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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL ; Daily Spiritual Growth
Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of TransformationThe JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College.Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,'' called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).
The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed.Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of Chapter 11: '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' 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=1To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.htmlREMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from Zohar Beresheit and see what the traditional author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.
Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Sotah 9:13 relates that a businessman was once studying Torah when some customers approached him, demanding that he show them his merchandise. The man replied: "I will not interrupt my fixed study period. If this profit has been decreed for me, then inevitably it will be mine.'' Whether it is Torah (Bible) study, or any other good deed, we understand that these mitzvoth, especially deeds of loving kindness, supercede our own selfish wants. Our Sages greatly extolled the virtue of loving kindness, declaring it equal to all the other mitzvoth together. Throughout the Jerusalem Talmud Yerushalmi, ahavath chesed is called simply "The Mitzvah."
Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh
Asking God How to Improve
This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.
In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:
"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.
Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.
This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul. What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"
In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.
Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.
As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.
Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.
The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.
As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"
As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam. Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal.As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.Shalom uvracha:Rabbi Arthur Segalwww.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GAParasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Rabbi Arthur Segalwww.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA"A Listening People"
In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."
This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.
As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."
If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?
We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?
Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).
The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.
What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."
In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.
In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.
In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?
The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.
This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.
Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.
As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?
If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.
I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."
This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.
As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
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