This week’s Parsha begins with the commandment for the Jewish farmer during the times that the Temple stood to bring his first fruits to the Temple as an offering. Part of this ritual was the requirement of the person bringing their fruits to recite something called, וידוי מעשר, the Ma’aser confession. The text of this statement (which is also part of the haggadah liturgy read at the Seder on Passover)begins:
(Lavan) the Aramean wanted to destroy my Father, afterwards he went down to Egypt and became a great, powerful, and populous nation there… (Deuteronomy 26:5)
What I find fascinating about this statement is the way in which the statement begins, with the words, “my father.” One could argue that it is specifically talking about Jacob, which is why it refers to a singular father. But the statement continues and tells more of the story of Jewish history, about what happened to the Jews in Egypt, and how God took them out of Egypt, all things that didn’t happen to Jacob himself. So I’m left with the impression the, “my father,” in this statement is referring to the ancestors of the Jewish people.
The reason I find this statement to be fascinating is because it is a powerful statement about where we look towards guidance and our relationship in the world. A father has an incredible potential to make an impression on his child’s perspective on pretty much everything in the world, and the way in which the child will choose to act in the world based on that perspective. When the Jewish farmer who would recite this statement in a Temple ritual said, “my father,” he was making a statement of the relationship he has with Jewish history and Judaism. The lesson here is not only for the Jewish farmer during the times that this ritual was observed, it’s for all time. How many of us seriously look towards Judaism as a guide for how we see everything in the world and how we choose to behave as a result?
No comments:
Post a Comment