Va-'ethannan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) and Haftarah (Isaiah 40:1-26): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Va-'ethannan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) and Haftarah (Isaiah 40:1-26): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Overview
The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning--for young people and adults--will never be the same.
The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827614550 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 12/01/2018 |
| Series: | JPS Study Bible |
| Pages: | 24 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin serves as the senior rabbi of Temple Solel in Hollywood, Florida. He is the author of Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for the best religion book published in the United States, and The Gods Are Broken: The Hidden Legacy of Abraham (JPS, 2013).
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Torah
Va-'ethannan: Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11
This Torah portion begins with Moses recalling how he had pleaded with God to be allowed to cross over the Jordan River and to enter the Land of Israel. No go, says God. So, knowing that the end is coming sooner rather than later, Moses recounts the history of the Israelites so that they will be able to learn its lessons. He reminds them that God has been merciless to idolaters, and that the Israelites must worship God alone.
Jewish laws and teachings affect the reputation that the Jewish people will have, even though they have been conveyed by a God who has no form and only communicates through a voice. Finally, just so the Jewish people really understand, the parashah repeats the Ten Commandments here (an earlier version of them is in Exodus 20) — with a few minor, but significant changes.
This brings us to the Shema, the declaration of God's unity and uniqueness, along with specific ways to demonstrate love for God.
Summary
• Moses remembers how he had begged God to allow him to enter the Land of Israel. God had refused, but God showed him the land from afar. (3:23–29)
• Moses tells the people that God's laws are proof of God's greatness, and will be their way of creating a sacred standing among the nations. (4:6–8)
• Moses recalls the moment of Sinai. He reminds the people that they did not see God but only heard a voice. (4:11–14)
• Moses repeats the Ten Commandments — with a few changes. (5:6–18)
• Moses teaches about the uniqueness of God, and emphasizes that the Israelites must demonstrate their love for God through concrete actions. (6:4–9)
The Big Ideas
• Arguing with God is an ancient Jewish tradition. This is a common theme in the Torah and in later Jewish tradition. Abraham, Moses, Job, the various authors of the Psalms, various ancient sages, Hasidic teachers, and even Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof all argued with God.
• Judaism is bigger than just the Jews. Deuteronomy introduces a new idea: what Jews do has implications for the whole world, and Jewish teachings create the way that the world perceives Jews.
• You cannot see God. The People of Israel did not see God at Sinai; they only heard God. If they had seen God, they would have spent more time arguing over what God looked like, rather than arguing about the meaning of God's sacred words.
• The Ten Commandments are so important that they appear twice. But there are some minor changes in the Deuteronomy version. The version of them here in Deuteronomy says that Jews must observe Shabbat, as well as "remember" Shabbat. Moses says that slaves must also rest on Shabbat — conveying the growing sense that slaves are human beings, too. There is far more emphasis on how God took the Israelites out of Egypt —"with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." Finally, God says that the Israelites are not only to refrain from coveting what others have, but are not to crave those things either. This makes the commandment even stronger.
• Moses teaches that God Is echad. As most scholars admit, it is difficult to figure out what this word really means (in fact, thousands of pages have been written on the meaning of this small word). Whatever it means, the Shema has become "the watchword of the Jewish faith," and it has inspired Jews throughout history.
• Jews must love God. Love doesn't mean affection. It means a deep, powerful connection that binds Jews to God through the mitzvot.
Divrei Torah
The Most Important Sentence in Judaism
It is the most important sentence in the Torah. Okay, make that "in the entire Hebrew Bible." Come to think of it — make that "in all of Judaism." We are talking about the Shema — six Hebrew words Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad (6:4) that are sometimes referred to as "the watchword of the Jewish faith," or what the ancient sages called kabbalat ol ha-Shamayim (the acceptance of the yoke of Heaven).
It is the first sentence in Hebrew that a Jewish child learns. When Jews pray, they say it at morning worship (Shacharit) and at evening worship (Ma'ariv). It's also found in the Torah service. It's said at the end of Yom Kippur. Observant Jews say it when they go to sleep. And, just as it is the first Hebrew sentence that a child learns, so, too, it is the last Hebrew sentence that a Jew says.
The Shema is almost like a secret Jewish code. During World War II, there were many Jewish children who had been rescued by Christians and undercover Jews and who then spent the war hidden in monasteries. After the war, Rabbi Eliezer Silver went around Europe, looking for those children. He would visit those monasteries and simply say: "Shema Yisrael ..." If a child completed the sentence, he would claim the child as a Jew.
But what does it mean when it says that "The Lord is one," echad? The possibilities are almost endless — just like God.
It could mean that there is only one god. Except in this stage of the Bible's development, the Torah itself seems to recognize that there are many nations that have many gods. Pure monotheism that insists that no other gods exist comes later in Judaism.
Second, it could mean that there is only one God, not numerically, but spiritually. Even though God seems "different" at different stages of Jewish history, God is always God. A midrash teaches: "I am the Lord your God — the same one who was in Egypt, the same one who was at the Red Sea, at Sinai, in the past and in the future, in this world and in the world to come."
Or, it could simply mean that Adonai is the only god whom Jews should worship. That increasingly accepted interpretation has led many, including the JPS Tanakh to translate the end of the Shemaas "the Lord alone."
There is one more, controversial, theory: The whole word is a misprint! In ancient Hebrew, the letter chet could sometimes look like the letter heh. And the letter dalet could sometimes look like the letter vet. The Torah text was written by scribes and passed down from generation to generation. It would have been easy to make a mistake in copying the letters.
Professor David Sperling contends that the word echad was originally ahav (love): "Therefore, the real translation should be: Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God — love Adonai." This makes sense in that the very next words are, "And you shall love Adonai with all your heart."
The Shema is the most important line in Judaism, yet the debate on what it means goes on. That's Judaism for you!
Love God!
As you learned in Hebrew school, you can't have the Shema without the Ve-ahavta. That's what comes right after the Shema in both the worship service and in the Torah itself. The Ve-ahavta is also called kabbalat ol ha-mitzvot (the acceptance of the yoke of the mitzvot). The Ve-ahavta tells us that we should not only know that there is a God; we should love God, and that love should be manifest in specific actions.
What actions do we list aloud in the Ve-ahavta? One of them, most importantly, is "Teach them to your children." It is not enough to merely know these words; they must be transmitted to future generations. That is the meaning of Jewish continuity. In the words of the Israeli writer Fania Oz-Salzberger: "The great story and its imperatives passed from generation to generation on tablets, parchment and paper. As I check my references on an iPad, I realize that we have come full circle: from tablet to tablet, from scroll to scroll."
"Bind them as a sign upon your hand; let them be symbols before your eyes." Those are the tefillin (leather boxes containing words of Torah) that are worn during morning prayer on the forearm and on the forehead by traditional Jews.
"Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." That is the mezuzah that marks the doorposts of the Jewish home.
But you're probably thinking: okay, those are rituals and actions, but how can the Torah really tell us to love God? Isn't love an emotion? How can you command an emotion? Here, we need to learn from archeologists of the ancient Middle East. They tell us that when ancient kings made treaties (or covenants) with their underlings, the underlings were commanded to "love" the more powerful king. Love wasn't an emotional thing; the word "love" was used to symbolize loyalty.
But the early sages tell us that there is another dimension to love. It's not only to love God; it's also to inspire others to love God. "If someone studies Torah, and is honest in business, and speaks pleasantly to people, what do people say concerning him? 'Happy the father who taught him Torah, happy the teacher who taught him Torah!' But if someone studies Torah, but is dishonest in business, and discourteous in his relations with people, what do people say about him? 'Woe unto his father who taught him Torah; woe unto his teacher who taught him Torah!'"
To be a Jew, therefore, is to have awesome responsibility. It is to love God, and it is to be God's PR agent in the world.
Connections
• Have you ever thought that God was being unfair? What did you do about it? Did you talk to God, or even yell at God?
• Have you ever thought that what you do, as a Jew, affects people who are not Jewish? In what ways do you think Jewish laws and teachings can create a good impression on others?
• Do you agree that God is invisible? What would be the benefits of having a god that you could see? The disadvantages?
• What do you think of the changes that Moses made in the second version of the Ten Commandments? Do you agree with them? If you could make any changes, what would they be?
• What is your own interpretation of theShema?
• What does it mean for you to love God?
CHAPTER 2The Haftarah
Va-ethannan: Isaiah 40:1–26
For most of the Jewish year, there is a thematic connection between the haftarah and the corresponding Torah portion. But starting with this Shabbat, and until we get to Rosh Hashanah, you can forget about such a connection. The haftarahfor the entire book of Deuteronomy from here on will have almost nothing to do with their Torah portions.
Instead, they will have everything to do with this particular time of year. Start with the "holiday" that Jews observe this week — Tisha b'Av (the commemoration of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem). Then, count seven weeks, and we get to Rosh Hashanah. Seven is a special Jewish number, as in seven days of the week, or seven days for sitting shiva. That's exactly what we are doing here — sitting shiva for the independence of ancient Judea, while we imagine that God is visiting us, offering comfort.
That's why these weeks are called sheva denechemta — the seven weeks of consolation that follow Tisha b'Av. And it begins with this week, which has a special name: Shabbat Nachamu (Comfort). Nachamu is the first word of the haftarah.
During these seven weeks, all the haftarah come from the great prophet known as Second Isaiah, whose words appear in the book of Isaiah, chapters 40 through 66. His name was most likely not Isaiah, but his prophecies were added to the book of the earlier prophet Isaiah. This anonymous prophet lived in the period when the Babylonian Empire was coming to an end, and Persia was gaining in power. Second Isaiah sensed that even though the Jews were now in exile, they were about to come home. His words are full of hope for the Jewish people.
Cheer Up
If there were to be a name-recognition contest for prophets, Isaiah would win. He is the most famous of all the prophets, and his name is practically synonymous with the prophetic impulse in Judaism. That is certainly the case with the haftarah for sheva denechemta. They all come from the book of Isaiah — but remember, from the prophet known as Second Isaiah.
Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro asks: "If the haftarah following Tisha B'Av are all devoted towards consolation and are taken from the book of Isaiah, on what basis were the specific verses for each of the seven sabbaths selected?" The question arises because the prophetic portions seem to have been chosen with no particular rhyme or reason.
Here's an intriguing answer to Rabbi Shapiro's question: Abudaraham, a commentator in the fourteenth century, believed that if you take the first verse of each of the seven haftarah, they form an imaginary conversation between God, the prophet, and the Jewish people.
Let's start with this week's haftarah portion. God tells the prophet: "Comfort, oh comfort my people" (40:1). God wants the people to know that their time of exile in Babylon is coming to an end, and that they will soon be able to return to the Land of Israel.
But, go to next week's haftarah. The people are not so sure that God really will fulfill that promise. "Zion says, 'The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me'" (49:14).
So, in the following week's haftarah, the prophet tells God that the people are "unhappy, storm-tossed one, uncomforted!" (54:11). God has to speak directly with the people. The next week's haftarah begins with God saying: "I, I am He who comforts you!" (51:12).
In the subsequent haftarah, God continues with personal reassurances. In the Bible, a woman who cannot have children is a symbol of hopelessness. And yet, in the fifth haftarah of consolation —"Shout, O barren one, you who bore no child!" (54: 1) — a hopeless people will find hope once again! The sixth week features God saying: "Arise, shine, for your light has dawned" (60:1). And by the seventh week, leading up to Rosh Hashanah, the people are emotionally ready to return to Zion: "I greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being exults in my God" (61:10).
Notice, by the way: the people cannot comfort themselves (much like infants who need others to comfort them). The prophet cannot do it alone. And God cannot do it alone. That is why these haftarah contain both God's words and the prophet's words. A midrash says: "The prophet came to God and said that the people refused to be comforted. God then said: 'Then you and I will go together to comfort them.'"
That's a provocative thought about cheering people up and giving them hope. Telling people to "keep the faith" perhaps is not enough, and being there for someone goes a long way, although maybe that too falls short. But a combination of both approaches just might do it.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary: Va-'ethannan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) Haftarah (Isaiah 40:1-26)"
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Copyright © 2018 Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
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Table of Contents
General Introduction Va-'ethannan: Torah Commentary Va-'ethannan: Haftarah Commentary