Drash on Parashat Vayakhel (Shabbat Parah)

Rabbi Jeffrey B Kamins OAM

Emanuel Synagogue, Woollahra, NSW

UNITY IS NOT UNIFORMITY/INCLUSION IS DIVINE

This week’s special reading of Parah is the third of four special parshiyot preparing us for the arrival of Pesach, our most important national festival that we celebrate in two weeks.  Parah speaks about the state of ritual purity required for participation in the feast of the Passover sacrifice during ancient Temple times.  While those specific requirements for ritual purity are in abeyance with the Temple’s being destroyed, the concept of being ritually and  spiritually prepared for Pesach applies now more than ever.

This special Shabbat encourages us to focus on what “being ritually and spiritually prepared” for Pesach means in our time.  We read in our Chumash: “The Torah passage presents an ancient rite of detoxification whereby individuals who have become impure through contact with the dead are purified and restored to the community”. (Etz Chayim Torah and Commentary, page 1287). The word “detoxification” caught my eye. We no longer exclude from our Pesach sedarim those who have had contact with the dead; rather we have excluded, ostracised and made toxic those with whom we disagree.

Sadly, our Jewish community around the world has become terribly fractured since the events of October 7th.  All of us feel anguish after the slaughter of the innocents and the taking of hostages that unfolded since that day of infamy.  We have witnessed a rise in antisemitism and experienced feelings of fear and vulnerability.  But we have different understandings as to what is the best way to bring home the hostages, to demilitarise Gaza and end the conflict between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the land primarily and basically controlled at this time by the State of Israel.  We yearn for unity, but delay its coming by confusing it with uniformity.

My colleagues and I have heard of the exclusion of family members from sacred meals and celebrations because their perceptions about the conflict are dissonant from ours. I have heard of families excluding their children and siblings from Shabbat and festival meals because they have condemned the killing of civilians in Gaza; I have heard of others excluding relatives from family celebrations because they support President Trump.  I never would have thought that such exclusion and condemnation would be a response within our community to the events of October 7th.  If we really want to create a unified community, it must be one of inclusion, not reprobation of those whose opinions do not align with ours. We need to detox our rhetoric and our relationships.

While the Torah teaching of Parah (Numbers 19:1-22) speaks of the ancient ritual of purification, the corresponding prophetic reading (Ezekiel 36:16-38) provides a spiritual interpretation for us:  “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you.” (Ezekiel 36:26).  Now is the time to open our heart, to engage in our most important national festival with a new spirit.  We must remember that Pesach is the ultimate festival of inclusion.  In preparation for that very first Pesach Moses tells Pharaoh: “We will all go, young and old; we will go with our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds; for we must observe the festival of God.”  (Exodus 10:9).  At our sedarim we will read of the four children – the wise, the wicked, the simple and the one who does not know how to ask.  In light of all this, how do we have the temerity, the lack of kindness and compassion, to exclude those who in their very embrace of Judaism and their identity as Jews, challenge our thoughts and feelings with theirs?

This Shabbat’s weekly reading reinforces the message of inclusion.  We learn that when it came time to construct the Mishkan, the tabernacle where God would dwell among us, “Moses convoked the wholecommunity of Israel”.  Each and all had something to contribute to construct that holy space which became the model for our Temple and then our synagogues.  And our rabbis teach that our homes, and the tables where we share our meals, become “mini-sanctuaries” when we also share words of Torah.  The Haggadah contains many words of Torah, and it encourages us to add our own – for example, “each human is created in the image of God”, a teaching that includes the signatories of the Jewish Council of Australia and the supporters of the policies of President Trump.

18 months after October 7th we need to celebrate this Pesach with a new heart and a new spirit, the one of inclusion Moses established long ago, “We will all go, young and old; we will go with our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds; for we must observe the festival of God.”