RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:KUGEL KABBALAH
Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 2/21/09:Hebrew College, MA: Torah,TaNaK, Talmud
Shalom Talmidim v Chaverim and Shavuah Tov:
I hope you had a good week, a wonderful Tu B'Shevat, a joyous Shabbat, and grew a bit in spirituality.
[Amazon and I are pleased to announce that the long awaited two books will be out a month before Pesach for purchasing as excellent gifts for your seder guests and/or hosts. Visit WWW.JewishSpiritualRenewal.Net as we are taking reservations for purchase. Both will make excellent texts for either a Torah study class, or for a Spiritual Renewal group, or a book club, or a great gift to donate to your Synagogue, Temple, etc, Jewish co-workers} Thanks.
I love this Shabbat's parasha. It is one that can bring every Jew together in agreement from the most Orthodox to the most Humanistic. It contains our wonderful man-to-man mitzvoth...how we are to treat one another. I hope you learn to love it and take it to your hearts.
I truly urge all of you to read it from your Chumash. And to read the d'var Torah below as we begin to touch on Kabbalah. As we get closer to the Shechinah, God's Holy Presence, hopefully we will get closer to each other.
While some of the liberal sects have abrogated ritual, none of them have abrogated these man-to-man laws.
I won't quote from the Torah today: I wouldn't know where to stop. Please read it yourselves. Every pusuk reads true today as it did 3300 years ago.
Some Talmud: Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 1:7: ''Nittai the Arbelite said: Keep far from an evil neighbor and do not associate with the wicked." We have seen time and time again that the Talmud goes out of it way not to define evil and wicked people as Sabbath or Kosher ''breakers,'' but as those in modern parlance, who would have, for an example, a Shabbat dinner and service in a public building, and pick and chose what Jews they will allow in or out.
This behavior is an abomination to our traditions as Judaism is an open tent, an inclusive religion, and not one that is to be exclusive and cliquish. In fact, when the Second Temple priests behaved in this manner, the Talmud records that the ''Shechinah did not rest in that Temple,'' [Talmud Bavli Tractate Yoma 21b] and that if one ''met a priest who was arrogant, you could be sure of his lineage.'' [Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 70b ]
There is a difference between Halakah, the path we take vis a vis God and ritual, and Derech Eretz, the path of the earth, we Jews are taught to behave towards our fellow man. While some liberal movements have tossed out Halakah as binding, not one has tossed out Derech Eretz. I ask you to please read this parasha and truly see if you and your friends, are behaving to all other humans in the manner God asks of us.
Some Kabbalah: Four wonderful women made kugel for our Tu B' Shevat seder. Without mentioning last names: Special thanks to Naomi-Jeni, Diamond, Connie and Linda. There is a Kabbalistic significance to this yummy dish.
The Kabbalah of Kugel tells how the Seer of Lublin said that when serving kugel you should turn it over so that the soft part is above and the hard part below, to turn judgment to mercy. It was said about Kabbalist Rebbe Yitzhak of Pshevorsk that he was the King of Kugel. He had a special way of cutting the kugel to imbue it with holiness. He used to distribute kugel to the children after the Shabbat kiddush on Saturday. He said that any child who ate his kugel would not go on the path of falsehood. (Sichatan shel Avdei Avot, vol. 2, pp. 270, 283 )
Some more Talmud: "Sins repeated seem permitted." We get so used to doing untoward behaviors in today's society, after being released from the watchful eyes of our Rabbis in the European Ghetto's by Napoleon, that it is imperative for true Jewish Spiritual Renewal, to do a daily chesbon ha nefesh, (a moral inventory of our souls). We are in a behavioral sink and just because it may be the norm for Jews to ignore, snub, gossip, or be cliquish, it is not Jewish. We can only reprove when one's ears and hearts are ready to listen. However we can protect ourselves and we can make a statement, as the Talmud says, by avoiding those with these behaviors. They vex our spirit and lead us to sin.
Being a Jew is a verb and not a noun. It is easy to say "I am a Jew," as we are wearing a Mogan Dovid around our necks, and have nice Judaica objects in our homes. Behaving as a Jew is a whole other matter.
But on the other hand, what is proper Derech Eretz does depend on the minhag of the community.
While at no time do we violate the Torah, the Talmud Bavli and the Talmud Yerushalmi give us two views on proper behavior of rabbis towards one another in the Talmudic academies.
Some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Beracoth 28b : ''A prayer to be said before entering the House of Study: ' May it be Your will, God my Lord, that a mishap not come about through me, and I will not stumble in a matter of law, and my peers will rejoice over me. And I will not say regarding something which is impure that it is pure and regarding something which is pure that it is impure. And may my colleagues not stumble in a matter of law and I will rejoice over them. ' ''
My gosh, it looks like going to Academies in Babylon were like walking into the fiery furnace that , Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach), and Azariah (Abednego) survived in Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. (TaNaK:Dan:Ch.3).
Now compare the above prayer to the Talmud Yerushalmi's prayer before entering into a House of Learning in Judea:
Some more Talmud: Yerushalmi Tractate Beracoth 7d: ''May it be Your will, God my Lord and the Lord of my forefathers, that I take not offense at the words of my colleagues, and that my colleagues should not take offense at my words. That we do not rule impure that which is pure and that we do not rule pure that which is impure. That we do not rule forbidden that which is permitted and that we do not rule permitted that which is forbidden. For if this were to occur I would find myself embarrassed in this world and in the next world. ''
There are two major differences between the Judean and Babylonian supplications.The Bavli is in the first- person- singular. The Yerushalmi uses the plural as well. The Rabbis in Judea's Gemora thought Talmud study was a communal pursuit and made decisions in committee. In the Gemora in Bavli, each scholar was alone in his statements and had to pray he was not subjecting himself to ridicule when he opened his mouth.
In Judea, there was concern about the Derech Eretz of anger. It was not allowed and Rabbis could not upset one another. In the Bavli, angry arguments were the norm, as long as there was peace ''after class.'' Many times there was not, and friendships were torn apart or rabbis expelled when they stepped on the toes of the Rosh Yeshiva. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 30b).
While the Judean academies may have been a more comfortable place to study, it is the Talmud Bavli that we use because those disagreements, usually with love, and respect, brought out deep thought.
Yet, getting back to the gist of this Shabbat's parasha, the most important aspect of the passages is the question that is posed in both Talmuds: When entering the beit midrash, the house of study, what is the prayer that we offer each other??!!!
And for this, both Talmuds, agree that the Derech Eretz in greeting any Jew, or anyone else for that matter is : "Receive all men with a cheerful face.'' (P.Avot 1:15), ''Let your house be wide open.'' (P.Avot 1:5). ''Let the honor of your fellow be as dear to you as your own.'' (P.Avot 2:15). ''Who is honored? He that honors his fellow man'' (P. Avot 4:1) [The converse is true as well: Who is dishonored? He who dishonors his fellow man."]
But all of the above is nothing new: Some ancient wisdom from our Sages:
'' Why are you so surprised to find evil and corruption running amok everywhere you look? This world is the coarsest and harshest of all worlds, the ultimate concealment. Almost all of it is darkness and emptiness. Only a tiny spark of good is buried deep within to keep it alive.
''You could spend your lifetime dwelling on the outrages and scandals and things that are not right--or your could take a moment to search for that spark. You could find it, grasp it, fan its flame. From within its aura, you will see the darkness shining brighter than the heavens. In that moment of light, the night will never have been.
''Fueled by your love,and the love of God, the light will swallow all that surrounds it. ''
Jewish Spiritual Renewal is all about taking that spark of God inside all of us, and fanning it into a flame, an aish ha Torah, a fire of Torah.
So we cannot live our lives finding faults in the world or in others. We all have plenty of faults within ourselves to tackle to give us a life time of Tashlichs to fulfill. One who goes around all day, seeing the cup half full, is defined by our sages : "The chronic fault-finder will complain that the bride is too pretty." Cute, but true. Or like the waiter who goes up to the Sisterhood gals from Temple B'nai Korach and says :''Was there anything right with your meals today, ladies?'' And one answers: "The food was awful, was poison, I tell you....and such small portions!!...''
Our cups are truly over flowing each day with God's blessings even if some of us deny God, or think we earned everything with our own hands. Everything we have is not just a gift, but a loan, from God. Those who do ritual mitzvoth, let us say the rituals of building a sukkah and making the beracoth over the four species, negate those mitzvoth when they do not treat their fellow man properly. The Talmud wants us to live in a Sukkah of Shalom with our fellows every day.
I will leave you with this bit of Torah: Deut. Chapter 8: "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees .... 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God... You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. ''
And this important timeless pusuk from the TaNaK: Mal: 2:10: ''Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?''
Please learn to play nicely. We are all equal children of Ha Shem. Regardless of what sect of Judaism you are in, even the most atheist, or Humanistic, we have never been freed from these obligations to all of our fellows, not just ones that we like or from whom we think we can gain something.
A d'var Torah follows...and an interesting point from one of our fellow chaverim follows it. He is living the life of a Jew and I have worked with him, and many others, step-by-step using the Dereck Eretz outlined in my "The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew." (WWW.JewishSpiritualRenewal.net)
Shavuah Tov,
With sincere ahavah v' beracoth!!
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
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