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May 1952

Bulletin for Shevuoth - ghosted for JMB (1952)

Yitro Shavuot
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Bar Mitzvah Talk (1952)

Now that you are Bar Mitzvah, and have attained your majority, Jewish Law holds you legally responsible for all your actions. You are now expected to act as a mature member of your people and to do your duty as an adult Jew. But you are not beginning on this new venture of a fully responsible Jew as a raw recruit. You have been trained for this role many years. Your stay at the Religious School, your home environment and your parents’ guidance have all been directing you towards this high goal. You have had a basic training for your actions as a good Jew.One of the things which you will be expected to keep and observe, and for which you have been trained for all your thirteen years, is one of the Ten Commandments which we read this morning. כבד את אביך ואת אמך, “Honor your father and mother.” This is a well-known commandment, and which goes to the very root of all family life and respect. But this commandment is different from the other nine of the Asseres Ha’dibros in a special way. The other commandments merely tell you what to do and what not to do. This one adds something – it tells you what the reward is for abiding by this law – למען יאריכון ימיך, it is the promise of longevity, long life, “that thy days may be long.” Haven’t you ever wondered, Julius, why this mitzvah above all others is accompanied by a promise of long life, long days?Well, I want to give you an answer to that question which my grandfather gave me on my Bar Mitzvah day, and which he heard from his father on the same occasion in his life.It happens many times, Julius, that because of lack of experience in life, you start out upon a venture which may last a day or a month or a year or many years, and which you later regret. At the end of a certain period of time, you look backwards, and think to yourself, Oh, if only somebody had warned me beforehand that a course of action of this sort was bound to end in failure. If only somebody with more experience than me had opened my eyes and directed …
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Barukh Hashem (1973)

This is a great and historic day in the life of our nation and of our entire civilization. Tonight at 7 P.M., the longest, angriest, most divisive, most sickening war of American history will officially come to an end. There is little exultation and no element of triumph in our national reaction to this event – just a sense of deep, inner relief for the end of this war in which there emerged no winners, and all were losers. How shall we, as Jews, react to these good tidings from Indochina? There are only two words adequate to express our Jewish reaction: Barukh Hashem, “thank God.” Indeed, whenever we announce or hear good news, whether it be of international scope or personal interest, the reaction of the Jew is: Barukh Hashem, “praised be the Lord,” or “thank God.” What is the source of this very Jewish expression? The answer is: a goy! The first one to utter these words was a Midianite. Thus we read today ברוך ה' אשר הציל אתכם מיד מצרים ומיד פרעה Jethro said to Moses, his son-in-law: “praised be the Lord who saved you this day from the hand of Egypt and the hand of Pharaoh.” The Talmud comments on this remark by Jethro:גנאי הוא למשה ולשישים ריבוא מישראל שלא אמרו ברוך השם עד שבא יתרוit is a shame, a disgrace, for Moses and six hundred thousand Israelites that not one of them thought of saying the words barukh hashem until Jethro taught them to do so.Now that is a strange remark indeed. Do the Rabbis really have the right to fault Moses and the Israelites in such harsh language – ”shame, disgrace” – for not having originated the expression barukh hashem? After all, the concept behind the words is that of gratitude, and הכרת טובה (thankfulness) is a basic principle of Judaism. The word “Jew,” as I have often pointed out, essentially means “thank God,” because Yehudah (Judah, Judea) derives from Leah’s remark upon the birth of Judah, הפעם אודה את ה’ך, “this time I shall thank the Lord.” The first thing the Jew says upon arising is מודה אני, I thank God. And Saadia, …
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What G-d Found in the Desert - the Moral of Shevuoth (1952)

Rabbis describe G-d finding delight in three experiences, 3 finds, each based on a Biblical text. Each teaches a moral principle. First Metziah: Abraham. ומצאת את לבבו נאמן לפניך. Loyalty of heart; faith. Not so much intellectual conception monotheism as faith in G-d in all totality and purity. 1. sign of times, sophistication, is "emancipation from all faith". 2. state categorically that’s impossible. Every man has faith; depends what kind — a. No more than two ways. No "grays”. b. either in G-d — or idols, wheteher stone, scientism, psychology, destiny, wealth, security, communism, free enterprise. No matter how good, still idol. 3. כיון שאדם פורש מן התורה הולך ומתדבק בע"ז. 4 Cynics deride this idea as too conservative, tight orthodoxy. Under guise of sham liberalism, "so open-minded that their brains fall out", they insist on third way — no faith in anything at all. 5. Bertrand Russel: “To live a human life, man must have grounding in something, in some sense outside of human life....in some end which is impersonal and above mankind, such as G-d or Truth or Beauty". 6. There must, therefore, be a choice of which faith. Abraham recognized this etc. Second Metziah: David. מצאתי דוד עבדי. Servitude, or service. 1. G-d could have found delight in so many other great aspects of David: a. Royalty: a monarch reigning in august majesty ... consolidated Jewish kingdom. b. Military prowess: uncanny strategist ... 2nd Book Samuel (vs Absalom). No Koje incident possible under him. c. Poet: sublime thoughts which run so mellifluously thru his Divine verses... inspiration to countless generations in times of need and also bliss. 2. Yet G-d extolls servitude above all these. Two great qualities of an עבד: a. Surrender, Yielding to Master ... Sacrifice in toto. 1. איזו עבודה שבלב? — תפילה, once altar, now Bimah; once Kohen, now Shatz; once animal physically, now man spiritually —. 2. בידו אפקיד רוחי. A measure of intensity. Noticeable in Psalms. 3. In this sense David a complet…
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