“Positive Sacred Obligations,” Rabbi Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings
November 10, 2023 | 26 Cheshvan 5784
Welcome again to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. You can listen to it as a podcast here.
I spoke to my brother, Steven, who lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Susan. We could not talk long because he had to get to his shul. It was his turn to assist at dinner for the displaced Israelis who had to move from their homes for security reasons. Synagogues in Israel have taken up the responsibility to help feed some of the 200,000 people who have had to flee from border communities because of the threat of rockets or worse. In our conversation, he recounted to me multiple examples of how Israelis have stepped up to help and take care of each other.
Yesterday I learned that there are a cadre of those in Israel to assist people to write eulogies because the burden has become too heavy to do it alone. Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah, the Laws of Mourning (14:1) states: It is a positive commandment in rabbinic law…to comfort the mourners, escort the dead, …and to involve oneself in all burial needs…to eulogize, dig, and bury.
The people of Israel have spent the last month steeped in these mitzvot.
Something else has also been happening, the other positive mitzvot delineated by Maimonides have occurred, like “to bring cheer to the wedding couple, to assist them in whatever they need…for these are acts of kindness…that have no quantified limit.” Maimonides goes on to say that these precepts though of rabbinic origin are implied in the verse from Leviticus, Love your neighbor as yourself.
In times of war and trauma, when the lives of those taken hostage are uncertain, when bodies of those murdered by Hamas terrorists are still being found, when soldiers are in the midst of fighting, and when thousands of innocent Palestinians are in harm’s way and others have turned into casualties, it may seem that the topic of kindness and loving your neighbor as yourself rings hollow in a contradictory dissonance.
Yet, Maimonides knew both as a physician and philosopher that in the face of evil and destruction of people’s lives, the need to build again through human interaction and deed carries humanity out of the depth of despair.
There are many in Israel who are finding inspiration and hope from the end of the poem by Yehuda Amichai, entitled “Tourists.”
Once I sat on the steps by a gate at David’s Tower,
I placed my two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists
was standing around their guide and I became their target marker. “You see
that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there’s an arch
from the Roman period. Just right of his head.” “But he’s moving, he’s moving!”
I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them,
“You see that arch from the Roman period? It’s not important: but next to it,
left and down a bit, there sits a man who’s bought fruit and vegetables for his family.”
Shabbat Shalom!
I continue to value the many comments you exchange with me through these Shabbat Awakenings. Share with me what you think here. Your email goes directly to me!
- We gather at 6:00 p.m. for Qabbalat Shabbat with Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Elsie Stern onsite or on Zoom, Facebook Live, or stream on our website.
- Torah Study with Dr. Elsie Stern gathers onsite or online at 9:00 a.m.
- Study session and Havdalah with Dr. Elsie Stern will take place at 3:00 p.m. RSVP to participate.
- Gather online to say goodbye to Shabbat with a lay-led Havdalah on Zoom at 8:00 p.m.