Tuesday, February 9, 2016

The Ketubah & the Kotel / Parshat Terumah 2016/5776

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about prayer space at the Kotel, which raises several questions: What’s the buzz about? Why is the Kotel so important to Jews? Should the Kotel be of importance to progressive Jews?

First question: What’s the Kotel buzz about? Last week, the Israeli government approved a plan to establish an egalitarian prayer space at the southern end of the Kotel, the Western Wall (so-named because it is the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount) thanks largely to Women of the Wall and the Israel Religious Action Center, under the leadership of the indomitable Anat Hoffman. Celebration among progressive Jews, and the predictable and appalling comments of ultra-Orthodox reactionaries swirl together in the media haze surrounding the announcement of the compromise agreement.

 Second question: Why is the Kotel important to Jews? This week’s parashah, Terumah, tells the story of one of the greatest moments of Jewish unity: The Israelites bring gifts to Moses for to be used to construct the portable Tabernacle that will accompany them throughout their 40-year journey through the Wilderness. The people bring so much that eventually Moses tells them, “Enough!” At the center of the Tabernacle is the  enclosure for the ark containing the tablets Moses brought down Mount Sinai. Later, long after the people have settled in the Land of Israel, God assigns King Solomon to build a Temple to replace the Tabernacle. The Holy of Holies, containing the ark, will stand at its core.


The Temple of Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., rebuilt by those who returned from Exile, and then underwent a massive expansion by King Herod in the first century B.C.E. Herod began the project by shoring up the hilltop on which the Temple will be built, reinforcing it with a retaining wall. He then rebuilt and refurbished the Temple. When the Romans tore it down in 70 C.E., they were unable to dismantle the entirety of the Western retaining wall because the stones were so massive. Today those that remain constitute the bottom layers of the Kotel, with smaller stones from the Umayyad period filling in the gaps.

The Destruction of the Temple was a cataclysm for the Jewish people. In the wars with Rome thousands upon thousands of Jews were killed and the country was decimated. The loss of the Temple spelled the loss of the religious space that united the people in worship of God. A nascent rabbinic movement gradually filled the void with a growing library of forward-looking rituals and laws that breathed life into the nation again. But at the same time, the Rabbis looked back at the Destruction with an array of intense emotions. We have a wealth of their writings that reflect a spectrum of reactions. On one end of the spectrum, there were those who felt the Destruction was God’s just judgment against Israel for sins she committed. On the opposite end of the spectrum we find enormous anger expressed at God for overreacting, abandoning Israel to her enemies, and participating in the torture of her people.

This week, I want to share with you just one parable of the many, many stories, commentaries, and parables that address and reflect the pain and sadness, confusion and disillusionment, anger and resentment that the Destruction engendered, sentiments that lasted for several centuries. (I’ll interweave an explanation, but I recommend that you first read the parable intact; it is reproduced at the bottom of this drash for that purpose. We are accustomed to reading stories once through and moving on, but to fully understand and appreciate rabbinic stories—even seemingly simple ones—we need to read them many times. Please keep in mind as you read that in rabbinic parables, the king is always God, and the king’s wife, son, or servant is Israel.)

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope (Lamentations 3:21). R. Abba bar Kahana said: [This situation] is like a king who took a certain woman to be his wife. He wrote her a very large marriage contract. So many bridal chambers will I make for you,” he wrote her. So many jewels will I bestow upon you, so much silver and gold will I give you.” Then he left her for many years while he journeyed to a distant province.

The parable opens with a verse from Lamentations, the biblical book of dirges composed in response to the destruction of the First Temple. Tradition attributes them to the prophet Jeremiah. Lamentations 3:21, significantly, tells us where the parable is going to go: hope.

R. Abba bar Kahana tells the story of a king who wrote his wife a generous ketubah (marriage contract). He then went away without explanation and without communicating with her for a long time. In a similar way, the Rabbis mean us to understand, God wrote Israel a generous marriage contract. Can you guess what the rabbis have in mind? And then, from the perspective of the Rabbis, God essentially abandoned Israel, failing to protect her from her enemies and allowing the Romans to enter the Land and destroy the Temple. Abandonment is a strong emotion and, indeed, an accusation, yet the Rabbis did not hesitate to express it.

All this time her neighbors taunted her. Has your husband not abandoned you?” they said. Go! Take another man for yourself.” The woman wept and sighed, but then she would go inside her bridal chamber, read her marriage contract, and console herself.

Alone and bereft of her husband, the woman’s neighbors take advantage of her fragility and tempt her to find another man, but she resists the temptation. What makes it possible for her to wait for his return? Her marriage contract, which she reads again and again in their bridal chamber, reinforces her love for, and loyalty to, the king even though his presence is neither seen nor felt. Similarly, after the Temple was destroyed, other nations taunted Israel, suggesting they follow other gods since theirs had abandoned them. What is it that Jews do that is equivalent to entering the bridal chamber and re-reading their ketubah?

Many days and years later, the king returned. You amaze me!” he said to her. How have you been able to wait for me all these years?” She replied, My lord, O king! If not for the generous marriage contract you wrote me, my neighbors would indeed have led me astray!”

When the king finally returns, he is amazed that his wife has waited for him and remained loyal to him. She is quite honest and admits that the only thing that kept her loyal was the sense of love ignited by reading the ketubah—she certainly hadn’t heard from him nor did she feel his actual presence. And now the Rabbis will decode the parable for us:

So the nations of the world vex the children of Israel. Your God no longer wants you,” they say. He has abandoned you, and removed His Presence from among you. Come! Join us, and we will appoint you rulers and commanders and generals.” But the children of Israel enter their synagogues and study houses where they read in the Torah, I will look with favor upon you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you…and I will establish My abode in your midst, and I will not spurn you (Leviticus 26:9, 11)—and so they console themselves. And in the future, when the redemption arrives, the Holy One, blessed be God, will say to Israel, My children, you amaze me! How have you waited for me all these years?” They will reply, Master of the universe! If not for the Torah you gave us, and the verse, I will look with favor upon you… and I will not spurn you, which we read when we entered our synagogues and study houses, the nations of the world would indeed have led us astray.” This is what is written: If Your law had not been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction (Psalm 119:92). And therefore it says, This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope (Lamentations 3:21).

Torah is the ketubah God has given us. We read and re-read it in our bridal chambers: our synagogues and study houses. When we pray and when we study Torah, we are reading the ketubah, the marriage contract, that God gave us. The Rabbis often likened the Giving of Torah at Mount Sinai to a wedding in which God is the groom and Israel is the bride. While we often cannot feel God’s presence directly, Torah—and especially God’s promises as expressed in Leviticus 26:8-11—keeps us connected to God until we can feel God’s presence again. That is why there is reason to hope. The parable therefore ends on a hopeful note: We always have Torah to keep us connected to God. Today, the Kotel serves as a connection with what once was, and perhaps, for some, a promise of what may yet be.

Third question: Should the Kotel be important to progressive Jews? For many progressive Jews, the Torah is the ketubah that matters. The Kotel is an ancient artifact of a by-gone era, not even part of the ancient Temple but merely of the retaining wall around the Temple Mount. I have heard people express the concern that the worship at the Wall borders on idolatrous worship of the Wall. I can appreciate the concern that perhaps there has been too much focus from all sides on the Wall, and not enough on the real ketubah: Torah. Yet I can also see that the Wall has become a manifestation of the ketubah in the parable: it is a tangible sign of our deep and abiding historical and religious connection to the Land of Israel. Tzur Yisrael; the Rock of Israel.

For the Kotel agreement to become a living, breathing reality, Israel must allocate the funds to
build the platform stipulated in the agreement, as well as access to the area. No doubt there will be an unpleasant fight to make this happen. Yet the precedent has been established that different Jews live their Judaism differently and that the State of Israel  has the moral and political obligation as the state of the Jewish People to recognize and respect this. For this reason, alone, the agreement is a landmark event. From here, we move to the next issues: equality in governmental support for non-Orthodox synagogues, marriage, and conversion. Chazak chazak v’nitchazeik — May we go from strength to strength.


© Rabbi Amy Scheinerman





Eichah (Lamentations) Rabbah 3:21 
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope (Lamentations 3:21). R. Abba bar Kahana said: [This situation] is like a king who took a certain woman to be his wife. He wrote her a very large marriage contract. “So many bridal chambers will I make for you,” he wrote her. “So many jewels will I bestow upon you, so much silver and gold will I give you.” Then he left her for many years while he journeyed to a distant province. All this time her neighbors taunted her. “Has your husband not abandoned you?” they said. “Go! Take another man for yourself.” The woman wept and sighed, but then she would go inside her bridal chamber, read her marriage contract, and console herself. Many days and years later, the king returned. “You amaze me!” he said to her. “How have you been able to wait for me all these years?” She replied, “My lord, O king! If not for the generous marriage contract you wrote me, my neighbors would indeed have led me astray!” So the nations of the world vex the children of Israel. “Your God no longer wants you,” they say. “He has abandoned you, and removed His Presence from among you. Come! Join us, and we will appoint you rulers and commanders and generals.” But the children of Israel enter their synagogues and study houses where they read in the Torah, I will look with favor upon you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you…and I will establish My abode in your midst, and I will not spurn you (Leviticus 26:9, 11)—and so they console themselves. And in the future, when the redemption arrives, the Holy One, blessed be God, will say to Israel, “My children, you amaze me! How have you waited for me all these years?” They will reply, “Master of the universe! If not for the Torah you gave us, and the verse, I will look with favor upon you… and I will not spurn you, which we read when we entered our synagogues and study houses, the nations of the world would indeed have led us astray.” This is what is written: If Your law had not been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction (Psalm 119:92). And therefore it says, This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope (Lamentations 3:21).

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