D'var Torah

Shabbat Nachamu

We've come to the end of the season of the annual holidays. With Tisha B'av over, we look towards the high holidays.

And as we do that we reflect on our religion - our faith - what it means to be a Reconstructionist Jew. Some questions arise for us:

What are our beliefs?

How do we differ from other liberal Jewish congregations?

The Torah instructs us. In this weeks Torah portion, we read about not changing anything:

Chapter 4:1 "And now, O Israel, give heed to the laws and rules that I am instructing you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2  You shall not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you."  

What could that mean? Don't add any customs or omit any customs Or traditions?! What about keeping kosher or not? What about the way in which we observe Shabbat? Or not.  

Then in the very next chapter comes The 10 Commandments. Could that be what the Torah means?  Chapter 5: 1 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the laws and rules that I proclaim to you this day! Study them and observe them faithfully!

6 I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage:

7 You shall have no other gods beside Me. 8 You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, 10 but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

11 You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God; for the Lord will not clear one who swears falsely by His name.

12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work - you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may long endure, and that you may fare well, in the land that the Lord your God is assigning to you.

17 You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

18 You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not crave your neighbor's house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.

19 The Lord spoke those words - those and no more - to your whole congregation at the mountain..."

Maybe just maybe it means as long as we observe the 10 Commandments that we're all good. Maybe that's sufficient or enough.

But isn't enough? Is it enough to be Jewish and have simply these 10 big picture items covered? What about all of the customs and traditions and practices that we have accumulated over the thousands of years. What about Passover and the Seder?  What about candles and challah and a great meal on Shabbat?

Maybe just maybe the Big Ten not enough. Maybe we did more to be able to sustain the people with a culture, its own language and land, throughout the ages.  Maybe that's what the Dalai Lama was saying to us when a group of Jewish leaders and rabbis and educators traveled to visit him and answer the one question he had: How do you sustain your people and religion without being in your land for 2000 years?

So I guess it's not the minimum but rather much more that makes us Jews today extending that long line of Judaism from Abraham until now.

Shabbat shalom

Rabbi Mark