Yesterday Al and Ruth were called to the Torah at our shul, B’nai Shalom of Olney. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on the bimah in shul, just as their wedding began in shul, in the house of God.
In honor of that occasion, I shared with them an appropriate verse from the Torah portion we read yesterday, Parshat Re’eh.
Today begins a new week and we, the Jewish people, begin looking to the next weekly Torah portion, which in this case now will be Parshat Shoftim.
There is a wonderful short verse right in the middle of Parshat Shoftim, in Chapter 18 of Deuteronomy, which is worthy of recognition on this occasion. Before I share the verse, let me explain the context.
The Book of Deuteronomy is concerned that the Israelite people not imitate the indigenous Canaanite population when the Israelites finally will come to the Promised Land and build the Jewish nation. Therefore, we constantly hear about Canaanite practices that are to be disregarded and shunned at all costs by the Israelites.
Included in these practices are forms of worship that might compete with the attention God, and only God, deserves. So we hear that the Israelites were not to visit soothsayers, diviners, sorcerers, one who casts spells, one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits. In other words, for those of you who read your daily horoscopes in the newspaper, that’s okay, but believing them is another matter altogether.
While many of us probably are not frequent visitors to the palm readers on the boardwalk in Atlantic City or Ocean City, I know from conversations with many of you, that it is not unusual for Jewish people to believe in the concept of “beshert.” Certain things are preordained, or so we want to believe.
It is fate, God’s will, God’s plan, it is in the stars, created by God, that two people should meet as youngsters, fall in love, commit to sharing a life together and succeed in 50 years of marriage leading to the blessing of wonderful children, grandchildren, extended family, and many good friends.
Is that what the palm reader in Atlantic City would have told Al and Ruth Temin more than 50 years ago? I don’t know, but here’s what I do know.
A verse which comes right after this section prohibiting reliance upon fortune-telling and believing in even religious witchcraft reads
The new JPS translation is the one I want to use. It translates the word tamim as “whole-hearted,” so in English the verse reads,
“You must be whole-hearted with the Lord your God.”
In other words, it is not the sorcerer or the diviner or fortune-teller who deserves to be worshiped – rather it is only God who deserves all of our hearts, our whole hearts.
God may have plans for us, but that doesn’t obviate the need, doesn’t dismiss the need, for us to be whole-hearted in our devotion and in our loyalty to God.
And so it is with Al and Ruth to one another, to each other. It may have been, it probably was, God’s plan for Al and Ruth to meet, fall in love, marry, and be such wonderful and successful spouses, parents, and grandparents.
But it didn’t happen only because it was beshert. It happened because they gave their whole hearts to one another. They were tamim, pure and innocent, and whole-heartedly devoted to one another.
Their marriage began with God’s blessing, and it is God’s blessing we invoke on this day, but in between, there was effort, commitment, consistency, and love that never wavered and only got stronger with each passing year.
Al and Ruth, thank you for bringing Sharon into this world (David, too). Thank you for being so much a part of our lives and certainly the lives of our beautiful, wonderful daughters.
Most of all thank you for being such a wonderful model of what it means to be whole-hearted, and for showing us that in the end, when you take two hearts and put them together, the whole is indeed greater than the sum of the individual hearts.
Amen.