Weekly Messages

At Temple Emanu-El
February 15, 2024

“A Moral Code”

Parshat Yitro, which we read last week, and which brought us the Ten Commandments were a mere appetizer to the numerous laws and rules found in this week’s portion of Mishpatim. 53 laws and directives are found in this portion in total, five times more than the commandments and far more per Parasha than any other single Torah portion.

You can slice, dice, dissect, analyze, and turn the portion upside down to best understand the laws and their purpose. At their core, they all boil down to one concept: morality. Most of the laws we learn and apply are about calibrating a shared human and moral compass towards doing what is proper. Many of these laws (not all) still have the same moral applicability today that they had thousands of years ago, when first introduced to our people. That is remarkable.

Whether we are reminded of the crime of putting a stumbling block before the blind, prompted about the sin of cursing the deaf or the imperative to release the servant after a set number of years, Jewish law is founded on morality and ethics. It is core to our canon and fundamental for our future.

The religions that jive best with Judaism are those that also share a common basis of morality and ethics. While some exact rules and laws might differ, the principles and tenets of loving life, preserving life, and caring for God’s creations are paramount.

As we read and unpack these commandments in Mishpatim, let us never lose focus on the primal responsibility to be a moral people following a moral code of goodness, rightfulness, justness, and properness to be closer to God and one another.

Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner

February 15, 2024

“Rules Before Laws”

Before the Ten Commandments were given, did chaos ensue? Did people do whatever they wanted whenever they chose? I mean, after all, didn’t the commandments received from God to Moses on behalf of the Israelite people represent the code of rules and laws and morality we would follow? It was a set of rules to follow, but what existed beforehand?

The transaction of receiving the Torah and agreeing to the terms where we, the Jewish people would follow the laws and rules and God would keep God’s end of the deal but looking after us and fulfilling the promises made was a deal brokered that made us bound to guidelines and standards we must adhere to?

What happened before the commandments were given? What rules did we have to follow? Was murder rampant? Stealing everywhere? Was lying omnipresent without repercussion?

On July 3, 1776, were there no rules to abide by or precepts to follow as a person living in the colonies? Was theft permitted? Of course not!

Morality and values dictate behaviors regardless of the official rules written in the bylaws. The commandments codify those morals and values, but they existed before they were etched in stone.

All of us intuitively know right from wrong and good from bad. Perhaps we are not familiar with speed limits before they are made into ordinances or the punishment for idol worship, but our inner compass directs us all towards treating fellow humans with kindness, to preserve human life, to value dignity and to celebrate goodness in each of God’s creations.

If we cannot agree on that baseline of morality and ethics, I am afraid that the ten commandments will have little application for our everyday life. If we can agree, then it strengthens our connection to God and one another.

Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner

February 15, 2024

“Carrying the Bones”

In the closing verses of the book of Genesis, as Joseph was on his deathbed, he made one final request of his brothers that is finally fulfilled in this week’s Torah reading. With his dying breath, Joseph instructed his brothers, and in effect, the Israelites of future generations, to take his bones with them as they made their way out of Egypt. Over 400 years later, just as the Jewish people are on the cusp of their dramatic exodus towards the wilderness, Moses finally holds up that promise of retrieving Joseph’s bones. And this action is so important that in the midst of all that hurried preparation to leave Egypt, the narrative pauses to draw specific attention to it. Commentators accordingly explain that this was not merely about grabbing one last thing before beginning a journey. But rather, that the Israelites succeeded in their next steps because they had the bones of Joseph with them as a spiritual lift to guide them on their way. Carrying Joseph provided them with strength, and was a reminder of the spirits of the deceased who stood alongside the Israelites at this pivotal moment.

Taking the bones of Joseph speaks to who we are as a people. As Jews, we carry along the memories of those who came before us, always feeling their proverbial weight on our shoulders. We walk in their footsteps. Their presence is never lost, and we always give respect to the dead.

It is this moment in the Torah that explains why many Jews, regardless of where they die, are buried in the holy land of Israel. It is why, in 2008, it was so important that even though we knew they had died, that the bodies of the abducted soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were returned to Israel for proper burial. This is about respect for those who are no longer with us, and it is this principle that is guiding us now as we mourn the ever increasing number of fallen Israeli soldiers. We always carry the bones and the legacies of those we have lost.

On Monday, 24 soldiers in reserve duty were killed in two separate incidents, marking the single deadliest day for Israel’s military since the war began in October. It has made these past few days some of our hardest to absorb emotionally in months–and that is saying a lot.

Israel is in mourning right now for soldiers between the ages of 22 and 40. Many of these brave souls leave behind grandparents, parents, siblings and wives to mourn. They leave behind young children who will now only know their fathers through pictures and stories. They will be remembered for their bravery and their willingness to lay down their lives for a selfless cause. These are losses that are devastating to absorb and the whole Jewish world mourns alongside those families who will now carry the bones of their loved ones with them for the rest of their lives.

May the memories of all those who fell in combat protecting us forever be a blessing.

Rabbi Gabe Cohen

February 15, 2024

“Over 100 Days”

In this week’s parsha, as the Israelites prepare to leave Egypt at long last following the ten plagues, there is a break in the action as they are given what is often referred to as the first mitzvah of the Jewish people– the instruction to mark the new moon at the beginning of each new month. This instruction effectively establishes the Jewish calendar, which sets the course not only for much of Jewish practice, but also of Jewish identity.

Jews follow a different clock and calendar. That is the reason that while we are in the secular month of January, we are also in the Hebrew month of Shevat. It is the reason that each Friday evening, we count the precise minutes until the sun goes down and we can light candles to welcome in Shabbat. For Jews, time moves differently.

And that has felt especially pronounced in a new way these past few months. This past week, we reached the incomprehensible milestone of 100 days since Israel’s latest war started and since hundreds of hostages were taken from the safety of their homes. In those 100 plus days, time has undoubtedly moved differently for us as a Jewish people. Every celebration in that time has been tinged with sadness. Our joy is tamped down, and we go through daily life with so much more on our minds. We go on knowing that there are still hostages who have been alone in the dark for over three months now, communities that will never be the same and soldiers who are bravely putting their lives on the line defending Israel everyday.

We may continue to go about our lives, but we remain constantly preoccupied thinking about our brothers and sisters who are in such unthinkable pain.

No matter how much time passes, we cannot allow our thoughts and hopes to wander off of those who are still suffering. And so we will continue to pray as we move past this grim 100 day milestone that this nightmare is nearing its end–that the hostages will be returned home safely and that this tragic count will end soon.

Am Israel Chai.

Rabbi Gabe Cohen

February 15, 2024

“Moses’ Lessons in Leadership”

This week’s parsha leaves us with one of the essential takeaways of Moses’s story: what does it take to be a leader? Does a leader need to be louder, smarter, stronger, and more willing than everyone else? Or can a leader be soft spoken, simple and reluctant? In the first stories of Moses’s long life in Parashat Shemot, we find out what makes Moses uniquely qualified to lead the Jewish people.

When God, in the form of the Burning Bush, tells Moses that he will be the one to guide the Jewish people out of servitude in Egypt, Moses only has one question: “why me?” Moses pushes back, doing all he can to convince God that he is not the right person. And his main protestation boils down to his speech impediment. Moses worries that when he speaks, the people won’t listen. How, he reasons, can he be a leader if he can’t even get the words out? But God sees more in Moses, because he had already proven that even if he was not a man of words, perhaps more importantly, he is a man of action.

In an earlier scene, when Moses was just a young man, he went out one day and saw an Egyptian cruelly beating a Hebrew slave. Moses looked around, and seeing no other person in close proximity, he took matters into his own hands, killing the Egyptian aggressor. Commentators famously explain that Moses looking around and seeing no other person did not literally mean there was nobody else around. But rather, that he saw no other person willing to step up. What made Moses’s action special was the fact that he sprung into action when nobody else would.

This famous interpretation is enhanced by the teaching of the Rabbis from Pirkei Avot, “in a place where there are no men, strive to be a man”. Here, Moses doing just that leaves us with an important lesson about what it means to be a leader, and more broadly, what it means to be guided by Jewish values. When we see injustice in the world, we can follow the example of Moses. Regardless of what anyone else is doing, it is our imperative to take a stand for what is right. That is what it means to be a leader.

Rabbi Gabe Cohen