by Dovid Lewis

A Buddhist’s Holy One Liner – Kedoshim 5777

A Buddhist’s Holy One Liner

Acharei- Kedoshim 5777

A chance encounter with a Buddhist earlier on today caused me to quickly analyse a verse from this week’s Sedra. He asked me for one sentence that could encapsulate Judaism, what is my one-liner as a Rabbi? This was at the end of a meeting, and I had not known up to that point what his religious or spiritual affiliation was, and I only had 60 seconds; I had been catapulted into ‘Just a Minute’!

The first verse that came to mind was the start of the Sedra: קדשים תהיו – you should be holy. He said I like it, it fits in with my philosophy. But I stopped him and said that actually it was the continuation of the verse that really spoke to me – ‘for I Hashem am holy”! Now that throws me; how is our holiness a reflection of Hashem’s? Why indeed is G-d’s holiness a valid reason for us to do likewise?

Now he was intrigued.

I explained that the word קדש – holy, also means to sanctify, to consecrate something, to set it aside. And that is my one-liner, for when G-d is set aside, when He/She/Whatever is sanctified and holy, it is not by virtue of being better than those around; G-d’s holiness is absolutely self-dependant. We don’t play Top-Trumps with G-d for there is nothing to compare Him to.

And that is the instruction at the start of the Sedra – be Holy by your own standards. You are not going to be judged in comparison with anyone else.

That of course works both ways; we can’t pat ourselves on the back when we (more often that not, erroneously) think that we are holier/frummer than someone else, but neither should we knock ourselves down when we think that we aren’t as good as them.

In the words of Rabbi Meir of Premishlan: “I’m not worried that when I get to heaven that they are going to ask me why I wasn’t as good as Moses was, but rather I’m petrified that they are going to ask me why I wasn’t as good a Meir could have been.”

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Dovid

p.s. now you know why I never enter ‘Just a Minute’; too much repetition, far too much deviation, and G-d in heaven ‘just’ one minute!!

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 by Dovid Lewis

Freg a Sha’aloh

“Freg a Sha’aloh”

Lessons in prejudging from one little letter.

Tazria Metzora 5777

“freg a sha’aloh – is ez treif” – ask a question, and its treif. Thus have Anglo Jewry always believed, but what is the basis for that?

 

We could in fact argue that actually the opposite is true, and indeed the Talmud tells us that “koach d’hitayroh odif” – the power to permit something is greater. In other words, anyone can say that something is treif or forbidden, but it takes a knowledgeable authority to permit it and declare it Kosher etc. So freg a sha’aloh, you never know, it may yet turn out to be Kosher!

 

I mention this because of one little letter in this week’s Sedra. “When you will come to the Land……and the owner of the house will say to the Kohen, ‘there appears to me to be something like a Tzara’as lesion in my house.’ – כנגע נראה לי בבית” (Vayikra 14:34-35.) It is the ‘something like’, in Hebrew it’s the prefix ‘kaf’, that interests me.

 

The owner of the house, even if he were to be the most learned Rabbi or Prophet was not entitled to declare his house impure. Instead he had to call in the expert and get an official diagnosis; he had to freg a sha’aloh!

 

The reason for this is two-fold: 1) no one should ever be that quick to condemn themselves – or indeed anyone, leave it to the unconnected, third party, expert. 2) even if you were sure of the matter, and indeed you turned out to be correct, if you told the Kohen that you had a Tzara’as lesion in your house, rather than ‘something like a lesion’, you were in effect asking him to merely ‘rubber stamp’ your opinion!

 

I see here a powerful lesson for each and every one of us. Too often we follow the adage; if it quacks like a duck, if it waddles like a duck, if it looks like a duck – it’s a duck. It looks like someone has Tzara’as, it smells like they have been struck by Heaven – they must therefore be guilty.

 

We are therefore taught that even when we see it on ourselves (how much more so on someone else, when we definitely do not know all the facts), we are not allowed to pre-judge. Call in the expert and wait – you never know, it might not be Treif.

 

Oh, and don’t just go through the motions to get the expert/Kohen/Rabbi to confirm your ‘suspicions’ about the other person – wait for them to declare. This isn’t an exercise in proving you right, it’s a journey to discover the truth and to avoid declaring something, or even worse, someone Treif.

 

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom,

 

Rabbi Dovid

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 by Dovid Lewis

History Avoidance – Shemini, Post Pesach 5777

History Avoidance

Listening to the radio on Thursday I heard Nigel Farage declare that he would not be standing as an MP in the forthcoming general elections. What was interesting, were the phone calls that followed, with a number of his ‘Chassidim’ (although, he might use a different term!!) exhorting him to reconsider. Their contention was: this is what you are needed for, this is your calling.

 

Not to draw parallels, but it did remind me of a conversation, recounted by Rashi, between Moshe and Aaron at the dedication of the Tabernacle in the opening verses of this week’s Sedra.

 

Having served as the Kohen Gadol for seven days of installation, Moshe now called Aaron forward to begin the actual Service in the Dedication ceremony and take his dutiful role as the permanent Kohen Gadol. But Aaron held back, he felt that he was not worthy of the position, primarily due to his involvement with the Golden Calf. Moshe responds and says: ‘Why are you embarrassed? You were chosen for this role’ – לכך נבחרת.

 

We have just celebrated Pesach, when in essence we became the ‘Chosen Nation’.  It is important to stress at this point, that this term does not denote a negative aspect about other nations, but rather an acceptance of a responsibility for our nation. It’s not about them, it’s about us.

 

The order of the Hagaddah follows the same route; first we mention that we were slaves, then it describes our origins as idol worshippers. On a night when we are celebrating our freedom, our birth as a nation, why do we make any mention at all of our ‘shady past’?! Sweep it under the carpet and move on. Celebrate the power of freedom and the heights of spirituality, not the lows of slavery and paganism.

 

But the message of last week’s Hagaddah and this week’s Sedra is that there is no avoiding our destiny and stepping off our chosen path of responsibility. We cannot claim unworthiness because of any past history. We can pretend, we can try to hide in the shadows, but if this is our route in life then the only person we are in fact hiding from is ourselves. In the words of my father: ‘you are only fooling yourself – and anybody can fool a fool’!!

 

It was true of Aaron, it was true of our Nation and it is true for each and every one of us.

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 by Dovid Lewis

PhotoBombs, Yellow Cars and Streaks of Red

PhotoBombs, Yellow Cars and Streaks of Red

Shabbat Hagadol 5777

It started back in 2015 when a tourist complained. It escalated this January with vandalism. Then this week 100 protectors took to the streets in support.

 

All over a yellow car.

 

The offender, a car painted an alluring yellow, was accused of ruining the photo-shoots of tourists who had travelled for miles to see the picturesque village of Bidbury, home to the 14th century Cotswold cottages on Arlington Row.

 

The problem was that the owner, Mr Maddox, lived in the cottage and had simply parked his car outside his own home.

 

The tourists complained, vandals keyed the car and smashed the windows writing it off!

 

In support and solidarity, 100 owners of yellow cars (in all shapes, sizes and shades, from a Mini to a Lamborghini) processed through the village and Vauxhall have renamed that shade of paint to ‘Maddox Yellow’!

 

(Unfortunately, the 84 year old widower, has since given in to the vandals and replaced his car with a non-descript grey one!)

 

Pesach gets its name because Hashem passed-over our houses during the plague of the first-born. To ensure our protection we were commanded to paint the doorposts of our houses in red! We ruined the picturesque beauty of ancient Egypt with our splash of incongruous colour. But that was something that we had been doing for quite some time; standing out from the crowd. The Talmud tells us that we refused to change our dress, names or language throughout the entire two centuries we were in Egypt – including during the century of servitude and oppression.

 

Chief Rabbi Sacks summed it up brilliantly when he said (I believe it was just after the terrorist attack on 7-7) “Jews have always learnt to integrate but not assimilate”.

 

If Pesach teaches us one thing it is that our freedom cannot be bought by fading into the background and ignoring our heritage and customs. It is the Chag that raises Minhagim (ancient and new, authentic and bizarre) to a whole new level, and teaches us that what has given us the strength to survive is by respecting our surroundings, but not being drowned and suffocated by them.

 

Wishing you all a Chag Kasher v’Sameach,

 

Rabbi Dovid

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 by Dovid Lewis

Sacrifices – NOT!! – Vayikra 5777

Sacrifices – NOT!!

 

At some point a wordsmith better than I, will coin a more appropriate word to translate the Hebrew term Korban. The main focus of the entire book of Vayikra is purity and our personal relationship with the Divine, expressed in the minutiae of the Temple Service which of course revolved around the Korbanot.

 

The English word used is ‘sacrifice’.

 

This connotes giving something up and in the context of the Temple service, seems to imply that we are giving up the animal’s life!

 

I’ve sinned – time to slit an animals throat and move on with my life with clean hands!

I’ve been cured from a life-threatening illness – time to sprinkle some blood on the altar as thanks!

I brought a new life into this world – time to take an animal’s life in appreciation!

It’s Shabbat, it’s Rosh Chodesh, it’s Yom Tov – let’s bring an extra sacrifice.

 

Not exactly a moral or ethical act.

 

Can the Nation that gave us the very first moral code, the revolutionary Mitzvah of ‘Tzaar Ba’alei Chaim (not hurting our animals), that forbade hunting for pleasure, that insists on feeding our pets before our children etc etc etc, can that Nation and Divine Code really insist on sacrificing an animal’s life on the Altar of repentance, remembrance and thanks?

 

But is it truly about sacrificing?

 

For that matter, is anything within Judaism about sacrificing?

 

Do we sacrifice our taste-buds and appetite by adhering to Kashrut?

Do we sacrifice our sartorial desires and fashion sense by adhering to a dress-code?

Do we sacrifice our sexuality by adhering to family purity?

Do we sacrifice our free time by going to Shul?

 

The list goes one. In fact it is essentially 613 lines long!

 

A Korban is not a sacrifice. The Hebrew word Korban has its roots in k-r-v, to come close.

 

The whole point of Judaism, every positive Mitzvah and each negative Aveirah are about bridging the gap between the infinite Divine and the finite human being.

 

It’s not for nothing that the instruction to build the Tabernacle was prefaced by the Mitzvah of Shabbat, which more than any other Mitzvah reminds us that there is a Divine Creator to this world and that our every action must be in sync with His and aim to bring us both closer to each other.

 

The mechanics of how it works is the study of a lifetime, but the main point is that we were not put on this world to sacrifice ourselves, our happiness or our animals for G-d. We are put here to get closer and to be involved with the Cosmic plan of creation. If you think that you can just slit an animal’s throat and be atoned, sprinkle its blood and be done with expressing your thanks, then you have done nothing more than take an animal’s life – which is basically murder! You’ve not sacrificed an animal – you’ve sacrificed your moral code, your sacrificed your very essence of what it means to be a human being!

 

 

 

 

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