For the land to which you are coming to possess is not like the land of Egypt,

out of which you came, where you sowed your seed and which you watered by foot, like a vegetable garden. But the land, to which you pass to possess, is a land of mountains and valleys and absorbs water from the rains of heaven.

(Devarim 11:10-11)

Land and Man

R. Brekhiya said in the name of R. Shimon ben Lakish: Everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in man He created in the land as well:

Man has a head and the land has a head, for it said: and the beginning [literally: the head] of the dust of the earth (Proverbs 8). Man has eyes and the land has eyes, for it is said: and it covered the eye of the land (Shemot 10). Man has ears and the land has ears, for it is said: and listen O earth (Isaiah 1). Man has a mouth and the land has a mouth, for it is said: and the earth opened its mouth (Bamidbar 16). Man eats and the land eats, for it is written: a land that eats its inhabitants (Bamidbar 13). Man drinks and the land drinks, for it is written: you shall drink of the dew of heaven (Devarim 11). Man vomits and the land vomits, for it is said: and the land vomited out its inhabitants (Vayikra 18). Man has hands, and so does the land, for it is said: and the land is broad-handed (Bereishit 34). Man has hips and the land has hips, for it is written, and [I shall] gather them from the uttermost ends [literally: the hips] of the earth (Jeremiah 31). Man has a navel and the land has a navel, for it is written: Who dwells upon the land's navel (Ezekiel 31). Man has nakedness and the land has nakedness, for it is said: You have come to see the land's nakedness (Bereishit 12). Man has feet and so the land has feet for it is written: and the land stands forever.

(Kohelet Rabba 1:9)

 

Beshomram ekev rav

For in observing them there is great reward

Talia Rohrlich

 

Parahsat Ekev is based upon three important themes: service of God and idolatry; reward and punishment; and the Land of Israel.

These themes are often interconnected. If you serve God you receive a reward - if you do not serve God - and even worse, if you serve strange gods - you will be punished. The reward and punishment involve the Land of Israel. In parashat Ekev we find people serving God not out of love for Him, but rather in order to gain rewards and avoid punishment. Such service is not preferred, but neither is it illegitimate. It is called avoda shelo lishma - service that is not for its own sake. It contrasts with avodah lishma, service out of true love for God.

In order to explain the difference between avoda lishma and avoda shelo lishma, I will cite a parable from RaMBaM (from his commentary on the chapter Helek from the Mishnah Sanhedrin). I changed the details of the parable a bit in order to make it sound more contemporary. Here it is:

Let's suppose that a young girl was brought to a teacher to study Torah; this is a great benefit for her, because it will help draw her nearer to perfection. However, due to her foolishness and tender age, she does not understand the value of that benefit and how it will draw her towards perfection. By necessity, the teacher (who is more perfect than she) must spur her on to learn with something she likes, something appealing to children her age, so he tells her, "Study and I will give you a candy which changes color, or a piece of chewing gum, or a popsicle!" Then she studies and makes an effort, but not because she knows that study is valuable in itself - she is unaware of such a value - but rather in order to get the treat. Certainly as far as she is concerned, eating the treat is better and more important than study. She considered study to be a tiresome chore undertaken only in order to receive the candy or popsicle. When she grows older and somewhat wiser, she cares little for the candies she prized earlier. She is interested in other things, and her teacher uses them to persuade her, saying, "Study and I will buy you an iPod Nano, or a cellphone, or an MP3 player!" Once again she will not be exerting herself for the sake of study, but rather for the sake of the iPod, which she thinks is more important than study and is the goal of her studies. When her thinking becomes more advanced and she cares little for the iPod, they persuade her with something better: "Learn this parasha or that chapter and we shall make a splendid bat mitzvah party for you!" Then too, she will study and make efforts for the sake of the party, the party being more important to her than study, meaning that the party is the goal of her studying. And when she will be more mature, she will care little for such parties, knowing hat they are of little value, and so they will persuade her by offering something more important: "Study so that you can become Minister of Education or the President! People will respect you and stand in your presence and fulfill your requests and you will become famous as long as you live!" ...and all of that is deplorable, but it is necessary due to the girl's lack of seriousness which makes things other than study the goal of study... and the Sages call this shelo lishma, that is to say, she performs the commandments and does them not for themselves but for something else's sake.

The performance of a commandment shelo lishma is not so desirable; on this, RaMBaM writes: "all of that is deplorable." And why deplorable? Because the goal of truth is only to know that it is true, and the commandments are true, therefore their observance is their goal."

Parashat Ekev deals with commandments shelo lishma. The commandments are mentioned in the parasha together with their rewards, and sometimes the punishment for failing to keep them is also mentioned. The parasha's very name implies that it deals with the reward for performing the commandments: one of the interpretations of the word ekev is "reward." We know this from the beginning of Psalm 19, where we find written: The fear of the Lord is pure, existing forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, altogether just. They are to be desired more than gold, yea more than much fine gold, and are sweeter than honey and drippings of honeycombs. Also Your servant was careful with them; for in observing them there is great ekev. Ekev here means "reward."

The word lema'an appears several times in the parasha to introduce descriptions of the rewards we shall receive for performing some commandment. For instance, And you shall inscribe them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates, lema'an [in order that] your days may increase and the days of your children, on the land (Devarim 11:20-21). Another example: Every commandment that I command you this day you shall keep to do, lema'an you may live and multiply, and come and possess the land... (8:6). These are but two of many cases in which reward and punishment are linked to the Land of Israel; we shall be able to dwell in the Land of Israel as a people only if we keep the commandments. There are also punishments: and it will be, if you forget the Lord your God... I bear witness against you this day, that you will surely perish (8:19).

How could an entire parasha be devoted to the service of God shelo lishma when that is not a desirable form of service? The answer is that in order to attain the service of God lishma, one must begin with shelo lishma. Sometimes it is impossible to begin with the best option, and so one must begin with something worse. In order to better explain the difference between lishma and shelo lishma, I will cite an example formulated by Yeshayahu Leibowitz in his book Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat HaShavu'a: The contrast between lishma and shelo lishma largely parallels the contrast between Ve'ahavta [and you shall love], the first paragraph of the Shema, which we read last week, and Vehaya im shamo'a [And it shall be, if you hearken], the second paragraph of the Shema, which we read today. The paragraphs are similar; they even contain some duplication of verses. Both paragraphs treat the service of God. However, Ve'ahavta makes no mention of reward and punishment, while Vehaya im shamo'a describes the reward we shall receive for observing the commandments and the punishment for not observing them. In other words, Ve'ahavta tells us to serve God out of love, while Vehaya im shamo'a allows us to serve God even when such service is not necessarily motivated by love. At the end of the day, both paragraphs are read together in the Shema because they are both necessary and complement each other.

As I have said, it is impossible to start from the best; rather we must begin from something less than best and gradually ascend the ladder of values towards the good: observance of the commandments, love of God and His creatures. An infant cannot immediately take on the yoke of the commandments; she must begin with a few easy commandments. For twelve years she prepares for the day when she will be able to take upon herself the complete yoke of the commandments. Even then, the path towards perfection remains a long one.

I would like to dedicate this drasha to my mother, may she rest in peace, who planned my bat mitzvah down to the last detail. Mother wanted very much to join us in my celebration, and even if she could not, she still is with me, a strong presence in my heart; she fills all our hearts with her loving presence.

Talia Rohrlich attends the Pelech school in Jerusalem. She wrote this drasha four years ago for her bat mitzvah.

 

They taught: A group of friends and a family are like a stone dome; remove one stone and the entire dome will totter, add one stone and the entire dome stands.

(Bereishit Rabba Vayehi 100:7)

 

From Yehuda Amichai (Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld, translators), Open Closed Open: Poems, pg. 173:

On my desk is a stone with "Amen" carved on it, one survivor fragment

of thousands upon thousands of bits of broken tombstones

in Jewish graveyards. I know all these broken pieces

now fill the great Jewish time bomb

along with the other fragments and shrapnel, broken Tablets of the Law

broken altars broken crosses rusty crucifixion nails

broken houseware and holyware and broken bones

eyeglasses shoes prostheses false teeth

empty cans of poison. All these broken pieces

fill the Jewish time bomb until the end of days.

And though I know about all this, and about the end of days,

the stone on my desk gives me peace.

It is the touchstone no one touches, more philosophical

than any philosopher's stone, broken stone from a broken tomb

more whole than wholeness,

a stone of witness to what has always been

and what will always be, a stone of amen and love.

Amen, amen, and may it come to pass.

 

For us Babette performed two important and complementary roles in the family - she was both the preserver of memory and the preserver of unity. Her passing four years ago left a great void in both the memory and unity of the family.

The quotation from Bereishit Rabba cited above expresses both of these aspects through the idea of the stone and the dome.

In Judaism, stone bear the symbolic significance of the preservation of memory (a pile of stones commemorated the pact between Jacob and Laban, stones are left on a grave, and so on). The dome mentioned in the midrash symbolizes family, all unified around one single stone. And if that stone is removed, the entre dome will totter.

Maya Frankfurter and Talila Warshawski

 

Elisabeth Nehama Warschawski - "Babette" - was born in Strasbourg on Shabbat, the ninth of Av 5718 (1958). She was the sixth of seven children born to Rabbi Meir Shimon Warschawski and his wife Mireille. After completing an MA at the University of Strasbourg, she came to live in Israel and continued her studies of the history of religion in the Second Temple period and of archaeology. In 1982 she joined the staff of the Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem - a French governmental institution that supports the work of French and Israeli researchers in the fields of archeology, history, and the social sciences - and in 1977 became the Secretary General of the Center. Babette died on the 15^th of Sivan 5766 after a protracted struggle with cancer, and was survived by her husband, Daniel Rohrlich, their daughter Talia (who became a Bat-Mitzvah two months after Babette's passing), her parents, brothers, sisters, and many others who loved her.

 

 

The man who was there. On HaRav Yehuda Amital

HaRav Amital was a teacher who was not a teacher. He was a teacher who chose to break down the image of the one who shows others the proper way to live. Instead, he lived with the other as he was. He had three favorite short sayings; for me, they are the foundations of his world:

 

Ein patentim - "There are no trick solutions"

Teachers love to invent trick solutions, to show people the way to happiness or meaning. HaRav Amital suggested no panaceas; on the contrary, he taught that there is no cure for the human condition. Recognition of this fact can dissolve the illusions that bring nothing but pain and nostalgic suffering. HaRav Amital bore in his heart the pain of his parents' murder in the Holocaust, the pain of the Jewish People which was smitten there, the deaths of many of his students in the Yom Kippur War. He could mark a limit for us and tell us that it is impossible to escape suffering; such is the human condition.

 

Bli atzbanut - "Without anxiety"

Anxiety is born of the comparison of the real with the ideal. Every man tends to judge his own life in that fashion, even more so if one is religious. HaRav Amital waged total war against such anxiety, anxiety which leads to extremism and escape from life towards ideas divorced from life, ideas which weaken life. Some say that without anxiety man will become bogged down in the mire of life and will not aspire to things beyond it. HaRav Amital did not deny the existence of this problem, but neither was he prepared to solve it with the "trick solution" of anxiety. Who knew better than him how to refuse to accept present reality? But he was not moved by anxiety over the gap from the ideal, but rather by the joy of creatively moving towards the unknown.

 

"I do not want little Amitals"

Many teachers act from the conviction that they know the truth and must relate it to their students. They see their students as reflections of themselves, and through them they wish to gain immortality. Harav Amital shattered this pattern; he left no imitators. In his world, a student who is a copy of his rabbi is a failure. A teacher who creates such students castrates them. HaRav Amital wanted to be a free person, free of imitators who would eventually keep him from walking in his own independent path. HaRav Amital needed free space in which to surprise, to change, to become someone new. That is why he called upon his students to be independent, not to follow in his path, to leave him alone - so that he could continue to search and try out new paths.

Such wonderful freedom allowed him to shatter paradigms and to create new forms that went against the current. Thus he created the hesder yeshivot - breaking down the dichotomy between army service and yeshiva study; thus he created Meimad - breaking down the seemingly necessary connection between full emotional religiosity and identification with the political right.

The breaking of the Tablets out of freedom was also the secret behind his profound faith. He had tablets that were created within religious Zionism, which linked the Holocaust with the creation of the State of Israel and the Six Day War. This gave rise to a religious and political world view from which it seemed no religious Zionist would be able to free himself. The shock of the Yom Kippur War led HaRav Amital to shatter the paradigm; his was a God who breaks His children's tablets. He clung in life to a life of suffering, and that life told him that the tablets were mistaken. He did not hesitate to respond to the divine voice he had heard and say - I believed in the first tablets, but now it has been made clear to me that they were mistaken.

The man of freedom fears no one, not even his friends who turned their backs on him. That is courageous freedom which is freed from trick solutions, a freedom that adjusts to reality instead of embracing anxious flight from reality. A freedom of extreme individualism that chooses not to exploit its own power to tell others how to live their lives.

I loved him. I loved him very much.

Moshe Meir

 

Additional remarks on HaRav Amital can be found via the following links:

From Rabbi Benny Lau: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3917398,00.html

HaRav Lichtenstein's eulogy: http://etzion.org.il/dk/5770/1230maamar1.html

Various eulogies: http://etzion.org.il/yeshiva/hespedim-rya-heb.htm

 

 

 

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