Rabbi's Sermons

Shabat Shalom!

This Shabbat, which takes place before the 9^th of Av, is called “Shabbat Chazon”, in light of the first words of the Haftarah reading, that we read from the first chapter of the book of Isaiah ben Amotz. On the one hand, Isaiah rebukes at people who sins against God, and on the other hand, he offers us a comforting and very important ethical message, which teaches us the deep meaning about the purpose of sacrifices and offerings in the Temple, which the Jews in the world crave and remember with poems and prayers on the 9^th of Av.

Why then - asks the prophet - are all the sacrifices on the altar necessary, if the people who bring them do not stop doing evil in the eyes of God? Isaiah opens his book in a very critical manner, addressing an evil people, who visit the Temple to atone for their iniquities, offering incense, blood of bulls and sheep. On verse 11, God ponders: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs or of goats”. In other words, being sinners, do you think you can atone for your sins only with offerings? And a few verses later it says: "who hath required this from your hand, to tread My courts”, And in verse 15, it clearly states: "And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood”. So, even today, if we raise our prayers, God may still not listen to us!

So what is the true path to forgiveness and atonement? What does the Lord require from us, if the sacrifices of the Temple and today´s prayers in the synagogues, are not enough? The answer is found later in verses 16 and 17: “Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless, plead for the widow”, after that Isaiah concludes: “18 Come now, and let us reason together”, and if your sins were many: “ ...they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”.

With those beautiful words from tomorrow´s Haftarah, this Shabbat, just before the day of mourning – for the memory of the destruction of both Temples, Isaiah loudly rebukes the evil people in his time. His words, however, echo to us today, because we can get lost in the numerous ceremonies or if we focus on many details, and lose the essence, the moral, the ethical message of the true desire of the Creator of the Universe. In Israel, it is said that "שמרוב פתקים לא רואים את הכותל" – there are so many notes in the fissures of the Wailing Wall, that the wall itself is lost. The words of the prophet reach us 28 centuries later, to our days, with an indescribable relevance, vigorous and strong!

The Temple, the offerings, the burnt offerings, the sacrifices with blood, and today our prayers, make no sense, if the people do not take away the evil from their hearts, if they do not demand judgment, if they do not help the poor, the orphan and the widow, to anyone who needs our support! Can't you even imagine how a third temple could exist?! Many sages did not even try to imagine it, and left everything in the hands of the messianic age. Today there are those who visualize it as a spiritual center for the entire world, without sacrifices or offerings on the altar, just prayers.

This 9^th of Av, I shall be in sad grief, but not because of the loss of two glorious temples that were left in ruins, but because of what the people on those days did to lose them. I shall mourn for the shadows of war covering today the entire Middle East, I mourn because the cynical use of religion in Israel today, where you see in the TV news criminals appearing in court becoming suddenly “religious”, with Kipa and even Talit, covering their faces with books of Psalms. That is what I mourn for, more than buildings from times past.

It is worth mentioning, that in describing the construction of the Tabernacle, long before the first Temple, God indicated in the book of Exodus 25:8 “וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם” - “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”. Among them, it is written, not in the middle of the Temple, but in the middle of each one of us, because the altar is our own heart, and the "sacrifice" is what we can give, specially the most valuable: our time, by helping those who are in need.

It is an appropriate moment to remember, the wise words of one of the greatest personalities and spiritual leaders of the world, Mahatma Ghandi who said: "In prayer is better, a heart without words than words without heart..."

Shabat Shalom!

Rabbi David Laor

August 9^th  2024