Veyetchanan

Parshat Vayetchanan - I’m a Soul, Man! 

By Dan Cohen

Sam and Dave famously sang the 1967 classic “Soul Man,” written by the great Isaac Hayes and David “Dave” Porter. With its powerful message of our inherent self-worth and pride, this song resonates deeply with the themes we explore in this drash.

Music blogger Ted Tocks said of the songwriters, “They were inspired to write as they watched footage of the riots and noted that the people were writing the word ‘SOUL’ on the buildings left standing. These buildings signified buildings or institutions owned by ‘African American’ people. 

Hayes and Porter explain it as “…a story about one’s struggle to rise above his present conditions…I’m a soul man; it’s a pride thing.”  Hayes and Porter recognized their worth regardless of how society portrayed them.

Rabbi Steinsaltz categorizes Chapter Four of Deuteronomy as “General Warnings.”  Continuing his month-long speech, Moshe provides warning and encouragement as the people are about to enter the land. 

One of those reminders was the nation's experience at Mt. Sinai, where they came in direct contact with Hashem. He describes the experience by focusing on the idea that the nation of Israel did not see Hashem but only heard him.  

In different translations of Chapter 4, Verse 15, the authors translate the phrase “VNashmartem Mi’od VNafstaychem” emphasizing the need to guard our bodily experience.  Chabad translates the verse as, “Look after yourselves very well and remember that you did not see any image on the day Gd spoke to you at Chorev (Sinai) from the fire.”  

Rabbi Steinsalz’s Chumash translates it as “you shall greatly be aware for your lives…” Soloveitchik’s Chumash translates it as “and you shall watch yourselves very well…” Each of these translations focuses on the bodily experience. 

They urge us to think about our actions in the context of Gd's revelation at Mt. Sinai, which makes sense. After all, Judaism is a religion of action. We take on mitzvot. We actively care for our fellow man. We offer our actions as a reflection of our beliefs. 

However, the Rav Hirsch Chumash stands alone among these translations. The translation and subsequent analysis take this verse in different directions. 

The Hirsch Chumash translates verse 15: “So take heed exceedingly for (the sake of) your souls! For you saw no (manner of) form on the day that Gd spoke to you at Chorev (Sinai) out of the midst of the fire.”

Here’s where the lesson got interesting for me. Hirsch calls for a focus on our souls, not our bodies that we need to guard. 

Hirsch says we see this idea of guarding our souls nowhere else in the five books. He focuses on how we must remain faithful to our calling. He writes that this verse can mean “guard yourselves for the sake of your souls. Let nothing remove you from the decisive influence exercised by your souls.”

We are asked to protect (Shomer) the idea that the indivisible Gd is imperceptible to the senses, yet his existence is real and personal. We are asked to put this idea to the test of our souls and told to guard ourselves so that nothing can disturb this reality. 

After all, there is only one other thing that is invisible and imperceptible to us but whose reality we are sure of. That is our soul, our nefesh.  He says that since our soul can reflect on itself, we are also equipped to reflect on an invisible Gd.  He adds, “Just as we are sure of our existence, so are we sure of Gd's existence.”

Hirsch points out that the Talmud in Berachos 10 speaks to the similarity between the balance of imperceptibility and reality of Gd and our soul by highlighting mentions of the soul in the writings of King David and others. 

Just as Gd fills the world, our souls fill our bodies. 

Gd sees but cannot be seen. So, too, our soul. 

Gd nourishes the world, and our soul nourishes our bodies. 

Gd is pure, and so is our soul. 

Gd dwells in the innermost recesses of the universe, and our souls do the same in our bodies. 

The analogy goes even further, as elucidated by Hirsch.  

Our soul bears our body, and Gd bears the world. 

The soul outlives the body, and Gd outlives his world. 

The soul is singular in her body, as Gd is singular in His world. 

The place of the soul is unknown, as is true of the place of Gd's glory. 

Hirsch's lesson is universal and lasting. He says we must keep ourselves open to the influence of our soul's knowledge. In many ways, the soul knows what our senses can’t understand. It operates at a hidden and deeper level beyond our senses that may be even more real. Gd's existence, he adds, is the most real precisely because he is imperceptible to our senses but fully alive in our hearts in its pristine purity. 

He urges us to “take care that you retain this influence of your souls upon yourselves.”  Nothing he adds should tear us away from this pure trait of our souls. 

I feel wholly embodied when I act consistently with my soul's direction. It’s as if my soul fills the entirety of the body I’ve been given.  

When I act inconsistently with what my soul (and gut) tells me, I can feel a gap or a space between my true self and the vessel I’ve been given to walk around with.  

As I’ve grown older, I’ve become more attuned to these contrasts, and this has become a powerful tool for knowing when I’m acting according to my best self and divine instruction.  

Your soul knows what’s best and what is consistent with Gd's intention for us. No matter the difficulty, Hayes and Porter were writing about our inherent value as humans and our Gd-given ability to choose to embody our best thoughts and put them into action.

Our soul speaks to us. When we ignore it, we do so at our peril. We risk losing touch with our most authentic and divine selves. When we listen, we can access our most authentic and divine selves. You get to choose. 

# # # 

Enjoy this live performance of the song by Sam and Dave from the 70s, full of amazing outfits and incredible facial hair. https://youtu.be/HYk7NWjsuHI?si=L_ybLA79oCMz_O_j

TWINS, A DOUBLE JOY FOR B'NEI MENASHE-ISRAELI COUPLE

Sagi with Sandak, Reuven Sha'ar.

(August 11, 2024) Sagi and Chaviva welcome twin boys. Their Brit or circumcision ceremony was held last week. While Sagi is an Israeli born, Chaviva is from Mizoram. She had come with her mother and brother to Israel about a decade ago. The family lived in Afula and eventually her brother served in the army where he met and became friends with Sagi. He, then, met with Chaviva, the two fell in love and decided to tie the knot. They have an older boy and with the arrival of the twins, there are three of them now.

The twins with Jessica and proud grandmother, Chedva.

The older boy was named Or Shai and the second one given the name Neria. Neria was named after a close friend of Sagi who was killed in action in Gaza recently. The parents of late Neria, Reuven and Anat Sha'ar were present were honored accordingly, Reuven as the sandak for Neria and Anat told a brief story of Neria's life. It was Sagi's way of honoring his friend who had made the supreme sacrifice for his country. He remarked that it was his way of ensuring that his name lived on. Chaviva's, brother, Roni, acted as the sandak for Or Shai. It was a spirited celebration for both the families. The happiest person must have been Chaviva's mother, Chedva, her face beaming with obvious joy and pride.

PARASHAT DEVARIM

Parshat Devarim 2024 - Rubber and Glue

By Dan Cohen

One of the hardest things I’ve learned is to “own” my feelings. There is a concept in mental health therapy called a “projection.”  It occurs when you “project” your feelings about yourself onto another person.

In kindergarten, the playground retort when someone said something mean to me or my friends, “I am rubber, you are glue. Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.”  

Here’s another approach to understanding projections. Imagine you have a flashlight. When you shine it on a wall, it shows a shape or picture on the wall. The shape isn’t actually on the wall; it's from the flashlight. When someone "projects," it's like shining their flashlight onto someone else. 

They might feel something inside, like being scared or mad, but instead of realizing it’s their feeling, they think someone else is feeling that way. So if they’re angry, they might say, “Why are you mad at me?” even if the other person isn’t mad. They see their feelings in the other person, just like the picture on the wall from the flashlight.

This idea came to mind as we opened the fifth and final book of the Torah this week.  Devarim, often called Mishne Torah, differs from the first four books in that it records Moshe's extended and final speech to the people. Commentators wax eloquently about Moshe’s prophecy and how this book documents a level of wisdom and Gd-connectedness we have not seen since. 

Like any speech or conversation, what matters aren’t just the words someone chooses but the potential meanings behind them and the profound and potentially unconscious reasons why. 

In Chapter 1, Verse 27, we read that after the spies returned with their dangerous and defamatory report, Moshe said to the people, “You murmured in your tents and said, "Because the Lord hates us, He took us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand[s] of the Amorites to exterminate us."

Rav Hirsh often leverages individual words in the Torah to gain deeper understanding, and this week is no different. In exploring how Moshe retells and reexplores the spies' story, he focuses on two specific words and draws important lessons for us.

In Chapter 1, Verse 27, we read the word ReGeN, which is listed above as murmuring but can also mean incitement. The word's background is obscure but denotes an activity that incites and fuels quarrels.  It can also mean a projection, which he calls mutual incitement. 

Hirsch says the word HaReGeN signifies an agitator. This person appears to be fighting for his cause and upset about a wrong done to himself or, under the appearance of being indignant at the wrong done to another as though it were himself. He then incites others to join the fight. When we look around at public and political discourse these days, it is easy to find leaders seeking to harness outrage by claiming victimhood for themselves or borrowing the victimhood of others.

Hirsch finds the same rarely-used word elsewhere in Proverbs Chapter 16, Verse 28, where we read a similar use of ReGeN: "A perverse man incites quarrel, and a grumbler alienates the Lord.”  Rashi reads this to mean that the grumbler alienates Gd from himself and assumes Gd is angry with him, but it belies our belief that we can never be alienated from Gd. 

The idea that Moshe is trying to teach us about projections goes even further just a few verses later in the Parsha.  

In Chapter 1, Verse 29, we read, “And I said to you: Do not be dismayed and do not fear them!”  Here, he refers to the residents of the land of Canaan whom the spies feared and whose fear gripped the nation. 

The word dismayed emerges from the letters spelling the root EReTZ.  Hirsch points out that the word, defined in another translation as “broken,” can mean either a person’s feeling of fear or the fear that a person inspires in another.  It means to be frightened and also to frighten.  Why would Moshe choose to use this loaded word?  

Hirsch points out that the word's root also means to “Gird oneself with all one’s strength.”  When facing someone looking to inspire fear, we can oppose the individual and the projection of fear or dismay she is attempting to inspire in us. It is up to us how we respond when others are trying to sow fear and discord, much as some in the nation did when the spies returned with their awful report.

To be clear, I still struggle with projections. Sometimes, I am angry, but I choose to “stash” that anger in someone else, like another driver on the road.  On the flip side, sometimes, a friend accuses me of a behavior he is exhibiting.  

Moshe thought it essential to teach us this lesson in the first chapter of his extended goodbye speech. The Rebbe gave vital insight into why that might be.  

His Chumash says, “Even when the Jewish people lost faith in Gd, to the extent they felt Gd hated them, Rashi teaches us that “He loved you.”  The Be’er Mayiim Chaim adds that in this dangerous and challenging moment in the desert, the Jewish people hated Gd, so they imagined He hated them too. 

As a kid, I remember my parents saying they would love me no matter what I did. As a spoiled brat, I even asked whether that love would apply even if I engaged in the worst behavior imaginable. Their answer was always yes, but with a caveat that they hoped I would make wise choices.

So where did that leave me, and by extension you, and every other individual when it comes to a Gd who has said the same thing to us? It means that no matter how low a person falls spiritually, even to the point of projecting his hatred of his circumstance onto a hatred of Gd, that person should know that Gd continues to love her.  

At the same time, it means we must be firm, transparent, and strong in setting our boundaries and pushing back against incitement from others.  Knowing that Gd is on our side makes it easier to say to others sowing dissent that their position isnt persuasive.  In those moments, we can simply draw attention to the feeling that person is projecting onto us, stare at it together, and then hand it back, saying, “I think this is yours.”