The man of this story was ready to pay a big amount of money to be a Cohen. Nevertheless, he didn’t know what being a Cohen meant. He didn’t know that to be a Cohen is something that is transmitted from parents to sons, and that a Cohen’s son automatically is a Cohen. The man of our story wanted the honor without knowing the meaning of such an honor.

Tomorrow we’ll read in the Torah:

Much has been said about the "Chosen People", Jews were pursued and killed because we were the "Chosen People". By the way, Shalom Aleichem, with his particular humor, put in the mouth of one of his characters who suffered the horrors of the Pogroms, the following prayer: "Lord of the Universe, I know that we are the "Chosen People"...but sometime you can choose also someone else".

Many Jews like to think and to tell their friends that they belong to the chosen people.

To be part of the "Chosen People" is not like being part of a distinguished country club, or like having a golden credit card, or free tickets to go to the movies.

God didn’t choose us because of something special in our personality or because we were superior: He chose us to fulfill a special mission. Not "because of something special", but "for something special."

If we were chosen for something, to fulfill a special mission, we need to know the nature of this mission. It is not worth having the money to be a Cohen if you don’t know what it means to be a Cohen. To be the "Chosen People" is really irrelevant, if we don’t know why we were chosen.

We need to start to know better what belongs to us. To talk about the Jewish heritage or about the people of the book, isn’t worth anything if we don’t know the heritage and the book.

By the way, some Christians like to remind us that we are the "Chosen People". However, many Jews don’t know what it really means to be part of such a "Chosen People."

I would like to invite you to appreciate what belongs to us, what is ours. Don’t wait for other people from outside to tell us what Judaism says about this issue or other issues. Let us start to study more, to be more involved.

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are days for coming back. Let us give time to come back to our own heritage, to our own world. Don’t miss the opportunity.

Shabat Shalom!

The idea of Reward and Punishment linked to the fulfillment or not of God’s commandments, appears in our Sidrah, Sidrat Ki- Tavo, in its entire dimension.

And its counterpart:

Blessings and curses appear not to belong to our scheme of thought. First of all, not everybody can understand how blessings and curses work. In addition, entering into the third millenium, not many people believe that curses and blessings can really change their lives.

But there is still another problem. It seems to be that the righteous person does not always receive the blessings and the evil one the curses. Our Sages couldn’t find an easy solution to this issue. It is written in Pirkei Avot - The Chapter of the Fathers:

"Rabbi Yannai said: Nothing is in our hand (we can explain) neither the prosperity of the lawless nor the suffering of the righteous" (Avot 4:19)

Jewish history, since Rabbi Yannai’s times through our days (including the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms and the Shoah), can make our verses irrelevant if not aggravating.

So, How can we understand our verses? How can we honor them as an entire part of our Holy heritage, maintaining at the same time a mature attitude toward them?

The answer to these questions may not be an easy one.

One possibility is to see the reward and the punishment not applying to this material world but rather to the world to come. This is the point of view of one of the sages in the Mishnah:

"Rabbi Yaacov said, This world is like the vestibule before the world to come; prepare yourself in the vestibule so that you may be able to enter the banquet hall" (Avot 4:21). And explains Samson Raphael Hirsch: "The world to come is one of blissful happiness, and all the joy and pleasures which even the longest lifetime on earth could afford, cannot outweigh even one single hour of spiritual satisfaction such as is found in the world to come"

Rabbi Yaacov’s opinion is shared by almost any traditional commentator, and accepted by many orthodox and conservative Rabbis (included myself). In traditional Jewish societies, Rabbi Yaacov’s opinion is an integral part of adults and children’s theological experience. However, the questions is, How do we bring this issues to non observant Jews? How can our verses about blessings and curses still be relevant to their lives?

Another possibility to deal with these verses on reward and punishment is to make ours the teachings of Antigonos of Socho who taught: "Do not be like the servant who serve their master for the sake of receiving a reward, but be like servants who serve their masters without expecting a reward" (Avot 1:3).

Antigonos of Socho is telling us: forget the reward! Do whatever God commanded you; don’t expect blessings and don’t fear of curses. Although it is difficult to disagree with Antigonos of Socho (his’ is a very mature attitude), it is also difficult to get excited from his words. Members of our congregations want to know why should they care about being Jewish? If there is a blessing, where is it?

The Hafetz Hayim comes to our help with a very simple, yet revolutionary way to read our verse:

Says the Hafetz Hayim: "

One should rearrange the order of the words and interpret it thusly: That "you will listen to the Lord your God" is a separate blessing in itself together with the other blessings. And, indeed, there is no greater blessing than this.

To listen to God is not a necessary condition to receive the blessings. It is the blessing itself. Moreover, it is the greatest blessing we can receive.

Having a Shabbat to elevate ourselves spiritually, honoring our parents, relying on God and only on God, celebrating a Passover Seder, is not part of a set of rules we need to obey to be blessed later. It is the blessing itself.

And that is the reason that when we educate towards Jewish values and Jewish practice, we should lead with our example. Not only because we should behave according to the way we preach, but mainly because it is the only way we can transmit this sense of blessing and enthusiasm in fulfilling God’s commandments.

This model tells our congregants that instead of thinking: "I need to understand in order to be part" we should think: "I need to be part in order to understand".

In this model, we don’t fulfill God’s commandments to be blessed. We want to experience the blessing of fulfilling God’s commandments.

And that is the reason the Torah is telling us: "All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you". Once you start fulfilling God’s commandments –even if you don’t completely understand them- the blessings will come upon you and overtake you. Before you will be able to rationalize the process, you will feel blessed and full with joy.

Elul is a month of commitments. Let’s make a personal and a congregational commitment to increase our Jewish practice during the coming year, and may God bless all of us with joy, sustenance and peace.

Shabbat Shalom!

What is the meaning of the Mitzvah of Bikkurim? Why it is so important to bring the first fruits to Hashem (symbolically to the Cohen)? What is wrong in bringing, let us say, the second fruits, or just fruits?

We have in the Torah a history of offerings, even before the giving of the Torah. The best known of these offerings is precisely, the first one, the offerings of the two brothers, Cain and Abel.

We know very little about God’s reasons for accepting one offering and rejecting the other. The only clue we find in the Torah is in the words: "firstlings of his flock and from their choicest". In Abel’s selection, God’s acceptance appears to be implicit: Abel dedicated "the first", to God.

So we know that bringing "the Bikkurim", the first fruits, the first born animals and even the firstborn people, had a special status, but we don’t know yet, why.

The Artscroll commentary on the first verses of our Torah portion, adds a new dimension:

The words of the commentator require further explanation. Why does he say: "For a Jew to say that his every accomplishment -- no matter how much sweat he invested in it -- is a gift from God, is one of the goals of Creation"? Why does the commentator use the words "his every accomplishment"? Our verse does not talk about "every accomplishment", but only "the first accomplishment, the first fruits, the Bikkurim"!

To answer this question we need to turn to our society and to the value it gives to being "the first". If America is a competitive society –what I believe it is- being the first in such competitive society is almost a commandment.

I remember a commercial on television. In the Commercial they showed the first man stepping on the moon with the following inscription: Who remembers who was second? And then Columbus with the same inscription: Who remembers who was second? The message of our society is clear: if you are not the first, if you are the second, or the third, you are condemned to oblivion. If you are not a winner, you are a looser.

And now we can understand why the commentary says that whoever gives to God "the first accomplishment" is actually giving "every accomplishment". By giving up the first fruits, your most precious possession, you give up being the first, and you admit publicly that you, and everything you possess, your accomplishments, your wealth, your countless blessings, belong to God, who is really the "First One".

In this regard, the ritual of bringing the Bikkurim, the first ripened fruits to the Holy Temple of Jerusalem -may it be rebuilt promptly in our days- is a wonderful lesson in humility, in being humble.

However, there is another important concept involved in the ritual of Bikkurim, one that my partner in Torah, Rabbi Gedaliah Machlis -may he live a long and good life- shared with me this past week, and I will share with you.

Every beginning includes within itself whatever will come after it. First steps are important, because they prophesize how the steps that will follow will be. Whenever I started a new endeavor: any important studies, the rabbinate, when I got married, or when I moved to a new home, my mother always told me: "start with the right foot" – "Mit Dem Rechtn Fus". This is the way Jewish mothers have to say: "If your first step will be a good one, a secure one, a firm one, the ones after, will follow the same path".

When a Jew brought his first fruits, his Bikkurim to Jerusalem and his heart was filled with joy and thankfulness, he opened for himself and his family the heavenly channels of spiritual and material blessings.

We also know that the beginning of each day encapsulates within itself the rest of the day.

If a person wakes up upset and distressed, he may have a rough day. If a Jew starts his day with words of prayers, with Talit and Tefilin, he will have a Jewish day. If the first words a Jew utters when he wakes up are: "Mode Ani Lefanecha Melech Chai Vekayam, She’Hechezarta Bi Nishmati Bechemlah, Rabbah Emunatecha" – "I gratefully thank You O living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with compassion. Abundant is Your faithfulness!", he will probably feel God’s blessed presence during the entire day. And if you don’t believe me, I just invite you to try it.

And what is true regarding each day is true regarding the entire year. Each beginning of the year, each Rosh Hashanhah, has the potential to encompass within itself whatever will happen during the rest of that year. And therefore, if we make a commitment at the beginning of this coming year, during this coming Rosh Hashanah, to improve ourselves, to grow up in kindness, in sensitivity, in Tzedakah and in observance, in Torah and in Mitzvot, if we just start changing, true change will follow.

Our Rabbis explained: "The Almighty leads a person through the way he wants to go". Therefore, if we show to the Almighty -blessed be He- that we want to walk in His path, He will provide us with extra strength and extra resources to do that.

And may Hashem fulfill for us the prophetic words of our Torah portion: "All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field", Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out" (Deuteronomy 28: 2-3,6).

Shabbat Shalom!