Mark Twain, reflecting 19th century values, once write, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” It is true we live in a society where people dress informally. I can remember going to the theater with my family as a child. I never would have considered wearing jeans! In this week’s Torah portion we are told of the clothes of the priests: "Then take the vestments, and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the decorated band of the ephod. Put the headdress on his head, and place the holy diadem upon the headdress. Take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him." (Exodus 29:5-7).
Beauty, ritual and pageantry! Do the clothes make a difference? The ancient priests, the kohanim, were from the House of Aaron, and it is in Tetzaveh, this week’s portion, that we read the commandment to make special sacral vestments (Exodus 28:2-4) for Aaron and his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Aaron and his sons are to fulfill the role of priests; their descendants will inherit this role, serving God and the Israelites for all time.
The priesthood was hereditary; if you weren't born into it, you couldn't serve. The special clothing and detailed rituals of anointing and serving in the Temple were passed down from one generation of priests to the next.
The early leaders of Reform Judaism were repulsed by these notions of hereditary leadership. Traditional Judaism still adheres to inherited class divisions among congregants, with special roles and rituals assigned to kohanim and Levites.
One of the first changes the Reformers made to our liturgy was to equalize roles in the service. Any Jew could now have the coveted first aliyah to the Torah, and congregational rabbis, not kohanim, now had the role of blessing the congregation.
Ritual was pared down to a minimum. Following the prophets' call to action, Reform rabbis emphasized social justice rather than ritual observance. How we act in our daily lives toward others became far more important than ancient practices that are no longer relevant.
We are reminded that the clothing of the priests served to separate and cause distinctions, a practice we no longer value in our movement. Certainly proper dress can help you feel good and can add to a special moment. As we study Torah portions in the coming weeks, we will find detailed descriptions regarding the Tabernacle, the Temple, and the priests who served in them. We can appreciate the pageantry and devotion of the ancient Israelites as they endeavored to worship God, just as we continually strive to find meaning through the worship of God in our own synagogues.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Adonai spoke to Moses, saying: Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him. And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them: gold, silver, and copper; blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats' hair; tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.
Exodus 25:1-8
The Children of Israel are asked to donate gifts for the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) so that God may "dwell among them." The items God seeks are listed in great detail, as each is an important part of the elaborate architectural plans Moses is to follow. It is to be a deliberate process, with each element of the finished Mishkan deemed worthy of the Divine Presence.
The creation of the world is described in 34 verses and takes up more than one chapter of the book of Genesis. Yet the building of the Tabernacle, makes the Creation story seem brief; the passage dedicated to the description of the blueprints alone is nearly three times as long!
Why the painstaking attention to detail? Some commentators suggest that this difference in narrative length reflects the difficulty of the human challenge to build a sanctuary within our own hearts in which God can dwell. Another explanation has to do with the challenge of cooperation: according to the creation story we read, God created the world alone, while the Mishkan was meant to be work completed by many people. A midrash (commentary on the Torah) reminds us of the importance of such cooperation; all must work together on the building of the tabernacle, all must participate in the holy work of creating a dwelling-place for God, in order for our people to merit the receiving of the Torah.
What does this mean for us? The challenges mentioned above are not to be taken lightly. We have two ways in which we must build. The first: within ourselves, we must construct a space for God’s Presence to dwell. The second: outside of ourselves, we must work together to create holy space.
Exodus 25:1-8
The Children of Israel are asked to donate gifts for the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) so that God may "dwell among them." The items God seeks are listed in great detail, as each is an important part of the elaborate architectural plans Moses is to follow. It is to be a deliberate process, with each element of the finished Mishkan deemed worthy of the Divine Presence.
The creation of the world is described in 34 verses and takes up more than one chapter of the book of Genesis. Yet the building of the Tabernacle, makes the Creation story seem brief; the passage dedicated to the description of the blueprints alone is nearly three times as long!
Why the painstaking attention to detail? Some commentators suggest that this difference in narrative length reflects the difficulty of the human challenge to build a sanctuary within our own hearts in which God can dwell. Another explanation has to do with the challenge of cooperation: according to the creation story we read, God created the world alone, while the Mishkan was meant to be work completed by many people. A midrash (commentary on the Torah) reminds us of the importance of such cooperation; all must work together on the building of the tabernacle, all must participate in the holy work of creating a dwelling-place for God, in order for our people to merit the receiving of the Torah.
What does this mean for us? The challenges mentioned above are not to be taken lightly. We have two ways in which we must build. The first: within ourselves, we must construct a space for God’s Presence to dwell. The second: outside of ourselves, we must work together to create holy space.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Mt. Sinai: Believe it or not!
Mt. Sinai: Believe it or not!
The week's Torah portion, Yitro, reaches a climax with the central event of our religious mythology, the giving of the law/Torah at Sinai. It is at Sinai that the former slaves finally bind themselves to God as a people. At Sinai the nation/people of Israel is born.
At this point I must confess to you that I am not concerned with Sinai as a historical event. What concerns me is not the facts of these mythic narratives, but rather, the truths of them. I care what message the tale is meant to teach. I care what ethics, values and beliefs underlie the story, and not whether or not a mountain named Sinai ever existed. As my teacher Rabbi Lawrence Kushner says, “The Torah is not real because it happened, it’s real because it happens.”
So what is the value of Sinai? Tradition says that we all stood together at Mount Sinai at that fateful moment when God interacted with the world in a way that changed the course of Jewish and human history forever. The wording suggests that the Torah is not referring to an event that happened only once, but rather to an ongoing or recurring event. This sense of timelessness is also alluded to in the blessing before the Torah reading, when we say "that has given (natan) us Torah. . ." and then again ". . .that gives (notain) Torah." Traditionally this teaches the timeless nature of the covenantal moment, which includes all who come to stand at Sinai, in every generation. It is our task as a community to study Torah and find ways to bring Torah into our own lives with our actions and deeds. This is what it means to be part of a Jewish community and what it means to stand at Sinai.
The week's Torah portion, Yitro, reaches a climax with the central event of our religious mythology, the giving of the law/Torah at Sinai. It is at Sinai that the former slaves finally bind themselves to God as a people. At Sinai the nation/people of Israel is born.
At this point I must confess to you that I am not concerned with Sinai as a historical event. What concerns me is not the facts of these mythic narratives, but rather, the truths of them. I care what message the tale is meant to teach. I care what ethics, values and beliefs underlie the story, and not whether or not a mountain named Sinai ever existed. As my teacher Rabbi Lawrence Kushner says, “The Torah is not real because it happened, it’s real because it happens.”
So what is the value of Sinai? Tradition says that we all stood together at Mount Sinai at that fateful moment when God interacted with the world in a way that changed the course of Jewish and human history forever. The wording suggests that the Torah is not referring to an event that happened only once, but rather to an ongoing or recurring event. This sense of timelessness is also alluded to in the blessing before the Torah reading, when we say "that has given (natan) us Torah. . ." and then again ". . .that gives (notain) Torah." Traditionally this teaches the timeless nature of the covenantal moment, which includes all who come to stand at Sinai, in every generation. It is our task as a community to study Torah and find ways to bring Torah into our own lives with our actions and deeds. This is what it means to be part of a Jewish community and what it means to stand at Sinai.
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