This week and again for Sukkot and Simhat Torah, the newsletter will arrive on Sunday rather than its normal time. This week's word of Torah is based on texts taught by Erin Smokler.
I am leading an in person alternative High Holiday service under the auspices of the SAJ. Contact them or me via my email for more information. Shanah Tovah--wishing you a year of reflection and change Michael (MichaelStrassfeld.com) mjstrassfeld@gmail.com
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A word of Torah:
A few weeks ago, we read in the Torah, Deut. 22:1: “If you see your fellow’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow (hitalamta meihem hashev teshiveim).” The first Hebrew verb suggests you shouldn’t act as if you don’t see the lost object. The Torah goes on to expand this commandment to refer to anything lost by another person.
For the Hasidic master, Yakov Yosef of Polnoye, what is “lost” is actually the soul of the person. We often try to avoid people who are needy or struggling with “issues.” Such people disappear from our view. Using the language of this season of returning/teshuvah, we are told you must certainly return them– hashev teshiveim. The return can be helping them find their way or simply make them feel part of the community rather than outsiders. The next biblical verse could be read to mean that even if you have no connection to them and you don’t know them or understand who they are, you should still strive to help them feel included.
The Sefat Emet, another Hasidic master, comments on the same verse: “When a person trains themselves so that they are unable to ignore a friend’s loss, whether it is a material loss or an emotional/spiritual loss, then they have the power to return (le-hashiv) to them what is lost and thereby lift them up.” The Sefat Emet is reading this verse as calling us to pay attention to people’s loss and reach out to them. He goes on to suggest that you can also do this process with yourself by seeing what is lost within yourself.
These teachings are powerful challenges to us to pay attention to those around us. The process of teshuvah is not just for you, but to help others find their way. This is not about those who are healthy leading the wounded. One important aspect of this is to realize we are also lost and imperfect.
It struck me there is another level to this concept. There is much conversation these days about reparations. What if this commandment is meant to call on us to pay attention to people who have suffered losses because of past unjust policies. We are told not to ignore them even if we don’t know them, even though we were not alive when the original injustice occurred, or even if our ancestors who were alive were not involved. The loss is still affecting people’s lives today. What would it mean to pay attention to that loss and to try to ameliorate it to bring about healing? This too could be a fulfillment of this verse of returning what had been lost.
Intention/kavana for the week Part of the proces of teshuvah can be a shifting of purpose. Instead of a hunger for success and a thirst for fame, our ambitions can be for pursuing tzedek/justice and shalom/peace. It can be savoring the blessings of life, love and friendship, and cultivating gratitude and satisfaction.
Song:
hineh yamim ba'im ve-hishlahti ra'av ba-aretz, lo ra'av la-lehem ve-lo tzama la-mayim, ki im lishmoa eit divrei adonai
Behold the days are coming, that I shall send forth hunger in the land, not hunger for bread, nor thirst for water, but desire to hear the words of God. Amos 8:11
