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Jewish Spiritual Renewal : for Shabbat 5/1/10: A Path of Transformation
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Shalom my dear Chaverim, Talmidim v' Rabbanim:
In the previous seven chapters of (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal that we have studied together, and worked together, since Simchat Torah this past autumn, we have seen that we have journeyed together as well.
God spoke to Moses and said, "Why are you crying out to me? I told you to travel straight ahead. Keep going and you will see there is no obstacle!" The Jewish People kept going and that obstacle of water became a miracle of the parting of the Sea.
In the meantime, two other people entered the marketplace. Eliyahu said to R' Beroka, "These two men are destined for the World to Come." R' Beroka approached them and asked, "What do you do?" They replied, "We are comedians and we go to cheer up those who are depressed. Additionally, whenever we see two people involved in a quarrel, we strive hard to make peace between them."
Note how the jesters not only brought peace among those who are quarreling, but also, took worry away from those depressed.
Why should any of us be the makers of discord and makloket, strife, to another? Well as we have learned, these folks, makers of discord, those who refuse a hand, are unhappy people, spiritual disconnected. They need our prayers, and help...when they ask for it.
R'Ibn Pakuda in his 1000 year old Duties of the Heart has a premise re faith and Judaism. We don't learn by having faith. We learn by questioning, by challenging, by re-examining everything we've ever believed. And yet, all this is a matter of faith, the faith that there is a truth to be found. So we have a spiritual paradox: To truly question, we must truly have faith.
In developing faith Pakuda teaches we must open our eyes and see the overflowing gifts that God gives to us. And we must learn to thank Him for all of them. This then leads us to the 8th Chapter of (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal , how to pray, how to bless God all day long for everything.
Chapter Eight: Learning to Pray [ first third of chapter ], from(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1
Blessing God All Day, Every Day…for Everything
Developing an Attitude of Gratitude
Since this chapter is about learning to pray, let us begin with a prayer.
Baruch Atah Adonai Eheinu Melach ha'olam, asher kideshanua bemitzvotav vetzivanua la'asok devrei Torah.
Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to engage in words of Torah.
Notice how the chapter is entitled "Learning to Pray." This is not an overnight process and prayer is something that one never fully masters. Prayer is how we speak to God and to the spark of God within us. God is listening and there really is no wrong way to talk to God, as long as it is done sincerely.
If a married Jewish man is walking alone in a park, and expresses an opinion, without anybody around to hear him, is he still wrong?
We can divide prayer into three types; blessings of thanksgiving, entreaties, and self-judgment. Blessings of thanksgiving are called beracoth, which comes from the root word meaning to bend the knee. Entreaties are called bakashah, which comes from the root for the Hebrew word "please." Self-judgment prayers are called tephila, which comes, appropriately enough, from the root words to self-judge.
Jews, like Daniel, even into the time of the Babylonian exile, prayed on their knees. They continued to do so when the exile was over and some returned to
"I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands to the Lord my God." (Ezra 9:5)
"Opening the windows in his upper chamber towards
You won't find many Jews praying on their knees today. We stopped kneeling when our Christian breakaway brothers continued to do so. We do bend the knee and bow when standing during certain parts of the synagogue service. The reason we kneel or bow our head is that we are praying to the King of all humanity. Would you have the chutzpah to stay seated if the President of the
Such a dearth of reverence does not lend itself to spirituality and a relationship with God. So whether you bend a knee and bow your head, or pray on your knees, pick a posture that you would only give to a supreme ruler, unto whom you trust your life.
Rabbi Bloom and Father O'Reilly were arguing one day about religion. They went on for some time and very soon, things began to get out of hand.
Then Rabbi Bloom said, "We must not quarrel in this way. It's not right. We are both doing God's work. You in your way and I in His."
Beracoth
King David said that we should be so spiritual we should be blessing God at least 100 times a day (Talmud Tractate Bavli Menachot 43A). He meant that we should bless God throughout the day for not only our meals, but for the singing birds, our first breath in the morning, our health, our friends, all of the beauty in the world, and the list goes on. He was talking about an attitude of gratitude as the name Jew, Yahudah, meaning "grateful," suggests.
The Talmud takes David's idea and makes a list of the ritually-ordained prayers for traditional Jews, of which there are about 20 just for saying grace after three meals, so there are 60 blessings right off the bat. Another 40 come from three daily prayer services and others prayed throughout the day, like when we wash hands, awake in the morning and so forth.
In Jewish Spiritual Renewal, while it is a grand idea to learn the prayers developed by our sages and set forth in the first book of Talmud (Beracoth), the sages teach that one should not learn them by rote. Instead we should use the prayer book as a starting point from which to pray to God in your own words with true intention. True spiritual intention is called "kavenah." (Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 5a).
It is not kavenah to mumble through a motzi, the prayer thanking God for bread, without true reflection on what you are saying. It is kavenah, and it is Jewish, to thank God in your own words, from your heart and soul, for the meal you're about to eat, and for the friends and family gathered around you. The Talmud, in Beracoth, further teaches that it is better to pray in a language you understand than in one you don't. This is not an excuse to drop Hebrew study, but the sages are trying to express that prayer is a personal communication between you and God. Kavenah is not found in the words, but in the honesty behind the words.
Did you know that Moses had to make a third trip up to the top of
Well, on this third trip, Moses arrived at the burning bush after much climbing, removed his sandals, kneeled and prayed to God.
"Oh mighty God, King of the Universe, your people have sent me back here to ask you a question about the Ten Commandments."
"What question do they have for me?" roared the voice of God.
"They want to know whether the commandments are listed according to priority."
Praying with true intention will make you feel grateful for all of God's gifts. Your cup will no longer look half full or half empty. You will see it as overflowing. When you thank God throughout the day for everything, even the littlest things, that you have, it will become clear to you how rich you really are. Those times when you don't get what you want will seem insignificant by comparison and you will be less likely to be upset.
Here are some beracoth of thanksgiving that you can start today to add to your prayer routine:
Upon waking:
Modeh ani lifanekha melekh hai v'kayam shehehezarta bi nishmahti b'hemla, raba emunatekha.
I give thanks before You, Living and Eternal King, that You have returned within me my soul with compassion; how abundant is Your faithfulness!
Upon hand washing:
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al n'tilat yadayim.
Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning washing of hands.
Before eating a meal that has bread:
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, ha-motzi lehem min ha-aretz.
Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.
Before eating a meal that has no bread:
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, bo're minei m'zonot.
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who creates varieties of nourishment.
Before drinking wine or grape juice:
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, bo're p'ri ha-gafen.
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.
Before eating fruit:
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, bo're p'ri ha-etz.
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.
Before eating other produce, like a yam:
Barukh ata Adonai eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, bo're p'ri ha-adama.
Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the ground.
Before eating other foods not mentioned, like a candy bar:
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, she-hakol hih'ye bidvaro.
Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe, through whose word everything comes into being.
After eating, the prayer is known as the Birkat Ha Mazon, which can be long, but an abbreviated version is here:
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, hazan et ha-olam kulo b'tuvo b'chein
B'chesed uv-rachamim, hu notein lechem l'chol-basar, ki l'olam chasdo, uv-tuvo hagadol tamid lo chasar lanu v'al yechsar lanu mazon l'olam va-ed.
Ba-avur sh'mo hagadol, ki hu Eil zan um-farneis lakol, u-meitiv lakol u-meichin mazon l'chol-b'riyotav asher bara. Baruch atah Adonai, hazan et hakol.
Blessed is The Lord our God, Sovereign of the universe, who sustains the entire world with goodness, kindness and mercy. God gives food to all creatures, for God's mercy is everlasting.
Through God's abundant goodness we have not lacked sustenance, and may we not lack sustenance forever, for the sake of God's great name. God sustains all, does good to all, and provides food for all the creatures that God has created. Blessed is The Lord our God, who provides food for all.
After surviving an illness:
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, ha-gomel lahayavim tovot sheg'malani kol tov.
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who bestows good things on the unworthy, and has bestowed on me every goodness.
Notice all of these prayers are meant to be said in the home (or perhaps a restaurant). None are synagogue service prayers. These are blessings of gratitude to be incorporated into your daily life so that you begin to build a relationship and a personal experience with God.
In a
One of the speakers was Professor Linda McMaron of
Her speech was rewarded with loud applause and enthusiastic feedbacks.
Another Professor, a Jewish religious man, asked permission to speak.
He said: "By us, the Jews, there is an old tradition, thousands of years old, to say a prayer of thanks to the Creator of the World for meriting us to wake up healthy and whole. The prayer is said immediately upon waking up, while one is still on the bed and sitting down. There are 12 words in this prayer and if one regulates himself to say it slowly with concentration, kavenah, it takes exactly 12 seconds to say it...12 words in 12 seconds."
He said the prayer slowly in Hebrew:
"Mode Ani Lefanecha Melech Chai VeKayam, Shehechezarta Bi Nishmati Bechemla Raba Emunatecha.
I thank Thee, O living and eternal King, because Thou hast graciously restored my soul to me; great is Thy faithfulness."
The auditorium burst into a standing applause that roared throughout the auditorium. This time, it was for the Creator of the World.
Get used to thanking God for everything. Believe it or not, we even have a prayer to say after we move our bowels. Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 60b reads: "Rabbi Abayei said, 'when one comes out of a privy he should say, Blessed is He who has formed man in wisdom and created in him many orifices and many cavities. It is obvious and known before Your throne of glory that if one of them were to be ruptured or one of them blocked, it would be impossible for a man to survive and stand before You. Blessed are You that heals all flesh and does wonders.'" This prayer may produce a chuckle or two, especially from children, but think about someone who has a serious gastrointestinal or prostate problem. Something that used to come so naturally can become a very painful experience. That person would say this prayer of gratitude with true kavenah.
70-year-old Maurice had an appointment to see his doctor. As usual, the doctor began with a series of questions.
"Mr. Levy, what about urination? Do you have any problems?"
Maurice replies, "No doctor, it's very regular, every morning at precisely 7 am."
"And what about your bowel movements?"
Maurice replies, "They're fine also doctor, every morning at precisely 8 am."
The doctor asks, "So then why did you come to see me, Mr. Levy?"
Maurice replies, "Oy, doctor, I don't wake up before 10 am."
As I mentioned earlier, you do not have to recite your prayers word-for-word as written. For example there is even a prayer to say when you see a rainbow, but you might find it more spiritually uplifting to say, "Far out God, that is just beautiful! Thank you!" Remember, it's kavenah that counts, not words. If you ran inside to Google the appropriate rainbow sighting prayer, the rainbow might be gone by the time you find the prayer.
By the way, the reason we have a rainbow prayer is that the rainbow is sign of a God's promise to Noah that he would never flood the Earth again. Here it is for your information:
Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam, zokher haberit vene'eman bivrito v'kaiyam bema'amaro.
Praised are you Adonai, our God, Sovereign of the world, Who remembers the covenant, who keeps the promise, and fulfills God's word.
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
Parasha Emor: Leviticus 21:00-24:23
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
"Don't Follow Leaders, Watch Those Parking Meters"
Judaism is a beautiful religion - and much more than that - it is a wondrous way of life. One of cornerstones of Judaism is continuous learning and exploration.
We are indeed the people of the Book - and of many books. Judaism gives us an obligation to study and to question. While the Torah has literary allusions to us being the sheep of God, we are certainly not expected to act like cattle. We are the children of Israel, and we need to remember always that Jacob received his new name because he wrestled with God.
As Jews, and especially as modern Jews, we need to reevaluate continually and personally our relationships to God and to our traditions. King David asked in Psalm 27 to be lead "on the path of integrity." As long as we strive to stay on this path, we will maintain the true essence of a Jew, which is to have moral and ethical direction. Our Jewish Spiritual Renewal depends on this.
When Judaism encountered the modernity of enlightenment and emancipation in the late 1700s the intellectual walls that we erected were collapsing along with the political, social, and physical (ghetto) walls. In Hebrew, enlightenment is "haskalah," from the root word s-kh-l, to understand. Understanding and its partner, wisdom (binah in Hebrew), brought with it the obligations of continual study. The Reform movement was Judaism's eventual response to these transformations in Europe.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant saw enlightenment as "the human being's release from self-imposed tutelage." Kant meant that we as humans tend to accept an external authority as our guide in determining how we are to believe and to live. It implied that men take the easy way out and invent self-imposed rules to avoid grappling with philosophical issues.
Many Jews, too, had forgotten how to wrestle with issues and were content to listen to their schtetle's rebbe for advice and wisdom. Politically, these two movements of enlightenment and emancipation saw the abandonment of the divine right of kings. This was replaced by Thomas Hobbes's doctrine of the social contract whereby the state was founded on agreement among people. The people decided on an order that would protect their rights and interests. This lead to both the American and the French Revolutions. As Americans and as Jews we must stay educated or our rights of self-determination can and will be limited.
This parasha talks about the period known as the Counting of the Omer. During the period from Passover to Shavuot we traditionally study a book of the Mishna called Pirkei Avot, Chapters (or Teachings or Ethics) of the Fathers. You can find 100 percent of this text in every traditional sidur and about 20 percent in liberal sidurim.
"The world is sustained by three things: by the Torah, by worship, and by deeds of loving kindness." (1:02). "Do not say when I have leisure time I will study as you may never have any leisure." (2:05). Why do I remind you of this in this d'var Torah?
"You shall not desecrate (lo te-chal-lu) my Holy Name (shem)." (Lev. 22:32). The concept of "chillul ha Shem" is now introduced to us. Desecration of God's name, according to Talmud Bavli Tractate Yoma 86A, is one of the most serious of sins and one for which it is the most difficult to atone.
As Jews we are to know what proper man-to-man behavior is and not let anyone lead us astray from this regardless of their title. We saw in history how Pope Urban II said, "Deus vult" (God wills it), and the Crusades began. We saw in recent times how a rabbi told his student that Prime Minister Itzchak Rabin was a "rodef," a stalker against the Jewish people, and Rabin was assassinated. These are the true "chillul ha Shems." This is why we need to be informed modern Jews so that we cannot be led astray.
A most interesting case of chillul ha Shem unfolded in southern New Jersey. A local rabbi was arrested some time ago on charges of killing his wife. He did not admit to the killing, but did admit to three affairs with his congregants whom he was counseling. This happened in 1994.
A male congregant of the rabbi, whom he had also counseled, came forth to the police and confessed to the murder. However, he stated that his rabbi allegedly told him to murder the rebbitzin because she was someone who hated Israel. This, the rabbi allegedly said, would make the murder justifiable. In addition, the rabbi promised to get this fellow a job with the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service.
Now how many of you are seeing this rabbi with a long, white flowing beard dressed in black? Well, please erase that image from your eyes. The rabbi and his congregant are members of the CCAR and URJ. What is so perverse about this, besides the murder, is that the alleged murderer, whether his rabbi told him to do it or not, thought that this is how religion works. It is just as spiritually deficient as a Jew gunning down Moslems in prayer in Hebron, Moslems car-bombing Jews, Protestants and Catholics killing each other in Ireland, and Moslems and Hindus fighting in the Indian subcontinent.
The rabbis in Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 46A tell us we should always consider ourselves to be in equipoise, where one positive action will bring salvation, but one sin could bring condemnation. We must think. We must study. We must grapple. Bernard Shaw said, "most people would rather die than think, and most do."
The way one does this in Jewish Spiritual Renewal is with a daily chesbon ha nefesh, a moral accounting of our thoughts and actions.
The rabbi and his co-conspirator congregant were eventually found guilty and are serving time. His dead wife was our baker in NJ, and a piece of her wedding cake, a wheatless chocolate torte, is still in our freezer. Never did we think a slice of her cake would outlast Diane, OBM.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow recently wrote that chillul ha shem literally means the hollowing out of the Name of God. It means one is taking all the life out of the Name while pretending it is still there, like a hollow tree. He says, "It is acting in such a way to teach Jews and non-Jews that a profoundly anti-religious act is carried out for the sake of God." This is why the rabbis in Tractate Yoma of the Talmud Bavli said chillul ha Shem is the worst of sins.
As the rabbis said in Pirkei Avot, quoted above, study is one of the three pillars on which the world rests. As we can see from above, these words are not just hyperbole. Judaism has a long-standing tradition that when the Messiah comes, the law will be changed. And Judaism has had its share of false messiahs that have attracted large numbers of Jewish followers.
Jacob Frank and Sabbetai Zvi were two of these false saviors. In the Midrash Aleph Bait of Rabbi Akiva 3:27 it states, "The Holy One, blessed be He, will expound to all the meaning of a new Torah which He will give through the Messiah." In Mishna Ecclesiastes Rab. 11:1, Rabbi Hizquaya in the name of Rabbi Simon bar Zibdi said, "The whole Torah which you will learn in this world is vanity compared to the Torah of the world to come."
In the Yemenite Midrash (p. 349) the rabbis say, "The messiah will sit in the supernal House of Study and all those who walk on earth will come and sit before him to hear a new Torah and new Commandments." Furthermore in Halakhot Gadolot it states that, "Elijah will come in the Messianic age and explain and expound all the secrets of the Torah and all that which is crooked and distorted in it." Will our children and we be able to debate intellectually with those who wish to teach us to distort our teachings if we do not study continually?
In teaching the rules of the Omer, our parasha in Lev. 23:15 states, "You shall count for yourselves." We have an obligation not to trust others to count for us or to lead us in counting.
The count starts on the second night of Pesach and ends on the 50th day on Shavuot. Shavuot, as you recall, is traditionally when we received the Torah on Mt Sinai. The omer was a measure of barley, about 3 1/3 dry quarts of grain, which we were commanded to bring to the Temple as an offering. Unlike our elementary school days, where we counted down the days left of school, we Jews count up in anticipation of the receipt of the Torah.
Why were we commanded to count for ourselves (lo-chem)? There is no benefit to God for our action. We are to use these 50 days to refine ourselves to get ready for the Torah. The Torah uses the word ve-so-phar-to for counting. Sepher connotes books and study. Sephirah has the same root as sapphire, a clear jewel. We are to try to shine like a jewel in our studies.
We do not just count, as Rabbi Dovid Green has written. We as Jews must make each day count. The 50 days of the Sephirot Ha Omer (counting of the omer) lead us to the Kabballot Ha Torah (the receiving of the Torah). The omer counting is also the period of time in which Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai revealed the hidden secrets of the Zohar and Kabballah circa 80 C.E.
The Sepher Yetzirah is one of the most famous texts of the Kabballah. It was written in 200 C.E. It means Book of Formation. Rabbi Judah Ha Levi in 1120 wrote that this text "teaches us the existence of a single divine power by showing us that in the bosom of variety and multiplicity there is unity and harmony and that such a universal concord could only arise from the rule of a Supreme Unity."
Part of this book is the "Fifty Gates of Binah" (Understanding). These 50 gates correspond to each of the 50 days from Pesach to Shavuot. It is said in a Midrash that Moses only achieved 49 of these gates. The Kabbalists said that one must pass through these 50 gates before attempting to attain the 32 Paths of Wisdom.
The 50th gate is knowing God, the Ayn Sof. Ayn in Hebrew means "no thing," as God is beyond existence. Sof means "without end." God has no real attributes because they can manifest only within existence, and existence is finite, and God is infinite. The kabala says the reason for existence is that "God wished to behold God." The previous phase of nonexistence was a time when "face did not gaze upon face." God then of His own free will, withdrew His absolute all, the Ayn Sof. This contraction is called zimzum by the kabballists. The rabbis say, based on this concept, "God's place is the world, but the world is not God's place."
The 32nd Path of Wisdom, in comparison, is called Administrative Intelligence. It is the wisdom to direct and administer the motions of the planets in their proper courses. Thirty-two is written in Hebrew as the letters lamed-beth, and these are the last and first letters of the Chumash.
The number 32 is obtained 2 to the fifth power. We can see easily that the path to wisdom and understanding is never ending. Laib, LB, as a Hebrew word, means heart. Thus, knowledge and wisdom, enlightenment and emancipation, begin in our hearts with the love of God, love of our fellows, and the love of study. This parallels the verse in Pirkei Avot quoted above in this d'var.
Carl Jung, the renowned psychiatrist wrote, "You trust your unconscious as if it were a loving father. But it is inhuman and it needs the human mind to function usefully. The unconscious is useless without the human mind. It always seeks its collective purposes and never your individual destiny. Your destiny is the result of the collaboration between the conscious and the unconscious."
As King David wrote in Psalm 139:13, "It was You who created my inmost self, and put me together in my mother's womb." As informed modern Jews, committed to study, our children and we will never, to quote Dylan again, "need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
Shabbat Shalom:
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
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