- Clergy
- Shabbat
Each Shabbat, I have the privilege of ushering in the next generation of Jewish leadership, in the form of our very own B’nei Mitzvah students, here at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. In the opening moments of the service, each student places the tallit around their shoulders, while reciting a blessing. This action marks a sacred moment of transition from their life as a Jewish child, to being seen as an adult in the eyes of our ancient tradition.
Before they put on their tallit, I explain to them the significance of the prayer shawl. That as beautiful as the garment that Bubbe and Zaide picked out in Israel may be, the commandment from the Torah is to wear the tzitzit, the long fringes that hang off the corners of that garment. When you do a little gematria (Jewish spiritual math) of the word tzitzit, you get the number 600. Add to that the 8 strings and 5 knots of the prayer shawl, and we get 613, the exact number of Mitzvot found in the torah. Once B’nei Mitzvah, which means children of the commandments, it is now their responsibility to carry the morals, values and the ethics of our tradition, literally, upon their very shoulders.
This week’s portion, Ki Tetzei, begins with the rules of engagement during times of war, and as the parsha continues, we are given various mitzvot on a wide array of random topics: inheritance law, returning lost objects, building a fence on one's roof, loaning with interest, collecting debt, divorce, and more. Things that we might not have automatically assumed are mitzvot, but in fact they are….
We all know the saying “the devil is in the details” but I am going to change that a bit, and say “life is in the details.” We define ourselves as Jews in all the small, seemingly insignificant decisions we make every day. We make a moral choice in deciding whether to give our seat to an elderly man or woman. We define ourselves by whether we try to find the owner of the wallet that was left on the floor of the Whole Foods parking lot. We even demonstrate our Jewish character in how we conduct our business dealings at work, no matter how successful one may be.
This week’s Torah portion sends a poignant reminder that our ethical stature is not only defined by our attitudes towards the ever looming missions of social justice, matters of war and peace, civil liberties and social welfare. As important as those are! Our morality is developed in the thousands of small choices we make in the shadows of our private lives, when we assume nobody is looking.
As we approach the High Holy Days, and during this ongoing month of Elul, I want us to sweat the small stuff, and to think deeply about how we conduct ourselves in those small moments of our lives. The commandments found in Ki Tetzei, are a reminder that we are all in need of a moral tune-up, so that we can move into this new year of 5785, refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated, and ready to perform our share of mitzvot, both big, but more importantly, the small.
Shabbat Shalom!
Cantor Lisa Peicott