Don’t worry.
I’ve been saving that quote for a bit. It seems like the right time to use it.
Earlier in the week, someone told me how her family went to a relative’s baby’s brit milah (bris/circumcision) here in Israel. They were planning on getting there at 8 AM, which would have been very normal to have it that early, but got a call that it would be delayed for an hour so that the father could get home from miluim.
Army reserves.
So the new father, who hadn’t met his new son yet, went in from the field, to hold his son for this tradition, this commandment, that reaches back through every generation of Jews since the days of Avraham, the first Jew. Stoic, proud, grateful. She showed me a picture and I immediately started tearing up. We agreed that that was one thing we olim, new immigrants could do for the country. We could cry.
Everyone is busy. There was no flour left in the supermarket today; so many people are baking challah for the soldiers for Shabbat; cookies and cakes as well. Making food for the displaced families; the families with husbands serving in the army reserves. People are cleaning schools; picking vegetables of the fields that have been abandoned. Despair is not allowed in public, but thousands of therapists have made themselves available.
But cry? That I can do.
I can also take on learning more. I’ve seen posts from rabbis who are honest about not being able to do their normal text work while on duty, and knowing this is not the time to do that. But learn? I can do that.
I have been going through the Torah with 929 (in English here) for awhile now, reading a chapter of the Torah every day. Yesterday, we read the second chapter of Ezekiel.
וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֵלָ֑י בֶּן־אָדָם֙ עֲמֹ֣ד עַל־רַגְלֶ֔יךָ וַאֲדַבֵּ֖ר אֹתָֽךְ׃ (א)
And it said to me, “O mortal, stand up on your feet that I may speak to you.”
Sefaria
So many things in this one sentence spoke to me. The first is the name that G-d will use for Yechezkel throughout the book; בן אדם, translated here as “mortal”, but literally meaning “the son of man”. It is the phrase used in a famous piyut sung during the month before Rosh Hashanah in preparation for the holiday.
?בֶּן אָדָם מַה לְּךָ נִרְדָּם
Mortal, why do you fall asleep?
National Library of Israel (you can listen to 28 versions of this song here by various communities of the Sephardic world here; North Africa, Portugal, Yemen…the one I like is #7)
It reiterates my claim that we as a nation did not do enough work fixing all of our problems during this time of introspection of the High Holidays. The depth of our problems today are partially because we were so broken into fractured camps, relishing any chance to separate ourselves from the other…
Yes, I quoted above that sometimes things happen for no reason. But our job here is to find out if it did.
So were we sleeping on the job? Absolutely. Too many of us.
Maybe I have to continue with the sentence to find purpose. עֲמֹ֣ד עַל־רַגְלֶ֔יךָ; stand up on your feet. Yes, it is time for us to stand up for what is right.
It brings me to my next train of thought:
הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אֵין בּוּר יְרֵא חֵטְא, וְלֹא עַם הָאָרֶץ חָסִיד, וְלֹא הַבַּיְשָׁן לָמֵד, וְלֹא הַקַּפְּדָן מְלַמֵּד, וְלֹא כָל הַמַּרְבֶּה בִסְחוֹרָה מַחְכִּים. וּבְמָקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ:
He used to say: A brute is not sin-fearing, nor is an ignorant person pious; nor can a timid person learn, nor can an impatient person teach; nor will someone who engages too much in business become wise. In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.
Sefaria Pirkei Avot
(I knew I had written about this before oh gosh almost 10 years ago how I quoted it to someone as I went to work…but the lesson is even more essential today. How do we step up effectively?)
Rav Amital discusses menschlichkeit; דרך ארץ derekh eretz as an essential element of living your best life:
Maharal defines the idea of derekh eretz (Netivot Olam, netiv Derekh Eretz) quoting the Maharal:
Derekh eretz is comprised of all the ethical teachings in tractate Avot,as well as the ethical teachings mentioned in the Talmud, and all other ethical teachings. It consists of conduct that is proper and that is pleasing to people. It includes teachings which, if one does not follow them, he thereby commits a great sin and transgression, so that one must be mindful of them. This is why they are called “divrei mussar” (“chastising words”), for they chastise a person that he should not walk in the path of evil.
Maharal continues with a discussion regarding the significance of placing derekh eretz prior to Torah:
For the patriarchs of the world, whom the Blessed One accompanied wherever they went, so that one might have imagined that the normal way of the world, i.e., the way of man as man, did not apply to them whatsoever – this is certainly not true, for they lived according to the normal way of the world. If the Blessed One performed miracles on their behalf outside the way of the world, this was only temporary and when necessary. Otherwise, they lived according to the way of the world, for derekh eretz is the way of this world. He who does not conduct himself in accordance with the ways of the world is not considered part of the world at all. Hence, a person should not make light of things that are the way of the world, for derekh eretz preceded the world… The world cannot exist without derekh eretz, as [the Sages] said: When there is no derekh eretz, there is no Torah. And from here we learn that derekh eretz is a fundamental part of the Torah, which is the way of the tree of life.
https://etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/great-thinkers/harav-yehuda-amital/derekh-eretz-being-mensch
This is the basis for humankind. The world cannot exist without this decency. He continues to say this means treating people you don’t agree with (or who are even idolaters) with kindness, even interrupting your prayers to greet people. I think this works for this week’s Torah portion, where Avraham gets up from G-d’s visit to go greet the strangers walking near in the desert.
Rav Amital also brings in the Netziv:
This was the praise of the patriarchs, that in addition to being righteous, saintly, and lovers of God in the best possible manner, they were also straight and honest, that is, they conducted themselves with the nations of the world, even the ugliest idolaters, with love, and they sought their welfare, that being the fulfillment of the purpose of creation.
https://etzion.org.il/
Back to the third chapter of Ezekiel for a moment; Rav Yoel Bin Nun brings a comparison of Yechezkel (yes, I’m going back and forth with the spelling) with previous prophets, particularly Avraham from this week’s portion also. Yechezkel is silent for a week; Avraham is continually spurred by G-d to speak up on behalf of others, not for a false sake of fighting victimhood, but for the sake of truth and justice.
ראשית הנבואה באברהם היא דווקא בנבואת תפילה – “הָשֵב אשת האיש כי נביא הוא, וְיִתפַּלֵל בַּעַדְךָ וֶחְיֵה…” (בראשית כ, ז), והתפילה על סדום היא הדוגמה והמופת – ה’ בחר בנביא כשותף להנהגת העולם, והוא הזמין אותו להתווכח (ואפילו להתמקח) על משפט ועל צדקה – ‘תפילה’ (משורש פל”ל; ‘פלילי’), שפירושה התדיינות משפטית!
The beginning of the prophecy in Abraham is precisely in the prophecy of prayer – “Return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and let him pray for you and live…” (Genesis 20:7), and the prayer over Sodom is the example and the example – God chose the prophet as a partner in the leadership of the world, and He invited him to debate ( and even haggle) for a trial and for charity – ‘prayer’ (from the root פל”ל; ‘criminal’), which means litigation!
https://www.929.org.il/page/454/post/11307
Are we accepting upon ourselves to fight for justice in the world? Are we crying to G-d? Are we crying loud enough? Are we standing up?
But with love.
With love.
We moved some of our artwork that we were storing in our in-laws’ apartment here while our construction was going on. They graciously agreed to allow a family who fled from their home in the south that was under attack to come stay there until things are more peaceful. We’re not ready to hang any artwork yet, but I wanted to have this displayed.
touchingtoes 
A beautiful, thoughtful, post. I learned from reading it. Thank you.
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Thank you 😘
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