Shalom:
As we come to the second parashat of Deuteronomy this coming Shabbat, a look at the Midrash on Deuteronomy, called Sifre, is of interest. The Midrash is on the words from Deuteronomy 32:2: "My doctrine shall drop like rain."
''Rabbi Simai used to say: both the soul and the body of those creatures created from the earth are from earth, except for that one creature, man,whose soul is from heaven and whose body is from the earth. Therefore, if man lives by the Torah and performs the will of his Father in heaven, he is like the heavenly creatures, as it is said, "You are godlike beings and all of you children of the Most High (Psalm 82:6)''.
''But if he does not live by the Torah and does not perform the will of his Father in heaven, he is like the creatures of the earth, as it is said, "Nevertheless you shall die like Adam ( go back to the earth, adamah) (Psalm 82:7). (Sifre Deuteronomy 306)''
Rabbi Simai is quite clear about man's responsibility vis a via God's will. If we are not Homo Spiritus, we are no better than snakes crawling on our bellies in the dust.
Psalm 82 which is quoted by Sifre reads:
God stands in the congregation of God;
He judges among the judges.
How long will you judge unjustly and respect the persons of the wicked?
Judge the cause of the poor and fatherless:
vindicate the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and destitute:
rescue them out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, nor do they understand.
They walk on in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
I had said: You are angels, all of you children of the Most High.
Nevertheless, you shall die like Adam and fall as one, O princes.
Arise, O God, judge the earth:
for You shall possess all the nations.
The Midrash and the psalm are implying that we are not angels. We are capable of performing Godly acts towards one another, but we all fail, and hence we all we return to dust. We are finite. God is infinite.
As human our job is to try each day to bring a bit of Heaven, a bit of goodness, a bit of Godliness, down to our earthly plain by our mitzvoth. As humans we need to know when to reach toward the Heavens, and when to stay close to earth.
According to Rabbi Bunim of P'shiskha, everyone should two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On the first paper one should write: ''I am but dust and ashes'', and on the second paper one should write:''The world was created for me.'' Every situation requires that we reach into one pocket or another. The spiritual trick to life is knowing which piece of paper to read.
The first pusuk is spoken by Abraham when he is bargaining with God over Sodom and Gomorrah's fate :
וְאָנֹכִי עָפָר וָאֵפֶר
V'anokhi `afar va'efer
I am but dust and ashes
Genesis 18:27
The second pusuk is Talmudic. It reminds us that we are all special individuals, but all created in God's image and all equal in God's eye.
לפיכך נברא אדם יחידי
ללמדך שכל המאבד נפש אחת מישראל
מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו איבד עולם מלא
וכל המקיים נפש אחת מישראל
מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו קיים עולם מלא
ומפני שלום הבריות שלא יאמר אדם לחבירו
אבא גדול מאביך
ושלא יהו המינים אומרים הרבה רשויות בשמים
ולהגיד גדולתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא
שאדם טובע כמה מטבעות בחותם אחד כולן דומין זה לזה
ומלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא טבע כל אדם בחותמו של אדם הראשון
ואין אחד מהן דומה לחבירו
לפיכך כל אחד ואחד חייב לומר
בשבילי נברא העולם
L'fikhakh nivra' adam y'hidi
L'lamedkha shekol ham'abed nefesh ahat miyisra'el
Ma`le `alav hakatuv k'ilu ibed `olam male'
V'khol ham'qayem nefesh ahat miyisra'el
Ma`ale `alav hakatuv k'ilu kiyem `olam male'
Umipney shlom habriyut shlo' yomar adam l'havero
Aba gadol me'avikha
V'shelo' yihyu haminim omrim harbe rehuyot bashamayim
Ul'hagid g'dulato shel haqadosh barukh hu
She'adam tovea` kama matbe`ot b'hotem ehad kulan domin ze l'ze
Umelekh malkey hamlakhim haqadosh barukh hu tava` kol adam b'hotmo shel adam harishon
V'eyn ehad mehem dome l'havero
L'fikhakh kol ehad v'ehad hayav lomar
bishvili nivra' ha`olam
For this reason a single person was created (Adam was created alone)
To teach you that anyone who kills one soul of Israel
Is considered as if he has killed an entire world
And anyone who sustains one soul of Israel
Is considered as if he has sustained an entire world
And because of peace among mankind, so that one person won't say to his fellow
"My father is greater than your father"
And so that the apostates won't say "There are many authorities in heaven"
And to tell the greatness of the Holy One Blessed Be He
That a man mints many coins with one stamp, all of them the same as one another
And the King of Kings the Holy One Blessed Be He minted every person with the stamp of Adam
And not one of them is the same as his fellow
For this reason every single person must say
The world was created for me
Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 37B
Justice (tzadakah), justice shall we pursue, but it will always be elusive for we humans, as we are not God.
We are not to loose faith, the Mishna teaches, in divine justice, but we are to be careful as humans, when trying to do justice. We are to try to emulate God in all of His magnificent ways, except for judgment. That trait we are best off leaving for God.
The human condition is described well by the sages, and we were created, (at least post- eating from the tree of good and evil) with free will, and have both a yetza ha ra and a tov. Those of us who wish to, can ask each day for God to negate our will, and to align it with His so we can live a day trying to do His will.
Most folks don't.
Hence we have ego bumping into ego...our individual wills bumping into others' individual wills.
We can decide to do justice, be truthful and be peaceful, as the Mishna says the world rests on these three important things.
But we cannot ask God to change our nature. Each day we can make our world as close to the Garden of Eden from which we were tossed out, each Shabbat we get a taste of Paradise, but universal peace, truth, and justice, really are concepts of a Messianic time.
We can only do our best each day, and do teshuvah, (make amends), when we slip up.
The question is asked is there any way to liberate ourselves from our earthly fate? Why would we want to? If I were an angel or a saint, perfect in every way, why would I need to study Talmud and Torah and other great texts? Why would I need to pray? Why then would I need God? The Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 5b teaches that when we have problems, to first look at ourselves, to see if we caused the situation, and to learn from it, so that we can grow. Life would be dull if our earthly father and mother hadn't eaten from the forbidden tree.
Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, is not a Talmudic concept. God rules the world in justice and love, and we should conduct ourselves accordingly to bring Kiddush ha Shem. The Talmud has many examples of Rabbis who could have made a large profit, but turned down deals, so that one could not even begin to think they were treated unjustly.
Any concept of human justice, (and certainly, the Torah, and the Talmud, do a great job, of defining a just society, if only, everyone would just obey, all the rules, and not play cafeteria style Judaism), is lax. True justice is only divine. No human, nor groups of humans, can truly 100% of the time, hand out justice, and no human, can truly do teshuvah, to someone that we have harmed. Hence, humans must also learn humility, a perpetual quietness of one's heart, to ask God for shalom each day, to not be vexed or irritable or even angry, and not wonder at anything being done against us. It is truly to have trust in God, so one can be at rest when we are blamed, or hurt, and to have a home within ourselves, where we can retire, pray to God, and have shalom, even in calamity.
Hence Micah's telling us to love kindness, do justice, and to be humble. We will always miss the mark however, and this is why our sages say there is no one alive who is without 'chet,' (sin... bad translation).
If man truly had Utopia, indeed earth would be heaven, but this is why Tractate Sanhedrin muses so much on Olam ha Ba and the Messianic age. Even in Huxley's Brave new World folks were drugged on Soma, which foreshadowed wonderfully our present world on seretonin uptake inhibitors.
An attorney friend says his most difficult clients are ones seeking justice and not just monetary damages. Our Talmud makes it clear that an eye for eye, "Ayin tachas ayin", is monetary damages. Rabbi Eliahu, the Vilna Gaon, explains that since the word "tachas" literally means "under", you can look at the Hebrew letters that spell "ayin" which are ayin, yud, nun, and pick out the letters underneath which are pey, chaf, samech, - the letters that spell "kesef", the Hebrew word for money. The only way one gets justice is in one's inside. No human can give you justice on this earthly plain.
When we read in the Torah that we are not to hold a grudge or hate in our heart, it is awfully hard to do when one of us is mugged or worse. But there is an oft left out part of this pusuk. "I am the Lord your God." It is only with God's help that we can ask Him to allow us not to hate, not to hold a grudge, not to be angry, not to have a resentment. This is doing God's will. Our yetza ha ra wants us to have "justifiable anger." And when I am angry at another human, or even go so far as to hate him, I am hating God, as God created this person.
In December 2005, Ellen and I, at 830 PM, were kidnapped in Lima, Peru, and by the grace of God and the wayfarers' prayer (I used to scoff when I came to the part about highwaymen and bandits, but not any more), we fought them off. Yet by 1 am that night, after prayer, and meditation, both of us, were able to forgive them, not hate, slept with shalom, and awoke the next day grateful to God. Every day can be a day, when I see injustices occur to me, but everyday, however is a day, I chose to see as a cup overflowing with God's love and abundance for me.
Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
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