Ki Tetze - 29 August 2009, 9 Elul 5769
August 27, 2009 by karyn
Ki Tetze
Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 1483 - 1508
Revised Edition, pages 1322 – 1335
Haftarah Ki Tetze
Isaiah 54:1 – 10
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 1612 – 1613
Revised Edition, pages 1345 – 1346
Saturday 29 August 2009, Shabbat Elul 9 5769
From Rabbi Gersh Zylberman, Temple Beth Israel, St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
In last week’s AJN Torah Topic, Rabbi Elisha Greenbaum shared the beautiful metaphor of the care needed towards tending young plants in conveying the enormous impact parents and guardians can have on the developing character of young children. Rabbi Greenbaum wrote, “Provided suitable nourishment and positive examples, children will thrive, developing into the proud face of our future. Train them to empathize with others, to give to other people and charitable causes, and when they mature, they will provide shade and sustenance for all those in need.” I could not agree more. Indeed Jewish wisdom has provided us with much guidance on the types of nourishment and positive examples our growing children most need to develop virtuous qualities.
Among the many examples in this week’s parshah we read, “If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life” (Deut. 22:6&7). Two great medieval commentators differed in their interpretation of this injunction. Maimonides (Rambam) understood it to be a direct expression of concern for tzaar ba’alei chaim (the distress of living creatures). For Maimonides the distress of a mother bird watching her children taken from her could be seen as qualitatively similar to the distress any parent might feel in the face of a threat to his or her young. Causing such distress was simply wrong. Nachmanides, however, understood the injunction to be less about preventing distress in the mother bird herself and more about training human beings in the essential virtue of kindness. For Nachmanides (Ramban), the way we treat animals can have an impact on the way we treat other human beings. Modern psychology certainly supports this contention. Chilling examples can be found of vicious murderers and sociopaths who began their brutal careers with the torture of defenseless creatures. Conversely a person who “wouldn’t even hurt a fly” is noteworthy for having a non-violent nature.
It is not surprising, therefore, to see numerous examples in our Torah urging us to take care for the welfare of animals. Just a few verses before the injunction about the mother bird we read that we are to render assistance to the fallen animal of our fellow (Deut 22:4 and see also Exod. 23:5). A little further on (Deut 22:10) we are instructed not to plow an ox and an ass under the same yoke. Our Torah contains prohibitions on boiling a kid in its mother’s milk; killing a mother and her offspring on the same day; eating the flesh taken from a live creature; muzzling an ox that is threshing a field; and even directs us to feed our animals before we sit down to eat our own meals (Deut 11:15).
Perhaps Maimonides and Nachmanide’s views about the mother bird are a false dichotomy. Perhaps both are right and our tradition is calling us to understand that caring for animals is vital in and of itself and also because this approach nurtures the virtue of kindness in us.
Every day through our own conduct we have the chance to convey vital lessons to our children. When we consider our responsibility to carefully cultivate the precious saplings that are our children, we are reminded that the way we treat God’s creatures has an enormous impact on the way they will grow up to treat animals and, ultimately, the way they will treat other human beings.
Shoftim - 22 August 2009, 2 Elul 5769
August 26, 2009 by karyn
Shoftim
Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 1456 - 1477
Revised Edition, pages 1294 – 1306
Haftarah Shoftim
Isaiah 51:12 – 52:12
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 1607 – 1611
Revised Edition, pages 1316 – 1319
Saturday 22 August 2009, Shabbat Elul 2 5769
From Rabbi Richard Lampert, Emeritus Rabbi, North Shore Temple Emanuel, Chatswood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live…
Deuteronomy Chapter 16 verse 20
I was reading the chapter on Shoftim in the book “Torah Today” by the late Rabbi Pinchas Peli and was intrigued by his opening paragraph:
“The more translations one reads of the Bible, the more convinced one becomes that there is no way of getting the real flavour of the biblical text without resorting to the original Hebrew”.
This intrigued me enough to check out the various translations of the above verse available to me using the many translations I have at hand – and what discoveries I made!
The translation that I have of the Septuagint Bible (the first-ever attempt to translate the Bible into another language, namely Greek c 200 BCE) reads “Thou shalt pursue righteously what is right…”
The King James translation, (the first translation into English dating back to the early 17th century,) renders the phrase “That which is altogether just shalt thou follow”
The Revised Standard Version (1952) translates it as “Justice, and only justice, shall you follow…”, whilst the New English Bible (1961) :”Justice, and justice alone, shall you pursue…” and the Good News Bible (1976) reads “Always be fair and just..”
The Jewish translations read as follows:
Jewish Publication Society (beginning of the 20th Century as found in the Hertz Chumash): “Justice, justice shalt thou follow…”, whilst the 1971 translation by the Jewish Publication Society (and used in the Plaut commentary) reads “Justice, justice shall you pursue…” and the Etz Hayyim Chumash - “Justice, only justice shall you pursue…” whilst the Stone Chumash reads “Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue…”
Pinchas Peli was right! Very few (if any) of the translations above are identical. They all seem to convey the general idea of the verse, and yet…something is missing!
I have grown up believing that the translation of “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” is :”Justice, justice shall you pursue” and in fact, like so many rabbis before and after me, have delivered many sermons on the verse. Of course, each rabbi and commentator is entitled to select the translation that best fits her/his message for the day to the congregation.
It is obvious that the double use, the repetition of the word “Tzedek” has ‘thrown’ many translators. The translation that ‘spoke’ to me and that I preferred to share with the congregation was that the brilliant author of Deuteronomy had deep insight into the human psyche, and realised the frailty of human nature- That when push came to shove, what matters to the individual most is to look after ‘No 1’
And so the Torah tells us that firstly, we as Jews should not sit around waiting for justice to prevail, but we are actively commanded to go out and pursue justice – that it devolves upon us to ensure that not only must justice be seen to be done, but that it must be done, with us pushing it and pulling it along.
And as for the double ‘tzedek’ – I believe that this means Tzedek for us, and Tzedek for the ‘other’ – Justice for us and Justice for the outsider, Justice for us and Justice for the stranger, Justice for us and Justice for the one who is not like us, Justice for us and Justice even for the one who may not like us!
Justice is the responsibility of all decent societies. Justice is our responsibility as members of a decent society and of a religion that demands the pursuit of justice by us.
LET JUSTICE WELL UP AS WATERS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS AS MIGHTY STREAM
Upcoming Events
August 26, 2009 by Steve
October 9-11, 2009 – Dedication of Moscow Centre for Progressive Judaism
October 16, 2009 – Dedication of Shaarei Shalom synagogue-centre, St. Petersburg, Russia
November 4-8, 2009 – Biennial of the Union for Reform Judaism, Toronto, Canada
January 28-31, 2010 – Union of Jewish Communities in Latin America Biennial, Panama
January 28-February 7, 2010 – Beutel Seminar for Progressive Jewish Leaders, Jerusalem
March 4-7, 2010 – European Region Biennial Conference, Paris, France
April 16-18, 2010 – Liberal Judaism Biennial Weekend, England
May 28-29, 2010 – Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism Biennial, Israel
November 27-30, 2010 – Biennial conference of the Union for Progressive Judaism in Australia, Asia and New Zealand, Canberra, Australia
February 7-13, 2011 – CONNECTIONS 2011, USA
Tamar Retreat - Station Resort, Jindabyne
May 6, 2009 by Steve
| July 31, 2009 | to | August 3, 2009 |
Upcoming Events
