Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 14 Elul, 5783

Today is the full moon! Hopefully last night you enjoyed the view!  Today’s passage is REALLY fascinating in light of the last full moon of the yearly cycle.  We we reach the new moon, the year will come to an end and Rosh Hashanah will arrive!

In today’s portion there are some things I am really pulling out from the passage.

Curses are connected to our ego

One thing I notice about the curses and the blessings.  The curses all start “cursed is the one.”  They are individual.  The blessings are all relational – “we.”  We move from me to we.  This is the spiritual journey of “me” to “we.”  Our blessings come IN relationship.  How we treat our relationships is crucial.  This is the blessing.  WE ARE THE BLESSING.  Not you. Not I. Not me.

The other practical piece of today’s portion?

Cursed is the one who hurts his fellow by maligning him in secret

Let’s be honest.  How often are we uncomfortable an awkward with someone – to their face – but in the break room, or in private, we speak negatively.  In Judaism, this is a big no no.  And I’ll confess.  I struggle to live this out all the time.  Maybe I am the only one.

One of my favorite communication books is by Kim Scott called Radical Candor.  The idea of this is – if we have feedback, even negative, we go to the source.  Kim Scott calls this “maligning in secret” – Ruinous Empathy.  We care for the person so much we don’t want to hurt their feelings – so instead of being direct, we hurt the relationship by avoiding the hurt feelings by not being candid.  And instead, we vent that energy with others.  Moses is telling us NOT to do this.  A big no.

So – talking negatively about someone behind their back? A big curse.  And we have two weeks before Rosh Hashanah to navigate this, and choose to leave this behavior behind in 5784.

What are your thoughts?

Here is my commentary from a year ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 19 Elul, 5782

Today we inch closer to crossing the Jordan and into the promised land with Moses telling us about the blessing and curses we will be experiencing.

He tells the people that when they enter the land, 6 tribes will stand on Mount Gerizim and will bless the people and the other 6 tribes will stand on Mount Ebal for the curse. The Levites will face each side of the mountains. Here are the “teams:”

Team bless: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

Team curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali.

The Levites should speak up and tell everyone:

• cursed is the man who makes a graven or molten image and sets it up in secret
• cursed is the one who disgraces his father and mother
• cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark
• cursed is the one who misdirects the path of a person who is blind (to a certain matter)
• cursed is the one who perverts the judgment of the convert, the orphan and the widow.
• cursed is the one who lies (has sex) with his father’s wife
• cursed is the one who lies (has sex) with any animal
• cursed is the one who lies (has sex) with his sister, his fathers daughter, or his mothers daughter.
• cursed is the one who lies (has sex) with his mother in law
• cursed is the one who hurts his fellow by maligning him in secret
• cursed is the one who takes a bribe to put an innocent person to death
• cursed is the one who does not uphold the words of this Torah or observe them.

Let’s stop. That’s a lot of cursing. Hey religious people, notice what ISNT there? Being gay. Trans. So….THATS interesting, as a point of observation. 

You are cursed for maligning people in secret – chew on that. You are not cursed (at least In this passage) for being gay. Just an observation. Remember the Torah talks about sexuality in the context of ritual impurity – so yes; have sex with someone of the same gender (or someone who is on their period) you can’t enter the holy place. But there aren’t general curses for it.

Just something I’m reflecting on.

Now, we get to the blessings. What is interesting is the curses seem to be handed down individually.

The blessings seem to be communal.

Moses gives us a big if/then:

IF:

• we always listen to the voice of Hashem
• we are careful to observe his commandments

THEN:

• Hashem is going to make us an elite nation
• we will be blessed in the city
• we will be blessed in the field
• the fruit of our womb, the fruit of our soil, the fruit of our livestock, the offspring of our cattle, and the flocks of our sheep will be blessed
• our fruits and dough will be blessed
• we will depart from the world the way we came into it: blessed.

That’s a pretty cool blessing.

What are your thoughts?