December 17, 2010- Veyechi/ Fast of Teves

Today is the 10^th of the Hebrew month of Teves. And while there are plenty of aromatic temptations in the kitchen so close to Shabbos, today is traditionally a fast day (not a 'full' fast like Yom Kippur, but since dawn this morning through evening). Once upon a time, it was actually a 3 day fast (light eating and drinking in the evenings), commemorating certain paradigm events of Jewish tragedy that 'coincidentally' occurred on the darkest days of the year. We Jews are of course poetic people to boot and the significance of darkness is never lost on us, the people of light. Today it is reduced to one day of fasting and is set aside to commemorate the beginning of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the death of Ezra the Scribe and arguably one of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish people both spiritually and politically, the end of prophesy and the translation of the Torah into Greek. All of these share the common theme of wresting the Jews away from their source and catapulting us into the darkness where the light of truth will be ever more elusive.

However in today's day and age where the translation of Hebrew books is heralded by the Jewish people and has been solely responsible for a wealth of renewed study and erudition, how can we understand the 'tragedy' of the Torah's translation into Greek as something tantamount to Jerusalem's destruction and the arrest of prophetic communication? There is a statement attributed to the great leader of German Jewry, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, whose canon of inspiring essays and books saved European Jewry from complete assimilation. "Theology is man's study of God. Torah is God's study of man." The Greeks accomplished something so subtly dangerous - a mere translation - that demands a day of fasting, repentance and introspection.

There was, however, a great miracle as well. The Greeks ordered 70 of the Sages into separate chambers and demanded an accurate translation. Miraculously, each of the Sages made the exact same edits and addendums to assure that the Greek translation could not be used in any defamatory way against the Jews. This translation of 70 became known famously as the Septugent. And while nowadays translations are welcomed and appreciated, this translation was different.

When we speak of engaging Torah - we speak of 'learning' Torah. In Van Pelt and other university libraries, you 'study' Torah. Studying connotes one's own mastery and control over the subject matter. It becomes the possession of the its student, to be used as pleased. We 'master' it and it becomes ours. 'Learning' Torah is powerfully different. We subjugate ourselves to the Torah, understanding the truth of its Divinity and its 'mastery' of us. We humbly accept the task of learning the will of the Almighty - imitation dei - striving our entire lives to live up to His and the Torah's standards. The Torah is not something to grace our book shelves as another intellectual conquest, as the Greeks so cleverly schemed, but rather the pulmonary system of the Jewish people which has always served us uniquely well when held in the highest esteem, and conversely when shunned or merely 'studied' we Jews have never found success.

Anatomy will teach you much of the human being. It can surely be studied and mastered. But it is in no way representative of what a person really is when alive. The academic approach to Torah will similarly show no life. The 'learning' of Torah is about nothing else. The Greeks sought to sever us from our source. With this they surely succeeded. They've left their armies in place, but there's hope for the Jewish people nonetheless and we long for (and work tirelessly towards) the restoration of Torah values and a Torah life.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi Lynn