Glen Rock Jewish Center, Conservative

A combination of challenging economic times and changing images of self in our older years has altered our approach to retirement. The Torah teaches us in this week’s reading a piece of wisdom that parallels the reality in our society that people continue to work and contribute in many ways into their later years. At age 50, the Levites who served in the Temple had to retire from their duties, but they did not have to retire completely from service.

The Torah does not suggest that the Levites who turn 50 must give up serving God as they have been for so many years. The Torah teaches the following lesson in this week’s reading:

Glen Rock Jewish Center, Conservative

I was born at the Washington Hospital Center in 1978. Twenty-five years later, I found myself returning to the same part of Northwest Washington, D.C., to serve as a chaplain-in-training at the Children’s National Medical Center just a few blocks away from the Hospital Center. There was a sense of coming full circle. Whereas in 1978 a medical team had cared for me, I now had the opportunity to serve as part of the team who would provide care for others. My training did not allow me to be part of the medical team that offered treatments and medications. I could, however, be part of the healing process for the patients. While cure and healing are complementary, they are different aspects of the process that hospitals and other health-care centers offer. This week’s portion, Metzora, demonstrates the power of healing as an important aspect of recovery from a condition that affects human beings. This week’s portion is not a medical handbook, but we can draw upon its themes and ideas to engage in a discussion about healing of the mind and spirit.

Glen Rock Jewish Center, Conservative

Glen Rock Jewish Center, Conservative

In baseball, sometimes a team decides to walk a batter. Other times, the batter walks since the pitcher could not strike him out. In business, sometimes an owner chooses to close a store when she is ready to retire. Alternatively, conditions may force the owner to close her store earlier due to an unforeseen problem. We live in a world where that which is intentional coexists with what is unintentional. In this week’s parasha Matot-Masei, the Torah reflects this dual reality within the reading for one Shabbat. As we try to find order in our world we are challenged when these two realities, or forces, collide.

Glen Rock Jewish Center, Glen Rock, Conservative

In every generation, bechol dor vador, there are people who suffer oppression and then go free. The persecution can be ideological, economic, and physical. Just as the Israelites called out to God when they suffered under their Egyptian taskmasters, today Jews and many other groups live under conditions that are similar to those of the Israelites in Egypt. Since slavery and suffering continue to exist in our world, we turn to the vision of Rabban Gamliel: "In every generation each person must consider himself/herself as though he/she had left Egypt, as it says in the Torah, ‘And you shall teach your child on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went free from Egypt.’"