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This week's 10-Minute Torah (9/14/3029) "Parashat Ki Teitzei" - https://www.modernrabbistephen.com/single-post/2019/09/11/This-weeks-10-Minute-Torah-09142019-Parashat-Ki-Teitzei From Rabbi Dr. Joseph Gelberman: Forgive By Giving Love We can only know fullness of love when we recognize that our brother's errors are also our own. If we give anger in response to his error, that error goes unredeemed in both of us. The world needs us to redeem error. If we condemn the person with the deed, we have alienated ourselves from our roles as co-creators with G-d of a peaceful universe. As we accept ourselves and grow from our errors, we release our brother from our judgment in his errors. We both understand forgiveness. We learn to give love for anger.

Parashat Ki Teitzei 5779 #ParashatKiTeitzei #TorahCommentary #DvarTorah

Discussion of Parashat Shoftim #ParashatShoftim #DvarTorah #TorahCommentary

Presentation of Sermon One of the banes of society these days is the leadership of various countries and groups. Ideally, leaders should be guiding their people and deciding based on wisdom and working with others in their respective governments or groups to achieve the best and most efficacious outcome for their people. Unfortunately, this is the exception, not the rule. The Torah is very specific on this point and it is covered in this week’s portion, “Shoftim”. “Shoftim and Shotrim…tzedek, tzedek tirdoff”. Judges and officers…justice, justice shall you pursue. The repetition of “justice” is the Hebrew way of emphasizing the word and In this case, the concept. In the previous portions we were shown the review of many commandments and in some cases, new commandments. Now, the leaders who will implement these commandments are highlighted. The judges and officers of the court are men (male-dominated society) who will adjudicate and enforce secular and mundane judgments. We then have the Cohanim (priests) and Levites (ministers) who will be teaching the holy scriptures to people and inspire them to spiritual achievement. Finally, there are the kings. In Judaism, kings are the ultimate civil servants. They are not dictators who are above the law; rather, they are leaders that rule by example. They were the ultimate civil servant, there to serve the people. They must follow the laws and teachings and demonstrate how to live a righteous life and then implement and enforce and rule according to those holy teachings. For a king to ignore laws and rule by their own mandate is alien in our culture. The times when kings went their own way ended tragically for them. For kings to rule in accordance with Hashem’s teachings, they needed to know Torah. To know Torah, they had to write two Torahs. One would be for the Palace Library, the other for his personal use. If his father had passed down a Torah scroll, then he would only have to write one. But, he still had to write that Torah. Many people remember their school days and taking notes. We learned through our fingers, so to speak. This is what the kings are doing. They are learning Torah the best way available, by writing it all out. And they had to keep that Torah with them so they could refer to it. This way, this ruled in accord with G-d’s Law. Quite a contrast to what we see today. And yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. People get to be in charge and think that they are the law. They ignore what’s written down and on the books and think that since they are the leader, what they say goes. They believe that they are above the law. And how does this persist? Simple: there’s no one to challenge them. Sometimes there are. Most of the time, unfortunately, the masses go along with their rule and don’t challenge them. Either they are intimidated by the leader’s position, or the leader has minions (cronies or military) that enforce their rule. Elie Weisel said that silence helps the tormentor, not the tormented. Those who stand by and do nothing are allowing the leader to dictate. Some leaders believe their power is absolute. This is one of the reasons why kings had to write that personal Torah. Besides knowing the laws, they would be reminded Whose Laws they are. These are not mundane or secular laws mandated by flawed humans, but rather Divine dictums of Absolute Truth. This Absolute Truth honored and respected individuals, and this is really the difference. Man-made laws honor the man; Divinely mandated laws honor humankind. They are meant to allow everyone to flourish and grow and evolve and prosper; often these leaders are looking to honor only themselves. How do we tell the difference? Simple: who’s benefitting from the ruler’s rule. Is it the ruler? Or is it the people? And the former is what happens when leaders ignore G-d. #Sermon #LeadingaccordingtoTorah

Discussion of Re'eh #ParashatReeh5779 #DvarTorah #TorahCommentary

Torah Commentary on Parashat Ekev 5779 #ParashatEkev5779 #TorahCommentary #DvarTorah

Friday Night Sermon (08/16/2019): "Letting them in" Many of you have probably heard of the latest current events news regarding Israel. Israel and AIPAC (American-Israel Public Action Committee) periodically host trips by US Congress people to tour Israel. This is to promote and foster understanding and cooperation between the two countries and for good public relations. In 2018, the first two Muslim woman were elected to the House of Representatives. Rashida Tlaib is Palestinian and Ilhan Omar is Somalian and both have been antagonistic, even hostile to Israel. There has been a lot of controversy over remarks and references, and both have been accused of being antisemitic. Both, of course, are sympathetic to BDS, the boycott, divest and sanction program that is Palestinian born. Those in favor contend that Israel is “occupying” the Palestinian territories and that this is a legitimate way to compel Israel to negotiate Palestinian rights. Those against state that this is no more than propaganda and ignores the many times Israel has indeed offered to negotiate, the constant attacks on Israel’s sovereign state, and the restraint Israel shows in face of those attacks, etc. These two women petitioned Israel to visit. They were to visit, mostly, the border with Gaza and areas inside Judah and Samaria/West Bank, where Tlaib’s family still lives. Israel granted them permission. At first. US President Trump then issued a statement that these two are antisemitic and hate Jews, and that Israel should not let them in. The Interior Minister of Israel, who is right-wing, and the prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, rescinded their offer and decided that these two women can not visit Israel, but Rashida Tlaib would be granted special humanitarian dispensation to visit her aged, 90-year-old grandmother, and that’s it. The Israeli leaders claimed that they decided that since these two supported BDS and do not acknowledge the right of Israel to exist made them both hostiles. A new law passed by the Knesset a few years ago allows the government to deny access to anyone they feel is a threat to the country. This, of course, set off a firestorm of outrage across America, and even the world. There were those who agreed with the Israeli’s decision to not allow entry, but the majority of opinions, from both sides of the isle, were pretty consistent that this was not a good idea. They feel that Israel, being a democratic country, was being, in the words of Thomas Friedman, op-ed writer for the New York Times, was being a banana republic. Many of the more liberal politicians criticized Israel for being too willful and even prejudiced. They were aghast that the government of Israel would treat certain members of the US government in such an exclusive manner. They were very disappointed that Israel would be so willful, being the Democracy that it holds itself up to be, and that even more disappointing was that it made Israel look to be discriminatory. Kevin McCarthy, the minority whip of the House of Representatives made an interesting point. Representative McCarthy is a Republican and a supporter of President Trump. Here, he digressed with the president. He suggested that these two should have joined the delegation of other Congresspeople on that junket. They should have been invited to see such monuments as Yad v’Shem that honors and remembers the victims of the Holocaust. If they declined that invitation, then that would have said it all. Why is Israel held to such a high standard? Have any Congresspeople asked to visit North Korea and visit the three-generation prison camps? Has anyone sought to boycott, divest and sanction China for “occupying” Tibet? Or Russia occupying Ukraine and Crimea? Or the (gasp) US government for occupying Native American land? In a recent portion of the Torah, Hashem told Moses to tell the Israelites to harass the Midianites for trying to tempt the masses into misconduct. They were also ordered to take the land and eliminate all the pagans that were occupying the promised land. Yes, some were allowed to stay who agreed to obey the seven Noahide laws. In that context, this isn’t so farfetched. On the other hand, we are also commanded to love our fellows as ourselves. The sages say one of the greatest mitzvot we can accomplish is turning an enemy into a friend. So there is a precedent of tolerance and humanitarianism in our heritage. We are G-d’s chosen people. He offered us the Ten Commandments and we accepted. We are a nation of priests. This is we’re under the microscope. We’re expected to be better. We have to be. Often that means taking the higher road, whether we want to or not. But that’s why we have the commandments, right? #FridayNightSermon #DenyingBDSSupporters

This week's 10-Minute Torah (08/17/2019): Parashat Vaethanan 5779 #ParashatVaethanan5779 #TorahCommentary #TorahPortion

Friday Night Sermon (08/09/2019): "Helping others to prevent violence" In a closed system, if everything is intact, whatever the system is carrying will flow smoothly. Your plumbing, for example, carries water. The water in the system is under some pressure, which is what makes the water flow smoothly. If the system develops a breach, water now leaks out of the system and the pressure drops, slowing or impeding the flow. Consider this as a metaphor for society. As long as everyone is having a smooth life and things are going fairly well (nothing’s perfect, right?), society functions. If someone has issues or challenges with which are difficult for them to cope, they will feel stress. The less unable they feel to cope with these challenges, the more stressed they will be. We’ve all experienced times during which we felt overwhelmed. Either we had what we felt was more than our fair share of problems, or problems that themselves seemed near insurmountable. Somehow, however, we ultimately figured it out and got it resolved, one way or another. And life went on. When people overcome their challenges, the level of stress they feel dissipates. They are now feeling calmer and can go on with their lives. Some people, for whatever reason, didn’t make it work. They either felt the pressure from the challenges were too much to handle or couldn’t muster the mindset to overcome the challenges. These other people are stuck and are probably now seeing life as hostile. It’s against them and too much. Their pressure is building. When people leave problems alone, they typically build; one thing leads to another. Now instead of having maybe one or two things to resolve, they have a host of problems. Their frustration level builds like the top of pressure cooker. With no way to alleviate the pressure, the top blows. These people are now a ticking time bomb looking for a way to act out their frustration. Within the past two weeks, we’ve seen three situations of mass killings. People armed themselves and took out their frustrations on complete strangers. Perhaps the above discussed scenario is what led them to these heinous and horrific acts of terror. We don’t know. Maybe we can deduce from past experiences and our knowledge of human behavior what led to these horrible acts of acting out. The foregoing is not meant to place blame on society and see these people as helpless victims. These were adults and so far it seems each perpetrator was completely cognizant of what they were doing. They made decisions and acted on them and now have to bear the consequences, whatever they may be. As far as intervention and prevention, though, we can look at these instances in a more problem-solving manner. Let’s turn to Torah. The other week, we talked about how each Jew is responsible not just for themselves, but for others as well. We talked about the paragraphs of the Shema and how the first paragraph talks about performing commandments in the singular and the second paragraph talks about performing commandments in the plural. There are other commandments that address group consciousness as well. At the very top of the list we are commanded to love our fellow as ourselves. Taking a practical approach to this commandment, it would be good to start with respect; respect others. We are also commanded—commanded—to help our fellow who is stranded by the road. If we have a choice of helping someone we like vs. someone we don’t like, according to the sages, we help the person we don’t like first. We are commanded to help people who are in financial straits and not worry about any compensation because Hashem says He will compensate you for your generosity. Our society has become a dog-eat-dog world. Good paying jobs are few and people are very competitive. Opportunity has diminished over the years and feels like while wages stagnate, taxes keep increasing. In Washington, it seems like nothing gets done and each faction is always blaming the other. Society is not really an entity unto itself. Society takes on the character of the individuals that make up the society. A forest is lush because each tree is beautiful. If you have one bad tree, or one bad apple in the bunch, what do people notice? And it also spoils the whole picture, doesn’t it? You want to make the forest look beautiful again? Nurture the weak tree. It’s really up to us. When people feel like they live in a society in which they matter and resources are available, sure, there are still challenges. But there is hope and more of an expectation that their challenges will be resolved. Otherwise, there becomes this mindset that to succeed in a hostile environment, you have to be hostile. Only the strong survive and take what you can while you can. Again, this is not blaming society as a whole, but rather a way to alleviate some societal stress so the next potential terrorist may not feel that they have to act out. Let’s take our lesson from the Torah and spend more time considering the person next to you. #FridayNightSermon #PreventingViolence

Parashat Devarim 5779

Presentation of sermon This week we finish up the book of Numbers with the double portion of Mattot-Matei. The Israelites are on the verge of being led by Joshua into the promised land. Moshe Rabbeinu is getting ready to leave the physical plane. Preparations are being made for colonization. One of the issues that Moses needs to address is the request by the tribes of Reuben and Gad. They passed through the east side of the Jordan River before undertaking settling the promised land and saw land that is ideally suited for animal grazing. They requested of Moses that be allowed to settle there to take advantage of those conditions. Moses set down a few conditions. First of all, he thought it might be a good idea to have an additional tribe settle there since there was perhaps too much land for just two tribes. Two of the clans of Manasseh accepted his offer. Second, they can settle there on condition that they send warriors to help the rest of the Israelites conquer the land. In various places in the Torah, there are commandments to help each other. These range from loving your neighbor as yourself to helping someone with a stranded animal get back on the road to financial assistance to someone down on their luck and the widows, orphans and proselytes that are challenged to support themselves. With this in mind, the tribes gladly offered to send men to help the effort. We are a community. We are mandated to help each other. As the song goes, no person is an island, no one stands alone. This is Judaism. In the flow of our Holy Scriptures, after the Torah, we have the book of Joshua and then Judges. After Joshua died, there was no national leader. This presented a problem as the tribes had settled into their new home and their focus and therefore their loyalty was to their clans and their tribes. Surrounding peoples saw this and the Israelites were vulnerable. During times of aggression then, there would arise a Judge, part prophet and part warrior to gather the fractured tribes together and lead them to successful military campaigns and ward off attacks by foreign aggressors. After the period of the Judges came the Kings as the national leader. The first three kings were more or less able to lead the people, but with the death of Solomon, the tribes once again became fractured as the Kingdom split in two. The Northern Kingdom, not following Torah was ultimately conquered and those tribes captured and led into oblivion. Divide and conquer. Today there is still some fracturing going on. Religiously, we have the fundamentalists (Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox) who feel that other Jews aren’t as observant and thus not honoring the covenant and cleaving to Torah. On the other side of the scale are the liberal progressives that feel that’s too much and separates them from their mother country. Politically many issues center around Israel. There is talk that some American Jews don’t support Israel and even some that agree with such efforts as the BDS campaign and denigrate Israel as oppressive. At the other end of that scale are those that believe that Israel should be a true Jewish state run by Torah and no non-Jews in positions of prominence. Once again, fractured. And we know throughout history what happens when our people become fractured. As all of this is going on, antisemitism is rearing its ugly head and incidents are on the rise. We’re a people. While there are those that support our cause, we have to look after each other. We have to respect each other’s opinions and points of view and understand that united we stand, divided we fall. Hashem has commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We don’t have to like, but we really should love. And respect. At the end of the day, we have all spawned from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our patriarchs and Sara, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, our matriarchs. So let’s all at least work together and make our parents proud.

Parshas Matos-Masei 5779 08/03/2019 #ParshasMatosMasei5779 #TorahCommentary #TorahPortion