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Shalom My Beloved BA Friends!
The other day, I had the privilege of meeting with a relatively recent Bat Mitzvah student. I always enjoy spending time with our young people and never tire of Shepping Naches from their keen minds, astute observations, and sensitive hearts. Whenever I hear people Kvetching and Geshraying, mournfully lamenting the deficiencies they observe in “kids these days”, I think of the magnificent youngsters that we – your Rabbis, Cantor, and Jewish Educators - have the unique pleasure to prepare, not only for their individuals Smachot (lifecycle celebrations), but also, for their lives as educated, engaged, and active adult members of the Jewish People and the world at large.
This particularly thoughtful young person asked to speak to me about an observation she had regarding the Torah and the “absolutely brilliant way it is organized”. She was most eager to talk, so at 9:00 pm that night over FaceTime it became obvious to me that she had fallen in love with Talmud Torah, the study of our sacred and Holy writ, and, I wanted to be present to her, truly wanting to hear what she found so meaningful and enlightening.
The only way to describe our interaction, which began with her speaking a-mile-a-minute in excess of an hour, is a “mind and soul dump”; a heartfelt outpouring of all she had read, considered, and assimilated over the course of many weeks. Finally, she paused and said: “Rabbi, isn’t the Torah amazing? Its language, ideas, and structure are so cool! Now I know why you love it so much. How come we never learned this stuff in Hebrew School? Actually, maybe we did, but how could I have been so stupid as to miss it?! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to become a Rabbi or anything, but I’ll be studying Bible in college.” As my dear friend, and past BA President Dr. Harvey Cantor often quips when he hears a powerful insight, “WOW!”
The rest of our conversation, which lasted until 11:30 pm, focused on pointing out the exquisite elegance not only of the Torah, but of the entire TaNaKh, the 39 books which form the Hebrew Scriptures. We finished the conversation that night by making each other two promises. The first was that we would meet semi-regularly to “talk Torah”, and the second was my pledge to speak, and write, more often about the brilliance of the Bible.
So let me keep my promise…This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Kee Teitze from Sefer Devarim, the Book of Deuteronomy, the final book of the Chumash and Moses’ swan-song. In great measure, this book is comprised of three major orations delivered by our greatest of teachers before his demise. And, like most noteworthy deathbed speeches, the speaker tries to summarize and essentialize the values, ideas, and ideals which typified their life’s work. Careful readers of the Torah will note this is clearly the case for Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our greatest of teachers. In this week’s Torah Portion, one that might appear to be a simple listing of random, unrelated, disjointed commandments (74 to be exact, the greatest number in any Parashah!) we actually see an artful and planful design.
Kee Teitze is Moses’ ingenious attempt to restate the Aseret Hadibrot, the Ten Utterances, first shared with Am Yisrael on Har Sinai, Mount Sinai. What our master pedagogue understood is that sensitizing and educating people does not happen simply by means of fiery and impassioned locutions and orations. Real and enduing education and inculcation comes from operationalizing ideas and demonstrating how they can be effective in our daily lives. And this is precisely what Moses does. Note the structure found in our Parashah:
Devarim 6-12 - Faith in Adonai and the rejection of Idolatry - 1st and 2nd Commandments
Devarim 12-14 - Honoring the Name of God - 3rd Commandment
Devarim 15-16 - Sanctification of Time - 4th Commandment
Devarim 16:18-18:22 - Respecting Authority - 5th Commandment
Devarim 19-21 - Sanctification of Life - 6th Commandment
Devarim 22:10-23:19 - Sanctification of Intimacy - 7th Commandment
Devarim 23:20-26 - Sanctification of Property - 8th Commandment
Devarim 19:15-21 Sanctification of Truth - 9th Commandment
Devarim 24 – Refraining from Covetousness - 10th Commandment
As we read this week’s Sidra and hear, once again, the powerful words of Moshe Rabbeinu, let us be cognizant of what both the content and the form of our Sacred Writ endeavors to achieve. And let us be wise enough to take heed of these messages and find ways to live our lives in ways that are reflective of the great truths that Moses shared, not only at the pyrotechnic Sinaitic Revelation, but also, as the last will and testament he lovingly laid out for us in Sefer Devarim. After all, these ideas are nothing short of “amazing”, “very cool” and will, if followed, most assuredly give our earthly days greater depth, meaning and consequence.
With love, I wish us all a Shabbat Shalom!
-Reb Carnie
Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose
ravroseba@bnaiamoona.com
314-576-9990 x105
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