Welcome back friends to Torah Thoughts from Adas Israel the Jewish Congregation of Northern Iowa, based in Mason City. We hope you had a wonderful Passover as we now are counting up the days until we reach the giving of the Torah or Shavout. It is called "Counting the Omer" and it is done the night before each day, beginning this year on April 16, 2022 and ending on June 3, 2022. So you know today (Friday the 29th) is the 13th Day of the Omer.
Speaking of days this past Thursday was memorable for two reasons. First of all it was Holocaust Memorial Day. The day we remember and respond to the horrors of that time. And, indeed, today seems so much like what we have witnessed in the past. Evil exists and must, like Amalek, be blotted out. Thursday was also the Workers Memorial Day. Fifty-three years ago the U.S. Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job. We still have far to go. On Thursday, in Iowa, the names of 71 individuals were read. Seventy-one. They were the names of workers, firefighters, police officers who died last year due to illness contracted on the job or of injuries inflected at work. The two days have much in common and it was fitting that both happened just this week.
Acharei Mot
This week we read from Lev. 16 - 18. There are many lessons here and some of them should be very familiar because one of the sections is read during Yom Kippur. But, I'm getting ahead of things. This week we read about the prohibition of acting with cruelty. We are told not to engage in the evil that was Moloch. Moloch was a Canaanite deity that we find in several biblical sources as being associated with the practice of child sacrifice.
According to the great biblical commentator Rashi (Leviticus 18:21), service of this deity consisted of handing over your child to the Moloch priests who would then burn them by passing them through fire. Rashi elaborates with more detail as to the exact worship of Moloch in his comments found in the book of Jeremiah (7:31). The famous Spanish biblical commentator, Nachmanides, notes this ritual sometimes resulted in the child’s death.
One would think we would not need a commandment to defy this evil...but we get it anyway. In this week’s Torah reading we find that G-d expressly forbade the Jews from doing what was done in Canaan: “You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your G-d” (Leviticus 18:21).
Then, again, At the end of this week’s Torah reading we find: “Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, I am the Lord your G-d. Like the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, you shall not do; and like the practices of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, you shall not do...” (18:2-3).
The Lesson
The teaching should be clear. We are not to join in on the practices of those who are of other faiths. Look, it's not because non-Jews practice anything as abhorrent as child sacrifice. Just the opposite our non-Jewish friends and neighbors are commanded to uphold the laws of the Torah. They talk about it all the time.
No, the prohibition of joining in on those religious events is all about assimilation. It can be spiritually intoxicating to deny the mitzvot and eat what you wish, celebrate as you wish, engage in religious services that are not...Jewish. And we can feel welcome and, I will admit, find some comfort there. However, that is the issue. Being a proud Jew who strives, every day, to become better is what we are all about. We've been doing this for thousands of years and the Torah, in this parsha, is telling us to refrain from engaging in the practices of others.
We opened this up with the loss of millions during the Holocaust. It is said that we have lost more due to assimilation which is tragic. Every day we have a choice, which is also in this week's Torah potion, to do what G-d asks of us. "Carry out my laws and safeguard my decrees to follow them; I am Hashem your G-d. You shall observe my decrees and my laws, which man shall carry out and by which he shall live...I am Hashem."
Remember, it's not a...suggestion.
Thank you for reading and about our next Midrash. I'll be out most of May but if you would like to gather for a Virtual Midrash on Shabbat the 7th day of May I can make that happen. Be watching for the email newsletter next week that will also have the ZOOM Link.
On other thing: On Monday of next week my guest will be Rabbi Levi Goldstein who, for eighteen years, has worked for the Orthodox Union traveling Iowa making sure various items are...kosher. I'm really looking forward to this conversation and yes...I'll make sure to send it along.
Thanks again and Shabbat Shalom!
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