From the Rabbi
Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff
Previous Messages
“Silence”
Dear members and friends,
Like many people these days, I am surrounded by various technological devices and screens that help with many aspects of our lives. Of course, they also compete for our attention, and if we’re not careful, they can distract us, sometimes to a point at which we’re never silent. The Mishna (Avot 1:17) quotes Rabban Gamliel’s son, Shimon, who said: “All my life I have been raised among the wise, and I have found nothing better for the body than silence.” Also, in the Gemara (Berachot 17a): Mar, the son of Rabina, on concluding his prayer added the following, which we say to this day: “My God, keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile. May my soul be silent to them that curse me and may my soul be as the dust to all.”
It’s true that Shabbat supposes to give us that break we need, but do we take enough advantage of it? This year, I decided to participate in an ecumenical silent retreat in the mountains of Colorado, at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass. After four days, 2,100 miles in the car, a hurricane, and a snow blizzard, I arrived on Friday, Nov. 13. After a short introduction, we entered the “grand silence.” For the next eight days there was no speaking or eye contact with the other participants until the following Friday. Like Dorothy and her friends, I traveled far to see the Wizard, which is really our inner voice.
Going to the mountains where there is no cellular reception, where all the screens that normally surround us now lay lifeless, and where there is no human to talk to, we are forced to face ourselves and channel a conversation with God. We can finally hear and recognize the voices we don’t normally hear. At once, silence becomes the conversation.
It makes sense. God, who created the world with words and gave humanity its unique ability of speech, wants us to learn how to use words and use them wisely. After all, another wise proverb tells us that if a word spoken in the right time is worth a coin, silence in the right time is worth two. Surely, we can all improve our skills in this area. Silence challenges us to let go of the constant need to know and to be in control. Silence is an opportunity to practice the notion that ultimately we are not in total control.
Just before entering the “grand silence,” we learned about the massacres in Paris, but for a week, we had no way to follow the story. I was torn. Is finding a way to listen to the news more important than listening to silence? My conclusion was that it’s essential to take these breaks and to be silent. Sometime it’s the only way to process in our minds this kind of barbarism. It’s important to be silent and to free ourselves from distractions, so we can think, so we can act. Sometimes we need to be silent to let our actions speak louder.
May God bless us with peace soon in our days and everlasting thanksgiving,
—Rabbi Gadi Capela
November
Dear members and friends,
While the American media has devoted a significant amount of air time to a premature discussion on who will be the next President of the United States, a political light year from now, other developments in the word have received scant notice. Having said that, it’s hard to ignore the recent events in Israel.
As it is portrayed, the current conflict surrounds the Temple Mount: who has and who does not have the right to enter the space? For many years, Jews in Israel deliberately avoided an extensive public discussion about the unavoidable centrality of the Temple Mount in our tradition. Of course, denying the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount is almost as absurd as trying to deny the Holocaust (and some of course try). For many years, I also thought that this issue is so explosive that it’s better to be silent about it. But more and more, I am starting to believe otherwise.
We recently read Parashat Noah, and the lesson there may provide a solution to the conflict. The Torah tells us that “Noah was a righteous man in his generations.” (Gen. 6:9) This passage can represent the two main generations in the story of Noah — Dor HaMabool, the generation of the flood — and Dor HaPalagah, the generation after the flood and the constructing of the Tower of Babel, when God separated mankind’s single language into many languages. In both cases, God disapproved of the people’s behavior. In the first case, it was the relationship among the people, who stole and raped. In the second case, it was the relationship between God and the people, who built “a tower, with its top in heaven” (Gen. 11:4), essentially with a desire to surpass God.
It seems that the punishment in the first case — causing the flood — is different from the second case — causing miscommunication. The 70 nations listed in the 10th chapter of Genesis are the 70 grandchildren of Noah born after the flood: “These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.” (Gen. 10:32) Nevertheless, there is still a common thread between the two punishments; both have to do with the word. Just as God assembled the world with words, He disassembled it through words. Of course, it’s easy to see the connection to the words in the case of the 70 nations and the creation of many languages, but how do we see it in the case of the flood? Well, here we have to look a little deeper.
Our sages taught us in a Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 13:15) that there are 70 “faces” to the Torah — many valid interpretations to the word. Interestingly, another name for the word “word” in Hebrew is tevah, the same as Tevat Noah — Noah’s Ark. So from Noah’s ark, out came 70 nations — literally 70 faces; so too, from the word, out can come 70 faces — 70 interpretations. The same world God created with words He destroyed by a flood, but not before protecting the means of re-creating.
Similarly, there are connections made by Noah’s Ark and Tabernacle and Holy Temple; they are three structures about which the Bible tells us their measurements. In a sense, they are all containers of the Word of God. Noah was a righteous man in his generations; he followed God’s instructions and did not argue with Him, as Abraham did. He followed the letter of the law, of the word, or simply entered the “Ark.” But in order to create a new world, the Ark had to be opened, and 70 faces had to come out of it. When the 70 nations kept only one language in the world, God realized that they were missing the point. Speaking one language, or only one way of interpretation, can lead to a world of oppression and a false sense of power — the very reason God destroyed the world. Therefore, God had to diversify their languages.
Perhaps we can learn from it that the conflict on Temple Mount is unnecessary. Not only is there room for Jews and Muslims to pray there in their respective languages and interpretations, but there is room also for others. “For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Said the Lord God who gathers the dispersed of Israel: Yet I will gather others to him, beside those of him that are gathered.” (Isaiah 57:7-8)
With many blessings,
—Rabbi Gadi Capela
About Forgiveness
Dear members and friends,
I would like to begin by thanking all those who joined us for the High Holidays services and made them special. I also want to thank our members and friends who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure all went well. And, of course, thank you to Cantor Boris Pevsner, who engaged us and helped us connect to our spirits. Lastly, welcome to our new members.
When I started my official preparations for the High Holidays, I reviewed a great deal of material in order to select appropriate topics to address. In the midst of that process, I realized I wasn’t starting my preparation then but, in fact, had been preparing all year long. And then it occurred to me that I wasn’t the only one preparing; all of us were preparing — as a congregation. So, in addition to talking about God, soul searching (AKA Teshuvah), and forgiveness, I decided to also share with everyone the wonderful work and improvements we’ve made in the past year — the Teshuvah we did as a community and the Teshuvah some of us did back to the community.
Curiously, the day that culminates the Teshuvah period, Yom Kippur, is never named this way in the Torah; it is called Yom HaKippurim. The addition of “im” makes it plural. The day of repentance, you see, is not for one thing, but for multiple. What multiplicity is the Day of Repentance trying to correct? Do we actually need to repent for more than one thing? The answer is, yes. On a simple level, each of us sins more than once during an average year, just as each of us sins in a different way. Moreover, we are also trying to correct different levels of relationships.
The beginning of the book of Genesis describes five levels of relationships, starting with self, which were broken and which humanity has been trying to correct ever since. When sin is originally introduced, Eve and Adam start to doubt themselves and as a result feel naked. Then, when God calls them to return, they hide from Him, distancing humanity from the divine. They then doubt their spousal relationship and blame each other. This brokenness extends to their children, Cain and Abel, who represent earth and heaven. Cain (which means physical acquisition) who works the land, ends up killing his brother Abel (which means breath), a shepherd—furthering the distance between heaven and earth. Ultimately, the brokenness reaches the Tower of Babel, when nations can no longer speak to other nations.
It is clear now why there are multiple days of repentance, and why the last day is Yom HaKippurim. Clearly, there is a lot to fix! Starting with self, our world still needs a lot of soul searching and forgiveness. I’m looking forward to another year of moving forward with Congregation Tifereth Israel.
Shanah Tovah. —Rabbi Gadi Capela
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