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My wife, Laura, is a special person. Those who know her know this well. But there are little things that she has done and does that make her truly special. When we were younger, we were counselors at Camp Ramah. One regular day, Laura was walking along the path next to the gym/Beit Am. As she was walking, she noticed a rather large stick on the path. Without much thought, she picked up the stick removing it from the path, and threw it into a grassy area that had less foot traffic. Then, she kept walking. But, before she could take more than a few steps, the Director of the Camp came running out of his office to stop and thank her. He told her that his office windows face the path that she was walking on, and that he had seen that stick hours ago, and was waiting to see how long it would take for someone to remove it. Laura had passed the test and cleared the path for those who followed. Now people could walk safely without obstacles.

The Talmud (B. Brachot 17b) teaches that the whole world is sustained for the sake of (bi-shevil/בשביל) Hanina. The Noam Elimelelkh teaches that the word “for the sake of/bi-shevil” means that Rabbi Hanina created a pathway (shevil/שביל) that opened up channels through which the whole world is sustained…We see that some righteous people/tzaddikim engage in severe ascetic practices for many years. Through this they achieve great levels of piety. But there are others who do not follow such strict regimens and they too attain great piety and wholeness. The truth is, however, that they too have reached this place because of the [first] tzaddik’s efforts. His strict discipline served to remove the separating barrier, sweeping aside the thorns, brambles, and briars that lay in the way, all the external elements that keep people from following this pathway to God…This is the meaning of the verse [from our Parsha, Parshat Hayyei Sarah,] “Abraham was old, come into days/אברהם זקן בא בימים (Gen 24:1).” “Old” refers to one who has attained wisdom. “Come into days” means that he has brought about unceasing compassion for the word “day” implies compassion (presumably since the day brings sun, sight, certainty and warmth)…Our father Abraham, through his service, removed the great separating barrier, making it easier for others to approach God in this way. That is what any tzaddik wants and longs for—that people be enabled to walk in God’s path.

My teacher, Rabbi Art Green, writes that this teaching offers a model for righteous leadership: the tzaddik as path-breaker. Compassion itself is a particular religious path. And that is how Abraham lived his life. Imagine the world we could create for others if our first instinct was compassion, like Abraham! This takes hard work to be able to compassionately listen to those we disagree with and to act compassionately for others while still taking care of ourselves. And this is our challenge. In order to be righteous people, we must compassionately create room for those around us. This week, may be blessed to travel on the smooth roads that our ancestors paved for us. And may we succeed in continuing to blaze the trail for those who come after.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ezra

Beans, beans, good for the heart. The more you eat, the more you....laugh! This joke was the litmus test for my sense of humor growing up. My father told me that as soon as I thought this was funnier than the version that I was used to as a young boy (and be honest, the version that many of you immediately thought of!), then I had developed a good sense of humor. Why was that so important? Why must one recognize what is laugh-worthy?
          Sarah our Mother, peace be upon her/שרה אמינו עליה השלום, laughs when she hears the news that God tells Abraham that she will have a child. “And Sarah laughed within herself, saying: 'After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?'/ וַתִּצְחַק שָׂרָה בְּקִרְבָּהּ לֵאמֹר: אַחֲרֵי בְלֹתִי הָיְתָה-לִּי עֶדְנָה, וַאדֹנִי זָקֵן.” Then God asks, “Why did she laugh?!?” And Sarah denies, claiming that she did not laugh. God responds and says, “No, you did laugh.” Classically this has been seen as a lack of faith by Sarah. How could she laugh and mock the powers of God?
          Yafit Klaimer reads this very differently. She teaches that the constant dialogue around laughter in our text (12 times there is laughter surrounding the birth of Isaac/יצחק--which shares the Hebrew root for laughter) hints to us that Sarah in fact did a great thing for us by laughing. And the covenant we have with God becomes a covenant of laughter because of her. Why does Sarah laugh? She laughs because of the absurdity of it all. It makes no intelligent sense to be able to bear a child at such an age! Klaimer points out that this laughter is not lack of faith, and in fact, God welcomes it! The laugh is an authentic response to the amazing news that Sarah received. Sarah was reacting to the wonders of the world. And God’s response, “No, you did laugh”, is God saying that that is indeed an acceptable response. As Klaimer puts it, it is as if God is saying “Don’t give up on your laughter.” Sarah is teaching us how to actually have complete faith in this ironic world where the mysterious and nonsensical accompany our daily lives.
          The reason that my father’s joke is (still) funny, is that it misleads you to an end that you think should not be there, and yet it is. This week we can thank Sarah our Mother for giving us a different model of what Rabbi Heschel calls “radical amazement.” Often, when we think of radical amazement, we tend to think of solemn and intense moments, like we may imagine happening at Sinai. True amazement is the acceptance of a world that we cannot explain. There is no greater faith in our Creator than accepting that reality. And sometimes, that can be funny, so keep laughing, it is good for the heart.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ezra

     Twenty-one years ago, our family was getting ready for a party. After Shabbat, we were going to celebrate my father’s installation as the Rabbi of a congregation in Chicago. We did not celebrate that night. As Shabbat ended, the week was ushered in with horrifying news from Israel. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated. I am sure many can recall their own memories of when they found out this tragic news.
            This week’s Parsha, Parshat Noah, tells the famous story of Noah and The Flood. Noah is described as being “righteous, pure in his generation./נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו” Rashi, explains that this description is a relative one. Noah was righteous in his generation, but may not have been so in others. Rabbi Elimelekh of Lizhensk (Noam Elimelekh) teaches that there is more to learn from this verse. He writes that “each and every generation is connected at its root to a specific commandment/mitzvah, which it needs to establish more than the other. For example, one generation might be connected to the root that leads it to establish the commandment of fringes/tzitzit more than other commandments So every generation at its root must grasp a specificmitzvah more than others.” Each generation is therefore responsible for bringing out something unique in order to improve the world they received for the generations that follow. Noah was righteous because he responded to the needs of his generation.
            In that way, Rabin was like Noah. Rabin was by no means perfect. And this is not to say that we should all agree with all of his decisions and initiatives. However, Rabin was a leader who wanted to do what was best for his people. He responded to the needs of his people, and that changed greatly over the years. Originally trained as a farmer--Rabin spent time in an agricultural school--he joined the Palmah (the elite fighting wing of the Haganah in pre-state Israel) at a young age when he determined that Israel needed him to fight. And by the time he became Prime Minister for the second time, he had decided that the fighting needed to end. And in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize he described himself a Soldier in The Army for Peace.
            As we enter this Shabbat, I want to push us to think about the needs of our generation. What mitzvah should we concentrate on to bring out the best in the world around us? How can we help support those around us as we consider what our world needs? How can stay in relationship with those whom we disagree with as we discuss what our world needs? We all need to be Noah in our generation. The future does not rest on the work of one person alone. May God grant us the strength to walk out of the Ark together, and begin to build the world as it should be.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ezra

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