Twenty-five years I took the biggest leap of faith of my life. I got engaged. I knew Paulo, and he had all the important characteristics that I looked for in someone to become my husband: he was intelligent, honest, reliable, a family person, ambitious and had very strong moral values. Luckily, I loved him, and he loved me. We took each other’s hands and jumped into the greatest adventure of our lives: building a family together.
In the last section of parashat Mishpatim, after laying out some additional rules after giving the “Asseret haDibrot” (known as Ten Commandments), God calls up Moses, Aharon, Nadav, Abihu and seventy elders of Israel. Moses repeats the commandments, makes a special offering, reads the “Sefer haBrit”, the recording of the covenant, and the people answer: “Na’ase v’nishma” We will do, and we will understand.
“Na’ase v’nishma”- we will do and we will listen - is often regarded as unqualified obedience, a national declaration of total subjugation to God’s will, accepting the Torah in its entirety without question. It is also considered the basis for the idea that Judaism is a religion of deed, rather than a religion of intention. However, as Progressive Jews, who believe in informed choice of mitzvot, it is difficult to agree to the idea of doing and obeying to rules that are not even yet stipulated.
However, when we establish a commitment in a relationship, this is exactly what we are doing. First you must commit to engage, so that you can have the experience of being in that kind of relationship with that person, and living it, understanding that person and what it means to be with them in a deeper connection.
“Na’ase v’nishma” teaches us that “Torah isn't just about following instructions. The receiving of Torah at Sinai was an experience of covenant, of connection. In this story, the tradition teaches us that sometimes we have to do something in order to really understand it. That in relationship, you must commit to the other party even before you know everything that is possible to know about them. You make the commitment; you enter into the covenant; you do what that relationship requires. And over time, you come to understand your partner in deeper ways. You become able to "hear" things you couldn't have heard when you first started out.” As explained by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat.
The Sefer haBrit is an agreement between God and the people of Israel saying that both believed in a life journey together, to build Judaism and a world based on strong moral values laid out in the beginning of the parashah. God and Jewish people commit to do whatever is necessary, to listen to the other, and to understand that creation is an ongoing process, inspired by the Divine, and fuelled by the belief in one another. It is not a transactional moment, but the establishment of a healthy relationship, which requires doing, listening, and questioning.
Yes, questioning, because we change through time. The man to whom I got engaged is not the same one that I’m married now, he is the same person, changed by experience and time. I am not that recently graduated lawyer anymore, I’m a mother, a student rabbi, a completely different person.
God and Israel changed through time too. We, the people of Israel collected a history of fight, of being expelled, of building life and new ways of being Jewish, of living Jewishly. We are not slaves anymore; we are a free people. We are not in the desert anymore; we have the land of Israel. And that relationship changed and keeps changing too.
If early Zionist ideology does not work anymore, nor does the later idea that I had during my days of Youth Movement, when Israel was meant to be the home for all Jews, the place where we were safe. We learned that loving Israel is not blindly accepting all that Israeli governments do, but it also means criticizing and mobilizing for democracy, even if we don’t live in Israel. Unfortunately, we learned that we are not always safe in Israel, and that sometimes we are needed to give comfort and support to our sisters and brothers who live there. But to do so, we have to be in a relationship, we have to be connected, to do, in order to understand.
Commitment comes before the understanding. Actually, commitment is necessary for understanding. To accept a commitment is to take a risk, knowing that with time everything will change. Being in a relationship means doing: jumping; but always listening and trying to understand who the other on your side is at that moment. Doing is the beginning, but listening and understanding is what guarantees the future.
My grandmother always said that true love is knowing the flaws and imperfections of the other, and still wanting to build a life with that person. “Na’ase v’nishma” does not mean to blindly follow the rules of Torah, but committing to engage, to learn, to listen and trying to understand. To be a Zionist does not mean to only say good things about Israel, but to engage and understand with the real life of people in that country, in our holy land.
May we be granted the courage to take each other’s hands and jump into the unknown and great adventure of building a better world through Torah, through true relationships. “Na’ase v’nishma”.
Shabbat Shalom.
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