Sh’lach
Numbers 13:1–15:41
Joshua 2:1–2:24
Elie Wiesel quotes an ancient midrash: “God made man because he loves stories.” It is in our nature, our genes, our DNA to tell and listen to stories.
There is a familiar story about a great misfortune that was to fall on the Jewish community: The Ba’al Shem Tov went to a special place in the forest, lit a special fire and said a prayer, and the misfortune was averted.
His student Maggid of Mezritch knew the place and how to light the fire, but didn’t know the prayer, and yet the tragedy was averted. His student Rabbi Moshe Lieb knew the place but didn’t know how to light the special fire and didn’t know the prayer, and yet the tragedy was averted. His student Rabbi Israel didn’t know the place, didn’t know how to light the fire and didn’t know the special prayer, but he knew how to tell the story, and that was sufficient.
Because we know the story, we can avert tragedy.
Our Torah portion includes stories about people, numbers and their significance. Foremost is the story about the 12 spies, that is 10 and two, and this leads me to think about another story that relates to the number 18.
Rachel Remen is a very wise and learned physician who teaches at the medical school at UCSF and has written two books, “Kitchen Table Wisdom” and “My Grandfather’s Blessing.” She shares wisdom, love and blessings in her writings.
In the scenes Rachel presents in her books, she always ate and drank with her grandfather. They drank tea, but not like you and I drink tea. They drank it with a sugar cube in the mouth and sipped the tea from a drinking glass.
Rachel’s grandfather would close his eyes and speak to God, thanking God for his granddaughter and thanking God for being her grandfather. Rachel notes that she felt completely safe and fully loved at these moments.
She was his neshumeh-le (beloved little soul), and he blessed her. When he died when she was 7, there was no one else who called her by that special name.
When her own mother began to light candles, Rachel told her about those blessings, and her mother said, “I have blessed you every day of your life, Rachel. I just never had the wisdom to do it out loud.”
Years later, Rachel understood that once blessed, we are blessed forever.
Every Friday afternoon her grandfather would fill a special cup with Manischewitz, and after closing his eyes and having a few words with God, he taught her the toast “L’chaim — to life.”
Now we know that the letters that constitute chaim add up to 18, and this remains a very special number in Jewish tradition.
Rachel would ask, “Is it to a happy life?”
“No, just to life,” her grandfather would respond.
“Is it like a prayer?” she would ask.
“Ah no, Neshumeh-le, we pray for the things we don’t have. We already have life.”
“But then why do we say this?”
He told her, “No matter what difficulty life brings, no matter how hard or painful or unfair life is, life is holy and worthy of celebration. Even the wine is sweet to remind us that life itself is a blessing.”
Rachel learned that l’chaim is a way of living life. She says, “As I’ve grown older, it seems less and less about celebrating life, and more about the wisdom of choosing life. In the many years that I have been counseling people with cancer, I have seen people choose life again and again, despite loss and pain and difficulty.
The same immutable joy I saw in my grandfather’s eyes is there in them all.”
May each one of us have the wisdom to bless our loved ones out loud and then to say to them: L’chaim, to life!
Rabbi Larry Raphael is the senior rabbi of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.