SERMON    Parashat B’chukotai        

May 31, 2024   

Emme Stein’s Bat Mitzvah

Rabbi David Edleson   

Temple Sinai, South Burlington, VT. 

I just returned from a conference in New York City called Recharging Reform Judaism.  The first year of the conference was a year ago and its focus was making sure that Zionism remains the central pillar of modern Reform Judaism. The conference was organized by Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, whose father, Rabbi David Hirsch was instrumental in making sure that Israel was central in Reform Judaism and that Reform Judaism built a strong presence in Israel.  Ami was a year ahead of me in rabbinical school.  I couldn’t go to last year’s conference, but everybody said it was amazing, so I definitely wanted to go this year

Of course, this year is a completely different year than last year, particularly when it comes to Israel.  At this year‘s conference, there were leading Reform rabbis in Israel spoke, and there was a tremendous focus on education in our synagogues and how Israel should be taught. There’s a general recognition that in focusing for decades on teaching universal Jewish values of Tikkun Olam, or social justice, in Reform religious schools and youth movements – something it turns out we did very well- we somehow failed to teach it in balance with particularist values such as Ahavat Yisrael, love for the Jewish people and . Many of the speakers pointed out that Judaism’s universal values are rooted in and emerge from our very particular experiences.  

An obvious example is that we are for freeing the captives because we have been captives and we are for helping the most vulnerable because we have been very frequently the most vulnerable.  

Another universalist Jewish value that grows out of our particular experience is the belief that self-defense is mandatory when someone is trying to kill you or your people.  WE have a moral obligation to defend ourselves and our people and if necessary to kill them first. This has grown out of the same particular experiences of our history that the more popular values come from. 

Judaism is a complex, real world, ethical system that requires us to balance complex, competing goods and evils in making our decisions about what is virtuous in each situation.  The tendency of some young Jews, albeit a small minority, to want to approach the world with simplistic, moralism, and universal values that do not take into consideration the complexities of human life, was a great concern to everyone at the conference, particularly the many young speakers from colleges that spoke, including Eden Yadegar, the primary author of that beautiful letter that the Jewish students of Columbia sent out in response to the protests.  Those young leaders were the most inspiring part of this conference. Their courage, intelligence, and ability to wrestle with complexity was deeply moving.  
Another inspiring speaker was Rabbi David Wolpe a Conservative Rabbi, who you might know from his many books, but also because of his very public resignation from the Harvard task force on antisemitism when he realized it was just a form of window dressing and there was no interest in actually dealing with the issue.  In his talk, he focused on young leaders, and the need to put our attention there. He quoted from this week’s portion that Emme Stein will read  in the morning. B’chukotai.  He used it as an example of Judaism weaves particularism and universalism together throughout the Torah.

The portion starts:

   אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְוֺתַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם׃   

If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments,

I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit.

Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and your vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your fill of bread and dwell securely in your land.

I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; I will give the land respite from vicious beasts, and no sword shall cross your land.[Your army] shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

Rabbi Wolpe brought a commentary from Rabbi Naftali Hertz Treves from Frankfurt in the late 1500’s, that focuses on the very first word of the portion “im”, which in Hebrew is spelled with an aleph and a mem.  Rabbi Treves saw the word as pointing to pairs of leaders in our past that got us out of horrible situations. For example, Aaron and Moses, who got us out of slavery and Esther and Mordechai, who saved us from Haman.  

The commentary goes on to explain that redemption from any bad situation we have been in as a people has required leaders who do not succumb to times of danger and attack, but who instead resist and stand up. Without such leaders, we would not have survived.  

For me, as he talked about leadership,  I started to think about of all the seventh graders, who are having their b’nei mitzvah now.  I have been so impressed and inspired by their strength, solidarity and intelligence during what has been a very hard year.    They have been dealing with a lot at school and on social media and yet they have remained wise and balanced and complex thinkers. I’m so proud of them.  Many of their d’vars have focused on the need to stand up as Jews and be proud of their Jewishness. 

Then I started to think about aleph and mem  and I realized  Emme starts with an aleph.  And so does Ophelia, and Ella, and Aubrey, and Emet, and Eli and Ariel.  And Max, Malcolm and Madeline start with an Mem.  Of course that doesn’t get everyone, but it seemed to be a hint that  that the future  leaders we need are actually right in front of us.  

It is an interesting aspect of the Bible that some of the most important Jewish leaders were the youngest children, like King David, or Jacob, and so as we enter into this weekend, let’s do our best to help them see through the disinformation, and to think in complex ways about what it means to be Jewish in the world and what it means to be a force for good in the world.  

As Aristotle said, and Maimonides repeated, the good is always found in the balance between extremes and that it is no simple thing to know what that balance is in every situation. It requires reflection. It requires study. It requires personal growth. And it requires being comfortable with the complexities of being human.  

Our future as a people depends on these amazing young people.  They are the future of our people and of the world.  I want to thank this community for trusting Temple Sinai enough to put them in our care, and for modeling for them how to be good people and good Jews and the increasingly complex world we live in. 

Shabbat Shalom.