He truly bore the deformity of baldness very badly, having experienced often his vulnerability to the jokes of his detractors. For that reason he was even accustomed to “recall” his thinning strands from the very top of his head, and out of all the honors decreed for him by the people and the senate he neither accepted nor took advantage of any other more gladly than the right of wearing a laurel wreath on every occasion. (Seautonius, Life of Julius Caesar 45.2)

Julius Caesar may have considered baldness a deformity, but times have changed. I see men who shave their heads wherever I go. Quite frankly, I don’t understand it. I refused to get a very short haircut when I was an eleven-year old student in Yeshiva. Everyone had the same haircut as a freshly minted soldier. The new style is even shorter; people literally shave their heads.

Our biology teacher in Ner Israel High School would make fun of his bald head and describe how he would wax his skull every morning to make it shine. He used to refer to himself as a “bowling ball.” Telly Savalas, Kojak, was his favorite actor simply because he shaved his head. Yul Brynner was a close second. Our teacher loved them. I pitied them for their deformities.

I have shared many hospital rooms with people who lost all their hair during chemotherapy. They certainly did not choose to be bald.

I once met a man, a Chazzan – cantor – who had absolutely no hair on his body. He had been one of Mengele’s guinea pigs for a medical experiment. He wanted to be known for his beautiful voice, but his shining plate overshadowed his singing. I don’t know if he is still alive, but I doubt he would still be known as the Hairless Chazzan. Caesar, Kojak and Yul Brynner have won the day. Bald is now officially cool.

The shaved heads are in good company. Elisha the prophet was bald, as was Rabbi Akiva. But the fact that their baldness is mentioned reflects how unusual it was for a man to be bald. What would the people of the First Temple period have thought of all the shaved heads passing us on the street? Would Caesar, ashamed of his head, have been relieved to know that people desire to look like him? Or, would he have felt slightly less special?

I never thought of myself as someone who is bothered by change. In fact I am bothered when everything remains the same without ever changing. Yet, here I am, typing on an Mac, having changed from a PC, learning all sorts of new software programs, with most parts of my life drastically changed from twenty years ago, but bothered by all those shaved heads. You just can’t tell which change will be the one that bothers us.

The world after the flood was very different from the world before. The new world lived in fear of God, Who had proven His ability to destroy everything. Noah spent 120 years as a carpenter, another year as a zookeeper and sailor, and he stepped from the ark to become a farmer. Shem and Yefet willingly accepted that all would change and they also continued to honor the past. Cham did not want anything to change. He rejected his father who he held responsible for bringing about this changed world.

What scared Cham? The Sages teach that he was frightened that Noah would have more children and then Cham, rather than be one of the three sons, would only be one of four or five. He was frightened of losing his position.

The people, who dreamed of building a great Tower that would reach the heavens, realized that the world was changing. They too wanted to maintain their position in the world: “Let us make a name for ourselves.”

Then a very special person appeared on the scene, someone not frightened of change. In fact, he was determined to create an ever-changing world that would never stagnate. His name was Abram and he became a traveler. He challenged the beliefs of his family and faith and changed the world into which he was born, a world of multiple gods and idols, one for every taste and palate, into a world of the One God, Unchanging but Infinite.

Abram changed into Abraham and introduced us to a world of unlimited opportunities. Not a flavor of the month world, a new hair style every few years, but a world of possibility and adventure. Abraham traveled as did Noah, but unlike Noah, he didn’t travel to escape but to thrive.

So, to all you shaved heads out there, enjoy your bald heads. I’ll simply change my hairstyle. I think it allows more opportunities for self-expression.

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I realized that I forgot to bring my toothpaste and was happy to have an opportunity to practice my newly acquired and limited German. I breezed through asking and actually understanding directions to the nearest pharmacy. I received some strange looks when I asked for toothpaste, but I attributed it to the strange sight of a Jew wearing a yarmulke in a Moslem neighborhood in Hanover, Germany.

As soon as I began to brush my teeth, I realized that it nothing to do with my head covering; I had asked for denture glue. My mouth was glued shut and my teeth were still as stale as when I got off the plane.

I rushed to my appointment at the hospital. Any hopes that no one would notice my mouth were dashed when the doctor asked if I was having issued with my jaw. My determination to practice speaking German remained strong. I had practiced reporting my medical history and conditions, so I was fully prepared for this meeting. The doctor shook his head as soon as I mentioned my cervical surgery: “It’s not possible!” he said in English. “A man can’t have a hysterectomy.”

“I said cervical surgery, not a hysterectomy.” “No, you said hysterectomy. Perhaps we should stick to English.”

He obviously was not as fluent in German as my dictionary!

Things get lost in translation, especially if you don’t know how to properly use a dictionary.

We had a dog trainer come to the house to help us with a dog we rescued. He was Korean and quite fluent in English, but I soon found myself translating for my Argentine wife and the trainer. They both spoke English but could not understand each other’s accents.

As I was leaving the house this morning my wife, unhappy with my color coordination asked me to change into “your peacock blazer.” I had no idea what she was talking about. I thought she hated birds. Peacock?

My doctor said, “I see what you mean,” when he clearly meant that he did not.

We don’t need to speak different languages to be confused. We do a fine job with only one language.

When God “confused the languages” of the people who built the Tower of Babel, He didn’t only mix up different languages; He confused their communication. People who spoke the same language spoke in layers and people stopped communicating.

The literary term is “sprachgefeul” (Hey, I needed to show off my German!). There are layers of meaning in our words, layers that reflect our past, emotions and experiences.

The Ramchal explains that until the Tower of Babel humanity had the ability to share a united agenda: to repair Adam’s sin. Once people began to focus on their more immediate and limited agendas they lost the most essential quality they shared. The confusion of their communication was a natural consequence of their limited focus. Everyone was focused on different things and they forfeited their sprachgefeul.

We do share one language that rises above the consequences of the Tower: the siddur – prayer book. The Anshei Knesset HaGadol -The Men of the Great Assembly – composed it and in order to be appointed one had to be fluent in all major languages. (Do you think my “cervical” error would disqualify me?”) Many members were prophets and they used all their skills to compose the Siddur in such a manner that someone praying in 21st century America could share sprachgefeul with a Jew singing the same words in 8th century Egypt.

The siddur is our opportunity to rise above the consequences of the Tower. Do you understand what I’m saying?

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Where shall I go? Shall I search for my new gadget on EBay or go on a quest in New York City, where you can find almost everything that you can find on the web, but with a greater sense of adventure?

My children, when they were younger, loved going on “adventures” in the City. They hated the schlep, but the promise of a special treat, an abundance of which exist in New York, usually won the day. We would turn the day into a treasure hunt. We would have a contest of who would be the first to find the strange object of our expedition. We found unique boxes that we, actually Debbie, would transform into a Thank You Machine – often called a Tzedaka (Charity) box in the vernacular. An old lamp was soon converted into a Chanukah menorah. A 100-year-old pillowcase became a Tallit bag, and an old tablecloth became a magnificent Challah cover.

The adventure did not end when we found the object of our search. We would stand around and watch with awe as Debbie worked her alchemy and produced her miracles. The thrill over her creativity more than matched the joy of the hunt.

I have been ill for a few weeks and hesitate to go outside. I was desperate for an adventure. EBay was so insulted by the opening of this blog that they would not allow me to use them for my explorations. (Some people!) I decided to go to a place even more fun than New York City: this week’s portion: Bereishit with the stories of creation, the Garden in Eden, the big sin, Cain and Abel, the Cain’s death and the quick downfall of humanity. There are more stories in these few chapters than there are in Manhattan.

My heart was set on a treasure hunt, so that’s what it was: How many of our daily blessings could I find in Bereishit?

Care to join me? (I found 19 so far.)

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“But alas, what should I blame except my irrational desire? It lifts me so aloft, and flies so high in the sky that it reaches the sphere of fire which scorches its wings; then unable to bear me up, it drops me from the sky. But this is not the end of my ordeal, for it sprouts wings anew, and is burned again, so there is never any end to my rise and fall.” (Lodovico Ariosto; Orlando Furioso 1532)

Would I have made the same decision, as did Adam and Eve? I keep on telling myself that I would not. I never stood in their shoes. I have the advantage of hindsight. Do I understand their challenge well enough to know what I would do?

“Havei dan et kol Adam l’kaf Z’chut” – Judge each Adam – person – favorably (Avot 1:6) begins with Adam – the primal human being. We must judge him favorably despite the painful consequences of his actions.

Why does Adam deserve a favorable judgment? Perhaps because it is the only way that we can grant ourselves the same generous perspective. We too stumble. We make mistakes. We do not always succeed in resisting temptation. We, as Adam, often find it difficult to accept responsibility for our actions: “The woman that You gave me made me sin!” It’s someone else’s fault.

We believe that we are familiar with this most basic story, and yet there are many unanswered questions: Adam was the first to give life to another. God took Adam’s rib to construct the woman. Eve then replaced Adam as the one who would bring future generations into the world. Why was Eve standing by herself when approached by the snake? Where was Adam? Why was she alone so soon after her creation? How did the snake know about the tree? God instructed Adam about the trees. Adam taught Eve. Who informed the snake? Did he know about the tree before Eve? Did the snake know directly from God, whereas Eve only knew second-hand through Adam? Why did Adam add on the extra commandment to “not touch the tree”? Did Adam know that the fruit Eve handed him was of the Tree of Knowledge? Why did he eat it without her saying a word? Was this an instance of “He doth protest too much”? Was theirs an “irrational desire” as described by Ariosto?

The Sages never accuse the snake of lying. They describe him as speaking Lashon Harah!

There are so many more questions. We must step into Adam and Eve’s shoes before we can judge them.

Here I stand, having risen aloft even from the heights of Yom Kippur on the wings of Succot and Simchat Torah. These are some of the highest moments of the year. Will I withstand my tests any better than did Adam and Eve?

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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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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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