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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:MALACHI:LOVE OF GOD
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:CLASS COMMENTS:SHABBAT 11/29/08 HEBREW COLLEGE,MA
Shalom Chaverim v' Talmudim:
Below are some comments from our fellow Chaverim v' Talmudim.
I received a few comments from some who didn't want their questions posted but wanted an answer to the age-old question of why people, even Jewish people to other Jews, still treat each other shabbily. They were pondering the verse that I ended my d'var from Malachi :"Have we all not one father? Hath not one God created us all? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?" (Mal. 2:10).
The ''why'' is complex, yet simple. While there may be many reasons, it all boils down to people doing their will, and not doing what God wants from us. As humans we need to break away from being just Homo Sapiens and become Homo Spiritus.
Unless we are sociologists, and think we can cure the ills of society, we are best off, Judaism teaches, on concentrating on being the best we can be and hence being a light to other nations as well as to those folks we come across.
How we treat others is how God treats us. How we forgive them is how He forgives us. How we see them is how He sees us.
When we show empathy for the plight of another human being, God takes empathy in our plight.
When others slight us and we ignore the call to vengeance that burns inside, God erases all memory of our failures toward Him. When we see the image of God in another human being, then the image of God becomes revealed within us.
When we show empathy for the plight of another human being, God takes empathy in our plight.
When others slight us and we ignore the call to vengeance that burns inside, God erases all memory of our failures toward Him. When we see the image of God in another human being, then the image of God becomes revealed within us.
Work on these traits when you are with family and friends this Thanksgiving weekend, and see if it doesn't ring true. The more we respond with love and kindness even to those who hate us, the more we help unsheathe the covered sparks from creation and do true tikkun olam.
Happy Thanksgiving to our USA members of the class!
Rabbi Arthur Segal
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From Marty:
This Shabbat's Parasha starts with: "And these were the generations of Isaac the son of Abraham: Abraham begat Isaac." Why is the fatherhood of Isaac repeated?
The Talmud says there was loshan ha ra that Abraham was not Isaac's father. Sarah was childless for many years and only became pregnant after she was taken by King Abimelech. So the gossip was that Abraham was sterile and that Abimelech got Sarah pregnant. The Talmud says that Isaac's face was identical to Abraham's so quell this rumor, and further we have the redundancy in the Torah verse for the same reason.
The Midrash reads: "Isaac was crowned with Abraham and Abraham was crowned with Isaac." Each was the other's pride so the Torah reflects this in its redundancy.
Kabbalistically, we are taught that Abraham is the symbol for love and kindness. Isaac symbolizes fear and strictness. Each of these opposites has two levels. Lower fear, is adherence for fear of punishment for sin, while higher fear is a sense of awe of God and an avoidance of sin because it is the right thing to do.
The Talmud says there was loshan ha ra that Abraham was not Isaac's father. Sarah was childless for many years and only became pregnant after she was taken by King Abimelech. So the gossip was that Abraham was sterile and that Abimelech got Sarah pregnant. The Talmud says that Isaac's face was identical to Abraham's so quell this rumor, and further we have the redundancy in the Torah verse for the same reason.
The Midrash reads: "Isaac was crowned with Abraham and Abraham was crowned with Isaac." Each was the other's pride so the Torah reflects this in its redundancy.
Kabbalistically, we are taught that Abraham is the symbol for love and kindness. Isaac symbolizes fear and strictness. Each of these opposites has two levels. Lower fear, is adherence for fear of punishment for sin, while higher fear is a sense of awe of God and an avoidance of sin because it is the right thing to do.
Lower love is for the selfish reason of reward. Higher love is altruistic.
The redundancy in the verse according to Kabbalah teaches about the four ways one can be a Jew. The order of the names (Isaac, Abraham, Abraham, Isaac) tells us that the order of the worship of God starts with the lower fear, ascends to the lower love, and then to the higher love, and finally reaches its highest point in the higher fear. Jewish children may be taught to avoid sin out of fear but as we get older and have Jewish Spiritual Renewal we learn to lead a life of goodness out of love for God and our fellows, expecting nothing back in return.
Lastly, the Zohar tells us that Abraham is the symbol of the soul. Sarah is the symbol for the body. The Torah reads, "And Sarah died," meaning the mortal body. "And Abraham arose above the face of his dead," which refers to the soul which transcends death.
Isaac, whose name means "laughing" symbolizes the pleasures which the soul will have in the world to come. The verse, if translated in Zohar jargon, becomes: "Pleasure will be the reward to the soul" ("Isaac, the son of Abraham") in the world to come, if "the soul begets pleasures ("Abraham begat Isaac") by its service in this world.
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From Sharon:
Hi. Little bit on Malachi and the Talmud: Rabbi Lewis posits that the book of Malachi is the last of the prophetic books and the only one of the prophets whose identity and the time of his prophecy are left totally undefined by the prophetic book since the book's superscription ascribes the book to 'Malachi" and it is uncertain whether this is the name of the prophet or descriptive – ''my angel" or "my messenger" It is well known that the rabbinic sages have a proclivity to attempt to identity such unknown biblical characters with those that are better known. The "Malachi" in this prophecy is no exception.
The Talmud poses two different answers to this question: "Rav Nahman said: Malachi is the same as Mordechai. So then why was he called Malachi? Because he was ranked next to the king. ( Esther 10:3)
The Talmud poses two different answers to this question: "Rav Nahman said: Malachi is the same as Mordechai. So then why was he called Malachi? Because he was ranked next to the king. ( Esther 10:3)
The following was cited as an objection to this: 'Baruch the son of Neriah and Searayah the son of Mahseyah and Daniel and Mordechai, Bilshan, Hagai, Zechariah and Malachai all prophesied in the second year of Darius'! This tradition serves as a refutation.
The Talmud brings another tradition which attempts to identify Malachi." It has been taught: Rabbi Joshua ben Korha said: Malachi is the same as Ezra, and the Sages say that Malachi was his proper name. Rabbi Nahman said: There is good ground for accepting the view that Malachi was the same as Ezra. For it is written in the prophecy of Malachi: 'Judah has broken faith; abhorrent things have been done in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned what is holy to the Lord – what He desires – and married daughters of alien gods.' (Malachi 2:11) And who was it that put away the strange women? Ezra, as it is written, 'And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam answered and said to Ezra: We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women.' (Ezra 10:2) (Talmud Bavli Tractate Megillah 15a)''
The Talmud settled for the second interpretation which identifies Malachi with Ezra since the two held the same position on a particularly controversial issue. However, this position was not accepted by all later interpreters. Rabbi Yitzchak Abrabanel (15th century Spain) rejected this associative manner of reasoning and concluded that this means for associating these two figures was not reliable. This leaves us again unable to pinpoint exactly who Malachi was.
Returning to the Talmud's first interpretation, what prompted Rav Nahman to make the seemingly absurd association between Malachi and Mordechai, the hero of the book of Esther? This interpretation is apparently built upon the similarity between the word "malach" and the word "melech – king", since Mordechai is described as the "mishneh lamelech – ranked next to the king". (see Esther 10:3) Rabbi Shmuel Edels (16th-17th Poland) asserts that Mordechai was called "Malachi" because he was "important like an angel". In other words, sometimes God sends people who play specials roles in the life of others, in the life of the nation or in the conduct of the affairs of the world who are "important like angels". While Rav Nachman's interpretation is ultimately rejected by the Talmud, this particular insight is worth bearing in mind.
The Talmud settled for the second interpretation which identifies Malachi with Ezra since the two held the same position on a particularly controversial issue. However, this position was not accepted by all later interpreters. Rabbi Yitzchak Abrabanel (15th century Spain) rejected this associative manner of reasoning and concluded that this means for associating these two figures was not reliable. This leaves us again unable to pinpoint exactly who Malachi was.
Returning to the Talmud's first interpretation, what prompted Rav Nahman to make the seemingly absurd association between Malachi and Mordechai, the hero of the book of Esther? This interpretation is apparently built upon the similarity between the word "malach" and the word "melech – king", since Mordechai is described as the "mishneh lamelech – ranked next to the king". (see Esther 10:3) Rabbi Shmuel Edels (16th-17th Poland) asserts that Mordechai was called "Malachi" because he was "important like an angel". In other words, sometimes God sends people who play specials roles in the life of others, in the life of the nation or in the conduct of the affairs of the world who are "important like angels". While Rav Nachman's interpretation is ultimately rejected by the Talmud, this particular insight is worth bearing in mind.
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Thanks to all that wrote in and for those that wanted their comments posted.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
