Parshat Vaera 5784 (2024)

We are living in interesting times. Very interesting times. While most of us in the English-speaking world are familiar with the curse “May you live in interesting times,” and believe it to be a Chinese curse, it probably has no connection to any known Chinese expression whatsoever.

Nevertheless, we certainly are living in interesting times. Just a couple of years after the corona virus pandemic, uncertainty looms all around us. Israel, our people’s homeland, is at war. The US and the UK have just bombed Houthi strongholds in Yemen. Ukraine and Russia are still fighting. Here, in Taiwan, just a few days ago we all received a text message stating that a missile had been fired from China—though luckily it was just a satellite. And this message no doubt brought about feelings of anxiety and fear, especially given the fact that there is a historic election happening here in Taiwan tomorrow.

I am not going to tell you how to think. That is not what I am here for. I am here to help you find a way to “live through interesting times” without losing your mind. And to do so, I will draw upon the wisdom of a tribal chief, and the Grateful Dead.

This past week, I was down in Pingtung to help Sonia’s family prepare for Maljeveq. In Chinese it is called “wu nian ji,” which is a special event that some members of the Paiwan tribe of Taiwan’s indigenous people celebrate every 5 years. During the opening ceremony, one of the tribe’s chiefs said something that deeply resonated with me.

You see, while this opening ceremony took place, fireworks and loud speakers related to tomorrow’s election could be heard throughout the mountain top village. However, amidst all of this campaigning, there was a large group of tribal members gathered together at their sacred temple to sacrifice boars and call upon the ancestors. It was during this monumental ritual that the chief decided to remind his tribe what was really important.

He said, “KMT, DDP, these divisions have nothing to do with us. They all come from a foreign land. They’re not what we need to focus on right now. Instead, we need to put our energy into honoring our ancestors, strengthening our people, and keeping our culture alive. Long before there was a KMT or DPP, we were here. We need to make sure that long after they are gone, we will still be here.”

His words hit me in a very deep way. You see, in America, plenty of Jews let differences in political affiliation get in the way of Jewish unity. Somehow, whether someone is a Democrat, or a Republican becomes more important than your 3,000 years of shared heritage. You see the same thing in Taiwan too. On the bustling boulevards of Taipei, and even in the winding mountain trails of Aboriginal villages.

However, communal unity is not the only important takeaway from the chief’s speech.

His closing words, that his tribe existed long before contemporary political divisions, and only through investing in their shared heritage, can they be sure that the tribe will survive after these particular divisions disappear, is equally important.

We are the Jewish people! The Jewish people! The word Jew, according to the history books, comes from the word Judea, the kingdom that existed during the second temple period. Thus, it indicates our geographical origins. According to the rabbis, the word Jew—Yehudi—comes from the Hebrew word modeh, such as in the prayer modeh ani, or here, on the wall, modim anachnu lach, which means to “recognize, affirm,” or in modern Hebrew, “agree.”

Really? The JEWS? The Jews, we are called the people who agree? 3 Jews, 7 opinions? So how in the world can we be called the people who affirm or agree?

Despite our differences, the rabbis believed that Jews affirm that there is a God in this world—we agree on that fact. We might not agree how to serve God, or what the word “God” even means—but we agree that there is more to this world than what meets the eye, and our very existence is a testament to that fact, for, despite the Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, Persian, and Roman conquests, we’re still here! Despite being kicked out of almost every single Western European country, and all of the other hardships that we have endured, we are still here! This tiny people, 0.2% of the world’s population, who have a covenant with God, are still here.

So, how does any of this give us any sort of insight into how to live in interesting times? For that, let us turn to the words of the Grateful Dead:

Grateful Dead

Built to Last

 There are times when you can beckon
There are times when you must call
You can take a lot of reckoning
But you can't take it all

 There are times when I can help you out
And times when you must fall
There are times when you must live in doubt
And I can't help at all

 Three blue stars rise on the hill
Sing no more now just be still
All these trials soon be past
Look for something built to last

 …

 Built to last 'til time itself falls tumbling from the wall
Built to last 'til sunshine fails and darkness moves on all
Built to last while years roll past like cloudscapes in the sky
Show me something built to last or something built to try

Built to last. Show me something built to last. If there has ever been anything, ever, in this world that has been built to last, it is the Jewish people and their shared heritage. We are a people who have lived through more interesting times than anyone else. In fact, we broke the mold. We literally broke the mold. In the ancient world, when one civilization conquered another, the defeated people would adopt their conquerers’ gods, for their victory proved that the foreign gods were more powerful than their own. Logically, we would have done the same. We had this strange idea called monotheism, the belief in one God, and so many other peoples, with so many different gods, defeated us—multiple times! Yet, here we are, thousands of years later.

So, in these uncertain and interesting times, I advise you to take a step back, and take a bird’s eye view of history. Like the aboriginal chief, I encourage you to put your time and energy into something that is built to last, something that will outlive and survive all of the chaos and uncertainty of the world. Pick up a Jewish book, or view it on Sefaria. Come to shul with questions! Volunteer in our Sunday school, or the events that we plan. Start learning some Hebrew! Come this Sunday! Come to Torah n’ Tunes! There are so many ways to focus your energy on our shared heritage. Sonia, me, the Board of Trustees and Advisory Board, are all trying to give each and every one of us as many ways to connect to our shared heritage as possible. If you want advice on how to connect outside of these four walls, we’re here for you!

But however you wish to proceed, I advise you to not get too wrapped up in the here and now, and instead, make an investment in something that you know will outlive all of us, and outlive the current chaos engulfing our world. Let the Jewish tradition be your refuge in the storm.

Some people call religion the opium for the masses, and say “oh, I envy people with faith, it can give them strength in hard times, but I don’t have that kind of faith.” Faith, in Judaism, is not a goal. Faith is not a mitzvah, it is not a commandment. We’re not commanded to believe anything, just to do and not to do things.

On Sunday, before the lecture, we are going to gather here at 11:00am for a morning shacharit service. Unlike shabbat, Sunday is considered a regular weekday in the Jewish tradition, and every Jewish person will have the option to wrap tefillin. While tefillin might seem strange, it’s a practice that has existed since at least the second temple period. That’s where we find the earliest descriptions as well as archaeological evidence of tefillin as we know it.

When I wrap, I often think about my ancestors, those in ancient Judea, Babylon, the Roman Empire, medieval Europe, and then Poland. All wrapping themselves in these peculiar straps. And I feel connected. I feel as though I am binding myself to a tradition, to a heritage, that has outlasted countless empires, and lived through more interesting times to count.

And it gives me a sense of strength. A sense of peace. How many of our ancestors did this practice while living in interesting times? How many of our ancestors, in whatever land they were, whatever language they spoke, wrapped themselves, connected themselves to their tradition, to God, and to each other.

This gives me the realization that whatever may be happening in the world outside, right at that moment, right at that place where I am standing, I am doing something that transcends time and space and connects me to something that was built to last.

 

Shabbat Shalom.