Archive for the ‘Dkom's Corner’ Category
You Count
Written on February 7, 2010 from the desk of Rabbi David KomerofskyBeing one student among 50,000 can sometimes feel like you don’t count. But the Torah portion for this Shabbat says something else.
Vayetzei and Thanksgiving
Written on November 23, 2009 from the desk of Rabbi David Komerofskyאָכֵן יֵשׁ יְהוָה בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה; וְאָנֹכִי, לֹא יָדָעְתִּי
Surely G-d is in this place and I did not know it. (Genesis 28:16b)
So realizes Jacob as he awakens from his dream of a ladder from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. Midrashic writers have understood the ladder as an historical allegory of the Jewish people’s suffering under the rule of tyrants… the empires rise and fall but we remain. Other interpreters note that the angels go up and down (in that order), meaning that the angels begin on earth and accompany us through important moments in our lives. Angels and messengers are everywhere around us if we’ll stop and notice.
This week the parasha coincides with Thanksgiving, a holiday during which we, like Jacob, can get a new perspective on life if we stop to remember that no matter where we are, G-d is in this place. Thanksgiving is not specifically a religious holiday but it has some of the trappings of a Jewish holiday… particularly the focus on food and family. It is the story of our American culture’s founding on religious freedom and that is a principle that has been very good for America’s Jews. Here we have been free to practice Judaism as we choose, to celebrate our traditions openly in our own ways even as we share cultural practices with others.
Chutzpah: Our Birthright as Jews
Written on November 3, 2009 from the desk of Rabbi David Komerofskyחָלִלָה לְּךָ מֵעֲשֹׂת כַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה, לְהָמִית צַדִּיק עִם-רָשָׁע, וְהָיָה כַצַּדִּיק, כָּרָשָׁע; חָלִלָה לָּךְ–הֲשֹׁפֵט כָּל-הָאָרֶץ, לֹא יַעֲשֶׂה מִשְׁפָּט.
Far be it from You to do such a thing, to wipe away the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous be just like the wicked. Far be it from you. Should not the judge of the whole earth do justice? (Genesis 18:25)
In his pleading for the welfare of the hypothetical good guys in Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham challenged God in a way that Noah never did. Noah did not ask if the earth should be saved before the flood, he did as he was commanded and built the ark and saved his family. Lacking chutzpah, we know that Noah could not have been a good pioneer for the Jewish people. Abraham, however, could not stand by and say nothing if there were innocent people being destroyed because of their proximity to the wicked. In Genesis 18:25 Abraham asks if that’s justice, that the good and the bad should be judged as one.
