Parshat Va'etchanan: The Quotable Torah

 Joe Green is sent to prison. On his first evening there, he meets the other prisoners and they are playing what seems to him to be a strange game. One inmate calls out the number ‘7’ and the others laugh. Another calls out ‘60’ and the prisoners are beside themselves in hysterics. No sooner are they able to regain their composure than a third prisoner calls out ‘114’ and they are gasping for breath.

Joe asks them what is going on and Harry, to the left of him explains:

“This is a game we play. We have assigned numbers to jokes we like and as they are quite long, to save time and effort, we just call out the number instead of reciting the entire joke.”

Joe then asks: “Could I have a go?”

Harry replies: “Sure!”

Joe then calls out “28” and the prisoners don’t respond.

He tries again: “4”.

There is silence.

Not to be dissuaded, he tries a third time: “47”.

You can hear a pin drop but not a single laugh.

He then asks:

“What am I doing wrong? Are those jokes not funny?”

“Nah” comes the quiet reply.

“It’s just the way you tell ‘em!” (using the best Frank Carson impression).

 

There is an old British expression which states: “familiarity breeds contempt”. Sometimes, we all overstep our boundaries and say something that we regret the moment it leaves our lips. Some phrases become so embedded in our psyche that we don’t appreciate their potency. We spout clichés as though they are part and parcel of our vocabulary, not realising from whence they are derived. It is easy to slip into the vernacular and forget to whom we are speaking and by which process we are vocalizing our thoughts.

If only it were as easy to quote famous phrases by using numbers as the examples I related in my joke!

This week’s Parsha could possibly be the most famous in the entire Torah because it contains so many of the verses we use in our prayers throughout the Jewish year.

Here are some examples – can you recognise when they are recited?

 

Deuteronomy 4:4 while you, who held fast to the Lord your Gd, are all alive today.

דברים ד׳:ד׳ (ד) וְאַתֶּם֙ הַדְּבֵקִ֔ים בַּה' אֱלֹקֵיכֶ֑ם חַיִּ֥ים כֻּלְּכֶ֖ם הַיּֽוֹם׃

 

 We say this every time we start to read the Torah, just before the Cohen is called up.

 

4:35 It has been clearly demonstrated to you that the Lord alone is Gd; there is none beside Him.	דברים ד׳:ל״ה (לה) אַתָּה֙ הָרְאֵ֣תָ לָדַ֔עַת כִּ֥י ה' ה֣וּא הָאֱלֹקִ֑ים אֵ֥ין ע֖וֹד מִלְבַדּֽוֹ׃
This is said at the start of Hakafot on the evenings and mornings of Simchat Torah.

 

Deuteronomy 4:44 This is the Teaching that Moses set before the Israelites:

דברים ד׳:מ״ד (מד) וְזֹ֖את הַתּוֹרָ֑ה אֲשֶׁר־שָׂ֣ם מֹשֶׁ֔ה לִפְנֵ֖י בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

 

  And of course, we say this every time we have Hagbah.

 

 

All of these familiar and precious phrases can be found in this week’s Parsha, namely the words that leave our lips when we are able to connect with the Torah. They are the vocabulary we use to communicate with the Entity who gave us our greatest, everlasting gift. We are essentially repeating back to Gd the words that He taught us, when He dictated the Torah to Moshe. They are more than just some random numbers that can act as a lazy way to avoid reciting these Holy words. They are His words!

 

As if to underscore the point, the Parsha contains two more prizes that demonstrate how significant it is in our religion – two of the most famous paragraphs that we know – the Aseret Hadibrot, the Ten Commandments and the prayer that can be found not only in our Sifrei Torah but also inside our Mezuzot and Tefillin, namely the Shema. All of these pesukim are located in one single Sidra, which is quite remarkable.

 

Words are precious and all the more so, those that are derived from the Torah. We often utter these verses without realising what they mean and indeed, what they represent. It is easy to forget how significant the Shema is and how, despite all that has transpired in our long, chequered history, the moral code enshrined in the Ten Commandments is as relevant today as it was when it was given to us and by extension, the world, three thousand, three hundred and thirty three years ago.

 

I am writing these words on 21^st July, which is exactly 52 years since man landed on the moon (3.56 am UK time). Neil Armstrong’s immortal words of:

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

could equally apply to the giving of the Ten Commandments to the world. On a small mountain, somewhere in a desert, our ancestors received a series of statements that were as revolutionary in the development of humanity’s moral code as the moon landing was in the advancement of our scientific endeavour.  That, three millennia later, the democratic world in which we reside and the judicial system which draws its breath from those ancient words testify to their significance.

As one fictional character who shares his name with the second man on the moon famously said:

“To infinity and beyond!”

Let us continue to derive our lexicon and vocabulary from this tree of life because, as we say (and no, it’s not in this Parsha!),

“Etz Chayim Hi, Lamachazimkim Bah, vetomcheha Me’ushar. Derochecha darchei noam, vechot netoveteha Shalom – It is a tree a life to those who grasp it and those who uphold it are happy. Its ways are the ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace”

Reading the Torah, we can draw on its wisdom to help us navigate the choppy waters of the present and steady our ships in preparation of the future when, one day soon, Moshiach will make himself known to us and “The Lord shall be King over all the earth: on that day the Lord shall be One and his name One” (which is also not in this week’s Parsha – our Sages wanted us to ensure that we used a variety of Biblical locations to source our davenning quotes!)

Shabbat Shalom

 

Parshat Devarim (Chazon): Euro Spies

I am not a football fan.

However, in my line of work, when the students enquire as to which team you support, one must respond.  With this in mind, I decided to go with Tottenham.  I like the team strip (Zionistic blue and white, how can you beat that?) and the fact that I visited White Hart Lane a few years ago for a school training course.  By the way, they had a great hospitality suite.

To compound my admiration for the team, my step-daughter's husband, A (I can't really call him my step-son-in-law as it's too much of a mouthful) is a seriously committed Arsenal fan.  Season ticket holder.  The lot.  It makes for good conversation, even though the only player I've heard of is Harry Kane and apparently, he wants to leave!  I have no idea what position they ended up in the league last season, but I do remember the so-called Glory Days of the 1980s when 'we' had players like Lineker and Klinsmann.

Because he takes it all so seriously and gets depressed when 'we' beat his team (it happens occasionally), I enjoy the banter.  The North London Derby means very little to me.  Not so to him.

My daughter, T, has experienced quite a summer in the football stakes.  She works as an usher at Wembley Stadium and has been present for all the major matches, including the European Cup final that took place on Sunday.  It is an event that she won't forget but unfortunately, not for the right reasons because the behaviour she saw from some fans shocked and disgusted her. 

Over the years, although not a football fan, I have invested time in watching England play during the two international major tournaments.  It has always ended up in witnessing a group of young (and not so young) hopefuls experiencing the desolation of being beaten and having to leave the competition.  But that's whole point of the exercise.  In every game, there will always be winners and losers.  The victorious team goes through to the next round or, as in last Sunday's Final, wins the cup.  Their fellow countrymen celebrate whilst those of the other squad console themselves but inevitably look forward to the next encounter.  Time is the healer.

What made this year's competition different was that for once, England made it through to the Final.  Because football seems to be the nearest spiritual (both figuratively and literally) experience that most England's citizens seem to feel, there was a rare coming together of people from all strata, irrespective of their colour, creed, gender, faith or political belief.  Football, the 'Beautiful Game' entered the national zeitgeist. 

It was, for a few weeks, ubiquitous. 

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be sent on such a mission?

The twelve lucky men, leaders of their tribes had been instructed to scout out the Land of Canaan and bring back a report.  It was the second year after the Exodus and the Israelites were on the cusp of entering the 'Promised Land'.  They could have easily conquered it within weeks led by the leaders of their generation, Moses, Aaron and Miriam. 

But we know what happened and how they failed, aside from Joshua and Caleb. 

They really messed it up and this week's Parsha reminds us of this everlasting stain on our nation.  When they returned and submitted their verbal report, the result led to a night of wailing and mourning whose anniversary we will commemorate this evening, with the exit of Shabbat and entrance of Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av - a day whose bloodied history is ingrained into our collective memory.  Before the outbreak of WW1, before the Inquisition, before the expulsion of this countries' Jews, before the destruction of both Temples, before all this, this evening saw, over three thousand, three hundred years ago, a nation that cried bitterly for no reason.

In both situations, the reaction by some fans to the loss of the game and the actions of ten men who should have known better, led to the destruction of something that is so precious, namely idealism.

I know I speak for you when I describe the anger and bitter disappointment I felt as I heard about the racist behaviour of a vocal minority of fans towards three black members of the English Squad.  I know I speak for you, when I describe how appalled I was by the hordes of thuggish fans who stormed the ticket barriers and put their lives and those of the people, like my daughter, who could have been located there, into danger.  The 'Beautiful Game' was anything but.

I guess that, in linking both events and their protagonists, I despair in the selfish behaviour of the few, which resulted in bursting an ethereal bubble, which both represented the very best in British Spirit and at the same time could have changed Jewish history (and made the Torah considerably shorter!)

Has humanity learned nothing?

And that's where, for me, these Three Weeks and their culmination in the Fast of Tisha B'Av really resonate.

It may be difficult to really appreciate what the destruction of both Temples meant to the course of our collective history, which is why the Fast has understandably shifted its focus (beyond the scriptural readings, such as the Book of Eichah and Kinnot) in recent years to the Shoah.  It isn’t, however, hard to understand that this period is much more than that.  If the lack of sensitivity exhibited by one human being to others, whether in the wake of the Final or, as a result of the spies' report, culminated in the hurt caused in both events, then we have much to learn, as citizens of the world, with regard to the societies that we inhabit.

I cannot alter the conduct of the spies any more than I can stop a football fan from hurling himself through a barrier or spewing out electronic insults through an internet connection.  What I can do is to dare to dream that the idealism envisaged by others is never out of place.  Tisha B'Av teaches us that, despite the odds, there is always hope that we can overcome.

There is an apocryphal story told of Napoleon Bonaparte who was going past a Shul in a small Jewish town in Europe on Tisha B'av.  He entered the Shul and saw the Jews seated on small stools on the floor, holding candles and prayer books.  There was an impressive chandelier with only a few lit candles.  The atmosphere was dark and gloomy.  When he enquired as to the misfortune for which the Jews were mourning, a Jewish French Officer explained that nothing terrible had happened recently but that this very day was Tisha B'Av and that the people had been mourning the Temple’s destruction for two millennia.  Napoleon famously replied:

"A nation that cries and fasts for over 2,000 years for their land and Temple will surely be rewarded with their Temple."

Perhaps those football fans could learn something from our modestly sized nation.  The spies sinned and the people were punished but their descendants have not forgotten what we lost and what could have been.  Had we acted differently, the Temples would not have been destroyed and we would not have endured a crushing exile that exists to this day.  We may have lost the idealism that propelled us out of Egypt, but we always found our way back home.

It is a lesson that our fellow citizens could take upon themselves.  The Squad lost the match and the Tournament, but that wasn't the point.  Just as we stood together in unity when we hoped for the result that we all wanted, we should do the same now, irrespective of the outcome.

In victory or defeat, the way we act towards our fellow citizens is infinitely more valuable than that inscribed silver cup. 

Shabbat Shalom.

Parshat Pinchas: Modelling Leadership

It was a violation of the trust that the people had placed into him. He was after all a respected leader, someone whose face was known to many. He had numerous responsibilities, not least to those he was answerable to. That he could have acted in such a disgraceful manner is deeply disturbing and disappointing. He has let us all down.

On the face of it, you would expect that these words might very well apply to the recent news that jolted the Nation regarding the behaviour of the former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The honest and open face that reassured us when we struggled to make sense of the pandemic that overtook our lives one-and-a-half-years ago.

The man whom we thought we could trust has revealed himself to be anything but trustworthy, as per his statement of resignation:

"...I want to reiterate my apology for breaking the guidance, and apologise to my family and loved ones for putting them through this....we owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance."

There is no mention of the infidelity he has perpetrated in destroying the sacred union he had established with his wife through marriage or the devastating consequences of such actions on his young family.

I am however, not referring to this gentleman but to another leader, one who lived many years ago. Rashi explaining the verse: 'A Prince of a father's house of the Simeonites' (Bemidbar 25.14) describes him as being:

 

 ‘of one of the five 'father’s houses' which were of the tribe of Simeon.’

 

To recap the end of last week's Parsha:

Bilaam sent Midinianite prostitutes into the Israelite camp and they seduced the Israelites, causing them to engage in idol worship and immoral acts. One of the women, Cozbi, the daughter of Tzur, who was a princess herself was caught with Zimri, the son of Salu, a Prince of Shimon by Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron. Pinchas, seeing this, took a spear and killed them both, which immediately brought an end to the plague that had been cast upon the Israelites.

The Torah makes a point of naming Zimri in this week's Parsha to emphasise the severity of what had happened. Despite his position as one of the most respected members of his tribe, Zimri's behaviour could not be condoned or tolerated in any way whatsoever. Whether or not he was married, his actions led to his being 'named and shamed' in perpetuity because Princes of tribes should not behave in such a degrading manner.

When considering the behaviour of both men, in terms of their respective immorality, there seems to be a consistent and sadly unbreakable thread which connects their actions through the mists of time. This link underscores the combustible relationship between responsibility, power and human weakness.

The Prince of the Tribe of Simeon and the former Health Secretary were both entrusted with the ability to make decisions that would affect the people who had elevated them to their respective positions. Furthermore, those outside their inner circle looked up to them on account of their status and roles.

"With great power there must also come great responsibility" is a quote that I have employed before. No-one quite knows its origins and it is attributed to numerous people ranging from Voltaire to Peter Parker's (aka Spider-Man) Uncle Ben. In truth, it is probably much older, dating back to the New Testament. Nevertheless, its exactitude cannot be underestimated. For, as they say "never a truer word" has been spoken (Prince Tcherkasky 18th Century).

Were this Biblical episode to be left standing without rectification, the Torah would be remiss in its mission to provide us with a moral code to help us identify the characteristics that are intrinsic to being a good leader. Someone whose actions are the polar opposites of those of the shamed Zimri, son of Salu. For, as I will discuss, the way a leader conducts him/herself in private can often impact on how they are perceived in public.

Later in the Parsha, we read the following verse:

 

And the Lord answered Moses (saying), “Single out Joshua son of Nun, an inspired man, and lay your hand upon him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him in their sight. Invest him with some of your authority, so that the whole Israelite community may obey. (27:18-20)

Rashi notes that when the Torah uses the phrase, "commission him in their sight":

“Know that they are troublesome, that they are rebellious — accept your office having in mind that you will have to take upon yourself all this (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 92 on 11:16).

What Rashi is telling us concerns Moshe's responsibility to make sure Joshua, his successor knows what he must do to lead the people properly. How he must comport himself, so as to gain the respect he must have in order to discharge his duties effectively. He is telling him that whatever he does as a leader must reflect the behaviour that he expects from the people he is leading. You can't ask your followers to behave in a certain manner if you don't lead by example. 

Zimri, as Nasi, Prince of the Tribe of Shimon was no less responsible to his tribesmen and women than the Health Secretary was to the nation who were following his directives. How would we have behaved had we known of the Politician’s secret dalliance, in conjunction with wilfully ignoring his own advice?

This brings us to the topic of how the way we present ourselves publicly is predicated on the way we behave in our private lives.

It is a striking anomaly. On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the Torah reading for Minchah seems to be most inappropriate. One would expect it to revolve around the issue of spiritual purity and suchlike. Instead, we read about the forbidden illicit relationships between members of a single family. How, on this day, when we aspire to be angels, can we bring our minds to consider such baseness?

Chazal tell us that it is precisely such behaviour that we must be aware of, if we are to reach the spiritual heights that we are meant to attain. In order to be a Holy Nation to Gd, we must act in a fitting manner. Should men who have been unable to control their basest instincts be the people that we look up to as role models? 

This is why, if we juxtapose the language used to describe Zimri and Joshua, we see how the Torah is really the originator of the phrase I quoted earlier, if not verbatim, then certainly in spirit.

Perhaps the gentleman whose tattered reputation now lies at his feet will consider this when he aspires to move onto another role. It is never too late to change one's behaviour and ‘turn over a new leaf'. However, before worrying about the rights or wrongs of whether cameras should or should not have been filming what transpired, perhaps he should be focussing on his own internal photograph - the kind that won't be brought up in evidence in a human court of law.

None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes, but if we wish to be role models to others, we need to start by acting as such. For what we do and how we represent ourselves impacts on many other people.

As Pirkei Avot tells us, of all the physical and metaphorical crowns that we wear, the most important is that of ‘a good name’.

Shabbat Shalom.