TORAH TALK
Tzav/Shabbat HaGadol
Turning the Heart Toward Redemption
Tzav/Shabbat HaGadol
Turning the Heart Toward Redemption
Usually, by the time we get to Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Passover, in anticipation of the holiday, we may have spent time preparing for the seder(s), planning travel, packing up/disposing of hametz, scrubbing the kitchen, and planning the menu for the week. We do the physical work necessary to prepare ourselves, our homes and our communities for this celebration.
This year, of course, everything is different. Flights have been cancelled, large community seders and even family gatherings can’t happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. We are fearful, isolated, longing for the touchpoint that the holiday of Pesah affords, but which we will have to forgo this year and actually make this year different from all other years. As a result, it may be easy to lose sight of the message of Passover, even while the whole idea of enduring a plague is on everyone’s lips.
It’s not clear why Shabbat Hagadol, the Great Sabbath, was given this name, but commentators associate one of the concluding verses of the haftarah for this Shabbat, taken from the prophet Malachi. The verse reads: “I will send the prophet Elijah before the coming of the great (gadol) and awesome day of the Lord” (3:23).
The Prophets were our first teachers, dedicated to exposing the hypocrisy of society and religious frameworks for living. They offered consistent messages, that there should be purpose behind our rituals; that God wants compassion for the weak and the stranger. The underlying vision of the Exodus from Egypt was the realization of an audacious and seemingly impossible dream to counter oppression with liberation and redemption.
As the last of the 12 minor prophets, Malachi preached against the egregious sins of idolatry and the mistreatment of the vulnerable in society. The people had acted poorly and there seemed to be no fear of retribution. Malachi’s very name means my angel, or messenger, and his message of reconciliation isn’t just the concluding message of the book, but of the whole prophetic tradition.
The haftarah text imagines that the people have turned away from God yet wonder how they might face God again. Malachi reminds them that if the people turn towards God, God will return to them (3:7), which we understand to be the essence of redemption.
When relationships are strained and even severed, it isn’t so clear what redemptive power can look like. Elijah, the prophet understood to be the one who will herald the messianic age, is said to “heshiv lev avot al banim, v’lev banim al avotam” (3:24)—turn the heart of the parents towards the children and the heart of the children towards the parents.
There is something so basic about this idea, although it is not a perfect recipe in every family where interpersonal conflict has led to rancor, resentment, and even estrangement. The image of a heart turning towards another isn’t a pat, simplistic one, but without the heart turning, nothing further is possible.
We need this message before Passover, because we can’t always depend on a sea parting before us on our way out of the narrow straights (mitzrayim) in which we find ourselves, as the sign redemption is at hand. The heart must be already turning toward others to believe that the possibility of covenantal relationship might yet be attainable.
The Sages hold that when Elijah comes it will only be to bring peace to the world. Peace doesn’t only mean the absence of warfare, rather it is more accurately interpreted as societal well-being. The Sages’ opinion is supported by the redemptive vision recorded in the final verses of the book of Malachi, the very verses that teach that the Messianic age will be preceded by Elijah.
Redemption is both a supernatural occurrence as it is imagined in the Torah, and a tale that includes human courage, civil disobedience, and basic human decency. It is as Rabbi David Hartman z”l taught, in the name of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan z”l, “an individual’s growth into a complete human being, a person who fulfills all of his or her aptitudes. Redemption is not an abstract philosophical or theological construct, but a fine-tuning of the human soul that helps us to love more and to be more sensitive. It creates a meaningful pattern of self-fulfillment.”
This year’s retelling of redemption will feel different from previous years, but the story is the same at its core. Elijah’s cup on our seder table will once again remind us that redemption is always potentially close at hand. When we trust in the power of community, we can stand against that which terrorizes us, whether tyrant or pandemic. When we let our current crisis teach us what is truly important, we experience and witness all kinds of compassion—the daily 7 p.m. cheering in NYC for healthcare workers and the police officer who gave a speeding doctor N95 masks instead of a ticket. When we remember that the pain of suffering and loss can lead to rebirth—the development of a vaccine and effective treatment options—then the open door for Elijah at the seder isn’t magical thinking, but rather an expression of faith in the future.[1]
Malachi speaks not of “hearts turning” in the plural, but a singular heart that in motion, connects all of us in the service of redemption. On this Shabbat Hagadol, this Great Shabbat before our retelling of our history and the transformative wisdom that we have inherited, what part of your heart might turn to bring us all a little closer to redemption?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yael Ridberg
[1] Inspired by Rabbi Michael Rothbaum’s framing in https://sojo.net/articles/passover--pandemic-covid-coronavirus
JOIN CONGREGATION DOR HADASH FOR ZOOM SHABBAT!
https://zoom.us/s/720189342
6:30 - Candle Lighting and Sharing
6:45 - Kabbalat Shabbat service with Rabbi Yael
This year, of course, everything is different. Flights have been cancelled, large community seders and even family gatherings can’t happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. We are fearful, isolated, longing for the touchpoint that the holiday of Pesah affords, but which we will have to forgo this year and actually make this year different from all other years. As a result, it may be easy to lose sight of the message of Passover, even while the whole idea of enduring a plague is on everyone’s lips.
It’s not clear why Shabbat Hagadol, the Great Sabbath, was given this name, but commentators associate one of the concluding verses of the haftarah for this Shabbat, taken from the prophet Malachi. The verse reads: “I will send the prophet Elijah before the coming of the great (gadol) and awesome day of the Lord” (3:23).
The Prophets were our first teachers, dedicated to exposing the hypocrisy of society and religious frameworks for living. They offered consistent messages, that there should be purpose behind our rituals; that God wants compassion for the weak and the stranger. The underlying vision of the Exodus from Egypt was the realization of an audacious and seemingly impossible dream to counter oppression with liberation and redemption.
As the last of the 12 minor prophets, Malachi preached against the egregious sins of idolatry and the mistreatment of the vulnerable in society. The people had acted poorly and there seemed to be no fear of retribution. Malachi’s very name means my angel, or messenger, and his message of reconciliation isn’t just the concluding message of the book, but of the whole prophetic tradition.
The haftarah text imagines that the people have turned away from God yet wonder how they might face God again. Malachi reminds them that if the people turn towards God, God will return to them (3:7), which we understand to be the essence of redemption.
When relationships are strained and even severed, it isn’t so clear what redemptive power can look like. Elijah, the prophet understood to be the one who will herald the messianic age, is said to “heshiv lev avot al banim, v’lev banim al avotam” (3:24)—turn the heart of the parents towards the children and the heart of the children towards the parents.
There is something so basic about this idea, although it is not a perfect recipe in every family where interpersonal conflict has led to rancor, resentment, and even estrangement. The image of a heart turning towards another isn’t a pat, simplistic one, but without the heart turning, nothing further is possible.
We need this message before Passover, because we can’t always depend on a sea parting before us on our way out of the narrow straights (mitzrayim) in which we find ourselves, as the sign redemption is at hand. The heart must be already turning toward others to believe that the possibility of covenantal relationship might yet be attainable.
The Sages hold that when Elijah comes it will only be to bring peace to the world. Peace doesn’t only mean the absence of warfare, rather it is more accurately interpreted as societal well-being. The Sages’ opinion is supported by the redemptive vision recorded in the final verses of the book of Malachi, the very verses that teach that the Messianic age will be preceded by Elijah.
Redemption is both a supernatural occurrence as it is imagined in the Torah, and a tale that includes human courage, civil disobedience, and basic human decency. It is as Rabbi David Hartman z”l taught, in the name of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan z”l, “an individual’s growth into a complete human being, a person who fulfills all of his or her aptitudes. Redemption is not an abstract philosophical or theological construct, but a fine-tuning of the human soul that helps us to love more and to be more sensitive. It creates a meaningful pattern of self-fulfillment.”
This year’s retelling of redemption will feel different from previous years, but the story is the same at its core. Elijah’s cup on our seder table will once again remind us that redemption is always potentially close at hand. When we trust in the power of community, we can stand against that which terrorizes us, whether tyrant or pandemic. When we let our current crisis teach us what is truly important, we experience and witness all kinds of compassion—the daily 7 p.m. cheering in NYC for healthcare workers and the police officer who gave a speeding doctor N95 masks instead of a ticket. When we remember that the pain of suffering and loss can lead to rebirth—the development of a vaccine and effective treatment options—then the open door for Elijah at the seder isn’t magical thinking, but rather an expression of faith in the future.[1]
Malachi speaks not of “hearts turning” in the plural, but a singular heart that in motion, connects all of us in the service of redemption. On this Shabbat Hagadol, this Great Shabbat before our retelling of our history and the transformative wisdom that we have inherited, what part of your heart might turn to bring us all a little closer to redemption?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yael Ridberg
[1] Inspired by Rabbi Michael Rothbaum’s framing in https://sojo.net/articles/passover--pandemic-covid-coronavirus
JOIN CONGREGATION DOR HADASH FOR ZOOM SHABBAT!
https://zoom.us/s/720189342
6:30 - Candle Lighting and Sharing
6:45 - Kabbalat Shabbat service with Rabbi Yael