Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 6/6/09 Torah,TaNaK,Talmud,Ethics,Spiritual View
Shalom my dear chaverim v' talmidim:
I hope you had a wondrous Shavuot and a glorious Shabbat.
This class is for the Shabbat of June 6, 2009.
Many of the younger generation may not remember, but this day in 1944 was D-Day, the invasion of our Allied troops by sea and air onto mainland Europe (France), to beat back the Axis powers. Within a bit less than a year, the war was over, but not until much blood was spilled and many lives were lost. We celebrated with reverence our brave soldiers of WW2 and all wars on Memorial Day a week ago.
But before I go on with the class, in Judaism, while we have our martyrs as well, we also have those who devote their lives or part of their lives to Judaism. Some will have their names on plaques on synagogue walls. Some may have done chesed for a congregation that has no walls as it rents space.
So since the WWW seems to be made with indelible ink, [ as I cringe when I see misspellings after I press 'send,'] let me say Todah Rabah and Yasher Koach to Robert Weiner of Temple Oseh Shalom of Bluffton, SC who not only formed the congregation 3 years ago and helped shape it into an almost 500 member congregation, but was its lay leader, its ba'al tephila, its moreh, its ba'al bikur cholem, Jewish cemetery organizer, and numerous other titles. As all of us know who do work, even for gratis, with our ''stiff necked people'', (even Moshe Rabbanu), 'no good deed goes unpunished.' So to my chaver, and his wife, my chaverah, Sue, my thanks, our thanks, for being a Lion and a Lioness of Judah. R'Bob: your mitzvoth may not be engraved on a wall, but they are engraved on my and many hearts, and now on the World Wide Web.
Ok: we are now back into Numbers after a detour due to Shavuot.
Some Midrash: Genesis Rabbah: "He who promotes his own honor at the expense of his neighbor's has no portion in the World to Come stated Rabbi Yehudah ben- Chanina.'' We have seen time and again how the Rabbis teach us about humility and the respect, love and kindness we are to grant our fellows. It is great to forge ahead in the world, but not by stepping on others especially with slander.
Some Talmud :Yerushalmi Tractate Pe'ah 1:1. Our Sages teach: "Lashon ha ra kills three: the speaker, the listener, and the person being discussed." We do not get ahead by knocking someone else. Any one or any group that allows one to get ahead by this method, will soon allow another person to do the same to the original slanderer. One who dishonors someone, only dishonors himself.
Some TaNaK: Zechariah 8:16-17: "These are the things that you should do: Speak the truth with one another; and in your gates judge with truth, justice and peace. Do not think evil toward one another in your hearts and do not love false oaths, for all these are what I hate.'' It is bad enough that these things occur in the 'street.' When they occur in our synagogues they are divisive and ruinous. We end up with a revolving door for rabbis and congregants.
Some more Talmud: Bavli Pirkei Avot: 4:21:'' Rabbi Elazar HaKapor would say: Envy, lust and honor drive a man from the world.'' If these three results from ego will take a person from life, they will certainly take a person from the joy of living among people in peace. One's ego will be in a constant state of bumping heads with another's ego.
Some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Shabbat 153a: ''Rabbi Eliezer would say: Repent one day before your death. Asked his disciples: Does a man know on which day he will die? Said he to them: So being the case, he should repent today, for perhaps tomorrow he will die; hence, all his days are passed in a state of repentance. Indeed, so said Solomon in his wisdom (Ecclesiastes 9:8): ``At all times, your clothes should be white, and oil should not lack from your head' '' .'' We are not to go though life finding faults in others. And certainly we are not to go through life doing lashon ha ra, gossiping about others. We are to go through life working on our own faults, foibles, character defects, by doing an inventory of our soul, a chesbon ha nefesh, and doing vidui, confession, and teshuvah, amends, every day. The old adage of when we point a finger at someone we have 4 fingers pointing back at us, is 100% Talmudic.
We all know that Halakah, Jewish law, allows us to break Shabbat laws for the sake of saving a life. What about rose oil, an expensive oil that is not used except for medicinal reasons? (Hang in there, I really am making a spiritual point.)
Some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Shabbat 14:3-4: The Talmud has two opinions. One does not allow us to apply rose oil if we are a common person, because it costs too much and another oil can be used for wounds. However on Shabbat princes can use rose oil on their wounds, because they use it every day as cost is not an issue.
The Talmud in a second opinion puts aside two classes of Jews. Rabbi Shimon firmly states: "All Israel are princes." Rabbi Shimon decides that every Jew can use rose oil on the Sabbath. We are all permitted because ''every Jew is considered royalty.''
So my beloved talmidim and chaverim, we are all royalty. We are all children of a King, the King of Kings. And in God's eyes, since all humans were created in His image, all of His children are royalty. My point: let us, now that we have again received Torah and made Revelation again for our own, work hard on treating each other royally.
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
MEMBER:TEMPLE OSEH SHALOM
A Short Snap Shot of Rabbi Arthur Segal
- Rabbi Arthur Segal
- United States
-
-
- 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.
-
-
-
-
- I am available to perform Jewish weddings, and other life cycle events, ONLY IF, it is a destination wedding and the local full time pulpit rabbi is unavailable, or if there is no local full time pulpit rabbi, or it is in my local area and all of the full time pulpit rabbis are unavailable.
-
-
-
-
- My post-doc in Psych from Penn helps tremendously when I do Rabbinic counseling. My phone number and address will be made available once I am sure of one's sincerity in working with me.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 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.
-
-
- For information on how to purchase these, please contact RabbiSegal@JewishSpiritualRenewal.net and visit WWW.JewishSpiritualRenewal.Net. OR CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW.
-
-
- Todah Rabah and Shalom v' Beracoth. Rabbi Arthur Segal ,( Dr. Arthur Segal )RabbiASegal@aol.com .
Click to Order
| THE HANDBOOK TO JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:
A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew
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.
Price: $19.99
254 Pages
Published by: Amazon's BookSurge |
|
Click to Order
| A SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL COMPENDIUM
TO THE TORAH AND TALMUD
Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal 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. This companion to The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew brings the Torah alive with daily relevance to the Modern Jew.
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.
Price: $24.99
494 Pages
Published by: Amazon's BookSurge |
Welcome to Rabbi Arthur Segal's Jewish Spiritual Renewal bookstore. We invite you to create an account with us if you like, or shop as a guest. Either way, your shopping cart will be active until you leave the store.
You can purchase each book individually, but if you purchase them together as a set with the Tzadakkah Bundle, I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to a tzadakkah of your choice, such as your synagogue.
Simply provide the donation information in the "Special Instructions" box during checkout. When doing so, please include the following:
- Name of Organization
- Contact Name and eMail Address
- Organization Mailing Address
- Organization Phone Number
Thank you for visiting.
-
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.
-
-
-
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.
-
-
-
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
-
-
The SPIRITUALRENEWAL mailing list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network a service of Hebrew College. To unsubscribe email SPIRITUALRENEWAL-unsubscribe-request@SHAMASH.ORG
For other options go to: http://listserv.SHAMASH.ORG/
Posts
