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The Pathology of Sin

By Rabbi Joel M. Finkelstein, Anshei Sphard-Beth El Emeth Cong., Memphis, TN

            If I took a survey today and asked how many of you would consider me to be rude, I don’t think many would say that I was.  That is considering that I’m from New York and we are here in Memphis.

            On this Yom Kippur, I wish to share with you a time when I indeed was very rude to someone and I would like to do teshuva – repentance from that act.  Maybe I can learn from this experience and repent for it.  I hope that you can all learn a lesson and find meaning in this story as well.

            I was leading a beginners’ minyan, that is a service apart from the main service in the sanctuary, at which we would go through the major prayers and discuss their meaning and their structure.  One day I was approached by one of the participants, a middle aged single man, who wished to participate in the service by giving a small sermonette concerning something he had read.  I thought that sounded like a great idea and I told him that he was welcome to do so at our next service.

            I arrived at the next service, introduced him, and sat down.  As he began to talk, I became very uncomfortable with what he was saying.  I began to squirm in my seat.  I felt that I could not allow him to do go any further.  What he was saying was far too harsh for these congregants who are all beginners at their Judaism and would find his remarks quite offensive.  I felt I had to do something about it, so I stood up and I said “Thank you very much, we will now continue our service on page 430”.

            After the service, a number of my friends and congregants were wondering what had I done.  Why did I need to stop him?  I explained that I thought that his words were much too harsh and were not appropriate for this setting.  Upon further reflection and having thought about it for the last 10 years, I realized it was not the congregants I wished to protect but rather myself.  I was not prepared to hear the words that he had to offer.

            I would like at this time to share with you that commentary of Rashi which he told to the congregation.  I would like to expand upon it in my own way and I hope that you will not walk out and you will not cut me off.  But I do hope that it resonates for you as it has for me.  After 10 years I have come to realize that this is not offensive but it is something that we all need to learn and to contemplate. It is a statement about the human condition.

            Rashi was the greatest commentator ever in Jewish history.  Whenever one opens a classic text of Torah or Talmud, there is his commentary right at the side of the page.  Rashi was commenting on a verse in the section in the end of Leviticus known as Tochechah (Leviticus 26, 14 to 15).  In this section, G-d promises that if the Jewish people do not follow the commandments, all bad things will befall them.  The prediction as to what would happen if the Jewish people did not follow the commandments reads like a Jewish history text book.  Indeed it reflects some of our worse experiences in the past 2,000 years.  In introducing this section, one would have expected the Torah to simply say “if you do not follow the commandments then ….!”  However, instead the Torah seems to go into some form of a verbal hemorrhage and uses no less than 7 expressions to introduce this section. 

            It says  1) “If you do not hearken unto me, 2) and you do not do all of these commandments, 3) and if you despise my statutes, 4) and if my laws your soul abhors, 5) to fail to do, 6) all of my commandments, 7) to annul my covenant, my bris”.  Whenever the Torah uses so many expressions when it could have just used one, the Midrash always goes wild.  Why would the Torah which is so thrifty with its’ words, expend so much energy on one concept?  Rashi, quoting an earlier Midrash known as the Sifra, says what we have here are 7 sins.  I don’t mean 7 different sins like murder, adultery, theft, etc. I mean 7 pathologies found within the commission of one sin.  Each of these pathologies leads to the next and here they are.

            Rashi and the Midrash puts the pathologies in their own words.  No. 1 “Lo Lamad”.  He did not learn. Sometimes the reason we don’t follow the commandments is because we didn’t learn them, we’re not familiar with them, we don’t know them.  Sometimes we do know them but we “sort of” think of ourselves as not knowing them.  When a husband yells at his wife and causes her a great hurt, does he really need to read a book about how to speak to your wife in order to “know” that it is wrong?  When a parent rips into a child and causes irreversible damage with their language, do they really need a course in parenting to tell them what they are doing to their son or daughter?  Sometimes we know but- Umm -we kind of don’t know.  “You know I didn’t really realize but I sort of did but….”  The first pathology is that sometimes we simply don’t know and at other times we pretend we don’t know. 

            The second pathology is “Lo Asah”.  We didn’t do. So you say- no that’s not part of the pathology.  That’s the problem itself.  You’re not following the commandments.  That’s the essence of all the phrases.  Actually though “not doing” can become part of the problem.  “Oh, I don’t keep kosher.” Well why does that matter?  You can still go to the new kosher restaurant on a Sunday night.  “Oh, I’m not that religious”.  So you can go to Friday Night Services or a Shalosh Sheudas.  You can still buy a Lulav or say the grace after meals, the benching.  A person can even go to the Mitzvah even if he’s “not religious”.

            I was talking to a woman who lives in Israel and she says that even the most anti-religious people in Israel still often put up a Mezuzah or fast on Yom Kippur.  There is no contradiction.  Sometimes it is simply our identity and how we define ourselves that keeps us from doing what we could be doing.

            Thirdly, we begin to despise those who do the commandments.  The pathology works like this.  We all think that we are basically good people.  Right?  But we know there are certain things we don’t do.  But we figure, that’s not a problem because nobody does them or in the case of prohibitions- everybody does them.  But then we look and we see that so and so does manage somehow to follow these commandments.  So what’s wrong with me?  So I say to myself, there’s nothing wrong with me, he’s the fanatic, he’s crazy, that’s why he does these things.

            Let’s be honest.  Did you ever see someone doing something “very religious,” perhaps ultra orthodox and you felt a pang of disgust run through your heart?  Did you ever see someone’s peyos which were a little unkempt, someone’s tzitzis that were flying a little bit too wildly, someone who seems a little grungy because he hasn’t bathed on Shabbat or someone whose beard was out of control because it was that time of year in which they were in mourning.  Why do we sometimes feel a sense of disgust at seeing others observe Jewish law?  If they don’t mind getting grungy, why should it be our problem? Why should we not be happy that others are observing Jewish law more than we are?

            Take the case of the strife in Israel between the religious and the secular.  Yes, there are real issues, issues of life and death.  Should all of our boys and girls be obligated to go out and fight for the defense of Israel or should some be exempt for religious reasons, for the purposes of studying Torah or for issues of modesty.  These are real issues but does it warrant all the venom that’s thrown at the religious community and sometimes tossed back at the secular community?

            The Rabbis tell us that the Temple was destroyed because of needless hatred.  What we need today in the words of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook is unfettered love for one another and not the type of hatred we see.

            Some people would say, Rabbi why aren’t you talking about the horrific rise of anti-Semitism in this world at this time?  Let me tell you that I am well aware of the problem of anti-Semitism today.  Just last week my first cousin who is a Rabbi in Montreal and his wife, a scholar and a teacher, were accosted because they went to hear a lecture of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Palestinians protestors hurled objects at the crowd, broke windows, and punched and beat my cousins.  I am well aware of the problem of hatred outside these doors but I don’t believe any of the Palestinian protestors are here with us in the Synagogue today.  We do have Jews here and we can learn to love each other just a bit more.

            The third pathology, as we said,  is despising those who do what we should be doing. 

            The fourth pathology is hating the Rabbi.  This pathology runs as follows.  I am basically a great guy.  Oh, but wait a second, there are all these laws that I don’t follow.  Ah, yes but who says we have to do these laws?  It’s the Rabbi.  The Rabbi!?  The Rabbi is a crook.  The Rabbi gave a bad speech last week.  The Rabbi didn’t say hello to me three months ago.  The Rabbi didn’t visit me when I was sick.  The Rabbi gave me an honor in the Synagogue where the Ark was only open for half a minute.  Why should I listen to him?  Yes, the Rabbis are not perfect.  No question about it.  Buy why all the venom?  Why all the focus on the Rabbi did this and the Rabbi did that? It’s become a national past-time.  You come home from Shul, you start eating, and you talk about how bad the Rabbi’s sermon was.  Why do we do this?  What’s our problem?

            Then we reach Pathology No. 5.  We begin to prevent others from performing the commandments.  This is called co-opting.   If you want to do something really unseemly, one often feels uneasy to do it by themselves, but if you can find a few buddies to join you, then you can do it guilt free.

            When I was in elementary school, there was a boy in my class who loved to study Torah and the Midrash and who eventually became quite religious.  But he had a rule in his family.  If he was within 10 feet of the school he had to remove his kippah.  When he was at home he had to take off his kippah.  When I came to visit at his house I had to take off my kippah.  Why?  Why the great concern that maybe he would be too religious?

            You know, we have 5 major concerns about our children.  1– Who they marry.  2– Their career.  3 – That they should stay out of drugs and substance abuse.  4 – Their dating habits should be on the up and up.  5 – Definitely one of the top 5 is that they shouldn’t be “too religious”.  Did you ever hear someone say that guy over there- he’s too Catholic.  That lady over there- she’s too Protestant.  Never!  But did you ever hear someone say that guy, he’s too Jewish!  Why do we do it?  What’s our problem?

            You see someone, they’re about to go to Israel.  You should go to Israel.  You should visit.  You should support Israel in this way.  But you don’t.  You’re afraid.  All right, I understand that.  So what do we say to them.  We say, you’re going to Israel?  What, are you, crazy? Don’t you have children at home?  That’s called preventing others.  It makes us feel better.

            And finally, Nos. 6 and 7 we begin to say, why do I have all this Jewish guilt anyway?  Oh, it’s all because of the Torah.  Well, why don’t we just forget about the Torah.  But you say, No. 7, how can I deny the Torah?  G-d gave the Torah.  So we say forget about G-d as well.  We deny the essence of Judaism.

            Maybe you understand now why I cut off that man when he gave that speech.  Rashi hits the nail on the head.  These pathologies are part of what we all do.  At any end of  the spectrum, from a beginner to a so called religious Jew.  It’s part of the pathology of sinning and missing the mark.

            On Yom Kippur we need to confront this pathology of sinning and do Teshuva – repentance and try to do better, and try to cure ourselves of its’ ills.

            So now we walk away and we say, I don’t know, I have to correct myself in 7 different ways? What was the 6^th way again?  I forgot.  Well, let me simplify it for you.  It all starts with No. 1 and No. 2- Lo Lamad and Lo Asah.  He didn’t learn and he didn’t do.  This year we need to make those our 2 priorities.  We need to learn more and we need to do more.

            There are so many opportunities for learning and for doing.  Let us avail ourselves of these opportunities this year more than ever.  But, you say, Rabbi this is supposed to be a Yizkor sermon, what does this have to do with Yizkor?  Let’s open the Yizkor book and I’ll show you.  It says that we hope that G-d will remember the soul of our loved one in the merit that I am giving charity or doing a good deed on behalf of their memory.  And in the merit of that deed may You guard them under the opinion of Your wings. 

            The best way to remember a loved one and to cause G-d to remember them for the good is to learn more and to do more.  Let the motto of the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai be our motto for this year.  We will do and we will learn, and if we do so, hopefully we will remove from ourselves all of the curses that have plagued us for the last number of years and we will be showered with all of the blessings which the Torah promises for those who learn and those who do.

            May the year and its curses come to an end and may the year and its blessings commence.  May we all be blessed with a year of life, health, happiness, and peace.