"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT AND POST SHAVUOT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

The Reach of Faith

I. The Counting Bridge

Seven weeks of counting from the night of the second seder - and once again, we stand at the foot of the mountain, celebrating Matan Torah, God's giftof Torah to Israel. At the seder we celebrated our freedom. As we sang Dayeinu, we recounted so many ways in which God redeemed us from the wretched pit of slavery.

Why do we daily count our way across the bridge between Pesach and Shavuot? Because there is a long stretch between freedom and peoplehood. The struggling Israelites remind us that it is far easier to take the slaves out of Egypt than it is to take Egypt out of the slaves. We cross a bridge of faith, and that faith is about maturity and trust. Just because the manna fell each weekday doesn't mean that our mothers and fathers acquired faith easily - they did not.

II. The Hard Road

Naomi and her daughters-in-law feel God's hand heavy upon them. They are ravaged by loss and poverty. Naomi, ever the realist, urges Ruth and Orpah to seek out a bighter future; she has nothing to offer, her well has run dry. And Ruth utters those rivetting words of loyalty, her vow to stay with Naomi through it all. "Your God will be my God!"

III. The Myth of the Pure Blood Line

"Never shall an Ammonite or a Moabite enter the Congregation of the Lord!" Those nations leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the biblical writer. Even the story of the birth of these cousins - Ammon and Moab - is a dark story of incest. Their father, Lot, was also their grandfather. As readers we already see them as lesser creatures in a forbidden shameful light. So...how can it be that Ruth, one of the heroines in the story, is a Moabite woman who declared her undying desire to become a Jew?! And how is it that a Moabite became the great grandmother of King David? Isn't it more than a bit subversive for a member of one of biblical Israel's bitter foes to become the ancestor of the Jewish people's future messiah?!

When Balaam, a foreign prophet praised Israel, he described a nation dwelling apart - hein am levadad yishkon... but the truth about our people is that we have not lived entirely apart. Through the ages our people has been profoundly shaped by individuals who said: your people shall be my people, your God shall be my God.

IV. We Are Ruth

When our mothers and fathers stood at the foot of the mountain and the Holy One was revealed to them, the community responded with the words: "na'aseh v'nishma - we will obey, we will hear." An extraordinary leap of faith and loyalty transformed the redeemed slaves into a nation accepting the relationship of Torah. Whenever we study Torah together, we are open to revelation. In the context of this relationship of learning, the shechina - the divine presence - dwells among us. Through the ages, this unfolding of Torah between people is what we celebrate on Shavuot. And we remember how a Moabite woman, along with countless others who were seen as "the other" faithfully  embraced us and changed our history. It is no accident that Ruth was King David's ancestor. Sometimes it takes a subversive gate crasher to bring about redemption.

Mo'adim l'simcha! A joyous festival for us all! And Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Aaron

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