Month: August 2025

The Entire Commandment

Rabbi Ben Herman , , ,

         I want to begin by saying thank you to Cantorial Soloist Caitlyn Shannon for an incredible job this summer. I am sad to miss your final Shabbat before your return to Cantorial School, but I look forward to hearing you on the High Holy Days.

            In mindfulness language, we often talk about “being in the moment or “being fully present.” That’s a very hard thing to do. Our lives are busy and if an appointment is cancelled we quickly think about what we can fill that hour up with rather than taking time for self-care. In rushing from place to place we forget that the blank space in our lives, just like the blank spaces in the Torah, is essential. If the Torah was only letters without space, no one could read it. Similarly, if our lives are all doing without being, we lose sense of who we are and of what is truly most important to us.

        There’s an interesting line towards the beginning of this week’s Torah portion. It reads

כׇּל־הַמִּצְוָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָנֹכִ֧י מְצַוְּךָ֛ הַיּ֖וֹם תִּשְׁמְר֣וּן לַעֲשׂ֑וֹת לְמַ֨עַן תִּֽחְי֜וּן וּרְבִיתֶ֗ם וּבָאתֶם֙ וִֽירִשְׁתֶּ֣ם אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּ֥ע יְהֹוָ֖ה לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶֽם׃

You shall faithfully observe the entire commandment that I enjoin upon you today, that you may thrive and increase and be able to possess the land that God promised on oath to your fathers.[1]

          What is the entire commandment and why only one commandment? The commentator Ovadiah Sforno points out the juxtaposition between this verse, beginning Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy, and what came before about not bringing idols into your house. He says just as one must be sure to follow that commandment, so must one be certain to follow all of them.[2]  Commentator Ephraim of Luntschitz has the opposite view in his work Kli Yakar, asserting that “the Torah uses the singular mitzvah to indicate that the observance of even one mitzvah as it should be will result in “so you may live”…because “one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah.”[3] The interpretation I prefer is in Midrash Tanhuma, which teaches that “once you have begun a commandment, finish it, for it is the person who finishes it that will be identified as having done it.[4] In other words, whatever commandment you are doing, give your full, undivided attention to it until it is carried out. Don’t be distracted by other thoughts, feelings or things to do, being pulled in a million different directions.

          Too often in life we start something but do not finish it. At other times, we take on a task which is too great for us-like doing all 613 commandments that one can-and we burn out, throw up our hands and give it all up. I believe it is purposeful that the singular word מצוה is used here, indicating that we should only focus on one thing at a time.

          This Shabbat we have the pleasure of welcoming in our new members to Mosaic Law Congregation. Each of you came here through a different route. Some of you chose Judaism-others are new to the area and found our community warm and welcoming. We are blessed to have each and every one of you as part of our congregational family. I have one question for each of you: what skills and passions would you like to contribute to Mosaic Law Congregation in the year 5786? We want to be sure that MLC is a spiritual home for you in the fullest sense-not that it will meet all of your needs, as no congregation can do that, but rather that it will provide comfort, warmth and a sense of belonging. To those of you who checked off every box on the membership application, I advise you to choose 1 or 2 areas in which to get involved. Focusing on the entire commandment requires that we don’t stretch ourselves in too many directions and burn out. As we approach 5786, let us focus on the one thing in life that is truly most important to us at any given moment. In so, may our lives have a sense of calm, clarity and purpose.

          I would like all of our new members to come up to the Bimah, say your names and, if you want, one sentence introducing yourself to the congregation. After that I’ll ask for you to join me in a prayer for our new members.

[1] Deuteronomy 8:1

[2] Sforno on Deuteronomy 8:1 ד”ה כל המצוה

[3] Kli Yakar on Deuteronomy 8:1 ד”ה כל המצוה אשר אנכי מצוך

[4] Midrash Tanhuma 6. In Rashi on Deut. 8:1 ד”ה כל המצוה

Unending Love

Rabbi Ben Herman , ,

We are loved, loved, loved

By unending love

An unending love 2x[1]

We are in such a divided world. Often our beliefs come from an echo chamber derived from our news sources. People are in a rush to judge each other. Take the starvation in Gaza. Are you caving into Hamas’ propaganda of kids with genetic diseases posing as emaciated or are you turning a blind eye to the suffering of others, lacking human dignity? Are you holding Israel to an unreasonable standard in feeding the enemy which will deter it from winning the war or are you not showing humanity to innocent children and civilians, preventing a “human disaster” in the words of Ari Shavit? Ezra Klein wrote a poignant piece entitled “Why American Jews No Longer Understand Each Other,”[2] and I encourage those who have not read it to do so on Tisha B’Av.

So much knowledge today requires nuance for which we have no patience. When we rush to judge others, or when we are afraid to speak out, let us remember the Talmudic text that led to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.[3]

There was a nameless man-call him Ploni or Joe Shmo. He was throwing a big party and invited his friend Kamtza. Unfortunately the invitation went to his enemy, Bar Kamtza. Upon seeing Bar Kamtza at his party, Ploni was outraged and said in front of everyone “You must leave!” Bar Kamtza was embarrassed and said “I know we are enemies, but please give me the dignity of staying. I’ll pay for my meal.” Ploni retorted, “Get out of here!” Bar Kamtza said, “Please, I’ll pay for half of the party.” Ploni asserted, “Get out!” “Fine,” Bar Kamtza said, “I’ll pay for the entire thing.” “Security!” yelled Ploni, and he personally escorted Bar Kamtza out.

The aspect not discussed in the story is that the important rabbis present said nothing. They did not try to intervene, nor did they protest Bar Kamtza being publicly humiliated, a crime which according to the Talmud is worse than murder.[4] They let it happen by staying silent. As revenge on those sages, Bar Kamtza said to Caesar, “Those Jews will not sacrifice your choice offerings. Give something and see what will happen.” Caesar sent a sacrifice as a peace offering, which Bar Kamtza nicked in the upper lip, making it unfit to be offered for Israel. The rabbis had a dilemma: what do they do? Rabbi Zecharia ben Avkolos said you can’t offer a treyf animal, for then the people will bring them. Then the people wanted to kill bar Kamtza for bringing a treyf animal and so he wouldn’t report back to the Romans, and Zecharia ben Avkolos said no. Once again the rabbis did nothing. Caesar was furious that the Jews did not offer his sacrifice and waged war against them. Rabbi Yohanan, who lived over 100 years later, said “The Romans destroyed our Temple, burned our Sanctuary, and exiled us from our land because of the excessive humility of Rabbi Zecharia ben Avkolos.”

Tisha B’Av is about remembering the division that led to our displacement and to the humiliation of our people. I often laugh when I hear those who say that all Jews were the same until the Haskalah (Jewish enlightenment) came about and made so many secular. Imagine being alive during the late Second Temple period. I imagine the Pharisees, or proto-rabbis, saying “We have it right-we appeal to the common people through deriving new meaning from Torah into which they can relate.” The Sadducees, on the other hand, would respond, “We have it right-everything is written verbatim in the Torah. Animal sacrifice forever! We are the priestly elites-you are lowly commoners who must listen to us.” The Essenes would say, “We don’t mix with any of you. We are off in the desert, in Qumram, deriving new mystical teachings and staying far away from anyone who would corrupt us.” Then come groups known as the K’naim, or zealots, the most famous being the Sicarii, known for their types of daggers. They would say, “We long for the days before Pompey took us over! We need greater Judea/Israel, and we can achieve it by fighting the Romans! Not only that, but we will burn other Jews’ storehouses of grain, forcing them to join us in fighting against our enemies so that they will have food!” Each group thought they were right and the others were wrong. This baseless hatred led to our people being divided and eventually overrun by the Romans.

When there is hatred and sinat hinam, which caused the destruction of the Second Temple, the response must be to increase our ahavat hinam, unending, intentional love of one another. This requires having respect for others regardless of their opinions and seeking to understand the other out of curiosity, rather than seeking to refute him/her. This is so hard yet necessary to do.

We are on the eve of the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, the ninth of Av, in which we remember not only the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem but also our people being exiled from most of the countries in Europe. I’ll never forget observing Tisha B’Av at the Kotel when I was on Alexander Muss High School in Israel. It was emotionally powerful in a way I cannot put into words. Tonight, in addition to traditional kinot, or dirges, we will read pieces from survivors of Be’eri, Nahal Oz and Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023.

This Tisha B’Av let’s try to have increased love and rahmanut for our fellow Jews as well as for all the people in the world. To counter the hatred that existed between our ancestors and between Ploni and Bar Kamtza, the misunderstandings between the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Sicarii, we need to increase our love for one another. Are we really so self-righteous that we believe that only we have the right answers? Tisha B’Av is the perfect time to reflect on where we are at in terms of our beliefs and how we will move forward in the 7 weeks of consolation that will lead us to Rosh Hashanah.

 I will conclude with a poem by Rabbi Rami Shapiro, An Unending Love,[5] followed by Cantorial Soloist Caitlyn Shannon singing again the chorus of Shir Yaakov’s song We Are Loved based on the poem.

We are loved by an unending love.

We are embraced by the arms that find us

Even when we are hidden from ourselves.

We are touched by the fingers that soothe us

Even when we are too proud for soothing.

We are counseled by the voices that guide us

Even when we are too embittered to hear.

We are loved by an unending love.

Embraced, touched, soothed and counseled,

ours are the arms, the fingers, the voices;

ours are the hands, the eyes, the smiles.

We are loved by an unending love.

We are loved, loved, loved

By unending love

An unending love 2x

[1] We Are Loved | Shir Yaakov

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/opinion/antisemitism-american-jews-israel-mamdani.html

[3] Babylonian Talmud Gittin 55b. My version is paraphrased.

[4] Words of Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak Bava Metzia 58b

[5] Rami Shapiro “An Unending Love,” in תפילות זכרון-Memorial Prayers and Special Readings For the House of Mourning, Page 74.