Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 2/28/09:Hebrew College:Torah, TaNaK,Talmud for a Spiritual and Ethical View
Shalom Talmidim v' Chaverim and a special hello to our students and recent Rabbis from Aleph Yeshiva in Philadelphia and Hebrew College Yeshiva in Suburban Boston:
Are you felling happy, joyous and free??!! While we can every day with living a life of Jewish Spiritual Renewal.
The Talmud Bavli Tractate Taanit 29a tells us that when the month of Adar arrives, our ''joy increases.'' Adar comes in 2009 at sundown on Tuesday February 24. Remember, Adar is the last month of the Jewish calendar. Regardless of what Hallmark tells us, Nissan, the month of Passover and our Exodus, is our first month and is our Jewish New Year. Rosh ha Shana in our seventh month is the New Year for Humanity, the world, and a celebration of Adam and Eve's creation. (We spoke about our four new year's when we discussed Tu B'Shevat a few weeks ago).
In living a joyous life with freedom and happiness it is important to not let others keep us down with their negativity or their lashon ha ra that comes from their insecurity and lack of spiritual attachment.
Let me start, not with some Talmud, or Torah, or TaNaK as I usually do, but with a quote from Marianne Williamson a neo- Kabbalist:
''Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
And a quote from Rebbe Nachman from Breslov, born in 1772 and the grandson of the Ba'al Shem Tov :''If you believe you can ruin things, believe that you can repair them.'' By going thru the simple steps of Jewish Spiritual Renewal, one can turn themselves around 180 degrees.
And some Talmud Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 1:13: "Rabbi Hillel said: One who does not grow, grows smaller." Judaism demands from us spiritual growth. While for many the Judaism is eating a latka in December ,some matzah in the Spring and having one day a year set aside for ''Mitzvah Day,'' their spirituality will diminish and not increase.
Some more Talmud Bavli Bava Kama 26a :'' A person is always liable for damage he causes whether inadvertently or willfully, whether awake or asleep." As Jews we are taught that before God created man and the universe, He created Teshuvah. None of us are saints. We all screw up. Every day a righteous man sins at least seven times Proverbs tells us. But we have a way out. Teshuvah. Making amends. And not waiting for your rabbi to tell you to do so on Yom Kippur, when you nod and say, ''yeah, good idea'', and then go break- the- fast at someone's home hanging onto resentments you've had for 25 years with '' justifiable rightful indignation.'' We can make amends right now, today, to those we have harmed with gossip, with grudges, or any other untoward behavior.
''Ah'', you say, ''they hurt me first. '' So what; set it aside; make amends for your side of the street and not mention their side. And do so even if you are 10% wrong and they are 90% wrong. You will be teaching them a lesson of how to do teshuvah.
It was the last show of Jewish comic Jerry Lewis and he was being thrown off the air. He quoted an old Talmudic saying that his mother taught him, "gam zu l'tovah", everything is for the best.
Some Talmud Bavli Tractate Taanit 21a: Gam zu l'tovah is a story about person referred to as Rabbi Nachum Ish Gamzu. The Gemorah explains that his nickname came from the fact that his reaction to anything that happened to him was always "gam zu l'tovah".
One time the Jews wanted to send a present to Caesar in Rome, and they felt that Nachum Ish Gamzu would be the best emissary as miracles are always happening to him. On his way he stopped by an inn and during the night the unscrupulous owners emptied the jewels in the chest and filled it with sand.
When the chest was offered to Caesar he opened it and saw the sand. Naturally Caesar was infuriated and wanted to kill all the Jews. Nachum Ish Gamzu just said, "Gam zu l'tovah".
Eliyahu Ha Navi came disguised as one of Caesar's men and suggested that maybe this sand is from their Patriarch Avraham who threw sand and it turned into swords. They tried it out on a nation that they had difficulty in conquering and were able to defeat them with the aid of the sand.
Caesar sent him back with great honors and a chest full of treasures. On the return trip Nachum again spent the night at the same inn. The innkeepers couldn't believe their own eyes. Didn't they replace the jewels with sand?! How could Caesar have repaid him with such honor for bringing sand?!
Finally they approached Nachum and asked him "What was it that you brought to Caesar , that warranted such a reward"? Nachum replied "What I took from here is what I delivered there". The innkeepers thought to themselves, wow! we're sitting on such valuable sand and weren't even aware of it.
The innkeepers quickly knocked down the inn and brought all the sand to Caesar explaining that the original sand came from that inn. Caesar had the sand tested to see if it also contained the miraculous powers. When the test failed the innkeepers were executed.
Some more Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 60b: "Rabbi Akiva [ whose teacher was the above Nachum] was accustomed to saying "Everything God does is for the good". Once Rabbi Akiva was traveling with a donkey, rooster, and candle and when night came he tried to find lodging in a nearby village only to be turned away. Although Rabbi Akiva was forced to spend the night in the field, he did not lament his fate. Instead his reaction was "Everything God does is for the best".
A wind came and blew out his candle, a cat ate his rooster, and a lion came and ate his donkey, and again Rabbi Akiva's reaction was "Everything that God does is for the best".
That night a regiment of Romans came and took the entire town captive, while Rabbi Akiva who was sleeping in the field went unnoticed and thus was spared. When Rabbi Akiva realized what happened he said, "Didn't I tell you that everything that God does is for the best"?" Rashi explains that if the candle, rooster or donkey would have been around, the regiment would have seen or heard them and would have also captured Rabbi Akiva.
Now we understand in the above stories where we see the good outcome immediately, but how do we understand suffering where immediate good may not be forthcoming; how do we endure it? The Mishnah Brurah (222:4) quotes a Midrash that it was Isaac Avinu who requested God to bring suffering to the world, since suffering is a great thing. God replied that it is indeed a wonderful idea and therefore the suffering will start with none other than Isaac himself. As a result Isaac became blind.
So what does it mean that ''suffering is a great thing'' especially when I started our lesson teaching that we can live happy, joyous and free, and its soon to be Adar when our ''Joy Increases.'' So the Mishnah Brurah explains that Isaac knew the severity of Gehenom, [hell] (which the Ramban-Nachmonides of mid 1200s Spain and Judea says that it is worse than all the suffering of Job). He therefore asked God to make people suffer in this world, which will spare a person suffering in Gehenom, and God agreed.
Now what is the spiritual lesson in this, especially for those who do not believe in a God Who punishes, or in a God Who has created a hell? It is that we humans make our own hell and suffering here in this life time by our selfish acts. Our grudges do not hurt others. They hurt us. Resentments are an acid eating away at the container, as one example. When we dishonor someone with gossip, the Talmud says it kills us (along with the listener and the subject.). How does it kill us? Is anyone reading this so naive to think that one trusts a gossip. Who is dishonored our sages ask. One who dishonors another.
Suffering when we are doing God's will to be the best that we can be and have others put stumbling blocks in our path out of cruelness and jealousy, is a banner for us, to sore over them with God's aid.
When we accept the Judaic concept, as well as taught in Buddhism, that life is work and suffering, and stop bemoaning it, life then becomes happy, joyous and free. We can say with firm resolution: Gam zu l'tovah and mean it. If you look back at your lives today, the divorces, the deaths, the loss of jobs, investments, the car wrecks, the illnesses, everyone of us, can see some growth that has come from these.
The Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 5a calls these "afflictions of love.''
Our life is a spiritual one when we live with this concept that God is always with us, helping us and guiding us. Rabbi Hanoch Teller (born in 1956, now in Jerusalem) tells a Midrash in his book "Souled," published in 1986. ''(pg. 61) A man who was mourning the death of his beloved wife. While walking on the beach, in his anguish he cried out to the Almighty, "You promised to walk alongside me in times of trouble, but when I look down I see only one set of footprints." There was silence, and then a voice lovingly called out, "My dear Yankeleh, what seems to be one set of footprints is not really you walking alone. It is me carrying you." ''
Some more Talmud : Bavli Tractates Yoma 23a and Gittin 36a: '' The practice of the righteous is to suffer insults and not inflict them; to hear themselves reviled and do not retort; to be impelled in what they do by love, and to rejoice in their own suffering.''
Some TaNaK: from this Shabbat's Haftarah: One Kings 6:7: "When the House was built, only finished stone cut at the quarry was used, so that no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the House while it was being built." Now the House is Solomon's Temple. When God created the world in Genesis the word ''va-yakhulu – and He completed," is used. When Solomon completes his Temple, the word "va- yikhaleihu – and he [Solomon] completed it" (1 Kings 6:14) is used. The Temple was to be a microcosm of God's universe.
And as Solomon's name suggests, Schlomo, from Shalom, it was to be a House, and Baruch ha Shem, a world, of Shalom.
Hence, instruments that could be used in war or to harm another, such as a hammer, ax, or any iron tool, could not be used in the construction of the Temple. In Judaism the means do not justify the ends.
Some more Talmud Bavli Tractate Gittin 68a-b tells us about the miraculous "Shamir" –a worm which could miraculously cut and shape rock.
The point for Modern Jewry is that our synagogues, or even chavurot, need to be places of Shalom. Makloket, strife, cliquishness, exclusion, lashon ha ra, theft, lying, and other unethical behaviors do not belong there. When a Jewish house of worship is being built or an addition, and workman are being denied their agreed upon fees, and are now going about the community, talking about how they were chiseled, this is Chillul Ha Shem, a desecration of God's holy name. No synagogue or addition to one is being built. It is only a building.
Just as the Rabbis in Talmud Bavli Tractate Yoma 21b said that the eventually corrupt Temple of Ezra did not have the Shechinah, God's holy presence, dwelling there, they say the same is true for any Jewish House of God, that have members behaving Godlessly and treating people with implements of iron, even if is with an iron tongue, an iron snub, or an iron chisel on an unpaid bill.
"Let righteous men do their good deeds with the same zeal that evil men do bad ones." The Belzer Rebbe
{In a continual attempt to teach Jews to treat one another with kindness and put aside sect-differences, I sadly report another "Jews Behaving Badly'' event: In the early years of his tenure, the new Belzer Rebbe adopted a policy of engagement with the secular government of Israel. Under the umbrella of the Agudat Israel political party, he sent delegates to the Israeli Knesset and instructed his followers to vote in general elections. This stance angered the Satmar community. Satmar activists obtained signatures from significant segments of the Haredi community in Israel in an attempt to denounce and ostracize the present Belzer Rebbe. This episode created a lasting rift between the Belzer and Satmar communities.} As if Jews don't have enough enemies.....
As usual, a d'var Torah follows.
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
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
WWW.JEWISHSPIRITUALRENEWAL.ORG "Carry On. Love is Coming. Love is Coming to Us All"
On a quick reading, this Torah portion may appear to be from Architectural Digest. It contains blueprints given to Moses by God on how to construct the Mishkan, the Tabernacle and resting place of God. The corresponding Haftarah from First Kings 5:26 gives King Solomon's plans for the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem, which adapt the plans of our dessert Mishkan.
One of the earliest commandments given to our ancestors in the construction of the Tabernacle has to do with its portability. In Ex. 25:12 we were commanded to put four gold rings on the Holy Ark, two on each side. In the next verse we are told to make wooden poles covered in gold that will fit thru these rings. And in verse 15, we are given the mitzvah: "The poles will remain in the rings, they shall not be removed from it." And into this portable Ark will go the Tablets signifying the Torah.
Traditionally, we are taught in Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah (daf 35A) that the Ark's bearers held the poles on their shoulders. When we read the measurements of the Ark and its weight with all of the gold, we wonder how men could carry this Holy object. The rabbis explain that in reality, the Ark bore the bearers, because when it moved they were lifted with it. Perhaps homiletically we can better say that Torah, what is inside the Ark, sustained our people throughout the millennia.
In the nineteenth century, Rabbi Hirsch, who was quoted last parasha in this series, stated that the eternal presence of the non-removable poles symbolized the concept that Torah is not tied to any one place. Wherever Jews go, willingly or otherwise, he writes, "Torah goes with us, as its means of transport are always attached to it." How have we transported Torah over the centuries? We have done so not with buildings built for vanity but through study and transmission of Judaic values from generation to generation. In Ex. 25:08 note that we are commanded to "make a sanctuary for Me - so that I may dwell among them." We are to build our modern synagogues, and even their additions, dedicated, to God's service. Says Rashi, 900 years ago, elegant synagogues are meaningless if built for ego's sake and not God's sake.
God, we are taught in the Mishna Pirkei Avot, dwells among us in a variety of ways even after the Temples were destroyed. The rabbis said that God's Holy presence resides among us when two study Torah or when three or more eat and discuss Torah. The Talmud teaches that God dwells with us when we do charitable works, when we make love, and even when we are ill. It was the idea of portability, the actual commandment of portability, set forth in this parasha, that kept our religion going and moving forward through the help of our rabbinic teachers after the Temples' disappearance.
Frankly, it has been posited that the sacking of the first Temple was the best thing in the long run for Judaism as it destroyed the priestly sacrificial cult. This allowed Judaism to grow and adapt, becoming a modern religion via our rabbis in Babylon starting in 586 B.C.E. We have produced wonderful leaders, scientists, scholars, healers, and philosophers who otherwise might have been spending their time sprinkling blood on the altar.
What we Jews have learned is that our religion is not confined to the Mishkan in the Sinai, to the Temples of Jerusalem, or to our synagogues on Shabbats. Our religion is a way of life, a way of living our lives. God is everywhere. God does not just reside in the Tabernacle.
Being good, decent people brings God into our midst. We do not need a high priest to say God's name secretly once a year for us. By doing good, studying and transmitting Torah to our children (and ourselves), by taking time off for renewal each Shabbat, being good parents, being good spouses, being good friends and doing ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness), we build our own spiritual Mishkan over ourselves for God to dwell with us. This is the basis of the religion of Judaism as formulated by our rabbis in our Talmud and other texts.
The German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber drew a detailed commentary between the chapter of Genesis, where God creates the world, and this chapter, Terumah, and others in Exodus where we create God's resting place on earth. In Gen. 2:1-2 "God finished the work," and in Ex. 40:33 "Moses finished the work." In Gen. 1:31 God "beholded" that His work was very good and in Ex. 39:43, our people "beholded" their work. It is we who have the obligation to bring the Shechinah of God's Holy Presence every day into our lives and into the lives of those around us. We imitated God, according to Nehama Leibowitz in Studies in Shemot (Exodus) by building the Tabernacle and the Temples as God built the universe.
We need to continually imitate God by doing acts of kindness, justice, mercy, and love as well. Buber says that God dwells wherever we let him in. The Gaon Sa'adia says there is no place without God. Was God there in Dachau? Yes, crying along with us.
Each of us today needs to be our own portable Tabernacle, continually rebuilding the Mishkan in our own souls and hearts, growing spiritually, and renewing spiritually, and as the prophet Micah said, "walking humbly with God."
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
WWW.JEWISHSPIRITUALRENEWAL.ORG
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