Parshat Achrei- Kedoshim

The Holiness of the Land

The first of this week's two parshiyot give us a stark warning. First the Torah tells us: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelled, you shall not do, and like the practice of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you, you shall not do, and you shall not follow their statutes" (Shemot 18:3).

Essentially, God is saying that if behave like the Egyptians, then there was no point in Him taking us out of Egypt, while if we behave like the Canaanites, than then there is no point in Him driving the Canaanites out of the Land.

Then there is a long list of immoral actions, both sexual and social, which we can assume was standard practice in both Egypt and Canaan, followed by a warning as to the consequences:

"You shall not defile yourselves by any of these things, for the nations, whom I am sending away from before you, have defiled themselves with all these things... And let the land not vomit you out for having defiled it, as it vomited out the nation that preceded you" (ibid 24-28).

It is interesting to note that the Torah states that it is the actual Land, not God, that spits the people out. The Land itself that cannot tolerate immorality and the Land does not discriminate according to race. It makes no difference whether one is a Canaanite or an Israelite, the Land cannot simply stomach it.

Indeed, the Bible brings two examples of major evil perpetuated by the inhabitants, which resulted in them being eradicated. The first episode is that of the people of Sedom and Amora (see Bereshit 18:20-19-28). The second is an almost identical incident, this time however, perpetrated by members of the tribe of Bimymin (See Shoftim 19-20). They were also doomed.

The prophet Amos once said: "Are you not like the children of the Cushites to Me, O children of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and Aram from Kir?" (Amos 9:7).

The prophet is saying that God loves all nations, but judges them according to their behavior. God did miracles for both Philistines and Aram. They are both His nations as well. And Israel too, is on the same level as Cush.

Israel does not have a free pass for God's affections. Our rights to the Land of Israel are based on our behavior. If we forget that and betray our mission, well then the Land will tolerate us and we will be lost to it once more.

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat Acharei-Kedoshim entitled: "Rebuking One's Neighbor" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2008/05/parshat-kedoshim-rebuking-ones-neighbor.html

Another Sedra Short on Parshat Acharei-Kedoshim entitled: "Molech Worship" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2007/04/parshat-achrei-kedoshim-molech-worship.html

Another Sedra Short on Parshat Acharei-Kedoshim entitled: "The Gathering" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/parshat-acharei-kedoshim-gathering.html

Parshat Ki Tissa

The Other Golden Calves

This week's parsha sees the ultimate betrayal. Only a few months previously, God had brought Israel out of Egypt with tremendous miracles, culminating with the splitting of the Red Sea. Seven weeks later, God revealed Himself to the entire people and gave them the Ten Commandments. They began with the words: "I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt" (Shemot 20:1).

Yet, when Israel created the Golden Calf they proclaimed: "This is your god O Israel, who has brought you up from the land of Egypt" (ibid 32:4).

What is interesting is that Israel makes this very same proclamation just over 400 years later.

The northern tribes had just broken away from the rule of Rechavam, the Davidic king. Yeravam, the Northern Kingdom's newly crowned king, is worried that his secession would be short lived as his people's spiritual center continued to be Jerusalem. Therefore, he created his own spiritual centers: "The king took counsel and made two golden calves, and he said to them, saying, 'It is far for you to go up to Jerusalem; here are your gods, O Israel, that have brought you up from the land of Egypt'" (I Melachim 12:28).

Once cannot help but notice this parallel. For the second time in history, Israel has created golden calves and they make the same declaration about them being the gods who brought Israel out of Egypt. The Soncono commentary on Melachim asks whether it is possible that this formula was peculiar to calf-worship. However, surely these words would remind Israel of their previous apostasy and would teach them that these gods that Yeravam created were false and calamitous?

Perhaps however, these words were not actually said by Yeravam. What does this mean?

When the Tanach records conversations, it does not normally quote the exact words. Conversations were likely to be much longer, but the Torah just brings the summary, or the main points it wants us to learn. Indeed, the Daat Mikra commentary writes that only when the Torah uses the Hebrew word "לאמר" - "saying", is it giving an exact quote. Otherwise the, Torah just brings the main ideas.

Therefore, rather than asking why Yeravam said what he said, we should be asking why the author of Sefer Melachim quotes Yeravam as saying: "Here are your gods, O Israel, that have brought you up from the land of Egypt."

It is possible that Yeravam did not say those words. Indeed, he would have been very foolish to say so. However, the prophet wants us to realize that Yeravam understood that he was not merely making a political decision to stabilize his own rule. The prophet wants us to know that Yeravam and the people fully appreciated that he was turning Israel into apostates on the same degree as the Golden calf apostasy.

If the Prophet would have quoted Yeravam's actual words, we, the reader would not have understood that Yeravam and the people were making a huge apostasy. We would have thought that he was just making a political decision. However, by bringing the quote from our parsha, we, the reader, now understand that Yeravam was fully aware of the great evil that he was doing.

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat Ki Tissa, entitled: "The Golden Calf" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2008/02/parshat-ki-tissa-golden-calf-israel.html

Another Sedra Short on Parshat Ki Tissa, entitled: "Counting the People" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/parshat-ki-tissa-counting-people-moshe.html

A further Sedra Short on Parshat Tissa entitled: "Blood Money" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006/03/parshat-ki-tissa-blood-money-this.html

Parshat VaYigash

Yaakov's Fear

Yaakov had been depressed and living a life a turmoil for 22 years, believing that Yoseph had been killed by a wild animal.

Suddenly, he discovers that "Yoseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die" (Bereshit 45:28) and "the spirit of their father Yaakov was revived" (ibid 27).

He immediately sets off towards Egypt, but first makes a stop in Be'er Shev, where "he slaughtered sacrifices to the God of his father Yitschak" (ibid 46:1). There God said to him: "Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation" (ibid 2).

From these words it was clear that Yaakov was afraid to go to Egypt. Why was Yaakov afraid?

In order to answer this question, we must first ask another two questions. Fistly, why did Yaakov go to Be'er Sheva? Secondly, why did he make sacrifices to the God of his father, Yitschak and not the God of Avraham? Obviously the God of Yitschak is the same as the God of Yaakov, and therefore practically speaking, Yaakov was also worshipping the God of Avraham. However, why does the Torah limit God's title to simply that of Yitschak?

We must remember that this was not the first time that there was a famine in Canaan and that the Patriarchs wanted to go to Egypt.

Firstly with Avraham: "There was a famine in the land, and Avram descended to Egypt to sojourn there because the famine was severe in the land" (ibid 12:10).

Then with Yitschak: "There was a famine in the land, aside from the first famine that had been in the days of Avraham…The Lord appeared to him (Yitschak), and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land that I will tell you'" (ibid 26:1-2).

Avraham went to Egypt because of famine. Yitschak wanted to go to Egypt, because of famine, but God told him not to.

Yaakov is troubled. He is suffering from famine, Yoseph his beloved son, is offering him salvation in Egypt. Should he be like Avraham and go, or should he be like Yitschak and stay?

Moreover, he knows what it means to leave home. Yaakov left Canaan for Padan Aram for what he thought would have been a short period, ("you shall dwell with him for a few days until your brother's wrath has subsided – ibid 27:44), but ended up being there for over twenty years. He is now an old man and knows that if he goes down to Egypt, he and possibly his whole family may never return. Can he really go to Egypt?

To answer that question he cannot ask the God of Avraham, as He permitted Avraham to go to Egypt. He must ask the God of Yitschak, the one who forbade him to go.

More than that, he goes to Beer Sheva, the place where God had appeared to Yitschak and said: "Do not go down to Egypt."

There, at that same place, that same God, answers Yaakov's fear and promises him: "there I will make you into a great nation. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up" (ibid 46:3-4).

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat VaYigash entitled: "The Descent to Egypt" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2007/12/parshat-vayigash-descent-to-egypt-after.html

Another Sedra Short on Parshat VaYigash entitled: "The Saving of Egypt " appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006/12/parshat-vayigash-saving-of-egypt-this.html

A further Sedra Short entitled "Confrontation and Reconciliation" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006/01/parshat-vayigash-confrontation-and.html.

Parshat Miektz

Why Yospeh did not Phone Home

One question that bothers many people about the whole Joseph narrative is the fact that he does not contact his father to let him know that he was alive.

We can understand why Yoseph dif not contact Yaakov in his earlier years, for first he was a slave, albeit, an important slave, in the household of Potiphar, and after that he was held in incarceration for two years. However once He was freed, he became a powerful leader: "Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I am Pharaoh, and besides you, no one may lift his hand or his foot in the entire land of Egypt'" (Bereshit 41:44).

From that point onwards, Yoseph lived for nine years before he let Yaakov know that he was still alive. Why did he not contact him sooner?

Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun suggests that Yoseph believed that his father was part of the plot to be rid of him. After all, he mocked his dream: "Will we come I, your mother, and your brothers to prostrate ourselves to you to the ground?" (ibid 37:10) and he then sent him to find his brothers when he knew that deeply disliked him. Rav Bin Num takes into account that Yoseph appreciated that in each generation one of the patriarch's sons was chosen and another was rejected (Yishmael and Esav).

So too, Yoseph named his eldest son, Menashe, because "God has caused me to forget all my toil and all my father's house" (ibid 41:51) and it was only once Yehuda said that Yaakov sorely missed him, (see 44:27-29), that Yospeh realized that his father deeply mourned him and that his analysis was incorrect. It was at that point that he revealed himself.

I would, however, like to suggest an alternative explanation.

We must remember that Yoseph was betrayed by his family and that so much time had passed. He was seventeen when he was sold into slavery and thirty when he stood before Pharaoh. Was he still the same person who left his father's home thirteen years earlier?

He now had a new name, Tsafnat Paneach, his wife was the daughter of an Egyptian priest and Menashe's name testifies that he was tying to forget his bitter past.

When his brothers stood before him, "they did not recognize him" (ibid 42:8). He was simply a different person, with a new life, totally unrecognizable from the self-centered shepherd boy that he had been thirteen years previously.

And he could have carried with on with that lifestyle, but something happened when he saw his brothers: "Yoseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed" (ibid 9).

Until this point, he had forgotten his dreams, he had forgotten his previous life. Yet, upon seeing his brothers he suddenly remembered who he was and that he had a destiny. It was suddenly the time for him to contact his father again. He just needed to find the way to do it.

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat Miketz entitled: "The Silence of God" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2007/12/parshat-miketz-silence-of-god-god.html

Another Sedra Short on Parshat Miketz entitled: "Measure for Measure" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006/12/parshat-miketz-measure-for-measure.html

A further Sedra Short on Parshat Miketz entitled "One Dream or Two?" appears at: http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2005/12/parshat-miketz-one-dream-or-two.html

Parshat Ekev

The Mountainous Country

In this week's parsha, Moshe describes a major difference between the Land of Israel and Egypt:

"For the land to which you are coming to possess is not like the land of Egypt, out of which you came, where you sowed your seed and which you watered by foot, like a vegetable garden. But the land, to which you pass to possess, is a land of mountains and valleys and absorbs water from the rains of heaven" (Devarim 11:10-11).

The ancient Egyptians built a series of canals that allowed the water to flow directly to their farms, avoiding their homes. The Egyptians directed the canals by opening and closing the vents with their feet, or by carrying the water with their feet from the river, or by a foot pump.

Biblical Israel however is mountainous. Farmers could not water the fields. They had to rely on rainfall. The rain would come down the mountains in wadis and the fields would be watered. However, if it did not rain, Israel would be in serious trouble.

Therefore, even though Israel is considered to be "a land of honey" (Bemidbar 13:27) it is also described as a “land that devours its inhabitants” (ibid. 32).

The Torah considers the fall and lack of fall of rain as being dependent on Israel's loyalty to God: "a land the Lord, your God, looks after; the eyes of Lord your God are always upon it" (Devarim 11:12). If Israel is loyal to God, the rain will come. If Israel is not loyal to God "He will close off the heavens, and there will be no rain" (ibid 17).

However, it is for this reason that throughout ancient history Egypt was always a wealthy country and a super-power, while Israel had long periods of impoverishment and vassal status. Is this really good?

In Bereshit we see that the richness of Egypt's land is compared to two other countries: Sedom and the Garden of Eden: "Lot raised his eyes, and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, (before the Lord destroyed Sedom and Gomorrah), like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt (Bereshit 13:10)".

What is in common with all these places?

Firstly, each place "was well watered", as they were fed by full flowing rivers: Egypt had the Nile, Eden had four rivers (Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates), while Sedom had the Jordan (The Torah here relates that after Sedom's destruction, the area was no longer well watered; the destruction may have altered the Jordan River somehow.

Another factor they had in common was: sin. In Sedom the "sin has become very grave" (ibid 11:20), that God destroyed it. Adam and Eve were driven from Eden as a result of their sin (ibid Chapter 3), while Israel is frequently warned to avoid acting: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt" (VaYikra 18:3).

The wealth of the water led to sin. Therefore, Israel was given a land that would help keep them on God's path: "a land the Lord, your God, looks after; the eyes of Lord your God are always upon it" (Devarim 11:12).

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat Ekev entiled: "The Two Arks" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2007/08/parshat-ekev-two-arks-when-god.html

Another Sedra Short on Parshat Ekev entiled: "Shema 1 and Shema 2" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006/08/parshat-ekev-shema-1-and-shema-2-in.html

Parshat VaYigash

The Descent to Egypt

After Yoseph revealed himself to his brothers, he organized for them and their family, including to Yaakov, so that he could protect them from the famine because: "for another five years, there will be neither plowing nor harvest" (Bereshit 45:46). Indeed, he even believed that the whole purpose of him being sold to Egypt was so that he could protect them from the famine.

Little did he know that it was actually part of a greater plan that God had. He had promised Avraham many years earlier "You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years" (ibid 15:13).

Perhaps this is why Yaakov goes with trepidation to Egypt. On his way he actually stopped in Be'er Sheva. There God appears to him and says: "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation" (ibid 46:3).

It is interesting that God calls Himself: "the God of your father", i.e. Yitschak, and not the God of Avraham. Yaakov knows that that his father and grandfather had both experienced famine in Canaan. Both wanted to go down to Egypt. God expressly forbade Yitschak from going to Egypt. Therefore, God is saying that He, the God who prohibited Yitschak from going to Egypt, is allowing Yaakov to go.

The question is why. Why did God want Israel to go to Egypt? Why was it necessary for them to be "strangers in land that is not theirs"? Why will He "make you into a great nation there"? Why can this not be done in Canaan?

The answer appears in this week's parsha. Immediately, after God appeared to Yaakov, the Torah lists seventy of the names of those people who went down. Let's examine some of them. There was: "Saul the son of the Canaanitess" (ibid 10) and there was "Shelah, Perez, and Zerah" (ibid 12), Yehuda's sons from two different Canaanite women (Batshua and Tamar). We do not know the identity of the wives of any other of the brothers, but they had certainly not gone through the process of Yitschak and Yaakov, of marrying women from Avraham's family in Padan Aram.

At least two of Yaakov's children had married Canaanite women, something that was expressly forbidden to Yitschak and Yaakov, and something that would be forbidden to all of ancient Israel. Yet, what would have happened to Yaakov's grandchiuldren? It is very likely that would all have marry local girls.

Therefore, God says to Yaakov that only: "there (i.e. in Egypt) I will make you into a great nation". In Canaan, you will be absorbed into the locals and form part of the Canaanite nation. The only option was to go to Egypt where they could keep their own identity and become a great nation.

Why only Egypt? The answer again appears in this week's parsha: "because all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians" (ibid 34). The Egyptians did not like foreigners. We had seen last week how Yoseph could not eat together with the brothers because of Egyptian law. Now, the brothers' profession, shepherds, a profession abhorrent to the Egyptians, would ensure that they would be kept isolated from the locals, therby remaining intact and growing into a great nation.

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat VaYigash entitled: "The Saving of Egypt " appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

A second Sedra Short entitled "Confrontation and Reconciliation" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_parshablog_archive.html.

Parshat Ki Tavo

The Return to Egypt

As well as the covenant at Sinai, this week's parsha sees Moshe make a covenant with Israel at the Plains of Moav.

It contains a long and mostly tortuous description of what Israel would suffer should it break this covenant. It ends on an ironic note: "The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, through the way about which I had said to you, You will never see it again. There, you will seek to be sold to your enemies for slaves and handmaids, but there will be no buyer" (Devarim 28:68).

The people who began its history with freedom from slavery from Egypt, with the Egyptians doing their utmost to maintain their hold over them, will find themselves returning to Egypt in an attempt to sell themselves as slaves, but will find the Egyptians uninterested in buying them.

However, there is even more bitter irony here. Yaakov originally went down to Egypt to escape famine. In this instance we see that God "will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt which you dreaded" (ibid 60). The previous passuk described them as plagues that would bring sickness.

These conditions would entail famine and would explain why the people would be so impoverished that would feel the need to sell themselves as slaves.

This covenant, also called the Tochecha, sees an undoing of history. All the good that Israel had achieved would be undone and the people would revert to their original state.

In relation to all the horrors threatened in this chapter, seeing one's own history and achievements folding up and reverting to state as if they never actually existed, must be the bitterest pill for Israel to swallow. No wonder some commentaries understand the word "be'oniyot" – "in ships" to be "be'aniyut" – "in mourning".

Last year's Sedra Short on Parshat Ki Tavo entiled: "The Tochecha" appears at http://parshablog.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html