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Candle lighting is at 4:30 pm on Friday, November 21. This week's Torah portion is Parashat Chayei Sara. Havdalah starts 60 minutes after sundown, at 5:47 pm on Saturday, November 22. Courtesy of hebcal.com |
Avot II: The Religion of BalanceBy Rabbi Alan Yuter Rebbi, Rabbi Judah the prince, the Mishnah's main compiler, taught: What is the straight or proper way which a person should choose for oneself? Any way that brings glory from God, his or her Maker, and gives glory from humankind. Maimonides explains that we chose the middle path, avoiding extremes. Our joy comes from obeying the commandments, like circumcision, the Passover lamb, and easy commandments, i.e., speaking Hebrew! The punishments for the negative commandments is recorded, but the reward for observing the positive commandments is usually not mentioned, other than living in the life to come. The Mishnah's structure is a key to its meaning. On one hand, we must obey God, and on the other hand, we must be responsible to humankind as well. The two are often in conflict, and we can never be fully consistent. When everyone is doing evil, Maimonides advises us to live as hermits. On the other hand, when the community does not force us to sin, we live in the community and are not permitted to leave the community. So we must obey the Tradition of commands, but we must do so in a way that does not make us look strange, weird, or out of touch with reality. We enter and engage the world, but as we observe Judaism, we may not retreat from the world. As we ask God to redeem the world, we are God's agents for redemption. |