G-d showed Moses the moon in its renewal and said, “When the moon is renewed, that will be the head of the month.”
(Rashi's Commentary, Exodus 12:2)
The other nations count by the sun, while Israel counts by the moon.
(Talmud, Sukkah 29a)
And He told the moon to renew herself, as a crown of beauty to those He
carries from the womb, for they are likewise to be renewed and to glorify their
Creator for the name of the glory of His kingdom.
(From the blessing on the new moon)
Isn’t it a strange thing, how the Jewish people identify with the moon?
Wouldn’t it be more dignified to identify with the bright and powerful sun?
Go ask the other nations of the world, “What are the qualities with which you
identify?” Brave, strong, free, powerful… they sing these things in their
anthems, emblazon them on their flags, engrave them in the minds of their
children. And so, they count by the sun.
And us? We are the paltry moon, struggling to lend a little luminance to the
darkness of the night, disappearing as the world plays its games beneath the big
blue sky, waning after every waxing, owning no light of its own.
You know, there are masculine qualities and feminine qualities. Which is which depends on where you live and who you are.
If you are an ancient Greek or a Hindu, for example, activity and motion are
feminine. Passive stillness is masculine. That’s how it works in the Pythagorean
table of opposites and that’s how they are identified in the system of Hindu gods
and goddesses. But if you are a Taoist, then action is masculine and passiveness
is feminine. That’s how it works in the Yin-Yang.
Why the difference? Because to a Greek philosopher or a Hindu guru,
unchanging stillness is a virtue -- therefore it must be masculine. But to a
Taoist, movement and action is virtuous -- therefore the roles are reversed. And so
it goes on consistently throughout the world. To the point that, ironic as it
may seem, even contemporary feminists, when describing the qualities that make
for a liberated female, place their emphasis on the male qualities that women
must adopt.
And to us? To us, the moon is feminine -- because she has no light until she
receives from the sun, just as a mother cannot give life until she receives the
seed from the father. Yet, oddly, we identify with her. For we, too, are the feminine of the
nations, “the sheep among seventy wolves, the dove among the eagles” -- all the
metaphors the sages provided for us repeat the theme. In fact, they say:
There are three qualities of this nation: Compassion, a sense of shame and an
eagerness to do kindness.
(Talmud, Yevamot 79a)
Unarguably feminine qualities. Nothing there about being strong and brave.
True, we have fought when we needed to fight and we were brave indeed. We
held off the Greek-Syrian army, the Roman legions, we stood up like a fierce
tiger in Warsaw and today, as well, we hold our own. But in the hymns and
prayers related to those events there is little said about courage and might. On
the contrary, we say, “many were given over into the hands of the few, the
mighty into the hands of the weak.”
So why is it -- why do we insist on identifying as the weak, the minority, the
little guy, the oppressed?
It is our sense of purpose, the mission and destiny we accepted upon
ourselves at the birth of our people. This radical notion, this volatile
catalyst of history: that the status quo that G-d made in establishing His world,
in which the strong rule the weak and the givers are above the receivers, is not to be tolerated. The protocol is meant to be broken, the pyramid is meant
to be to turned on its head.
Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said, “Why is the goat offering of the New Moon
unique? Why does it say it is a sin offering for G-d? Because the Holy One,
blessed be He, said, 'This goat will be an atonement for my having diminished
the moon.'”
(Talmud, Chullin 60b)
What statement could be more radical than to say, “We must atone for G-d by
changing His world”?
No idea caused greater fret to the oppressors, no movement has brought
greater upheaval. It was due to this that Constantine chose Christianity over
Judaism as the religion of his empire -- despite the wildfire spread of Jewish
values throughout the Mediterranean: Christianity could be conformed to accept
the status quo, to leave the emperor his godlike power and keep the masses in
ignorance. Come to church on Sundays, accept your lot in life and obey the rules we
make for you.
Not so, the Jews. Theirs was a participatory religion, where knowledge was an
obligation of every citizen, and anyone could learn to take part in the debate;
where no one ruled over the Sabbath rest; where the sages and the king were
subject to the law and rights of the people.
The ruling class did not try hard to conceal their motives. Seneca, the Roman
historian, derides the Jews for “wasting one-seventh of their lives in
idleness” -- and then informs us that, “the custom of this most accursed race has
gained such influence that it has now been received throughout the world!”
Seneca’s fears were well understood: he, as most Romans, owned thousands of
slaves -- many of whom were now demanding a day off from work (=15% reduction in
productivity), and ready to give their lives for it. Who needs a religion that
grants such rights to slaves?
To this very day, what is it that truly frightens the Arab dictators, that brings
them to invest so much energy and fret into anti-Israel propaganda? It is
nothing less than this horrifying threat, this very real worry that maybe their
own populace will taste the fruit of popular rule, of value for human life and
dignity of the individual. And then, for the dictator, all is lost.
When it comes to the roles of men and women, the concept has barely begun to
gain ground. It remains burnt into the ROM of our subconscious that fighting
fires, managing offices, making money and making your mark on the world is so
much a greater venture than giving life and nurturing life. Why else could it be
that we abandon our marriages for our careers and leave our children alone to be
raised by a television set? When such values will change, when men will see what
their wives truly give them, parents will allow themselves to be nurtured by
their children, and women, too, will realize the essence-power they contain by
being women, then, all of society will be transformed.
We will touch our essential beings.
The moon, when she was first created,
was a glistening jewel. She did not
merely reflect light, but rather transformed it and brought out its inner
beauty, much as a precious stone glistens with a secret, hidden light all its
own. In her own way, the moon was greater than the sun -- for the sun only shines
from its surface, whereas the moon shone from its inner essence. The sun holds
the light that extends outward, whereas the moon holds the light of being.
And so will be, once again, and much more so,
in the time to come, once we
have transformed the world with the Torah and its mitzvahs.
(R. Isaac of Homil, Shnei Me'orot)
LOGIN
ASK THE RABBI
