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Daily Spiritual Growth
Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh
Asking God How to Improve
You have as of now made great strides in Jewish Spiritual Renewal. You now welcome the task of growing spiritually each day. You have studied this process well enough to remember your chesbon ha nefesh from Chapter Four, the chapter regarding how to do your chesbon ha nefesh, the inventory of your soul. You now will be able to "do" the chesbon ha nefesh katon, which is a smaller inventory that you take at the end of each day.
This is basically a checklist that you answer with rigorous honesty. You need to be as honest with yourself as when you did your larger chesbon ha nefesh gadol.
Ask yourself:
Did you show chesed (kindness) to all the people you met today?
Did you show ahavah (love) to all the people you met today?
Did you speak with emet, (truth), to everybody you met today?
Did you speak any loshon ha ra, (gossip), today?
Did you have any fears today?
Did you have thoughts of low self-esteem today?
Were you unselfish to all today?
Were you altruistic today?
Did you commit any acts of self-seeking or self-centeredness today?
Was your ego trying to control God's world today?
Were you thinking of what mitzvoth such as good deeds you could do for others or were you thinking about what others could do for you?
Did you have any thoughts of self-pity?
Did you at any time doubt God?
Did you harm anyone today?
Do you owe anyone teshuvah? (If so, write their names down, and plan on doing teshuvah the very next day. If the one to whom you owe teshuvah lives with you and is still awake, make your teshuvah now.)
When you have gone through the checklist, ask God for forgiveness in prayer. Ask Him how to improve and grow spiritually through meditation.
Mindfully walking with God throughout your day with the aid of prayer and meditation is an ongoing lifetime process. So is daily spiritual growth. God will help you become the best person that you can possibly be.
Harry went for a job interview. It seemed to go well because before he left, he was told, "We would like you to work for us. We'll give you $10 an hour starting today and in three months time we'll increase it to $15 an hour. So when would you like to start?"
Harry replies, "In about 3 months from now."
"The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, and to all who call upon Him in truth." (Ps. 145:18).
"Where is God? Wherever you let him in." (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of
"To truly love God, one must first love people. If anyone tells you that he loves God and does not love his fellow humans, you will know that he is lying." (Martin Buber, Ten Rungs p. 82).
Loving God, experiencing God and having personal relationship with God should not be like a gas station where you get "a fill up" spiritually for the week each Saturday morning at services. It is an ongoing process of spiritual growth.
I would to share part of a psalm by one of my favorite Jewish poets, Bob Dylan. It is entitled "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie."
"Where do you find the hope that yer seekin'?
You can either go to the church of your choice, or you can go to the
You'll find God in the church of your choice. You'll find Woody Guthrie in the
And although it's my opinion, I may be right or wrong. You'll find them both in the
The Talmud says: "A prisoner cannot free himself from his own prison" (Bavli Tractate Beracoth 5b). As we have discussed, there is a process to Jewish Spiritual Renewal and Teshuvah. If we have locked ourselves into the bondage of ego, God helps us escape. This escape is spiritual growth. Ego is like chumatz (leavening). Chumatz causes dough to become puffed-up. The sages teach that we need to get rid of our "puffy egos" and learn to be humble like flat matzah.
Did you see the recent story in the Jewish News about the theft of egg-enriched dough from a
Unfortunately, the theft happened just before Shabbat and it forced many local bakeries to bake their challahs, (special bread used on Shabbat and other holidays, explained in detail in Chapter 12), with plain, white flour.
A leading rabbi was quoted as saying, 'I'm appalled by the rise in white challah crimes."
As you ascend spiritually, your view of reality will change as discussed in the preceding Chapter about the Kabalistic view. You will see things that were always there, but to which you had been blind. You will be able to relate to ideals for which you used to find no purpose, and reject thoughts that you once thought important. And though at first the process will be purely intellectual, eventually it will translate into bodily action and a change of life for the better. As Rabbi Winston posits, "There will come a moment of truth (emet), when our lives become pure Shalom."
Talmud (Bavli Tractate Beracoth 32b) teaches that there are four things one needs to have the strength (chizuk) to grow spiritually: Torah study; good deeds; tephila; (by which the sages mean all types of prayer and meditation), and derech eretz (treating others properly). Rashi asks and answers: "What does it mean "strengthening"? The explanation is that a person should strengthen himself in these four actions always and with all his might."
Chazon Ish wrote on the importance of this:
"However at the root of the matter, there is only one good mida (trait) and one bad mida. The bad mida is - to abandon the God's natural life and God's ways. And without any effort he will be complete with all the bad middoth. He will be an excellent angry person, an excellent revenge seeker, an excellent arrogant person, etc. He will not lack any of the bad middoth that the Sages have numbered at all. And the single good mida is the total decision to preempt with the feeling of mussar (ethical spiritual God base behavior) over the feeling of desire (i.e. to make sure the positive thoughts and emotions and preparations are awakened before the difficulties come)." (Emuna U'Bitachon Chapter 4).
When you do your nightly chesbon ha nefesh katon, and then ask God how to improve and grow spiritually, you are taking one of the steps for this preparation.
Cyril was 80 years old and was visiting his psychiatrist. "Doctor, I'm suffering from a lot of anxiety. What's going to happen to me? I'm very worried about my future."
"Cyril," said the doctor, "don't worry, I can help you. All you need do is come and see me twice a week for the next 3 months. My charges will be $300 per visit and you'll need to pay in advance, of course."
"Okay doctor," said Cyril, "now that your future is assured, what about mine?"
Note how the Talmud tells us that Torah study, treating fellows properly and good deeds are all needed for spiritual growth. Treating fellows properly with derech eretz is evaluated regularly in your nightly chesbon. If your behavior is lacking, your faults will show up during this nightly inventory and improvement can and will be made.
You need to set aside time daily for Torah study. Torah, as defined previously, means any and all of our spiritual texts. It is best to set aside a specific time each day so that you are more likely to get it done. The Internet provides a wealth of opportunities for study!! For example, there are over 1,000 Web sites with which you can study the weekly Torah portion (Parasha) study from the Five Books of Moses. I've also found more than 500 sites where you can study the rest of the TaNaK as well as the weekly Haftarah. There are at least 50 sites that you can use to study a page of Talmud a day. You can read and study nearly every Jewish spiritual text ever written, online, and you can take classes online (many of them are free of charge). There are even organizations that will assign you a study partner or teacher. Some of them will go so far as to provide a phone card if you have to communicate with your study partner on a long-distance telephone call.
If you decide to try studying online, make sure you are studying true Torah works and not some New Age "psychobabble". "All that is thought should not be said, all that is said should not be written, all that is written should not be published, and all that is published should not be read." (Rabbi M. Morgensztern).
Rabbi Hillel said in Mishna Pirkei Avot 1:5, "'Say not: When I have time I will study because you may never have the time."
Rabbi Bloom ran a Talmud class at the Yeshiva. He was always so involved in the text being studied that he never looked up from his books. Often, when he called up a student for translation and explanation, without realizing it, he chose the same student day after day. But out of respect, the students wouldn't point this out to him.
Hymie had already been called up on three consecutive days when the Rabbi once again said "Hymie Himmelfarb, come up here and translate and explain."
Hymie replied, "Himmelfarb is absent today, Rabbi."
"OK," said the Rabbi, "why don't you come up here and translate and explain instead."
Doing the mitzvoth of good deeds, while helping others, is actually beneficial for the one doing it. When I visit Jewish elderly in assisted living facilities around town, it keeps me from being concerned about my problems. I can see the power of God and prayer at work for those with whom I pray. They begin to speak of God's love for them when before they had no hope. I see fears lifted, especially the fear of death, and I see feelings of Shalom appear on their faces. I get reports from nurses and family that after one visit, appetites return and talk of wanting to die stops. This, to me, reinforces God's omnipotence. While personal gain is not my reason for doing the mitzvoth, I gain nevertheless.
We can do mitzvoth "of the limbs," such as writing a check to a Jewish Elder Care facility. However, doing mitzvoth "of the heart", taking the time to visit those in need, is of a higher spiritual order. "Checkbook Judaism" is not what God wants from you, nor does He want your synagogue to teach you to have one "Mitzvah Day" a year. The prophets, even of pre-Talmudic Judaism, railed against this.
The Lord asks, "What do your many animal sacrifices mean to Me? I've had enough of your burnt offerings of rams and enough fat from your fattened calves. I'm not pleased with the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good; seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow." (Is 1:11-16). "Yet they act so pious! They love to make a show of coming to Me and asking Me to take action on their behalf. I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers into your homes. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." (Is. 58:2-7).
Do you get the idea of what God wants from you? He would rather have you feed the poor on Yom Kippur than have you show up at synagogue in your expensive car, adorned with diamonds and furs, to ask God to forgive your sins without Renewal and Teshuvah.
You might write the largest check to Jewish charities and be called ''Man or Woman of the Year," but in God's eyes you will still be no more than a ''putrid drop from our fathers." What makes you good in God's eyes and allows you to sleep at night is doing the mitzvoth about which nobody knows, rather than the ones that get your name on the covers of magazines.
Rabbi Landau was, as usual, standing near the synagogue exit shaking hands as his congregation left. But as Max was leaving, Rabbi Landau grabbed his hand, pulled him aside and said, "Max, I think you need to join the Army of God!"
"But I'm already in God's Army, Rabbi", said Max.
"So how come I don't see you in shul except on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?" said Rabbi Landau.
Max whispered, "I'm in the secret service."
This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented Synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.
In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe (Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:
"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, "Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to 'bless me' before Yom Kippur." The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.
Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to 'bless her' before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.
This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul. What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans? "
One Yom Kippur during the break after shacharit (morning service) and before mincha (afternoon service), Rabbi Menzies sees a very worried looking Morry Schwartz walking towards him. His face is white and his eyes are bloodshot. He stands in front of the Rabbi, sweating and out of breath.
"Please Rabbi," he says, "I must have a drink of water. I'm so thirsty and dry. I can't stand it anymore."
Rabbi Menzies is astonished and replies, "Don't you realize what you are asking? Today is Yom Kippur, when we fast and beg for forgiveness, and you come to me and tell me that want to drink and break your fast? Be strong and do not give in!"
Morry is in tears, "Please Rabbi, just a small drink. I can't take it anymore!"
Rabbi Menzies is not an unkind man, and is touched by Morry's suffering. He thinks for a while and says "Alright." He calls over the shammes, "Give Morry a teaspoon of water."
The teaspoon of water is given to Morry who is now crazy with thirst. "Please, please! I've got to have a real drink or I'll die!" he cries.
Although he doesn't really want to do it, Rabbi Menzies instructs the shammes to give Morry a full glass of water. Morry drinks the water, puts down the glass, wipes his mouth with his handkerchief, looks the Rabbi in the eye and says, "Thank you Rabbi, I'll never eat a schmaltz herring on Yom Kippur morning ever again!"
In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.
Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "Foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.
As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.
Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to "a fish out of water". If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.
The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of "greater" things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.
As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law) which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is "shachein tov…be a good neighbor!"
As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is to be the best you can be as an individual. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations."(Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed, (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam (Master of the Universe). Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.
In our next class you will learn to celebrate Shabbat in a spiritual way as a modern Jew.
As always, a D'var Torah for this Shabbat follows.
Shalom:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash on-line class service
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton,SC
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL :CHUMASH CANDESCENCE: PARASHA KI TEITZEI: DEUTERONOMY 21:10-25:19
CHUMASH CANDESCENCE
PARASHA KI TEITZEI
DEUTERONOMY 21:10-25:19
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton,SC
"Bad Boy, Bad Boy, You're Such a Naughty Bad Boy. Beep Beep!"
SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT:
This week's parasha is replete with all type of laws to help govern
society. We are given the rights of women taken captive in battle, the
first born son's inviolable rights, rules of hanging and of burial,
obligations to guard and protect our neighbors' property, rules about
protective fences, laws for the care of a hen and her chicks, rules
against defamation of a married woman's virtue, laws of adultery, rules
forbidding and defining incest, rules regarding interest and pledges for
loans, rights of workers, rules to protect the poor, the orphaned and the
widowed, leverite marriages laws, honest business practice guidelines,
and also the lashes one gets for breaking any of these laws. It would be
impossible for me to list and explain each law contained in this portion.
This portion needs to be read individually to be appreciated. If you want
to learn more and see how I revived a Disco song for this D'var's title,
please read further.
In the middle of Autumn, we will read the Torah portion
about Noah. We will learn about what was occurring during his time that
caused God to flood the Earth. It was not a pretty sight. From the way
it is described in the Midrash and Talmud, it is no wonder God was
determined to flush it away. People were barbaric, amoral, cruel animals
to each other. Even the animals were "amoral", if this is possible. I
will go into more detail in Autumn, but I am mentioning it here today
because the Haftarah portion for this parasha is the same portion that is
read for the portion called "Noah." There is no guidepost telling us
this. I recently came to discovered this serendipitously. The reason for
this, I decided, is that in Noah's times, the rules we will read about
this week, did not exist and life was a essentially a sewer. God promised
never to destroy the world again after Noah's flood. In this portion, we
are taught that society needs rules and boundaries to prevent us from
"flushing" ourselves away.
Assuming that you will read the portion, I will concentrate on just one
of the many commandments listed. It is called the "law of the wayward and
rebellious son", and hence the title of this D'var Torah. It is found in
Deuteronomy 21:18-21. "If a man will have a wayward and rebellious son,
who does not hearken to the voice of his father and the voice of his
mother, that they discipline him, but he does not hearken to them, then
his father and mother shall grasp him and take him out to the elders of
his city and the gate of his place. The shall say to the elders of his
city,'This son of ours is wayward and rebellious; he does not hearken to
our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard' All of the men of his city
shall pelt him with stones and he shall die; you shall remove the evil
from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and they shall fear."
I picked this law because it allows us to see how our sages dealt with
this harsh and strict law by reforming Judaism. The first thing the
rabbis did with this law is to try to explain it. They said that the
death penalty is not imposed for the sins the son committed, such as
disobeying his parents, overeating and getting drunk. The death penalty
is imposed for the deeds such a son will commit in the future. These
crimes, they posit, will be more severe capital crimes. In Talmud
Tractate Sanhedrin 72A, the rabbis say,"Let him die while he is innocent,
and let him not die when he is guilty of capital crimes." In other words,
they are doing this young boy a "favor." By killing him while he is
young and a rascal with only harmless sins for which to repent, he will
not have the chance to get older and commit major crimes and have heavier
sins on his soul.
The second thing that the rabbis do is to legally parse each requirement
of the passages. It is obvious that the rabbis do not want this law on
the books. But they just cannot erase a Torah law. So they develop so
many legal requirements that it is virtually impossible for this
commandment ever to be fulfilled. The rabbis say in Sanhedrin 71 A that
the death penalty "never occurred and never will occur" for this
situation. One mitzvah down; 612 to go.
For example, they discuss the word "son." This implies that they boy is
still a child. As a child, he is not responsible for his actions and
these laws and penalties cannot apply at all. A child becomes a man at
bar mitzvah, but then the parents no longer have authority over the son
anyway. The rabbis decide that the only time-frame when this law applies
is the first three months after a bar mitzvah ceremony (Sanhedrin 68B).
More specifically, "from the time he produces two pubic hairs until the
time that his public hairs grow round." Rabbi Dimi traveled from
Palestine to Babylonia (where the Talmud was being written and said he
read in a baraita (part of the discussion of the Talmud that was left on
the editing room floor), that "it is when the pubic hair begins to grow
around the base of the penis and not yet on the testicles." In this way,
the window for this law being effective is shortened to just three
months. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsh says that this is when a 13 year old
boy's passions become aroused and this is when parents must exert tight
discipline over their son's evil inclination, as well as over raging
hormones.
Nachmanides contends that one sin will lead to another. He says these
verses are here to teach us that if one shows disrespect to his parents,
he will disrespect the Torah. If one is a glutton with food and wine, it
is an indication of a lack of self constraint that will make it
impossible to be a holy person and develop spiritual limitations. Rabbi
Bachya says that these verses teach that parents' love of God must
supercede the love of their own children. He sites Abraham and his
willingness to sacrifice Isaac as the prime example.
The sages still try to add more into this verse to keep it from being
used. They decide that the child had to have stolen money from his
parents to buy enough food and wine to have become a drunkard and a
glutton. This would mean that he is addicted to food and wine and will
become a murderous thief in the future to continue his habit. Because
the verse says that a "man" has this wayward son, the rabbis decree that
if a minor boy has a son, this son is exempt forever from this law. They
decide from their biblical research that a boy as young as nine years old
can be a father. They decide that King Solomon's forebearers, on his
mother Bathsheba's side, procreated when they were nine years old. They
also decide that Haran was nine years old when he begat Sarah, Abraham's
wife. They then decide, according to Rabbi Hillel's academy, that if a
boy less than nine years old fondles his mother, even to the point of
having penile-vaginal penetration, it is not incest and the mother can
still marry a Kohan.
The rabbis then have the problem of deciding how much a son has to drink
and eat to be a glutton. They decide that if the son steals his father's
money and buys meat and drink in Jerusalem, he is excused, as the money
was spent like the tithe money that is to be spent in the Holy city. If
the boy gets drunk and overeats at a public feast, he is excused. They
decided that gluttony means eating delicacy cuts of expensive meat and no
other foods. Being a drunkard means drinking only the best... rare,
strong wines. And the son must be a glutton and a drunkard at the same
time. The meat cannot be salted, and the wine cannot be young. The rabbis
get side-tracked discussing their favorite wines and meats, and
discussing why if wine is so bad, did God make it for man. The rabbis
then derive adages about the benefits of wine and the ills of its
excesses.
After what reads like a wine tasting--gourmet dinner party, the rabbis
decide that the boy must steal both from his mother and father; buy the
meat and wine; and eat it outside of his parent's property. If he stole
the money from people other than his parents; he is not a wayward son. If
the boy steals the wine and meat directly, and not the money to buy them;
he is not a wayward son. Since the money that his mother has belongs to
her husband, it is difficult for the son to actually steal from his
mother. The husband would have had to make a legal oath that certain
monies were his wife's and were no longer his. If the boy's mother and
father disagreed, then the boy could not be a wayward son. And if the
mother wasn't in agreement with the father for any reason (i.e. the
parents occasionally quarreled); the boy could not be deemed a wayward
son either.
The sages also decide that, since the verse says the parents must
"grasp" the boy and "take" him, they cannot be lame or have an injured
hand. Since they both must talk, they cannot be mute. They cannot be
deaf, as they must hear their son's rebuke. And they cannot be blind as
they must be able to recognize their son by sight being drunk and
overeating. They then decide that if all of these above contingencies are
met, that flogging should be the penalty not stoning. But they want at
least two witness who saw what the parents saw and who saw the parents
warn the son that what he was about to do was punishable by flogging.
But if the boy isn't found guilty until after the three-month window of
his bar mitzvah, he is no longer able to be punished.
The rabbis are also unsettled by the prospect of a precedent being set
which allows them to punish people for crimes they "may" commit in the
future. They not only are against this, but they bring up famous people
who committed crimes, but were not punished because either there were no
witnesses against them, or they were doing it for good motives. They
speak of Esther, who publicly co-habitated with a non-Jewish man (King
Ahashverous) and was not punished. The rabbis say Esther was completely
passive when she and the King had sex, so she was not breaking any law.
They say she was "as passive as the soil of the earth" when the King
"tilled her."
The rabbis then throw up their hands and ask why this law was given if
they cannot follow it. The rabbis mention another law which gave them the
same problem in its impossibility to enforce. This is the law of the
subverted city (Deut. 13:13-19) from our parasha Re'eh two week's ago. To
review, if a city has more than half of its inhabitants worshipping
idols, the entire city and all of its people are to be burned in the
town square. The rabbis first decide that if the town had no square, the
law could not be carried out. They eventually decide that if just one
mezuzah appeared in the town, it could not be destroyed. Since every town
in the land of Israel had to have at least one mezuzah, they say that
this law also was never carried out and will never be carried out
(Sanhedrin 71A). Two mitzvoth down; 611 to go.
They also discuss the law about the house with tzaraas (mistranslated as
leprosy) in Leviticus 14:33-53. This was a house whose walls turned
scaly colors. They agree that this only happened twice, as there were
ruins of houses in both Gaza and the Galilee that the people there
called "tzaraas house ruins." But they all agree that for many reasons
they could never declare a house afflicted with tzaraas and condemn it to
be destroyed in the future. Three mitzvoth down; 610 to go.
The rabbis decide that all of these laws were never meant to be enacted
but were in the Torah for teaching purposes. What the rabbis do is to use
the passages to give child-rearing advice. For example, they use the
example of the phraseology of "both" a mother's and father's "voice" to
show that if parents do not speak in one consistent voice, a child will
grow up confused and will be apt to commit sins and crimes.
As spiritual Jews today we need to look at the words of Torah and Talmud,
not as divinely-given but as teachings that are divinely-inspired. The
laws are there not to be followed or understood literally, but to guide
us in our daily trials of being ethical and good people. The ancient
sages, even before the time of the two Temples' destruction, amended and
bent the Torah to adapt to changing times without losing its core
belief-system. This adaptability is the beauty of Judaism, and it is in
this spirit that Judaism must continue to evolve and reform.
Shabbat Shalom,
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash on-line class service
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton,SC
Original version done while scholar-in-residence at Congregation Temple Mickve Israel, Savannah, GA
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