Parashat Ekev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25) for August 12, 2006
This week's parasha study has been generously sponsored by Meryl Gardner in loving memory of her mother Harriet H. Cohen.
Kolel is very appreciative of Meryl's ongoing support.
Even with suffering we can still choose to believe that our lives have meaning, and to believe in God.
Study with Baruch Sienna
This year's cycle of weekly Parasha study explores what connections and insight we can find by examining the Torah portion together with the Haftarah.
We continue with the second Sabbath of Consolation (a series of seven special haftarot: shiva d'nechemta). Although these seven readings are linked to the calendar, bridging the commemoration of the destruction of the Temple and the exile from Israel, this week's reading also has a connection to the Torah reading of Parshat Ekev. "See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands," God says (Isa. 49:16). This parallels the reading from Deuteronomy (that is read as the second paragraph of the Shma) where God asks that we impress the words upon our hearts and hands (Deut. 11:18).
Isaiah, son of Amotz is the most popular of the prophets for the Haftarah: fourteen of the weekly portions (in the Ashkenazic calendar) are from Isaiah. Isaiah lived in the southern kingdom of Judah in the latter half of the 8th century B.C.E. While Isaiah hoped that the northern kingdom of Israel would be restored (regrettably, the ten northern tribes vanished permanently), his prophecy was also a warning that to the leaders and population of Judah. 'You could be next if you don't change your behaviour.' Indeed, a hundred years later, Judah was conquered, but this time, a remnant did survive, and returned to Israel and re-established a new nation.
When something good happens to us, we rarely ask, "Why us?! What did we do to deserve this good fortune?!" But when something bad happens, we're quick to complain, "Why doesn't God do something? Why doesn't God answer our prayers?" This was the feeling of the exiles. Isaiah is describing the despair of the exiles who ask, "Has God forgotten us?" In the haftarah, God reassures the people of Israel that God will never forget Zion.
I once heard a rabbi say that God always answers our prayers- but sometimes the answer is no. On one level I understand this has some truth to it- as the Rolling Stones sing, "we can't always get what we want." It's also true that sometimes what we think we want is often not the best thing for us. As the Chinese proverb says, 'be careful what you wish for.' Just like our kids, we often have very limited perspectives and make poor choices. As parents, we often say no, and for good reason. Eating chocolate ice cream right before supper might seem like a good idea, but when our kids ask for it, we say no. Why should God be any different?
But on another level, God answering 'no' is a big problem. Unless we're prepared to say that our unanswered prayers were not sincere enough, or we are not deserving, God is not off the hook. In the same week of a coal mine tragedy, where familiy and friends were praying for their loved ones' rescue, a woman reported winning the lottery: "God has answered my prayers." Well, that must have been some mighty praying, if her prayers to win the lottery were answered, while the coal miners (except for one) sadly lost their lives. Was God too busy arranging for the winning ticket to organize the rescue efforts. We have to really wonder about God's priorities, or come to the conclusion that either God can't help (which makes God a wimp), or worse, God won't help (which makes God a sadist)-- or (the worst heresy)- there is no God at all.
As Israel is fighting a war, we wish that God could just wave a magic wand and make Israel secure. Some Jews believe that reciting prayers or affixing kosher mezzuzahs will be an effective defensive strategy. But as the God character (played by Morgan Freeman) says in the film Bruce Almighty, 'I don't work that way.' So what good is God and what good is prayer?
These questions challenge the very foundations of religious faith and there are no easy answers. But what is interesting is that individual survivors of the Holocasust walked out of the same camps either absolutely convinced that there was no God, or more steadfast than ever in their belief in the Creator. In other words, the existence of suffering does not by itself seem to determine whether one believes or not. Indeed, Vickor Frankl, himself a survivor went on to discover the meaning of his life which he articulates in his classic volume, Man's Search for Meaning. Even suffering, according to Frankl, can have meaning. He writes, "In spite of all the enforced physical and mental primitiveness of the life in a concentration camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen.... They were able to retreat from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom."
Even with suffering, we can still choose to believe that our lives have meaning, and to believe in God.
Shabbat Shalom,
BDS
