Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
To crave and to covet are part of the modern experience. However, Rabbi Chaya Rowen Baker shows the subtleties of biblical and medieval thought on these matters.
In this world of endless possibilities of abundance, sometimes we find ourselves miserable because we are not pleased with what we have, with what we are, with what we know, with who we are, with how much we have. It always seems like someone else has something that we should have for ourselves.
But this probably isn’t only a modern problem, because the 10 Commandments in our parasha, Parashat Va’etchanan, were wise enough, God was wise enough to command us the eternal commandment לֹ֥א תַחְמֹ֖ד Do not covet!
Do not Covet it says in our parasha, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.
So it turns out that people in ancient times with much less abundance were also busy with coveting and craving what other people had.
The Rambam (Maimonides) teaches us the difference between coveting and craving is that coveting is when you actually go out and buy what your neighbor has. You go out and buy your neighbor’s ox or horse or house or whatever because you have to have it.
It is negative because you are taking it from someone else and making it your own. Even if you pay them a lot of money, says the Rambam, if you pay them full price or even more than full price, the fact you had to have something that belongs to somebody else is לֹ֥א תַחְמֹ֖ד is do not covet. This is an offence, a ‘coveting offence.’
The Rambam says that craving is when you want to do that. You don’t go out and buy it. But you wish you could, you want to have what someone else has. It is very interesting that we find this coveting and craving, this תחמוד ותתאוה also in the story of עץ הדעת (the Tree of Knowledge).
God says about the tree:
כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים
(Genesis 3:6)
לא תתאוה like we find in the 10 Commandments (עשרת הדיברות) and ונחמד העץ להשכיל ולא תחמוד (Genesis 3:6) like we find in the 10 Commandments עשרת הדיברות .
The tree, (this translation doesn’t do it justice to the Hebrew), the Tree is desirable as a source of wisdom and it is a delight to the eyes. We look at the tree מתאוה – תאוה לעינים and we wish we could have it and we think about what the tree can do for us, it can make us wise, it can be a source of wisdom for us and then we covet it.
All of this comes down to what one simple ancient human and eternal truth that we learn from the words of Ben Zoma in the Mishna. Ben Zoma said:
,אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר, הַשָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ
Who is rich is? Someone who is satisfied with that they have (Ethics of the Fathers Chapter 4:1).
Which is simplifying a more elaborate idea that we find in the Talmud in Masechet (Tractate) Shabbat where we meet a few sages who are speaking amongst themselves about what is, what makes a person rich.
These Tannatic sages in a baraita (ancient Jewish tradition not found in the Mishna, rather) in the Talmud, they are discussing who is rich. One of them says if you have many fields, another one says that you have a wife who has many good deeds, another one says if you have a toilet inside the house – which mean you have indoor plumbing and you have a comfortable house, then you are rich. If you have many goods, if you have property, that makes you rich.
Rabbi Meir says no. What makes you rich? The person who has means and has pleasure from their means. (Tractate Shabbat 25:b)
אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר? — כׇּל שֶׁיֵּשׁ לוֹ נַחַת רוּחַ בְּעׇשְׁרוֹ
שבת כה.ב
If you have what you have and you know how to enjoy what you have and you don’t have to live your life looking at what other people have and seeing what you could have better and what you , could have more of, then you are rich!
SHAVUA TOV FROM SCHECHTER
Rabbi Chaya Rowen Baker, Dean, The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.
Ordained in 2007 by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, Rabbi Rowen Baker has served, since her ordination, as the rabbi of Kehillat Ramot-Zion in French Hill, Jerusalem. Ramot Zion, a flagship Masorti congregation, is home to many Israelis in search of a meaningful connection to Jewish tradition in a rapidly changing world. For the past eight years, she has served as Coordinator of Practical Rabbinics at SRS.
Much of Rabbi Rowen Baker’s work is done outside the synagogue space, with those not accustomed to synagogue life, so as to make accessible a vibrant Jewish approach and practice which is part of all walks of life. In 2015 she was the first Masorti rabbi – and the first ever female rabbi – to be invited to teach Torah at the Israeli President’s residence.
Rabbi Rowen Baker holds an MA with Distinction in Talmud and Jewish Thought from The Schechter Institute, and a BA in Jewish History and Archeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a fellow at the Honey Foundation for Israel and a member of the Rabbinical Assembly Executive Council.
Rabbi Rowen Baker lives in French Hill, Jerusalem with her husband Etai, their four children and their dog Hummus.
