Rabbi Wein - Parshas Trumah
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Jerusalem Post 03 Adar 5767/ 16 February 2007
http://rabbiwein.com/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=18
RABBINIC AUTHORITY http://www.rabbiwein.com/modules.php?
name=News&file=article&sid=2215
The tension that exists between rabbis and their flocks is legendary in
Jewish history. Although Jews throughout the ages have always paid lip
service to the concept of rabbinic authority and honor, in practice it has
been a very mixed bag. From the time of Moshe onwards Jews have carped
about their rabbinic leaders, sometimes legitimately, but mostly out of
frustrations with other parts of their lives, having little or nothing to
do with the rabbi. This situation and difficulty is usually compounded by
the rabbi’s uncertainty as to how far his rabbinic authority really
extends.
In the ideal world of his Talmudic training “all matters of the community
are within his purview of authority.” But in the rough and tumble world of
daily Jewish life, in the synagogue, bet din and community, it will soon
become very clear to him how limited his authority really is. Those rabbis
who will continue to insist upon their authority over “all matters” will,
in my experience and observation, suffer a career of tension and dispute.
Nevertheless, there are issues outside of the pure realm of halachic
decisions that require the rabbi to stand firm and attempt to exercise
leadership and authority in the synagogue and community.
Deciding what those issues truly are is the main rub in the rabbi’s
career. Accepting rabbinic authority and following its mandates when it is
obviously justified and well within the accepted and recognized purview is
the mature responsibility of the members of the synagogue and the
community. When both the rabbi and the synagogue/community are in sync
regarding these situations an almost perfect world is achieved.
There are classic cases of disputes between rabbis and their communities
that appear in Jewish history. Most of these cases deal with the
Ashkenazic communities of Europe and America. It appears to me that the
Sephardim are much more accepting of rabbinic authority than are their
Ashkenazic brethren. This is probably an outgrowth of the greater
community unity that exists among Sephardim, with much less
fractionalization and break-offs from the larger community than is common
in the Ashkenazic world.
In the eighteenth century in Vilna, during the lifetime and presence of
the famed Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer, a bitter dispute occurred
between the rabbi of the community, Rabbi Shmuel Avigdor, and its lay
leadership. The issues that led up to this struggle were in retrospect
minor and mainly personal. Nevertheless, Rabbi Shmuel Avigdor insisted
upon asserting his rabbinic authority prerogatives and the community
leaders refused to accede to his instructions and wishes.
In the ensuing escalation of the conflict, both sides issued bans of
excommunication against each other and the entire situation spun well out
of control. This struggle lasted for decades with the behavior and tactics
employed by both sides deteriorating into the bizarre. After over thirty
(!) years of dispute, the parties finally reconciled, at least on a pro
forma basis. But, Rabbi Shmuel Avigdor died soon afterwards, exhausted by
his battle to assert his rabbinic authority over a difficult and
rebellious community undergoing the changes wrought by modernism and
Haskala. The lay leadership took its revenge on Rabbi Shmuel Avigdor
particularly and rabbinic authority generally by refusing to name another
official rabbi in Vilna for the next one-hundred-seventy-years until
forced to do so by the Polish authorities in the early 1920’s. As a
further act of disgrace, they placed a large rock on the official seat of
the rabbi in the main synagogue of Vilna, signifying the permanent
rejection of rabbinic authority over them as far as they were concerned.
The rabbis in pre World War I Lithuania had a unique means of enforcing
their rabbinic authority – they were allowed to slap an insulting offender
in the face, usually forcing that person to have to leave town in shame.
In a biography of Rav Avraham Kook a story is related that when he was a
young rabbi in Boisk, Lithuania a young man publicly insulted a visiting
Torah scholar during synagogue services. Rav Kook slapped that man who
then left town in disgrace.
Decades later when Rav Kook visited the United States in the early 1920’s
on behalf of the rebuilding of the ravaged yeshiva world of Eastern
Europe, this man appeared to Rav Kook, kissed the rabbi’s hand and thanked
him for the slap. He told him that because of that slap he immigrated to
America and became a very wealthy and successful businessman. He then
slyly offered his other cheek to Rav Kook and said: “Rabbi, you can slap
me again whenever you wish.”
In our world today rabbinic authority stems not from slaps or pompous
egoism but rather from great Torah knowledge, loving behavior, infinite
rabbinic patience and a deep abiding faith in the people and God of Israel.
WeeklyParsha 05 Adar 5767/ 23 February 2007
http://rabbiwein.com/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=3
Parshas Trumah http://www.rabbiwein.com/modules.php?
name=News&file=article&sid=2216
All biblical commentators have puzzled for ages over the main topic of
this week’s parsha - the mishkan/tabernacle and its construction. Why does
God need a building, so to speak, to dwell in? Why all of the details in
the Torah regarding this essentially temporary building and its artifacts?
And why does the Torah, which in so many other instances is so concise and
chary about words, devote entire long chapters to the details of the
mishkan/tabernacle? Many different theories regarding these difficulties
have been proposed.
We all know that it is from the description of the “work” that went into
the construction of the mishkan/tabernacle that the definitions of the
thirty-nine main categories of “work” on Shabat are derived and therefore
the Torah had to go into such detail. Yet the question begs itself as to
why the Torah did not state these thirty-nine types of “work” directly
when it described the institution of the Shabat to us.
The masters of kabala read into the descriptions of the mishkan/tabernacle
great hidden secrets and explanations of out universe and its untold
mysteries and wonders. They even saw in this detailed description a
revelation of the “real” world of Heaven and what that spiritual realm
looks like. But the Torah, though containing seventy different faces - and
with mysticism certainly one of those faces, it primarily possesses a
simple, declarative aspect to it. And it is that face that is most
difficult to understand and to deal with regarding the mishkan/tabernacle.
I have never found any easy answers to the above questions. They are
apparently part of the mysteries of Torah itself, part of the holiness
that is beyond our rational understanding and appreciation. But,
certainly, there are lessons - important life lessons that can be learned
from the Torah’s emphasis on the description of the mishkan/tabernacle.
One lesson in life is that the devil is in the details. Everyone agrees
that to build a holy sanctuary is a noble and necessary task for humans to
undertake. But, the details of how to go about doing it and what it is
supposed to look like when built are always fraught with disagreement and
sometimes even disillusion. The Torah, therefore, gave us a specific
outline as to how it should be built and how it should appear. The Torah,
through its mitzvoth and values, does the same for our daily physical and
spiritual lives – our very existence.
A second lesson is that humans build the house of God, so to speak, and
not God Himself. God may not need the mishkan/tabernacle but humans do
need such a place in a tangible, real form. Our earthly nature demands
such a physical presence. This is especially true regarding Judaism, which
allows for no physical representation of God in any way. Our construction
of the mishkan/tabernacle is our way of attempting, so to speak, to reach
God and connect with the ineffable and eternal. In dealing with the
mishkan/tabernacle, we are really dealing with our own immortality and
innate connection to the Creator.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
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