who is wise

In the early chapters of Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Yochanan asks: Eyzeh hu chacham. Who is wise? What follows is a litany of rabbinic responses. There is no singular answer. But the one I am continually drawn to is that of Rabbi Shimon,who says: Haroeh et hanolad. The one who sees that which is being born. 

In most translations of Pirkei Avot, this is interpreted poetically as “the one who has foresight.” But I think that misses the insight of Rabbi Shimon. Hanolad is a term for both that first sliver of the new moon and a newborn child. 

Today we mark the new Hebrew month of Kislev. In Kislev the nights continue to grow longer, as we anticipate the bright lights of Hanukkah. It is a month that celebrates darkness and the world of dreams. The month when the moon is most visible. 

This year and this week in particular, this teaching, which links the new moon with new life, has extra resonance. On Rosh Hashanah morning, I spoke about the midwives in Exodus as our defiant heroes, quite literally on the frontlines preventing the genocide of the Hebrews in ancient Egypt/Mitzrayim. And I shared a contemporary midrash by Orna Peltz that I want to return to today. 

“The midwives were asked: Where did you get your fearful awe of God?

To which they answered: 
From the great and deep things that we saw at the birth stool, 
from the mystery that embraces us morning and evening: 
human being after human being coming into the world; 
where does each one come from and what do they each bring with them? 
The goodness that a [parent] sees in their child, the compassion and the love that awakens, crying babies bursting forth from exhausted bodies, 
and the soft seal of God’s finger imprinted on their faces.”

While I may have the privilege of seeing the new moon, they have the honor of truly seeing hanolad, witnessing new life as it enters this world. Their wisdom is unparalleled, handed down from generation to generation, from midwife to midwife. 

For those who have not yet heard, this week the Bryn Mawr Birth Center, also known as the Lifecycle Wellness and Birth Center, announced it will be closing after 47 years of service. In nearly five decades, they have witnessed the births of 16,000 babies, trained hundreds of midwives and provided family-centered care to thousands of families. The loss is immense and utterly tragic. For profit healthcare has deemed birthing with dignity not profitable and therefore not insurable. I cannot help but feel this is a win for Pharoah. 

I am sending abundant love and gratitude to the many Kol Tzedek midwives, doulas and healthcare providers who currently work at the Birth Center. Please know that I feel awe in your presence, for your courage to witness human being after human being coming into the world. I am thinking about the many KT babies who have been born there, as recently as this past week, and sending comfort to the countless families who will no longer receive care at the Birth Center. This is a tremendous loss. 

To all of us, on this Rosh Hodesh Kislev, I want to remind us of the resilience and courage of the midwives of old and the ones in our midst. In the midrash, the midwives explain:
“Our awe is “not in the heavens” (Devarim 30:12).  Lo va’shammayim hi. Our awe of God arises precisely from within nature, from within the pain of what we witness on the birth stool.  From there we learn to choose what is good, to protect life, to fight against death and to resist evil.” 

This is our task every week, and especially this week. To turn our attention to what is possible, to what is emerging, what is being born in our lives. So often we think of wisdom coming from past experience, and Rabbi Shimon reminds us that wisdom comes from paying closer attention to what is emerging in our own lives right now. 

May the new moon of kislev, the month of darkness and dreams, invite us to look more closely and appreciate that which is unfurling in our lives. 

May our attention cultivate wisdom. 

And may wisdom give us the courage to “to protect life, to fight against death and to resist evil.”