Melissa Nunes-Harwitt, Graduation Speech, May 2007
 Melissa
Nunes-Harwitt is a 2006 graduate of the Drisha Scholars Circle, and a
2004 graduate of the Beit Midrash Program. |
In Parshat Beha'alotecha, we receive for the first time the
laws of Pesach. But there's something unusual about this section, which is
that we have some people coming forward and saying, "I wasn't able to
offer the Korban Pesach. What should I do?" They are told to keep Pesach
Sheni: they're supposed to do the Korban Pesach a month later, to make up
for what they missed.
This comes down l'halacha. It's in the Mishnah that if
people are prevented from offering the Korban Pesach - for example, if those
people are on some kind of distant or long journey - that they are supposed
to offer the Korban Pesach a month later, on Pesach Sheni.
Rather than silencing us or insisting
that we conform to one point of view, our teachers at Drisha encouraged us
to share our diverse positions. So we did and we began to listen to each other.
Sometimes each of us thought that someone else's opinion sounded strange or
even wrong. And sometimes, each of us wondered, "Does my opinion sound
strange?"
So what is special about Pesach? We don't have this kind
of rule with other holidays.
What's special about Pesach becomes clearer, as I've learned from several
of my teachers at Drisha, if we look at the role of the Korban Pesach throughout
the Tanakh. When we do, we see that at several transitional moments
in our history, the Jews offered the Korban Pesach as we were renewing our
commitment to God. This happened at the time of Joshua, at the time of King
Josiah, and at the time the time of Ezra, when we returned from exile.
Masekhet Sukkah goes on to state three more viewpoints,
these disputing the details of the Mishnah. Rather than assuming that Rabbi
Yehuda and the other rabbis disagreed about every sukkah, these rabbis make
three distinct attempts to limit the disagreement to a narrow case of a specific
type of sukkah. They all claim that in most cases, Rabbi Yehuda and the other
rabbis were in harmony.
We see that observance of Pesach, particularly the offering
of the Korban Pesach, is not just about celebrating a holiday, and it's not
just about celebrating freedom. Rather, Pesach represents reconnection. It's
a time when we accept responsibility to the community and to God. It's an
opportunity for us to return from whatever long journey we've been on.
This is part of why I chose to speak about Parshat Beha'alotecha,
which was the parsha of my bat-mitzvah. I see my bat-mitzvah as the
first time that I was asked to make a serious commitment to God and to the
community. I did the best that I could at the time, but I was just a
child. For a long time after that, I was on a journey, as many of us
are, trying to find my place and to find my way. Even when I felt that
I was returning from this journey, I knew that there was a lot more that
I could learn and that I could do.
Drisha helped me to learn what it means to make this kind of commitment.
It gave me the space to ask all the questions I'd accumulated on my journey. It
gave me the skills to look for answers, and to recognize that sometimes there
aren't answers, or more often that there are many answers. Drisha also
gave me the skills, and the encouragement, to try to create new
answers.
Drisha has been my Pesach Sheni.
I want to offer thanks to God for the chance to learn from and with so many amazing people. I'm just going to name a few:
My husband Arthur, from whom I learn something new every day;
Some of my many hevrutot: Orly Lieberman, Jen Taylor Friedman, Caryn Rothauser;
Some supporters: Daniela Weiss, Judy Tenzer, Dalia Smerka, and Jordana Golden;
and teachers: Rabbi Moshe Kahn, Rav Devorah Zlochower, Rabbi Daniel Reifman, Rav Dudi Goshen, and Rabbi David Silber, who teaches the meaning of commitment in everything he does, with his whole life.
I'd like to summarize my four years at Drisha with a verse that comes from the
haftarah of Beha'alotecha, from my bat-mitzvah, which is from the prophet
Zechariah:
Rani v'simchi, bat-zion. Ki hineni va, v'shachanti b'tochech, ne'um HaShem.
Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion, because behold, I am coming, and I will dwell
among you, says God.
