Dear TBZ Community,
I love the Torah. Like, really. It’s amazing how something so old and seemingly far away from the lived experiences of today can be so relevant. This underlies the juxtaposition of true and truth that I present to learners when I’m asked if the Torah is true. I do not know if the Torah is true. I don’t know if the sea really parted. I don’t know if Jacob really stole the birthright from Esav over lentil soup (maybe it was chicken soup?). What I do know is that the Torah is truth. It reflects an essence of the human experience that is unchanging from the time when it was originally conveyed down to today. I don’t know if it’s true that Sarah laughed when she overheard that she would have children at her advanced age, but the Torah reflects a truth of human relationships by showing her jealousy towards Hagar and her child. I don’t know if the story of Cain and Abel is true, but it certainly reflects essential truths about human anger.
True and truth are two different levels of interaction. Is something true is a simple yes or no question. Is something truth requires a deeper level of engagement and commitment to discovering the answer and we find this message being conveyed in this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Mishpatim.
Parshat Mishpatim is full of laws. 53 to be exact. At the end of all this, the Torah says:
וַיִּקַּח֙ סֵ֣פֶר הַבְּרִ֔ית וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּאׇזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע׃
Then [Moshe] took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that God has spoken we will do and understand!” (Exodus 24:7)
Na’aseh ve’nishmah – we will do and we will understand. This is a powerful sentiment, and something that I try to let guide my life. Often, we cannot see the outcome of a situation. Or the steps of a plan are not immediately sensible to us. Na’aseh ve’nishmah teaches us that through doing whatever is being asked of us, we will understand the meaning, the reason. But this faith in outcome is based in the notion of brit (a covenant), whereby two parties agree to hold up their respective ends of the deal. In order to live a life of na’aseh ve’nishmah, we must have faith and trust in something beyond ourselves. And we see that, both in the Torah and in our own experiences, faith can be a challenge.
Why should we do any of the things written in our Torah? Back in the day, when I asked my parents why I should do something the answer was often, “Because I said so!” And this is kind of the response that we get from the Torah. As a parent, I have tried the “because I said so” argument, and it did not work! And it did not always work for God either (see the stories of Adam and Eve or the Tower of Babel), which is why we are given reasons why we should keep mitzvot (commandments), such as the potential blessings and curses in Deuteronomy or the cause-and-effect paradigm we find in the second paragraph of our Sh’ma prayer. But all of this relies on our faith in the brit, that God is going to uphold God’s end of the bargain. Looking out at our world and looking at our own personal difficulties, it may be difficult to believe, to maintain the trust in the brit.
Notably, the Israelites, when they said na’aseh ve’nishmah, were still standing at Mount Sinai. They were still full of yirah (awe; fear and wonder) toward the divine. They had witnessed the takedown of the Egyptians, plague by plague, and saw themselves protected from it. They recently danced on the shores of the Red Sea when they escaped with their lives from Pharaoh’s pursuit. They called out for food and water and it came for them! They knew God as One who made miracles for them. So it was easy for them to say na’aseh ve’nishmah, to say, “Look, we may not understand what this means now, but we can trust you and trust that through our doing what you require of us, we will come to understand the meaning for ourselves.”
Alas, none of us have any answers for the problems of the world around us. Yet, my constant prayer is that God continues to give me the strength to do my part. I can’t see the Master Plan, I don’t know how these stories will end, but I trust that through my actions I will come to understand more about myself, more about the world around me, and more about how to live in greater accord with the Unity of All that Is. I hope you will do the same.
May this Shabbat bring rest for your spirits, blessing and calm into your home.
May you experience a ta’am olam ha’ba, a taste of the world that is coming, a world where everyone’s needs are met because we’re all willing to do our part, to be content with enough and not more than we need and to live within the trust and faith of the interconnectivity of all life
May those who are ill find refuat ha’nefesh, healing in spirit, as well as refuat ha’guf, healing in body, if possible.
And, may the hostages soon be returned to their families and friends, and may we all come to know peace.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Tiferet