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''This is the theme running throughout Chaim Potok's book ''In the Beginning.'' There is also the famous proverb 'the longest journey beings with but a single step.' Endings are also hard: anyone who has lived through a divorce, or the death of a loved one can attest to that. Beginnings and endings are so fundamental to the human experience that every culture has developed rituals for them. As Jews we celebrate a brit for the beginning of a life, a bar/bat mitzvah for the beginning of adulthood, a wedding for the beginning of a marriage. There are also rituals for endings, usually sadder ones, but just as important to the psyche.'' Judaism's get {divorce} ceremony brings about closure, while in a secular divorce, couples will fight and or mourn for years, as there is no ritual ending. Potok says one ''cannot swallow all the world at one time", but with God's help "we survive our beginnings."
''With all these rituals for beginnings and endings, it occurred to wonder what rituals there were for middles. The answer, was found out, is none at all. This ispuzzling, since middles are arguably just as tough as beginnings and endings.
''The Encyclopedia Judaica tells us that there are 17 places in the Torah where a letter is written extra-large or extra-small: the scribal terminology is majuscule and miniscule. There are six miniscules and eleven majuscules. For example, the first letter in the Torah, the beth in the word Beresheit , is a majuscule (this is probably the origin of the illuminated capital of medieval manuscripts). The most famous majuscules are certainly the ones from the Shema in Deut 6:4. In this case, the letters are large to avoid confusion: a large ayin in the word shema to avoid confusion with aleph: 'perhaps O Israel.' The large daleth to avoid confusion with resh: 'the Lord is another'.'' Or perhaps because the two letters spell 'witness.'
''If we look at Lev 9:42 it begins: kol holech al-gachon 'all things which crawl on their belly.' The letter vav in the word gachon is one of the eleven majuscules in the Torah.
''When it was said earlier that we do not celebrate middles, the Torah actual does. This vav is written large to indicate that it is the center letter in all the Torah. The central letter! Can you imagine how long it took some rabbi to count it all out! Rabbis knew the middle word in the Torah, the longest word, the number of times the word Shabbat is mentioned.'' Well of course it is a vuv. The vuv is the most used 'word' and letter in the Torah. It means 'and.' My elementary school English teacher told me never to start a sentence with an "and,' and I said "God did it constantly."
Jews always face uncertainly and any time we think we are settled-in, we get a rude awakening. In any host country we have lived in, except for India, we have been given the boot, or worse. In the USA, General Grant tried to expel the Jews of Tennessee. So the concept of the wandering Jew is not just for a species of plants.
Yes, for example, ''the Rambam moved from place to place, driven by persecution. He suffered the death of his brother, who was his primary financial supporter and fell into a clinical depression. It was after this that he wrote his greatest works. Joseph Karo (author of the Shulkhan Aruch) moved six times during his lifetime. The Maharam shuttled between France and Germany, spending his last 7 years in prison. (He didn't allow his community to pay his ransom, fearing it would just encourage further kidnappings.)'' And our whole Hebraic history started with Abraham leaving what is now Iraq for what is now Israel, and if we go back to Beresheit, Adam and Eve, were forced to leave their home. In reality, every human today, is in some form of galut, exile, physical or spiritual or both.
So the middle of Torah is "and." In the middle of our lives, new beginnings occur and they are difficult. The "and" in the middle of the Torah teaches us that with faith, trust, belief and experience in God, He got us thru what came before and He will get us thru what came after. We cannot do fox-hole prayers. We Jews must develop a continual personal relationship with God, with an attitude of gratitude, as our Jewish Spiritual Renewal rabbi teaches us, so that when a new beginning happens, we are already God connected, and see change as a opportunity, and not as a disaster.
Lev. 25:23 teaches us that " No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to Me--it isn't your land, and you only live there for a little while. " If that doesn't tell us that we are all sojourners and will all be in galut, we don't know what will. We are delusional if we think otherwise. Our patriarchs and matriarchs were traveling from Iraq to Israel to Egypt to Jordan and back to Israel again. The only land they bought was for cemeteries. Our Mishkan and Ark was made with rings and poles for travel. Judaism was portable. It was only Solomon who built the Temple who made the Ark a permanent home, and it wasn't so permanent, as in 586 BCE, about 365 years after Solomon's dedication of the Temple, Nebedchadnezar redefined ''permanency.''
1 Chronicles 29:15 teaches us that we are "sojourners with You, mere transients like our ancestors; our days on earth are like a shadow…"
Life is full of 'ands.' Everything will fade away. All things must and will pass. Spouses, parents, relatives, friends, siblings, teachers, even one's trusted stock broker, come and then in time they go. They pass. Our homes and fortunes, rise and fall. The one thing that we must keep consistent as Jews is our faith in God. Simply put, God flattens hills in front of us, and raises valleys that we come to. Isaiah 40:4 reads: "Every valley shall be risen, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked road shall be made straight, and the rough places plain". In other words, the world may look like a sigmoid curve on an EKG unit, buy we stay like a flat line, steady and secure.
Beginnings can be hard. If we have a rock solid faith that ''gam zu l'tovah'', everything is for the good, we will do well. "V'hy Eli, v'chai go'Ali, v'tzur chevli c'et tzarah. v'hu nisi umanot li, m'nat kosi b'yom elra. And He is my God, my living God. To Him I flee in time of grief and He is My miracle and my refuge Who answers the day I shall call.'' (Adon Olam). When we finally accept that God is Adon Olam, and we stop playing God, and being judgmental of others, make teshuvah to those we have harmed, and accept the yoke of God, all other yokes, including those that occur at new beginnings, fall from our shoulders.(Pirkei Avot)
Yes, God can make a way where there seems to be no way. I often think of Moses, in Exodus 14:1 to 31 at the edge of the sea with the armies of Egypt coming toward the people of Israel, but God caused a miracle to happen. When Moses raised his staff and stretched his hand over the sea, God caused the sea to open and a wall on either side as the Children of Israel walked through on dry land. God made a way where there seemed to be no way! And what a new beginning that was!!!
God can do the same for each and every one of us. He will cause a miracle to happen when we lift our hearts, our voices and our hands up to Him in tephila--prayer. As Buber says, when we reach out for God's hand, we will find His hand there ready to grab hold of ours.
Sometimes we may have to travel on rough roads. Some of us have even felt the pain of suffering in those rough times in our lives, but God has brought us through it stronger, and made us better Jews for it.
Many blessings to those who are struggling now. If I can help anyone with spiritual advice, please email me at RabbiASegal@aol.com and I shall. Many of us have been in the bottom of that hole, and know the way out.
Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Spirituality, Eco Judaism,
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
member Temple Oseh Shalom
acknowledgments to: R'Tarlow, R'Abrams, R'Kruger, D.Mostardi and C.Unholz
A Short Snap Shot of Rabbi Arthur Segal
 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 |
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 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 |
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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.
- Price : $19.99
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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.
- Price : $24.99
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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
- Price : $44.98
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