Why Does the Word “Zionist” Still Exist?
5 min read
Do you have a mission statement? A mission statement concretizes your goals and raison d’être into a clear, concise form. It will help you stay on track by connecting you to your purpose.
Before the giving of the Torah, God gave a mission statement to Moses on Mount Sinai. It translated God’s highest purpose for the Jewish People into words and deeds.
If you listen to Me and keep My covenant, you will be a precious treasure to Me among all the peoples…You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
The narrative of the giving of the Torah is divided into two sections. It begins in Parashas Yisro and extends into Parashas Mishpatim; together, these two narratives comprise the God-initiated mission statement. Section two describes the covenant between God and the Jewish People. These concise words express the why, the how, and the ultimate goal: to form a holy nation. This is our mission statement in a nutshell. Hashem provides the action plan to help us actualize our mission. That action plan is the Torah—an ancient narrative expressing Divine wisdom. To grow into “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” requires the development of great sensitivity. The Torah’s mitzvot exemplify such heightened sensitivity.
As just one of numerous examples, let’s take a deeper look at the prohibition of mixing milk and meat, which is enumerated three times in the Torah, the first of which is in this week’s Torah portion.
Ramban (Nachmanides), a leading medieval rabbi and scholar, explains that it is so that “we not become a cruel people that is not compassionate, by milking the mother and extracting its milk in which to cook its kid.” Avoidance of this moral insensitivity is in keeping with our mission of becoming a holy nation.
Rashi explains that the three repetitions of the prohibition of cooking a kid in its mother’s milk teaches that we are prohibited from cooking, eating, or deriving any benefit from the mixture of meat and milk. The Torah’s prohibitions of other “mixtures” are not so extreme. We are prohibited from grafting two species of trees, but we are permitted to eat the fruit resulting from such a graft. On the other hand, regarding the mixture of wool and linen, we are prohibited from wearing, but not from making, such a garment. Why are such exacting measures taken regarding the mixture of meat and milk, and how does it further our mission of becoming a holy nation?
In Kabbalistic terms, meat represents gevurah, the Divine attribute of strict judgment, while milk reflects the attribute of chessed, kindness. Thus, the mixture of meat and milk would correspond to the interaction of opposing spiritual forces. Since judgment and kindness produce opposite effects, their mixture would result in a corruption of the spiritual forces that they embody.
This can be likened to medication labels warning us of the dangers of drug interactions. So too, mixing meat and milk is harmful to us spiritually. A “holy nation” must be sensitive not only to physical outcomes, but to the spiritual as well.
We can learn a further lesson regarding sensitivity from a deeper understanding of the scene at Mount Sinai, described at the end of the Torah portion. The Lubavitcher Rebbe expounds on the description of the fire on Mount Sinai. Verse 16 states that “the glory of God rested on Har Sinai, and the cloud covered the mountain.” The next verse states that “the appearance of the glory of God was like a consuming fire.”
The Rebbe points out that at the top of a mountain, nothing grows. Thus, the question can be asked, What was there for the “consuming fire” to burn or consume? Rashi comments that “the cloud was like smoke.”
The Rebbe notes that it was not actual smoke since there wasn’t any fuel to burn. Rather, the “consuming fire” of God emitted something resembling smoke. Now comes the heightened sensitivity.
The Rebbe explains that smoke represents the burning desire of people to escape the confines of corporeal existence and ascend to connect with their Creator. Normally, smoke is made when there is some fuel present. At Mount Sinai, God suspended normal reality and made a “consuming fire” that emanated from the mountain itself—“fire from a rock.”
We are meant to learn a lesson. Even “inanimate” parts of our lives can spark enthusiasm. We need to create enthusiasm from that which is seemingly static and dreary. One can mistakenly think that enthusiasm or “fire” is reserved just for special occasions or for Torah study. It might appear that mundane, petty chores and actions are disconnected from any higher purpose. Not so, says the Rebbe. We’re to remember that on Har Sinai, even the inanimate rock burned. So too, even the simplest acts can be brought alive with the fire and energy of Torah inspiration. In doing so, everything we do can further our mission to become a holy nation.
Each of us needs to develop an action plan, based on the Torah and its mitzvot, to actualize your mission statement. There’s no better time to get started than right now.
