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Reflections
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VAYAKHEL/PEKUDEY
Shabbat HaChodesh
27th Adar 5770 ~ 13th
March 2010
Shabbat begins in
London at 17.45 and ends at 18.48
Moses reminds the Israelites to observe
Shabbat and of the penalties for non-compliance. The
Israelites give so generously towards building the
Mishkan (Tabernacle) that Moses asks them to stop
giving. Betzalel and Oholiav oversee the Mishkan’s
construction by the skilled Israelites. The construction,
materials, appurtenances, and
priestly garments
are detailed. Accounts are kept. God’s presence
fills the Mishkan. A cloud by day and fire by night
guide the Israelites’ travel. Shemot ends.
In Shemot 35:10 we read:
וְכָל-חֲכַם-לֵב,
בָּכֶם,
יָבֹאוּ וְיַעֲשׂוּ,
אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה
יְהוָה.
And every wise-hearted person
among you shall come and make everything that the Lord has
commanded:”
An interesting but oblique
and casual reference to wisdom in ‘wise-hearted’.
Hertz comments on “wise-hearted” in Shemot 28:3 and 35 :10
(used elsewhere e.g. 35:25 & 35, and 36:1 & 8): “In Bible
psychology, the heart is the seat of intellect, not of
feeling.” So Biblical wisdom is intellectual and rational.
Thus Telushkin (Jewish Values p.43): “The rabbinic
understanding (is) that one of wisdom’s main components is
the ability to anticipate the implications of one’s words
and acts” Thus if building a new house make a parapet for
the roof, to avoid ‘bloodguilt’ if someone falls off. Yet
Nechamah Leibowitz (New Studies in Bereshit p.448) describes
Joseph’s wisdom as “that which (was) accompanied by Divine
communion and revelation”: hardly intellectual or rational:
clearly involving profound emotion.
Rabbi Louis Jacobs (The
Jewish Religion pp. 588/9) echoes Hertz in describing
chochma “usually translated as wisdom” as being used in
Jewish literature to describe “mental processes and
intellectual attitudes’, and in the Bible to mean ’skill’.
The meaning develops. In the Wisdom literature and some late
biblical passages, “the sage, (chacham) …….. has acquired
‘knowledge of the world and human nature, sharing his
experience with others. … gives prudent advice and is the
author of wise saws.” The meaning of wisdom alters further
over time until (Rabbi Jacobs, p. 589) ‘ In everyday Jewish
use hochma denotes wisdom of a deeper quality than
mere cleverness. The hacham is not a clever know-all
but a man capable of penetrating into the depths of the
human situation and of seeing things as a whole.”
And here we more nearly
approach the true meaning of wisdom. Wisdom involves
insight, vision, seeing beyond the surface, far more than
intellect, rationality or knowing facts. Who has not met
clever and knowledgeable people who are anything but
wise? Scholars perhaps, but lacking insight, understanding,
compassion.
Is wisdom passé? Too subtle,
too impractical? Are our scholastically pressurised young
people encouraged to value those “capable of penetrating
into the depths of the human situation and of seeing things
as a whole”, including some who, though for many reasons
denied formal education, are undoubtedly “wise-hearted”? In
our bustling, ‘knowing’, competitive world, is there room or
time for wisdom? There should be. As we read in
Proverbs (31:26) “(The Ayshet Chayil) opens her mouth with
wisdom; and the law of kindness is on her tongue.”
Norman Bar is a member of
NNLS
Torah Sparks
By Rabbi Joyce Newmark
The 100 talents of silver were for casting
the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets for the
curtain, 100 sockets to the 100 talents, a talent a socket.
(Shemot 38:27)
The number of sockets needed for the
sanctuary was one hundred, the same number as that of the
blessings that must be recited daily. This implies that even
as the sockets served as the foundation of the sanctuary, so
the daily blessings represent the foundations for the
sanctity of the Jewish individual. (Hidushei HaRIM [Rabbi
Isaac Meir Alter, the Gerer Rabbi, 1799-1866, Poland])
Rabbi Meir said, a person is obligated to
recite 100 Brachot every day, as it is written, “And now, O
Israel, what does the Lord your God demand of you?” (Devarim
10:12) [Rabbi Meir reads mah (mem-hay, what) as me’ah (mem-aleph-hay,
hundred)] (Menahot 43b)
A person should taste nothing before he
utters a blessing. Since “the earth is the Lord’s, and all
that it holds” (Tehillim 24:1), a person embezzles from God
when he makes use of this world without uttering a blessing.
(Tosefta Berakhot 4:1)
The berakhah, like most of Jewish prayer, is
both a declaration of dependence and an expression of
gratitude praising our Creator for the many gifts with which
we are blessed. Prayer, which begins with the self, can move
us away from self-centeredness and an unreflective
routinization of life. Too often we take the world for
granted. The berachah is a specific way of not taking the
world for granted, of responding to each of God’s gifts with
awareness, awe, and gratitude. (Siddur Sim Shalom, page xii)
Sparks for Discussion
Reciting 100 blessings each day seems
daunting – however, a person who prays the three daily
services and recites Brachot before and after eating will
accomplish it easily. Do you think this minimum daily
requirement of 100 Brachot should be taken literally? What
point is Rabbi Meir trying to make? How often do you say
Brachot outside of services or communal meals? How do you
feel when you stop to say a berachah?
From: United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism. More can be
found on their website
http://www.uscj.org
To view
the archive of past 'Reflections' click here
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