Home Home / Idea: Consolation, Guilt, Chayei Sarah,…

Note

October 1, 1990

Idea: Consolation, Guilt, Chayei Sarah, Vayeshev, Rosh Hashana (1990)

Chayei Sarah Vayeshev Rosh Hashanah
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Note

Sermon Idea for Vayechi (1974)

This refers to the story of Joseph who places Menashe at Jacob’s right and Efraim at his left, and then Jacob switches his hands for the blessings. Most commentators wonder at Jacob's action. But I am more amazed by Joseph, who insisted on the bechor getting the major blessings. This bothers me: why did he do it? After all, Joseph himself in his own life, in his own youth, violated that very principle the son of the younger wife of Jacob, the eleventh child of the patriarch. As such, by the established conventions of primogeniture, he had no right to push himself to the top. He had no moral claim to supremacy over his sibling. What right did he have to dream about the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowing to him, about the sheaves of his brothers bowing to his? Yet he did that — andhis father indulged him, giving him the "coat of many colors," which was the symbol of roylaty, the right to succession as chief of the tribe.The Torah is teaching us a timeless insight: that revoluntionaries who want to overturn the establishment order, usually become quite rigid and ippose their own s^Eling pf x order, becoming establishmentarians themselves. In Russia, the Proletarian revolutionary c2i®fs d° not \*01־k in the mines, but are driven to plush officer by chauffeurs. In India, the anticasts groups develop their own pecking order. In the US, counterculture egalitarian rebels who demand participatory democracy and a free society, have precious little of either one in their Internal structure.Rabbi Israel Salanter interpreted thus the verse in Ecclesiastes: Q \* which usually and evidently nfeahi ^that ^d seeks "the welfare of" (the pursued) as: God looks for the pursued: He can’t find them, because he was pursued yesterday is a pursuer today!so, Jacob said to Joseph: no such rigidity\*! I will reverse my hands and prefer the younger of my grandchildren, even as I did amongst ray own children, when I gave preference to Joseph over his older siblings, and even as I did …
Vayechi

Synagogue Sermon

Putting a Bad Conscience to Good Use (1966)

The story of the Akeda, which we read this morning, is, together with the revelation at Sinai, the central event in Jewish history and religion. One of the most remarkable aspects of this episode is the one word by which Abraham accepts upon himself this historic trial and its mental agonies and spiritual sufferings. God called to him, “Abraham!” and, in magnificent simplicity, the response is forthcoming: Hinneni, “Behold, here I am,” or, “I am ready.”One of the commentators, R. Abraham b. Rambam – the only son of Maimonides – emphasizes the quality of this response by contrasting it to that of Adam. He writes, mah rav ha-hilluk, “How great the difference,” bein maamaro hinneni, u-maamar zikno Adam va-ira ki erom anokhi va-ahavei, “between Abraham, who answered the Divine call with the word hinneni, and Adam, who, when God called out to him, “Where art thou?” answered, “I saw that I was naked so I hid.”Now, this comparison is somewhat disturbing. The answer of Adam is, after all, the response of a human being pursued by God who demands an explanation for a terrible failure, whereas Abraham’s response is to a Divine call not necessarily connected with any human offense. Is this not, then, an individual comparison? Is not Abraham great enough in his own right and without seeking to enhance his reputation at the expense of his grandfather Adam?The answer I wish to offer is one which, I believe, not only justifies the comment of R. Abraham b. Rambam, but has the widest ramifications both for a proper understanding of the Bible and for our own lives. This answer is that both – Adam and Abraham – were, in a sense, being reprimanded!The story of the Akedah begins with the words va-yehi ahar ha-devarim ha-eleh, “and it came to pass after these things.” What things? asked the Rabbis. In their answer, they indicate that the words of the Bible imply some severe introspection. Ahar hirhurei devarim shehayu sham; the Akedah took place after deep meditation and self-analysis by…
Vayera

Synagogue Sermon

Fulfillment (1966)

Several times in the book of Genesis, the Torah summarizes the biography of a protagonist of the biblical narrative, introducing this spiritual profile by the words ve'eleh toledot, "And these are the generations of,” or, in more colloquial English, “this is the story of” such-and-such an individual. Four such instances are particularly worthy of our attention: those referring to Esau, Noah, Isaac, and, in this morning’s Sidra, Jacob. The differences between them are noteworthy, for these are four archetypes that are still very much with us, and they represent four attitudes toward spiritual fulfillment.The first of these, and the one who is of least concern to us, is Esau. Of him we read, v’eleh toledot Esav hu Edom, lakah et nashav mi’benot kenaan, “and these are the generations of Esau, he is Edom; he took wives from the daughters of Canaan.” Esau is a man whose life begins and ends in the satisfaction of his own concupiscence; the v’eleh toledot of Esau is – Edom, which implies the redness of heat and passion. He is a man who believes that one's manliness can be expressed only in the number of wives he amasses, in the harem that he builds for himself, in the natural appetites that he succeeds in indulging, in the conquests that he makes. He has no spiritual pretenses; he lives only as an animal in human form. We need not belabor the point about the prevalence of this type of personality in our own society.The second of the four, is a much higher type – Noah. V’eleh toledot Noah, “these are the generations of Noah,” Noah ish tzaddik tamim hayah be’dorotav, et ha-Elokim hithalekh Noah, “Noah was a righteous man, whole in his generation, a man who walked with God.” He was a man who saw his destiny not in the satisfaction of every personal impulse and erotic whim, but rather in transcending these material desires. However, the problem with Noah is that his spiritual aspirations are entirely self-centered. We look in vain in Noah's biography for some hint that there…
Vayeshev