Parshat Mattot; Numbers 30:2-32:42 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week’s torah reading opens with a discussion of vows and oaths. These are serious business within Jewish tradition. In fact all words are serious business. God creates the world through words. The Ten Commandments and the Torah were revealed through speech. There are many passages in the Torah and Tanach that teach us the importance of words and the sins of lies, falsehoods, and insults.

In this passage we are reminded that vows and oaths must be fulfilled. The text says, “He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” Vows and oaths are sworn aloud and not just in the recesses of the mind. They are formal and solemn and according to our tradition to be taken seriously. Most vows and oaths however, are sworn in moments of turmoil or trouble. Our vows to act in a certain way or take upon ourselves additional obligations often invite God to rescue us from our situation. Vows and oaths are often the deal we make to be liberated from a difficult moment. This is best illustrated by the saying; “There are no atheists in a foxhole.”

The vows and oaths that we make also have the force and power of a commandment from the Torah. Just as we are bound to the mitzvot, we are bound to fulfill our vow. That is how the sages understood the importance of the neder or vow.

In addition to the neder-or vow and sh’vuah-oath, is a third kind of vow called an issar. This bond or pledge is usually a negative vow to resist or abstain from doing something that is allowable. In each of these cases whether it is to do something or to not do something, one’s word is sacred and transforms the individual who makes the vow, oath or pledge.

For most people, the only time they come into contact with the power of an oath or vow is both in legal proceedings swearing to tell the truth and at weddings when brides and grooms often exchange vows. But time and again we see that perjury and lying under oath eats away at the power of swearing an oath. It used to be that a person’s character was judged by his word—how he or she kept her word. But in today’s world all we have to do is scan the headlines to read of the broken promises that line the pages of the morning newspaper whether from politicians who pledge one thing during the campaign and then do something else once elected or from corporation who pledged to take care of workers only to raid their pensions. And certainly among brides and grooms the vows to honor one another come to a screeching halt as more than half of all marriages end in divorce.

Thus it is an important reminder to us all that the words we use and the promises and vows we make still matter. They matter to our society and we believe they matter to God. Thus when we pray, May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, O God, My Rock and My Redeemer,” let it help us remember that our words are not just empty vessels, but sacred vessels that connect us to God and our covenant more closely. Let our vows be upheld and our oath be fulfilled. If we do so we can restore some of the sanity to our world and integrity to our society.

Parshat Pinchas; Numbers 25:10–30:1 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Towards the end of the portion, beginning in chapter 27 of Numbers, a curious case comes before Moses. The daughters of Zelophchad come to Moses and Elezar the High Priest and all the chieftans. There they cry out for justice.

Their father, Zelophchad died without sons to inherit the property and they demand that they be given the rights of inheritance. What chutzpah! What courage! They say “Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan just because he had no sons! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen.”

In a time when women often had no voice and in the Bible when women often were not identified by name, this story survives. The daughters who are named—Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah, demand a kind of equality that has been unheard of. The tradition has clearly favored men. Men are priests not women in ancient Israelite culture. Men seem to talk with God at this stage in the biblical story, not women. With the exception of Miriam, there are no women who are leaders or chieftains at this time in our history. So for these 5 sisters to approach Moses and the leadership and demand and equal share is nothing short of remarkable. Imagine their conversation among themselves and what it must have taken to come forward and stand before the Tent of Meeting. These 5 women are a marvelous example of Jewish women’s bravery.

Interestingly, Moses doesn’t try to decide the case by himself. He takes it to God and God rules. God declares their cause just. And so the laws of inheritance changes.

Which tells us another interesting take—that laws can change. When the injustice of a law on the book is pointed out—even God can change positions. This ought to help us understand that for a covenant, or Constitution to be a living document, one that meets the needs of the people in every generation, it is going to change. What works in one generation may not work so successfully in the next. New situations arise that haven’t been anticipated and thus must be figured out within the context of the covenantal bond or Constitutional parameters.

So we can gain important insight from these 5 strong women who had the courage to voice their concerns and bring light to an inherent injustice in the law and in their lives. May they be a shining example to us all to challenge injustice wherever we see it.

Parshat Balak; Numbers 22:2-25:9 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week a curse becomes a blessing. The prophet Balaam, sent for by the Moabite King Balak, is hired to curse the Children of Israel who are encamped on the steppes of Moab. The King fears the Israelites and wants to gain an edge over them through sorcery. Balaam, even though reluctant to take on the task, nevertheless relents and comes westward to try and fulfill the request of the Moabite King. But out from Balaam’s mouth comes a blessing instead.

Balaam has an encounter with the Divine that takes his words and twists and fashions them into blessings. Three times Balaam has an encounter with either divine beings or with God and that encounter changes him and his mission from opponent to servant, from curse to blessing. Each encounter brings Balaam into the service of God rather than the service of Balak. Thus when Balaam goes to curse the Israelites he not only blesses them but also offers a prophecy of success for the Children of Israel. “ No harm is in sight for Jacob/No woe in view for Israel./ Adonai their God is with them…..” The most famous of the curses turned into blessings come in Chapter 24. “How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob/Your tabernacles O Israel.”

Balaam reflects on Israel’s strength, dedication to God and spiritual beauty. These come into contrast with Balak’s kingdom based on idolatry and sorcery. This contrast between blessings and curses, idolatry and true service to God continues to challenge not just the Moabite kingdom but are the challenges that Israel always faces. In other Torah portions curses and blessings can be nearly the same, it is all in the delivery and intent. There is always a thin line between true service and dedication to God and false worship that becomes idolatrous—we have seen this in previous chapters in Chukat and Korach. We saw it in the disaster that befell Aaron’s son’s Nadav and Abihu. But to have this dichotomy placed in the mouths of foreigners—non-Israelites, underscores for the Jewish reader the importance of dedicated service to the One God. If a foreign prophet/sorcerer can have a Divine encounter and become a servant of God –how much the more so for one of our own?

Today when we come into the synagogue—Balaam’s blessing “Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov, mishkenotecha Yisrael” How beautiful are Your tents, O Jacob, Your Tabernacles O Israel is recited. The words of a foreigner remind us of the beauty of our own tradition and the strength of our people. If a foreigner can recognize that God dwells in our midst, shouldn’t we?

This remains our challenge even now. As a people and as individuals, we should look for ways to seek the Divine in our lives rather than act in ways that push God away. This includes letting God dwell in our midst as God once dwelt in the Tabernacle in the desert. This is the best antidote to idolatry which remains a problem even in our day and time.

Parshat Chukat; Numbers 19:1-22:1 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This parasha is filled with transitions of all sorts. It records the death of Miriam sister of Moses and Aaron and leader of the children of Israel in her own right. Miriam was part of the triumvirate of leadership with her brothers. Moses the lawgiver, Aaron the priest and Miriam the prophetess. She perhaps was most in touch with the people and symbolically she quenched the thirst of a nation—perhaps for leader to be connected to the people.

Moses is so distant from the nation that since his encounter with God at Mt Sinai he must wear a veil to protect everyone from the Divine Radiance that emanates from him. Aaron, the Cohen Gadol-the High Priest is also set apart from the people in that he must maintain a scrupulous level of ritual purity to enable him to encounter God in the Mishkan and to offer the sacrifices as prescribed in the Torah. It is Miriam who relates to the people, even dancing with them as they safely crossed the Red Sea, sing and chanting, performing with the women.

Miriam has long been associated with water. It was she who helped to set in motion the rescue of the baby Moses from the waters of the Nile. It was Miriam who led the people in dance after the crossing of the Red Sea. And tradition teaches that Miriam quenched the thirst of the nation because of her secret well that followed the Children of Israel on their journey. The rabbis speak of this because following her death in this week’s portion, the Children of Israel cry out in thirst because of a lack of water. This of course leads to the very famous Biblical story of Moses striking the rock and the water flowing out. Because Moses struck the rock and did not speak to it as he had done previously, in Exodus God punishes Moses by not letting him into the Promised Land.

But Miriam’s name—in Hebrew Mir-yam—Yam of course being the word for sea, or ocean and Mir—from the word for bitter- Mar. Thus this connection between a woman’s leadership and water and in the person of Miriam, sister of the great two—Aaron and Moses was difficult water to navigate and to drink of.

This portion Chukat also records the death of Aaron, known as the pursuer of peace and harmony. And the power of the priesthood is transferred on Mt. Horeb from Aaron to his son Elazar.

But there are more transitions—and that is in the nature of the Children of Israel who this week also become a fighting army, challenging and conquering in the battles with Sihon and Og. The nation is toughening, and learning, and becoming a people as the mantles of leadership begin to be passed on to a new generation.
In every institution leaders must at some point let go and make room for a new generation of leadership. Some go willingly and quietly while others must be dragged from their posts. But the change in leadership keeps an institution healthy and strong as long as we allow leaders the opportunities to fulfill their goals and move the institutions forward.

Certainly Moses and Aaron and Miriam took the Children of Israel from a loose knit group of slaves to a covenanted nation in relationship with the Holy One of Blessing. We pay tribute to them and to their leadership and the ways in which they shaped our people. May we continue to walk in their footsteps, serving God and the Jewish people.