PARASHAT CHUKAT

Parshat Chukat 2024 - Reentry is our responsibility

By Dan Cohen

Written in conversation with Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Hon. Betty Yee, and Jeff Shachat.

One of the complex parts of life is being okay with mystery and believing that Gd has a hand in things we can’t control or understand. Emunah asks us to live a mitzvah-informed life even if we don’t always know why we do so.

Emunah also asks us to keep the door open to teshuvah (return) for everyone.

In 1999, Jason Bryant, 20, and Ted Gray, 22, joined a third man in attempting to rob a drug dealer's home. A gun battle broke out, resulting in the death of a resident. Bryant, though not the shooter, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 26 years to life. Gray, who fired shots and was also shot three times, received a 40-year-to-life sentence for murder, robbery, and firearm enhancement.

While incarcerated, Bryant transformed his life, earning a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees in philosophy and psychology, becoming a state-certified counselor.

About ten years ago, Bryant and Gray reconnected and started several inmate programs, focusing on rehabilitation and personal growth.

Their dedication to positive change led Governor Gavin Newsom to commute their sentences, and they were released in March 2020.

Today, they run Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP). CROP works with inmates before release to ensure their success once out of jail. They even recently opened housing for 200 individuals in Oakland to help returnees find stability. 

Something very positive, a program to help former inmates return to life, emerged from something awful, a deadly criminal act. I assume no one could have seen this positive outcome emerge from a negative origin.

This week, we learn about the command of the red heifer.  Chapter 19 opens with instructions to bring a pure, unblemished red heifer and give it to the priest, who will take it outside the camp.  He will slaughter it, sprinkle some blood, and then burn it.  These ashes are mixed with water and used to purify those who came in contact with the dead or are ritually impure. 

The mixture makes an impure recipient “pure” again and able to approach the Mishkan.

The mitzvah also has the impact that the priest who prepared the mixture becomes impure. This duality has challenged our sages for millennia.

So many mitzvot make sense, or perhaps their reason could be discerned. This one, however, remains a bafflement.

Rashi identifies that the mitzvah's “supranational” element reflects Gd's personal decree, and we don’t get to wonder about it.

The Rebbe's Chumash identifies that the Ohr Hachayim highlights we are credited with observing all 613 mitzvot just for observing a mitzvah that defies easy understanding. By observing something we cannot comprehend, our Emunah proves to be at its most potent.

Emunah in Gd and each other is essential to living a full life. By engaging in this mitzvah, we manifest our belief in Gd and our belief in each other as part of the remediation for our sins.

In conversation with my friends about this mitzvah, we also reflected on the relationship between the individual and the community. 

The mitzvah of the Red Heifer teaches us that no individual can return from a state of tumah, or unholiness, alone. It requires the community and the priest to invest their energies and be available to the individual.

It also reflects that the individual must avail herself of the community if she wants to return. This may be especially true when we try to return from our deepest, darkest places alone.

Ted Gray and Jason Bryant reached a very low place due to their criminal activity. Their actions brought about the death of another human. In many ways, they were tumah or unclean.

Yet, from that low place, they found wisdom and accessed the resources to help and guide others.  At the same time, the criminal justice system that subjected and condemned these two men also provided a platform to elevate and eventually free them.

It's the 30th anniversary of the Rebbe's passing. I've learned from him that our better nature and Hashem are always available to us if we take a step in the right direction. He also taught me that we must never lose sight of our responsibility to create pathways for others to access teshuvah. We will be rewarded for doing so.

 https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/ready-for-life-prison-inmate-reentry-program-provides-crucial-support-to-break-the-cycle/

PARASHAT KORACH

Parashat Korach

By Dan Cohen

Parshat Korach - Let’s talk about it in the morning

I've made many poor choices in my life in haste.  Acting in anger, I’ve chosen to hurt the feelings of others to make myself feel better.  Acting impatiently, I’ve made poor decisions that led to interpersonal or financial crises. 

In this week’s parsha, Korach challenges Moshe and Ahraon’s leadership. He and a cohort of 250 Leviim believed they should have been chosen as High Priest. Moshe faces the challenge head-on and tells the angry hoard that they can make an offering to Gd, only one of which Gd will accept. If He rejects the offering, each will likely die. 

In Chapter 16, Verse 5, we read, “And he spoke to Korach and to his company saying: Let morning come and then Gd will make know who is His, and who is the holy one so that He will allow him to come near to Him. Whoever he will choose, He will allow him to come near him.”

Rav Hirsch notes the use of the word “morning” rather than tomorrow. Hirsch says that since the rebels' destruction would decide the dispute, Moshe wanted to give them all night until the morning to come to their senses.

In the Rashi, we learn that “Night is a time of drunkenness for us, and it is improper to appear before Him.”  Moshe intended to delay, hoping they might retract their opposition. Moshe wanted to give the rebels time to reconsider.  

Hirsch adds that the rebels would be sent home to spend the night in their tents and with their families. In doing so, each of them would be free from the influence of Korach’s incitement. Moshe hoped their separation might yield greater clarity about how ill-advised it was to provide an offering and question Gd’s selection of Moshe and Aharon.

It worked. The son of Peles failed to show up the next day, and his wife is credited with the wisdom of preventing him from participating. The same is true for Korach’s sons, who also reconsidered. Miraculously so, given their proximity to the coup leader.

Time can work both ways. The forces of evil and the yetzer harah, the inclination to do evil, never rest. For all of Moshe’s efforts to buy time and enlist the families to calm the fervor, he was up against a formidable foe.

In the Rebbe’s Chumash, he builds on Chapter 16, Verse 19, which says, “Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting…”  He uses the Rashi, pointing out that while we are told about Korach's daytime actions, it alludes to his efforts the night before when people were sent home. Rashi writes, “All that night, he went to the tribes and enticed them [saying,] “Do you think I care only for myself? I care for all of you.”

Korach wasn’t in his tent with his family.  Instead, he went door to door, using fake empathy to sway and push them to action the next day.

Korach continued to put things in an “us” vs. “them” approach and besmirched the character of Moshe and Aharon. Korach (via Rashi) adds, “These [people] come and take all the high positions: the kingship for himself and the kehunah for his brother,” until they were all enticed.”

That’s the thing about rabble-rousers. In my experience, they are never still, and they are never honest. If someone vies to undermine your efforts, especially when you are fighting for the larger good, that person is never at rest. Like Korach, they will go person-to-person, desk-to-desk, and say or do whatever they can to undermine your efforts.

What can we learn from Moshe’s behavior here to guide our efforts to change the world and resist rabble-rousers like Korach?

First, leverage time. Cooler heads will often prevail (but not always). Moshe was strategically correct in sending the 250 men home to calm down and think more reasonedly. 

Second, hold people accountable. Rashi implies that not all 250 men were equally guilty. Yet they allowed themselves to be swayed. Even though they may not have all been rebellious, they had all been persuaded by Korach. Therefore, they all needed to be held responsible.

Third, “call the question” and recognize the outcome is out of your hands. Moshe clarified to Korach and the others that only Gd could decide. Therefore, Moshe told them to offer up incense. 'Calling the question' is a term that means to bring an issue to a head and force a decision. In playground vernacular, put up, or shut up.

Then, Moshe let Gd take over, recognizing that, at that point, the events were out of his control. This divine intervention reassures us that there is hope and justice even in the face of rebellion. Gd ensured that the earth swallowed Korach and other ringleaders, and the 250 men were killed in a fire from Gd.  

In politics, we often say, “Sunlight is the ultimate disinfectant.” Sometimes, the outcome becomes self-evident just by casting light and attention on someone's actions and intentions. A rebellion against Hashem, by any other name, and under any guise, is still a rebellion. 

Korach’s vile intentions were clear. Following Gd’s orders, Moshe told Korach and his followers to put up their best offering. The outcome then was out of his hands and in Gd’s.

I pray you never face an enemy like Korach, but it doesn’t hurt to prepare. Consider how you might use time, accountability, and finally, call the question while recognizing that the result is out of your control.

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A CHAMPION AND A SOLDIER

Avi Hangshing in fatigues serving in Gaza, a few months ago.

(July 1, 2024) Last Friday a regional shooting competition, HaPoel Mate Asher, was held at Haifa district. A B'nei Menashe, Avi Hangshing, secured the first position in the shootout. Avi had been featured on our newsletter intermittently over the last few years whenever he participated in any competition, both locally and internationally and the successes he has accumulated so far. He had been actively involved in this sport since his induction into the IDF several years ago. He still serves in the reserves with an elite paratrooper unit and was recently called up for duty following the 7th October carnage last year. He recalls the harrowing early days of the Gaza incursion when he lost one of his comrades in a fierce battle at Khan Younis when a rocket fired by Hamas hit their encampment. However, that made him and others in their unit more determined to go after the enemies and finish the job they had been called up to perform. It may be recalled that several hundreds of thousands reservists IDF were called up which included several hundreds of B'nei Menashe who heeded the call along with those already in mandatory service.

Avi with championship trophy.

In a short conversation with our newsletter, Avi told us about the latest laurel he has brought home. He told us that he took up the sport since his induction into the IDF and had been in love with it ever since. "It is an honor to be receiving a recognition for an achievement but it is the love and the commitment that matters in the end. And not to mention the long hours of training and money spent on it, one has to be really dedicated." It may be recalled that Avi was one of the very first recipients of the Degel Menashe scholarship which has become a regular feature and running through its fifth iteration. Degel Menashe is proud to be associated with a success story such as this and we hope it will continue to serve as an inspiration for our youths in whatever field they chose to serve. Avi is fine example of grit and determination and an eventual success that follows it. Degel Menashe wishes him the very best for his future endeavors.