Parshat Vayetze

Dear Congregants:

Due to Thanksgiving and a visit to my mother in Asheville, I was not able to send out last week's commentary for Parshat Toldot. I am including it in this week's e mail so consider this a two for the price of one sale.

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Parshat Vayetze
(Hosea 12:13-14:10)
December 2, 2006

An interpreter's task is to attempt to explain both the meaning and the context of what might otherwise be incomprehensible. This week's Haftorah offers just such an opportunity. Hosea's second prophecy in the Haftorah opens with a challenge to the behavior of the northern kingdom: "(1) When Ephraim spoke piety, he was exalted in Israel; but he incurred sin through Baal and so he died. (2) And now they go on sinning; they have made them molten images, idols by their skill (ktivunam atzabim), from their silver, wholly the work of craftsmen, yet for these they appoint men to sacrifice; they are wont to kiss calves!" (Hosea 13:1-2) Hosea's original audience probably understood the specific references mentioned in this message. For later readers, however, the identity of both the heroes and villains is unclear. Even the sin being criticized is obscure.

Rashi identifies "Ephraim" with Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom, Israel. He asserts that Jeroboam initially feared God when he came out against Solomon. He became a powerful leader and was recognized as king of the northern kingdom. After he rose to greatness, he turned to idolatry causing his own downfall and the downfall of his house. Rashi notes that this same description also fits Ahab, another powerful northern king, feared by all, who turned to idolatry and as a result, he and his line perished. Rabbi David Kimche (12th century Provance), following the translation of Targum Jonathan (7th century Eretz Yisrael), accepts Rashi's line of reasoning without identifying "Ephraim" with a particular king, stating only that all of the kingdoms surrounding Israel feared him, until his idolatrous sin caused his downfall against these very nations.

The following passage from the Talmud sought to focus on the nature of the sin rather than the identity of the perpetrator. It removed the significance of Hosea's prophecy from its historical context and sought out its meaning for its own contemporary circumstances. In doing so, we learn something of the rabbinic attitude toward idolatry: "Said Rabbi Yitzhak: What is meant when it is written: 'And now they go on sinning; they have made molten images of their silver, idols by their skill. What is the meaning of 'idols by their skill (ktivunam atzabim)? It means that every person made an image of a deity according to his or her own understanding (ktivunam) and each person kept his deity in his pocket. Whenever he remembered it, he would take it out and embrace it and kiss it." (Sanhedrin 63b)

The next interpretation shows how some used their idolatrous practices to self serving ends: "'What is the meaning of 'those who slaughter people shall kiss calves?' (Notice how they translate the phrase differently from what is found above.) Rabbi Yitzchak of the house of Rabbi Ami said: 'The priests of the idols would cast their eyes on wealthy people [in order to acquire their property]. They would starve their idolatrous calves and place before the feeding troughs of the calves images of the wealthy people [so that the calves would associate their faces with food.] When the calves would see the wealthy people, they would run toward them with great passion. The priests of the idols would say: 'See how the idolatrous calf yearns for you – perhaps you should offer yourself as a sacrifice' (so that they might confiscate their property). Rava disagrees with this interpretation: The verse reads: 'Those who slaughter people kiss calves', [for the above interpretation to make sense], it should say: 'the calves kiss to slaughter a person'. Rather, Rava suggests that the verse should be interpreted this way: 'Whenever someone offered his child as a sacrifice to an idol, he would be told: 'You have offered a great gift to the idol. Now come and kiss the idol.'" (Ibid.)

The sages display in these various portraits of idolatrous behavior various obscene excesses and perversions in the name of religion. The first displays a religious faith which is simply a self portrait where a person worships what is closest to his heart, an excess in self interest. The second pictures those who use religion for their own self aggrandizement to the detriment of others. Rava offers a vision where a person practices an obscene religious excess and is then asked to justify it. If there is a thread which winds it way through these various portraits of idolatrous behavior, it is people's inability to distinguish between their own self concerns and serving God. Crossing this fine line can have terrible consequences.


Parshat Toldot
(Malachi 1:1-2:7)
November 25, 2006

The book of Malachi has a unique style among Biblical books. Its thoughts are shaped in the form of small rhetorical dialectic arguments. In one of these arguments, the prophet chastises the people of Israel for its disloyalty to God, chiding them with a comparison to their neighbors: "For from where the sun rises to where it sets, My name is honored among the nations, and everywhere incense and pure oblation are offered to My name, for My name is honored among the nations – said the Lord of Hosts. But you profane it when you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled and the meat, the food, can be treated with scorn…" (Malachi 1:11-12)

Rashi records an opinion that "there were sages who held that this verse meant that even though the nations of the world worshipped other gods, still they recognized that God is God over all of the other gods, willingly making offerings in His name." Malachi intended to force the people of Israel to recognize the bitter irony that sometimes the nations of the world have something to teach the people of Israel about religious behavior especially when the nations treat the religion of Israel with honor while Jews sometimes treat God and their own religious tradition with contempt.

This recognition prompted the following 7th century midrash to ask why God continues His special relationship with the people of Israel: Said the Holy One Blessed Be He to Israel: "Not because you are a larger people than other peoples, and not because you do more mitzvoth (here: good deeds) than other people, for [there are times when] they glorify My name more than you, as it says: 'For from where the sun rises to where it sets, My name is honored among the nations… But you profane it when you say; The table of the Lord is defiled.' (1:11-12) Furthermore, you are the smallest (hame'at) of nations. Still, 'the Lord favored you' (Deut. 7:8) [What explains this anomaly?] I [God] love you because you [the people of Israel] belittle (hemeat) yourselves in My presence. This is why I love you, as it says: 'I have shown you love, said the Lord. (Malachi 1:2) (Tanhuma Buber ed. Ekev 4)

According to this midrash, Israel possesses the special ability to be self-critical before God. This midrash asserts that Jews are no better than the other nations of the world. Sometimes, the nations will even outdo us in their religious commitments to God. What distinguishes us is our ability to "belittle" ourselves, recognize mistakes and hopefully correct them. This is the message of the prophets to their people. Without this ability a nation and people will remain static, mired in whatever wrongs they might accumulate, never able to renew their relationships with God. The ability to humble oneself and recognize ones relationship with God and to fix that which is broken is why God loves the Jewish people. This ability is a gift we must share with the world.

This study piece is offered as a service of the United Synagogue Conservative Yeshiva. It is prepared by Rabbi Mordechai (Mitchell) Silverstein, senior lecturer in Talmud and Midrash at the Conservative Yeshiva. He is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

With the permission of The United Synagogue Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Rabbi Edward S. Romm - Director of Education
© 2005

Henry Ray Wengrow
Ritual Chair
Beth Shalom