Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

“Each one helps the other”

(Isaiah 41, Haftarah for Parashat Lekh Lekha)

This week’s parashah, Lekh Lekha, introduces us to a very different model of a tsaddik (righteous person) than does the previous parashah, Noach.

When Noach is informed that the world is to be destroyed and that he alone (with his family) will be saved, he is content to enter the ark, leaving humanity to perish.

When Avra(ha)m hears God is about to destroy the city of Sedom (as we will see in next week’s parashah), he pleads for its inhabitants: “Far be it from You to do such a thing”. Knowing his future is secure through God’s blessing, he cannot remain indifferent to the suffering and destruction of others.

This week we commemorate the anniversary of Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), considered to be the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.

In his speech, The Perils of Indifference, delivered in the White House, as we approached the new millenium, Wiesel spoke these words:

“The depressing tale of the St. Louis is a case in point. Its human cargo — maybe 1,000 Jews — was turned back to Nazi Germany. And that happened after the Kristallnacht, after the first state sponsored pogrom, with hundreds of Jewish shops destroyed, synagogues burned, thousands of people put in concentration camps. And that ship, which was already on the shores of the United States, was sent back… What happened? I don’t understand. Why the indifference, on the highest level, to the suffering of the victims?“

Our Jewish tradition explains: “Why do we Jews not trace our lineage to Noach but to Avraham? The reason is that ‘Noach walked with God’, not with human beings. He did not concern himself with humanity, his righteousness was only for himself and his household. He was a ‘tsaddik in furs’. He was commanded to build an ark, and he built it, nail after nail, board after board and all that time it did not occur to him that possibly he could still annul the decree and save the world from destruction?!” (Moshe Alshikh)

The Rebbe of Kotsk provides the following explanation of the term “A tsaddik in furs”:

When it is cold in the house there are two possibilities – to warm the house, or to put on furs. The difference is this: The first way warms the entire house and all its inhabitants, the second way warms only the wearer of the furs while the rest remain cold. There is a tsaddik who seeks to warm his entire surroundings and there is a tsaddik who closes himself off in his small area and is concerned with warming himself alone.

This week we are introduced to our people’s founding ancestor, Avra(ha)m, a tsaddik of whom God says:

                           “Through you shall all the families of the earth be blessed”

“Each One Helps the Other”

(Isaiah 41, Haftarah for Parashat Lekh Lekha)

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Liam Simon – Year 10

The following Devar Torah, written by Liahm Simon, was delivered last Monday at the High School tefillot at which time Szenes House, of which Liahm is a member, led us in commemorating the yahrzeit of Hannah Szenes.

Hannah Szenes was a leader with a poignant message, an inspiration, a revered figure, a legacy that lives on forever. Hannah Szenes was the embodiment of a leader and madrichah, a person that shows you the road, but does not force you to come along, instead showing you what you can achieve if you work hard.

Hannah Szenes’ yarzheit coincides extraordinarily with the reading of parashat Lekh Lekha, a parashah in which the basis of Judaism is established, along with the notions of leadership and faith. Lekh Lekha starts with God requesting of Avram to leave his homeland, to leave the place of his father’s house.

Whilst the historical accuracy of this story can be disputed, the morals that our Jewish religion attempts to impart are undisputable. This moment does not just represent the start of the Jewish religion, but it represents the first recorded instance of a man showing faith.

Avram, a man with a settled life in what is now modern day Iraq, was asked by a voice only he could hear to leave his home and was promised something better in return.

Hannah Szenes had a voice talking to her, a voice only she could hear, a voice within her. This voice possessed her to a point where she made the selfless decision to take on the horrific Nazi regime herself which ultimately led to her demise at the hands of the Third Reich.

Although both of these stories differ vastly, once they progress, they both reveal inspirational leaders, leaders who are willing to sacrifice material things for innate human values.

We live today in a world of consumerism and materialistic values, a world where people are influenced to follow a man that is openly condemning half the world – women –  a man who yearns to ban over one billion people from America in the shape of Muslims, a man who condemns the banning of a specific nationality immigrating to America. So I ask why do people follow him?

Why? Because people are possessed by his apparent strength in economic reform, a man that brags about not paying any national income tax. Why do people envy that, because his supporters believe that being able to circumvent income tax is important to materialistic gain.

On the other hand, there are people that are reticent to vote for someone accused of sexual assault but they will not vote for his competitor because either she is a woman or because they don’t believe she can successfully run a country.

Whether or not she has the skills to run the world’s biggest superpower is not up to either you or me to decide, but I pose the question to everyone here today: “Where is the next leader going to come from, who is the next true leader, who is going to decide our legacy?”

The next Hannah Szenes or Abraham can be in this room. It is up to every single person to believe in his or her own ability. Sometimes we have to make choices in life, sometimes we have to decide whether we want to live a materialistic life or a happy life. Your legacy is in your control, your destiny is in your control, nothing is unachievable.