Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 3/28/09:Torah,TaNaK,Talmud Spiritual+Ethical Views
Shalom Chaverim v' Talmidim v' Rabbanim:
We have a lot to touch on today so let us get to it.
We are starting the third of the Five Books of Moses, Leviticus. For the most part it is full of many of the rituals the priests must do in order to conduct sacrifices. Our sages in the Talmud pour over these in detail. They admit that they do so for historical value so that they aren't forgotten and only talk of rebuilding of the Temple in Messianic times. At that time they postulate, that there will be no animal sacrifices, only grain offerings, and for only one type of Korban, the Gomal-Thanksgiving offering. History shows that our rabbis were offered many times by both the Western and Eastern Romans and even by the early Muslims to have our Temple rebuilt at no-cost to Jews, (the first time was circa 100 CE), and our rabbis rejected the offers each time. We are Jews, not Hebrews.
But in studying Leviticus, the sages found analogies to teach us Jewish ethics and spirituality. Hence what first appears to be a boring, out of date text, can come alive with meaning. These teachings are in both of my books, now finally able to be bought on line, at
www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.net.
On Thursday the 26th of March in Rosh Chodesh Nissan. No, every Jew doesn't not get a new Japanese car. We get something better. We get our Jewish New Year! What?
Some Torah: Ex. 12: 1-2 :God spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: "This month shall be to you the head of months; it shall be for you the first of the months of the year." Yep. Nissan is really the Jewish New Year. Tishrei when we celebrate Rosh Ha Shana is the 7th Month. And the rabbis teach us some spiritual and ethical lessons.
Nissan is when we became a liberated new nation. It is our July 4th, to use an American analogy. In doing so, the first commandment we were given as a free people we being in charge of our own time. Slaves don't have this luxury. We get to fix our calendar, determine when the holidays are, when Shabbat is, and take time off for Spiritual Renewal and Rest. That is the number one value in being free. More important even, than not having the lash on our backs. Yet, as free Jews today, how many of us, make ourselves slaves to the clock and the calendar? We are to control it, not it control us.
Some Talmud: Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 38b: The other lesson has to do with Tishrei's Rosh ha Shana. It is celebrating Adam and Eve's birthday and the creation of the world. It is to teach us that we all have one 'heavenly' Father, and one set of Human parents. This is to teach us, that no nation, no race, can say, "I am better than you are.'' Further it teaches us that we truly need to treat each other like loving brothers and sisters, and not the type who fight in the back seat for ten hours while mom and dad drive from Atlanta to Disney World.
Leviticus has many rules of purity. Our priests had to be careful where they stepped or they could become impure and not be able to do the Mishkan service until they became pure. So were are taught a spiritual and ethical principal: ''A person must listen to every step which he takes and examine whether he is fulfilling God's wishes with that step.(Rebbi Moshe Leib of Sassov)''
As we studied in the Jewish Spiritual Renewal class that preceded this class, and as is in my Chapter on "Walking Hand in Hand with God Throughout Your Day,'' in THE HANDBOOK TO JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: A PATH OF TRANSFORMATION FOR THE MODERN JEW (
www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.net), living our lives with a Divine purpose is for what we are hear on Earth.
Our sages ask: '' Mee Yivkeh K'shetamut? Who Will Cry When You Die?'' We have all been to the see-and-be-seen funerals with 300 folks in attendance. But who is truly missing the deceased 30 days later other than close family? The purpose of life is a life that has a purpose.
I thought of the story of the great Rabbi Hayim of Tzanz whose students once walked in on their Rebbe and saw him weeping. They said, ''Rabbi, why are you crying so?,'' and they saw he could not stop the tears. He said,'' I am crying for when the day will come when I will leave this world and I will be asked the most important question of all. I will not be asked "Where you as great as Moses, or were you as great as Akiba or as great as Rashi. But I will be asked "Hayim, where you as great as Hayim?" Do you know what that means? Was the life you lived worthy of Hayim?''
'' Is the life we live worthy of us?'', Rabbi Hayim asked his talmidim.
Some TaNaK: Ecclesiastes:7:1 "A good name is better than good oil."
Some Midrash Samuel 23: In the past, men used aromatic oils and the oil's fragrance remained in the room even after the men had left. A good name, however, remains even longer. It even remains in this world when the man departs for the next world.
Some Talmud Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 3:13 : R' Hanina ben Dosa says "If the spirit of one's fellows is pleased with you, the spirit of God is pleased with you." Thus, we now have a way to gain God's favor, by making sure that people are happy with us. This is a purpose in life, to gain a good name with our fellow man through making it our goal to always leave people at least as good as when you found them (or feeling better). We never ever let our egos, our yetzer ha ra, do something as foolish and cruel as gossiping about someone, or embarrassing them.
Some more Talmud Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 1:15: By always "greeting people with a pleasant caste of countenance," an emotional smile which says "I am happy to see you," and by offering encouraging words, we can gain the favor of people and God. This will gain us a good name.
Some more Talmud Bavli Tractate Pirkei Avot 3:13: Rabbi Shimon would say: "There are three crowns. The crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of sovereignty, but the crown of good name surmounts them all." Now compare this to all of the ritual teaching of Hebraism of the Priesthood in Leviticus.
Some Midrash: Noach named his sons through prophecy. Ham, hot, would live in the hot areas of the world. Yefet, beauty, had an external beauty and he would be known for architecture, literature, music, etc. However, Shem acquired for himself a name (shem in Hebrew means name) in this world and in the World to Come.
We are living in some tough times. More and more folks locally and via email are consulting me with serious spiritual issues. Their golden calves have melted before their eyes.
The sages teach that people suffer because they don't accept the reality of God. In addition, lack of faith, depression and despair are all rooted in arrogance. Here's how. A person without faith is in either a state of arrogance or depression. In good times, when he is succeeding, he declares arrogantly, "My talents, power and brains are to thank." But the minute things get tough, he falls into depression and despair. He feels that the ''me'' or ''I'' or ''self'' let him down.
He is dependent on the finite.
One must learn that success is a result of God's loving kindness and that when thing's don't succeed, it's because our arrogance and ego are getting in the way. If one fails it is so that he will put his ego aside, seek His help, and develop his faith. God wants us to develop faith because a person with faith is always happy and on an even keel. We earn eternal happiness only by way of faith.
When we see God's greatness and our nothingness, we begin to live with faith, the reality of God. We depend on the infinite which never lets us down.
Some Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 3a: Where do sins come from? They come from a lack of understanding. "A man does not sin unless a spirit of folly has entered into him." "A person's transgressions cause him to deny God's existence." The rabbis teach: "Don't instigate arguments and fights by insulting or blaming anyone; in this manner you will avoid turning a perfectly good day into a sour one.'' We only dishonor and hurt ourselves when we try to dishonor and hurt another.
Now the rabbis try hard to distance themselves from the pomp of the priesthood, what in modern terms, we call the 'bells and the smells.' You can find the vestiges of this Hebraic pomp in some other religions. Judaism deplores this primarily as we do not need an intercessor to pray for us.
But as time went on, and folks did not know how to pray, we developed shaliach tzibur, prayer emissaries of the congregation . These were rarely rabbis. Remember rabbis were our teachers and spiritual leaders. They taught us how to study, and how to develop personal relations with God. The idea of us giving sermons to Jews as the means of study, is not Jewish, but something Jews in the early 1800s in Germany picked up from the Christian Germans.
But even in Talmudic times we had to have shaliach tzibur as many Jews were 'people of the fields, am ha eretz', and were ignorant on how to pray.
Some Talmud Bavli Tractate Rosh Ha Shanah 35a: The prayers of the Shaliach Tzibur fulfill the obligation of the am ha eretz even if they are not present. This is mentioned in Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Beracoth 12b as well.
Eventually the Shaliach Tzibur became known as a Hazzan. This is from the Talmudic Aramaic word for overseer. We call the cantors know. Ironically the first Jewish clergy to be accepted in the USA were Hazzanim.
The actual translation of Shaliach Tzibur means emissary of the congregation. He was rarely the rabbi. He was a male over 13 years of age. It was rotated equally among those who knew the prayers and never rested on the shoulders on one person. These were all lay people who were Shaliach Tzibur. A rabbi never called himself by this name. A hazzan did in later times and in many old prayer books, one will find ''S.T.'' next to the words the hazzan is to utter.
According to a responsa of Rabbi Yiramiyhu Kuganoff a Shaliach Tzibur who does not do the service properly, or who is not shomar shabbat or keep kashrut, cannot be a Shaliach Tzibur and any congregation that answers amen to his prayers is an unholy congregation.
Some Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 17: The Sages go further and are concerned that the Shaliach Tzibur does not behave like a priest, with different vestments than that of the congregants or with arrogance. Hence they emphatically state that: ''"And R. Yosi bar Chanina said in the name of R. Eliezer ben Yaakov, A Shaliach Tzibur should not stand in a high place and pray, rather one should stand in a low place and pray, as it is said 'From the depths I have called to You, HaShem' (Ps. 130). ''
''Thus it is taught in a beraita: A person should not stand on a chair, nor on a bench, and not in a high place and pray, but rather in a low place and pray, as there is no high station before God, as it is said 'From the depths I have called to You, Hashem' and it is written 'The prayer of a poor man as he wraps himself.'" However, one can not "descend" to the bima, and therefore the shaliach tzibur should preferably not pray from there, since he does not then "descend before the ark." This is the conclusion of Minchat Yitzchak III:8 and Igrot Moshe OC II:28.
Now, the Hazzan and the Rabbi, if they are reading the Torah, can go up to the Bimah, but not the Shaliach Tzibur.
To show how the rabbis made sure that they were only given ,kavod, honor for their knowledge, and even that was a blessing from God, and never acted arrogant, making themselves , as the Talmud tells us not to 'wear the crown of Torah,' or 'use Torah as a spade' to make money, they tell this story of humility:
Someone once saw Rabbi Eliyahu Roth of Jerusalem scraping open the clogged sewer outside his house. The man stopped in amazement and called out in astonishment, "Rabbi, what are you doing?" His face beaming, Rabbi Eliyahu answered fervently, "I'm doing what the high priest did in the holy of holies! He cleaned out the ashes afterward, and that's what I'm doing. What's the difference between one way of serving God and another if it's His will? God wanted him to serve in the holy of holies and He wants me to serve cleaning out the sewer, for other people!" His forehead dripping with sweat, he said, "I thank the Master the Universe for giving me this great opportunity!" And continued his work.(Ish Hasid Haya, p. 390).
Let me leave you with this. Passover is coming the evening of April 8, 2008. That morning is a dawn is a Jewish event that is celebrated once every 28 years. It is called Beracoth Hachamah, Blessing of the Sun. This is not some New Age thing. This is discussed in the Talmud and Jews have been doing this for thousands of years, every 28 years. Is your synagogue celebrating this?
Some Talmud: Bavli Tractate Beracoth 59a: The rabbis of the Talmud tell us that once every 28 years, the sun returns to the same place, same time of day and same day of the week as at the moment of its creation. This confluence of events, a restaging of the heavens as they were at the beginning of time, was not a moment to be overlooked in the rabbinic imagination. So, they bid us to celebrate this re-enactment of the creation of the sun every 28 years
At the first rays of sunrise on this day of blessing, April 8, 2008, we are to go outside, face east and recite: ''Blessed are You, Adonai, our God and God of all the universe, who makes all things in creation.'' There is more of course, but I will publish it on my web site: http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/
Some more Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 58b:Rabbi Shmuel (3rd Century CE Babylon was familiar with the pathways of the heaven as with the streets of his hometown Neharda'a" – the length of a solar year is 365.25 days, or 52 weeks plus 1¼ days.
Talmud Bavli Tractate Eruvin 56a. It thus follows that precisely one year later, when the sun returned to the original position it occupied at the moment of its creation, it would be 1¼ days (one day and six hours) later in the week: Wednesday at midnight. After two years, it would be 2½ days later in the week: Friday at 6:00 a.m. Only after 28 years, would the sun return to that position on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
Now do you remember, about 6 hours ago, or maybe 3 days ago, reading at the top of this class about two of our four Jewish New Years?
We celebrate the anniversary of all of universe, including the sun, on Tishrei's Rosh Hashanah. Now we know already Jews debate everything, but we are to debate nicely. So the rabbis of course are going to debate if the universe was created in Nissan or Tishrei. Some of them are old sages but none that old. [Talmud Bavli Tractate Rosh Hashanah 10b].
The Talmud decided that for counting years and the birthday of the world, we use Tishrei. For Jewish law and Jewish peoplehood, and holidays, we use Nissan.[ Talmud Bavli Tractate Rosh Hashanah 12a]
The mystics tell us both are correct. The universe was created in Tishrei. God thought of making the world in Nissan. So, and get this, we calculate the 28 year cycle from the Nissan that only existed in God's mind. This is why we have a created sun during the spring equinox and not in the fall.
Last bit of Talmud: Bavli Tractate Pesachim 6a-b: We inquire about and investigate (sho'alin ve-doreshin) the laws of Pesach beginning thirty days prior. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says, "two weeks. What is the reasoning of the first view? Since Moshe stood up on Pesach and instructed concerning the Pesach Sheni [which occurs thirty days later], as it says: "The Israelites shall perform the paschal sacrifice in its set time" (Bemidbar 9:2) and then it says introducing the concept of Pesach Sheni, "There were people who were impure by reason of a corpse" (Bemidbar 9:6)...
Let us review Passover from the Talmud next week. Shabbat is coming, and if I am exhausted , I have a feeling most of you are not even reading this line.
Shabbat Shalom:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
A Short Snap Shot of Rabbi Arthur Segal
- Rabbi Arthur Segal
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- I am available for Shabbatons, and can speak on various aspects of Jewish history, (from the ancient past to modern day, and can be area specific, if a group wishes), Spirituality, developing a Personal Relationship with God, on the Jews of India and other 'exotic' communities, and on Talmud, Torah and other great texts. We have visited these exotic Jewish communities first hand. I adhere to the Mishna's edict of not using the Torah as a ''spade'', and do not ask for honorariums for my services. I am post-denominational and renewal and spiritually centered.
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- Rabbi Segal is the author of three books and many articles on Torah, Talmud and TaNaK and Jewish history. His books are : The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud, and Spiritual Wisdom of our Talmudic Sages. The first two are published by Amazon through their publishing house, BookSurge.
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Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice into a step-by-step process to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality in a concise easy-to-read and easy-to-follow manner.
If you find yourself wishing for the strength to sustain you through the ups and downs of life; if you want to learn how to live life to its fullest without angst, worry, low self-esteem or fear; or if you wish that your relationships with family, friends and co-workers were based on love and service and free of ego, arguments, resentments and feelings of being unloved...this book is for you.
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All of the Torah can be summed up in one word: Chesed. It means kindness. The Talmud teaches that the Torah is about loving our fellow man and that we are to go and study. The rest is commentary. This compendium clarifies the commentary and allows one to study Torah and Talmud to learn the Judaic ideals of love, forgiveness, kindness, mercy and peace. A must read for all Jews and deserves a place in every Jewish home.
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In The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality.
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A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us.
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The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal and A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud. Purchase both books as a set, and I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to the tzadakkah of your choice. -- Rabbi Segal
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