RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JOY,JUDAISM,JEWISH SPIRITUALITY,LIBERATE GOD:SHIKRUR ELOHIM:

 

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
 

 

Numbers

Parasha Ba-Midbar: Numbers 01:01-04:20

Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"One Is the Loneliest Number"

This Torah portion brings us to the fourth of the "Five Books of Moses," which we call the Chumash. This book takes its English name, Numbers, from the Greek and Latin translations, as the first chapters deal with the census of the twelve tribes and their encampment in Sinai. In Hebrew, the name of this book and its first chapter is Ba-midbar. This means "in the wilderness."

Shavuot usually falls around the time this parasha is read. This holiday commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Some 3,320 years ago, by traditional accounting, our people stood in the wilderness of Sinai in front of a small, humble-looking mountain. On this mountain, Moses, whom the Torah calls "the most humble man who ever lived" (Numbers 12:03), was given the Law.

We are taught in the Chumash that we accepted the Torah by saying, "we will do and we will listen." Traditionally, this means we accepted the Torah before we knew what it required of us. However, the Talmud Bavli in Tractate Shabbat 82A tells us that at Sinai "the mountain was poised over the Jews like a barrel." In other words, we Jews were forced into acceptance.

The Midrash tells us another allegory. When God was preparing to give the Torah, all the mountains stepped forward and declared why they thought the Torah should be given on them. One said he was the highest. Another said he was the steepest. In the end, God choose Mt. Sinai because it was the most humble. To quote Rabbi Shragas Simmons, humility to Jews is "living with the reality that nothing matters except doing the right thing."

Our Jewish religion, to paraphrase Herman Melville's view of freedom, is only good as a means; it is no end in itself. As Jews, our humility means that we are not dependent on the opinions of others. Sometimes doing the right thing is popular. Many times it is not. The humble Jew will set aside his ego and consistently strive for righteousness. Let us not confuse humility with arrogance. An arrogant man declares that he is all that matters. A humble man believes that what is greater than he is what counts.

Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshischa in nineteenth-century Europe always carried two slips of paper. One he placed in his right pocket, the other in his left. One piece had a quote from Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 38A: "The entire world was created just for me." On the other slip of paper was a quote from Abraham in Genesis 18:27" "I am but dust and ashes." A humble man knows when to act and when to be silent. A humble man knows when to lead and when to follow. A truly humble person says upon awakening, "Modeh Ani...Thank you God for returning my soul for yet another day."

We were in the wilderness of Sinai when we received the Torah. We received the Law there because a desert is empty. Also it belongs to no nation. In order to receive God's word, we had to be in a place that had room for it.

Every day we need to open our hearts and let God inside. Every day needs to be a Shavuot for us as individuals. We were not chosen by God, as the Midrash says that God offered the Torah to other nations before us, but they rejected it. We chose God. We need to continue to choose God through our daily behavior. The beginning of learning humility, willingness and the acceptance of God are the pre-requisites for Jewish Spiritual Renewal.

Not everyone at every time can achieve a higher level of contact with God through personal search. Nor will God reveal himself to every generation. But He does reveal Himself to us continually throughout the day if we learn to listen.

As Martin Buber wrote, we need to develop an I-Thou relationship with God on our own. We begin this by developing I-Thou relationships with those around us. We cannot have object relationships with our friends and loved ones. We cannot relate to others in I-It scenarios during the week and expect miraculously to have a spiritual I-Thou relationship with God on Shabbat or in times of personal crisis.

While the Torah indeed was given to us on Shavuot, we must learn to cling daily to the Torah (develikut b' Torah), as Rabbi Yehudah Loewe, known as the Maharal, of sixteenth-century Prague has written.

The Talmud also teaches that each child is taught the whole of Torah while in his mother's womb. An angel comes prior to birth and sucks that knowledge out of him, causing the mark we each find above our upper lip. The Talmud says that if we had not first known the Torah as a fetus, albeit to later forget it, we would not be able to relate to it later as an adult.

The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Shavuot 39A further states that all Jewish souls past, present and future were at Sinai. The memory of Sinai deep within each of us drives our continual search for God and meaning in our lives. Perhaps this is why we ask in our daily prayers to be guided "to know and understand, learn and teach, observe and uphold the Torah with love."

I think the authors of the Chumash knew life well enough to know that we would always be Ba-midbar. Some of us are in a wilderness of our own making. Others find themselves in a desert caused by situations out of their control.

The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Shabbat 33B tells us of two men who endured both types of situations. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was a student of Rabbi Akiva. He was one of five students who survived the plague. About 1,900 years ago he defied the Romans' ruling against Torah study. A death sentence was pronounced against him, and he went into hiding. Rabbi Shimon and his son Elazer fled to a cave in the Galilee. It is said that a carob tree and a well miraculously appeared in the cave to provide them sustenance.

Since they had only one set of clothes, they removed them so that the garments would not wear out, and they buried themselves in the sand except for their heads. They studied Torah all day and did not wish to be immodest while engaged in "God's words." Rabbi Shimon and Elazer studied and lived in this cave for twelve years. One day Elijah the prophet appeared to tell them that Caesar had died and the death sentence had been lifted. They left the cave and saw some Jewish farmers working. Rabbi Shimon was shocked that they were free, but were not studying Torah. He gave them the look of the evil eye and the farmers vaporized. God was upset at this and told the rabbi that His world is not to be destroyed and to return to his cave. RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:LAG B'OMER:BAR YOCHAI

A year later, when Rabbi Shimon and his son emerged they again saw Jews involved in mundane worldly pursuits. He then realized that Torah study and religious pursuits were not enough in life, but that we need to balance them with worldly goals while still maintaining holiness. Rabbi Shimon went on to reveal the Zohar, a Kabbalistic text showing us how to "transform our material daily world into transcendent energy."

 Zohar literally means, "shining light." His death is celebrated on Lag ba Omer, which occurs between Passover and Shavuot during the 7 weeks of counting the Omer. My wife Ellen and I had the occasion to visit Rabbi Shimon's tomb in Meiron, Israel, in the Galilee. Can our humility and our justice seeking help us through the daily wilderness encounters in our own lives? Certainly by walking humbly with God, as Micah suggests, will help us to avoid deserts of our own making.

 In Pirkei Avot 4:17, which we read during the omer counting season between Pesach and Shavuot, Rabbi Shimon taught, "there are three crowns - the crowns of Torah, royalty and priesthood, but the crown of a good name is above them all."

While it is wonderful to study Torah and read about doing mitzvoth, it is the actual doing of these good deeds that will lead us out of the wilderness.

As the Tchortkover Rebbe, Nachum Friedman, wrote, "all of the Torah, royalty, and priestliness in the world are worthless if their owner does not earn a good name as well."

Rabbi Elazer taught in Pirkei Avot 3:21 that one whose wisdom exceeds his good deeds "shall be like an isolated tree in an arid land, dwelling on parched soil in the wilderness." As I wrote in a previous d'var Torah, the fifty-day period between Passover and Shavuot is the time to prepare for the Revelation by taking a good hard look at ourselves.

Rabbi ibn Paquda of eleventh-century Spain writes in his Duties of the Heart: "Are you to accept Jewish ideals on the authority of those rabbis learned in Torah and tradition and exclusively rely on their traditions? On the contrary! The Torah expressly bids you to reflect and exercise your intellect on such themes. 'Know this day and lay it on your heart, that the Lord, He is God.' (Deut. 4:39). This admonition refers to everything in which rational methods of investigation can be used."

We are obliged to study and to question. We are to each seek paths to "make our lives a blessing." We are not to waste life on the trivialities of a modern wasteland. Regardless of what we are doing, we need to clarify our spiritual relationship with God. Every day needs to be our Shavuot.

"Man is the creature created for the purpose of being drawn close to God," wrote the RaMChaL, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto of eighteenth-century Italy. As King David wrote in Psalm 6:4: "Save me if you love me God, for in death there is no remembrance of You. What do You gain by my death, as I go down to the pit? Can the dust praise you or proclaim your faithfulness?" (Ps. 30:09). David also penned in Psalm 115:17: "The dead cannot praise God, they have gone down to silence."

God gave us life so that we can sing His praises and work toward Tikun Olam (repair of the world). God needs us, in other words, to complete His plans for the world. We have to seek God continually. God is not something you find once and then stick in a drawer. Nor should we treat our relationships with each other in this fashion. They must be continually nurtured. The question, "what have you done for me lately?" is a valid one.

 Martin Buber in his Instructions in Intercourse with God quotes the Bal Shem Tov as asking that we "Pray continually for God's Glory, that it may be redeemed from its exile." In doing Tikun Olam, we must also repair the face of God. We need to be Sha'ar Elohim (portals of God). We need to find daily ways to do "shikrur Elohim," actually liberate God. David asks us in Psalm 105:04 to "seek God's face untiringly."

This d'var's title is "One Is the Loneliest Number." As Jews believing in God, we are never truly alone. Our name comes from Yehudah meaning, 'he will give thanks." We are Yehudim because we always thank God for all of our blessings. He has given us more than we could ever deserve. Everything we have, including life itself, is an undeserved gift from God.

Who would wish human companionship when no human could compare to God's benevolence? Yet God Himself declared in Genesis 2:18 that it is "not good (lo tov) for man to be alone." This is the first thing in the universe that God created that was not "tov." It was lo tov to be alone.

The Oneness of God is crucial to our understanding of God. We declare God's Oneness multiple times each day in our Shema prayer. Maimonides wrote that the highest level of wisdom that a human can attain is to comprehend God's Oneness. By doing so, we then know that everything is God. This includes all of humankind and even both good and evil.

The yetzer ha ra is our self-destructive inclination to move away from God and goodness. God gave us free will. And God gave us the yetzer ha ra. It is our task to harness this energy and use it for goodness. Luzzatto, quoted earlier, says in his Path of the Just that creation's purpose is to earn us pleasure. He writes that the ultimate pleasure is attaching to God. So although the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) seems to be leading us away from God, it provides us opportunities to come closer to God.

We get pleasure and satisfaction when we do not give in to our bad impulses. There is joy in not trapping ourselves in our self-made wildernesses. Yet we as humans can feel isolated when we are not in relationships with others. We are not meant to live in a cave like Rabbi Shimon and his son.

On Shabbat in the Mincha service, we traditionally praise God by saying, "You are One, Your Name is One, and who is like your people Israel." We are not only blessing God, but in the same breath blessing ourselves as a people. This prayer is part of the Menuchat Shalom (total peace). It implies that while we need to be one with God, we are not supposed to be one, solitary, like a lonely number.

Rabbi Tzadok taught in Chapter 4, Mishna 7, "Do not separate yourself from the community." We are taught to seek out loving, friendly relationships with others. In the Talmud Bavli Tractate Ta'anit 22A, the story is told of Rabbi Beroka who would visit the market in Bei Lefet. He would often have visions of the prophet Eliyahu. Once the rabbi said to the prophet, "Is there anyone in the marketplace who is destined to the World to Come?" Eliyahu pointed to two men. The rabbi asked them what they did. They replied that they were comedians and cheered up those who were depressed. They also said that whenever they saw two people involved in a quarrel, they strove hard to make peace between them. Rabbi Hillel said, "Be among the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them closer to Torah." (Pirkei Avot 1:12).

In ending this d'var Torah on this parasha, I will quote from its Haftarah from Hosea 2:21-22. This prophet gives us a broad clue on surviving wildernesses that we get trapped in along life's path. He describes God speaking to Israel. It is also a formula for us to speak to God and to each other in our relationships. "I shall marry you to me forever. I shall marry you to me with righteousness, and with justice, and with kindness, and with mercy. I shall marry you to me with fidelity." Certainly if we allowed ourselves to work toward relationships with our spouses, families, friends and also with God within this framework, we would never be a lonely number Ba-midbar.

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

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