"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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Service Schedule
Archived Articles: Good and Evil RH
Day 1 Sermon - 2011
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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON Blessings and Curses: What do the Words Mean? Can We Recapture Meaning in the Words? So here we are, back in parashat ki tavo. The people are instructed to communally participate in communal affirmation blessings and curses upon the mountains of Gerizim and Eival (Deuteronomy 27:11-26). Chapter 28 opens with a familiar formula: "Now, if you obey Adonai your God, to observe faithfully all His commandments...all these blessings shall come upon you and take effect, if you will heed the word of Adonai your God..." Then we read thirteen verses filled with all sorts of good things like healthy children and healthy flocks, and enemies who flee before you. And then the coin is flipped. "If you do not listen to God's commands..." There are 63 verses (28:15-68) of threats and punishments. The deeper you enter the thicket, the more horrific the writing becomes. Some very creepy stuff. Who would want to be "honored" with such an aliyah? You guessed it: the rabbi; thank you very much. And how does one respond to such a text? If you understand the text as God's words (Moses took dictation), well...it is what it is. If you're up for some comparative Near Eastern ancient religion, you find similar texts, where a king scares the collective pants off his subjects. Fine. But I return to the opening paragraph of this drash. I need to personally figure out what I do with sacred words that are part of the legacy of my people. I cannot emotionally invest in this sort of relationship with God. Follow these laws and I'll be great to you; stray from the path and I'll grind you to bits...in fact, you'll suffer so much that you'll beg for the grave ?! Such a relationship strikes me as abusive and toxic.Not in the least bit interested. Any more options? Thankfully, yes. We are not stuck with a bullying God who extracts compliance through a demonstration of verbal terror. We no longer view illness and misfortune as the rods of God's wrath. I'm thinking about the powerful drash shared with us a few weeks ago by Rabbi Pauline Bebe, a good friend and colleague from Paris. She profoundly reframed brachah and klalah. The root of brachah - berech - means knee; the knee is a metaphor for bowing or kneeling in respect for something or someone far greater than you. Taken in this way, a brachah is an expression of awe and reverence for the wonders that God bestows upon us. There are so many, and at the root of all these: every breath we take, our awareness of being alive. Rabbi Bebe focused on kal- light, or superficial - as the root for klalah. This insight helps us frame a curse as a moment where someone can longer tell what is serious from what is frivolous. A person who can't distinguish light from heavy, who has no grip on his or her priorities - such a person is cursed. Zohar's drash (with the metaphor of the shackled diners with starkly contrasting experiences) captured the essence of blessing and curse as a choice of emotional and spiritual responses we can bring to the range of experiences ("good" and "bad") which weave their way into our lives. All of it (like it or not) is part of life - the important question: what shall we do with the cards we're dealt? Do we see our lives as blessed or cursed? From one breath to the next, it really is up to us. Shabbat Shalom, Click any of the images below to view as (larger) pdf
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