BETH TORAH TIMES WINTER EDITION -Nov-Dec 2018

A Message from Our Rabbi
“How long O Lord? The aftermath
of the shooting in Pittsburgh’s
Tree of Life”
Ad Anah Adonai – How long O
Lord – cried out the prophet – How
long? How long must we endure
these vile anti-Semitic attacks is
the question on all our minds.
It’s a painful cry that no Jewish
community has been immune from
since Pharaoh decided to enslave
his Hebrew population in spite of
all it had done from Egypt – saving
it from famine and destruction.
We all have opinions about what
happened, why it happened, what
might have triggered it. All have
some validity, none can be proven
right or wrong – every opinion has
a kernel of truth we can learn from.
The issue is too complicated and
has a long, long history. What we
need to do is look at our tradition
and see what it teaches us and put
it all in perspective. Tzay ulmad -
let’s learn. In Moses’ Maimonides
epic legal work called the Mishneh
Torah he discusses the coming of the
Messiah. He tells us that once the
Messiah comes: “All the books of
the prophets and all the writings will
no longer be valid in the days of the
Messiah except for Megillat Esther
which will remain together with the
five books of the Torah and the laws
of the Oral Torah that will never
lose their validity. Even though all
memory of troubles will be dropped
– but the days of Purim will remain.”
Why even after the coming of the
Messiah will we still read the book
of Esther and still observe Purim?
Because even when the Messiah
comes you still need to look out for
Haman!! That is how enduring anti-
Semitism is. Even in the Messianic
era we will have to keep an eye
out for Haman There is a Rabbinic
midrash which I believe explains
this rather bizarre idea. The Rabbis
say that if you are in the midst of
planting a tree and someone comes
and tells you that the Messiah has
arrived, you should finish planting
the tree and then go greet the
Messiah. What are the Rabbis
saying? I believe they are saying
two things: a) don’t alter your
lives – your work – your building
for the future – because you think
the Messiah has come. Because
it’s probably a false alarm. b) Even
if it is the Messiah you still need to
plant trees, care for the world and
build the future. Our partnership
with God and our working to repair
the world doesn’t end with the
coming of the Messiah. The story
of Esther will always be relevant
because even if you think it’s the
messiah – it probably isn’t – and
even if it is people will still be
people and Haman will still be
lurking in the shadows. In other
words, never, ever let your guard
down. My fellow Jews – Jews have
been attacked in France, in Belgium,
RABBI EMERITUS
EDWIN FARBER
in England, in Istanbul, in Argentina, in
Morocco, in Italy and of course in Israel.
Each time we are upset and horrified - Jews
being attacked and killed for the crime
of being Jewish. But for us this attack in
Pittsburgh is psychologically more traumatic
for many reasons. It’s simply more personal.
Let me illustrate why. When they first read
the list of the names of the victims – the
very first name was Daniel Stein. For many
years a fine elderly and gentle man sat over
there – (pointing to seat) many a Friday
night or Shabbat morning with his wife of
many decades. She passed away a few years
ago but he kept coming – now even more
regularly – to say kaddish. The other year
he decided to move away to be closer to
family and we miss him. His name is Daniel
Stein. For one moment I wondered if this
could have been the same man as I didn’t
remember where he moved to. It wasn’t
him – it was a different Daniel Stein. This
attack was more personal because this was
here in America in a city where many of us
personally knows people. My colleague -
Rabbi Jonathan Berkun’s father and mother
would have been
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