It’s with great anticipation that Abi I moved have into the community from the Netherlands over the last few weeks and although it’s under rather unusual circumstances, we’re delighted to be here and looking forward to meeting the community and working with Yeshurun. We’re excited to join YAM in the next stage of their journey and I feel particularly privileged to be able to work under and assist Rav Lewis. Looking forward to meeting you but, for now, a short idea on the parasha:
Life, Liberty and… The Founding Fathers of the United States found it “self-evident” that we possess certain Natural and unalienable rights including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. These three ideals became immortalised within Western culture when they were incorporated in the Declaration of Independence as an aspiration appropriate for all Mankind. Many ascribe the intellectual inspiration for the statement to the English philosopher, John Locke (naturally, the best of the US always starts in England!), but actually, two of these values are clearly sourced in the Torah (one of Locke’s great inspirations). But one of the three is much more elusive.
Being Chased by Happiness? Life and liberty: The Torah has a lot to say about these: “Choose life!” (Devarim 30:19); “Proclaim liberty unto the Land” (Vayikra 25:10), we are told but what of the “pursuit of happiness”? For the Founding Fathers this was crucial and in today’s culture of immediate gratification and quick-fix feelgood solutions, entire industries are based upon filling this desire. People build their careers around it and some people spend a great deal of their lives pursuing it. But yet, for so many, it remains as elusive as ever and it’s not for nothing that it is the one value that the Torah does not address as an ideal aspiration. There is no “mitzvah” in the Torah to “pursue happiness1” per se. But still, an insight from this week’s parasha gives us a clear idea of how it can be achieved (in a rather unexpected and counterintuitive way). If we keep the Torah, our parasha relates, we will be subject to great blessings. Our produce will be plentiful, our families will be blessed and the rains will come at the right time. And then comes an unusual phraseology: “All the berachot will come upon you and they will overcome you”. This is an unusual way to talk about blessings. We talk about being “showered by blessings” or benefiting from blessings but being “overcome” by blessings that “came for us” sounds as if they crept up on us without any of our own personal investment in achieving them and without our knowledge. In fact, that’s exactly the way that the parasha refers to the curses that we are subject to if we do not observe the Torah: “All these curses will come upon you and they will chase you and overcome you”
1
Although there is a mitzvah to rejoice whist doing mitzvot and learning Torah as it demonstrates our gladness to have been chosen by G-d to do his Will.