hashem and in ourselves we will be able to rid our society of its evils and we will never need to come to fulfill the directive of Eglah Arufah.

To begin this process of a beneficent society we need to take responsibility for our lives and, in doing so, our lives will be blessed.

During the month of Ellul, the Shofar is blown, every day, to awaken us to greater spirituality and to open our hearts to our fellowman in true fellowship.        

WE can make the Ordinary - Extraordinary, by bringing Holiness into our lives.     

Permit me to share with you the following story; 

The Baal Shem Tov asked a man “Why is a fast  horse worth ten times as much as a slow horse?” 

“Because he runs ten times as fast” was the reply.

“Yes” said the Besht ,” but if he loses his way, he loses it ten times as fast.”

For a moment the man was dumfounded – and the Baal Shem Tov continued, “But do not forget that when he finds the right road, he makes up for lost time ten times as fast.”

The right road is to live a life resplendent with אהבת הי ואהבת הבריות 

Love of G-D and  Love of man.                                         

OUR PERCEPTION

Victor Frankl wrote; “Hope is finding a meaning to our existence, in actualizing great values in our lives, in staving and often struggling for worthy goals”

Life is represented in the dynamics of a personal commitment.  Hope moves, and reconstructs our very lives and valiantly strives to secure a better and more optimistic future.

This idea is enunciated in this week’s Parsha, Reeh. The opening sentence in a most emphatic term speaks about our goals in life and what we need to pursue to reach the essence of life.

 ראה אנכי נתן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה. את הברכה אשר תשמעו אל מצות הי

“SEE”, says G-D,” I present to you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing will come if you hearken to the commandments of Hashem”

 The Hebrew word “SEE”, means much more than merely seeing with our  eyes.  It is instructing us to ascertain what we really want to see when we are looking at something. Our perception will greatly depend upon what we bring to the situation that is being observed.  Indeed the Blessing which results in listening to the word of G-D is a result of how we see things and how motivated we are to accomplish our goals and dreams.

 Chazal are quick to point out the opening  sentence of the Parsha begins with the singular word “REEH” and ends with the plural word “L’efnachem”.  This teaches us the importance of the individual Jew but even more greatly is our need to unify ourselves into  a cohesive Jewish People  bringing about a Covenantal Community that speaks in one language- the language of Torah and Morality.

   My heart was rent asunder as I saw and read how the inhumane act of a member of the ISIS, beheaded James Foley, an innocent American reporter, in front of the entire world.  I question these despicable animals, “this is your religion, this is what you profess to be fighting and murdering for?”

The more I look around the world the more hatred and enmity I see and the more accepting such inhumanity is being tolerated

 I say to the world REEH, SEE, what is happening.  Give voice to such a world of debauchery.  We as Jews need to reevaluate our stance in life and to see and perceive the wrong that exists and to choose wisely the way we act to others.

 Yes, Hashem has set before us “the Blessing and the curse”.  Even though the world seems to be accepting the curse, we must muster all our strength and energy and choose the blessing.

    This Shabbat we will Bless the new month of Elul, which stand for

                                                         אני לדודי  ודודי לי

                  “I am my beloved and my beloved is mind”.

The Rav, Rabbi Soloveitchik z’tl in his masterpiece, Kol Dodi Dofek, calls to action a needed response to the many threats being brought against the Jewish People. He reminds us that history reveals to us that we were sleeping in the face of tragedy. Now Hashem is banging once again on the door of his beloved and we must not be caught napping.

 Our call more than ever is awake - stop sleeping on Yahadut and Humanity.  Awake to our responsibilities to each other and to a Torah way of life and more to the plight in the survival for the State of Israel. The Rav teaches us that we must be aware of the evil that exists and to be inspired to greater acts of personal and collective obligations that we all have as a Jewish People, in promulgating a life of Yiddishkeit and Humaneness.

We are living in critical times. 

A Geography teacher once asked her class  “What is the shape of the earth?’  A youngster replied “My father says it’s in about the worst shape it’s ever been.” 

I can hear our children and grandchildren calling out to us “What are you doing with our world?”

Well, we had better come up with the right answers or our future will suffer greatly.

REEH, begin to SEE and perceive how we can develop a greater and more blessed world in human relations.  Yiddishkeit is determined by the life we live not just the creed it professes.  Torah needs to be our steering wheel to guide us through our peaks and valleys of life.

Permit me to conclude with an interesting story ;  The Baal Shem Tov was once walking with his disciples when they came to a pond.  Across the body of water was stretched a rope on which a man was balancing himself as he crossed from one end of the pond to the other.  The Baal Shem Tov, entranced by the tightrope artist, lingered behind to watch the performance.  Because his pupils did not think that their saintly teacher should waste time, they chided him for paying attention to such a frivolous feat.  The Baal Shem Tov explained, “As I watched that tightrope walker, it occurred to me that he had to train his feet before he could perform that difficult FEAT.  Oh, if only people could learn to train their SOULS as well as that man had trained his FEET, what a wonderful world this would be.”

It is through the power of religion that the human soul can be shaped and fashioned. Religion is not an escape from life, but life itself.  Religion is not something you have, but something that has you.

 

LUCHOT OF LIFE

 Story has it that a community learned of an impending cataclysmic flood that would threaten their existence.  The priest assembled his flock and asked that all to pray and repent for their sins.  The minister urged his people to dispose of all their worldly goods and make haste for the highest hill in the parish.  The Rabbi summoned his congregation and announced to them:  “We have to learn to live under water.”

 Subjected to unending traumas and turbulence, defying all rationality, Jews refused to accept what appeared to be inevitable defeat.

The Jew has always learned to accommodate and to live within his society - always withTorah values.

It is true that our lives are based upon how we live as a Jew, in the fullest sense. Too often our Judaic way of life is ceremoniously an outward performance and lacks an inner and deeper impression upon our psyche.

We are free to use our lives any way we wish. But how we live determines how we are loved.  How we treat others determines how they treat us. We can use time and spend it any way we wish but eventually we have to account for the way we spend it.  Life is, indeed, in our hands and we are responsible for it.

This week’s Sedrah, Ekev, reviews the most devastating experience that took place during the time B’nai Yisroel were traveling through the desert.  I am referring to the episode of when Moshe, after seeing the horrendous sin of the golden calf, broke the Luchot that he had in his hands.  Interestingly enough, a short time later, Moshe was instructed by G-D to hew out a second set of Luchos.

As we read this episode it is important to note the difference in the language and in the actions by Moshe as directed by Hashem between the first set of Luchos and the second set.

The first time the Torah states:

ויתן ה׳ אלי את שני לוחות האבנים כתבים באצבע אלוקים 

“And Hashem gave me the two stone Tablets Inscribed with the finger of Hashem.”

When the second set of Luchot were given, after the Jewish People were forgiven for the sin of the golden calf it states:

אמר ה׳ אלי פסל לך שני לוחות אבנים כראשנים

 Hashem said to me “Carve for yourself two stone Tablets like the first ones”

We immediately see the difference between the first set and the second set.  The first set of Luchot, G-D did the inscribing and the second set of Luchot , Moshe did the writing onto the Tablets.

One, then, comes to the conclusion that the first Tablets that were written by G-D Himself were broken and did not last – while the second Luchot written by Moshe did last.

 One would think the opposite should occur.  Logic bespeaks the one written by Hashemshould have greater permanency?

From hear we learn a powerful lesson, for Jewry, in our relationship with G-D.

When it comes to Torah, it is truly a G-D given gift that we are to cherish and to observe. To accomplish this, we need to be an active participant in the Torah experience. We need to write the Torah upon our hearts and minds, to always keep it in front of us and to actively hew out the tablets into our being as Moshe did with the second Tablets. If we do so, it will have permanency and it will continue to be a strong influence in our lives and in the lives of future generations.

The second Luchot resulting in a Divine – Human collaboration and when that occurs Torah becomes everlasting.  As our Torah states:  At Sinai the Israelites heard a “Great Voice V’elo Yosef”.  One of the interpretations is a “Great Voice that did not cease” – a  voice that is heard again and again throughout all generations.  This Voice  of Hashemwill never cease, as long as man is involved in the Mesorah process of Torah.

To the rest of the world the survival of the Jewish people is one of the mysteries of life. To the Jewish people it is not a mystery, for we continually carry our Luchot of Torah in our hearts and in our minds.

In her autobiography, Golda Meir tells of an incident when she served as Israel’s first ambassador to Russia.  On her first Rosh Hashana, her staff in Moscow went to the synagogue, and there found the street jammed with 50,000 Jewish of all ages.  They had come, despite the displeasure of the Soviet regime, to declare their love for Judaism, their loyalty as Jews, and their feelings for Israel.  The crowd surged in a torrent of emotion, shouting, “Nasha Golda! (Our Golda) Shalom, Shalom, Goldele, laben zolst du, Shana Tova, Goldele, (Long life, to you! Happy New Year)” The crowd of cheering and weeping Jews engulfed her.  She did not know how to respond, and in an emotion – choked voice, she uttered one sentence: “A dank eich vos ihr zeit gebliben Yidden (Thank you for having remained Jews).

We, as Jews, remain vibrant - for we continue to hew out our Luchot for the world to see.

EMBLEM OF ETERNITY

 Sitting in Shul this past week, as world Jewry was commemorating the Churban Habayiswith fasting and praying,  I recognized that we, as Jews, are  connected to each otherVertically,  going all the way back to our patriarchs and matriarchs. We are also connected to each other Horizontally, related to all Jews throughout the world.

            Tolstoy said it well, “The Jew is the emblem of eternity.” Let me add to that quote that ‘The Jew is the preserver of that eternity in a meaningful and glorious way.’

            There is a story of an angry reader who stormed into the office of a newspaper editor waving the current edition of the paper. He was listed in the obituary column as ‘Dead’. The reporter said “We never retract a story, but I will tell you what I will do. I will put your name in the birth announcements and give you a fresh start.”

As I read the KInus on Tisha B’av, I thought of how many times in history the world was writing the obituary of the Jewish People and then realized that only by the Grace of G-D and the Indefatigable Strength of the Jewish people we survived and, even more so, we have prospered gloriously, with the rebirth of the State of Israel.

            We read in this week’s Sedrah, Va’Eschanan, of the glorious time in Jewish History when the Jews stood at Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments,

 “They personified the attribute of “one people, with one purpose and with one destiny.”

This reaction of the Jewish people as they stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai, speaks volumes to our generation. When the Jewish People received the Torah, there was a momentous response.

ויענו כל העם יחדו ויאמרו כל אשר דבר ה׳ נעשה 

     The Torah states that “The entire people responded Together;  Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 

The word that jumps out at us is Yachdav – the resounding response to G-D’s directive was in One Uniform Voice.   This was the ultimate result of Divine Revelation,which is to Unify the Jewish people under the banner of Torah and under the banner ofYahadut and fulfilling the Mitzvah Bein Adam L’Chaveiro to the fullest extent.  The question I pose is; “Are we ready for such an attitude in life?”  The answer is; “We must give a resounding yes, and we need to begin the process in our own small and humble way.”

    We have experienced this same unity these past few weeks.  The call must go out to the Jewish world: we must never lose this sense of oneness and, in fact we must build upon it - to find more love in our hearts to maintain this unity as we go forward into the weeks and months ahead.  

       Life for the Jew is like a new birth and we must welcome the opportunity with open arms and open hearts. This is a time to rid ourselves of all the hatred, anger, self pity and resentments that muddle our lives and to continue to bask in unity that will herald a magnificent period in Jewish life that will show the world who we are. In this way we will live today in the eternity of tomorrow.

     The Rav, Rabbi Soloveitchik zt”l suggested that “The ultimate goal of a Jew’s life is to merit Divine Revelation.  The revelation at Mt. Sinai was, therefore, a Watershed Event - for during that face to face encounter with G-D, He told us that we must adopt a distinctive life style.”  From the Rav’s words we learn that when this goal is reached, the Jewish people will achieve a status of a Kingdom of Priests and a status of a Holy Nation. This can only be achieved when we live as a Covenantal Torah Oriented Community.

   Permit me to share the following story;  Once there was a leaf that pined for freedom like the birds that flew nearby.  Every day it would watch them as they soared on high, singing their songs as they flew.  The leaf longed to cut himself  loose from the branch that seemed to imprison him and wished to fly like the birds.

     One day, his wish was granted.  A wind storm tore him loose from the branch, and for a fleeting moment the leaf was free, overjoyed, flying through the air.  But it didn’t last long.  Soon the leaf was flat on the ground, and was being trampled on by every passerby. Before long its color was gone and it lay dry, lifeless.  Without the attachment to the tree his responsibility disappeared.

The Jewish people are the leaves on the tree and as long as we are attached, together, to the Tree of Life, our Torah, we will succeed in all our endeavors which will herald the Messianic period.