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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:NO PAIN, NO GAIN
Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 1/24/09;Hebrew College,MA;Torah;Talmud;TaNaK
Shalom Chaverim v' Talmidim:
Shavuah Tov.
We are now into the second Parasha of Exodus. For many of us it the details we hear about each year at Passover. This portion takes us up to and including the 7th plague upon Egypt.
Some Talmud to start us: "The highest form of wisdom is kindness." Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 17a.
Some Torah: If we notice, so many of our mitzvoth for social justice are linked to our being enslaved in Egypt. For example: Ex: 23:9: ''Never oppress foreigners. You know what it's like to be foreigners because you were foreigners living in Egypt.''
The whole of Torah it is said is to teach us ''chesed'', kindness. It begins and ends with acts of chesed. God clothes Adam and Eve. God buries Moses.
Yet we can remain arrogant and unkind to one another.
Some more Torah: Ex. 5:2 :"Who is God that I should listen to Him?," asks Pharaoh in his arrogance. Yet do we not as Jews ask the same question, maybe not out loud, when we ignore His command to love kindness and to love our fellow as ourselves?
Some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 38a : "The fly proceeded you in creation," we are to tell the arrogant man. This is why God created humans last, to teach us humility, the sages teach us.
Even some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 3:12 : '' He whose good deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom endures; but he whose wisdom exceeds his good deeds, his wisdom will not endure.''
I, or you, especially our rabbinic students, can study, write, publish, as much as we can, but if we are not spending more time doing mitzvoth of chesed, our Torah and Talmud knowledge are for naught.
This is why each morning for Shacharit, when I don my tephillin, I place it first on my hand/arm and then on my head. And when I am done with tephila, I take the head piece off first, and then the hand/arm piece. The head tephillin , which represents wisdom, is never worn without the hand/arm tephillin, representing action. Wisdom is only worthwhile if accompanied by action.
Judaism is a religion, a way of life, of action. We can pray for peace and justice, but we are commanded to ''pursue'' [rodef] it. We as Jews do not just wait for acts of injustice or acts of war , or makloket, strife, between people, to come our way. We are to seek these arenas out and bring about a world of peace and justice.
Our time in Egypt and the continual reminding us of it, in our daily prayers, and not just at Passover, is for a spiritual reason.
Some TaNaK: Micah 7:8 : ''Rejoice not against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.''
Our sages comment on this in the Midrash Tehillim :'' If I had not fallen, I would never have arisen, if I had not dwelled in darkness, He would never have been a light for me.'' Our time in Egypt, our personal times of misery, if we learn from them, and become better people and not bitter people, or vengeful people, make us spiritually awakened and able to see injustices done to others, and keeps us from doing injustice to others. Our time in the bondage of Mitzraim, and our escape, leads us to be kinder people, spiritually attached to God.
Some Torah: Ex. 2:23: ''And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.'' God heard us because our cries for aid were not just any cries; they were cries and they were sighs, because of the heavy burden of bondage.
Our last bit of Talmud: Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 5:26: ''Rabbi Ben Heh-Heh used to say: According to the effort is the reward.'' No pain, no gain. We have suffered and chances are we will continue to do so. When we have the chance, the free will, let us be kind and loving to each other.
A d'var Torah follows.
Shavuah Tov!
Many Blessings,
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
