>> Torah portion JEWISH tAny_t] apoTchRV Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot: Exodus 33:12-34:26; Numbers 29:17-22; Ezekiel 38:18-39:16. GENETICS 5 1 in OCTOBER 1St 2013 7:30 Pm Jews is a carrier for at least one of 19 current preventable genetic diseases. 0 f the three pilgrimage holidays featured in our Torah portion, Sukkot is listed last, following the standard biblical order of beginning with the spring harvest festivals and ending with the autumnal ingathering. In fame, however, the Feast of Booths certainly stands in second place, after the ever- popular Passover and before the oft-overlooked Shavuot. Celebrating the summit of Israel's encounter with God — the giving of the Ten Commandments — Shavuot properly belongs atop the rest. As if to address this injustice, the Talmud pre- scribes the reading of the revelation at Sinai on the Sabbaths of both Pesach and Sukkot. The reading assigned by our rabbis for the Shabbat of Sukkot, however, is the giving of the second set of tablets, 40 days after the unfortunate fracturing of the first, following the incident of the Golden Calf. Though coincidental, the chronology works well: According to rabbinic calculation, the second tablets of the law were given by God on the 10th of Tishrei, immediately prior to our Feast of Tabernacles. Beginning with the acclaimed "I am the Lord — have no other gods" and ending with the less-observed "Do not covet anything that is thy neighbor's," the Decalogue is considered a corner- stone of European civilization and its Judeo-Christian creed. Next week, when we complete the annual reading of the Torah, we will recall Moses' expansive expertise and learning in law and literature, politics and poetry. Yet in his five famous books, nothing stands out like these 10 succinct sayings. Among the great minds of Europe was another legal expert of great lit- erary, political and poetic acumen. While not a pious practitioner, German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe did dabble in Bible, and proposed a pecu- liar theory about our parshah. Goethe extracted from the verses of our Torah reading a completely different set of Ten Commandments, unlike the 10 with which we are familiar. According to Goethe, Exodus 34 con- tains an alternative set of 10 rules and regulations, ranging from the sacrifice of firstlings to the laws of festivals. He taught that this table of 10 teachings was ceremonial and sacramental, and termed it the Ritual Decalogue. In contrast, he called the famous series of 10 statutes (with its prohibitions against theft, mur- der and adultery) the Ethical Decalogue. He believed that the Ritual Decalogue had been promul- gated prior to — and was superseded by — the moral mores of the Ethical code. Goethe's dichotomy is based on the Christian con- viction that ritual is an earlier and inferior form of religion. Judaism, however, consid- ers the moral and ritual as two sides of the same coin. Our faith's concern for the ethical is evident in the High Holiday liturgy, which we recited last week. Of the endless infractions enu- merated in the Machzor for which we sought forgiveness, every one falls in the category of the ethical; not one can be rendered ritual. By contrast, the booths and boughs of the Sukkot festival are replete with ritu- alistic revelry: the holiday begins with constructing huts, continues with wav- ing palm fronds and ends with beating willows. In Judaism, the ethical does not succeed and replace the ritual, rather the opposite: The ethical precedes and is the prerequisite for the ceremonial. We are not ready to perform the ritual practices of the new year until we have prepared and perfected our moral personae. Scholars of the last century disas- sembled the hypothesis of the Ritual Decalogue; it has since collapsed. But the Israelite innovation of ritual obser- vance built on a foundation of ethics and covered with a canopy of mitzvot remains sturdy, three millennia after our ancestors first encamped in sukkot on their journey to Mount Sinai. ❑ Rabbi Eric Grossman is head of school at Frankel Jewish Academy in West Bloomfield. Conversations • Do you separate the ethical and the ritual practices of Judaism in your own mind and practice? • Read Exodus 34 on your own and decide whether you find Goethe's theory compelling. OCT. 1s t Day: Tuesday Time: 7:30 9:00 pm Where: Jewish Federation – Join us as we take a step towards a better understanding of the problem of Jewish genetic diseases. Randy Yudenfriend Glaser, Chair, JGDC, and Shari Ungerleider, Program coordinator for JCDC, Jean St. John, MS, Certified Genetics Counselor, CMC Women's Institute, will be here for an informative program that will help you plan a healthy family. Whether you are planning to have your first child, add to your family or become a grandparent someday, the information that you take home will help you to make decisions that will protect you and future generations. of Metropolitan Detroit 6735 Telegraph Road Bloomfield Hills, Ml 48301 RSVP: Space is limited. RSVP by 9/30 to andrisan@jfmd.org 0 I*. Gene. Disease Consanium Odetn)lif JGDC 4 e/ THE MICHIGAN BOARD OF RABBIS h "/""an" Illustration by Folha De Sao Paulo 1862850 ••••00000000000000000000 Get your tickets NOW for LYE Professional Theatre *Exclusive Four Week Limited Run* ••••••••••••(5000050•••••• 4 1( 1 by Wendy Wassersteni September 25 - October 20, 2013 Directed by David J. 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