Beth Abraham Hillel Moses
proudly presents
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KLEZMER CABARET
Saturday, March 20, 1993
8:00 p.m.
The Ethnic Connection will
delight you with Eastern
European folk music. "Their
repertoire includes all the old
Yiddish and Hebrew
favorites. Whether you
understand the words or
not, this is music at its spir-
ited best music the whole
family will enjoy."
The Ethnic Connection
5075 West Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
Reservations $10
•
Tables of eight are available
For more information please call the synagogue ice 851 - 6880
League of Jewish Women's Organizations of Greater Detroit
cordially invites you, your family and friends to our
48th ANNUAL
YOUTH AWARDS PROGRAM
An Opportunity to Honor Our Outstanding Young People
SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 1993 AT 1:30 P.M.
CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM
14601 W. LINCOLN, OAK PARK
Guest Speaker
RABBI DAVID NELSON
Special Presentation
BETTY SILVERFARB
A RECEPTION WILL FOLLOW THE PROGRAM
Co-Chairmen Youth Awards
Carol Sue Coden
Rose Lynn Schlussel
President
Charlotte Edelheit
CID
U)
TH E DE TRO
F-
30
AnYbodNI can sell
iewetry.
• •
SRVICE
and DISCOUNTS
provides
SE RV
O
I Weintraub.
'THERE IS P. DIFFERENCE.
but
,'Sunset
Strip'' 29536 Northwestern Hwy., Southfield
Hours: M F 10 - 6:15
10 - 5
Sat
The Dangers
Of Ritual Excess
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SHLOMO RISKIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
E
frat — By the time we
get to this week's por-
tion of Tetzave, we
notice something un-
usual in the Book of Exodus.
Mishpatim, the first portion
after the revelation at Sinai,
was devoted chiefly to civil
law, torts, and questions of
property and damages, which
was followed immediately by
Trumak's detailed descrip-
tions of the Sanctuary. But
this week's portion still finds
us in the Sanctuary.
In fact, a total of five por-
tions in the Book of Exodus
deal with the Sanctuary,
creating a five-to-one ratio
between civil law and ritual
law.
Why such excruciating
detail concerning each nicety
of the Sanctuary?
We may be able to il-
luminate this problem by tur-
ning for a moment from the
Written Law of the Bible to
the Oral Law of the Talmud,
where we find the ratio of
civil law to ritual law
reversed.
Exploring the reasons for
the Ibrah's different approach
to these two realms of law
(between human beings, and
between God and humans),
may also shed light on our
understanding of the nature
of Oral Law in general.
When God chose to, He dic-
tated everything to Moses,
which is precisely what hap-
pened with the laws of the
construction of the Sanctuary.
But the issues covered in
Mishpatim — civil law — are
entirely different.
It is obvious that civil law,
dealing as it does with the en-
tire range of human relation-
ships in the rubric of evolving
societies and civilizations
from agrarian to industrial to
technological, was beyond the
scope of five books, (or even
100 books) and could not
possibly cover every variant
case that would emerge over
the course of time. What God
gave Moses in addition to
those laws were basic prin-
ciples and guidelines,.rules of
logic and development, which
would provide the basis for
future interpretation and ex-
trapolation (Midrash Shmot
Rabbah 41,6; Tanhumah Ki
Tisa 16). Indeed, according to
many interpreters, the verse,
Rabbi Riskin is chief rabbi of
Efrat, Israel, and founder
and dean of Ohr Torah
Institutions.
"You shall do what is right-
eous and good in the eyes of
God," (Deut. 6:18) serves as a
fundamental axiom for the
entire gamut of civil law.
The more the world
changed, the more the rabbis
and sages were kept busy. An
oral tradition always existed,
but was written down only
when impending exile of the
Jews from the land made the
possibility of the sages' deci-
sions being forgotten a real
danger. By the time we get to
Rav Ashi and Ravina, the
final editors of the Talmud,
there is a wealth of material
dealing with the issues rais-
ed in Mishpatim, requiring
volumes to record all the
dialogues on the subjects of
civil law.
But when it came to recor-
ding the dialogues on aspects
of the Sanctuary, there was
far less to record. And the
reason is simple. Incense
holders and altars and
showbreads don't evolve. Once
an incense holder, always an
incense holder. The dimen
sions of the Sanctuary, or its
various accoutrements, were
never meant to change.
Tetzaveh:
Exodus
27:20-30:10,
Deuteronomy
25:17-19,
I Samuel 15:2-34.
But the true reason is in
reality far deeper. Judaism
welcomes rabbinic additions
to civil law, greater protection
for the employee and the in-
digent, greater concern for
the establishment of a
"righteous and good" society.
That, after all, is the very
goal of our Torah. Judaism is
suspicious, however, of ex-
cessive additions to the Sanc-
tuary, to the realm of the
ritual. Were not the sons of
Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, kill-
ed, when they brought a
strange fire which had not
been Divinely ordained?
Ritual excess can serve to
confuse means with ends, can
make the Sanctuary a god in
itself, can substitute the form
of worship with the object of
worship. And ritual excess
can overwhelm the logic of
mortality, inspiring the
masses to destroy wantonly i
the name of their deity.
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