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Synagogue Sermon

July 13, 1985

ייסורין צורך שלמות (1985)

Pinchas
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Outline

Good Enough (1957)

I A- Angry prophet from ancient Judea has some strange and yet uniquely appropriate words to say to us in today’s Haftorah. B- Reaches bottom of pit of desperation - warns to die. רב עתה ד’ קח נפשי. Why? – Because of cruelty of great desert. Hot by day + cold by Night? No. Because of inhuman persecution by Jezabel? No! Why, then? – כי לא טוב אני מאבותי!! What a strange reason! II A. and yet is true contemporary scene. Was a time in American Jewish life would become up parents as models of ideal Jewish behavior.
Pinchas

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The Old Man (1975)

Yizkor is a time that we remember all kinds of relatives and friends who were dear to us, especially parents and grandparents. It is these last two, parents and grandparents, but especially grandparents, who are the subject of my remarks this morning. These comments are based largely on the thoughts of my eminent teacher, R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik שליט”א. שלושה נקראו אבות. The three people who were first called “fathers” amongst our people, were the three patriarchs – Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Each transmitted his teaching – what was later to become the great tradition of Judaism, the Masorah of Israel – from father to son. The connection of a man to his grandson was mediated by his own son. Thus, the tradition of Abraham came to Jacob through Isaac.Hence, the importance in Jewish history of father-son relationships. On the one hand, the father was instructed to teach his son: ושננתם לבניך, ye shall teach (the Torah) diligently to your sons. On the other hand, when one man taught another, he was regarded as if he were his biological father: כל המלמד בן חבירו תורה כאילו ילדו.But I am even more impressed with the relations of grandfathers and grandsons and their ability to get along with each other.This is symbolized by Jacob, who was the first one to be called a “grandfather” as such. Others “became old,” but only Jacob was “the old man.” About Abraham, we read ואברהם זקן בא בימים, Abraham became old, “well-stricken'” in years. But when Joseph meets his brothers the second time, and they do not recognize him, and he wants to ask how their father is, he says השלום אביכם הזקן, “is all well with your old father?” “אב זקן” in Biblical Hebrew may either mean of “old father,” or – “grandfather.” In the Midrash, Jacob is frequently called ישראל סבא, Israel the grandfather, or Israel the old man. And, by extension, all the Jewish people are called ישראל סבא.Jacob, the “choicest of the patriarchs,” was the first one to cross the generation gap. He was the first to create…
Pesach

Synagogue Sermon

Great Ideas Are Dangerous (1975)

Jewish mysticism teaches a great principle, which it derives from the verse in Kohelet that God created the world זה לעומת זה, “one opposite the other.” This means, according to the Kabbalah, that every manifestation of holiness in the world has an underside of profanity and destructiveness. Hence, when God emanated the ten spheres of holiness, there came into being, corresponding to them עשר ספירות דמסאבותא, the ten spheres of impurity. This underside of evil and impurity that always accompanies the phenomena of sanctity is referred to as the סטרא אחרא, “the other side” – a term often applied, in Yiddish, to the devil or demons. This is not only a mystical idea, but a universal truth that applies at all times and places.For instance, love is a great idea, but it can easily be distorted into something powerfully destructive: lust. The same tender and warm feelings of love, when applied to the wrong person, become illicit and immoral. No wonder that the word חסד, which is usually used to express the idea of affectionate generosity, is also used by the Torah to describe a particularly ugly form of incest. Self-confidence is a great attribute. Every parent wants to inculcate this quality in his children. Yet by the slightest twist, this great idea reveals its “other side” of impurity, and it becomes – arrogance, changing a confident person into an insufferably supercilious one. Democracy is certainly a great idea, one which has inspired millions. Yet the same idea of power being invested in the people can, if one is not careful, turn into its “other side,” and become merely mob-rule. What is a lynch mob, if not democracy distorted?All of these, and many more, are great ideas which are dangerous. I often use this as a test of an idea. If someone proposes an idea to me, I see if it can become dangerous if it is distorted. If it cannot, then probably the idea is trivial! Of course, one can simply opt for safety and security by abandoning all great ideas – but that is a l…
Pinchas