To listen to the interview click here.

I think the interview went pretty well except for the fact that Temple Beth Sholom was identified by the reporter as a Reform Congregation which is NOT the case.  Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas has been a Conservative Congregation for the past 63+ years.

In the interview, you can also listen to Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-Nevada), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and one of the past presidents of Temple Beth Sholom, Sandy Mallin.

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Why is it important to remember all of these? Well, simply put, if we just read the words spoken by Korach this week in a vacuum, ignoring any type of historical context, we could think that Moses was the greatest tyrant who ever lived.

Rashi, the famous medieval Torah commentator, in one of his famous statements wrote that, “There is no early or late in The Torah…” — which basically means that the text is circular and one does not need to know the context and background of the entire text to understand any of its parts.

How can you ignore the context in this case? The story of Korach and his attempted rebellion against Moses is not the result of events that happened in one or two days. The Rebellion had been brewing for months since The B’nei Israel left Egypt, and it finally comes to fruition during this specific Torah Portion.

It is important to understand that this rebellion did not occur in a vacuum. If we ignore the historical context and Moses’ personality traits and leadership skills, we will never be able to understand the true nature of this rebellion. Korach was much more than an agitator; he had real issues with Moses’ leadership, and he perceived both Moses and Aaron as behaving themselves and presenting themselves as Holier than thou.

In fact, Korach asks the very important question, “Why are you holier than all of us…? Why should we follow you?” There is an inherent problem with the way in which Korach presented his argument. To understand where Korach went wrong, we also need to explore the different ways in which we as humans react to other people’s leadership in a community of equals.

Korach never took the time to go and have a private conversation with Moses. The first time that Korach confronts Moses, he does so by bringing 250 elders with him. Imagine how Moses felt! Moses, who risked his life, who didn’t properly tend to his wife and children, who gave so much time and love to The Children of Israel is now being questioned by Korach. What does Korach know? Can he really understand that Moses’ leadership only happened at a great personal cost to Moses? No! Korach doesn’t understand and certainly does not care! Korach never had a private quiet conversation with Moses. He was perhaps the ultimate playground bully! What did Korach basically say? “If I don’t have my way, I will push you and push and turn The People against you until you give it up!” and although he didn’t exactly use these words, that was the thrust of his message.

It is always easy to criticize leadership. It is even easier to second guess every single decision made by a leader. Is there a right way to criticize our leaders? YES! Through love, by building with them and by asking a very simple question — “How can I help?” — instead of simply implying by our actions that we are here to sabotage and to destroy.

Korach wanted The High Priesthood; he was not happy with being part of The Levi’im. He wanted more, so much more. Korach did not understand the first thing about leadership. It is not about glory, it is not about prominence. Leadership is about empowering, leadership is about building, even at the expense of our own personal story.

For Korach and his followers, it was all about themselves. They couldn’t care less about the rest of the people. If we carefully examine Dathan and Abiran’s words to Moses, we immediately understand the core of the problem.

They complain to Moses about taking them out of a land flowing with milk and honey (they were referring to Egypt) to bring them to die in the wilderness. What is wrong with this besides the obvious? Moses was not the one who took them out of Egypt — it was God. No wonder God takes it so personally and causes the earth to open and swallow Korach and his followers. Korach is considered by The Jewish Tradition as the ultimate demagogue! He is capable of twisting and manipulating the truth to an extreme where the truth is not relevant anymore.

What can we learn from this powerful story? There is always a right and a wrong way of doing things! We have to be able to understand people “in their own place” by standing in their shoes. Yes, we even have to learn to understand our leaders, but more important, we need to learn the incredible power that constructive criticism and building together with bricks of love can have in someone’s life.

Towards the end of the story, there is a very beautiful image. Aaron and other leaders are instructed by God to stick their staffs in the ground. After a couple of moments, Aaron’s staff begins to flourish as if it was an almond tree.

What does this symbolize? Just like Korach is the symbol of demagoguery, Aaron, in our tradition, is the ever present symbol of the pursuit of peace and understanding! Only when we seek true peace amongst ourselves, only when we argue for the sake of heaven, only when we seek to bring out the best within one another, will our lives flourish with the blessings of understanding, pluralism and community.

Shabbat Shalom

© Rabbi Felipe Goodman, all rights reserved.

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This Shabbat we will once again read the story of The Twelve Spies that were sent by Moses to scout The Promised Land. There are a couple of things that we have to keep in mind as we prepare to re-acquaint ourselves with this Biblical Story. 

First, it is important to remember that God is the one who instructs Moses to send scouts to take a look at the land but perhaps the most important thing to remember is that Moses, just as instructed by God, appoints a representative from each one of the tribes. I have always found this story to be not only interesting but also very ironic. 

I am sure that many of you are familiar with the popular saying, “Wherever you have two Jews, you have three ideas!” So what exactly was Moses thinking, better still, did God really believe that 12 people were going to find a consensus as to what they thought the land looked like? 

 The most surprising element of this story is that the 12 scouts didn’t produce 24 different reports. It is incredibly powerful that 10 of them, the majority of them did bring back one single report and that only two differed with the majority in their view. Think for a moment of today’s world. Society has polarized itself to such a degree that it is hard to find majority opinions anymore. We usually find ourselves divided right down the middle. For these 10 scouts to have found consensus was an incredible thing.

In order to understand why there was such a decisive majority that held one opinion, we need to fully immerse ourselves in their decision-making process. These 10 scouts came together under the notion that the future was going to be terrible! They believed that if they tried to settle in The Promised Land, the “giants” who lived there were going to devour them. 

It is always easy to come to a consensus when one is trying to take the path of least resistance. It is always easy to give in to the majority when you are convinced that your life is doomed only because everyone around you seems to have no hope. Darkness is one of the most awful things to experience because it spreads and engulfs you, and if you are not the one willing to kindle the light of hope in the midst of chaos, then you can’t count on the person next to you to do it. It takes a true hero to stand up for what he or she believes even when we perceive the world to have a completely different opinion of what happens around us.

What made Calev and Joshua (the two scouts that brought back the positive report) speak out for what they really saw? What was it that gave them the strength to see the world in a different way? Was it their faith in God? Was it their trust in Moses as a leader? Many of our Torah commentators have tried to deal with the nature of the “sin” of the spies. 

If you carefully study many of the answers they give us, you will find that almost all explanations come to the same conclusion — “They didn’t have enough faith!”  “They didn’t put their trust in God with all their hearts!” I believe that the answer is right there in front of us. I believe the answer is actually quite simple. Calev and Joshua became heroes because they DID NOT see themselves as grasshoppers compared to the giants that the other 10 scouts saw. Calev and Joshua saw themselves and The Children of Israel as a whole as a people capable of overcoming any obstacle! So, what was the sin of the 10 scouts? They saw themselves as nothing!  t was not that they had no faith in God; they truly had no faith in themselves!

We learn a tremendous lesson from this Torah Portion. Our perception of reality is very important, rather than trying to understand how we perceive others, we need to spend more time thinking about who we are ourselves and if we are capable of facing the world and our daily life with optimism! 

Many people have asked me why we named our first child Yoshua. Well, Yoshua’s name is really Abraham Yoshua, and we named him that way because Liz’s grandfather’s name was Abraham, and we wanted our son to see the world in the same way as the biblical Joshua saw the world, not as a hostile place that could not be moved. We want him to always understand the world as a place where optimism, hope and faith can make the most amazing dreams come true. How do you conquer your personal Promised Land? Not by seeing yourself as a grasshopper but rather by thinking yourself a giant.

© Rabbi Felipe Goodman, all rights reserved.

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Last week I had the wonderful opportunity of leading a group of members of our congregation to the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington D.C. If you have never attended an AIPAC policy conference, I must tell you — you are absolutely missing out on one of the most energizing and powerful events that exist in the realm of Israel activism, not only in the United States but throughout the world.

I am always fascinated by the amount of people who attend the conference. This year over 7,000 people came to Washington D.C. with the sole purpose of better understanding how to bring our voices together and make sure that a clear and undivided message is delivered to our elected representatives. What is the message? Israel matters! It does not only matter to us as Jews but Israel matters to the world because of its message of democracy and freedom in a region where fundamentalism, radicalism and anarchy seem to be the norm. 

Every year, there more people who join me and make the journey to the AIPAC policy conference from Temple Beth Sholom. This year alone, over 40 of our congregants found their way to Washington D.C., and I hope that next year we can grow stronger in number and in spirit. My goal for next year is to have our congregation see at least 100 of its members at the AIPAC Policy conference. Why? Well, when it comes to lobbying, numbers do matter and they matter a lot! Short of visiting Israel every year, this is probably the next best thing that we can do for Israel. This year, we heard from the then three presidential candidates, we heard from the Prime Minister of Israel and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — among other very distinguished, prominent and powerful speakers. 

On a personal note, I was requested to do Hamotzi at one of The Washington Club luncheons that take place during the AIPAC Policy Conference. I was extremely honored and proud because AIPAC is an organization that is close to my heart and that matters tremendously to me. Having been born in a foreign country, it is an amazing experience for me to see the “power of The People” in action. As Americans, we take for granted the blessings of a true democracy such as ours. For me to know that I can make a difference in the way America supports Israel is a very powerful thing.

We must all take advantage of our right to let our elected representatives know how we feel about certain issues. I have included a video of my Hamotzi at AIPAC below — it is a little blurry, but I include it just in case you want to hear what I said.

 © Rabbi Felipe Goodman, all rights reserved.

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