’VAR TO RAH

“Because.” This simple conjunction in English is often given as a shorthand answer to the question “Why?” –with the implied meaning being, “Because I said so!” or “Because I want to!” It’s not the kind of answer we hope God will give to our most pressing spiritual questions. It is dissatisfying and disquieting to think that God commands our lives to be as they are for no better reason than “because.”

But “because” is also a word that evokes one of the central reflexes of the human mind: whenever we are presented with a new or surprising situation, our brains are hardwired to seek causality and correlation. When we were children and something bad happened to us, we would instinctively probe recent events to come up with a reason – a “because” to answer

Sometimes we would get it right by surmising, for example, that a parent was angry with us because we had drawn on the wallpaper with crayons. Sometimes we would get it wrong by assuming, for example, that a person we loved had died because we once yelled at them. It’s not hard to see how “because” can be a very powerful – and sometimes a very dangerous – word.

This week’s Torah portion of “because” includes the following important passage, which the ancient rabbis designated as the second paragraph of the Shema:

“If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving your God Adonai and serving [God] with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil – I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle – and thus you shall eat your fill.

“Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For Adonai’s anger will flare up against you, shutting up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that Adonai is assigning to you.” (Deuteronomy 11:13-17)

The entire passage, through verse 21, traditionally is called “Kabalat Ol HaMitzvot,” or “The Acceptance of the Yoke of the Commandments.” It was omitted from the liturgy by the early Reform Movement on the grounds that it is theologically unacceptable. Early Reform rabbis asked, in effect, “How can we teach people that those who obey God will be rewarded with food to eat and that the wicked will be punished with starvation? That is clearly not how the world works!”

As a result of the omission from Reform prayer books, there are many Reform Jews who attend synagogue regularly but have no idea that this passage was ever recited prominently, at the center of every morning and evening service. In truth, there are also plenty of Conservative and Orthodox Jews who never notice the theological problems with the passage that they dutifully recite in their worship.

But who says that we cannot pray with words that are difficult for us to accept?

Who says that the Torah has to conform to philosophical consistency?

The passage is built on the craving of our minds to answer every “why?” with a “because.” We want to know – we need to know – that there is a rule of cause and effect that governs our world and that there are reasons behind the fortunes and misfortunes that befall us in life. The ekev proposed by the passage – the causal relationship between our behavior and divine reward and punishment – teaches us that our actions have consequences and that we must examine our responsibility for shaping the world around us.

But we should not ignore the moral danger of taking the passage too literally. If we were to believe that God always rewards the good and punishes the wicked, we might be tempted to believe that we can determine God’s approval or non-approval of people by looking at the ways that they have been rewarded or punished by God.

If a person lives in poverty, we could conclude that God must have punished that person’s disobedience. If a person lives in affluence and luxury, we might believe that God has favored that person to reward righteousness. The fallacy and danger of such beliefs is obvious.

And the Hebrew Bible also contains a view of divine causality that directly contradicts the view in this week’s Torah portion. That counterpoint can be found in the Book of Job (Iyov in Hebrew).

Job was a righteous man. Nonetheless, he was punished by God. When Job asked God why he suffered despite all his good behavior, God famously responded with a non-answer: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Speak if you have understanding.” (Job 38:4)

In contrast to this week’s

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August 2023

Greater Rhode Island

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August 11 7:31pm

August 18 7:21pm lot of grains, a lot of salad, a lot of fruits. I do have steak and other stuff, on occasion. For me, personally, I haven’t been super-focused on my diet recently – mostly just on improving my play and trying to find more opportunities to play.

Is there a character trait that’s particularly helpful for volleyball players?

It’s really important to be loud. I’m not a very loud person, but on the court, you have to be able to communicate and be loud enough for other players to hear you – especially when you’re at a tournament in a convention center and there are hundreds of teams playing, you have to make sure that everyone can hear you, even the parents on the sidelines or the courts next to you.

What positions do you play?

On my old team, South County, we had a lot of outside hitters and not a lot of right-side hitters. I would play a lot of right side and a little bit of middle. I didn’t really play a lot of back-row, because we had a lot of great back-row players. I think I’m going to try to be more of an outside, especially for my high school season coming up. I’m going to try and play more outside and right-side and maybe some back-row, if I can. I think outside is just my favorite position.

It’s sometimes challenging for young athletes to balance so many intense, unrelated demands. How do you cope?

Being able to balance school life, regular life and sports can be hard for some people. But I think it comes naturally to me, because I have time for my sport, and then I have other time that I have completely free, when I can do whatever I want.

When I have free time, I’ll either Facetime my friends or try to meet up somewhere.

But I do think balancing homework and studying with sports is more difficult than sports and friendships, because you have to make a very specific schedule that can fit everything in. I think a lot of times I don’t have time for everything I want to do. But I do think athletics and academics come first. What are you most looking forward to about the Maccabi Games?

I’m definitely really excited to be able to travel to Argentina, especially with new people. While playing the sport, I think it’ll be a great opportunity to make friends with the people on the team, and building these friendships will hopefully be lifelong. Traveling to Argentina with people I like to hang out with will be really exciting. I’m also excited to play against hard competition, against other countries. It’ll just be a great opportunity to see new places.

Friendships seem very important to you. Has that always been the case?

It hasn’t always been the case for me to want to meet new people. When I was younger, and pretty recently, I was really shy, and volleyball seemed pretty intimidating. Even just meeting new people seemed intimidating. But I think volleyball has actually helped me get over my shyness, because I realized I really have to interact if I want to be good at my sport.

Building more friendships is going to help me in the long run. The Maccabi Games are a great way to build connection through

August 25 7:11pm the Jewish community by bringing Jews from all over the world together. They’re able to interact over something they’re interested in.

To see a video version of this interview, go to JewishRhody.com.

ROBERT ISENBERG (risenberg@jewishallianceri. org) is the multimedia producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and a writer for Jewish Rhode Island.

Involved with Maccabi USA?

If you know someone from the Jewish Rhode Island area who is participating in the Pan American Maccabi Games, let us know. Send an email to editor@jewishallianceri.org. Be sure to include contact information.