NOW YOU ARE TO TAKE EXCEEDING CARE FOR YOUR SELVES- FOR YOU DID NOT

THE PATTERN OF MALE OR FEMALE. (Devarim 4:15-16)

NOW YOU ARE TO TAKE EXCEEDING CARE FOR YOUR SELVES – TO LOVE THE LORD

YOUR GOD. (Joshua 23:11)

"Only take you care" – this refers to the

body; "Take exceeding care for your selves" – this

refers to the soul.

(Haamek Davar, Devarim 4:9)

Because a sound and

healthy body is the work of God, one cannot understand or know anything of the

Creator if he is ill, therefore man must distance himself from those things

which affect the body adversely, and do those things which make the body

healthy and whole, and thus it is written: "Now you are to take

exceeding care for your selves…

A person must always

try to dwell in a place where the air is clear and fresh, in a

high place, in a spacious building. If possible, he should not dwell in the

summer in a place which is open to the north or the east, and there should not

be present anything moldy. It is beneficial to clear the air of the house

frequently, with good fragrances and with beneficial vapors…

Air which is beneficial

for bodily health is that which is temperate, neither cold nor hot. Therefore

every person should take care not to overheat his home in winter, as do

ignorant people, for many illnesses are the result of excess heat. One should

heat his home only enough to take away the chill, but not to overheat.

 (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Chap.

32:1,25,26)

COPING WITH PAINFUL MEMORIES

Devorah

Waysman

Egyptologists

discovered a harpist's song in the tomb of King Anthep in which is written: "Forgetfulness

brings a blessing." (Dr. Nili Shopak of

the Faculty for Bible in the University of Haifa, in a lecture which took place

in Yerushalayim on 17.6.02.) In contrast, our parasha stresses

the value of memory. For example, Chap. 4, verse 9: "Only: take

your eyes saw…" In order to keep the memory alive, the Torah charges

us a number of times: "Make them known to your children…Take you

are to inculcate them in your children" plus many other reminders in

this and in other parshiot. The Baal Shem Tov said that that memory is the

secret of redemption, and even modern historians and thinkers stress the

importance of the collective memory in Jewish identity. (I refer the reader to the volume "Zachor" by

Prof. Yosef Yerushalmi.)

In

contrast to this, we find in Tractate Berachot (32b) a somewhat different

approach to memory and forgetfulness.

"Can

a woman forget her baby" (Isaiah 49:15)

– Said The Holy One, Blessed Be He: "Can I forget the offerings of rams

and the firstborn which you offered before me in the desert." (This drasha is based upon the similarity

between "oola" (baby) and "olah" (offering))

Knesset Yisrael (The Congregation of Israel) replied: "Master of the

Universe, since there is no forgetfulness before Your throne, perhaps You will

not forget on our behalf the sin of the calf?" He answered: "These,

too, will not be forgotten." (Cf. Shemot

32:4) Said she to Him: "Master of the Universe, since there is

forgetfulness before Your throne, perhaps You will forget that which happened

at Sinai?" He replied: I shall not forget you" (Cf. Shemot 20:2) This conforms to that which

Rabbi El'azar said in the name of Rabbi Oshaya, "Where is this referred to

in the Bible? "Even if this be forgotten" – this is the sin of

the calf; "I shall not forget you" – that which happened at

Sinai".

In

this selection we find – in addition to the wordplay and the sharp literary

homiletic, a powerful and important psychological and conceptual statement: Not

every memory is positive or blessed. Psychologically, there are many

memories which preserve traumatic experiences and which cause mental illness.

The Argentinean author, Borghas, once wrote a story about a man named Fuentes,

who, as a result of an accident, was doomed to remember every sight, every

sound, every smell and every taste he had ever experienced. He was unable to

function normally because of the impossible mass of memories. He pleaded for

forgetfulness.

Just

as is the case with individuals, so with nations. There are memories which

build a positive identity, which nourish the soul. And just as the individual

sometimes is stuck with a traumatic memory which prevents him from moving ahead

in life, so with nations; there are memories which may hamper any progress. The

solution lies not in forgetting, but in the processing and integration of the

difficult memory into a more complex fabric of life.

It

seems to me that this is the message concealed in a story which appears in the

Talmud, Tractate Taanit (22a):

Rabbi

Broka of Chozai once visited the market of Beth Left. Elliyahu the Prophet

accompanied him. He once said to Eliyahu: Is there – in this entire marketplace

with all its people – someone who is destined for the World to Come? He

replied: No. In the meantime there appeared a person dressed in black shoes,

not according to custom of Israel, and there was no string of t'chelet

hanging from his clothing. Said Eliyahu to Rabbi Broka: This man is destined

for the World to Come. Rabbi Broka ran after him, saying: What do you do? He

replied: Go away today, for I have no time now – come back tomorrow and we will

talk. On the morrow he said to him: What are your good deeds? He answered: I am

a warden in a prison, and I declare 'men separate from women'. I place my bed

between them so that they not come to sin. And when I see a Jewish woman upon

whom gentiles have set their eyes, I endanger myself to save her. One day, in

our jail was an betrothed woman, who was the subject of gentiles' desire. I

took wine lees which are red and placed them in the lower part of her dress,

and said that she is a menstruant so that they would leave her alone. Said

Rabbi Broka: Why do you not wear tsitsit and why do you wear black

shoes? He replied: I circulate among gentiles in such garb so that they will

not identify me as a Jew, and when they issue a decree, I inform the sages and

they pray for mercy and annul the decree. He asked: Why, when I asked you 'What

do you do', did you tell me to leave and return on the morrow? He replied: At

that moment they had just issued a decree and I thought to myself: First I will

go and notify the sages, so that they plead for mercy.

In

the meantime, two others came to the marketplace. Said Eliyahu to Rabbi Broka:

These, too, are destined for the world to come. He approached them and said to

them: What do you do? They answered: We are happy people, and we make the sad

happy. And also, when we see two people having a quarrel, we strive to make

peace between them.

The

first person marked in the story as "destined for the world to come"

belongs to the sphere of hostile relations between Jews and gentiles. The Jews

are a persecuted minority, subject to abuse and violence from an anti-Semitic

majority. They require mechanisms of self-defense – even unconventional ones –

in order to survive. Zionism sought to change the Jews' situation vis a vis

the nations, to reach equality and 'normalization'. To our great sorrow, this

desired objective has not yet been reached. The current war continues our

abnormal condition. In this struggle, both sides are sacrifices. A complex of

traumatic memories and threats on both sides is being created. If, with the

help of God, we attain calm, or perhaps even an agreement, the residual

memories of both sides may be unbearable.

The

Talmudic tale offers an alternative. For the two newcomers, redemption is not a

matter of self-defense against the actions of the nations. The geula

which they bring is one of joy, conciliation, interpersonal peace. We must

educate our children to positive Jewish identification – not just as a reaction

to hatred and anti-Semitism, but as a spiritual and cultural value which stands

on its own. If only our enemies would also be able to internalize this message.

On

Shabbat 'Nachamu', between the 9^th of Av and the 15^th

of Av, we experience the dialectic movement of Jewish life. We leave mourning

and destruction, memories of persecution and holocaust, and enter a period of

consolation, with a festival which celebrates the joy of conciliation.

Historically, the the 15^th of Av marked rapprochement between the

tribes of Israel, when the tribe of Benjamin was permitted to reenter the

congregation after the incident of terrible abuse and violence (Judges 18). May it be His will that in our day

we also reach conciliation with our Palestinian neighbors, and that both

parties be able to cope with the memory of the sacrifices, to contain the pain.

And to continue onward.

Dr. Devorah Waysman is head of the Kerem Institute for Teacher

Preparation and is a member of the Yedidya Congregation in Yerushalayim.

"That You

Upon Fulfillment of the Covenant

"That you should

not say "It is already written: "To these shall the land be

divided" – the land is ours, whether we are deserving or guilty."

Do not say so, for your entry into the land is dependent entirely on whether or

not you observe the laws and regulations.

 (Hizkuni, Devarim 4:1)

… There are those who

believe that God's love for Israel is promised unconditionally; they rely on

such verses as "Because of God's love for you and because of his

a strong hand and redeem you from a house of serfs" – The Holy One,

Blessed Be He, is obliged – as it were – to keep his promise and to redeem us.

But such is not the

case. As long as there does not exist a generation worthy and suitable to

accept the covenant and the grace, as God swore to the patriarchs, the Holy

One, Blessed Be He, has patience, and a thousand years pass before his eyes as

if it was but yesterday; but on the other hand, it is not at all certain that we

will be able to wait a thousand generations, if we are unworthy thereof. These

words must be declared against that dangerous ideology which contains a

tremendous diminution of religious belief, to the effect that the Jewish people

received a promise of great and glorious Messianic redemption merely by virtue

of the fact that they are the Children of Israel.

Those words of

blasphemy and execration heard today from the mouth of many who are assumed in

their own eyes to be the loyal and faithful of Israel, saying that The Holy

One, Blessed Be He is, as it were, obligated to keep his promise and redeem us;

these words may turn out to be misleading and disappointing, because they are

oblivious to the basic condition: "Hear, Israel, the laws and the

regulations."

 (Y. Leibowitz: Seven Years of Discussion

of the Weekly Parasha. pp. 776-777)

Comfort, Comfort My

People – Thoughts for Shabbat Nachamu

We

make abundant use of the term "nechama" [consolation]. Just

two days ago, during the Mincha service on Tish'a b'Av, in one form or another "Comfort,

God, the mourners for Zion and Yerushalayim"; when we visit the home of a

mourner, we fulfill a good deed called "nichum aveilim" – comforting

the mourners, and we depart with the phrase "May the Omnipresent comfort

you…" or "Be comforted from heaven". The weeks

following Tish'a b'Av are called "Seven Shabbatot of Nechama", one

reason being the nature of the haftarot read during those weeks, the

first of which begins with "Comfort, comfort my people."

What,

be consoled? As early as in Bereishit there appears the root n'ch'm' :

"The Lord saw how great was man's wickedness on

time. And the Lord regretted [vayinachem] that He had made

things, and birds of the sky for I regret [nichamti] that

I made them" (Bereishit 6:5-7).

A

few verses earlier we read:

"And

under a curse." (Bereishit 5:29)

In

Parashat "Ki Tissa" which we recite on public fasts, following the

sin of the calf and Moshe's supplication:

"And

the Lord renounced [vayinachem] the punishment He had

planned to bring upon His people."

Various

commentators, beginning with Chazal, deal with the theological difficulty which

arises primarily in the verse "and Lord regretted the He had made man";

the general tendency is to see in these words a classic example of the

concept "Torah spoke in the language of men". Rashi, however, sums up

the term 'nechama' in the words: "All are expressions of a second

thought." This is to say that the different connotations of the root n'ch'm'

share a common denominator, whether speaking of "regret" or of "renounce",

and that is: second thought, reconsideration.

The

concept of nechama belongs to that category of things which, in reality,

we cannot change, because that which is done cannot be undone. What does take

place is an internal process, sometimes difficult and long, which

enables one to view reality "differently", to find new meaning. Only

in the haftara of Parashat "Nitzavim", in the seventh week, can we

say, along with the prophet: "I rejoice, yes, rejoice with the Lord."

This teaches us that the working through and coming to terms with the grief

or with a traumatic experience is a process which demands time. However, the

passing time makes possible the

process of the change – it does not effect the change. In "Avot d'Rabbi

Natan" we read of the disciples of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai who come to

comfort him upon the death of his son. All the disciples attempt to console him

– unsuccessfully – by comparing his tragedy to the tragedies of others. Only

Rabbi El'azar ben Azarya succeeds:

Rabbi

El'azar ben Azarya entered. Upon seeing him, he told his servant: Take a vessel

and follow me to the bath house, because he is a great person, and I cannot

stand before him. He entered and stood before him and said to him: To what can

this be compared? A king deposited an object with a person for safekeeping.

Every day, the latter would cry out: Woe to me, when will I be able to return

this deposit in good order! So you, Rabbi, you had a son who read the Torah,

Prophets, Scriptures, Mishna, Laws and Aggadot, and departed this world clean

of sin; you must accept consolation, for you returned the deposit in perfect

order.

He

replied, Rabbi El'azar, my son, you have consoled me "the way men

console". (Avot d'Rabbi Natan, 14:6)

Rabbi

El'azar ben Azarya spoke to his mentor in the language of men, connected with

him and with his distress, and shifted the focus to the living son,

to the meaning of life, to memory. This relating made it possible for Rabbi

Yochanan ben Zakkai to view the painful reality of the loss of a son

differently.

Is

this a universal and general prescription for consolation? It seems not. But it

is possible that viewing tragic reality from varying perspectives, which take

into account the past and hope for a better future, which connect to the

person, to the group, and to society rather than to their anguish and their

pain, offers a chance for consolation. Must we wait for Rabbi El'azar ben

Azarya to help us console ourselves, or perhaps each one of us has to muster

our internal Rabbi El'azar in order to console ourselves, to console others, to

breath hope into a wounded society?

 Pinchas Leiser – Editor

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator),

Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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