Rabbi's Derasha

I want to share something about the Parasha from R’ Nota Greenblatt, z”l, whose Yahrzeit is coming up this week, and then relate it to events this coming week.  

R’ Nota has only one Sefer.  It’s on the Chumash.  One of the things he says in Shmini relates to an interesting question.  He was asked by someone about a strange thing that the Torah does in this week’s portion.  When the Torah lays out the Kosher and non-Kosher animals, it gives us two signs to look for: the animal has to have split hooves and it needs to chew its cud.  The signs usually go together but there are four exceptions, three of those exceptions only chew their cud and one that only has split hooves.  The strange language comes when it mentions the three that only chew their cud but do not have split hooves.  

For some reason, when the Torah speaks about those three animals that do not have split hooves, it changes the tense of the verb: one is in the past, one is in the present and the third is in the future -- did not have split hooves, does not, and will not.  The person asked R’ Nota, why?  R’ Nota answered that this fits into a discussion about the nature of the signs: Is it that these signs make the animals not Kosher or are the animals not Kosher but the Torah gives signs to help us distinguish?  When the Torah uses different tenses for the verb, it is signaling that the physical reality might change over time but that won’t affect the Kashrut.  A camel with split hooves would still not be Kosher.

But what about the one other animal that is an exception, the pig?  The Torah simply says that it has split hooves but it does not chew its cud.  What happens if that changes?  There is a well-known Midrashic statement about the Hebrew word for pig, a Chazir.  It says that the word Chazir, which is related to the word “return,” means that a pig can one day return to a Kosher status.  R’ Nota says that this thought is not necessarily about the animal but rather might refer to another entity, like a nation.  Perhaps it means that a nation which is compared to a pig, like Amalek, can perhaps change its nature at the end of days.  

If the Torah can contemplate such a change in nature for a nation, it can surely contemplate a change in nature for a country.  The Jewish people as a nation might have a certain nature, a nature that began with the exodus from Egypt.  But the country Israel, which is only 77 years old, is much more vulnerable to change.  

When the state of Israel was founded there were two major sources of opposition from within the Jewish people: the intellectual class was opposed, people like Hannah Arendt and David Riesman and Isaac Deutscher.  Later, Phillip Roth became uncomfortable.  The second group was religious Jews, outside of Mizrachi.  Over time, the intellectual classes remain uncomfortable with Israel but the religious have shifted and continue to shift. Some of that shift had to do with Israeli governments.  Speaking here several years ago, R’ Herschel Schachter recalled a story of a major American Halachic authority who voiced his opposition to the State of Israel.  Someone said to him, “it’s not the State of Israel you oppose; it’s the government you don’t like.”  

As the country has changed, the eagerness of religious people to get involved has evolved.  One of the ways to be involved is in the elections for the World Zionist Organization.  The WZO Congress, which meets in October after the Chagim, distributes $1b in funds according to the priorities of its members.  Those members are determined by a vote which takes place every five years.  This year’s election has been going on since March and lasts until May 4.  Anyone over the age of 18 can vote.  It only costs $5 to register.

This is a way to confirm engagement with Israel and to have an effect on how priorities are made.  Vote for Mizrachi, or for Eretz HaKodesh, or for Am Yisrael Chai or for whomever.  But people should vote.  Only Israelis -- who live there or are willing to fly in to vote -- can affect the Knesset.  But there are many programs that can benefit from the $1b World Jewish Congress budget.  Be a part of the evolving State of Israel.