Say what you will about having the original recordings or the song as the band intended it, some of my favorite albums are compilations like The Beatles 1967-1970 (aka The Blue Album), The Rolling Stones’ Jump Back, Ben Fold’s The Best Imitation of Myself, and Red Hot Chili Peppers What Hits!? I even love the Greatest Hits of the 80’s and 90’s albums that Billboard or whatever production company puts out.
Listening to a greatest hits album helps me remember some of why I like a band in the first place, with all of my favorites in one place. It’s like an hour of sing-along joy, and even taps into memories of moments with these songs in the background. Greatest hits can sometimes help get me into a band I’m less familiar with, or even convince Natalie to like one of the bands I like (except Frank Zappa. She just doesn’t get him.), because all of their very best are condensed into an album without ever having to hear songs like Number 9.
Today our Torah reading features excerpts from Deuteronomy 29 and 30, out of Parashat Nitzavim. This morning’s reading coupled with this afternoon’s reading from Leviticus 19 could easily be called The Torah’s Greatest Hits. Deuteronomy 29 and 30 remind us of our covenant with God. We are reminded that all of Israel, past, present, and future, are bound by this covenant, no matter if we are a community leader or a wood cutter. We are reminded that Torah should not be too difficult for us to go after, because it is neither across the sea nor in heaven, but in our own hearts. The choice, we are told, is always before us: life and good, death and evil. We are to choose life, with heaven and earth eternally serving as our witnesses, and we will be granted a long life in return.
One of the greatest greatest hits is Deuteronomy 30:12a. Lo bashamayim hi, “it is not in heaven.” It seems like a simple explanation, that the Torah is not far away, and none of the Israelites, famous for complaining, would be given the opportunity to complain about Torah being too far away to get. But rabbis throughout the centuries have loved parsing this verse.
The great 11th century French Rabbi known as Rashi explains this line simply, saying, “we don’t have to go to heaven to learn it.” He seems to be alleviating worry that only those who die will ever fully understand Torah. It is not up in heaven, because anyone down here can access it. All we have to do is learn it. The 15th Century Italian rabbi Ovadia Sforno explains that this means no prophets will be necessary to teach Torah to us. But the Talmudic Rabbi Yehoshua flips this verse on its head in one of my favorite Talmudic stories.
In an argument over whether or not a particular oven is kosher, Rabbi Eliezer believes one way, and everyone else believes another. He declares, “Let this tree prove it if I am right!” and the tree moves. The others say, “You cannot prove Torah law with a tree.” So he says, “Let this river prove it if I am right,” and the river flows backwards. Again they say, “You cannot prove Torah law with a river.” So he says, “Let the walls of this study hall prove it if I am right,” and the walls begin to cave in. At this point, Rabbi Yehoshua says, “Don’t interfere with scholars engaged in debate,” and the walls freeze, leaning in. Finally, Rabbi Eliezer says, “If I am right, let the heavens declare me so!” and a voice from heaven calls out, “Why do you dispute with Rabbi Eliezer, seeing that in all matters Torah law agrees with him!”
Rabbi Yehoshua is not happy about this, and he points up and says, lo bashamayim hi, “It is not in heaven! We do not need to pay attention to a Heavenly Voice, because you gave the Torah to us!” That’s right! Rabbi Yehoshua yells at God, telling the One who gave us Torah not to butt in when they are talking Torah! Later, when Elijah is encountered in the marketplace (which happens often in the Talmud), he tells another rabbi that when Rabbi Yehoshua yelled, lo bashamayim hi, God laughed with joy, saying, “My children have bested me! My children have bested me!”
This section of Torah that tells us we have the power to interpret the laws and allow the majority to decide the best course of action. Especially when the majority is a group of learned individuals who have dedicated their lives to study of Torah, sometimes even when someone is right, he is also wrong. We need to study Torah, take in its commandments, and interpret them so that they can best guide us in our lives today.
Actually, the fact that we read Deuteronomy today is proof that the Reform movement believes this. In non-Reform circles, the Yom Kippur reading is from Leviticus 16. That section is about Temple sacrifice, with Aaron making expiation for the sins of the Israelites by taking two goats, one as a sin offering on behalf of the community, and the other set free. The one that he sets free is first taken into the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron confesses all of the sins of the people onto this goat. He then lets the go go into a designated area of uninhabited wilderness. This goat that is allowed to escape, as it were, is where we get the modern term, “scapegoat,” by the way.
According to his daughter Rabbi Shira Milgrom, Rabbi Jacob Milgrom, z"l, taught that the Torah was the revolution of priestly theology. Before the Torah, sin was viewed as a demonic force. If someone did something wrong, they would explain that a demon had made them do it. The demon would be exorcised, and the sin purged. In the priestly view, sin was not a demonic force, but of human volition—human beings bring sin and goodness both into the world. They believed that sin in the world was a pollutant, so to speak. It would seep into the people, into their homes, creating tzora’at and other ailments, and it would seep into the holy of holies if the sin was particularly bad. The sin offerings were part of a ritual that cleansed the Temple of the polluting effects of their sins. The biblical ritual of Yom Kippur was structured to cleanse the Holy of Holies—once a year—from the effects of this contaminating moral pollution. Were the Temple not cleansed of the effects of our wrongdoing, God's Presence would not be able to abide among us.
By reading Leviticus 16 on Yom Kippur, non-Reform congregations preserve the centrality of the Temple Yom Kippur service. However, this does not work for many of us, because we want Yom Kippur to be about personal renewal and atonement, not about sacrifices and ancient cleansing rituals. We need to be reminded that we are as close to the Divine Presence as reaching out. That God's instructions are not too difficult to follow or to understand, because as it says in the very last line we read this morning, "The word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it" (Deut. 30:14).
"To do it," is the key.
On Rosh Hashanah I mentioned our 40 favorite things about Judaism. So many people answered under what I ended up calling "Deed Over Creed." A.J. Jacobs would agree with all of them. A.J. Jacobs is the author of The Year of Living Biblically, in which he spends a year trying to follow the laws of the Bible. Jacobs was raised Jewish, but he describes himself as being, "As Jewish as Olive Garden is Italian." He had a vague familiarity with what the Bible is, but he needed to read it carefully so he could follow its laws.
He did not just follow the laws as we know them, though. He followed them as literally as possible. He wrote the words of ve'ahavta on his doorpost in wax pencil. He wore clothing that had corners so he could attach fringes to them. He did not shave any part of his beard because he couldn't figure out where the corners are. He even threw pebbles at a man who admitted to committing adultery so he could claim to stone an adulterer!
I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a conference several years ago. Someone asked what most surprised him during this year-long religious experiment. He spoke about the Biblical injunction to tithe, giving 10% of your yield away to the poor. His answer went something like this:
I felt like I had to follow this law, even though I didn’t want to. It’s in the Bible, and I committed myself to obeying all of its commandments for one year. So I did it. And I found that when my year of living biblically was over, I was more generous and giving. I actually wanted to give 10% of my earnings away. I used to think that my thoughts are what influenced my behavior, but I discovered the opposite. My behavior influenced my thoughts and feelings.
His behavior influenced his thoughts and feelings. Not just deed over creed, but deed motivates creed. He first spent time studying the text, making it as close to him as his heart and mouth, making it feel like it was not in heaven nor across the sea. Then he starting acting as he was instructed. By behaving as the Bible commands, he became more generous, more thankful, and a self-ascribed better person.
This afternoon when we read from Leviticus 19, we are reading what is known as the Holiness Code. Honoring our parents, keeping Shabbat, and avoiding idolatry begin the list. There are rules for agriculture like leaving gleanings in the field; rules for treating people honestly, be it the neighbor you pass on the street or someone with whom you do business. We must treat others with respect, even if—nay especially if they are lesser-able than we. We are commanded not to hate, seek vengeance, or oppress the stranger. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourself. All these things make us holy, and most of them are accessible to us at any moment in our everyday life.
This morning is all about choosing to live a good life as a member of the community of Israel, and this afternoon gives us some of the specifics for how we do that. Once we know that we should choose deed over creed, we are given some specific tasks that we can accomplish in order to make our self-improvement a success.
Lo bashamayim hi. "It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it, and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it, and do it? But this word, [this instruction, this Torah] is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, to do it (Deut. 30:11-14).
May we all learn the greatest hits of our tradition, so that we can find the ways to better ourselves and do it.
G'mar Chatimah Tovah.
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