June 19, 2022|כ' סיון ה' אלפים תשפ"ב Parshat B'Haalotcha Shabbat drasha: Hakarat Hatov to our YI Oceanside Lay Leadership By Rabbi Jonathan Muskat

Just before Rosh Hashanah, a team of terrorists invades the shul and takes the rabbi, the cantor and the shul president hostage. Hours later, the governor stands tough; he won't give them a million dollars, nor a getaway car nor a jumbo jet. The terrorists gather the three hostages in a corner and inform them that things look bad and they're going to have to shoot them. Nevertheless, to show that they're not really a bad bunch, they'll grant each hostage one wish. "Please," says the rabbi, "for the last two months I've been working on my Rosh Hashanah sermon. What a waste to die now without having carried it before an audience. I'll go happily if you let me recite my sermon. It's two and a half hours long, tops." The terrorists promise to grant the wish. "Please," says the cantor, "after 50 years I've finally gotten the Hinneni prayer just right. What a waste to die and not sing it to an audience. It's only about 45 minutes long, then I'll go happily." The terrorists promise to grant the cantor his wish, too, and they turn to the shul president. "Please," says the president with tears in his eyes. "Shoot me first!" It’s not easy being a shul president.

About two and half years to three years ago, the plan was set in motion. A transfer of power was unofficially on the way, not just between one shul president and another shul president, but really between one Oceanside generation and a second generation. Ben Lipschitz mentored a whole group of younger members on his executive board and the guinea pig would be Yehuda Kessock. After many years of leadership under one generation of Oceansiders, the lay leadership was to transition to a young man in the prime of his career at an age much younger than people typically become shul president. And this young man had dreams and visions. I don’t know if you know this about Yehuda, but he is someone who kind of wears his hashhkafa on his sleeve. Yehuda is ideologically driven and he had a vision of what he was going to do for his two years as shul president to improve all aspects of shul life. He was ready to go. He had his executive board selected, and then COVID happened and all his visions and dreams took a back seat to the enormous responsibility of trying to keep a shul community together without a shul.

Much of the last two years has been about dealing with different groups of people with passionately different opinions about how to keep a community together without a shul or with limited shul operations. There was a lot of fear and emotions often ran high. And I think that the key to keeping the shul together during these challenging times was a pasuk from this week’s parsha.

The Torah states, “al pi Hashem yachanu.” By the mouth of God, they camped in the desert. Now the Mishna in Shabbat (73a) lists the 39 melachot that are forbidden on Shabbat. The Gemara explains that the juxtaposition of the mitzvah to build the mishkan and to observe Shabbat teaches us that the melachot used in the construction of the mishkan are forbidden on Shabbat. One of the melachot is the prohibition of “soter,” which is destroying. We are only biblically liable if we destroy with the intent to rebuild. This melacha is learned from the deconstruction and construction of the mishkan when the Bnei Yisrael traveled through the desert. The Gemara quotes the opinion of Rav Yossi that we are only liable if we destroy with the intent to rebuild in the exact location. If that’s true, though, then when in the desert did the Bnei Yisrael deconstruct with the intent to reconstruct in the exact location? Whenever the Bnei Yisrael took apart the mishkan, the intent was to travel to a different location! The Gemara answers with the pasuk, “al pi Hashem yachanu.” By the mouth of God they camped in the desert. The Gemara states that since the pasuk states, “al pi Hashem yachanu,” then “k’soter al menat livnot k’mekomo dami.” Since the Bnei Yisrael traveled in the desert only through the word of God, it is as if they were destroying with the intent to build in the same place.

How does the Gemara exactly answer the question? How does the fact that they were following God’s direction make it as if they were destroying with the intent to build in the same location? Rav Chaim Shmulevitz answers this question with the following mashal, with the following parable. Imagine a mother decides to travel the world in one month. She flies from New York to Los Angeles, to Sydney, to New Zealand, to Hong Kong, to Bangkok, to South Korea to Israel, to London and back to New York. At every location she needs to wait in the airport, getting on and off of planes and her passport is stamped at every location. She enjoys the scenery and the various locations she visited. If you would ask her after her trip, “How was your trip?” she could go into great detail explaining the difference between every airport and city. Now imagine she does this entire trip with her 5-month-old son, and imagine you could ask the baby “how was your trip?” What do you think he will answer? He will say “What trip? We didn’t go anywhere. I was always in mother’s arms. This past month, we spent so much time together, my mother almost never put me down. It was amazing!” In the baby’s eyes he was only in his mother’s arms. Rav Chaim Shmulevitz explains that in the desert we were like that baby in his mother’s arms. From our perspective we never moved. From our perspective we were always bonding with God. This is exactly what Rav Yossi meant. Although we traveled geographically in the desert, spiritually and consciously we were always in the same place, in the warm embrace of God.

And that was the number one challenge under Yehuda’s leadership. At various points during the past two years, some people wanted to socially distance in shul, and some people didn’t want to socially distance. Some people wanted to mask in shul and some people didn’t want to mask. Some people wanted children in shul and some people didn’t want children in shul. Under these conditions, how do we create an environment where we can still feel the warm embrace of God whether we were in shul or not, whether we were together or not and whether we were in our regular surroundings or not. Yehuda provided steady leadership during these times, he scheduled numerous town hall meetings to hear from the membership and he worked tirelessly to try to balance the needs of every individual member with the needs of the community as a whole. No issue was too small and no issue was too big for Yehuda.

Yehuda, I am sure that there may have been a few times during the past two years when you turned to God and cried out as Moshe did in this week’s parsha, “lamah harei’ota l’avdecha v’lamah lo matzati chen b’ainecha lasum et masa kol ha’am hazeh alai,” or “Why have you dealt ill with Your servant and why I have not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me?”

But God granted you, Yehuda, a group of zekeinim, a group of elders, a group of wonderful executive board members, to support you, to provide sound guidance and I am very excited about the future of our community based on our lay leadership which you helped cultivate. The truth is that when I think about your leadership and Benji (Alper)’s leadership during these past two years, I think about two individuals from this week’s parsha. According to Rashi, six people were chosen from each of the twelve tribes and there was going to be a lottery and 70 of the 72 would be selected as zekenim, as elders, assistants to Moshe. However, Eldad and Medad didn’t show up for the lottery. Why? Because they didn’t think that they were worthy to be elders. They didn’t feel deserving of the honor. Yehuda and Benji are our community’s Eldad and Medad. I’ve been working very closely with Yehuda and Benji over these last two years, and there is absolutely no ego in either one of them at all. They do their job completely as a community service while they are both in the prime of their careers without seeking any honor for themselves ever. This is a primary reason why this transition from the older generation to the newer generation in our community has so much promise, because the first two leaders have been Eldad and Medad. Whether our third leader will be Devorah remains to be seen.

Yehuda, I know that this shul presidency did not turn out how you expected it to turn out when you agreed to become shul president more than two years ago. Yes, you are leaving the shul presidency with less formal authority in our community. However, you are leaving the shul presidency with so much more influence. The reason is that in the past two years you have led us with wisdom, patience and compassion, and you are a shining example of the pillars of Torah, avodah and gemillut chasadim as the foundation for our community. Future YIO administrations and I will turn to you for much support and guidance knowing what a tremendous impact you have made on our community in an unprecedented challenging time.

Benji, you are becoming president in a shul that is very different from the one where I became the rabbi here eighteen years ago. Eighteen years ago, there was essentially one group in shul and all the programming was designed for one group and at some level there was one vision about many different aspects of shul life. Then came a second group with new visions and new ideas. With the continued growth of the shul, there is now a third group with new visions and new ideas. All of this growth is exciting, but it can be a source of much fear and anxiety.

When Moshe asked Yitro to travel with Bnei Yisrael to Eretz Yisrael in this week’s parsha, Yitro refused. What was Yitro’s hesitancy? One commentary, the Chizkuni, explains his hesitancy in one line: “Lo ani’ach ha’vadai bishvil ha’safek,” or “I will not leave something certain for something doubtful.” Yitro was nervous. He didn’t want to leave his home in Midyan. Yes, God performed so many wonderful and exciting miracles for Bnei Yisrael, but Yitro was anxious about the uncertainty of going to a new land.

On the one hand, the growth of the shul has been wonderful and absolutely critical for our community, but the result is that we have created a situation of “safek,” of doubt on a whole host of issues. We all want, “al pi Hashem yachanu.” We all want to feel the warm embrace of God in our communal lives, but many of us have different ideas and methods and competing paths to achieve this goal and the identity of the correct idea or method or path often is unknown.

As we shift to a new administration, my bracha is that as we become more and more diverse, we all commit to become more and more curious and more and more humble. Let us become more open to other ways of looking at things and not always so certain that we definitely know the right answer. If we are successful in this endeavor, then the continued growth and diversity of our shul community will lead to a deeper understanding of the needs of our community, a deeper connection with each other and a deeper connection with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Benji, Dora Chana (Haar), Mark (Burger) and the rest of the executive board, I look forward to working closely with you and the Board and the membership so that we can achieve great things together. Mazal tov!