Winning the Lottery – Parshat Lech Lecha 5777

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Winning the Lottery

In January of this year, TIME magazine published an article about the terrible things that happen to lottery winners. The article quotes a study that found that 70% of people who come into large sums of money lose it only a few years later. The author goes on to cite several examples of worst-case scenarios involving big ticket winners, including bankruptcy and even murder.

Monetary wealth comes at a price. Literally. Of course your chances of surviving the pitfalls of being rich are probably greater if the wealth is accumulated over time rather than all at once. However, in either case money (in all amounts) carries the burden of responsibility to use it wisely.

Perkei Avot teaches, “More money, more problems,” of course borrowing from Notorious B.I.G., who teaches “Mo Money Mo Problems.” The rabbis were trying to remind us that with the good comes the bad. As some Powerball winners discover, more money seems like a blessing until it creates more problems than you started with. This week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha, also has an interesting take on that very idea.

Parshat Lech Lecha brings us finally into the narrative of Abraham and Sarah and the true beginning of our history as the Jewish people. The text begins with Avram and Sarai leaving their land, the land that they knew and felt comfortable in, to follow God’s command and go to Egypt. The text continues with their ongoing problems in Egypt and ends with the changing of their names from Avram/Abram to Avraham/Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.

Early in the parshah we learn that Abraham went from Egypt back to the Negev with all that he had, together with his nephew Lot. The Torah teaches in chapter 13, verse 2, “Now Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold.” That is to say, Abraham had a lot of possessions, and that meant that theoretically he also had a lot of power.

But the Hebrew word for “rich” the Torah uses here is not one that suggests the power of riches. Instead, the word kaved is used, which translates to mean heavy or burdened. Furthermore, wealth is relative and subjective. Abraham was rich with material items, but as we learn later, felt “poor” before he and Sarah were finally able to build a family together. The Torah leads us to believe that perhaps for a righteous person like Abraham, great wealth is accompanied by the great burden to use it responsibly. May this be our lesson as well.

[photo credit: apardavila PowerBall jackpot is a whopping $800 million via photopin (license)]

What I Told Teenagers About the Election

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Many of my rabbinic colleagues have eloquently put into words much of what is in my heart. Tonight I addressed a group of teens during Hebrew school, and I offered these additional thoughts.

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Truthfully, this was a difficult morning to wake up to. I started the day with a lot of questions. Is my country safe and secure? Are our savings and investments stable? Will my 3-month-old son be denied health care? Will my daughter still be able to freely belt out the same Hebrew songs many of you learned growing up in this very building?

But amid all these scary feelings that kept piling up, here’s what I realized. I didn’t change. Having a different person in the White House doesn’t make me a different person. I’m always going to fight for what I believe in. I’m always going to teach my children the values that are important to me. You have every right to be disappointed or happy about the outcome of this election. But these feelings will pass, and you will remain. You will fight. You will teach. And you will look past today because you learned these three lessons:

  • First, don’t even for a second think that your voice or your vote doesn’t count. This presidential race was won because enough voters made it clear they wanted change. So we got change. And we’ll find out over the coming weeks and months if it’s change for the better or not. And just because this election is over doesn’t mean you can’t still make your voice heard. You don’t have to be old enough to vote to write a letter to your representative if there’s an issue you care about.
  • Second, pay more attention to what people do than to what they say. Bullies use meaningless words because that’s all they have. It’s a magic trick, and sometimes people are fooled. Don’t be fooled by bullies.
  • Third, v’ahavta l’reyecha kamocha. Love your neighbor as yourself. Your neighbor, no matter the distance between your houses or the “color” of the states in which you live, was created in the image of God. We all have a spark of divine potential. Let’s not diminish it by reducing each other to red or blue, this side or that side.

How will I teach my daughter that she has value and worth? I will love her, and I will teach her to love and respect herself. How will I teach my son that it is unacceptable to degrade others? I will love him, and I will teach him to share that love and to give others, including leaders with differing points of view, the benefit of the doubt.

Regardless of the results of this election, my values and morals have not changed. So how will I move forward? I will simply love harder, speak out louder, and represent myself every step of the way. And you will too.

Noah for President – Parshat Noach 5777

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I’m sure by this point in the election cycle, you’ve heard plenty of people from all political persuasions talking about the dilemma of choosing the “lesser of two evils.” Though the label “evil” might be intended as hyperbole, that doesn’t change the fact that our two major parties nominated candidates who are viewed unfavorably among a significant number of people, even from within their own parties.

Our Torah portion this week is also about a man who, as some scholars suggest, was not necessarily an ideal leader, but was simply the best choice available. This week we read parshat Noach, which tells of the evil impulses running rampant in society, Noah’s building of the ark, a covenant with God through a rainbow, and the building of a tower to approach God. Noah is the man in charge. He receives God’s call to build the ark and the call to put his family and pairs of animals on this vessel. And, when the flood waters have subsided, he is supposed to regenerate the earth and be in covenant with God. One can imagine this to-do list and the weight of responsibility here sitting heavily on Noah’s shoulders.

Even among the great commentators on our Torah text there is debate over who Noah was for his generation, in our story, and in our lives. Noah is referred to as “Ish tzadik b’dorotav,” a righteous person in his generation. The commentators question what exactly that means. Is he righteous compared to others in his generation, thus if he’d been in another time (for example among Abraham or Moshe) he wouldn’t be that great? Or is it suggesting that in spite of his generation he is still a good person? Furthermore, did he do enough to try to save others like Abraham did with S’dom and Gomorrah or like Moshe in response to the golden calf? In both of these cases, our people’s leaders fought to save more people, while Noah doesn’t appear to save anyone but himself and his family.

The question remains is Noah to be lauded for his work or is he simply the best of the worst? While I’m not sure there is ever anything to be gained by making these subjective comparisons, I still wonder what Noah’s place is in our tradition. He is our prime example of at least relative righteousness, standing up when no one else had the courage or conviction to do so. However, he later acts immodestly when he disrobes in front of his sons. He goes to work to save other living beings, but does he go far enough to try to save other humans?

Sometimes the good we are able to do is limited by surrounding factors, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, and it doesn’t mean we should resort to a “best of the worst” mindset. The lesson of Noah is to be our best possible selves, no matter the circumstances.

Happy Days – Parshat Bereshit 5777

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happy-days

Is it just me, or do you also hear the Happy Days theme song in your head when we read the story of creation? In both cases, we go through the days of the week and call them “happy” or “good.” In fact, you could substitute the words “it was good” in place of “happy days,” and you’d have a nice little Bereshit theme song:

Sunday, Monday, it was good.

Tuesday, Wednesday, it was good.

Thursday, Friday, it was good.

Saturday, what a day, I think I’ll take a nap.

At the end of each day of creation, God takes a moment to step back and take note of all that has been accomplished in anticipation of the next productive step. It makes me wonder if God would still have had the satisfaction of “good” if there hadn’t been this daily check-in. Perhaps the “good” isn’t a direct response to the creation at all, but actually God taking a moment to simply stop at the end of the day. We focus on Shabbat as God’s rest after creation, but the division between the days seems to indicate there was also a “rest” after each day.

This is the lesson of creation. Setting aside a moment at the end of the day to look at what we have accomplished and what is good – in our professional and personal lives – means that we are actively checking in with ourselves and those around us. Furthermore, setting aside an entire day (and believe me, as someone who “works” on Shabbat, I know how hard this is to do) means having the ability to reconnect with one another and refresh for the next week.

The happiness conveyed in the theme song is a helpful reminder to stop and take these moments of appreciation. Every week when Duncan and I look at our calendars and plan our schedules, it reinforces how frenetic and fast-paced our lives seem to be. In order to get any family time or down time, we have to schedule it in. This section of text in parshat Bereshit details the creation of the world day by day, but also asks us to reflect on our own “happy days.” As we enter another year and another cycle of Torah, let us work to make every day a day that brings happiness, connection, and our own creation.

Parenting by the Parshah – V’zot Habrachah

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Can you believe we’ve reached the end of the Torah already? And the final parshah, V’zot Habracha, which is a helpful reminder to look back on all the blessings of the previous year, is also the perfect transition to my next video series.

Later this year, we’ll begin a new journey together called Birkat Hashanah, in which we’ll be talking about blessings for all seasons and times in our lives. See you soon!