DAYYENU

January 22, 2016

We all love the Passover song, Dayyenu! Every family sings at least a couple of verses. Ilu hotzi hotzi-anu hotzi-anu mi-mitzrayim hotzi-anu mi-mitzrayim dayyenu! Dai-dai-yenu, dai-dai-yenu, dai-dai-yenu dayyenu dayyenu, dayyenu ...

Even reading the words evokes the melody, and how many memories! But what does it mean? I read such a wonderful insight this week!

There are 15 verses, 15 steps of deliverance, from God taking us out of Egypt to building the Temple for us. But so what?

Marc Michael Epstein* noticed that there are 3 stages: What God did for us in Egypt; the grumbling of the Israelites as God redeemed them; and God's continuing salvation.

At the Passover in Egypt, God saved us from Pharaoh:
1. God brought us out of Egypt Exodus 14:30, Genesis 15:13-15
2. God punished the Egyptians Genesis 15:14
3. God destroyed their gods Exodus 7:1, Ex. 14:4, 18; Ex. 12:21-23
4. God killed their first born Exodus 12:29
5. God gave us Egyptian wealth Exodus 12:35-36

God did all of this for us in Egypt. But were the people appreciative? Not really. They grumbled. They were afraid. They murmured against God.
6. God separated the sea for us Exodus 14:21, grumbling Ex. 14:10-12
7. God brought us through on dry land Exodus14:22, grumbling Ex. 14:15
8. God drowned our enemies Exodus 14:28, grumbling Ex. 14:17-18
9. God provided our needs in the desert Numbers 11:18-23; grumbling Numbers 14:27, 13:31, 11:1
10. God fed us manna Exodus 16:14, Numbers 11:7-8; grumbling Ex. 16:8

Even with our grumbling, our rebellions and our lack of appreciation, God kept the covenant established with Abraham (Genesis 15) and continued to bestow gifts on us:
11. God gave us Shabbat Exodus 16:5, 20:8
12. God brought us to Mt. Sinai Exodus 19:2
13. God gave us the Torah Exodus 34:1
14. God brought us into Israel Joshua 3:17
15. God built the Temple for us. I Kings 8:20-21

Did God get disgusted with us for our rebellions? Well, probably yes. Did God disown us and start up with a new people? Definitively not! God and the Jewish people are partners, through thousands of years. The slavery and exodus were predicted to Abraham, and we have been God's servants ever since. Are there disturbances on both sides of the relationship. Just like any marriage: yes there are. But the loyalty between God and the Jewish people is steadfast, and so every year we gather to tell the story of the slavery and freedom, renewing the covenant and the promise in yet another generation.

Shabbat shalom.

*The Medieval Haggadah, pp. 85-90.

Parashat Bo

Next week's Torah portion begins the narrative of the actual exodus from Egypt.

Exodus 12:42 says:

"That was for the Lord a night of vigil (leil shimurim l'Adonai) to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that same night is the Lord's, one of vigil for all the children of Israel throughout the ages."

Two 14th century Catalonian illuminated haggadahs, The Rylands and the Barcelona, open with piyyutim (liturgical poems) with the heading, Leil Shimurim. Virtually all of the classic commentators for the last 2 millennia have interpreted "a night of watching," "a night of preserving," "a night of observing." What exactly does this mean? "Just as God redeemed us from Egypt, without a moment of hesitation; just as God made a covenant with Abraham on this same night, the Covenant of the Pieces (Gen. 15); "so in the future God will redeem Israel on this same night."

The Rylands haggadah precedes Leil Shimurim with a poem reciting how excellent was life at the Exodus and how miserable was their life in Catalonia by contrast.

What does Judaism do for us? Human nature is to consider, in virtually every moment, our existential situation. It has been said that we cannot approach God if we have a stone in our shoe; all we can think about is the stone. But Jewish poetry, prayer, ritual, symbol attempt to redeem our pain by explaining our role in God's plan. "The Jewish people revealed the Torah, the ethical rules of humanity, the 7 Noahide laws, the morality of Micah and Isaiah, to humanity." "Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18) What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor; all the rest is commentary; go and learn. (Hillel)" To achieve such lofty humanitarian heights, we must be thinking all of the time about the intricasies of our lives. What does suffering mean? Why am I here? What is my purpose? That's what Jewish culture does. It's a means to consider the purpose of human life.

Much of American life has abandoned culture, to our detriment. American culture too often demonstrates (think Kardashians here) that life is about money and sex.

If it does consider the great questions, too often there is no concept of Redemption. I love reading Philip Roth, for instance, but as good as he is about stating the existential realities of a male's life, he has no redemptive solutions – just gut wrenching observations.

Judaism not only explains that we suffer. It constructs why we suffer, and the solution. American culture has radically turned toward self-centered obsession. "I have a right to my gun, and your rights to not be intimidated are not my concern." "I'll send my children to private school; you can take care of yourself." I am shocked that in Kansas even the roads are less a public concern. Now there are those who want the users of the roads to pay for them. We truly are focused on ourselves exclusively, devoid of a sensitivity to the transcendant meaning of life. As a result, we are not only disconnected from others, we are disconnected from ourselves as a result.

"A night of vigil for the Eternal." We dedicate an entire night, and then a 7 day celebration, to the idea and ideal of communal freedom. I can't leave Egypt without you. And it's not a thought for Egypt alone, but the destiny of our lives. Just as God redeemed us from Egypt, so in the future God will also redeem. But we all must go together; no one gets redeemed alone. Consider the meaning of the metaphor. There are profound implications for your life.

You want to know what Redemption means. Try watching this YouTube without crying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1qtv7uKUlY

We cry because it's beautiful. We cry because we'd love for it to be true in our own lives, that when we fall, everyone would stop and pick us up so that we can finish the race together.

At the seder, the Night of Watching, everyone leaves Egypt holding hands, no one left behind. Think about it. We are a culture of life for everyone. "Just as God redeemed us from Egypt, so in the future God will redeem us." But only if we are willing to hold hands and bring everyone out together.

Shabbat shalom.

December 31, 2015

Parashat Shemot
Exodus 3:4-6
God called to him out of the bush: "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." And He said, "Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I am," He said, "the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The first prayer of the Amidah, the Standing Prayer, the most important set of prayers in the siddur, opens with a reference to this quotation, by invoking "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." By using this citation, the entire section is brought to mind. To what end?

The entire Amidah is intended to replace the daily sacrifice, which according to the Torah is the linchpin between God and God's people. The daily sacrifice maintains the covenant. (Numbers 28:3-8) Rabban Gamaliel had these prayers composed to substitute for the daily sacrifice. Why did the Rabbis cite this particular section of Torah?

This story is the call of Moses to prophecy, to redeem his people, to represent God before Pharaoh. Just as Moses was called, so we invoke our relationship with God. But we do it by reminding God that our ancestors had a special relationship in service to God.

Moses is told to remove his sandals. In Palestine 2,000 years ago, sandals -- shoes -- defiled the place. They were made from a dead animal. As in Islam today, in approaching a holy God we should do so in a holy state, in this case without shoes. But it broaches the question: "How might we approach God in this prayer?" How do we prepare ourselves to approach the holy God prepared for holiness ourselves?

The prayer causes us to look back and remind ourselves that we stand before God as members of the Jewish people, as a people in covenant to perform God's will. We take a moment to remove ourselves from the daily grind to ask, "How do I make my life holy?" This calls us to an ethical imperative in the manner in which we treat others, particularly the stranger, that we treat the other as though the other were the prophet Elijah in disguise, as an embodiment of holiness. As Abraham welcomed the 3 angels in Genesis 18 with sacrificial hospitality, so we, Abraham's descendants, become worthy of a holy relationship when we act similarly. The Holy God calls God's people to holiness (Leviticus 19:2).

Do we invoke our ancestors to call exclusively on their merit which is absent in us, or to remind ourselves of the relationship that exists and the possibilities of holiness to which we are called? I pray that as we remind God that we have a covenant between us, we acknowledge that the covenant binds us as well as God, and that we are called to act as our higher selves. We decide, because it is an act of will, not to cave in to the demons of self involvement that plague us. But we remember the examples whom we invoke, Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebecca; and Jacob, Leah and Rachel, and thereby search for their holy qualities in ourselves and thereby rise to the relationship God meant for us. That relationship with God is actualized in our actions with people. As Abraham and Sarah served the angels; as Isaac loved Rebecca and chose God above life itself; as Jacob, Leah and Rachel raised children to be God's people in the world, so we should accept the implications and the responsibilities of our history to be what the prophet Isaiah called, "A light to the nations." (Isaiah 42:6)

Now the question, as we prepare for shabbat: what does God ask of us to raise ourselves to a holy relationship with God?

Shabbat shalom.