By Cantor Mark Horowitz

This week’s Torah portion, Behar, on the mountain, is not just talking about any old mountain, it refers to the revelation on Mt. Sinai. We learn how we are to practice a kind of environmental and social justice every single day, but particularly around the cycles of seven.

We have the cycles of years. Every seventh year, the land gets a sabbatical year, similar to our observance of Shabbat, our day of rest. Torah teaches us that we should let the land lie fallow and give it the opportunity to regenerate.

In Behar we are reminded, “ki li Haaretz,” that although we humans may be out working the land, Gods says “it is my land.” We care for that land by helping it to produce and by allowing it time to rest so it can continue to be a source of nourishment for us all.

Being Jewish takes a lot of effort and thought…

There are so many teachings in Behar, including our introduction to the Jubilee (yovel) year as the time when all slaves were set free and the land should return to its original owners.

One of the very powerful obligations in Behar is ki yamuch achicha, “when your brother becomes poor”. We are commanded to support our brothers and sisters who are poor. Note that it doesn’t say it in the plural, because as Rashi, a medieval commentator says, if it says it in the plural, you’re going to assume that somebody else is going to take care of that poor person.

We worry about the land, climate change, taking care of others and so much more…all religious obligations for us Jews. It is our tradition to work hard in this arena.

And it is not lost to us that this Torah portion puts us Behar, on the mountain, a hard place to climb.

Being Jewish takes a lot of effort and thought…

This past week, the Buffalo Jewish Federation brought this community the gift of a visit from three IDF soldiers who literally wove their way through our Jewish community to see who we were, to let us know who they were, and what they were thinking and feeling at this difficult moment in time. A goal of ours was to re-energize them for their return home with our gratitude, love, respect, and support for their work on behalf of our people and our home. I had the gift of spending a significant amount of time with them and learned so much about them, their efforts in Israel and in the end, about myself.

One of the soldiers, Tal, had an interesting reaction and summary at the end of our time together. She noticed that it takes a lot more effort to be Jewish when you are not living in Israel. She marveled at all the things we do to remember on Yom HaShoah, to mourn on Yom HaZikaron and to celebrate on Yom Ha’atzmaut. In Israel, she said, we don’t have to plan and create opportunities and gather so intentionally. We are just right where it happens. Here in Buffalo, she was surprised (and pleased), that it takes thought and a lot of effort. She was so blown away at the lengths we go to create community and to gather.

Being Jewish takes a lot of effort and thought…

It is not easy to be a Jew in North America, and for us, in Buffalo. Not if we are thinking, caring, and creating opportunities to pray, to gather and to build that community that thrilled Tal. It takes effort. It takes more than a village, especially when there are only 10,000 of us out of a metropolitan region with a population of well over 1 million.

So, as we read of the obligations God has set out for us in this week’s Torah portion, and as we remember both what we are commanded to do and what our choices eventually are, let’s work just a little harder and smarter, in community with each other.

I look forward to seeing many of you “on the mountain.” Let’s climb together and build a Jewish Buffalo for ourselves, our children and the many generations that will come after us.

Kein Y’hi Ratzon, May it be God’s Will.

Cantor Mark Horowitz is the Chief Operations Office for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo.