Once upon a time, somewhere in the universe very far away from here, lived a tranquil star, which moved tranquilly in the immensity of the sky, surrounded by a crowd of tranquil planets about which we have not a thing to report. This star was very big and very hot, and its weight was enormous: and here a reporter’s difficulties begin. We have written “very far,” “big,” “hot,” “enormous”: Australia is very far, an elephant is big and a house is bigger, this morning I had a hot bath, Everest is enormous. It’s clear that something in our lexicon is not working. (A Tranquil Star by Primo Levi)

Our lexicon is certainly insufficient to express the depths of our relationship with God in a two plus column song, and yet that is exactly the message of this week’s portion, or, more accurately, song.

I cannot find the words to describe my feelings when I watch my students grow into magnificent human beings. There are no words to portray the love I feel for some people. No vocabulary exists to express the joy of prayer. It is laughable to expect the combined vocabularies of the world to illustrate the rapture of learning Torah. There is no language that reaches so far beyond our physical senses that it can depict the power of a relationship with the Infinite Creator. But, I am not frustrated. I have learned to enjoy that very feeling of something beyond words. It is a silence beyond words. That is my song, and that is how I sing the song of Ha’azinu.

Silence Beyond Words

By

Alter Esselin

In the silence of the night


The trees stand in melancholy calm.


Only a faint rustle of leaves.


On high—a star tremor.


Fireflies flash in the folded bed linen of the fields.


Silence streams from the moon,


Silence covers the world.


And from my heart there comes joy,


Joy that overflows in courage, praise


And expectation of honors.

How quick the flight to highest height;


The fall into deepest abyss.

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We were playing handball against the western wall of Yeshivat Eitz Chaim in Toronto. I clearly remember that it was the western wall because there was a drawing of the Kotel – at that time called the Wailing Wall – posted on the wall. It was 1964 and Jews were unable to access the Kotel. The school posted the drawing so that we would remember and pray for the Western Wall.

The ball went flying behind us into the backyard of the house just next to the school. I was going to climb through the hedges to reclaim my “pinky” ball but everyone yelled, “Stop! You can’t go there. Grouchy lives there!”

Thank God, I listened. Grouchy came flying out the back door just waiting for his next victim to devour!

I noticed that Grouchy had a tattoo of numbers on his arm, just like Ben, the school-bus driver, and most of the teachers and rabbeim. In fact, almost all the parents I knew had similar tattoos. I was jealous because neither of my parents, and none of my grandparents had tattoos. My doctor had one, as did my dentist. The butcher had one, and so did the barber, and my building’s super. It seemed like most adults had numbers. I wondered how old you had to be to get one. After all, my parents were already ancient and they didn’t have numbers. My grandparents were beyond ancient; they were from a different century, and they didn’t get to have tattoos either.

I met Grouchy one day at the bus stop and he was very nice. “Why are you so scared of me?” “Because, you’re so grouchy!”

“You would also be grouchy if you had one of these,” he said pointing to his tattoo. When he saw the blank look in my face, he explained who tattooed him, where and when. I still tear when I remember his story. The Germans tortured and killed his wife and children in front of his eyes before sending him to a place called Treblinka.

Grouchy and I became friends. I asked the other kids to stop calling him Grouchy and retold his story. The most common response was: “My parents’ story is worse and they are not grouchy!”

I thought of Grouchy this morning on my daily walk. There is a man who looks just like Grouchy who never greets any of the other walkers. He refuses to move aside for anyone, despite the unspoken rule that you always walk to the right. I greet him every morning with a big smile and he refuses to acknowledge me. His grouchiness is infectious. It affects my mood.

This morning I saw his tattoo when I past him on my first lap, and remembered Grouchy.

There is another man I see every morning who is the polar opposite. He has the most beautiful smile and he greets everyone. We all call him “Smiley”. He lifts my mood even more than Grouchy ruins it. I passed him just after passing Grouchy and I was so infected by his smile that I decided to try again with my new Grouchy. “Good morning! How are you this wonderful morning?”

He stopped, looked at me, noticed my Curious George t-shirt and laughed. “Good morning to you.” Smiley infected me with his smile and I was finally able to infect Grouchy.

The power of a smile. No wonder God asks us to smile when we serve Him: “Because you did not serve God, your Lord, amid gladness and goodness of heart.” (Deuteronomy 28:47) The bible is describing the most horrible curses and explains that they will come because we are, well, so grouchy when we serve Him!

Imagine if everyone walked around with Smiley’s infectious smile when serving God! Awesome!

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If a homicide victim should be found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you, and no one knows who killed him, your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water,6 to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck. Then the Levitical priests will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, and to decide every judicial verdict, and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. Then they must proclaim, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we witnessed the crime. Do not blame your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed. In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before the Lord. (Deuteronomy 21:1-9)

On 19 December 1916, in the last December of the Romanov Empire, a corpse bobbed to the surface of the Malaya Nevka River in Petrograd. Ice-encrusted with a mutilated face. But the most startling thing was its hands. It bound hands were raised. For there, under the icy water, that extraordinary individual, although beaten and shot, had still been alive, and had still been trying to break free of his fetters. And, as the police would later write in their report, great numbers of people hurried down to the river with flasks, jugs, and buckets to ladle up the water in which the awful body had just been floating. They wanted to scoop up with the water the deceased’s diabolical; improbable strength, of which all Russia had heard. (The Rasputin File by Edvard Radzinsky, Page 1)

My grandfather, Rabbi Yaacov Yitzchak Ruderman zt”l explained why the elders of the city declared “Our hands have not spilled this blood”: The Talmud says that no one had escorted the person from the city. My grandfather asked: How did they know? How would an escort from the city have saved his life?

He answered that someone who leaves a city alone, feels alone and therefore weak. Someone who leaves with an escort feels honored and therefore stronger. He would have fought back.

We can literally give someone the strength to fight, or fight harder for his life by simply treating him with greater respect. The Egla Arufa teaches us that we bear some responsibility for people we know who give up without a fight.

Consider the Russian peasants who were so inspired by the evil and hated Rasputin’s fight for life that they wanted some of the water in which he fought his final battle. We are moved and inspired by fighters. The Egla Arufa reminds us that we can nurture the will to fight in the people we know and meet.

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Jan van Eyck was one of the first artists to portray himself in a godlike pose: He painted himself facing forward.

Portraiture before this point was done on profile to mimic the portraits of Roman emperors minted onto coins. Only divine figures were painted facing forward. Van Eyck’s full-frontal portrait is not only an expression of his ego, but also with the philosophy of Neo-Platonism. He believed that art was the closest approximation to the perfection that must exist in Heaven, and that artists were therefore the conduit of a reflection, a shadow of the divine on earth.

Along the bottom of his self-portrait is written: “Johannes van Eyck me fecit”, which is Latin for “Jan van Eyck made me.”

This week’s portion, Shofetim, deals with the transmission of the Oral Law (See Marathon Man) and its creative power and energy. We agree with the Neo-Platonists that artists are the shadow of the divine on earth. We disagree with them about which artists meet this definition. We believe that only the artist in applying Torah to every aspect of this world and life is truly an artist. It is they, the masters of the Oral Law, not the van Eycks or Durers, who are considered the reflection of the Divine.

This power is offered to all. We do not need to be born with the special gifts of van Eyck, just with the desire to enter the palace of Torah and explore its treasures.

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Everyone is focused on their walks, jogs, or runs. We do not say more than “Good Morning” to each other, although usually we just nod our heads in greeting. We don’t know each other’s names, but we all have nicknames: There is “Backwards Charlie”, who walks backwards, “The Tree Hugger” who stretches in front of a tree, “The Teacher” who won’t miss an opportunity to convey his priceless wisdom to any victim – I’m sorry – willing listener. “The Duck” has a unique walk, “Ebony” is an albino, and “Unlucky” is a woman who has walked three miles every day for 15 years and hasn’t lost a pound. I’m “Soldier Boy” because of my IDF tee shirt.

For some reason, people want to speak to me as I stretch after my walk. Everyone knows their nicknames and wants me to understand their peculiarities. “Backwards Charlie” has no natural sense of balance. He walks backwards to overcome his vertigo. “The Duck” has a neurological disorder. “The Teacher’s” wife and daughters refuse to listen to a word he says. Everyone has a story and is desperate to be understood.

We are commanded to appoint judges for each tribe, community, metropolis etc. “All politics are local” for some. For us: “All Judgments are local.” A person who stands before a judge must feel that the judge understands him and can relate to him on a personal level.

Perhaps that is why we have so many appellations – nicknames – for God. We experience God in different ways. Each Name reflects a different perspective, often deeply personal and unique.

When we stand before God on Rosh Hashana for judgment we are granted the same consideration as a person who stands in court: My Judge can relate to me as I am.”

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“But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’ whenever a prophet speaks in My name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.” (Deuteronomy 18: 20-22)

“One may not be afraid of killing the false prophet.” (Maimonides, Laws of Idolatry, #22)

The Torah is clear that there is a difference between not listening to a false prophet and being able to kill him without fear. People are easily fooled into believing, at the very least, that there must be something in that false prophet.

Our lives are filled with ‘false prophets’ who speak with authority on any given topic. Although there are a few I would like to kill, we don’t execute ‘false prophets’ without the authority of the Sanhedrin.

However, the Mitzvah/Concept still applies: We may not believe that there is any substance to the ‘prophet’s’ claims. We may not believe that he is holy in any shape or form. We may not cease from considering him as evil and destructive.

How can we know who is a false prophet? We must develop and use our Art of Observation:

New Haven, Conn. — Kevin Koo and other medical students filed into the Yale Center for British Art recently to spend the afternoon looking at paintings.

While future physicians with heavy course loads at the Yale School of Medicine usually don’t have the time to ponder art, these students were visiting the museum for a required class — one that could someday save a patient’s life.

All first-year students at the School of Medicine are required to take the innovative class, which was developed by Yale medical school faculty member Dr. Irwin Braverman and Linda Friedlaender, curator of education at the Yale Center for British Art, which houses the world’s largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom.

Braverman began trying to find a way to increase observational skills of medical school students at around the same time that Friedlaender became frustrated with the continued misdiagnosis of a close friend. They happened to meet at a gathering and began laying the groundwork for the class, which makes the most of the museum’s collection by asking medical students to “diagnose” individuals portrayed in its artworks.

Yale University Office of Public Affairs

I love the story and the idea. Imagine taking medical students to an art museum to practice their observation skills! They took the students out of their immediate environment to apply their classroom lessons.

Torah offers us a constant opportunity to apply its ideas and principles out of the classroom, away from the synagogue and Yeshiva. Our challenge is to apply the lessons of the Torah to every area of our lives. We, who live in the 21st Century, have opportunities to observe the practicality of the Torah’s ideas in ways that were unimaginable 50 years ago. When we do, we also hone our power of observation. We can determine the truth of ideas through their application to every detail of our lives.

I would also add that I am convinced that there is not a single idea in the Torah that is not universally true. I try to apply every idea I hear or learn. If it doesn’t work; it probably isn’t true.

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A constant refrain of my childhood was: “A bubblegum tree will grow in your stomach if you swallow your gum.” It was intended to frighten me out of swallowing my gum, one of the greatest pleasures of my life. I could not imagine that my mother would lie so I began to wonder whether the bubblegum tree would grow out of my nose or my mouth. I carefully thought about the flavor I would next swallow. The problem was that I enjoyed different flavors and colors (There was only one brand: Paskez) and I did not want my unlimited lifetime supply of gum to be limited to one flavor. I could snip off a pack or two that would grow out of my mouth or nose, but I didn’t know whether there was room in my stomach (I was quite skinny at the time) for two bubblegum trees. My mother’s rule became my dilemma. I decided to not risk being committed to a single flavor and chose to not have a tree growing in my stomach. (I also decided not to believe my mother: I had already swallowed countless pieces of gum, and when I carefully examined my stomach I could not find the beginnings of any trees.)

I thought about my bubblegum tree dilemma this morning on my hike around Van Cortland Park. Vast areas have been fertilized and I was wondering: if a gum tree could grow in my stomach, what would happen if I dropped my gum into freshly fertilized earth? I chose not to experiment because I doubt that most people would be happy with the Israeli gum I chew. People would complain to the mayor about his choice of gum trees, riots would ensue and my tree would probably be vandalized. One person’s gum is another person’s nightmare.

No wonder the Torah prohibits us from erecting a Matzeiva – a monument to God. (Deuteronomy 16:22) It was perfectly acceptable for Jacob put a monument up after his dream: he would not be imposing his view, rule, or gum tree, on anyone else. Now, the Torah says, “God despises monuments.” God does not want any of us to impose our views on anyone else. A monument is fixed. It does not allow for a different point of view. One person’s absolute is another’s dilemma or even nightmare.

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“I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.” (Song of Songs 6:4)

At first glance it seemed that I was observing an actual Asheira – a tree dedicated as an idol – worshipper. Numerous colorful African scarves were wrapped around his head and body. He bowed to a tree (a not very impressive birch). Three circles, then twirling his arms in one direction then the other, lifting his knees high up in the air, followed each bow and then he bowed again and repeated the entire process.

But he was not an Asheira worshipper: he was performing his ritual stretches before running his laps.

His is not the most bizarre ceremony I see early each morning. One man walks backward with a strange balancing act from .75 – 1.2 of the marked lap.

One woman’s ritual consists of running a circle around each second trashcan. (And people say that I am strange!”

Even morning laps can be filled with Rituals and ceremonies.

Elul in Yeshiva was always a time of such rites and they worked effectively as triggers to prepare we incorrigible young men to regret all the horrible things we had done over the past year.

Rosh Chodesh began with “The Schmooze”: One of the rabbis would deliver a fire and brimstone speech describing the terrible fate that awaited boys such as us who did not repent.

Maariv – the evening service – immediately followed The Schmooze and took twice as long as usual. We poured out our hearts in prayer and repentance.

We would then go to each and every person in Yeshiva and beg forgiveness for the terrible ways we had mistreated them. We were so shaken and inspired that we would even beg forgiveness from the new students who were total strangers.

Some students eschewed ketchup and other such worldly condiments during Elul in order to purify themselves from any physical pleasures that had corrupted their souls. Other students wore suits and ties.

Pretty much everyone had his or her rituals and ceremonies for Elul.

As Woody Allen says, “Hey! Whatever works!”

Not for me: I cannot reconcile the verse of love that defines Elul with ritual and ceremony. I think of love as a constant process of discovery. Always fresh and new, free of all rituals and ceremony.

I do have one Elul ritual: I try to learn one new idea about God each day. I choose a different Mitzvah/Concepts on which to reflect and from which to distill a fresh approach to my relationship with God.

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Awhile he holds some false way, undebarr’d

By thwarting signs, and braves

The freshening wind and blackening waves.

And then the tempest strikes him; and between

The lightning bursts is seen

Only a driving wreck,

And the pale master on his spar-strew-deck

With anguish’d face and flying hair

Grasping the rudder hard,

Still bent to make some port he knows not where,

Still standing for some false, impossible shore.

Matthew Arnold

“A Summer Night”

We walk together almost every morning. Actually, he runs, I, ahem, walk. He is a marathon runner, so when he disappeared for a week, I assumed that he was running a marathon somewhere out of town. He showed up this morning on crutches. A bike rider rode straight into him, knocked him over, and my co-walker tore his Achilles tendon.

“What are you doing here on crutches? Are you planning on running your laps like that?”

“Yes!” Off he ran. He was still faster than am I. (I already suspected his sanity as he only eats raw vegetables.) The marathon man was as determined as the sailor in the Matthew Arnold poem. The man would not give in.

A marathon man appears in this week’s portion: Shofetim. (Deuteronomy 17:11) He is a great scholar and is absolutely committed to truth. When a local court rules against him, he ‘grasps the rudder hard, still bent on his port”. He is summoned to a higher court, out argues them on every issue, and is incensed when they too rule against his opinion. He courageously takes a public stand. He knows that he is right.

He is summoned from one court to another even higher and he continues to stand for what he has determined is the truth. He refuses to give in, until he finally stands before the Sanhedrin – The Great Court that sits in the Temple Courtyard and they hear his case.

He does battle with the greatest sages of his generation. They argue over a case of serious law, such as whether a specific woman is considered married, and “with anguish’d face and flying hair” he holds true to his course. A torn Achilles tendon will not hold him back, nor will crutches. He is the marathon man who will not give in.

The Sanhedrin rules against him and, frustrated and angry, he leaves the court and sticks to his guns. He refuses to obey the Sanhedrin’s ruling and tells the woman to follow his original ruling.

This Marathon Man is a Zakein Mamrei – A Rebellious Sage – and he will be publicly executed on the next pilgrimage festival.

He may continue to argue that he is right and everyone else is wrong. In fact, he must argue for what he feels is true. However, he may not publicly act against the Sanhedrin’s ruling. We live according to the transmission of the Oral Law and his public actions, not arguments, shake the foundations of the transmission and system of the Oral Law.

We are encouraged to be Marathon Men in our arguments, but there is a point at which we may not practice against the rulings of the greatest Torah authorities of our time.

The greatest of the Marathon Men is the one who will not bend intellectually. However, he will submit to the structure of the Oral Law. That takes strength, at least from those of us who are fighters for truth. Our greatest moments are when we continue to fight for what we believe is true but will not publicly practice against the Oral Law.

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A knight of the Templar who kills an evil man should not be condemned for killing the man but praised for killing the evil.

St Bernard of Clairvaux,

Liber Ad Milities Templi

Who is the most hated person in the Bible? Pharaoh, Balaam, Korach, Goliath, Nebuchadnezzar and Haman are viable candidates, but don’t win the prize. It is not the murderer or adulterer. It is not the heretic or thief. The winner is the person who missionizes for idol worship.

There are six Mitzvot/Concepts about this one person:

“One may not missionize an individual to idol worship.” (Deuteronomy 13:12)

“One may not love the missionary.” (13:9)

“One may not cease hating the missionary.” (13:9)

“One may not save the life of a missionary.” (13:9)

“One may not say anything in defense of the missionary.” (13:9)

“One may not refrain from incriminating the missionary.” (13:9)

(Maimonides: Laws of Idolatry & Paganism Mitzvot #36 – 41)

A delegation from the ACLU came to speak with me , actually they came to speak TO me, after I took a very public stance against them for supporting the rights of Nazi supporters to march in a Skokie IL neighborhood of Holocaust survivors. They felt that I was taking a public stance against free speech. I assured them that they were correct: I am against absolutely unlimited free speech. I do not believe that we should allow free expression of a desire to destroy the country that allows free speech.

I predicted that the ACLU would eventually desire to censor the free expression of anyone who disagrees with them. I was right. They are the people who battle those who speak out against Islamic fundamentalism. They are the ones who compare the people who are speaking out against Obamacare as “brown shirts” and Nazis. I guess they do not really believe in free expression of all speech – just some.

The Torah does not simply prohibit us from listening to a missionary for idol worship. It prohibits us from hesitating to fight and even destroy him. We cannot just ignore. We must fight. The Torah doesn’t focus on the fight, but on warning us that our tendency will be to hesitate before entering the battle. We can’t afford to even hesitate.

This is a dangerous idea. There are people who consider me a “missionary” for corrupting Orthodox Judaism, and would love to apply all those commandments to me. People will manipulate and use these Mitzvot to wage war against anyone with whom they disagree.

The only message that I feel safe deriving and applying from these laws is that we should never hesitate to stand up and battle against those who corrupt and damage other people. We cannot feel that we are helpless and that it is not worthwhile to enter the battle. We cannot wait for someone else to fight. The Torah’s emphasis is to remind us of our natural hesitation and to warn us against allowing it to stop us from fighting for what is precious to us.

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