View current news articles, commentary, videos and more that have an impact on Jewish culture, politics and religion at Rabbi Silverman's Sites to See, HERE
An Upside Down World
(this sermon may or may not reflect the view of management)
The portion this week, tezaveh, introduces us to the most beautiful of all accessories that the High Priest would don over his garments–the choshem mishpat, made up of twelve different precious stones, each mounted on a gold frame. In each of these sectors, the gems had one of the twelve tribes etched into it. According to the Bible, the choshen was arranged in four columns of three.
I have always depicted the gems in my Parasha pictures in this fashion, but found, to my distress, that English translations don’t correspond to my depiction. Oddly, the Hebrew word “tur” was translated as rows, whereas I had always translated “tur” as columns. Four rows of three on the choshen isn’t the same as four columns of three; the gems are arranged differently. “What?” I said to myself. “I know that the Modern Hebrew translation of “tur” is column, and a column is vertical! Except that when I checked the Hebrew dictionary for “tur” it states, “generally a column but can also have the meaning of row!” Oy! I frantically checked the Art Scroll Bible, which depicts the Temple and the vestments, and indeed, they were arranged in rows. Then I checked other sources and they seemed to interpret “tur”as rows too. I was about to redo my picture when I came across this commentary in the Aryeh Kaplan Torah commentaries: “According to some authorities, the names were ordered downward in columns rather than across in rows.” Kaplan cites the famous Minchat Chinuch 99, a legal commentary on the Sefer ha-Chinuch, written by Yosef Babad ("Rabbeinu Yosef"; 1800–1874). Therefore, I again was on solid ground! Phew! I didn’t have to change it, and here it stands.
Upwards or sideways is not the only discrepancy in Jewish tradition. There are times, in the Hebrew calendar, like at Purim, when we make the case that everything can be turned upside down. Hafuch! Totally upside down. Purim, which comes in the second Adar this year, reveals that every evil thing Haman intended for the Jews was actually thrust the heads of their enemies. Thus, Purim is a time we can do things topsy-turvy, like men dressing as women and women dressing as men (not that there is anything wrong with that, as Seinfeld would say), and no one, even in frum communities, would bat an eyelash. That is the basis behind the Purim obligation that a person becomes so drunk that he doesn’t know the difference between the curse of Haman and the blessing of Mordechai. On Purim, you can do things not just upwards or sideways, but you can do things topsy-turvy– just for a little bit of craziness. (Our sages implore us not to take this too literally.)
Unfortunately, today’s world shows us a constant Purim–a topsy-turvy world. For instance, Fox News shows footage of Sports Illustrated. Now I am no prude, but this is not news—it’s exploitive! It’s a network’s cynical calculation for holding on to market share during their morning program. Or maybe it’s just me– But what about this: political debates used to be respectful opportunities for candidates to agree to disagree and point out the larger or more nuanced differences with one another’s view and philosophy. But in today’s world they have devolved to food fights and mutual recrimination; calling one another liars and, gads, “Canadian”. This insulting behavior may have engendered a gun duel a hundred and fifty years ago. Dignity and reputation used to mean something! Now candidates threaten litigation. Years ago, good leaders would calm and channel anger and frustration into constructive and productive ends. Called to mind are phrases like “the only thing to fear is fear itself.” Or “it is not for you to ask what can your country do for you.” Candidates spoke to ennoble the masses. Now they aim to mirror and magnify the worst tendencies in their constituency and compete for the most intolerant of postures.
In the world of not so long ago we valued the judicial arm of government to check and balance the excesses of Congress and the Executive Branch. Now each branch is competing to capitalize on the death of a jurist for its own partisan ends, thus expanding its own power. Only 16 year ago we learned the value of having nine justices to adjudicate an election in the event of a dead tie. Now forces clamor to make ensure that should a tie occur in our next election, the court itself will be tied–and useless.
In a world of not so long ago leaders advocated for legal documents to be “living and breathing documents,” dynamically able to change with a contemporaneous society. Certainly halacha claims to be this. Halacha evolves with new circumstances and new social conditions. Precedent certainly weighs in, but Jewish legal ideology takes into consideration ha’ idna “in today’s’ times,” so that halacha does not “have too high a bar that no one will keep.” Now our politicians brag and take pride in our Constitution being a dead document. Yet they don’t explain how it is that with this frozen relic, there is no longer slavery, for instance.
Not so long ago those who didn’t agree with the policies of an institution would stop their financial support of it. Pleased with the idea of free inquiry and free expression, and buoyed by the knowledge that Jewish students, like them, can have an opportunity for advancement in society, Jewish alumni are often among the largest benefactors of universities and they are in the vanguard of giving. Yet so few are actually paying attention to the new wave of messages our Jewish students receive from faculty and administrators who often are condemning Israeli policies. They pretend not to notice administrators who stand impotently by, as student activists abuse free expression to mouth profanities against Jewish students who counter-protest; or those who, at Vassar, raise money for “Palestinian Resistance” against the “bleeping” Zionists. The fact that Sam Bronfman actually pulled his financial support at York University in Toronto because of an anti-Semitic /anti-Israel mural that the administration, citing free expression, wouldn’t pull down in the Student Union was surprising because so few benefactors would dare reconsider their donations. In this topsy-turvy world, universities are receiving millions of dollars from Jewish alumni with one hand, and then slapping Israel and Jewish students with another. Like Bronfman, others should surely be paying attention and doing likewise.
In the Talmud, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was ill and fell into a coma. When he regained consciousness, he reported that he had a vision of the next world. His father asked what he saw there. “I saw a topsy-turvy world,” Rabbi Yoseph answered. “Those who occupy eminent positions here are lowly, and those who are inferior here are eminent there.” Rabbi Yehoshua remarked, “You did not see a topsy-turvy world there. You saw a true world. It is this earthly world that is topsy-turvy.” I guess this world has always been the theater of the absurd. But how long must we celebrate Purim absurdities?
Sideways or downwards, backwards and forwards, inside out and topsy-turvy is our world these days. May there come a time that these things are put right rather than being upside down and backwards and let us say, Amen.