RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:TEN KABALLAH SEFIROT

 

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 its  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
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
 

Parasha Mishpatim: Exodus 21:01-24:18

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

Law And Order

There are many times when I remember feeling proud to be Jewish and proud of our vast traditions. Reading this parasha brings me to one of those exceedingly proud moments. Only two or so months have passed since the first Pesach, and we are taught by Moses' rules of societal behavior in the middle of the Sinai wilderness

As modern Jews we hearken back to the original late 1800s Pittsburgh platform of the first liberal movement making the ritual laws of '"man to God'" optional, but keeping and doing the mitzvoth of the "man to man" laws. While debate is certainly open to whether one should or should not obligate himself in all of God's mitzvoth, there is no doubt that our anthromorphic mitzvoth were far ahead of their time. In an electric letter received from Rabbi Fred Davidow of Atlanta, he states, "As a general rule, Reform Judaism would consider all the mitzvoth involving ethics and morals to be binding." This parasha is chock full of these '"man to man" laws. Most of them today, in one form or another, form the basis of Western democracies. We as modern Jews therefore might do well to study this portion carefully.

All of these laws today are studied and discussed in our Talmud. I urge you to read through a tractate or two. Perhaps you will be inspired to study Talmud. You will see that Judaism was always a living religion and a way of life subject to interpretation and adaptability over time and place. Many of these pasuks (verses) are discussed in volumes in our great rabbinic literature.

Questions pondered in the Gemora section of the Talmud are intense. In Exodus 21:23-24, does "life for a life, eye for an eye" mean that literally or do we mean monetary compensation? In Ex. 22:24, when the Torah says we should not charge interest for our loans, and not to pay interest on loans, is it "kosher" to invite your loan officer to your home for dinner? If there are so many laws that have the death penalty as punishment, why does the Talmud say that a court that issues a death penalty more than once in seven, or some rabbis say seventy, years is a "bloody" court?

Before one can even begin to understand these laws or to undertake an acceptance of these man to man ethical laws, we need to ask, "Why?" Why should we do good to our fellow man? Why can't we steal if we can overpower another? Why aren't our individual lives more important than another's? The answer lies subtly in the parasha of last week, specifically in the order of the Ten Utterances.

Before we can do good to our fellow man, we must accept God as the creator and true judge of all. If good and evil are separated from God, they become no more than personal opinion. We have seen too often in history that God without ethics and ethics without God has led to evil. So the first three commandments command us to know and love God.

In the 1,000-year-old text Duties of the Heart, which reads as new today as any self-help book, Rabbi Bachya Ibn Paquda, of Spain, develops his logical syllogism on the belief in God as the creator of all. Hence we are all His children, and by doing good with our trained hearts, we are doing God's will. Without God, no act is holy. With God, all of our acts can be made holy and can help us get closer to God and develop our own spirituality.

The fourth commandment is about Shabbat. It is a gift from God. Granted, we know that historically the Babylonians set aside special days of the month on their lunar calendar (the 7^th, 14^th, 19^th, 21^st, and 28^th days). They could not cook foods, ride in a chariot, discuss work or politics, reveal oracles, or heal the sick. These were not Shabbats, not days of rest, but unlucky days to do the above mentioned tasks. If we do not love and accept God, we will not accept this gift of our Jewish Shabbat. And if we do not love ourselves to take time out for rest and our own soul's nourishment, how can we love another and do good for another?

The fifth commandment is to honor our parents. Can a person with self-hate, who doesn't believe in God, truly honor his mother and father? And can a person, who has no love for his parents, truly love strangers and see them as brothers and sisters of the same Holy Parent? Is this why these first five commandments are presented before the last five, which deal with relations between man and man?

Rabbi Samson Hirsh, a Frankfurt nineteenth-century scholar (and no friend of the German Reform movement), wrote that Torah (tav, vav, reish, hey) comes from the root word "to conceive" (hey, reish, hay). He says that the goal of Torah is to plant God's words in our minds and hearts so that we can cultivate them and manifest them in our good deeds. He says we must accept God outwardly and bring Him inside of us so that we can produce good deeds outside. He was in battle with the ethical humanists of his time, who cast off God given proscribed behaviors, and wanted to develop moralistic personalities from inside.

The role of Mishpat, from our parasha Mishpatem, is the performance of justice. The performance of justice is not just a divine occupation. The world without justice (tzaddakah) is rebelling against what Locke called Natural Law. When we perform acts of justice, we become a partner with God in doing Tikun Olam (repairing the world). We therefore are all elohim (dispensers of justice). "Every judge who judges with complete fairness even for a single hour, is as though he had become a partner to the Holy One, in Creation." (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 10A).

When we do good deeds to our fellow man, and follow the ethics in the Torah that we as liberal Jews embrace, we help bring the Shechinah (God's holy Presence) into the world, a Midrash teaches. Man has the capability of bringing the divine presence of God into each of our hearts by treating our fellow humans justly and with love.

The writers of the Kabbalah (Isaac Luria et al) described ten sefirot (levels) of God's nature that we should achieve for ourselves. The sefirah of judgment (din), also called gevurah (power), represents the fearsome powers of divine punishment and wrath in the world. This power, it is posited, is needed to maintain control over the universe. This power also contains the seeds of demonic evil, also known as the "other side" (sitra ahra). God's name when He dispenses din is Elohim. It appears on the left side of the kabbalistic "map." The sefirah of chesed (loving kindness, compassion, or love), also called gedullah (greatness), represents the generous, benevolent side of God, best shown in man by Abraham. God is known as El or El elyon when he shows chesed, and this trait appears on the right side in kabbalistic terms. Luria says there are seventy-two bridges of chesed. The right side represents attributes of chakmah (wisdom), chesed (love), and nezah (eternity), while the left side represents binah (understanding), din (justice), and hod (glory). We can see how the left side without balance from the right can lead to evil, while the right side without the left can lead to weakness.

Wisdom seeking, like a cave-dwelling monk without real life understanding, is not a Jewish concept. Knowledge without wisdom can lead to disaster. Too much mercy without justice leads to anarchy, while too much justice without mercy leads to totalitarianism. The middle column brings us tiferet (beauty) with a strong foundation (yesod), leading to a divine crown (keter), and a oneness with the Godhead, the Ein Sof, the Unknowable Infinite. This middle represents the ideal balance of mercy and justice. This harmony, the Kabbalah teaches, is important for the survival of the universe.

The beauty of this parasha is in its combination of everyday societal problems with a relationship with God. Judaism takes the everyday and makes it holy. We take what some religions consider profane and make it divine. The Talmud teaches that it is a sin to be offered a new fruit you have never tasted before and refuse it. Our religion glorifies relations between husband and wife. And we make holy our relationships with one another, when we truly are Keneset Yisroel, the people of Israel, the children of the One God. We need, as the saying goes, to think globally but to act locally.

Let's keep our eyes on our own behaviors instead of judging our fellow congregants, officers, rabbis, and cantors, and let's work to make our own synagogues places where the Shechinah would be happy to dwell.

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

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From Ben at Chabad in Florida:

Rabbi,

What I did for R----, our Jewish Chaver in South Africa, I hope I would do for anyone in need and along the 
lines of your dvar torah for anyone regardless of religion or national origin.  As Jews we have to find ways in our every day lives to give of ourselves and do  acts of Chesed not because those acts come back to us, which they do, but  because it is right and certainly altruistic and part of G-d's will. 

We  have the chance many times a day to do G-ds will  but are we listening?  He  puts us in places to have the chance...... our will must line with His to be  in shlema, take the leap, do the deed.  It will give us more than it gives  the receiver of our kindness.

I am a true believer of this principal. I am  reading an excellent book on the topic called the " Chesed boomerang."  What  got this book into my hands I really cannot say but I would recommend it and its 
principals to anyone pursuing spiritual renewal and growth, as well as your books.  (WWW.JewishSpiritualRenewal.net  rabbi's insertion...)

Our generation is tested more than any previous and tomorrow's will have the  same issue.  Technology blurs many lines between right and wrong.. G-dly and  ung-dly.  Many times in my readings the sages have already thought of our  justifications and warn against them, but they could not have envisioned a world 
of microwaves, internet and cable tv.  This is a tough distraction as it numbs  us.

 It makes us ignorant whether we are talking about religion or life in  general. Reaching beyond these hindrances to be as holy as we can be is an  incredible journey....... the staircase that never ends but taking the steps one  at  a time is one way to get higher.

In Tractate Yoma, as you mention, the words of Rabbi ben Azarya are true. We  have a built in "out" so to speak. We can repent both on Yom Kippur and through  teshuvah for both sins to man and G-d.  What a deal........the way to truly  live is to master who we are and avoid as many sins as we can before they
happen  rather than repenting after.  This is true Tikkun Olam.  It works takes  time but it truly can be had by all and the rewarding like you will live as a  result is incredibly worth it.

All the best,

Ben

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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

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