|
May 23, 2025 - 25 Iyyar 5785 As we prepare to enter into Shabbat, our hearts are broken for the loss of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington, gunned down in cold blood on Wednesday night. The young couple was set to become engaged next week in Jerusalem, as Yaron had just purchased a ring for proposal. This tragedy is even more devastating when we consider that it took place at an event focused on getting more humanitarian aid to Gaza. Murder and acts of violence and hate will never do anything to free the Palestinian people from the terrorist grip of Hamas. It only perpetuates a cycle of bloodshed and loss that pushes us further away from any sort of resolution. Our hearts are with the families of Sarah and Yaron, and we pray that their memories will always be a blessing. Zichronam Livracha. Am Yisrael Chai. Parashat Parashat B'har-B'chukotai - Let Us Strengthen One Another
Dear Friends, Let's face it: when it comes to its relevance to our daily lives, the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus) is truly a mixed bag. There are verses and passages that seem to drone on, with the gory instructions of animal sacrifice, lurid variations of skin afflictions, and a protocol for how to handle moldy growth in one's dwelling place. Many of us read these sections as quickly as possible, with glossy eyes and perhaps even annoyance at the fact that these passages were codified as such and remain with us to this day. On the other hand, there are also passages in Leviticus that are timeless, transcendent in their wisdom. Many of the injunctions of the Holiness Code in Parashat K'doshim come to mind: the commandments to take care of the poor, the hungry, the vulnerable; the prohibition against taking advantage of someone's misfortune; the famous verse enjoining us to love our neighbor as ourselves. As these have always been and continue to be signposts and reminders for us of how to live ethically and morally fulfilling lives, their placement in our sacred text only makes perfect sense to so many of us. And yet, there seems to be another category. There are verses here and elsewhere in Torah where we very much see the relevance to our world, and yet simultaneously wonder how the writers of our Torah text were so enlightened as to be thousands of years ahead of their time. In B'har-B'chukotai, this week's double portion to conclude the book of Vayikra, in Leviticus 25:2-5, we read the following: "When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of יהוה. Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of יהוה: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land." Every time I read this, I think of my European history class during junior year of high school. To the modern mind, the Torah laws regarding the sabbatical year for the land itself are completely logical, and very much in practice all over the world. But the idea of letting the land lie fallow, to rejuvenate itself, to restore the nutrients that imbue it with its inherent value, only really came into focus during the Industrial Revolution, The Industrial Revolution, which began, at its earliest, in the late 18th century, approximately 3,000 years after Leviticus was written! How did they know? What, if anything, does that mean for us? This kind of verse fits into a specific genre known as "biblical scientific foreknowledge," referring to the advanced scientific knowledge possessed by the writers of Torah, before being discovered independently by humans. Somehow, some way, these facts were put forth by our holy authors long, long before we knew they were even "facts!" For some, this is some kind of cosmic coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidence. As I've shared before, I subscribe to Einstein's theory on this topic, that "coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." Perhaps humanity was attuned to certain things before having instruments and data to prove them. But for others, like Christian theologian Scott J Shifferd, biblical scientific foreknowledge proves the existence of God. Because verses like this "reflect natural facts and healthy practices before scientific discovery," his conclusion is that "the Bible was either guided by God or written by very intelligent people, who in this case, believed in God and thought that they received these facts from God." I'm not sure exactly where I land on this. After all, there were tremendous technological and agricultural developments throughout human history that were way ahead of their time, and likely prove some kind of deep understanding of the way the world works. While I don't necessarily believe that God was speaking directly in the ears of our biblical authors, neither do I completely discount that as a possibility; I actually think it would be foolish to do so. To me, what I find most likely is that humanity approached the topics we would consider to be science with an open mind, a curiosity, a desire to learn as much by experience and accumulated generational wisdom, combined with an awe and reverence for God who created the world, and all of the scientific rules that apply to everything within it. These passages of scientific foreknowledge are, therefore, both divinely and humanly inspired. Just like when Moses tells the Israelites at the shores of the sea to stand back and witness God's miracles, God replies by telling the people to move forward anyway. When the inspiration comes from within us and beyond us, from the vast and wondrous cosmos we are but such a tiny part of, fused with the human quest for knowledge and understanding, that is humanity at our best. That is when we maximize the potential of the human experiment, and can truly make the world a better place for every creature living within it. May we be inspired and strengthened by the manifold lessons the Torah teaches us, and utilize them to strengthen each other. As we say when we conclude a book of Torah, Chazak, Chazak, V'nitchazeik. "Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another!" Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Joshua Strom
|
