Dear TBZ Community:
Yesterday at Summit Park, we had our first gathering of the year to welcome our Beit Rabban (TBZ’s after school learning program) community. At this wonderful event, Josh Greenberg, one of our educators and rabbinic interns, blew the shofar and Rav Tiferet, TBZ’s Rabbi, Congregational Learning & Programming, invited us all to wake up. She spoke about how Elul (the Hebrew month we are currently in) invites us to wake up, just a bit more, each and every day, so that by the time we reach Rosh Hashanah we are fully awake and ready to encounter the New Year and all that it brings.
I love the idea of the shofar as a wake up call! And, even more, I love the idea that this is a month-long process of preparation and practice: We spend the month of Elul listening to the shofar, recognizing that being fully awake and ready for the year is not a matter of one day.
At TBZ, we follow the Ashkenazi (Jews descending from Eastern Europe) tradition of holding a selichot service the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah, as a chance to meditate, learn, and pray in preparation for the New Year. (I hope you’ll join us on September 17!) In the Sepharadic (Jews descending from Spain and Portugal) and Mizrachi (Jews descending from the Middle East) traditions, the selichot service begins at the start of Elul and is recited daily, early each morning.
One of the piyutim (liturgical poems) that is sung during selichot begins with the words:
בן אדם מה לך נרדם
Ben Adam Ma Lecha Nirdam, which means: “Son of Adam/Child of Adam (Human!) Why are you asleep?”
The first stanza of the piyut reads:
שְׁפךְ שִׂיחָה, דְּרשׁ סְלִיחָה, מֵאֲדון הָאֲדונִים
רְחַץ וּטְהַר, וְאַל תְּאַחַר, בְּטֶרֶם יָמִים פּונִים
וּמְהֵרָה, רוּץ לְעֶזְרָה, לִפְנֵי שׁוכֵן מְעונִים
וּמִפֶּשַׁע, וְגַם רֶשַׁע, בְּרַח וּפְחַד מֵאֲסונִים
אָנָּא שְׁעֵה, שִׁמְךָ יודְעֵי, יִשְׂרָאֵל נֶאֱמָנִים
לְךָ אֲדנָי הַצְּדָקָה. וְלָנוּ בּשֶׁת הַפָּנִים
You there, why are you still asleep?
Get up, cry out and beg,
Pour out words, ask for forgiveness from the Master of all
Your time is passing, don’t wait! Cleanse and purify yourself,
run quickly and ask for support from the One who dwells in Heaven.
Fear and flee from wrongdoing and evil – they are disastrous.
(To the One we say:)
Please respond to the loyal people of Israel who revere Your Name.
Justice, Adonai is on Your side.
We are left with shame.
(Translation by Rabbi Ebn Leader)
This piyut (which has many different traditional tunes, you can listen to one here) speaks about waking up, standing up, not falling asleep, and rushing into distancing ourselves from wrongdoing and transgression and asking God for mercy. I hear it also as a call to avoid falling into numbness in our existence and in the ways we live. A call to show up for forgiveness, show up without running away, show up without being indifferent to the world around us. Showing up as we prepare for – and move into the New Year.
As I was singing this piyut at a selichot service this morning, my thoughts turned to the notion of numbness and indifference, something many of us find in ourselves at times. Between the news around us in our country and in the world, the pandemic, and everything else, our coping mechanisms can make us ignore what is happening around us. And that is understandable. We are tired of hearing again and again about another act of violence, or mass shooting, anti-semitism, racism, or other rights that are taken from minorities. We are tired of hearing about wars and natural disasters and climate change and and and.. we “turn it off.” And, yes, that is good and sometimes healthy. Shabbat invites us exactly to do that for 25 hours each week: to turn off our doing and acting in the world, with the aspiration to return to the weekdays inspired by Shabbat and ready to show up in the world and for the world. But the need to turn off and disengage from the realities around us can also be dangerous and can make us become indifferent, numb to pain and suffering. That is something the Torah calls on us not to.
In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Ki Tetze, we read about returning an ox or a sheep back to its owner.
Deuteronomy 22:1-4 reads:
If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your peer.
וְאִם־לֹא קָרוֹב אָחִיךָ אֵלֶיךָ וְלֹא יְדַעְתּוֹ וַאֲסַפְתּוֹ אֶל־תּוֹךְ בֵּיתֶךָ וְהָיָה עִמְּךָ עַד דְּרֹשׁ אָחִיךָ אֹתוֹ וַהֲשֵׁבֹתוֹ לוֹ
If your fellow Israelite does not live near you or you do not know who [the owner] is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your peer claims it; then you shall give it back.
וְכֵן תַּעֲשֶׂה לַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֵן תַּעֲשֶׂה לְשִׂמְלָתוֹ וְכֵן תַּעֲשֶׂה לְכׇל־אֲבֵדַת אָחִיךָ אֲשֶׁר־תֹּאבַד מִמֶּנּוּ וּמְצָאתָהּ לֹא תוּכַל לְהִתְעַלֵּם
You shall do the same with that person’s ass; you shall do the same with that person’s garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow Israelite loses and you find: you must not remain indifferent.
לֹא־תִרְאֶה אֶת־חֲמוֹר אָחִיךָ אוֹ שׁוֹרוֹ נֹפְלִים בַּדֶּרֶךְ וְהִתְעַלַּמְתָּ מֵהֶם הָקֵם תָּקִים עִמּוֹ
If you see your fellow Israelite’s ass or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it; you must raise it together
The text is clear, if you see an animal that doesn’t belong to you, that has gone astray, you can not ignore it and let it roam around, you must return it. And this does not just apply to an animal, but anything. We could call this the mitzvah (commandment) of lost and found. But the wording is so powerful, the use of the word lehit’alem (to ignore) speaks to our weakness as humans to ignore that which is around us, that is supposedly not connected to us.
Rashi, the medieval commentator, explains the word on the first pasuk (verse) and says:
והתעלמת. כּוֹבֵשׁ עַיִן כְּאִלּוּ אֵינוֹ רוֹאֵהוּ
Closes his eyes tight as though one does not see it.
This image of shutting our eyes to not see that which is around, that which is going astray in front of us, is one we can relate to. Sometimes it feels there is no other way, because we are tired, because it is painful, because it is too much. But Torah and our tradition reminds us that this is not the way we live in the world. We do not live alone, we live as part of society and our responsibility is to not ignore, but to wake up, to respond, to return, to give back, and to connect, even when it is difficult.
Elul is a time that reminds us to wake up! It is ok to close our eyes, sometimes, here and there. It is ok to take a deep breath and pause. But then our eyes must be open and our souls need to be awake.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing. And may we have a joyful, sweet, and peaceful Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia