Memorial Day Blessing; Sermon By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Shabbat Shalom

Although summer doesn’t officially begin until the summer solstice in June –we all know that this weekend marks the start of the summer season—Memorial Day weekend. Break out the white shoes, the BBQ grill and see if you have enough sun tan lotion left over from last summer! Shop the weekend Memorial Day sales! But it is a sad irony that this weekend is so filled with outdoor entertaining, sports events and picnics and relaxing. We have forgotten as a country that Memorial Day was a time in our country to remember those who gave their lives while serving in our Armed Forces.

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. It was proclaimed by Gen John Logan in 1868 as a way to honor the memory of the soldiers of the Civil War. The first Memorial Day in 1868 had flowers placed on all the graves of the soldiers both of the North and South that were interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. While Memorial Day became widely observed by the Northern States (the remnants of the Confederacy observing a different day), after World War I it became a day to honor the memory of all the war dead regardless of the conflict in which they served.
This year as the number of our war dead grows—our Memorial Day observances ought to take some time to recall the sacrifices that have been made not only in years past but in these last five years of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. It should not matter your political leanings or your feelings about the war, whether we should stay or go. This Memorial Day—Monday we need to take some time to pause and reflect about the more than 3000 American who have given their lives in service to our country.
In Israel, Yom Hazikron is Israel’s Memorial Day. It is the day before Israel’s Independence Day—Yom Ha-atzmaut. It is marked throughout the country with solemn commemorations. I have been present as a guest of the government at the moving and solemn memorial service at the Western Wall Plaza. Young people in uniforms from the various branches of the Israel Defense Forces line the plaza –a memorial flame is lit and songs and prayers amid speeches of memory with the Western Wall and Temple Mount as a backdrop. Each year parents and family of fallen soldiers are invited to attend and represent the many families of who have lost a son, daughter, spouse, husband or wife.
Because most everyone must serve in the Israel Defense Forces for a period of time and because every family has been touched by the death of a solider that they knew—a relative, a neighbor, a teacher, a co-workers child—Memorial Day in Israel truly honors and blesses the memory of those who died while serving their country.
Perhaps too because there is a direct link to the nation’s independence day—that the entire country sees the link between the patriotism of serving and dying for one’s country is linked to the freedom and independence of the nation. Unfortunately I believe that aspect is often lost here in our America.
In Israel on Yom HaZikaron—a siren of memory wails and the nation pauses. People get out of their cars on the freeway, buses empty, pedestrians pause. For two minutes the nation comes to a stand still to remember their war dead and the incredible cost of those lives to their family and to the nation of Israel. The silence descends upon the streets of Haifa and Tiberias, the hills of Jerusalem and the beaches of Tel Aviv. And in the silence there are tears, honor and even blessing. In the silence they give thanks for the sacrifice, the struggle and in the silence there are prayers for comfort and redemption.
There is a movement here in the United States to pause as well on Memorial Day to remember those soldiers who have died in service of their nation. In December of 2000, Congress established a National Moment of Remembrance and designated 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day local time as a moment to pay tribute to individuals who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. But you and I know –it is hard to stop and pause for a memorial in the middle of pouring a Margarita—or a tennis match. The entire Memorial Day weekend certainly doesn’t encompass the solemnity of the message behind the remembrance. But this Monday I want to urge you to take a moment and think about the great freedoms you enjoy because some were willing to step forward in service to their nation. Take a moment with those that you are with at 3 pm this Monday to pay tribute and bless the memory of those soldiers who died in recent months and years and decades past.
. Indeed our Torah portion this week has a lot to say about blessing. In this week’s Parasha Naso—in the book of Numbers is the oldest blessing in the Bible. In fact this Priestley benediction was found on a silver amulet in 1979 and dates back to the time just before the first temple was destroyed in 586 BCE. It was found in a tomb just outside Jerusalem. You can see this in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem today. The special priestly benediction should be familiar to you—you have no doubt heard it many times:

יברכך יי וישמרך
יאר יי פניו אליך ויחנך
ישא יי פניו אליך וישם לך שלום.

Yvarechea Adonai v’yishmarecha,
Ya-eir Adonai Panav elicha v’chunecha,
Yisa Adonai Panav Elecha v’yasem l’cha shalom.
As Rabbi Judith Abrams, a Reform Rabbi, is a wonderful Talmud scholar writes about this prayer: “It is constructed of 3, 5 and 7 words in each respective verse. There are 15, 20 and 25 letters in the verses. When arranged as a pyramid, the center words contain the heart of the blessing itself: Adonai panav elecha.”
May God’s face be turned toward you.
When we offer a blessing—as the priest or Cohen traditionally offered to us we want the Holy One’s glory to descend upon those we have blessed. We want the beauty and holiness of God to envelope us and protect us; to guard our spirit and our soul. This ancient blessing is used to invite God to send peace and protection over those who are important to us. To those we love and care about. Thus this blessing –the priestly benediction is given at weddings and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. It is used for invocations and benedictions. It is used in the synagogue in the worship service and especially on the festivals. It is used at our Shabbat tables to bless the next generation—our children. This blessing is common in both Jewish and Christian liturgies.
I think it is no mistake that this amulet with the priestly benediction was found in a tomb—a burial place. Because when a loved one dies –that is what we pray—for them to be a peace; to protect their soul for all eternity. We want the Divine to greet our loved ones upon their death and bring them assure them of a different kind of existence—Eternal life. Certainly this protection was desired more than 2500 years ago by one of our ancestors in a tomb outside Jerusalem.
So this weekend even as we take a moment to relax perhaps and enjoy the unofficial start of summer—let us pause on Monday to bless the memories of those who died in while in service to our country. In your blessing you will make their lives even more meaningful and the losses their families endure will be elevated as sacred losses. You will lift up the day towards the Jewish ideal of kedusha—holiness through your blessing and remembrance. This will help transform Memorial Day back to being something more than a picnic to its meaning at inception—rather than the party weekend it has become. And in so doing –help God’s face shine upon the dead but also upon the living and upon our nation as well.

Ken Yehi Ratzon. So may it be God’s will.

Shabbat Beha; By Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Shabbat Shalom

This week’s Torah portion Behar/Behukotai has within it a radical plan for wealth redistribution. We don’t think of the Torah necessarily as an economic text. But all areas of life are touched by our tradition including the economic structure of the ideal society. The sabbatical year –or shemitta year is nothing short of a wealth redistribution plan. It is a way to uplift the poor and remind those with means of their communal obligations.

Each seventh year one must give the land a complete rest from harvesting, sowing, or reaping. That in itself was radical. This agricultural wisdom of letting the land lie fallow to recharge the nutrients and minerals is brilliant in itself. It teaches us how to care for the land and that we can just take and take and take. Just as human beings and animals must have a Shabbat, so too the earth itself. But even without intentional planting and sowing some produce and grains will still sprout and grow. The torah is very clear that one is not allowed to use even these for personal gain. They cannot be harvested and sold. They must be given to the poor.
In truth, the landowner and farmer can eat of this and can share in this food that simply grows in the seventh year. But what this sabbatical does is put the land owner and those who are too poor to own or farm a stretch of land on equal footing if but for a year.
There have been times in Jewish history however when rabbinic dictum set aside the provisions of the sabbatical year. Even as late at 1889, the early settlers of Israel, then Palestine, appealed to great teachers in Europe to set aside the provisions of the sabbatical year because it would do great harm to the fledgling local economy. They were trying so hard to rebuild and resettle our ancient land. The Yishuv-the early settlers, the pioneers were just opening markets for their produce. The provisions of the sabbatical year would wipe them out they feared. A creative way was found called a hetter mechira. This was in essence a way to sell the land for a year to a non-Jew. Even the great Rav Kook came to understand the need for this leniency once he saw the pioneering efforts of the settlers and how that the sabbatical provisions would harm their efforts. Yet his reasons for supporting the sabbatical year were not indefinite. He thought there would be a time in Eretz Yisrael when it would be strong enough to observe this ancient rite.
But this seventh year sabbatical is not for land only—it was also a time for remission of debts. If we read Deuteronomy (15:1-10) most debts were cancelled at the end of a sabbatical year! Imagine having your slate wiped clean every seventh year. Great if you owe –not so great if you are a lender.
Indeed this ending of indebtedness in the seventh year was another way our tradition had of trying to equalize everyone in society—rich and poor. In practice however, there was not a remission of indebtedness when it came to wages an individual was owed, loans secured by pledges or merchandise bought on credit. And in fact, the great Rabbi Hillel saw that this law was being abused. As the seventh year approached lenders would refuse to loan money to the poor for fear that they would not be repaid. Thus he instituted a very famous rabbinical legal action called the prozbul. The prozbul is indeed a creative Jewish legal response to a difficult situation in Hillel’s time. Mishnah Gittin 4.3 states: "Hillel established the prozbul in order to repair the world." But in the Mishna, Shevi’it 10:3 we learn details of Hillel’s action. The prozbul was a document that would overturn this law of debt remission. He placed the supervision of loans into the hands of the Beit Din-the local court and thus loans could be collected even after the sabbatical year because the loan was now owned by the court. The Beit Din (here read community agency) owned the loan technically not the lender and the lender could collect because he or she was acting on behalf of the community court! The rabbis further understood that the provisions of the Sabbatical year were applicable only in the land of Israel. After all this was God’s holy land.
One other even more radical economic plan is also discussed in this week’s portion Behar. In a Jubilee year which is once every fifty years and follows a sabbatical year (the seventh in a seven year cycle) land holdings reverted to their original owners. So even if you bought a plot of land built on it, harvested it-it automatically reverted to the original owners who owned it at the time of Joshua’s conquest of the land. In other words all land in Eretz Yisrael according to this was nothing more than leased land. And not even for 99 years!
This economic plan of the Torah seems unwieldy and seems as if it would present many other difficulties. Clearly Rabbi Hillel saw the practical difficulties and made a creative legal response – the prozbul- to help. Rav Kook understood that the strictures of the sabbatical year would do great harm to the early halutzim who were settling the land of Israel. So we must ask what is at work in these Levitical passages? What is the Torah trying to teach us even today?
First and foremost the Torah is reiterating our responsibility to the poor. These measures are designed in part to care for those in society who have little. In our day and in our city the poor, the working poor and the homeless have great needs. We must focus our attention to the disparities between rich and poor which is exactly what this Biblical section is talking about. The sabbatical year makes us focus our attention on that great gap. In our day time—the gap grows daily.
“The new data based on 2005 figures the last year it is available shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.” (International Herald Tribune, March 29, 2007 by David Cay Johnston “The Gap between Rich and Poor Grows in the United States”)”
The Torah is trying radical means of focusing our attention and re-ordering society so this doesn’t happen. That doesn’t mean that all will be equal in the end. But one year out of every seven the focus on earning more, on growing more will subside and neighbors can and must be concerned with one another.
What else is going on in this Torah portion is a very strong reminder that the land is not ours. Ownership is a funny thing. With ownership not only comes responsibility but a bit of pride and sometimes arrogance. The focus is about the individual and his or her abilities and strengths. But this section of torah is reminding us that ownership is not ours. Rather when it comes to the land of Israel—there is but one owner—God. God is at the core, at the center and whether every seven years or every 50 years we are going to be reminded of that. Our land will not be worked. It must be for God’s care. Every fifty years, our homes and land we bought are not really ours and revert to the original grantee as dictated by God. And every fifty years—the Jubilee year—all slaves go free—again you thought you owned property but the Torah teaches us that human beings can not be property at all. They might work for a while but they are not yours.
Instead these teachings are helping us learn that in everything we do—God must be present. Not just in temple. Not just on a Jewish holy day or holiday—but even and perhaps especially when we do business. More importantly the sabbatical and jubilee years are also reminders that we have an obligation to help and focus our efforts on narrowing the gap between rich and poor. This will no doubt cause us to both give tzedakah as one way to solve the problem but also perhaps use our business skills to uplift the poorest workers and help them move ahead. These passages of Torah teach us that all workers must share in the profits—not just those at the top—because the rule of the sabbatical year equalized us all.
And although the sabbatical and Jubilee years were incumbent upon those who dwelt in the land of Israel –it is instructive even if we live outside—because we now have a glimpse of the way our tradition and our God want us to reconcile with each other.
May we strive for such spirituality and may we strive to live up to this economic ideal.