Parashat Tol'dot Diminished Letter Quf = Familial Desperation

בס''ד


In Bereyshit/Genesis 27:46, Parshat Tol'dot we have a letter Quf (ק) which is written very tiny - it's also the leading letter in its word. You can find this pasuq/verse in the following Chumashim:
Plaut p.188, Cohen p.157, Hertz p.101, Sforno p.147, JPS p.42, Jerusalem p.31, Stone p.140

וַתֹּאמֶר רִבְקָה, אֶל-יִצְחָק, קַצְתִּי בְחַיַּי, מִפְּנֵי בְּנוֹת חֵת; אִם-לֹקֵחַ יַעֲקֹב אִשָּׁה מִבְּנוֹת-חֵת כָּאֵלֶּה, מִבְּנוֹת הָאָרֶץ--לָמָּה לִּי, חַיִּים.

And Riv'qah said to Yitz'chaq: 'I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Ya'aqov marries a Hittite woman, such as these local women, why should I go on living?'

Va-tomer Rivqah el-Yitz'chaq qatz'ti ve-chayai mip'ney b'not Cheyt im-loqeyach Ya'aqov ishah mi-b'not Cheyt ka-eyleh, mi-b'not ha-aretz, lamah li chayim?

The Quf in the word קַצְתִּי qatz'ti - "loathe" - is written smaller than its neighbours because Riv'qah was hiding her true reason for sending Ya'aqov away from his father Yitz'chaq. She didn't really dislike her Hittite daughters-in-law – wives of Esav - as much as she pretended. Riv'qah is lying to her husband. She asked Yitz'chaq to send him away to protect him from Esav's veangence, under the pretense of finding a wife. Because what does the pasuq/verse previous to this one say? That Esav was hunting Ya'aqov down in order to kill him.

This is the last pasuq/verse in the pereq/chapter – what happens next? Yitz'chaq sends Ya'aqov away to Riv'qah's family to find a wife...or two!

Why did Rivqah lie to her husband?
Because had she told Yitzchaq the straight truth, he wouldn't have acted. Yitzchaq loved Esav so much. So much. He could never have believed that Esav would ever harm Ya'aqov, so he would not have sent him away to the safety of Rivqah's family. In those days and at that time, the Code of Hammurabi reigned supreme in the Middle and Near East, so if a father did not give his adult son permission to leave, he did not leave. Period.

Yitzchaq, we learn in 21:1, is old and blind:

וַיְהִי כִּי-זָקֵן יִצְחָק, וַתִּכְהֶיןָ עֵינָיו מֵרְאֹת; וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-עֵשָׂו בְּנוֹ הַגָּדֹל, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו בְּנִי, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, הִנֵּנִי

And it happened that when Yitzchaq was old, and his eyes were dim, and he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him: 'My son'; and he said unto him: 'Here I am.'

Is that why it was so easy for Rivqah and Ya'aqov to fool Yitzchaq? A midrash teaches us that when Yitzchaq was bound on the altar and his father Avraham was about to slit his throat, he was so traumatised and terrified - and who wouldn't be? - yet he kept it all inside, and braved the experience. As he refused to express his terror, and did not cry, the angels gathered all around the scene felt his terrible pain and cried themselves - crying the tears of angels into Yitzchaq's eyes- so he would be blinded, shielded from what was about to happen. It was then that Avraham stopped and let him go.

The Akeidah, Yitzchaq's binding and emotional torture, left him with a serious case of PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is why he was only comforted from his mother's death by getting married, this is why he prays to El-Shaddai alone in the twilight out in the field, this is why he is a quiet, passive figure in the rest of his narrative. This is why he is forever emotionally distant and can only sometimes connect with Rivqah. This is why he cannot see - not because he is physically blind, but because he cannot tell one son from the other most of the time, because of his own unhealed brokenness, because he is still blinded by the tears of angels.

Sometimes we do things out of desperation to move barriers which cannot otherwise be moved. It's dangerous and always causes damage, but how much greater the damage to do nothing? Rivqah made a very difficult decision here, and chose the lesser of two evils: deceive her husband or let one son murder the other thereby and destroy the family and our future.

So why the letter Quf?

Although Riv'qah, a leader in her family as this letter is in its word, saved one son's life and prevented her other son from becoming a murderer, and although she saved her family and the future of the Jewish people by lying to her husband, she still lied. And this last lie in the string of deceptions she'd engineered is the one which finally made her realize that her קְדֻשָּׁה q-edushah had been diminished. And that she would have to make a great sacrifice, a קָרְבָּן q-orban, by sending her favourite child away, in order to begin to mend the damage.

What do we know about Riv'qah? We know she was the kind young girl who offered to water Eliezer and his camels. We know Yitz'chaq loved her as much as his life. We know she desperately wanted to be a mother. We know she was blessed with twin sons who struggled – קְרָב q-arav - against each other their whole lives. We know she received prophecy about the future of her family. We know she acted with the right intentions. And we know that she never saw Ya'aqov again...


Copyright © A. Barclay

Parashat No'ach: Intercessory Prayer

בס''ד


Although there are several peculiar scribal oddities found in this week's Torah portion (according to Yemenite tradition, Sefer Taggin, the Machzor Vitri and various other sources and opinions), they generally have not been written into Sifrei Torah for some time now - a few hundred years. So instead I'd like to say a word about the origins of intercessory prayer in Judaism. I'll write about these ancient, disappearing "visual midrash" later, when I've done more research.

The first human intercessor according to Torah was No'ach ben Lemekh (לֶמֶך), known to the English speaking world as Noah, who built the ark. No'ach's name is generally spelled נֹחַ, but spelled with a letter Vav (ו) in Modern Hebrew, no'ach נוֹחַ means comfortable; taking it easy. נָח, nach, means to rest or relax. In Hebrew grammar it also indicates a mute letter; it doesn't say anything.

As with all people of the Bible, Noa'ch's father Lemekh's name is in fact a role. If we translate his name, לֶמֶךְ, into colloquial Modern Hebrew, it can mean a fool, schlemiel, or a clumsy person. The root letters Mem-Khaf (מך) mean "impoverished" in Biblical Hebrew. So his name, No'ach ben Lemekh, could be interpreted to mean Comfort son of the Foolish Pauper.

Maybe because he was taught to make do, and accept even bad situations, No'ach never became an activist. He didn't develop the sensitivity required to notice when something wrong is happening and to do something about it. He never disturbed the status quo. He was always comforable. He didn't say anything.

We find No'ach's story recorded in the Torah in Sefer Be-reyshit/Genesis 6:9-9:29 Parashat No'ach. We learn that everyone on the planet has just gone too far, they are irredeemable, that they have filled the world with violence (the word Scripture uses for "violence" is חמס, Hamas). We also learn this from chapter 6 verse 9:

אֵלֶּה, תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ--נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה, בְּדֹרֹתָיו: אֶת-הָאֱלֹהִים, הִתְהַלֶּךְ-נֹחַ.
These are the generations of No'ach. No'ach was a just man and perfect/whole-hearted in his generations; No'ach walked with G@d.

No'ach ish tzedeq tamim hayah be-dorotav. He was a sincerely righteous man in his generation. And that is the key. He was righteous only compared to all the degenerates around him. He was not empirically righteous, only relatively righteous. No'ach didn't even know that there was a problem until G@d came to him to say He was going to destroy all flesh because it had corrupted itself.

And what was No'ach's reaction to this news? Did he act surprised? The Torah doesn't say. Did he argue with G@d to try to intercede like Avraham would? The Torah doesn't say. All we are told is that Noach obeyed G@d's command to build the תֵּבָה teyvah (ark). So he did exactly what he was told, and nothing more.

But that's all G@d needed to save the world...

No'ach doesn't intercede until Be-reyshit/Genesis 8:20-22, when he builds the altar and makes the sacrifice. Only then is G@d appeased.

כ וַיִּבֶן נֹחַ מִזְבֵּחַ, לַיהוָה; וַיִּקַּח מִכֹּל הַבְּהֵמָה הַטְּהֹרָה, וּמִכֹּל הָעוֹף הַטָּהוֹר, וַיַּעַל עֹלֹת, בַּמִּזְבֵּחַ. 20
And No'ach built an altar to Ad@nai and took from every ritually pure beast, and of every ritually pure bird, and offered burnt/rising offerings on the altar.

כא וַיָּרַח יְהוָה, אֶת-רֵיחַ הַנִּיחֹחַ, וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-לִבּוֹ לֹא-אֹסִף לְקַלֵּל עוֹד אֶת-הָאֲדָמָה בַּעֲבוּר הָאָדָם, כִּי יֵצֶר לֵב הָאָדָם רַע מִנְּעֻרָיו; וְלֹא-אֹסִף עוֹד לְהַכּוֹת אֶת-כָּל-חַי, כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי. 21
And Ad@nai smelled the fragrant scent and Ad@nai said in His heart: 'I won't curse the earth again for humanity's sake; because the instinctive tendency of humanity's heart is broken from youth; and never again will I strike down every living thing, as I've done.

כב עֹד, כָּל-יְמֵי הָאָרֶץ: זֶרַע וְקָצִיר וְקֹר וָחֹם וְקַיִץ וָחֹרֶף, וְיוֹם וָלַיְלָה--לֹא יִשְׁבֹּתוּ. 22
For eternity, all the days of the Earth, sowing and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will never end.'

Noah's Sacrifice and G@d's Response: What worked?
The word used to describe a burnt offering type of sacrifice is עוֹלָה, olah, "that which rises or ascends". The root עלה means to rise, ascend or go up, to increase, advance, to mount or get up onto, and to immigrate to Israel (because it is the highest point of the world, spiritually).

This very first sacrifice recorded in the Torah, which became the basis of our Temple worship in Jerusalem which, except for the hide, must be consumed entirely by fire on the altar. No part of them may be eaten by the worshipper, whereas both priest and worshipper partake of the sacrifices known as זְבַּחים zevachim (see Devarim/Deuteronomy 12:27). This olah goes up to G@d while the zevach stays with the priest and worshipper. This teaches us that we must ascend to G@d to intercede.

No'ach builds an altar and brings rising, intercessory burnt offerings on his own initiative. We don't know how he prepared or what he said, if anything, but he didn't stop attempting the intercession when G@d responds in the positive. The outcome of No'ach's intercession is G@d's promise to never wipe out virtually all life again using nature as a tool, provided that we accept His re-ordering of the new society (ie., when He gives permission to eat meat but puts a blood prohibition on it, and prohibits murder). For prosperity he puts a rainbow in the sky to seal the covenant. Now that the Earth has been purged of its evil, sacrifice symbolizes the restoration of harmony between G@d and humankind.

What can we learn from these stories about the qualities an intercessor needs?
Obedience to and acceptance of G@d. To be (comparatively) righteous/blameless. I say comparatively because Noach was only "righteous in his generation", so perhaps he was the best of what was left on earth, but not ideal - the only thing G@d had to work with, so He did His best with what He had.

You will note that he did not intercede on the Earth's behalf when G@d told him He would destroy everything. He waited until after the horror had been executed on all beings except those who had inhabited is teyvah to ask G@d to never do that again and thank Him for making an exception for him and his family. He may have cloistered himself and his family from the Earth's lawlessness, but he simply withdrew from the world and did not try to change it. Therefore, G@d had to intervene.

We can learn from this that we have a responsibility to be activists, ie., we cannot stand by the blood of our brother...G@d wants us to participate in struggling with our own tendencies and to bring about Tiqun Olam *with* Him...this is why I agree with Rebbe Yochanan's interpretation of No'ach's story rather than Reish Lakish's (Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 108a). HAD Noach been better than average, he could have fought to corruption, but because he was a beynoni, a weak or easily influenced person, he could only cloister himself and remain in his integrity that way.

So what does it mean to "walk with G@d" (Be-reyshit/Genesis 5:24; 6:9)?
To shape the agency of your own salvation (ie., build your own ark rather than wait for G@d to save you through Divine intervention)...and what qualities can you find in yourself which No'ach used? Voluntary offering/negotiating. Occasional submission...

At the end of the day, we shouldn't be too hard on poor old No'ach. What more can we expect from the world's first intercessor? If nobody has yet acted as one, then Noach has only his own instincts to follow and no example...



Sources:
Many thanks to Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan for inspiring this piece during our learning together in 2005.
R' Chaim Potok in JPS's Eytz Chayim: Torah & Commentary
Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 108a
The Five Books of Moses: A New Translation with Introductions, Commentary, and Notes by Everett Fox

Parshat Naso - The Raised Eye of the Sotah

BS"D

The Sotah - סוֹטָה
This parasha tells of a very intense and difficult ritual brought to bear against a woman whose husband suspected her of adultery, a capital crime. Any husband, Jewish or not, who was afraid his wife had been unfaithful, but had no proof, could bring her before the kohen (priest or G@d-helper) in the Mishkan (tabernacle) for a trial by ordeal known as the sotah ritual.

As with all Hebrew words, sotah has a shoresh, or root. The shoresh of this word are the letters ס–ט–ה, which not only means "adulteress", but also "to digress, to change direction", or even "pervert" or "deviant". So as you can see, the accused woman was not given the benefit of the doubt. No "innocent until proven guilty" here.

Regardless of whether the woman was innocent or guilty, her jealous husband would bring her and a jealousy-offering (in this case barley flour without oil or frankincense) before G@d and the kohen. She would be publicly humiliated by her hair being uncovered and/or mussed up, and being made to swear her innocence.

For a fantastic five-minute animation of this bit of par'shat Naso, see G-DCAST.

עין
In ּsome unusual Torah scrolls, written by practitioners of Kabbalah, we see in Be-Midbar/Numbers 5:17 a raised letter Ayin in the word be-qarqa (בְּקַרְקַע).

וְלָקַח הַכֹּהֵן מַיִם קְדֹשִׁים, בִּכְלִי-חָרֶשׂ; וּמִן-הֶעָפָר, אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בְּקַרְקַע הַמִּשְׁכָּן, יִקַּח הַכֹּהֵן, וְנָתַן אֶל-הַמָּיִם.

And the priest shall take holy water in a pottery vessel; and from the dust that is on the dirt floor (קַרְקַע) of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water.

Qarqa קַרְקַע means earth, soil, ground, land, floor, or bed (of the sea, river).

The letter Ayin's name means, among other things, "eye, vision, sight, or witness". Is this Ayin raised because this unfortunate wife has been raised before the eyes of the whole community, the eyney ha-edah (עיני העדה), to be publicly put through this ordeal?

Gematria
Ayin's gematrial value is 70, and according to Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh it is also the number of Divine Providence. Is it possible that the dirt floor of the Mishkan, where priests in the highest state of spiritual purity were constantly serving G@d and the Jewish people was holy ground imbued with Sacred Insight? That its being added to the water she drank ensured justice?

The number 70 is also the value for words such as ivteychan אבטחן, to secure or protect. Pehaps the accused woman, who is undoubtedly terrified, is innocent and this raised letter Ayin shows her eye looking up for Heavenly aid ("The Eyes of G@D" ha-sh'gachah pratit השגחה פרטית)?

The phrase אדם וחוה, Adam ve-Chavah Adam and Eve also adds up to 70. Does this represent the couple's deep desire for their relationship to reflect the blessings of new, uncomplicated love which they shared in the beginning of their marriage, (בגן עדן מקדם)?

However, the number 70 also stands for בזונה, be-zonah: to commit fornication, adultery or play the harlot. So which is it? The raised letter Ayin draws our attention to her predicament but does not reveal to us her fate.

But that isn't all...far from it...

Just a little further on, at the end of the ritual in Be-Midbar/Numbers 5:31, we read:

וְנִקָּה הָאִישׁ, מֵעָוֹן; וְהָאִשָּׁה הַהִוא, תִּשָּׂא אֶת-עֲוֹנָהּ

And the man shall be clean of transgression, and that woman shall bear her sin.

There is a four-crowned letter Hey in the word ve-niqah (וְנִקָּה) - that the husband was innocent (cleansed, acquitted, relieved) of five sins (the gematrial value for the letter Hey is 5). These five sins are how she is humiliated by the ritual:
1. She stands alone, publicly accused of adultery, at the East (leper) Gate of the Temple
2. Her clothes are torn, exposing her "heart"
3. Her hair is uncovered and/or messed up
4. Her jewellery and ornaments are taken
5. A rough rope is tied around her breasts

Five sins he would normally be guilty of in treating his wife this way. But this being a special case of male jealousy, he is excused.

That is the end of the ritual and of the chapter.


Sources:
The Torah
Talmud Bavli Sotah 7a,b; 26b
inner.org
sofer.co.uk
The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Rabbi Michael L Munk

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Shabbat Ha-Gadol - The Small Letter Mem in Parshat Tzav

BS"D


Parshat Tzav Sefer Va-Yiqra/Leviticus 6:2 reads:

צַו אֶת-אַהֲרֹן וְאֶת-בָּנָיו לֵאמֹר, זֹאת תּוֹרַת הָעֹלָה: הִוא הָעֹלָה עַל מוֹקְדָה עַל-הַמִּזְבֵּחַ כָּל-הַלַּיְלָה, עַד-הַבֹּקֶר, וְאֵשׁ הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, תּוּקַד בּוֹ.

Tzav et-Aharon v’et-banav leymod zot Torah ha’olah hi ha’olah al moqdah al-hamizbey’ach kal-halailah ad-haboqer v’eysh hamizbey’ach tuqad bo:

“Command Aharon and his sons, saying: This is the instruction for the offering-up - that is what rises up on the firewood on the altar all night, until daybreak, while the fire of the altar is kept blazing on it:”

In this pasuq/verse, the Torah tells us the sacrifice should remain on the altar all night. The word for firewood (or furnace), moqdah (מוֹקְדָה), is written in the Torah beginning with a small letter Mem.

This Mem teaches us that the fervor we must cultivate is not the open, flaming kind, but the white heat of the centre of the brand. The centre of the Earth.

Chasidut begs the question: “When does a person’s Torah study rise (olah- עֹלָה - to ascend or be offered up), to Heaven?
Answer: When it “burns upon the fire” - when the Torah is studied with a fiery enthusiasm.

However, the Mem of the word moqdah, is written smaller than the other letters. This teaches that the main part of the “flame” should remain within, and not draw attention to itself. ((Otzar Chayim))

Some people like to show off – they make sure they act very pious in front of others, to get attention, respect…whatever they are seeking from the public. This is false zeal, which isn’t about G@d, it’s about the ego – which means there is no service at all, these acts being completely hollow.

The Kotzker Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859), said,

“Do mitzvot in private & aveyras (sins) in public. Why? It‘s easy for a person to exhibit religious observance in public. Most people hide when sinning, because of shame. Solution? Sin in front of friends - it will reduce the number of sins. Serve G@d sincerely, and to insure sincerity, just to do it between yourself and G-d.”

He also said that emulating the small Mem teaches us to behave with intensely religious enthusiasm while fulfilling a Divine command. The kohanim (priests) ensuring the fire on the altar remained burning all night teaches us that concerted, firey focus on the One will see us through the darkest of times. and concealing it within us modestly so that the full extent of our love for the Creator is known only to us and the Holy One.

Just as a married couple does not display their whole relationship for all to see, so the most genuinely passionate firey service of Ha-Shem must be a focused effort. The Mem is small because it has been concentrated, like a diamond. Like the heart.

There also may be a hint that this Mem is written small because it burned upon the small, gold altar in the Temple. That altar represents the human heart.
Don’t forget that under the charcoal and under the ash there is always a coal - and that coal burns hotter but more quietly that a bonfire. Sometimes it’s appropriate to serve G@d like a bonfire, but most often like a coal. This small Mem is the coal.

Another interpretation of this small Mem is a warning to Ba’alei Teshuvah: Jews who return to Judaism often do so to an extreme, embracing the most stringent practices and limited views of Torah extrapolation. If you do your Jewishness like the small, constant coal rather than like a consuming, blazing fury, your personal altar will never be left bare, your offerings to G@d having been quickly burned up. Spent. Done.

The Kotzker Rebbe also teaches us that the midah (מִדָּה - character trait) of temimut (תְּמִימוּת - serving G@d in honest simplicity) must be total. At the same time, the midah of hisla’havut (שַׁלְהֶבֶות - zealotry to which the burning fire hints) must be contained. You may spiritually burn only inside, keeping it between you and G@d.

Further to this, the Gemara in Shabbat 30b, which tells us how Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his son Rebbe Elazar, after emerging from the cave where they had hidden themselves from the Roman occupiers for twelve years, instantly incinerated everything they laid eyes on, judging the people too harshly. The Gemara goes on to say how G@d instructed them to go back to their cave until they had learned how to restrain their hisla’havut and keep it to themselves.

Oznayim la-Torah by Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin says this letter Mem is written small because the greater one is, the more one must humble oneself. ((Rashi’s Berachot 34b sv “Kohen Gadol”))

As my true friend Michal Mivasair says, “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.”
Shabbat Ha-Gadol Shalom :)


Photo to follow...
Further reading:
R’ Chayim David HaLevy, Asei Lecha Rav (responsa)
R’ Yitzchak Ginsburg...anything
RaMaK, Sefer Pardes Rimonim


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Based on article originally published April 2006 as "Better Late Than Never?" at HREF="http://www.radicaltorah.org/2006/04/08/better-late-than-never/">Radical Torah
Cross-posted on HREF="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=67792898204Facebook
Copyright A. Barclay