Last week we looked at the phrase “El Na Refa Na La”. Moses’s prayer for his sister Miriam. Please G-d, Heal her, please.  

This simple prayer is Moses’ begging G-d. Please, heal her. Please. Now. It is very polite. This week Moses again begs G-d. The people still want to go back to Egypt. They are about to rebel (come back next week for that scene). They are questioning Moses’ leadership and they continue to kvetch. G-d is running out of patience. G-d is getting ready to strike them all dead, right there, in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of nowhere. 

Why? Why is G-d so frustrated, so angry that G-d is contemplating just wiping them out. Right there. No more questions asked. G-d had told Moses to send 12 scouts, spies, the heads of their tribes, respected leaders into the land they are about to inherit, the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The twelve spies go. Only two, Caleb and Joshua, say that it is possible. The rest are afraid, very afraid. They report that it is impossible to enter the land. The people are giants and the Israelites appear as grasshoppers. While the land is flowing with milk and honey they have as Ben Gilad would say, some blindspots. Why didn’t they trust G-d? They had seen G-d’s majesty and might? 

According to Rabbi Linda Shriner-Cahn there are two reasons. One was a lack of confidence and the other a fear of success. Confidence comes from the Latin, meaning, “having faith together.” They lacked that faith that they needed—as a community—to know that they were going to survive. We, too, need that hope and that assurance as we live through unprecedented times. 

Michael Walzer said,
Wherever you live, it is probably Egypt…
There is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land…
The way to the land is through the wilderness
There is no way to get from here to there except by joining together and searching.” 

So stuck there in the wilderness with a rebellious, scared, kvetching people and a angry G-d poised to do the unthinkable, Moses prays.  

Please G-d. Remember your essential nature. You are the Lord, G-d, slow to anger, endlessly patient, filled with compassion, forgiving inequity, transgression and sin. The very words that Moses heard when he was hidden in the cleft of the rock. The very words we use during the High Holy Days beginning with Selichot. The very words that G-d responds to with these words, “Vayomer Adonai Selcati kidvarech” I have forgiven you according to your word, which we know from Kol Nidre. 

Words matter.  The Israelites words matter. Moses’s words matter. G-d’s words matter. And our words matter today.  

Today we are going to do something a little different. The first thing you have probably already noticed. We are doing the d’var Torah, the word of Torah, the sermon, before the Torah reading. That is deliberate. The second thing I am about to explain. 

This is, in many congregations in Chicagoland Pride Shabbat., tied to the big Pride Parade tomorrow. But this d’var Torah is not just about Pride. This is a congregation that proudly embraces diversity—and in previous years, even this year when the verse in Leviticus came up in rotation, I explained a different way of translating Leviticus 18. However, it is not enough to say that Leviticus does not expressly forbid homosexuality. We need to look at our words that we use today that would ensure that everyone is welcome and embraced. 

Bouncing on a bus with American Jewish World Service in Guatemala we were discussing with our Latino guide the changes Guatemalans were making in Spanish so that it was gender sensitive. We wondered how that might work in Hebrew. Hebrew, like many languages, including Spanish, is gender based. Every noun is either masculine or feminine and the verb has to agree. El Na Refa Na La. Is please G-d, masculine, heal command form masculine, heal her feminine. 

We have the same issue when we call people up to the Torah. Traditionally we use, Y’amod Ploni ben Ploni. Let Ploni son of Ploni stand. We have a feminine version. Ta’amod Plonit bat Plonit. Let Plonit daughter of Plonit stand. But what if you don’t identify as male or female or the son or daughter of someone?  

Recently the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards addressed this very question. Approved May 25, 2022 in a decision of 24-0-1, they have introduced new language for calling someone up to the Torah for those who identify as non-binary. https://www.jta.org/2022/06/08/religion/non-gendered-language-for-calling-jews-to-the-torah-gets-conservative-movement-signoff?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-44937-17114 If anyone wants the full t’shuvah, responsa, I have it. 

Calling people (historically men) up to the Torah dates all the way back to Mahzor Vitry in the 13th century—but only in Ashkanazi communities. It is not Torah mi Sina, direct from Sinai or even Talmudic in origin.  

The suggested new language is really very elegant and gets around the three places that are not gender sensitive. 

Na La’amod. Please Stand. There is that Na, again. Very polite with the infinite form of the verb. It goes on to suggest that some non-binary Jews are now using, m’beit, from the house of, rather than ben or bat, son or daughter. And instead of calling up someone as shilishi or shilishit, it is really about the aliyah itself, not the person so it would be aliyah shlishit.  

So if I were being called up this way it would be Na La’amod Miriam Simcha m’beit david v’neily l’aliyah shilishit. Please stand, Miriam Simcha from the house of Don and Nelle for the 3rd aliyah.  

It makes such good sense to me. But it doesn’t quite go far enough. 

I turned around and asked a really important question—for some people who are transitioning or thinking about it or already have, they do not want to be called by their old name. I have friends like that. Not their real names: Katie became Charles. James became Rona. The fear of not passing is real. The threat of violence is real. They don’t want to be singled out as a transgender person. If we use the “traditional” formulation for most people and the new language for someone who is gender fluid, we very well may put someone at risk. “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but names will never hurt me” is not true. Words matter. Names matter.  

So what if…instead of singling someone out as gender non-binary, we use this very elegant language for everyone. That is exactly what we are going to do today. As an experiment. Afterwards it gets referred to the Ritual Committee for discussion.  

This new language give me hope. It helps us live into our vision of embracing community and building community. I hope it leads to more meaningful observance. It does for me.  

Hope is important. It seems to be in short supply this week. There will be time in the next few weeks to discuss our role as Jews in this unfolding discussion in America. Today however, there are two things you can do. At 1 PM, weather dependent, some people will gather at Grove and Kimball to express their sadness, anger, outrage. At 8 PM, sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women I am hosting a Havdalah at my home. You are welcome to join us. Today, however, is Shabbat, a time to rest, a time to breathe and a time to suspend the mourning. There will be plenty of time for discussion and action after Shabbat.  

Hope shows up in another place in today’s readings. The heroine of our haftarah is Rahab, the prostitute who rescues Caleb and Joshua. Help from an unlikely source. A sex worker. They are holding on by a thin thread. The word in Hebrew for hope is tikvah but the root come from to bind, kivah, from which we get thread or cord, something used to bind. Joshua 2:17-21 says, “ 

But the men said to her, “We will be released from this vow which you have made us swear unless when we come into the land, you tie this length of red thread to the window through which you let us down. Bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your family together in your house…She replied, “According to your words, it will be. And she sent them away and they left and she tied the crimson cord to the window.”  

A crimson cord, a thin red thread and an unlikely source. Hope abounds.  Words matter. Words bring hope. Please.