Today at shul
If I get time and energy simultaneously, I'll post about the last two years and why I haven't posted ( pocketnaomi 's lj has most of the story) but for now, I just want to talk about
(preview apparently won't show whether the lj cut is properly inserted. I'm going to assume I got it right)
(glossary below for non-Jews)
First, between exhaustion & babysitting co-op duties, it had been been almost a month since I actually davened, but this time I got to stay without running off to change diapers or the like for about half the service. It was rejuvenating. There is almost always something new to be found in the liturgy, especially after time off. This time, I noticed that the silent meditation at the end of the Amidah prayer, which had always struck me as a trifle paranoid, as it contemplates that we will be slandered and plotted against, is mostly framed (in this translation, anyway) in the subjunctive. So I can think of it as, may they never even get around to actually slandering me. Which is frankly easier on my nerves, and reminds me that the world does not revolve around me and that my missteps at work or elsewhere probably loom less large in others' eyes than in mine. Also, that sometimes I can't DO anything about people's opinions, and I'll just have to leave it up to G-d. Realizing that, I suddenly felt lighter. I can do what I can do, I can have a little faith that things will be okay, and I am not responsible for ensuring success.
Second, the rabbi's d'var Torah focused on two lines from the previous parsha: There came a new King who knew not Joseph," and "Moses drove his flock into the wilderness." The rabbi connected these to the inauguration, not too brilliantly, although her point that a king MUST take the trouble to "know Joseph," to know the past, was well taken. Anyway, I had never thought much about those verses. This time I noticed a couple of things:
a) Jacob's "issue" that emigrated to Egypt were 70 persons. The text also gives the generations of Moses: Levi to Kohath to Amram to Moses. They are long-lived men, but still, we are talking four generations and/or maybe 500 years between Levi's birth and the Exodus -- and Levi was already well into middle age when he came to Egypt (Judah, his oldest brother, already had grandchildren, although his youngest brother, Benjamin, was still a "youth"). There is a tradition that the time in Egypt was 400 years -- but it could have been far less, and even 400 years is not nearly enough to produce the millions of clan members listed in Numbers by births, no matter how "vigorous" the Hebrew women were. The Israelites' increase is described in terms usually used for locusts: they swarmed over Goshen. Births alone won't do that. Clearly, these were clans of adoption, not of blood. This is probably why Torah lists Moses' ancestry, to show that Moses was actually a linear descendant of Jacob, not of a mere clansman.
Conclusion: there is an implied story here about assimilation and worldly success in Egypt. Not hidden, just unstated because it was probably obvious in 700 BCE or so. Joseph's success and wealth drew many others to become "Israelite." And in the way of Mediterranean clans and tribes, they jostled for power in Egypt.
So when Torah says the new King "knew not Joseph," it means more than the obvious fact that Joseph was dead. The "Joseph" the Egyptians "knew" (of) was an oracle, who gave his best for his adopted country. The latter-day Hebrews? Not so much. I'm not saying "blame the victim," just that they were probably not, from the Egyptian point of view, as desirable as Joseph. So far were they from his faith that it took until another change in reign before they cried out to G-d, and they probably were no more civic-minded than any other clan. The lesson there may be: 1) if you're a stranger in a strange land, hew to a higher moral standard, and 2) either assimilate completely or stay yourself, don't become a second-rate copy.
As for Moses, a footnote says that going from Midian to "the wilderness" was towards Egypt. This is the verse just before the burning bush, and just after Moses, the mighty prince, had fled Egypt and become a refugee, without even his own flock to tend. He had buried himself in that lowly role. Only when he turned and faced Egypt again would G-d talk to him. He didn't need to return to Egypt (or to ha-Eretz) -- he just had to stop avoiding it. He had to treat that direction like any other.
Now, Egypt was the dominant power, the seat of civilization, the land of plenty, the America of its day. In an even broader, more symbolic sense, Egypt is the world of commerce and work, the one we all have to sojourn and slave in. So what do these verses say about living in the real world? Give honest measure -- but don't let its existence control your inner compass. Face towards it or away from it as you think right.
Shul=synagogue
daven=pray(but without the connotation of asking for things)
Amidah=a longish part of the liturgy, which if I were more religious I would say every day, but as I am not, about once a week. There is a meditative passage at the end where we ask for relief from plots and slander. IIRC, it derived from the threat of pogroms.
parsha=the portion of Torah read in shul in a given week. We go through Torah (the Five Books of Moses, first five books of the Christian Bible) parsha by parsha each year. Right now, we're up to the beginning of Exodus.
d'var Torah=words about Torah. A sermon and dissertation.
ha-Eretz=the Land (Israel).
.
(preview apparently won't show whether the lj cut is properly inserted. I'm going to assume I got it right)
(glossary below for non-Jews)
First, between exhaustion & babysitting co-op duties, it had been been almost a month since I actually davened, but this time I got to stay without running off to change diapers or the like for about half the service. It was rejuvenating. There is almost always something new to be found in the liturgy, especially after time off. This time, I noticed that the silent meditation at the end of the Amidah prayer, which had always struck me as a trifle paranoid, as it contemplates that we will be slandered and plotted against, is mostly framed (in this translation, anyway) in the subjunctive. So I can think of it as, may they never even get around to actually slandering me. Which is frankly easier on my nerves, and reminds me that the world does not revolve around me and that my missteps at work or elsewhere probably loom less large in others' eyes than in mine. Also, that sometimes I can't DO anything about people's opinions, and I'll just have to leave it up to G-d. Realizing that, I suddenly felt lighter. I can do what I can do, I can have a little faith that things will be okay, and I am not responsible for ensuring success.
Second, the rabbi's d'var Torah focused on two lines from the previous parsha: There came a new King who knew not Joseph," and "Moses drove his flock into the wilderness." The rabbi connected these to the inauguration, not too brilliantly, although her point that a king MUST take the trouble to "know Joseph," to know the past, was well taken. Anyway, I had never thought much about those verses. This time I noticed a couple of things:
a) Jacob's "issue" that emigrated to Egypt were 70 persons. The text also gives the generations of Moses: Levi to Kohath to Amram to Moses. They are long-lived men, but still, we are talking four generations and/or maybe 500 years between Levi's birth and the Exodus -- and Levi was already well into middle age when he came to Egypt (Judah, his oldest brother, already had grandchildren, although his youngest brother, Benjamin, was still a "youth"). There is a tradition that the time in Egypt was 400 years -- but it could have been far less, and even 400 years is not nearly enough to produce the millions of clan members listed in Numbers by births, no matter how "vigorous" the Hebrew women were. The Israelites' increase is described in terms usually used for locusts: they swarmed over Goshen. Births alone won't do that. Clearly, these were clans of adoption, not of blood. This is probably why Torah lists Moses' ancestry, to show that Moses was actually a linear descendant of Jacob, not of a mere clansman.
Conclusion: there is an implied story here about assimilation and worldly success in Egypt. Not hidden, just unstated because it was probably obvious in 700 BCE or so. Joseph's success and wealth drew many others to become "Israelite." And in the way of Mediterranean clans and tribes, they jostled for power in Egypt.
So when Torah says the new King "knew not Joseph," it means more than the obvious fact that Joseph was dead. The "Joseph" the Egyptians "knew" (of) was an oracle, who gave his best for his adopted country. The latter-day Hebrews? Not so much. I'm not saying "blame the victim," just that they were probably not, from the Egyptian point of view, as desirable as Joseph. So far were they from his faith that it took until another change in reign before they cried out to G-d, and they probably were no more civic-minded than any other clan. The lesson there may be: 1) if you're a stranger in a strange land, hew to a higher moral standard, and 2) either assimilate completely or stay yourself, don't become a second-rate copy.
As for Moses, a footnote says that going from Midian to "the wilderness" was towards Egypt. This is the verse just before the burning bush, and just after Moses, the mighty prince, had fled Egypt and become a refugee, without even his own flock to tend. He had buried himself in that lowly role. Only when he turned and faced Egypt again would G-d talk to him. He didn't need to return to Egypt (or to ha-Eretz) -- he just had to stop avoiding it. He had to treat that direction like any other.
Now, Egypt was the dominant power, the seat of civilization, the land of plenty, the America of its day. In an even broader, more symbolic sense, Egypt is the world of commerce and work, the one we all have to sojourn and slave in. So what do these verses say about living in the real world? Give honest measure -- but don't let its existence control your inner compass. Face towards it or away from it as you think right.
Shul=synagogue
daven=pray(but without the connotation of asking for things)
Amidah=a longish part of the liturgy, which if I were more religious I would say every day, but as I am not, about once a week. There is a meditative passage at the end where we ask for relief from plots and slander. IIRC, it derived from the threat of pogroms.
parsha=the portion of Torah read in shul in a given week. We go through Torah (the Five Books of Moses, first five books of the Christian Bible) parsha by parsha each year. Right now, we're up to the beginning of Exodus.
d'var Torah=words about Torah. A sermon and dissertation.
ha-Eretz=the Land (Israel).
.