1+1=?

When I dropped math in high school and spent my grade twelve year mocking all of the number crunching nerds around me, I never imagined that years later I’d be wiping the dust off my old textbooks and starting from square one. Now, as I study for my SATs in order to get into university in Israel, it looks like the joke is on me. I was complaining to my family about the tediousness of my new favorite subject when my sister asked jokingly, “What if 1+1 doesn’t really equal 2? Then everything else you’re doing is useless!” From there, erupted a dinnertime conversation about the essence of Oneness. My father, the token Breslover, argued that 1+1=1 because the nature of oneness is a completion so whole that it leaves no room for separate parts.
My brother, the 17-year-old hooligan, argued that he was being ridiculous because 1+1 clearly equals 2.
I, the mathematician, argued that 1+1=window.
My sister, the normal one, marveled at how her joke turned into a philosophical debate.
My mom ate her Chinese food.
The question may seem silly, but the power of oneness is something that has mystified us since Day 1. Pardon the pun. And the rhyming.

This week’s parsha, Vayakhel, opens with Moshe gathering B’nei Yisrael together to give them the commandment of Shabbat.

“And Moses gathered (vayakhel) the entire assembly of the children of Israel and said to them: These are (eleh) the things that Hashem commanded…” (35:1)

The commentators ask many questions about this verse: Why is the commandment of Shabbat repeated so many times throughout the Torah? And why now, specifically? Why did Moshe gather the people in such a way as seen in very few other places in the Torah? Furthermore, the Netivot Shalom points out that Shabbat is the epitome of the experience of closeness to God. How is it possible that right after the grievous Sin of the Golden Calf, the Jewish people can be expected to climb to such lofty heights? Are we not tainted and unworthy? By comparing the language used in this week’s parsha with last week’s parsha, we learn an important lesson:


“…and the people gathered (vayikahel) around Aaron and said to him, “Rise up, make for us gods that will go before us…” (32:1)

“And upon the completion of the golden calf: “They said: ‘This is (eleh) your god, O Israel…” (32:4)

Through carefully examining the language, we are told to pay close attention to the connection between these two events. But what could possibly be further away from Shabbat, man’s acknowledgement of God as the Creator of the universe, than idolatry? Whereas in last week’s parsha the people gathered together in order to proclaim an idol as their god, this week, the peopled are gathered together by Moshe in order for him to proclaim the word of God unto them. The Netivot Shalom goes on to say that there is an element of Teshuvah contained in Shabbat that can bring a Jew up from the depths of any situation imaginable, even that of the Golden Calf. What is this element? None other than the Power of One, of course. He interprets Pasuk 35:1 in such a way that the word “eleh” is referring to “vayakhel” – Moshe gathered the entire assembly of the children of Israel to tell them not only the ‘Dos and Donts’ of Shabbat, but also the message of unity, captured in the word “vayakhel”

If man never sinned, perhaps as an individual he would be able to achieve oneness with God. However, after sinning, in order to man to reach such lofty heights, we need to be lifted along with those around us. The only antidote to the most grievous of sins is unity. For example, the generation that built the Tower of Babel in efforts to wage war against God was spared the punishment of being wiped in the merit of their unity. Furthermore, when B’nei Yisrael were in Egypt, we had sunk to the 49th of 50 gates of impurity. We were on the cusp of total spiritual annihilation. In order to become an Am worthy of receiving the Torah and experiencing the revelation of God at Har Sinai, we needed to bypass all of these gates. It is for this reason that Hashem gave B’nei Yisrael the mitzvah of the korban pesach. This is a communal mitzvah – not only must the offering be eaten with the entire household, but “kol kehal haedat yisral” – “the entire congregation of the assembly of Israel” must slaughter it together (12:6). It was only through this type of behaviour that B’nei Yisrael finally achieved the level of encamping “k’ish echad b’lev echad” – “like one man with one heart” – at Har Sinai.

I learned this Netivot Shalom on Monday morning before going to the rally organized by the Jewish community in support of the residents of Sderot, who have been barraged by Qassam rockets on a daily basis for the last eight years. The rally was deemed ‘a huge success’, and the community of Toronto was praised for being the leaders of North American Jewry for finally taking action. The overarching theme of the speakers (including Alan Dershowitz!) was that of the solidarity between the Jews of Toronto and those of Sderot. “Your future is our future,” emphasized David Koschitzky, chair of the UJA Federation of Toronto, speaking to a tired group of Sderot citizens gathered together on a live video feed at 3am. As I looked around the spacious hall, full to capacity with 2 000 Jews of all ages and religious background, waving Israeli and Canadian flags, I wasn’t sure if I should be proud or ashamed. The speakers all seemed to be very impressed by the message of strength and unity expressed by such a turn-out, but I couldn’t help but wonder: “in a city of more than 200 000 Jews, where are the other 99%?!”

And then I thought back to the Netivot Shalom. What is so powerful about unity, anyway? When we are gathered together, the individual is nullified, he teaches. We do not disappear in a creepy communist way, but rather when God sees Jews gathered together in love and support of one another, our individual sins fall away. They are completely overshadowed by the power of our coming together. As my token-Breslov-father was sure to remind me, surely all of the Toronto Jews that missed the rally were busy learning Torah and visiting the sick, but for the few that did not know about it and instead watched the Raptors game, perhaps the unity among those gathered together in Toronto and Sderot is enough to bring us all one step closer to Peace in the Middle East.

So as we enter into this Shabbat, I hope that we all have a heightened understanding of the essence of unity on Shabbat and the totality of the Oneness of Hashem. May we all spend quality time with those we love and remain united in thought, action and prayer with all of Am Yisrael around the world.