The Story of the Meturgeman
In the time of the Gemara, the vernacular for most Jews was Aramaic. This means that many people did not understand the Hebrew they heard during davening; most especially during the Torah reading. Since the Torah is the center of our lives, a means had to be found to help people understand what was being read. This led to the institution of the Meturgeman (translator), who actually interpolated an Aramaic translation between each Pasuk read by the Ba'al K'riya. The translation was basically literal but obviously included the interpretation of the translator; we can still see that today when, for example, Rashi quotes one of the written Targums to help explain what a Pasuk may mean.
So how did I come to call myself the Meturgeman? I was the Ba'al K'riya at the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, in Passaic, NJ for many years. I had to layn for 2 minyanim every Shabbat morning. At the earlier minyan I was one of many people who took turns giving Divrei Torah. On Sept. 8, 2001 (20 Elul, 5761), I was supposed to speak for Parshat Ki Tavo. As you will no doubt see as you read my postings, Tochecha is something I often talk about, and I had a lot to say that day. However, one of my children ended up in the emergency room (thank God, everything turned out all right) and I ended up not being in shul at all.
That left me very frustrated, with much that I hadn't been able to say. Then, three days later the World Trade Center lay in ruins. Despite how quick we are to see the Divine hand in natural disasters and terrorist attacks when many goyim die, I seem to be the one of the few who realize that, A) 9/11 happened only three days after the reading of longest Divine rebuke in the Torah, and B) More Jews died at Ground Zero in New York than in the entire Intifada up to that point! (And much beyond...possibly even the entire Intifada II so far; I have been unable to find a breakdown of 9/11 deaths by religion.)
A few weeks later, in Parshat Haazinu, another Parsha full of rebuke, I interrupted the gabaim between aliyot and said a short D'var Torah, based on the simple meaning of part of the coming Aliya; similar to what the Meturgeman used to do. (I will reproduce it later on in another posting.) That set the pattern; for about six months after that I would occasionally do the same thing. It was always short, and only once did I do it twice in the same Parsha. Most people liked it, and Rabbi Chaim Wasserman approved. However, there were a few people (I was never told who) who objected so violently that, as the Rabbi put it, the gain was cancelled by the loss, so I had to stop. Since then I have wanted a place to share my observations; so here I am today.
You may have heard stories of famous Rabbis where the punchline is, "May your ears hear what your mouth is saying." In other words, if you apply the logic of the last thing you said to your original complaint, everything is clear. I am looking for something even simpler. People hear the Torah reading in shul, and some even pay a bit of attention to the Haftarah, but most of them are not really listening to the meanings. Some don't understand, some are looking only at commentaries but ignoring the text itself, and some are only busy looking for errors that they can correct (especially those errors that are not required to be corrected!) The simple text of the Torah and the rest of Tanach are the basis for everything we believe in; of course we often need the Oral Law to help us understand it, but we cannot escape the P'shat! Before the Rabbis of the Mishna or Gemara quoted a verse, they understood it in context. Now, too many of us only know the verses from where they are quoted. And it is essential to understand it in context before we can really know what God wants of us.
Since I began to layn, I always made it a point to understand what I was reading before I got up there to actually read it. I can't always translate every word, but I have an excellent idea of what is going on. It is from this concentration over many years on simple P'shat that I have come to realize what God really wants and expects of us and where we have gone astray. Most of what I speak about is towards that one goal: we need to get back on track. Stop blaming the goyim and the chilonim, stop blaming outside influences. Concentrate on ourselves and what we need to fix. That's what I will be talking about here.
Hashem has a double standard for B'nei Yisrael; we would be wise to pay heed to it. Within the nation, He raises the bar the more Dati we are. If we understand that, we see more of where our problems lie.
There is much evidence for this double standard, but here's a simple example. When we are good, 5 of us will be given the strength to vanquish 100 of our enemies, and 100 can chase 10,000 (Vayikra 26:5). But when we sin and are being punished, only 1 of our enemies can vanquish 1000 of us, and 2 can chase 10,000 (Devarim 32:30)! Look at how lopsied that is; He helps our enemies a lot more than He helps us (up to a 50:1 ratio.) The reason is because we should know better. Simarlarly, those who have fully accepted His Torah are held to a much higher standard than those who were born and raised in a non-religous or anti-religious environment. So let's quit blaming them and look at ourselves and what is being done wrong "B'shem Hashem." (Or as one writer once put it, "Shifty B'beit Hashem".) I will continue with this topic in later posts.
So how did I come to call myself the Meturgeman? I was the Ba'al K'riya at the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, in Passaic, NJ for many years. I had to layn for 2 minyanim every Shabbat morning. At the earlier minyan I was one of many people who took turns giving Divrei Torah. On Sept. 8, 2001 (20 Elul, 5761), I was supposed to speak for Parshat Ki Tavo. As you will no doubt see as you read my postings, Tochecha is something I often talk about, and I had a lot to say that day. However, one of my children ended up in the emergency room (thank God, everything turned out all right) and I ended up not being in shul at all.
That left me very frustrated, with much that I hadn't been able to say. Then, three days later the World Trade Center lay in ruins. Despite how quick we are to see the Divine hand in natural disasters and terrorist attacks when many goyim die, I seem to be the one of the few who realize that, A) 9/11 happened only three days after the reading of longest Divine rebuke in the Torah, and B) More Jews died at Ground Zero in New York than in the entire Intifada up to that point! (And much beyond...possibly even the entire Intifada II so far; I have been unable to find a breakdown of 9/11 deaths by religion.)
A few weeks later, in Parshat Haazinu, another Parsha full of rebuke, I interrupted the gabaim between aliyot and said a short D'var Torah, based on the simple meaning of part of the coming Aliya; similar to what the Meturgeman used to do. (I will reproduce it later on in another posting.) That set the pattern; for about six months after that I would occasionally do the same thing. It was always short, and only once did I do it twice in the same Parsha. Most people liked it, and Rabbi Chaim Wasserman approved. However, there were a few people (I was never told who) who objected so violently that, as the Rabbi put it, the gain was cancelled by the loss, so I had to stop. Since then I have wanted a place to share my observations; so here I am today.
May your ears hear what your ears are hearing
You may have heard stories of famous Rabbis where the punchline is, "May your ears hear what your mouth is saying." In other words, if you apply the logic of the last thing you said to your original complaint, everything is clear. I am looking for something even simpler. People hear the Torah reading in shul, and some even pay a bit of attention to the Haftarah, but most of them are not really listening to the meanings. Some don't understand, some are looking only at commentaries but ignoring the text itself, and some are only busy looking for errors that they can correct (especially those errors that are not required to be corrected!) The simple text of the Torah and the rest of Tanach are the basis for everything we believe in; of course we often need the Oral Law to help us understand it, but we cannot escape the P'shat! Before the Rabbis of the Mishna or Gemara quoted a verse, they understood it in context. Now, too many of us only know the verses from where they are quoted. And it is essential to understand it in context before we can really know what God wants of us.
Since I began to layn, I always made it a point to understand what I was reading before I got up there to actually read it. I can't always translate every word, but I have an excellent idea of what is going on. It is from this concentration over many years on simple P'shat that I have come to realize what God really wants and expects of us and where we have gone astray. Most of what I speak about is towards that one goal: we need to get back on track. Stop blaming the goyim and the chilonim, stop blaming outside influences. Concentrate on ourselves and what we need to fix. That's what I will be talking about here.
God's double standard
Hashem has a double standard for B'nei Yisrael; we would be wise to pay heed to it. Within the nation, He raises the bar the more Dati we are. If we understand that, we see more of where our problems lie.
There is much evidence for this double standard, but here's a simple example. When we are good, 5 of us will be given the strength to vanquish 100 of our enemies, and 100 can chase 10,000 (Vayikra 26:5). But when we sin and are being punished, only 1 of our enemies can vanquish 1000 of us, and 2 can chase 10,000 (Devarim 32:30)! Look at how lopsied that is; He helps our enemies a lot more than He helps us (up to a 50:1 ratio.) The reason is because we should know better. Simarlarly, those who have fully accepted His Torah are held to a much higher standard than those who were born and raised in a non-religous or anti-religious environment. So let's quit blaming them and look at ourselves and what is being done wrong "B'shem Hashem." (Or as one writer once put it, "Shifty B'beit Hashem".) I will continue with this topic in later posts.
posted by meturgeman | 8:01 PM
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