TETZAVEH 1990

In the Torah portion Tetzaveh we learn about the different garments that the high priest wore.  It says that Aaron was to wear a special apron, a robe, which was all blue, and on the border of it, on the edge of it, he had golden bells and golden pomegranates.  It says, "And there should be on Aaron to serve and it will be heard his voice when he comes to the Holy before G‑d and when he goes out and he will not die."  The rabbis explain that this expression, Vanishma Kolo - and the voice shall be heard, is reminiscent of two other times Vanishma is mentioned.  It is reminiscent of the time when Nishma is mentioned right at the time the Jewish people accepted the Ten Commandments and accepted the Torah when it says, "Nase Vanishma - we will do and we will understand."  The rabbi say it is also reminiscent of the time when Achaveresh and.  Haman issued that evil decree that all the Jews were to be killed on the 13th day of Adar.  "And it was heard the decree of the king - Vanishma Peescom HaMelech".  The rabbis explain that Vanishma here can also be active and not passive.  It says "we will hear his voice and he will come tot the Holy before G‑d".  Here when it said "Nase Vanishma - we will do and we will understand, we will hear", and "we heard the decree of the king" or even "we will hear the decree of the king", the rabbis explain that all these three Vanishmas as related.  It seems strange that they should be related.  We understand that when we learn about Nase Vanishma that the Jewish people said that "we will do and we will understand" that the Jewish people are given credit that they trusted G‑d, that they were willing to do what G‑d said and then they are going to understand what it means.  However, it has been pointed our by many commentators as I mentioned when we discussed this in the Torah portion Mishpatim that it was not a big thing to say that "we will do".  They had already said that before.  The important thing is not that they were going to do it, but that they also wanted to understand it.  In order for Judaism to persist, in order for Judaism to exist, in order to future generations to uphold Judaism and accept it as every generation has to accept it anew, you have to understand it.  It is not just enough to do it.  That's why the immigrant generation in America made a mistake.  They showed the children the mitzvahs, many of them, but they did not give them a deep Jewish education so they could understand it.  So we know that it is not enough to say that you will do it.  You have to also understand it.

Around this time of year is Purim.  The Torah portion Tetzaveh is always read around Purim.  Therefore, we can understand why the rabbis connected also the sentence from the Megillah with this Nishma.  "We will hear the decree of the king".  In order to be a Jew not only do you need understanding, not only do you need to practice Judaism, but you also have to understand human nature.  You have to understand that there is evil in the world, and we have to combat that evil.  We have to understand that man is capable of great evil.  There is a Polyannish view in Judaism, at least among many Jews which really borders on heresy, that man is all good and man will only do evil if society forces him to do evil or if he had a bad mother or something else, but man's natural state is to be good.  We do not say that.  We say that man's natural state is to be neutral.  He can be good and he can be bad.  It depends upon his training.  Man has the capacity of both good and evil, and we have to recognize that.  We have to recognize, too, that nations turn overnight.  One day they are friendly to the Jewish people and the next day they are hateful to us and want to destroy us, that unless we understand human nature and even our own nature, we have to understand that we have the capacity to do evil, too.  We have to understand that we needs the laws of the Torah to discipline ourselves so we will keep our emotions in check, so we will keep our crazy ideas in check, and we will not use the ideas in our mind in a bad way but will keep it in moral bounds.  Every emotion can be put to good use, even anger.  If you are angry because people are persecuted, because people are hurt, if you are angry and turn it into righteous indignation then that is good, but the world is topsy turvy.  The world is not constant.

That is, of course, what the story of Purim teaches us.  One day the Jews in Persia were on top.  After all, Mordechai was a minister to the king and they were invited to all the king's parties.  Things were going well for them.  All of a sudden overnight the king gives his ring to Haman and everything turns upside down and the Jews are about ready to be killed.  Only because G‑d intervened without seeming to intervene, which is, of course, the whole story of Purim (G‑d's name is not mentioned in the Megillah), and G‑d chooses strange means to save us, drunken parties, etc., the chance selection of a Jewish queen, but G‑d can use anything He wants to save the Jewish people.  G‑d can act without seeming to act and we are saved.  We are saved, but we feel the threat and the Jew in his bones from them on knew and knows that to live a Jewish life means to live a precarious life, and we have to have a sixth sense as to what is going on.  The Jews of Russia have that sixth sense.  They know that they have to get out of Russia, that the ground is burning under their feet.  They know that because of the great instability there that a scapegoat is needed, and the Jews have already been the traditional scapegoat in Russia.  Anti-semitism has never been squelched in Russia.  We have to help them and make sure that they get out.  People are afraid and they have a right to be afraid.  Pogroms are advertised openly in newspapers.  Two young Jewish boys were killed in Leningrad and Mogen Davids carved on their bodies.  Families are getting letters saying leave your apartment in ten days or we will kill you.  There is terrible fear in Russia.  Things have turned topsy Curvy in just a short time.  People who just a few months ago would never even consider leaving are now leaving.  We have to make sure they can leave.  In order to be a Jew we have to not only understand.  Torah and be willing to practice Torah, but we have to understand human nature, too.  We have to understand what human being are capable of.  A lecturer came to this community a few weeks ago and talked at a prominent Jewish organization and he said that the latest research has shown how man has a great capacity for evil, a greater capacity than imagined.  We Jews, though, should realize that this is true.  After all, German, the most enlightened country in the world, had a Holocaust.  In the 1920's the Jews had the highest positions in Germany.  Jews were in parliament, were ministers, were in all the arts and science and literature and newspapers and high positions in the business community.  They were accepted all over and overnight, with Hitler's election, everything turned around.  In order to be Jewish, in order to preserve Judaism we have to teach our children that man has the capacity to do evil.  We have to be on our lookout, and that we, as individuals, have the capacity to do evil, and unless we live ordered, stable, decent lives we can succumb to drugs and alcohol and become fiends and do terrible things.  After all, there was never any child abuse and wife beating in Judaism.  Now you find among Jews this phenomena.  We know that we can understand why Nase Vanishma, what we said at Mount Sinai, is apropos.  We will do and we will understand, but we have to understand our own nature, that we have the capacity to do evil.  We have to understand the world, that the world needs Torah, that we need Torah in order that we can overcome this tendency sometimes to do evil.  But why do we need this other Nishma - and we will hear his voice when he comes to the Holy?  Because there is more to Judaism than the negative element.  We need Judaism, true, to control ourselves, and the world needs Judaism in order to control itself, but Judaism has a positive element.  It is the joy of mitzvahs, the joy of keeping Shabbos, the joy of being surrounded by your family, the joy of being together for a simcha, the joy of raising children and seeing them grow and develop, the joy of doing mitzvahs together.  We also need this as well as the negative aspect in order to hold us together.  Unfortunately, there are many Jews who only stress the negative aspect of Judaism, the anti-Semitism, the evil that abounds around us, but they do not stress the positive aspect.  It is the positive which really keeps Jews together.  That is why it is so important that we celebrate simchas together, that we see the beauty and joy and happiness that Judaism gives us.

I am reminded of the story about two women writers who got together.  They were very successful and each had 4 children.  One turned to the other and said, "What would you like people to say about us 100 years from now?"  The woman looked at her friend and said, "Well, 100 years from now I would like people to say about us that we look good for our age."  It is important that we be positive.  It is important that we understand the beauty of Judaism.  Therefore, these three are all intimately connected.  We have to do mitzvahs, we have to understand them, we have to understand the decrees of the king (our own nature and the evil lurking in us and within society, and we need the Torah to combat this evil.  We also have to understand that we have to be positive and appreciate the beauty of Judaism.  If we will have these three things then Judaism will endure forever.  Let us hope that it will endure so that the Mashiach will come.  Amen.