Parshat Vayakhel 5784 (2024)

There is a lot going on in this world. 

Just this week, there was a skirmish between the Chinese coast guard and ships from the Philippines. The war between Russia and Ukraine continues to rage. Biden and Trump are going at it. And, of course, the war between Israel and Hamas still plagues our every waking hour. Antisemitism is becoming more blatant, and a synagogue in Russia was just attacked by ISIS.

There is so much division. So much hate.

Each and every one of us here, throughout each week of our lives, asks ourselves: “What can I do about it?”

This week’s parshah, Vayekhel, begins with Moses assembling all of the entire Jewish people in one place, and then says : “These are the things that God has commanded you to do.”

His use of the word “things,” devarim in Hebrew, instead of “commandments,” is quite strange. Furthermore, Moses does not specify what those “things are.” Think of it. It is as if I was able to gather together ALL of the Jews in the ENTIRE world for a massive gathering, and I told them “This is the stuff you’re supposed to do,” and then just changed the subject.

Many, many, Jewish thinkers have tried to fill in this gap, saying that Moses did indeed specify what the “stuff” our ancestors were told to do was, and explain that the Torah simply does not clearly state what it was.

Old Jewish Cemetery in Lublin, Poland. Matzevah of Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin - The Chozeh

However, an answer that I find much more satisfying—and poignantly relevant to our current lives—comes from the Chozeh of Lublin (Yaakov Yitzchak HaLevi Horowitz, c. 1745 - 1815), the early Hasidic master who is referred to as the “Chozeh,” the “Seer of Lublin” for having the ability to “see” things happening hundreds of miles away, as well as into the souls of people. This sight, we are told, enabled him to see people’s past lives and figure out what sort of Tikkun, what sort of spiritual rectification they must accomplish during their present life in order to attain a higher spiritual level.

The Chozeh, the Seer, proclaims that there is no gap in the text; he says that the Torah is very explicit here. He states that the word used for “stuff” here, devarim—which also means “words”—refers to prayer, and concludes that Moses gathered the entire Jewish people together for the simple goal of praying together (Divrei Emet, Vayakhel).

While this is lovely, it still does not explain what the commandment here was and why did Moses need to gather ALL of the Jewish people together to pray? What is the connection between this huge assembly and praying?

According to the Seer, the commandment was Jewish unity, which he asserts is a prerequisite for successful prayer.

Hadar Sharan art installation

The Jewish people, we are taught, is one single body. While Jews have a difficult time agreeing on anything—and we do not simply tolerate, but CELEBRATE debate—we as individual Jews are parts of a single whole. Just like the sculpture our synagogue was gifted last week by Hadar Sharan, which represents the hand of one person who is calling out to be saved, while the hand of another grasps them tightly—the entire sculpture is formed from a single piece of wood. This beautiful piece’s form—and formation—perfectly represent how Jewish unity, achdut yisrael, functions.

This is also how prayer functions in Judaism.

Judaism is a communal religion. There is no monastic tradition. There is no worldly renunciation. While we do find stories of holy people going into seclusion, it is always temporary and either meant to enrich the community as a whole, such as when Moses climbed atop Mt. Sinai, or hiding from persecution, such as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son. Judaism cannot be done alone. It cannot! Without a minyan, we are not allowed to say kaddish, kedushah, or even barchu. We can’t even read the Torah! This reveals that while personal religiosity is a huge part of our tradition—it is just one part. Without a community, it is impossible to fully “do Jewish.”

And while prayer may be one of the most personal religious acts imaginable, in Judaism, it is interwoven with community. In fact, the Kabbalists, the Jewish mystics teach us that before praying one should dedicate themselves to fulfilling the mitzvah of “veahavta l’re’echa kamocha,” to “love your fellow as yourself.” This may seem a little odd at first glance. What does loving other people have to do with praying to God?!

Everything. It has everything to do with loving other people.

While we might not always think of prayer as something that one can fail at, our rabbis teach us that in fact, it is. You can fail at prayer! Perhaps you are talking during services, or distracted by other thoughts and not concentrating. Perhaps your prayers simply aren’t sincere. There are many ways to fail at prayer.

However you prayer, whatever prayer means to you, our tradition teaches thus that it cannot be successful unless you are in a good place with the people around you. It doesn’t mean you agree with them, what they think, how they believe, or even approve of everything they do. But you do have a sincere love for them. Humans are created in the image of God. So, if you cannot get right with all of these images of the Divine, how do you think you can get right with the Divine Itself?

Thus, successful prayer requires Jewish unity, achdut yisrael.

We see how this plays out in a practical, non-religious fashion. While we still wonder how the pogrom on Oct 7th could have happened, we know it could NOT have happened if we had been a united people. If our people were not so split, for so long, there is no way that the monsters could have come across our borders and committed the atrocities that they did. Jewish infighting is what made it possible.

Whenever we are united, that is when we fall. That is when we fail. We are living with the repercussions of it as we sit here now. Unfortunately, this is a lesson that we, as a people, still have yet to learn, although our sages have been teaching it to us for hundreds—thousands—of years. Our rabbis teach us, that while the First Temple was destroyed because the Jewish people were always worshipping other gods, that was not the case for the Second Temple. During the Second Temple Period, the Jewish people were very dedicated to Judaism! They were, as we say in Yiddish, far frumt, “super frum,” extremely observant. So, why did God decide to destroy the Second Temple and allow the Romans to scatter us around the world for 2,000 years?

Sinat chinam, “baseless hatred.” In other words, Jewish infighting. The destruction of the Temple, our exile, and all of the things that we have suffered since, according to our rabbis, is because we did not love each other.

Our world is divided, and is only going to get more divided the closer we come to both the month of Ramadan and later, the American election in the month of November, and as more and more antisemitic attacks happen throughout the world. Whatever you think Israel should do, whoever you think Americans to vote for, remember, there is someone in this room that feels differently. Thinking that that person is somehow less of a person—or a lesser reflection of the Divine—than people who think the same thing as you is a recipe for disaster. You don’t have to agree with them. You don’t even have to respect their OPINION, but you are commanded to have such a deep love for them that—whatever they think—you respect THEM. Failing to both realize this and put it into practice is the single tried and true method for bringing calamity upon the Jewish people.

As things get tenser, more heated, and we reinforce our own opinions within our political echo chambers, remember that whatever divides us politically is wholly insignificant when compared to what unites us—our shared heritage as Jews.

If we do not intentionally dedicate ourselves to the mitzvah of loving others, we inevitably invite division and allow political, ideological, denominational, or cultural differences to creep in between us and shatter the single body of the Jewish people of which we are equal parts. It was because of this that Moses assembled the entire Jewish people together, and why the mystics tell us to enter prayer only after dedicating ourselves to loving one another. I know this is hard, but mitzvot weren’t meant to be easy! If it was easy, no one would need to tell you to do it.

Remember that when you find this mitzvah challenging; you inevitably will.

Shabbat Shalom.