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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:ECO-JUDAISM:VAYIGASH:Larry Gopnik, A Serious Man's,Seeking
Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 12/26/09: A Path of Transformation
"Tell me, what do you have in your house?" Elisha asked her.
"Nothing, except for a little jar of oil," she answered.
"Go and borrow as many empty pots as you can from your neighbors. Then go back home, close the door and, with the help of your children, pour the oil from the little jar into the empty pots."
She did exactly as the Prophet Elisha told her. The children handed her the empty pots and she kept on pouring.
When her son told her that there were no more pots to fill, the little jar of oil became empty. She went back and told Elisha about the miracle. Elisha told her to sell the oil, pay her debt and use the rest for her livelihood. [2 Ki. 4:8-17]
There is yet another story about a miracle with oil. This takes place after the Chanukah miracle. In the Talmud we find the following story: One Friday afternoon, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa saw that his daughter was very upset. "What is the matter?" he asked his daughter.
"It is soon time to light the Shabbat candles, but instead of oil, I mistakenly filled the candelabra with vinegar."
"There is nothing to worry about," said her father. "The one who commanded that oil should burn will command that vinegar will burn. Go light the Shabbat candles!"
His daughter lit the wicks which were soaked with vinegar. The Talmud tells us that a miracle occurred and the wicks burnt the entire Shabbat. At the completion of Shabbat, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa used this fire for the Havdallah service.[Talmud Bavli Tractate Ta'anit 25a]
What do we learn spiritually from these stories as well as from Chanukah? For me it means that everything in life is a gift from God. In reality, everything is a loan from God. All things, big and small, are miracles. We thank God for our first breath in the morning. And when we do the Modim prayer in the Amidah each day we thank God for his daily miracles for us. As Spiritual Jews, we take nothing for granted. As we will learn in future chapters of 001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal we live life with an attitude of gratitude all day long.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said; "Others may be satisfied with improvement; the prophets insist upon redemption." In Jewish Spiritual Renewal we are not just concerned about growth, we are concerned about Spiritual transformation. Just as God redeemed us from Egypt, Mitzraim, the Narrow Spaces, so will He redeem us from the bondage of self we place our selves in with our own narrowness.
Our true place is a place of light. Even when we find ourselves in sad darkness, we must remember that this is not our place. This dark spot is not our homes. Our true soul has a bond with God, the source of all Light, the source of all Good, the source of all Love. We learn together how to take that spark that never is extinguished and turn our lives into an illumination for ourselves and for others who truly see us.
Let us look at the Hebrew letters that spell Yavan. All of them are in effect straight line letters. The first is the yud, a small line. The second is a vuv, another line but bigger. And the third and last letter is a final nun, a very long line. The yud represents the Jew...Yahuda... ''The Yid.'' But when we get stuck in the material world of Hellenism, thinking for example, that Hanukah is about latkas and parties, and missing its lessons of spiritual growth, we get stuck in quicksand, sinking further and further away from spirituality, God and our fellows.
Let us now continue with (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal [also http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc?productId=1&categoryId=1 ] as we start Chapter Four.
Chapter Four: The Chesbon Ha Nefesh
An Inventory of Your Soul
Imagine that we all gathered together to enjoy a relaxing meal at an
Judaism teaches that in order to attain Jewish Spiritual Renewal, and to keep it alive, you must maintain an itemized accounting, or inventory, of your soul called a chesbon ha nefesh. Actually, there are two versions of this inventory. A large moral inventory of your past is your chesbon ha nefesh gadol (large), and a nightly accounting of the days events and interactions is your chesbon ha nefesh katon (small). The rabbis teach that if you sincerely do your chesbon ha nefesh katon 80 times, you will emerge as a new person with a new ruach (spirit). This is your opportunity to regain your sanctity on a regular basis. There is no waiting for a cloud to lift, giving you an invitation to reach God. You have the ability to renew your spirit and reach God regularly. If you take this ability to heart your life will benefit immensely.
But Jewish Spiritual Renewal is no walk in the park. A chesbon ha nefesh takes serious work. You cannot change your life overnight, but know that you can change it.
Leon, the owner of an American-style steakhouse, was tired of looking at empty tables in his restaurant while diners paraded through all the exotic ethnic restaurants lining the street. Japanese, Thai, Burmese, Chinese, Indonesian, Moroccan, Turkish, Indian, even the taco stand seemed to have plenty of customers. Day after day his frustration grew. Finally
"Dear God," he prayed, "You know that I am basically a good Jew. I do not cheat on my wife much. I spend time with my kids. I am active in the
All of a sudden there was a puff of smoke, a crash of thunder, and a bolt of lightening. When the smoke cleared,
We do a chesbon ha nefesh to learn about ourselves, specifically about our defects. Without this knowledge we are lost. We don't know where we are or where we are going and chances are that we will end up in places we do not wish to be. Our defects block us from conscious contact with God. Unfortunately, today's Jews rarely do their chesbons because few are teaching how to do them. Our penitential prayers during the Rosh ha Shana, Tashlich and Yom Kippur services rarely work because we end up walking out of synagogue carrying the same defects with which we went in. We try throwing our sins into the moving water at Tashlich, but as soon as we're not looking they jump out of the water and into our back pocket. Rabbis often have simply neglected to teach us the steps we must take before saying these prayers.
All of that changes today, for you at least. Let's start with the chesbon ha nefesh gadol, the moral inventory of your past.
Martin Buber tells the story of Chaim of Zanz who at 20 years old wanted to reform his entire country morally. By the time he turned 30 he'd had no success. Thinking that he'd bitten off more than he could chew, he decided to focus on his province. At the age of 40 he realized that his scaled-down program was also a failure and decided to morally reform his own town. Ten years later the town looked the same morally as when he'd begun. Now 50 years old, Chaim finally came to the conclusion that he could not reform others without first taking the time to repair his own soul.
Jewish Spiritual Renewal is not about proselytizing to the many Jews who need it; it is about helping those individual Jews who want it. It is about saving the world, so to speak, by starting with your own soul. Look deeply into yourself. Turn words of confession into action. Have the faith to know that living a life of happiness, joy and freedom begins with repairing yourself…with God at your side.
God will be will continue with chapter four from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=1AAD298F635FC0CDB0E40D45B4556F39.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1 next week.
A d'var Torah for Shabbat 12/26/09 follows:
Shalom uvracha:
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Parasha Vayigash: Genesis 44:18-47:27
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''Brother, bring some lovin' here today''
This Shabbat we read: "then he (Joseph) fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. He then kissed all his brothers and wept upon them" (Gen 45:14-15). When Joseph finally removed the mask behind which he was hiding and revealed himself to his brothers his joy could not be contained. He had already forgiven them and saw that they indeed had learned compassion and tolerance by the way they were concerned about Benjamin and their father Jacob.
The Midrash teaches something else as well. It says that Joseph, the dreamer, wept not only tears of joy, but of sadness. He could foresee that the exile in
Our ancient rabbinic sages expound that Joseph wept over the destruction of the Temples and that he could also foresee the time when his brothers again would fight and break up into two kingdoms (after Solomon's reign). The Zohar takes this even a step further. Joseph also foresaw the scattering of ten of the brothers' tribes to be lost forever (after the Assyrian battles).
In this Parasha's Haftarah from the Book of Ezekiel (Ez 37:15-28), our prophet speaks of the reunification of the 12 tribes of
As a people we have always been stiff-necked and quarrelsome. But we are commanded to not be like Korach, fighting among ourselves. We were at our zenith when we accepted our differences and believed that despite them, we were all Jews.
The Talmud is replete with different opinions of rabbis spanning the centuries. We can relate the story of how Rabbi Hillel wanted the Hanukah menorah lit as opposed to the way that Rabbi Shamai wished it to be done. But the rabbis accepted the fact that different groups from different areas did things differently. They jested about these groups, sometimes in unkind ways, but the minhags (traditions) were accepted.
Talmud Beracoth says that kavenah (spiritual intention and concentration) is the most important part of prayer and that praying in one's vernacular in an abridged version with true kavenah is better than rushing thru a prayer service in Hebrew and not understanding it. Talmud Kiddushin says a Torah service where just three lines are read completes the mitzvah of reading the Torah. Talmud Sanhedrin relates how Rabbi Hillel was not a believer in the messiah from scriptural references. Rabbi Akiva thought that General Bar Kochba was the messiah. And Rabbi
There are so many ways and paths to reach God. Many gain closeness to God by doing ritual and all its minutia. Others gain a spiritual closeness by doing the mitzvoth of visiting the sick, tutoring a student in an afternoon program, helping the elderly or raising a family. Many others enjoy a festive Shabbat meal or singing joyous songs of praise to God. Still others gain spirituality by quiet study and reflection or through individual prayer.
We are all made in the image of God, and His emanations are as different as the sands on the earth's beaches. Man is equally varied. The time has come to universally realize that no one group of Jews has the right and only path (halacha) to reach God. Each of us approaches God differently, and hopefully He reaches us in different ways at different times in our lives.
An important message from this parasha it is that we are all brothers with different strengths, weaknesses, customs and traditions. Yet, like Joseph's siblings, we have the same Father. "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us all? Why do we deal treacherously with one another?" (Malachi 2:10). Let us all strive to relish our differences, customs, rituals or lack thereof, and even modes of dress. Let us try to banish lashon ha ra from our lips and ridicule from our hearts. Let the "covenant of peace among the people of
Shabbat Shalom:
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