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January 10, 2025 - 10 Tevet 5785 Parashat Vayechi - A Lasting Impact
Dear Friends, Shabbat evening we held our first Havdalah at Home, a series of events that we are conducting in members’ homes to do outreach to the local Jewish community to find new synagogue members and supporters. We thank Beryl and Harold Steinbach for opening their home to us and are looking forward to sharing Havdalah with them and their neighbors. We really need your help with participating in these events and bringing your friends and neighbors to them, so we thank you in advance for your support. Please check our webpage (cbiotp.org) and emails for details on all of our wonderful events. Starting Monday evening, I will begin teaching a new course called Biblical Smackdowns. This six-week program will explore stories of violent confrontation between our favorite Biblical characters. The first match features Cain vs. Abel, so to hear all the drama and to find out who wins, please join us ringside, over Zoom, on Monday evening at 7:30PM. This week we conclude the book of B'reshit (Genesis) with Parshat Vay'chi, and to use a Talmudic phrase, it's "a real doozy." As our patriarch Jacob/Israel nears the end of his long and difficult life, he is blessed that he is surrounded at his deathbed by all of his sons. Confronting the fact that his last earthly moments are upon him, he takes the opportunity to look around the room and share his final thoughts for each of his sons, in the presence of all the others. "Come gather together," Jacob says to them, "That I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come." Some are blessings and good wishes, like when Judah is told, "You, O Judah, your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the nape of your foes; your father's sons shall bow low to you," or when Jacob decrees that Zebulun, "Shall dwell by the seashore; he shall be a haven for ships; and his flank shall rest on Sidon." Other words Jacob utters could not be further from blessings and are indeed parting shots fired from the mouth of a dying man. Addressing Reuben, Jacob says, "Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer, for when you mounted your father's bed, you brought disgrace!" He chastises Simeon and Levi for the violence they wrought on Shechem following the assault of Dinah, saying, "Their weapons are tools of lawlessness. Let not my person be included in their council, let not my being be counted in their assembly. For when angry, they slay a man, and when pleased, they maim an ox. Cursed be their anger so fierce, and their wrath so relentless. I will divide them in Jacob, scatter them in Israel." For me, this passage stands as a poignant reminder of two of Judaism's most basic and foundational teachings. The first is the power of our words, for good and evil, to build up and destroy, and everything in between. Jacob's deathbed proclamations range from inspirational and exhilarating to hurtful, devastating, and even mean. Truly, these verses remind us, as it says in Proverbs, "Both life and death are in the power of the tongue." And yet, at the same time, Jacob's recalling of the tremendous variety of his children's deeds reminds us that what we do in life matters. The impact of our deeds lasts and they remain, within ourselves as well as in those impacted by our actions. In the same way that we cannot take words back once they have escaped our lips, we can never completely undo or reverse the things we have done once they are done. So, the short answer is, of course, like so many things, much more easily said than done. But, it is that we must live our lives to the best of our conscious ability, in a way that the impact we make with our words and deeds is as positive and constructive as possible - for ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us. This acute awareness of how one small word or one simple deed can - figuratively, and sometimes quite literally -- make or break a person's world should inspire us to be thoughtful and intentional of what we do and say, before we do and say them, before they are irretractable. How do we use our words to lift up, to help, and to be supportive, compassionate, and loving to those who need it most? Like so many of us in the last few days, my heart has been broken for the families whose homes, places of worship, and entire communities have been destroyed by the raging wildfires in California. I have seen videos and pictures, shared by my California friends, of the complete devastation there that has fittingly been described as apocalyptic. The loss of their homes and everything in them is simply unfathomable, a nightmare reality from which these reeling families cannot wake up. In consideration of the impact of our deeds and words, I would encourage and even urge you to help support these communities ravaged by wildfires. If it is true that what we do and say lasts far beyond the moments themselves - which our tradition clearly states is so - please give and do what you can to make a difference. Below is a link to the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles's Wildfire Crisis Relief page, where you can donate, be of assistance in several ways, and find resources if you or someone you know is in need of help. May Jacob's challenging final scene be an inspiration for us to be aware of the words we utter and the things we do, and to live our lives in a way that our impact makes a difference and leaves the world a bit better than how we found it. In this way, we may fulfill the words that we share with each other upon completing a holy book: Chazak, Chazak, v'Nitchazeik! "Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another!" Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Joshua Strom
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