Parshat Bo – January 31, 2025 / 2 Sh’vat, 5785

I was sitting at my desk in the temple during religious school this past week. I was thinking about the return of our Israeli hostages, and how it relates to the biblical demand to let all of our people go from Egypt. 3 here and 4 there is not enough. God made it clear in Exodus, that all of us need to be free, and until then, we won’t be satisfied. Our traditions inform today, and that has not changed. In thinking about the welfare of our fellow Jews, my second grade Hebrew School Teacher came to mind. She was a warm and wonderful woman. I wondered what became of her, and figured that she most likely has passed away. My mind then went to the simplicity of the Jewish coffin. Jewish people, education and Jewish coffins. “Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai,” I thought! Who is this? Ben Zakkai was alive in Jerusalem during the Roman siege of the city, and the subsequent destruction of the 2nd Temple in the year 70 of the Common Era. Ben Zakkai knew that the fall of both the city and the Temple were inevitable. As food and supplies dwindled to almost nothing, he could see the writing on the wall, and he put himself out on a limb to essentially save Judaism as we know it today. The Temple would shortly be gone, and the ritual sacrifices and offerings that made up Jewish practice would clearly go with it. What to do? Periodically, the coffins holding the departed were allowed to be removed from the city walls of Jerusalem. This was the only way out. Ben Zakkai, desperate to act, and not go down with the zealots, put himself, living and breathing, into a coffin to be taken out of the city with the dead. When outside of the city walls, he approached the Roman general at the helm of the siege, Commander Vespasian. Ben Zakkai buttered up the commander, telling him that he was sure to be Emperor one day. Ben Zakkai made it clear that Jerusalem was inevitably transferring to Roman control, and that he would just like to make one simple request. This was a request with an impact we feel to this day. Zakkai asked only for “Yavneh and its Sages.” Yavneh, a small town south of present day Tel-Aviv, would soon become the center of rabbinic Judaism. A center of learning, and study was established in Yavneh. As the Temple fell, the study of Torah, Jewish law, and the traditions of Yavneh lived on. I was able to learn the Aleph Bet from a Jewish teacher 2,000 years later halfway across the world because Ben Zakkai, and others, thought it important to preserve our peoplehood.

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was willing to put himself in a coffin and face possible death. Why? For the sake of Jewish survival? Yes. For the sake of Jewish education and tradition? I ask; Are they not the same thing? In this week’s Torah portion, Bo, we have a line that is very telling. In reference to our prescription to celebrate Passover, our Torah lets us know that our children will ask, ‘what is this service to you?” Torah prescribes this question as inevitable. As soon as this is asked: “What is this service to you,” we become our own versions of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai. We take on the crucial responsibility of keeping Judaism alive through thorough explanation, practice, and education.

I suppose this child’s question is my question for all of us this week? In terms of not just Passover, and not even just children, but general Jewish practice, I ask: What is this service to you? “Mah Ha-avodah hazot lachem?” What are we teaching the next generation of Jews, and others who are curious, about what Judaism is? Why should we gather on Shabbat, or Holidays? This is something we wrestle with consistently in the world of Jewish education and overall sustainability. Our children are not always completely bought into learning Hebrew or Jewish history, the festivals, and culture, if there is no “why.” Are we ready with a “why” when we are inevitably asked? Rabbi Michael Strassfeld wrote a book called “Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century.” Rabbi Strassfeld claims he almost called the book, “Judaism: Why Bother?” He comments on the fact that many people are asking themselves that exact blunt question. “Why bother?” He claims that the life that has been given to us is the most precious possible gift, and that Judaism offers wisdom and practice that enables us to use that gift to its fullest potential: infusing it with meaning and purpose. Are we conveying that, and how?

I do believe that every person is on a spiritual journey to find ultimate meaning and purpose. Judaism can serve as a compass on that journey. We are so often told that we need to be willing to meet people exactly where they are at. Or do we? This is a question that is salient to the Reform movement of Judaism, perhaps in particular. How much do we bend our traditions before we find them bent so far back that they snap into something unrecognizable? So yes, Jewish survival seems undoubtedly focused on Jewish education and practice, but the question, in my estimation, is what is Jewish education? What is Jewish practice? What should they be?

Rabbi Strassfeld mentioned meaning and purpose. Does everybody have the same concept of meaning and purpose? Do we learn to read Hebrew to get through a Bar or Bat Mitzvah? Do we learn to read Hebrew to connect with the beautiful ancient texts of our tradition? Do we even bother to learn to read Hebrew at all? Who decides who learns what and why? Again, our Torah makes it very clear that the CHILDREN WILL ASK. I think this is the most important point of our discussion. The ask might not come in an extremely overt way. The ask might be in the form of a comment, a second of interest, a perking up of the ears. The ask can come from any person, in various stages of life. I view the sparks of inquiry as sacred opportunities and entrances to our beautiful tradition. Will we be ready with fruitful and meaningful answers when the fleeting moments of curiosity are inevitably broached? Will we be living our lives with Jewish meaning and purpose when we are looked to as examples of the what and the why? Again, what is this service to you?

Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai went to great lengths to keep the questions alive. Within the questions exist the secrets to our survival and flourishing as a people. I believe that in our modern times, we must be willing to look beyond the Judaism of “because this is what we do and have always done.” Tradition and routine can be great and even necessary, but they need to be infused with kavanah (intention) and sometimes even practical application. We must ask ourselves: What was Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai willing to lie down in a coffin to protect? When we see our hostages re-enter a Jewish state, tears in their eyes, embracing loved ones; I know there must be something beautiful and magical to all of this. Two-thousand years later, can we find what ben Zakkai was so fervently safeguarding and fighting for; Re-forming but not watering down? One more time I ask, “What is this service to you?” What is Judaism to you? What can we tell and show those who ask…for we know that they certainly will. If we manage to find even a hint of the Ben Zakkai inside of us, we can keep our beautiful traditions alive and well through any siege, physical or spiritual, now and in the future.

Shabbat Shalom.

– Rabbi Josh Gray