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Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 5/23/09 Torah,TaNaK,Talmud from and Ethical and Spiritual View
Shalom my beloved Chaverim v' Talmidim:
This week has seemed to zoom by quickly. Lag B'omer. A joyous Shabbat with friends with joy and study and zimrot. Saturday evening at delightful friends' home with some of their friends.
But I am doing this class today, Thursday, and not on Friday, as I will be taking my beshert, my bride, to MUSC (Medical Univ of SC) which is opening up for us as they are closed for graduation, as Ellen has noted 3 new moles that just popped up last night. She had a serious bout with malignant melanoma 8 years ago, so for those of you that believe in prayer, for those of you who have rabbis who believe in prayer and do mishaberach upon reading from the Torah on Shabbat, may I kindly ask that the name of Hadassah Leah bat Aliza (we pray for health in our mother's names) be added to the list or to your personal list. And please ask Ha Shem to continue to grant me Koach, strength, to be strong for her, in my Ivrit name: Avrael Yahudah ha Rav ben Abraham ha Levi. Todah Rabah.
Well, on the Shabbat of 5/23/09 we will begin the 4th of 5 of the Book of Moses, the Chumash. It is called in English, the Book of Numbers, as it begins with a census. But in Hebrew it is called Ba Midbar, in the Wilderness, is it recounts the children of Israel's 40 years moving from bondage to freedom, from Egypt to Canaan. A d'var Torah, as always, is below. As always, I have taken what can seem like a most boring parasha of Torah, a census count, and hopefully teach some spiritual and ethical lessons from it.
Because we are still in the Omer counting period, the 49 days, the 7 weeks, between Passover and Shavuot, another Hebraic holiday that our Talmudic Rabbis turned into a Jewish Spiritual one for us, we are still studying the Talmudic Tractate Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Father, and we shall do chapter 5 of 6 this week. Shavuot is Thursday May 28th, at sun down, and as it is our tradition , we will be in study until dawn, and anyone within driving range of this class, is invited to attend, (our Tu B'Shevat Kabbalistic Seder had 56 for a sit down dinner), by emailing RabbiASegal@aol.com. If you need to leave early, this is ok. We will be serving dairy foods, from blinztes, to kugel, to pizza, to cheese cake. We will have a lactose- intolerant menu as well.
So Chapter 5, and you can access this for free at Text of Chapter Five - Chapter 5 is pithy, and one really needs their Talmud, Midrash and TaNaK to make it through the pith. So toss on that Tarzanian pith helmet and jump in.
''5: 17. Any dispute that is for the sake of Heaven is destined to endure; one that is not for the sake of Heaven is not destined to endure. Which is a dispute that is for the sake of Heaven? The dispute(s) between Hillel and Shamai. Which is a dispute that is not for the sake of Heaven? The dispute of Korach and all his company.''
So some Talmud: Hillel and Shamai lived circa 100 BCE. Shamai was a stickler for legality. Hillel was always about chesed, loving kindness, doing the spirit of the law and not the letter of the law. As an example, a Roman soldier came to Shamai and asked him to teach him Judaism while he hopped on one foot. Shamai dismissed him. Hillel said to the Roman: ''What is distasteful unto you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole of Judaism and Torah. Now go an study." The Talmud records that this Roman soldier converted.
So Hillel and Shamai argued about everything. 99% of the time the Rabbis agreed with Hillel as true Judaism and the God of Judaism are about love, forgiveness, kindness, mercy, shalom, etc. But outside of the Talmudic academies, Hillel and Shamai were friends, and their children married one another.
This is not like Korach. Korach was a cousin of Moses, a Levite who had ego and was jealous God chose Moses and Aaron to lead. He wanted the glory. And he would ask obnoxious questions to Moses, like, ''if there is a room full of Torah scrolls, does it need a mezuzah?'' And he led an armed rebellion against Moses and was quashed and buried when the earth opened up to swallow him and his men. Ouch.
We can see both types of arguments in our synagogues today. One who puts out his opinion but is not attached to the outcomes. "I think it would be nice to have the Temple open on Shabbat." Hearing a resounding 'no', he is not upset, there is no makloket, he understands this is the minhag, the tradition of this Temple. Its accepted with shalom.
Conversely, someone with a Korach mindset, will belittle that person, and do character assassination just for the person asking. His ego is threatened.
So the Talmud tells us that when we discuss things with shalom, without ego, without attachment, things will work out. When we do the opposite, things will fall apart. Synagogues that allow those with minority opinions to speak and be honored and still be included in social and religious activities have their membership increase. Synagogues that do not, will lose a member for every new member gained.
We will do two more mishnaot:
''5:18. One who causes the community to be meritorious, no sin will come by his hand. One who causes the community to sin, is not given the opportunity to repent. Moses was meritorious and caused the community to be meritorious, so the community's merit is attributed to him; as is stated, "He did God's righteousness, and His laws with Israel" (Deuteronomy 33:21). Jeroboam the son of Nebat sinned and caused the community to sin, so the community's sin is attributed to him; as is stated, "For the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and caused Israel to sin" (I Kings 15:30).''
Now, no rabbi can truly control the actions of our congregants. However we can control what we teach. In the Torah, there in the negative commandment of not putting a stumbling block before the blind. (lifne iver). Now at first glance, one thinks, out of all of the 613 mitzvoth in the TaNaK, the Hebrews had to be actually told not to trip a blind person? Well the Talmud explains that this is not what the law is about at all.
When we are in business, let us say dentistry, the patient is blind. He knows very little, and what he thinks he knows is usually wrong. It is the dentist's job to make him see. To teach. In fact the word doctor doesn't mean healer, but teacher. (doctrines are teachings). A dentist who does not do this, and sells someone a crown, when a cheaper filling would do just as well, is committing the sin of lifne iver.
Well we rabbis are held to the same principle.Our congregants are blind to Judaism and each generation it gets worse. Our job is to teach. Not our own opinions, but the transmission handed down from generation to generation. When congregants are grounded in that, we can then have discourse.
We know for example that Shabbat is a gift from God, and the many benefits it gives us. We also know most of us do not live in a eruv, have to work on Saturdays, or do errands, or take the kids to soccer. We can teach that it would be nice if one tried to amend this and enjoyed Shabbat, but the advantages of freedom of religion in America which has allowed us to succeed, and assimilate, have also harmed us spiritually. RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: SUCCESS OF JEWS IN THE USA AT THE COST OF SPIRITUAL FITNESS: PEW FORUM ON RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE
But at no time do we rabbis, tell a congregation that is official policy, to forget about Shabbat, and lock the Temple doors on Yom Shabbat. That is lifne iver, and a rabbi doing such, is consider so 'ra', so wicked, that the rabbis of the Talmud say he is not even given the opportunity to repent. And lifne iver is one of the few things that will cause other rabbis to not call this type of rabbi a rabbi. This is very unusual, as for even a murderer, 'the gates of Repentance are always open.' So for a rabbi, trained in what is Judaism, he has a higher standard to follow, than a congregant who wants to not observe Shabbat.
Now some poskim say that this also applies to officers and board members of a synagogue who are complicit in lifne iver, if they know enough to know they are doing wrong. If they are following their rabbi and believe his false teachings, then they are not liable.
Our last mishna from Chapter 5 (please read the whole chapter yourselves and email me questions).
5:21 ''Ben Hei Hei would say: According to the pain is the gain.'' So how many of you when you go to the gym, and your trainer yells,''' no pain, no gain!!!,'' knew he was teaching you Talmud??
The Talmud tells us, right in this Tractate that if we don't move ahead spiritually or in study, we move backwards. In a synagogue without daily or at least weekly Torah and Talmud class, it they are not packed, every congregant, (unless they study on their own), if they have been members, let us say for 5 years, and has not studied for those 5 years, is at the spiritual and education level he was ten years ago. Going to services on a Friday night no more makes a person a Jew, than going into a shoe store makes a person a shoe. One does not fill up their Jewish educational and spiritual gas tank once a week and then expect to live a life of Jewish Spiritual Renewal, for the next 7 days. It doesn't work that this, and never has. No pain, no gain.
Remember as we have studied before, when we live a spiritual life, whom are our spiritual thoughts reaching? It is not the Divine spark within us that needs them. It is the yetzer ha ra inside all of us that needs to hear them.
In a mini class I sent out of Erev Lag B'Omer I discussed Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Rabbi Avika. RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:LAG B'OMER:BAR YOCHAI The concept of how Jews being blatantly unGodly, [and let me just stick to man to man laws, and not even deal with ritual,] effects the rest of community, is also told in the Midrash Vayikra Rabba 4:5 in a tale about Bar Yochai.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai gave the following example to impress upon his students the importance of every individual's action and how each person's deeds affect everyone else. A boat filled with people was sailing on the ocean. One of the passengers took a sharp tool and began to bore a hole under his seat. The other passengers shouted, "What are you doing? Stop!"
The man replied, "What business is it of yours? I paid for this seat. I'm boring a hole under my seat!"
"Fool! Don't you realize that by boring a hole under your seat, you will flood the boat and we will all drown!"
"Similarly," says Rabbi Shimon, "a person must remember that we are all riding in the same life-boat. Every good deed we do affects everyone and every sin we commit affects not only us but the entire world!"
Before his passing, Rabbi Shimon told his students to observe the day when his soul reunited with its Maker as a day of celebration. Rabbi Shimon returned his soul to His maker in the midst of teaching the most secret parts of the Torah. He passed away as he uttered his final word "Chayim" - "life". And as I taught, that day is Lag B'Omer, this past Monday eve, and Tuesday day, May 11-12, 2009.
May all of your spirituality increase like a bon fire in Merion, Safad, Israel on Lag B'Omer.
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
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
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(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal
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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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(002) A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud
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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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(003) Tzadakkah Bundle
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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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