A Letter from Jerusalem, November 1947

Rabbi Mishael Zion | Text and the City |Yom haAtzmaut 2014 

On Israel Independence Day – are we celebrating the past, the present, or the future?

This year, somewhat depressed about the present, and deeply concerned about the future (but fighting – in my own way – to improve both), I’ll be turning to the past to re-contextualize the celebration. This year I spent a lot of time reading the letters my grandparents wrote from Jerusalem between 1947 and 1949, as I prepared for an ELI Talk which I gave last month - "A Tale of Two Zions". I've attached below the letter which they – Frances and Moshe Sachs (or Bud and Fran to family…) wrote to their parents in Baltimore right after the UN approved the Partition Plan on November 29, 1947.

Hag Atzmaut Sameach,

Mishael

NOVEMBER 29TH, 1947 – THE GENEREAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED
NATIONS APPROVES PARTITION OF PALESTINE BY A VOTE OF 33-13,WITH TEN ABSTENTIONS, AND ONE ABSENCE.

Nov. 28, 1947, Friday Afternoon:

Fran and Moshe Sachs
outside their home in Jerusalem, 1947

Six of us piled into the Egged Bus to Kfar Etzion, an Orthodox Kibbutz 45 minutes ride south of Jerusalem. We were guests of the only American couple. This Kibbutz is proof of the 

amazing possibilities of the barren and rocky hills of Judea…

Shabbat at Kfar Etzion. Cholent for dinner. Exploration of the Kfar. Hike to kibbutz Ein Tzurim about a mile away. Ein Tzurim, only year old. All Palestinian, also Orthodox, all about 18-21 years old, and unmarried! Hopeful of successfully growing feed for cattle, then can have a dairy farm close to the profitable Jerusalem market. Spirit of enthusiasm far more evident than at older Kfar Etzion. Past ruins of old Roman home, over battle grounds of Maccabees back to Kfar Etzion.

Thrilling singing at "Shalosh Sheudos" (סעודה שלישית). Bridge after havdalah with our hosts. Early to bed.

Then suddenly, at 1:00 AM, [a knock on our door] "Americans - get up. We have a Jewish state" - in Hebrew! אמריקאים קומו, יש לנו מדינה!

Such excitement. The dining hall was cleared of tables. Barrels of wine in the center of a tremendous, wild Hora. Except for VJ [=Victory over Japan, my grandfather served as a chaplain in the Japanese Front during WWII] day never have I known such thrill. My feet trembled as I stumbled in breath-taking dances. Such an Hatikvah! Somebody shouted "Judgment for Bevin" ( משפט לבווין ) - a huge bonfire was casting its light for miles around. It was said that a hastily made effigy of Bevin was burned. The rest of the case of oil was cast on the fire.

One group leaped on a truck - and took off to Masuot Yitzchak - the colony in the neighborhood. One haver rode horse back to Ein Tzurim to awaken our neighboring kibbutz.The huge spotlight on the watch tower waved warning over the mountains and greetings to all the Yishuv.

With unrestrained joy the four isolated kibbutzim, in what was scheduled to be the heart of the Arab State area, greeted the pronouncement of the U.N.!

[Note: I remember vividly my observation of soldiers training in the fields outside the kibbutz on the Shabbat morning before the decision of the United Nations. At that time I had wondered why the members of an Orthodox Kibbutz would want totrain on Shabbat. How simple minded I was. MBS]

JERUSALEM, Sunday Nov. 30

Tel Aviv, November 30, 1947

Sunday morning we squeezed into early bus to Jerusalem. Streets were crowded with merrymakers, who had been up all night. Everyone in town who had strength to come downtown was there, milling about, extending mazal tov and חג שמח to friend and stranger alike. The night before the populace had decorated the British tanks with blue & white flags – British "Tommies" and police still friendly in morning. Trucks pushed thru the crowded streets - loaded with the children of the city - every stop more and more kids piled on to the overcrowded vehicles. Flags, songs just plain excitement poured from the happy kids. The railroad - style chant  "Medinah Ivrit - Aliyah Hofshit!" Hebrew State / Free Immigration!

was the refrain of the day. The national song was – “David Melekh Yisrael Hai v’Kayam…”

A Yemenite on his donkey was decorated as the messiah. Dances in the streets! We paraded to the Jewish Agency building and back - meeting everyone we knew & marveling at the number of our friendships for such a short period. JNF boxes were manned in all the streets.

Blue & white from houses, buildings, stores [and] trucks. Even a cake in the bakery window with the legend: In Honor of the Hebrew State.

Thus Jerusalem, [scheduled to be] in the International Zone, celebrated the great news.

TEL AVIV

Can you imagine not being in Tel Aviv with such excitement afoot? We took the Egged bus to Tel Aviv at about 1: 15 in the afternoon. Tel Aviv was relatively quiet when we arrived. The exhausted crowds were resting up for the second night of reveling. But the evening was different. Allenby St. was as crowded as Times Square on New Year's Eve. Flares were being tossed by the celebrating throngs. The same crowded trucks! The public "horas". The full cafes. But the spirit of intense overpowering enthusiasm had begun to wane. People in the Jewish State were beginning to accommodate to the news that all their struggle had not been in vain.

The "war" of posters on all the store windows and walls had begun. The Stern group proclaimed joyously their part in the success, pledged support to a Jewish state in all Palestine, but what that means only time would tell. Haganah called for discipline and willingness to sacrifice. Hashomer Hatzair... Hapoel Hamizrahi... all the organizations but the Irgun had posters everywhere. It is rumored that the Irgun will disband - but no one knows...

We can't help but think in our joy, of the happiness of Dov [Miller/Mills] and his chaverim in Germany, of Shim Kaufman & the refugees on Cyprus... [from the Exdous boat].

Love, Bud & Fran

Date: December 1, 1947

Re: Parents, in Baltimore, Getting a Bit Nervous

Dear Bud,

I can imagine your thrill on hearing the news of the UN passing on Partition.

We here are thrilled with the news, - and  hope and pray, there will not be any serious violence. This in today's news, seven have already perished and a number of innocent people injured. Bud and Frances, I hope you will both stay off the streets as much as possible and be as careful as is physically possible. May God be with you and [all] the innocent people. No! We are not alarmed because life wherever one is, has its dangerous moments. – But during these trying days we want you to be especially cautious.

Love, Mother and Dad [Sachs]

**The full letters were compiled and edited by my grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Sachs, in 2006, with the assistance of Elisha Mallard. If you’d like a copy of the full PDF, send me an email…

Criticize Me! Creating a Healthy Culture of Rebuke

Rabbi Mishael Zion | Text and the City | Kedoshim 2014

"If you treat a man as he ought to be and could be,

he will become what he ought to be and could be"

Goethe

A parlor game for the Biblically inclined: Of all the verses in the Torah, which is the commandment people fulfill most often? I’d put my money on this one:

הוֹכֵחַ תּוֹכִיחַ אֶת עֲמִיתֶךָ, וְלֹא תִשָּׂא עָלָיו חֵטְא.

Criticize, yes, criticize your fellow, And you shall not bear sin because of him! (Leviticus 19)

The action has many names: admonishment or feedback, advice or chastisement. Each verb reflects a different style and approach in the conveying of the same basic information (“you did X and that was a mistake”). What word would you use to describe the last time you criticized someone? Rebuke seems to be a favorite of Bible translators, although the more neutral “reproof” comes the closest to the Hebrew original – tochecha תוכחה, from the Hebrew word להוכיח – to prove; to make manifest.

What is clearly manifest is that criticism is too often a self-detonating mechanism. It is experienced as an attack – thus inviting a defensive response, or a counter attack… There is no speech act more quotidian and yet more treacherous then the conveying of criticism.

And yet there is nothing more crucial to a healthy society - or relationship - then a healthy culture of criticism. Getting this commandment right is crucial at home as in the workplace, in the trenches of social action as between friends. To use the language of our weekly portion, Kedoshim - which begins with the call to “Be Holy!” and continues to command us to “Rebuke, yes Rebuke!” – the path to a Holy Society passes through the Temple of Rebuke. But our text seeks to create a society which aspires not only to Holiness but also to Love. Our chapter, Leviticus 19, includes not only “Be Holy” but also “Love your Neighbor as yourself” among its top-ten. Indeed, for the Rabbis, rebuke is the very cornerstone of a loving relationship:

אמר ר' יוסי בר' חנינה: התוכחת מביאה לידי אהבה, "הוכח לחכם ויאהבך" (משלי ט ח), היא דעתיה דר' יוסי בר' חנינה דאמר: כל אהבה שאין עמה תוכחת אינה אהבה.

Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Hanina said: Rebuke leads to love, as it says, “Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee” (Proverbs 9:8). In addition he said: Love unaccompanied by rebuke is not love. (Beresihit Rabbah 54; 21:25)

So how is criticism done right? I’m still working on that one. In the meantime, I’ve found some good practical advice in the following sources:

Speak Sheep to Power

Nathan is faced with the challenge of a lifetime when he is commanded to make manifest to his King that he is not only an adulterer, but a murderer to boot. Facing King David, Nathan’s dilemma captures how painful the process of rebuke is. For at its core, rebuke is the tearing off of a mask of lies and deception which a person has told not only others, but himself.

Nathan’s solution is brilliant: I can’t rip this mask off his face, but he can…

¹The Lord was displeased with what David had done, and the Lord sent Nathan to David. Nathan came to David and said, “There were two men in the same city, one rich and one poor. ²The rich man had very large flocks and herds, ³but the poor man had only one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He tended it and it grew up together with him and his children: it used to share his morsel of bread, drink from his cup, and nestle in his bosom; it was like a daughter to him. ⁴One day, a traveler came to the rich man, but he was loath to take anything from his own flocks or herds to prepare a meal for the guest who had come to him; so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

⁵David flew into a rage against the man, and said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶He shall pay for the lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and showed no pity.” ⁷And Nathan said to David, “That man is you! […] ¹³David said to Nathan, “I stand guilty before God!” (Samuel II 12)

Nathan does not rebuke David, he sets up the situation so that David rebukes himself. He invites David to view himself from an external viewpoint, allowing him to recognize and admit his own guilt. Successful rebuke is the act of causing self-incrimination.

Speak of the Future, not the Past

Maimonides in his Code gives some practical advice on the setting in which successful criticism can be given:

He who rebukes another, whether for offenses against the rebuker himself or for sins against God, should administer the rebuke –

in private;

speak to the offender gently and tenderly;

and point out that he is only speaking for the wrongdoer's own good, to secure for him life in the world to come. (Maimonides’ Code, LAWS OF CHARACTER TRAITS 6:7)

Maimonides points out a few concerns: social setting (privacy, intimacy – avoiding public shaming); tone and timing (not to criticize as an immediate response or an emotional outburst, but in a methodical and opportune moment); and finally –creating an atmosphere of trust and genuine investment in the other’s wellbeing. Rebuke cannot be experienced as a gratuitous revisiting of yesterday’s actions (or the making of a theological stance about the afterlife). The motivation for criticism must be the desire to see the best possible future for the other.

Don’t Speak

There is a commandment to rebuke, but sometimes – if there is cause to believe that the rebuke will not achieve the desired effect – the correct fulfilling of the mitzvah of rebuke is to be silent.

אמר רבי אילעא משום ר' אלעזר בר' שמעון: כשם שמצוה על אדם לומר דבר הנשמע, כך מצוה על אדם שלא לומר דבר שאינו נשמע. רבי אבא אומר: חובה, שנאמר: "אל תוכח לץ פן ישנאך הוכח לחכם ויאהבך" (משלי ט:ח).

R. Ela’a in the name of R. Elazar son of R. Simeon said:  Just as one is commanded to say that which will be heard, so is one commanded not to say that which will not be heard. R. Abba stated: It is a duty, for it is said in Scripture: "Rebuke not a scorner, lest he hate thee; Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you" (Proverbs 9:8). Talmud Bavli  Yevamot 65b

Figuring out when to rebuke and when to stay silent is perhaps the most challenging of all. For me this week’s portion invites a moment of introspection: those times in which it would be wise to be more sparing in fulfilling this commandment, and the time when my opting for peace and passivity turned into passive aggressiveness…  But perhaps the biggest piece of advice is not about giving rebuke, but about being a person who willingly accepts, even seeks, advice. As Sefer Haredim, a 16^th century self-help guide for “Holier living” puts it:

"Remove the barriers from your heart" (Deut. 10:16) A person's heart must be soft and receptive, receiving the words of a reprover and not hating him, rather loving him more,  as the verse says: “Rebuke the wise one and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8).

Finally, after teaching about rebuke a few years ago, someone gave me a wonderful gift. This poem by William Blake:

A Poison Tree

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

I was angry with my friend; 

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe: 

I told it not, my wrath did grow. 

And I waterd it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears: 

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles. 

And it grew both day and night. 

Till it bore an apple bright. 

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine. 

And into my garden stole, 

When the night had veild the pole; 

In the morning glad I see; 

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mishael

What we are talking about when we talk about Hametz

Rabbi Mishael Zion | Text and the City | Passover 2014

It never ceases to amaze, the all-out war on yeast declared each year by thousands of families. Whether it plays out as a complete eradication of all household dust - spring cleaning under the guise of religious fervor - or simply the purchase of over-priced products marked with KP and inevitably including some amount of coconut – the prohibition on Hametz during Passover remains one of those delicious mysteries of Jewish civilization.

And like any good mystery, it has its share of shot-in-the-dark interpretations, embellishments, re-interpretations and radical departures. As I leave my house with a cardboard box, ready to burn Cheerios in the crisp spring air, here are a few of my favorite interpretations to the idea of destroying unleavened bread.

That Original Levain. We used to believe that for every ritual there is an “original” explanantion, the historical contextualization which would somehow edify our modern practice, and hopefully show how moral and progressive we were “already then”. These days that doesn’t seem to hit the spot as much as it used to. And yet, as we turn to whatever Hametz was in ancient times, the literal Biblical commandment brings us straight into the kitchens of our ancient mothers.

For seven days, matzot are you to eat; from the first day you are to get rid of leaven from your homes, for anyone who eats fermented – from the first day until the seventh day – that person shall be cut off from Israel.  (Shemot 12:15)

שִׁבְעַת יָמִים, מַצּוֹת תֹּאכֵלוּ אַךְ בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן, תַּשְׁבִּיתוּ שְּׂאֹר מִבָּתֵּיכֶם:  כִּי כָּל-אֹכֵל חָמֵץ, וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל--מִיּוֹם הָרִאשֹׁן, עַד-יוֹם הַשְּׁבִעִי. (שמות יב:טו)

Our good mothers (and occasional father) – like a good San Francisco baker – would keep a constant batch of sourdough in their kitchen from which they would ferment their bread. These starters (aka levain) would often stay for months and years, the best of them improving with time, passed from generation to generation. Each family’s Lactobaccillus culture symbolizes that source of sizzle and growth, of creativity which quietly
sits at the center of every home and serves as the centerpiece of the family’s nourishment. Yet once a year – says the Torah – the levain is to be discontinued. As the new wheat grows in the field, it is time to give that

old fermented pod a rest. A new starter will be created. In the seven days in between, impoverished of the bread we eat each year, we turn inwards to find a deeper source of nourishment, a more crucial family cornerstone: the story of the Exodus, of how we got here – to own land and wheat and kitchens in which our dough and dreams can rise. And to give thanks for it. Then we can begin again…

The evil side of the evil side. Sometimes a two-liner in an obscure book can reveal a brand new theology, a whole new psychology. This is the case with a prayer by the Ben Ish Chai, Rabbi Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad. In his Haggadah, after annulling the Hametz (repeat three times), he includes the following prayer:

…and just as we burned the hametz out of our homes today, So help us to burn out the bad inclination (yetzer ha-ra) within us. Please God, remove from us the bad part of the bad inclination And purify us lovingly, empowering our good inclination. Let our souls shine and be endowed with Your light, And be connected to You in the highest holiness, which shall be with us always. (Orach Hayim Hagggadah pg. 61; 19th century Baghdad)

וכשם שבערנו החמץ מבתינו היום הזה, כן תזכנו ותסיענו ותעזרנו לבער היצר הרע מקרבנו. אנא ה', הפרד נא מעלינו צד הרע שביצר הרע, ותזככנו ותלבבנו בכח היצר הטוב. ותזכנו לזכך נפשנו ולהאיר בה ולהוסיף בה כח הארה גדולה ולהתקשר מעלה בקדשה עליונה ותמיד תשרה ותחול עלינו קדשה העליונה.

The interpretations which describe Hametz as connected to the Yetzer ha-Ra, that evil inclination within us, abound. The best of them recognize that the “evil inclination” - like leavened good and other carbs - is necessary for human life. The Talmud describes how once the Rabbis sought to destroy the evil inclination, but the next day they could not find a single egg. Without the evil inclination, intercourse became tastless, even for chickens… Hidden within the folds of this “evil” inclination is our source of creativity, of striving and achieving, of experimentation and risk-taking, of progressing, procreating and multiplying. Without it, the

Karl Nicholason, Psychology textbook, early 70s

world would become a monastic kingdom – and promptly wither and die. But WITH it, the world is full of puffed up egos, pernicious predators and insatiable libidos. The evil inclination – can’t live with it, can’t kill it. But for one week, perhaps, we can clean ourselves of our addiction, create space between who we “really are” sans-ego, and how we carry ourselves year-round.

The Ben Ish Chai offers a language and a challenge. The Yetzer haRa is not Ra, not evil, in its own right. It is necessary, even desirous. But like all things, it includes in it a good side and a bad side. The challenge is to peel away the “bad side of the bad inclination”, to recognize the unhealthy part of our ego, the toxic aspect of our internal critic, the fermented part of our worst selves. We search all the rooms of our soul, distinguishing between the various aspects of our internal inclinations. We peel away the bad side of our ego and bask in our “best selves”, our yetzer ha-tov. May its light shine through all year long.

Missed Opportunities. The reinterpretations of Hametz are endless. Search your pockets – not for crumbs but for illegitimate financial gain. Purge your demeanor of all puffiness and swagger in your step. Distill yourself to who you really are, before you were allowed to sit and ferment… Modern Hebrew’s usage of the word Hametz invites a new interpretation: that of missed opportunity. להחמיץ – to miss. Thus burning the Hametz becomes about letting go of all the missed opportunities, the could-have-beens and should-have-dones, the blunders and mistakes, the missed targets. In the age of multi-tasking and “being everywhere”, burning the Hametz is about being OK with being in one place at a time, being one person, flat, unleavened, present. It is the Spring Kol Nidrei – an opportunity to cleanse ourselves of what we did not accomplish – in order to enter the new season unburdened by a winter gone stale. As families get together on Passover, the weight of missed opportunities often eats at the edges, turning into a defensiveness which overwhelms the

ability to simply be together (or maybe that’s just me…). Before entering the Family Seder, before beginning this long-awaited Spring, lets burn those missed opportunities, let go of the times we missed the target, and embrace the joy of simplicity and being.

Pesach Sameach, a Happy Passover!

Mishael