Tag: Lech Lecha

In this week’s Torah portion, our matriarch, Sarah, is described as beautiful, as other great women in the Torah in numerous places. So clearly, beauty is considered a quality, and yet, we know that modesty is also considered of great value in Judaism. So this week we will talk a little about modesty.

He has told you, O man, what is good! What does God require of you; but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk modestly with your God?

Modesty, (tzniut) is an attitude to life that informs the way we speak, walk, think and dress. It dictates that we not put every quality on display; not flaunt our wealth, beauty or success; and recognize that the inner, spiritual world is more important than the external world. These ideas are most overtly expressed in the way we dress.

Clothing is used by people all over the world; it distinguishes humans from animals. It testifies to the inner dignity and honor of the human being, who possesses a Divine soul. That is why one Talmudic Sage used to refer to his clothing as that which gives honor.

Clothing and appearance play important roles in society. They are used to identify the wearer with a particular group or ideology; they may express one’s status in society and they often serve to enhance the wearer’s beauty. When choosing clothing, a person may decide to emphasize the physical self and conceal his or her spiritual essence or to reveal more of the spiritual self by de-emphasizing the physical.  The way a person dresses can either send the message, “Look at my body, this is me!” or it can declare, “Listen to what I say, I have spiritual presence.”

Our clothing affects not only the way others perceive us, but also the way we perceive ourselves.  Do we identify primarily as a body (e.g. “The Material Girl” which is what Madonna called herself for about 10 years and Jesse “the Body” Ventura) or as a soul with intellect and emotions?

This is not to suggest that one should dress in an unattractive manner. On the contrary, the Torah instructs always to present a pleasant, neat and dignified appearance.  In our interactions with other people, our clothing should serve to focus attention on the face and the personality, not the body.

A person’s face is the one part of the body that reveals his or her inner spiritual essence.  The Hebrew word for face, PaNiM, has the same three-letter root as PNiM, meaning “inside” — because the face is a window into one’s inner being. For this reason, the Jewish tradition of modesty never required, or even encouraged covering the face.  The Jewish laws of modesty do, however, require that neither men nor women dress in a provocative or suggestive fashion, or in clothes designed to highlight the sexuality of the body.

For several reasons, special emphasis is placed and more stringent standards apply to women in the area of modesty. Anything powerful must be used responsibly and for the right purposes. The power and impact of women’s beauty is mentioned numerous times in the Torah, Prophets and Writings. It is something that should be treasured and used appropriately, in a loving relationship between a husband and wife.  The root of the word for modesty, (tzniut), also means to “hide” or “treasure;” by dressing modestly, a woman demonstrates that she treasures one of her great powers, her beauty.  Observing the laws of modesty also helps to prevent a woman from being turned into the object of someone else’s sensual gratification. It encourages interactions in which people are judged not by their bodies, but by who they are inside.

We are not ashamed of our bodies, nor do we look at them as impure; on the contrary, we care for our bodies and value their beauty. We believe, however, that the appropriate time and place for using that beauty and sensuality is not in the public arena, but in the privacy of a holy and loving relationship between a man and woman, a relationship that is spiritual and emotional, as well as physical. As Nachmanides writes, “When husband and wife are intimate… there is nothing so holy and pure… God did not create anything that is ugly or shameful. If the reproductive organs are said to be shameful, how can it be said that the Creator fashioned something blemished?”

It is one of the great tragedies of our times that many women dress in ways that are calculated to please the casual male spectator. By dressing this way, they cultivate an image of themselves that is based entirely on their external appearances and their value as an object of pleasure to a man, when in reality, the truest beauty of a Jewish woman is internal. As the verse in Psalms informs us, “The entire glory of the daughter of the King is within…”

This is one reason that the Torah actually prohibits men to stare at women for their pleasure. When a man disregards the fact that a woman is much more than a beautiful body or pretty face, and focuses on her for his own pleasure, he objectifies and degrades her.

Often, the way a person dresses indicates whether or not they treasure that internal, essential self. A Jewish woman dresses to look attractive, but she does not dress to attract; she may wear elegant and beautiful clothing, but the message of her clothing should be that there is more to her than meets the eye, that her beauty is not merely skin deep.

This week’s parsha, Lech Lecha, begins with the first commandment G-d ever gave to the first Jew in history which was to go to the Land of Israel.  G-d spoke to Abraham, and said:

Go, from your land, from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

Abraham, his wife Sarah, their extended family and their retinue all came to Israel, then known as Canaan.  They traveled throughout the land, engaged in commerce and, of course, in spreading the idea of monotheism.  At various times, they lived in the mountains of Beit-El, on the west bank of the Jordan; Beersheva in the Negev Desert; and the city of Hebron.  G-d promised Abraham that although his descendants would go into exile and be enslaved, ultimately, He would free them, bring them back to Israel, and make Israel the eternal homeland of the Jewish people.

One of the earliest recorded purchases of land was Abraham’s purchase of the Machpelah cave and field in Hebron for the burial of his wife, Sarah.  The Torah provides us with the details of his protracted negotiations with the Hittites, Abraham’s insistence on paying “full price,” and his concern that the elders of the Hittites should agree to and witness the purchase — for this purchase was the beginning of G-d’s promise turning into reality.

All the patriarchs, matriarchs, and the Children of Jacob (the Twelve Tribes), lived in and were buried in Israel.  Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Rebecca, Isaac and Leah were all buried in Hebron, in the cave purchased by Abraham. Rachel was buried on the road to Bethlehem9 and even Joseph (who died in Egypt) was buried in the city of Shechem (Nablus).  Joseph had specifically ordered that the Jews should take his remains with them at the time of the Exodus, and bury him in Israel.

Following Joshua’s conquest of Israel, the Jews lived there as an independent commonwealth (and later under a monarchy) for 800 years.  Judges ruled the people for almost 400 years until the coronation of the first king, Saul.  Saul was succeeded by King David, who was followed by his son, Solomon.  King Solomon built the First Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.  This Temple stood for 410 years until it was destroyed by the Babylonians, who conquered Israel and exiled the Jews to Babylon (modern day Iraq).

Although the Jewish people were in exile they did not forget the Land of Israel.  Their emotions were prophetically described by King David in Psalm 137:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept when we remembered Zion.  On the willows within it we hung our lyres.  For there our captors requested the words of song from us, with our lyres [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][playing] joyous music.  “Sing for us from Zion’s song!”  “How can we sing the song of G-d upon alien soil?” If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.  Let my tongue adhere to my palate, if I fail to recall you, if I fail to elevate Jerusalem above my foremost joy…

After seventy years in Babylon, the prophets, Ezra and Nehemiah led many of the exiles back to Israel where they built the Second Temple.  The Jewish Commonwealth was renewed and the Temple services were once again performed in Jerusalem.  The Jews lived in Israel from the time of their return until the Roman destruction of the Temple and subsequent exile in about 70 CE.

The era of the Second Temple, which lasted approximately 420 years, was a time of great upheaval.  The Jewish state experienced invasion by the Greek Seleucids, which led to the Maccabean revolt in 165 BCE (Chanukah). Later came the Roman occupation, the despotic rule of Herod, and the Jewish revolts against Roman rule that ultimately ended in the disastrous events of 70 CE.

Despite all the invasions, exiles and hardship, two Jewish states existed in Israel during this time, the first lasting for 840 years, the second for 420 years.  Even during the long exile that followed the Roman destruction of the Temple a continuous Jewish presence (albeit, sometimes quite small) was maintained in the Land of Israel.  The land was invaded by Arabs, Crusaders, Saracens, Mongols, Mamluks, Ottoman Turks and the British Empire, but through it all Jews not only remained, but produced monumental works of learning and liturgy.  Rabbi Judah the Prince, for example, wrote the Mishnah in the north of Israel in 200 CE; and the Jerusalem Talmud was edited there in 350 CE. Throughout the centuries Jews undertook the dangerous journey to Israel from other lands.  The great scholar Nachmanides came from Spain and established a synagogue in Jerusalem in the 13th century.  In the 16th century, Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote the Code of Jewish Law in the city of Safed, and the song Lecha Dodi was composed and first sung there by Rabbi Shlomoh Alkabetz, student of the great Kabbalist of Safed, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria.

In the time of Ottoman rule, in the 19^th century, groups of Chassidim came to Israel on the instruction of their leaders in Europe.  The famous Lithuanian rabbi known as the Gaon of Vilna sent many students to settle in Israel. In the late 19th century, the Zionist movement brought thousands of people to Israel to establish agricultural settlements and industry there.  The attachment of the Jews to their land throughout 1900 years of exile culminated in the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, now home to more than six million Jews from all over the world.

Jews of the 21st century take for granted the presence of Jewish communities in Israel.  From an historical point of view, however, the return of a people to their Land after nineteen centuries of exile (in the case of some, 2,500 years of exile); the establishment of an independent Jewish state; and the ingathering of Jews from virtually every country in the world are miraculous and unprecedented events in world history.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]