Lesson Plan (based on experiential 5E model)
Materials (to community):
- URJ online Torah portion plus commentary in advance.
- A read version of the Torah portion by Martin in advance
Goals:
- Space for personal narrative and voice for class members to find the Torah of their lives in reading the weekly Torah portion. Bring in commentary from individual's comments when possible.
- To wrestle together in finding relevance and challenge in the weekly Torah portion.
- To dive deeply into one aspect of the weekly pasha that has a psycho-spiritual teaching, a teaching about how our traditions have meaningful application to our lives and a life well lived.
- This week's focus: the Haftorah for Shabbat HaGadol - very last chapter in Prophets
Engage: what was did you glean from this week's parsha - what was resonant or challenging. Find and Discuss Thanksgiving Offering.
Explore: Question: what do you envision when you put out Elija's cup during the Passover Seder?
Explain: Overview of structure of where book of Malachi fits into Hebrew bible. Read two secions from Haftorah and discuss.
Elaborate: How does gratitude connect to giving and receiving and how does giving and receiving connect to gratitude? How does this connect to mitzvot and to Passover? Why do we read this on Shabbat Hagadol? How do you read this in the context of current day?
What is Shabbat Hagadol
Shabbat before Pesach. The Great Shabbat
Historical Context: "In Egypt, the Day when the Jewish people took the sheep that they would bring as their pesach-offerigns. Each family tied its sheep to a bedpost and informed the infuriates Egypitans that the sheep an Egyptian diety, would become and offering to Hashem. The Egyptians were powerless to react, but the Jews did not know that. They acted as they did becasue Moses told them to - and becasue they trusted G!d and his propeht. Thus the Sabbath before teh first redemption was a day when the Jews showed faith and were rewarded with G!d's protection." Stone Version Humash, p 1220
This offering is different compared to other offerings in Leviticus 1 and 3. It is eaten but no leftovers are allowed after the 1 day of eating. Why?
R. Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508): can't eat it all themselves, so person who is sharing thanks - needs to invite "relatives, friends and acquaintances to share in their meal and their joy.....and G!d's name iwll be publicly glorified."
The Heart of Torah, Rabbi Shai Held
Discussing the paschal sacrifice.
Beginning of Seder: "all who are hungry, let them enter and eat, all who are in need, let the come celebrate Pesach"
Letting a portion of the pascal sacrafice wait unitl morning who be unimaginable when there are those who are vulnerable and downtrodden.
Leftovers indicate a failure of empathy.
Those who are hunger are our responsibility - open our hearts and homes to them
Heart of Torah, Rabbi Shai Held
Book of Malachi - Last Book of Prophets
Where does it fit into the Hebrew Bible?
- "Bible" comes from greek - ta bible - means many books
- Hebrew Bible: synonyms Mikra (what is read) and TaNaKh - acronmy for what is included - Torah (teachings/laws), Ne'vim (Prophets), Ketuvim (Writings).
- Cannonization - 1st centruy CE; 9th century CE - first complete manuscripts
Torah
- Chumash (of five) refers to the five books of Moses.
- Story of abrahma, Moses, includes laws
- Torah - misnomer? Refer to all written text and oral text - transmitted directly from G!d?
Prophets
- Split into 2 parts:
- former prophets: joshua, judges, samuel and kings - Hx of Israel from context of fullfmilment of commandments
- "The latter prophets — including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, along with 12 minor prophets — report the exhortations of these fiery leaders to return to God and Torah."
- Shorter books. Jonah is an example, as is the book of Malachi
Malachi
- end of the prophets
- Malachi - means my (G!d's) messanger.
- Tradition notes - after Malachi - tradition of prophecy stops - we move towads a people of Sefer (scribes) and Rabbis (teachers)
- Timing: perhaps after rebuild of 2nd temple (516-515 BCE).
- Encourages religious revival
Reference: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hebrew-bible/
(י) הָבִ֨יאוּ אֶת־כָּל־הַֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֜ר אֶל־בֵּ֣ית הָאוֹצָ֗ר וִיהִ֥י טֶ֙רֶף֙ בְּבֵיתִ֔י וּבְחָנ֤וּנִי נָא֙ בָּזֹ֔את אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת אִם־לֹ֧א אֶפְתַּ֣ח לָכֶ֗ם אֵ֚ת אֲרֻבּ֣וֹת הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וַהֲרִיקֹתִ֥י לָכֶ֛ם בְּרָכָ֖ה עַד־בְּלִי־דָֽי׃
(10) Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, and let there be food in My House, and thus put Me to the test—said the LORD of Hosts. I will surely open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down blessings on you;
Stone Edition Chumash
- An auspicious time of the year for such an assurance, because it is before Pesach that it is so imperative for Jews to extend generous help to their bretheren
"When moved by the depths of our being by having been given something, we seek to become givers ourselvs. A greatful heart overlows."
Core aspect of gratitude is the desire to respond.
Pscyhologists Robert Emmons - "Gratitude is a moral emotion - leads to behavior intended to benefit others."
Return to Parsha Tzav - "We are not meant to rest content being recipients of G!d's gifts but are asked to become givers ourselves. G!d's gifts meant to flow through us not to us."
"Gratitude and hoarding are incompatible, event mutually contratictory. A genuinely grateful heart does not understand acquisitivenss or possessiveness."
**
The Heart of Torah, Rabbi Shai Held
(19) For lo! That day is at hand, burning like an oven. All the arrogant and all the doers of evil shall be straw, and the day that is coming—said the LORD of Hosts—shall burn them to ashes and leave of them neither stock nor boughs.
(1) For lo, the sun comes This instance of יוֹם is an expression of sun, for so did the Sages state that there will be no Gehinnom in the future, but the Holy One, blessed be He, will take the sun out of its case; the wicked will be punished thereby and the righteous will be healed thereby. That is the meaning of what is stated (verse 20): “And the sun of mercy shall rise for you who fear My Name, etc.”
In Judaism the name Gehinnom is generally used as an appellation of the place of torment reserved for the wicked after death.
Gehinnom: purgatory, the spiritual realm in which the souls are cleansed from the blemishes brought about by their conduct while on Earth. Chabbad.org
(20) But for you who revere My name a sun of victory shall rise to bring healing. You shall go forth and stamp like stall-fed calves, (21) and you shall trample the wicked to a pulp, for they shall be dust beneath your feet on the day that I am preparing—said the LORD of Hosts.
(1) and be fat an expression of fat, as in (Jer. 50: 11), “as you become fat, like a threshing heifer.”
[הנה אנכי שלח לכם את אליה הנביא לפני בוא יום יהוה הגדול והנורא]
(22) Be mindful of the Teaching of My servant Moses, whom I charged at Horeb with laws and rules for all Israel. (23) Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the LORD. (24) He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction. Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the LORD.
(א) והחלק השני בענין הנביא כגון שיקרא לבני אדם לעבוד את השם ויצוה על מצותו ויזהיר לשמור התורה בלי תוספת ומגרעת כמו שאמר הנביא מסיים הנביאים (מלאכי ג) זכרו תורת משה עבדי ויבטיח למי שיעשנה בגמולות טובות ויזהיר לכל העובר עליה בעונש כמו שעשו ישעיה ירמיה יחזקאל וזולתם;
(1) And the second category is with regards to the prophet that, for example, calls to people to serve God, and commands about His commandments and warns to observe the Torah, without addition or subtraction – as the prophet who was the end of the prophets said (Malachi 3:22), "Remember the Torah of Moshe, My servant" – and promises good rewards to the one that does it, and warns with a punishment anyone who transgresses it, as did Yishaya, Yirmiyahu, Yechezkel and the other ones of them.
Or HaChayim:
When Elijah demonstrated the miracles of G'd on Mount Carmel in Kings I 18,39, he did not conclude until the people had exclaimed that the Lord G'd is the true G'd. This is the reason why when Elijah will appear once more prior to the coming of the Messiah it will be during a period which the prophet Maleachi described as a time when "G'd and His name will be one," the mystical dimension of "the Lord G'd is the true G'd."
(כב) כמו שכתוב על הערבות (ישעיהו ס״ו:כ״ד) וראיתם ושש לבבם ואמר על הצער (שם) ויצאו וראו בפגרי האנשים וגו׳ ואמר (מלאכי ג) כי הנה היום בא בוער כתנור והיו כל זדים וכל עשה רשעה וגו׳ ואמר (שם) וזרחה לכם יראי שמי שמש צדקה וגו'. וכאשר יתן החוטא אל לבו הדבר הזה ראוי לו לקבל עליו שלא ישנה אל חטאו.
(22) Regarding the pleasure (in the afterlife), it is written: "And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice" (Yeshaya 66:14), and "the sun of mercy shall rise with healing in its wings for you who fear My Name. Then will you go forth and be rich as fatted calves" (Malachi 3:20), while regarding the pain it is written: "And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire ever be quenched; [and they shall be an eternal abhorrence unto all flesh]" (Yeshaya 66:24), and "For lo, the day comes, that shall burn like a furnace, and all the audacious sinners and all the perpetrators of wickedness shall be stubble. And the sun that comes shall burn them up so that it will leave them neither root nor branch, says the L-ord of Hosts" (Malachi 3:19). When the sinner puts this matter to heart, he will deem it proper to take on himself not to repeat his sin.
Reb Arthur Wascow's exploration of this text in his teaching in the context of Global Climate Change, Global Scortching, and Solar Energy.