For the miracles, for the redemption... for the wonders You have wrought for our ancestors, in those days, in this time. In the days of Matityahu... the Hashmonean and his sons, when the wicked Hellenic regime rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and violate the decrees of Your will...
from the Chanukah prayers
The story is told of a group of coachmen in a small town in the backwoods of Russia who heard some disturbing news from the big city. Frightening things were happening in the world: bands of iron were being laid across the plains and forests of Russia, upon which an iron monster, who ate coal and spewed fire and smoke, would move three times faster than the fleetest team of horses. It was said that this demon could pull 100 iron coaches and thousands of passengers. No longer would anyone need to hire a coach and coachman to go from town to town. No longer will merchants negotiate the price of a wagon to take their wares to the market in Leipzig. People were already traveling from Moscow to Petersburg in this manner, and soon these roads of iron will connect every town and townlet in Russia.
“And how many horses does this machine use?” asked Misha, the oldest and ablest of the coachmen. “None whatsoever,” said Grisha, who was the source of the news. “That's the whole point: no horses, and no coachmen.” “Impossible,” said Misha with authority. “A hundred iron coaches, no horses, impossible!”
“But here's the letter from my cousin from Smolensk. He writes: ‘The iron rails have already reached the city, and next month the first of these machines will arrive from Moscow.’ After much debate, the coachmen decided to travel to the city and see for themselves.
At the appointed time, they stood at the edge of the crowd that had gathered on the platform at the newly erected station. They heard it before they saw it, an unearthly sound of crashing metal and a thousand charging bulls. And then, in a huge cloud of black smoke, it appeared: a line of iron coaches, stretching as far as the eye could see, traveling faster than the mightiest horse, a shrieking iron monster at their head. It pulled up alongside the cheering crowd, let go a final ear-piercing wail, and died.
As the crowd surged towards the train the coachmen remained rooted to the ground, mouths agape, stunned to the very core of their souls. Misha was the first to recover. Ignoring the train of carriages and their disembarking passengers, he boldly approached the engine. Carefully he circled the still shuttering monster, running his eyes over every inch of its surface. He peered into the engineer's cabin and crouched between the wheels to examine the undercarriage. Muttering to himself, he rejoined his fellow coachmen on the platform.
“Amazing!” he kept saying to himself. “What a horse! What a horse!”“A horse?!” asked his colleagues.“Of course,” said the veteran coachman. “There's got to be a horse hidden somewhere in there. Think of it---a horse, probably no bigger than a kitten, who can pull one hundred iron coaches. What a horse!”Why did the Maccabees revolt? It was not political independence they sought, nor was taxation--with or without representation--the issue. Matityahu and his sons took up arms because the Syrian-Greeks, who ruled the Holy Land, wished to “make them forget Your Torah and violate the decrees of Your will.”
It was not the Torah per se that Hellenic regime wished to uproot from the people of Israel, but Your Torah. Nor was the Greek against the Jews' practice of the Torah's precepts, the mitzvos, as a moral and ethical code; it was specifically the decrees of Your will that he wished to outlaw.
The Decrees
The Torah's 613 mitzvos fall into three general categories: laws (mishpatim), testimonials (eidot) and decrees (chukim).
“Laws” are the most “rational” of the mitzvos. Indeed, we can envision the human mind deducing that the rich should give to the poor, that a child should respect his parents, that murder, theft, and slander ought to be forbidden---also if these were not Divinely legislated laws.
“Testimonials” are the mitzvos which signify and commemorate. Shabbos attests to G-d's creation of the world and establishes our lives as the ongoing commitment to develop it as “partners in creation”; the Passover observances evoke the experience of freedom and the contemplation of its significance; teffilin reiterate the sovereignty of mind over heart and deed and the “binding” of all three to serve a higher end. While the mind may not necessarily have conceived these precise forms of attesting and experiencing, it certainly accepts them as “rational”. We understand the need for concrete symbols for the truths and ideals we care for, and recognize the manner in which these mitzvos instill them in our hearts and lives.
Then there are the “decrees”. These are the wholly supra-rational mitzvos, such as the prohibition against mixing meat and milk or the laws of niddah. It of these mitzvos that G-d says: “I have instituted a statute, decreed a decree: you have no license to reason it.”[1] Here the mind must acknowledge its limitations, conceding that there are truths which lie beyond its finite scope.
Humanly Divined
To the Greek, the human being was supreme. The body of the athlete, the mind of the philosopher---if perfect, man was god. To have suggested that there might be anything more transcendent than man's crowning glory, the intellect, was heresy.
Torah? By all means. The Hellenist respected the Jews' philosophy as part of the great human quest for knowledge. He also recognized the philosophical, psychological and social value of their “lifestyle.” Laws? The backbone of any civilized society. Testimonials? Also important. Decrees? Interesting---let's examine them. There has to be some reason why such a highly intelligent people are doing these things. No reason? You mean no known reason. You say no reason whatsoever? Listen, I don't understand everything---not yet, anyway. Maybe I'll never understand everything. Maybe there is no man alive today who can understand everything. Maybe no man who has ever lived who could understand everything. But everything true has a rational reason.
Listen, let's get together. We certainly have a lot to learn from each other. We'll visit your Temple, you'll visit our stadiums. We'll open a comparative religions department in Jerusalem's new Hellenist University. You know, if we apply some Aristotelian methodology to your Biblical myths, there might be some interesting results. Maybe we'll even crack some of those enigmatic “decrees”...
In Those Days, In This Time
On Chanukah, the historical Hellenist threat was overcome by a handful of Jews who insisted the Torah's decrees are “the decrees of Your will” and Your will only. They further believed that all of Torah is Your Torah: that also the most rudimentary “law” is intrinsically supra-rational, its “rational” husk external to its Divine essence.
The Chanukah lights remind us that there is the Hellenist within that must also be vanquished, a Hellenist coachman who insists that nothing exists beyond his narrow perception of reality. Torah? By all means. Laws and ceremonies? Beautiful. Decrees? Hard to accept but, hey, nobody's perfect. I'll take it on faith that there's a good reason for it. Beyond reason? Be real! There's got to be a horse in there, somewhere...
Compromise
The miracle of Chanukah was completely unnecessary.
Every Jewish schoolchild knows the story: The Greeks had defiled the Holy Temple's store of olive oil. So when the Maccabees liberated the Temple, they could not find ritually pure oil with which to kindle the menorah. Then, a single cruse of uncontaminated oil was found, enough to keep the menorah alight for a single day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared. To this day, we commemorate the miracle by kindling the Chanukah lights on each of the festival's eight days.
Strictly speaking, none of this was necessary. The law which forbids the use of ritually impure oil in the Temple would not have applied under the circumstances which then prevailed. According to Torah law, “The prohibition of impurity, if affecting the entire community, is waived”---if the entire community, or all the kohanim, or the all Temple's vessels, are ritually impure, it is permissible to enter the Temple and conduct the Temple services under conditions of impurity.[2] Nevertheless, G-d wished to show His love for His people: He suspended the laws of nature in order to enable them to rededicate the Temple without any compromise on its standards of purity---even if it be a perfectly legal and permissible compromise.
Going Overboard
Every Chanukah, we reciprocate in kind. How many lights must be kindled on the Chanukah menorah? One on the first night, two on the second, etc. Wrong. According to the Talmud, this is he law:
The mitzvah of Chanukah is [fulfilled with] a single light for each household. Those who do more than is obligatory, kindle a single light for each individual. Those who do more than those who do more than is obligatory... kindle one light on the first day and add an additional light on each succeeding day.[3]
There are Jews who buy the cheapest teffilin on the market, who give the absolute minimum that the laws of charity mandate, who employ every halachic exemption and loophole they can lay their hands on. But when was the last time you saw a single light in the window of a Jewish home on the sixth night of Chanukah? On Chanukah, we all “do more than those who do more than is obligatory” - after all, G-d did the same for us.
Fanatical Educator
The word “Chanukah” comes from the word chinuch, which means “initiation.” Chanukah celebrates the renewal of the service in the Holy Temple after it was liberated from the Greek defiler, purified, and rededicated as the seat of G-d's manifest presence in our world.
Chanukah thus serves as a model for all initiations, including the most significant initiation of all---education, a child's initiation into life (indeed, chinuch is also the Hebrew word for “education”). The uncompromising insistence on purity and perfection which Chanukah represents imparts an important lesson regarding the essence of the educator/initiator's task.
Compromise is anathema to education. To a mature tree, a gash here or a torn limb there is of little or no consequence. But the smallest scratch in the seed, the slightest nick in the sapling, results in an irrevocable deformity, a flaw which the decades to come will deepen rather than erase.
Virtually every life is faced with demands for compromise---some tolerable, others not. The educator who wishes to impart a set of values and priorities that will weather them all, must deliver, in word and example, a message of impeccable purity, free of even the slightest and most “acceptable” equivocation.
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Chanukah 5714 (1953).
[1] Midrash Rabba, Bamidbar 19:1[2] Talmud, Pesachim 79a; Mishneh Torah, Laws of Entering the Temple, 4:12.[3] Talmud, Shabbos 21a.
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
Spiritual Gems from the parsha
And Pharoah called Joseph, Tzafnat Paneiach (Genesis 41:45)
Pharoah changed Joseph's name because he didn't want his viceroy to have a Jewish sounding name. However, he continued to be called by the name Josef, as it is written in the next verse: "And Josef went out from Pharoah's presence."
(Yalkut David)
Joseph recognized his brothers, but they recognized him not (Gen. 42:8)
Joseph's brothers never expected that a man as involved in worldly affairs as the viceroy of Egypt could be their brother. In their world view, the only way to serve G-d properly was to divorce oneself from worldly matters and pursue a life of spiritual contemplation, much as they were able to do in their chosen profession of shepherding. Joseph, however, was on a higher level of spirituality, able to maintain his attachment to G-d even while involved in the day-to-day affairs of state.
(Torah Ohr)
When Joseph's brothers came under his power he recognized them as his brothers - he acted compassionately as a brother should. But when Joseph fell into their hands they did not recognize their brotherly obligations, and they sold him.
(Tzena U'rena)
Your G-d, and the G-d of your fathers, has given you a treasure...and he brought Shimon out to them (Gen. 43:32)
This verse alludes to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who would one day reveal the treasures hidden within the Torah in his holy book, the Zohar.
(Ma'ayana Shel Torah)
Pharoah changed Joseph's name because he didn't want his viceroy to have a Jewish sounding name. However, he continued to be called by the name Josef, as it is written in the next verse: "And Josef went out from Pharoah's presence."
(Yalkut David)
Joseph recognized his brothers, but they recognized him not (Gen. 42:8)
Joseph's brothers never expected that a man as involved in worldly affairs as the viceroy of Egypt could be their brother. In their world view, the only way to serve G-d properly was to divorce oneself from worldly matters and pursue a life of spiritual contemplation, much as they were able to do in their chosen profession of shepherding. Joseph, however, was on a higher level of spirituality, able to maintain his attachment to G-d even while involved in the day-to-day affairs of state.
(Torah Ohr)
When Joseph's brothers came under his power he recognized them as his brothers - he acted compassionately as a brother should. But when Joseph fell into their hands they did not recognize their brotherly obligations, and they sold him.
(Tzena U'rena)
Your G-d, and the G-d of your fathers, has given you a treasure...and he brought Shimon out to them (Gen. 43:32)
This verse alludes to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who would one day reveal the treasures hidden within the Torah in his holy book, the Zohar.
(Ma'ayana Shel Torah)
Why is it customary to eat dairy foods on Chanuka?
Eating dairy foods reminds us of the miracles performed through Yehudit, daughter of Yochanan the High Priest. After serving the Syrian General Holefernes salty cheese, she plied him with wine. when we was in a drunken stupor she killed him, smuggled his head out of the enermy camp and into the city where it was hung on the wall. When the Syrian army saw this they fled.
May G-d grant that all the matters about which you write should get ever brighter
Chanukah, 5733 [1972]
I duly received your letter...and may G-d grant that all the matters about which you write should get ever brighter, in keeping with the spirit of Chanukah Lights increasing in number and brightness from day to day.
As has been often said before, all matters of Torah are an inexhaustible source of lessons and inspiration for our daily life, especially when they take the form of practical Mitzvoth [commandments], since the Torah and Mitzvoth are infinite, being derived from the Infinite [Ein Sof]. I mention this here apropos of the Mitzvah of the Ner Chanukah [Chanukah Lights], specifically in relation to one particular aspect which, at first, appears quite puzzling.
I am referring to the fact that although Chanukah recalls many miracles and wonders, the main event for which Chanukah was instituted was the miracle of the cruse of oil, the one and only that was found in the Beth Hamikdosh [Holy Temple], that was intact and undefiled by the enemy, which was then kindled and which lasted for eight days, until new, pure and holy oil could be prepared.
What is puzzling about it is that the oil was not required for human consumption, nor for the consumption of the Mizbe'ach (Altar), but for fuel in the Menorah to be burnt in the process of giving light. It would seem, at first glance, of no consequence, insofar as the light is concerned, whether or not the oil had been touched and defiled, for, surely, the quality and intensity of the light could hardly be affected by the touch?
Yet, when the Talmud defined the essence of the Chanuka festival, the Sages declared that the crucial aspect was the miracle with oil. Not that they belittled or ignored the great miracles on the battlefields, when G-d delivered the "mighty" and "many" into the hands of the "weak" and "few," for these miracles are also emphasized in the prayer of "V'al Hanissim." Nevertheless, it was the miracle of being able to light the Menorah with pure, holy oil, without any touch of uncleanliness, which gave rise to the Festival of Lights.
The obvious lesson is that in the realm of the spirit, of Torah and Mitzvoth, as symbolized by the Chanukah Lights, there must be absolute purity and holiness. It is not for the human mind to reason why, and what difference it makes, etc.
Much more could be said on the subject, but it will suffice to lend further weight to our conversation during your visit here, when the point was made how most vital it is that the right person should head the institution which Divine Providence has privileged you to establish in the Holy Land, and even holier City of Jerusalem, as a center for the dissemination of Yiddishkeit [Judaism] in its purity. The purity and holiness of the oil must be ensured.
To carry the analogy further, it is the purpose of the central Beth Hamikdosh to illuminate and bring holiness and purity into the individual "Beth Hamikdosh" - i.e. every Jewish home and every Jewish person, which is also the obligation of every Jew towards his fellow Jew, in accordance with the Mitzvah of "v'ohavto lre'acho komoicho [love your fellow as yourself]." But special precautions are necessary that the Beth Hamikdosh itself be illuminated with the purest, sanctified oil, so that even the Kohen Godol [High Priest], if he should happen to be tomeh [impure] could not enter the Beth Hamikdosh, much less kindle the Menorah.
May G-d grant you Hatzlocho [success] in establishing the set institution in fullest accord with G-d's will, in the spirit outlined above, truly reflecting the spirit of the Chanukah lights, lighting ever more candles and increasing their glow from day to day.
With prayerful wishes for the utmost Hatzlocho in all above, and
With Blessing
P.S.... Inasmuch as we are now in the auspicious days of Chanukah, I want to send you and yours my greetings and good wishes for a growing measure of brightness in all your affairs, including, above all, your participation in the cause of Chinuch Al Taharas Hakodesh [a pure Jewish education]. One of the essential messages of Chanukah is the need to preserve the purity of the Torah and Mitzvoth, especially in the education of our children, for the miracle of Chanukah occurred with the cruse of pure and undefiled oil.
I duly received your letter...and may G-d grant that all the matters about which you write should get ever brighter, in keeping with the spirit of Chanukah Lights increasing in number and brightness from day to day.
As has been often said before, all matters of Torah are an inexhaustible source of lessons and inspiration for our daily life, especially when they take the form of practical Mitzvoth [commandments], since the Torah and Mitzvoth are infinite, being derived from the Infinite [Ein Sof]. I mention this here apropos of the Mitzvah of the Ner Chanukah [Chanukah Lights], specifically in relation to one particular aspect which, at first, appears quite puzzling.
I am referring to the fact that although Chanukah recalls many miracles and wonders, the main event for which Chanukah was instituted was the miracle of the cruse of oil, the one and only that was found in the Beth Hamikdosh [Holy Temple], that was intact and undefiled by the enemy, which was then kindled and which lasted for eight days, until new, pure and holy oil could be prepared.
What is puzzling about it is that the oil was not required for human consumption, nor for the consumption of the Mizbe'ach (Altar), but for fuel in the Menorah to be burnt in the process of giving light. It would seem, at first glance, of no consequence, insofar as the light is concerned, whether or not the oil had been touched and defiled, for, surely, the quality and intensity of the light could hardly be affected by the touch?
Yet, when the Talmud defined the essence of the Chanuka festival, the Sages declared that the crucial aspect was the miracle with oil. Not that they belittled or ignored the great miracles on the battlefields, when G-d delivered the "mighty" and "many" into the hands of the "weak" and "few," for these miracles are also emphasized in the prayer of "V'al Hanissim." Nevertheless, it was the miracle of being able to light the Menorah with pure, holy oil, without any touch of uncleanliness, which gave rise to the Festival of Lights.
The obvious lesson is that in the realm of the spirit, of Torah and Mitzvoth, as symbolized by the Chanukah Lights, there must be absolute purity and holiness. It is not for the human mind to reason why, and what difference it makes, etc.
Much more could be said on the subject, but it will suffice to lend further weight to our conversation during your visit here, when the point was made how most vital it is that the right person should head the institution which Divine Providence has privileged you to establish in the Holy Land, and even holier City of Jerusalem, as a center for the dissemination of Yiddishkeit [Judaism] in its purity. The purity and holiness of the oil must be ensured.
To carry the analogy further, it is the purpose of the central Beth Hamikdosh to illuminate and bring holiness and purity into the individual "Beth Hamikdosh" - i.e. every Jewish home and every Jewish person, which is also the obligation of every Jew towards his fellow Jew, in accordance with the Mitzvah of "v'ohavto lre'acho komoicho [love your fellow as yourself]." But special precautions are necessary that the Beth Hamikdosh itself be illuminated with the purest, sanctified oil, so that even the Kohen Godol [High Priest], if he should happen to be tomeh [impure] could not enter the Beth Hamikdosh, much less kindle the Menorah.
May G-d grant you Hatzlocho [success] in establishing the set institution in fullest accord with G-d's will, in the spirit outlined above, truly reflecting the spirit of the Chanukah lights, lighting ever more candles and increasing their glow from day to day.
With prayerful wishes for the utmost Hatzlocho in all above, and
With Blessing
P.S.... Inasmuch as we are now in the auspicious days of Chanukah, I want to send you and yours my greetings and good wishes for a growing measure of brightness in all your affairs, including, above all, your participation in the cause of Chinuch Al Taharas Hakodesh [a pure Jewish education]. One of the essential messages of Chanukah is the need to preserve the purity of the Torah and Mitzvoth, especially in the education of our children, for the miracle of Chanukah occurred with the cruse of pure and undefiled oil.
The Neverending Candle
Question of the Week: I notice that lighting candles is a big part of Judaism. We light candles every Friday for Shabbos, we light candles on every festival, and Chanukah is all about candles. What is the connection between candles and spirituality? Answer: There is something about a candle that makes it more a spiritual element than physical. Physicality when spread becomes thin. Spirituality when spread expands and grows. When you use something physical, it is diminished. The more money you spend, the less you have; the more petrol you use, the more empty your tank becomes; the more food you eat the more you need to restock. But spiritual things increase with use. If I use my wisdom to teach, the student learns, and I come out smarter for it; if I share my love with another, I become more loving, not less. When you give a spiritual gift, the recipient gains, and you lose nothing. This is the spiritual property that candles share. When you use one candle to light another, the original candle remains bright. Its light is not diminished by being shared, on the contrary, the two candles together enhance each others brightness and increase light. We sometimes worry that we may stretch ourselves too thin. In matters of sprit, It isn't true. The more goodness we spread the more goodness we have. By making a new friend you become a better friend to your old friends. By having another child you open a new corridor of love in your heart that your other children benefit from too. By teaching more students you become wiser. Keep lighting your candles. There is an endless supply of light in your soul. You will never run out of goodness.
Good Shabbos and Happy Chanukah,
Rabbi Moss
Good Shabbos and Happy Chanukah,
Rabbi Moss
This week's Torah portion, Miketz,
This week's Torah portion, Miketz, contains an interesting exchange between Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and our Patriarch Jacob. When Joseph brought his elderly father to Pharaoh to introduce him, Pharaoh asked, "How old are you?" Jacob responded: "The years of my travails are 130. The days of the years of my life have been few and hard, and they have not reached those of my ancestors in their journeys."What an odd answer to Pharaoh's question! Why did Jacob find it necessary to offer all this information, when Pharaoh had only asked him his age? Furthermore, how could he have described his years as being "few"? His lifetime was already longer than the 120 years allotted to mankind after the great Flood of Noah's generation. In fact, Pharaoh had only posed the question because of Jacob's ancient appearance.
In the literal sense, it could certainly be said that Jacob had not reached the years of his ancestors, for Abraham lived till the age of 175, and Isaac until 180. Relatively speaking, Jacob was still young. Yet according to the commentator Rashi, Jacob was speaking qualitatively about his life; in contrast to his forefathers, his years were short and his lifetime was difficult.
From this perspective, since Jacob's years were "hard," fraught as they were with difficulty, they were also "few," for they were not filled with the inner spiritual service he desired. Because his life was hard, Jacob did not reach the inner spiritual fulfillment with which Abraham and Isaac had endowed their years.
Of course, this lack of fulfillment is relative to the unique level which Jacob saw as his potential. Our Sages relate that Jacob's true desire was to live to his fullest capacity, in the perfect goodness and prosperity of the Era of the Redemption. Since this potential was not realized during his lifetime, Jacob considered his life as lacking.
Jacob felt it necessary to communicate this message, both to Pharaoh, and to his descendants. He wanted his children to know that even while they dwelt in "the finest place in the land of Egypt," and were being given "the fat of the land," they should be ever aware that their lives were not complete.
This is particularly relevant to us, the last generation of the exile and the first generation of the Redemption. We must feel that until the Redemption becomes manifest, our lives are lacking. This perception will lead to an increased desire and yearning for the Redemption, and also an increase in our performance of those activities which will bring Moshiach and usher in the Messianic Era.
Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
In the literal sense, it could certainly be said that Jacob had not reached the years of his ancestors, for Abraham lived till the age of 175, and Isaac until 180. Relatively speaking, Jacob was still young. Yet according to the commentator Rashi, Jacob was speaking qualitatively about his life; in contrast to his forefathers, his years were short and his lifetime was difficult.
From this perspective, since Jacob's years were "hard," fraught as they were with difficulty, they were also "few," for they were not filled with the inner spiritual service he desired. Because his life was hard, Jacob did not reach the inner spiritual fulfillment with which Abraham and Isaac had endowed their years.
Of course, this lack of fulfillment is relative to the unique level which Jacob saw as his potential. Our Sages relate that Jacob's true desire was to live to his fullest capacity, in the perfect goodness and prosperity of the Era of the Redemption. Since this potential was not realized during his lifetime, Jacob considered his life as lacking.
Jacob felt it necessary to communicate this message, both to Pharaoh, and to his descendants. He wanted his children to know that even while they dwelt in "the finest place in the land of Egypt," and were being given "the fat of the land," they should be ever aware that their lives were not complete.
This is particularly relevant to us, the last generation of the exile and the first generation of the Redemption. We must feel that until the Redemption becomes manifest, our lives are lacking. This perception will lead to an increased desire and yearning for the Redemption, and also an increase in our performance of those activities which will bring Moshiach and usher in the Messianic Era.
Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Light Up the Darkness
In the "olden days," there were no electric street lights. There were kerosene lanterns on every corner whose light shined forth and made going through the streets less threatening. Lamplighters trudged from lamp to lamp with a torch, kindling its flame.Even in the cold and the dark, these lone figures would make their way through the night, leaving a path of light behind them.
We are all lamplighters, charged with the mission of illuminating the world with the light of the Torah and its mitzvos. While this theme is always relevant, at certain times its importance resonates more forcefully than others.
Chanuka is one of those times. As we put our menoras near the doors or windows of our homes with the intent that they shine light into the darkness, we convey a message to the world: "Darkness is temporary. With a little bit of light it can be banished."
The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe would tell his chasidim, "We must listen carefully to what the Chanuka candles are saying." For the light of the Chanuka candles points us toward many important goals.
Firstly, the Chanuka lights should be kindled after sunset and must burn into the night.
The Chanuka candles teach us not to accept darkness as reality, but instead to kindle light. Moreover, we place the candles at our doorways or in our windows, indicating that we should not remain content with lighting up our own homes. Instead, we must reach out and spread light as far as we possibly can, lighting up the public domain.
Going further: On each night of Chanuka, we add to the number of candles lit on the previous night. Implied is that we can't sit still and rest on our laurels. Instead, we must increase our endeavors every day to spread light throughout the world. Though we illuminated our environment on the previous night, we cannot remain content, but instead must strive to make a further and greater contribution.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chanuka is celebrated for eight days, a number that our Sages associate with the era of the Redemption. What is unique about eight? The natural order is structured in sets of seven: there are seven days in a week; seven years in the agricultural cycle observed in the Land of Israel. Eight represents a step above that cycle. In the motif of "eight," the transcendent oneness of G-d that surpasses nature's set of seven becomes revealed.
Though connected with oneness, eight is not one. The idea is not that infinity will be revealed in a manner that obscures entirely the material framework in which we presently live. Instead, 8 is 7+1, i.e., His oneness will permeate seven, the set of nature. We will appreciate how the truth of our own existence is G-dliness. The transcendent will be enclothed within the framework of our worldly sphere.
This message is illuminated by the light of the Chanuka candles. They recall the miraculous burning of the menora in the Temple and imbue us with the awareness that the Menora will soon be kindled again, spreading G-dly light openly throughout the world.
From Keeping In Touch by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, published by Sichos In English
We are all lamplighters, charged with the mission of illuminating the world with the light of the Torah and its mitzvos. While this theme is always relevant, at certain times its importance resonates more forcefully than others.
Chanuka is one of those times. As we put our menoras near the doors or windows of our homes with the intent that they shine light into the darkness, we convey a message to the world: "Darkness is temporary. With a little bit of light it can be banished."
The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe would tell his chasidim, "We must listen carefully to what the Chanuka candles are saying." For the light of the Chanuka candles points us toward many important goals.
Firstly, the Chanuka lights should be kindled after sunset and must burn into the night.
The Chanuka candles teach us not to accept darkness as reality, but instead to kindle light. Moreover, we place the candles at our doorways or in our windows, indicating that we should not remain content with lighting up our own homes. Instead, we must reach out and spread light as far as we possibly can, lighting up the public domain.
Going further: On each night of Chanuka, we add to the number of candles lit on the previous night. Implied is that we can't sit still and rest on our laurels. Instead, we must increase our endeavors every day to spread light throughout the world. Though we illuminated our environment on the previous night, we cannot remain content, but instead must strive to make a further and greater contribution.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chanuka is celebrated for eight days, a number that our Sages associate with the era of the Redemption. What is unique about eight? The natural order is structured in sets of seven: there are seven days in a week; seven years in the agricultural cycle observed in the Land of Israel. Eight represents a step above that cycle. In the motif of "eight," the transcendent oneness of G-d that surpasses nature's set of seven becomes revealed.
Though connected with oneness, eight is not one. The idea is not that infinity will be revealed in a manner that obscures entirely the material framework in which we presently live. Instead, 8 is 7+1, i.e., His oneness will permeate seven, the set of nature. We will appreciate how the truth of our own existence is G-dliness. The transcendent will be enclothed within the framework of our worldly sphere.
This message is illuminated by the light of the Chanuka candles. They recall the miraculous burning of the menora in the Temple and imbue us with the awareness that the Menora will soon be kindled again, spreading G-dly light openly throughout the world.
From Keeping In Touch by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, published by Sichos In English
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Twins
And it came to pass at the time that she gave birth, that, behold, there were twins in her womb.... And [the firstborn’s] name was called Peretz. Afterward came forth his brother ... and his name was called Zerach
Genesis 38:27-30
[Here it says,] “at the time that she gave birth”; in Rebecca’s case it says, “and her days to give birth were fulfilled.” For there it was a fulfilled term of pregnancy, while here it was unfulfilled.[Here, the word] “twins” is written in its full spelling; there it is written in a deficient spelling. For [in Rebecca’s case] one of them was wicked, while here both were righteous
Rashi, ibid.
Among the numerous births recounted in the book of Genesis, two are of twins: the birth of Isaac’s and Rebecca’s twins, Jacob and Esau; and the birth of Peretz and Zerach, twin sons of Tamar and Judah.
While certain similarities mark the two births,[1] there are also some significant differences, both in the circumstances surrounding the two pregnancies as well as in the characters of the two sets of twins they produced.
Isaac and Rebecca were married for twenty childless years; they prayed for children, each evoking the righteousness of the other in their appeal to G-d.[2] Their sacred union produced two very different sons: Jacob grew to become a gentle scholar; Esau, a crass and conniving materialist.[3]
Tamar’s twins were conceived in far less exalted circumstances. Tamar was originally married to Judah’s eldest son, Er. Upon Er’s untimely death, she was given in levirate marriage[4] to his younger brother, Onan; but Onan, too, died childless. When Tamar realized that Judah had no intention of marrying her to his third son, Shelah, she disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced Judah himself. When her pregnancy became apparent, Tamar was almost put to death, on Judah’s orders, for harlotry; it was only when she produced certain personal effects which Judah had left with her as collateral against his payment to her that Judah realized that the “prostitute” with whom he had cohabited with was his former daughter-in-law and the twins in her womb were fathered by himself.[5]
Yet unlike the mixed progeny of Isaac and Rebecca’s marriage, the twin sons born out of this morally dubious union were both righteous men. Indeed, all kings of Israel, from David to Moshiach, are the issue of Tamar’s pregnancy.[6]
The inverse differences between these two pregnancies and births are alluded to in the verses that describe them. Regarding Rebecca’s pregnancy, the Torah says, “Her days to give birth were fulfilled; and, behold, there were twins in her womb”; with Tamar, the Torah writes: “At the time that she gave birth, behold, there were twins in her womb.” Our sages, noting the different phraseology, explain that Rebecca’s was a “fulfilled” pregnancy of nine full months, while Tamar gave birth after an “unfulfilled” pregnancy of only seven months.[7]
Our sages also note that the Hebrew word for “twins,” te’omim, is spelled differently in the two accounts. In the Holy Tongue, many words can be written in either a “full” spelling or a “deficient” spelling (i.e., lacking one or more letters). In the account of Peretz and Zerach’s birth, the word te’omim appears in its full spelling; but in the account of Jacob and Esau’s birth, it appears in deficient form, lacking the letters aleph and yud. This, explain the commentaries, alludes to the fact that Tamar’s twins “were both righteous, while in [Rebecca’s] case, one was righteous and the other wicked.”[8]
In other words, the “fulfilled” pregnancy of Rebecca produced a “deficient” set of twins, while Tamar’s “deficient” pregnancy produced a “full” and perfect progeny.
Seeds of Evil?
But was Rebecca’s indeed a perfect pregnancy? The Midrash seems to imply that the wicked half of her progeny was already asserting his evil nature while still in the womb.
The Torah relates that “The children struggled within her.”[9] The Midrash explains: “Whenever she would pass a house of prayer or house of study, Jacob would struggle to come out ... and when she passed a house of idolatry, Esau would struggle to come out.”[10] Rebecca, puzzled by the contrary strivings being exhibited by her offspring, “sought the counsel of G-d” and was told: “There are two nations in your womb; two peoples will separate from your innards.”[11]
There are, however, other Midrashic accounts that describe Esau and Jacob sharing a righteous childhood in the holy environment of their parents’ home and under the tutelage of their saintly grandfather, Abraham, and that “only later did Esau ruin himself with his deeds.”[12] This supports our initial conception of an impeccable conception, pregnancy and birth, followed by a “deficient” progeny that is attributable solely to the fact that Esau, by his own free will, chose to follow a path of evil.
But a similar contradiction is also to be found in our Sages’ remarks regarding G-d’s creation of the world. On the one hand, we have the Midrashic statement that “The world was created fulfilled”—i.e., fully matured and lacking nothing.[13] Yet the perfect world which G-d created contains the potential for imperfection, even evil. Indeed, this potential is an integral part of its perfection. The Midrash, citing the verse, “And G-d looked upon all that He made and, behold, it was very good,” comments: “‘Behold it was very good’—this is the good inclination; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is the inclination for evil ... ‘behold it was very good’—this is good fortune; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is suffering ... ‘behold it was very good’—this is paradise; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is hell ... ‘behold it was very good’—this is the angel of life; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is the angel of death....”[14]
The Two Delicacies
A fundamental principle of the Jewish faith is that, “Freedom of choice has been granted to every man: if he desires to turn himself to a path of good and be a righteous person, the option is in his hands; if he desires to turn himself to a path of evil and be a wicked person, the option is in his hands.”[15] Yet we observe that certain people are more susceptible to evil than others. The Talmud describes the prototypical victim of evil, Job, protesting to G-d: “Master of the universe! You have created righteous people, and you have created wicked people!”[16]
In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that G-d indeed created “righteous people” and “wicked people.” “Righteous people” (tzaddikim) are individuals who, by nature, abhor evil and desire only good, either because they have been born that way or because they have transformed their negative drives into positive ones. “Wicked people,” on the other hand, are those individuals who are destined “not to be wicked in actuality, G-d forbid, but that the doings of the wicked should approach them, in their minds and thoughts alone, so that they must constantly battle to avert their minds from them and suppress the evil; for they would not be able to annihilate it completely—as can only be achieved by the righteous.”[17]
For G-d desires both these types of human being in His world. “Just like in physical foods, for example, there exist two types of delicacies: sweet and luscious foods, and sharp or sour foods which have been spiced and garnished so that they are made into delicacies which gratify the soul,” so, too, “there are two kinds of gratification before G-d: one, from the complete annihilation of evil ... by the righteous; the second, when evil is subdued while it is still at its strongest and most powerful ... through the efforts of the intermediate man.”[18]
This is the deeper significance of the “two nations” which Rebecca was told dwelled in her womb. The gravitation to evil exhibited by one of her twins was not a deficiency—it was the potential for the “second delicacy” craved by G-d. It was only later, when Esau chose to surrender to his evil inclination rather than battle it, that the duality of forces she birthed became a “deficient” set of twins.
As they existed within Rebecca, however, Jacob and Esau constituted a “full” pregnancy, containing both of the two fundamental potentials that G-d implanted in His creation: the delight of utter goodness, and the distinct pleasure and sense of achievement that comes only from the struggle with adversity.[19]
Tamar’s pregnancy and delivery describe the reverse process: how negative circumstances and actions can be sublimated so that the original perfection, from which every potential in existence stems, is restored. Indeed, when the potential for evil, suffering, hell and death becomes actual, the opportunity exists for an even deeper perfection to be achieved, when these are vanquished and transformed into good.
The Ascent to Mount Zion
Hence the paradox of our existence: perfection begets imperfection (as in Rebecca’s pregnancy), for nothing can be said to be truly perfect unless it possesses the potential for struggle, which means that it must be vulnerable to imperfection. And imperfection gives birth to perfection (as in Tamar’s pregnancy) when that vulnerability is exploited to reap the rewards of struggle and to attain the perfect twinship of pristine goodness and vanquished evil.
The whole of history is the noble and painful progress toward the resolution of this paradox when, in the age of Moshiach, “the saviors (descendants of Tamar) shall ascend the mountain of Zion to judge the mountain of (Rebecca’s) Esau,”[20] uniting the vulnerabilities that are born out of the perfection of G-d’s creation with the perfection that is born out of the vulnerabilities of the human condition.[21]
Based on the Rebbe’s talks on Shabbat Toledot, 5744 (1983), and on other occasions[22]
[1]. Both births involved a struggle between the twins as to which one would be the firstborn. Jacob was born with “his hand grasping the heel of Esau” (Genesis 25:26; Jacob later contrived to purchase the birthright from Esau and to receive the blessing Isaac intended for his firstborn). In the case of Peretz and Zerach, the Torah relates how Zerach’s hand was the first to emerge from the womb but was retracted when that twin yielded to Peretz’s aggressive efforts to be born first (ibid., 38:27-30).[2]. Genesis 25:21; Midrash Rabbah on verse.[3]. Genesis 25:27.[4]. The principle of levirate marriage (yibbum) is set down in Deuteronomy 25:5-6: “If brothers dwell together, and one of them should die childless, the dead man’s wife shall not marry out of the family to a stranger; her husband’s brother shall cohabit with her and take her as her as his wife in yibbum. And the firstborn to which she shall give birth shall succeed in the name of the dead brother, so that his name not be wiped out in Israel...”[5]. Genesis 38:6-26.[6]. See Ruth 4:18-22.[7]. Rashi on Genesis 25:24 and 38:27.[8]. Ibid.[9]. Genesis 25:22.[10]. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 63:6.[11]. Genesis 25:22-23.[12]. Zohar I, 138b; Yalkut Shimoni, Joshua 23.[13]. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 14:7.[14]. Ibid., 9:9-12; cf. ibid., Kohelet 3:15: “‘Good’—this is the good inclination; ‘very good’—this is the inclination for evil.”[15]. Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 5:1.[16]. Talmud, Bava Batra 16a.[17]. Tanya, ch. 27.[18]. Ibid. The “intermediate man” (beinoni) is Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s term for the so-called “wicked person” who, though his actual behavior is in full conformity with the divine will, must constantly struggle against his own animal nature and evil inclination. The state of beinoni is thus an intermediate state between the tzaddik, who has uprooted and transformed his negative traits, and the rasha, the actually wicked individual.[19]. See The Inside Story (VHH, 1997), pp. 48-56.[20]. Obadiah 1:21; see Rashi on Genesis 33:14.[21]. Cf. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 12:5: “The word toldot (“chronicles”) appears everywhere in the Torah in a deficient spelling, except in two instances: ‘These are the chronicles of Peretz’ (Ruth 4:18), and [‘These are the chronicles of the heaven and the earth upon their creation’ (Genesis 2:1)]. Why are all the others lacking [the letter vav]? ... Because of the six (vav) things taken from Adam [in wake of his sin]: his radiance, his life, his stature, the fruit of the earth, the fruit of the trees, and the luminaries.... These shall be restored only with the coming of [Moshiach] the descendent of Peretz.”[22]. Likkutei Sichot, vol. XXX, pp. 110-115, et al.
Genesis 38:27-30
[Here it says,] “at the time that she gave birth”; in Rebecca’s case it says, “and her days to give birth were fulfilled.” For there it was a fulfilled term of pregnancy, while here it was unfulfilled.[Here, the word] “twins” is written in its full spelling; there it is written in a deficient spelling. For [in Rebecca’s case] one of them was wicked, while here both were righteous
Rashi, ibid.
Among the numerous births recounted in the book of Genesis, two are of twins: the birth of Isaac’s and Rebecca’s twins, Jacob and Esau; and the birth of Peretz and Zerach, twin sons of Tamar and Judah.
While certain similarities mark the two births,[1] there are also some significant differences, both in the circumstances surrounding the two pregnancies as well as in the characters of the two sets of twins they produced.
Isaac and Rebecca were married for twenty childless years; they prayed for children, each evoking the righteousness of the other in their appeal to G-d.[2] Their sacred union produced two very different sons: Jacob grew to become a gentle scholar; Esau, a crass and conniving materialist.[3]
Tamar’s twins were conceived in far less exalted circumstances. Tamar was originally married to Judah’s eldest son, Er. Upon Er’s untimely death, she was given in levirate marriage[4] to his younger brother, Onan; but Onan, too, died childless. When Tamar realized that Judah had no intention of marrying her to his third son, Shelah, she disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced Judah himself. When her pregnancy became apparent, Tamar was almost put to death, on Judah’s orders, for harlotry; it was only when she produced certain personal effects which Judah had left with her as collateral against his payment to her that Judah realized that the “prostitute” with whom he had cohabited with was his former daughter-in-law and the twins in her womb were fathered by himself.[5]
Yet unlike the mixed progeny of Isaac and Rebecca’s marriage, the twin sons born out of this morally dubious union were both righteous men. Indeed, all kings of Israel, from David to Moshiach, are the issue of Tamar’s pregnancy.[6]
The inverse differences between these two pregnancies and births are alluded to in the verses that describe them. Regarding Rebecca’s pregnancy, the Torah says, “Her days to give birth were fulfilled; and, behold, there were twins in her womb”; with Tamar, the Torah writes: “At the time that she gave birth, behold, there were twins in her womb.” Our sages, noting the different phraseology, explain that Rebecca’s was a “fulfilled” pregnancy of nine full months, while Tamar gave birth after an “unfulfilled” pregnancy of only seven months.[7]
Our sages also note that the Hebrew word for “twins,” te’omim, is spelled differently in the two accounts. In the Holy Tongue, many words can be written in either a “full” spelling or a “deficient” spelling (i.e., lacking one or more letters). In the account of Peretz and Zerach’s birth, the word te’omim appears in its full spelling; but in the account of Jacob and Esau’s birth, it appears in deficient form, lacking the letters aleph and yud. This, explain the commentaries, alludes to the fact that Tamar’s twins “were both righteous, while in [Rebecca’s] case, one was righteous and the other wicked.”[8]
In other words, the “fulfilled” pregnancy of Rebecca produced a “deficient” set of twins, while Tamar’s “deficient” pregnancy produced a “full” and perfect progeny.
Seeds of Evil?
But was Rebecca’s indeed a perfect pregnancy? The Midrash seems to imply that the wicked half of her progeny was already asserting his evil nature while still in the womb.
The Torah relates that “The children struggled within her.”[9] The Midrash explains: “Whenever she would pass a house of prayer or house of study, Jacob would struggle to come out ... and when she passed a house of idolatry, Esau would struggle to come out.”[10] Rebecca, puzzled by the contrary strivings being exhibited by her offspring, “sought the counsel of G-d” and was told: “There are two nations in your womb; two peoples will separate from your innards.”[11]
There are, however, other Midrashic accounts that describe Esau and Jacob sharing a righteous childhood in the holy environment of their parents’ home and under the tutelage of their saintly grandfather, Abraham, and that “only later did Esau ruin himself with his deeds.”[12] This supports our initial conception of an impeccable conception, pregnancy and birth, followed by a “deficient” progeny that is attributable solely to the fact that Esau, by his own free will, chose to follow a path of evil.
But a similar contradiction is also to be found in our Sages’ remarks regarding G-d’s creation of the world. On the one hand, we have the Midrashic statement that “The world was created fulfilled”—i.e., fully matured and lacking nothing.[13] Yet the perfect world which G-d created contains the potential for imperfection, even evil. Indeed, this potential is an integral part of its perfection. The Midrash, citing the verse, “And G-d looked upon all that He made and, behold, it was very good,” comments: “‘Behold it was very good’—this is the good inclination; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is the inclination for evil ... ‘behold it was very good’—this is good fortune; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is suffering ... ‘behold it was very good’—this is paradise; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is hell ... ‘behold it was very good’—this is the angel of life; ‘and behold it was very good’—this is the angel of death....”[14]
The Two Delicacies
A fundamental principle of the Jewish faith is that, “Freedom of choice has been granted to every man: if he desires to turn himself to a path of good and be a righteous person, the option is in his hands; if he desires to turn himself to a path of evil and be a wicked person, the option is in his hands.”[15] Yet we observe that certain people are more susceptible to evil than others. The Talmud describes the prototypical victim of evil, Job, protesting to G-d: “Master of the universe! You have created righteous people, and you have created wicked people!”[16]
In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that G-d indeed created “righteous people” and “wicked people.” “Righteous people” (tzaddikim) are individuals who, by nature, abhor evil and desire only good, either because they have been born that way or because they have transformed their negative drives into positive ones. “Wicked people,” on the other hand, are those individuals who are destined “not to be wicked in actuality, G-d forbid, but that the doings of the wicked should approach them, in their minds and thoughts alone, so that they must constantly battle to avert their minds from them and suppress the evil; for they would not be able to annihilate it completely—as can only be achieved by the righteous.”[17]
For G-d desires both these types of human being in His world. “Just like in physical foods, for example, there exist two types of delicacies: sweet and luscious foods, and sharp or sour foods which have been spiced and garnished so that they are made into delicacies which gratify the soul,” so, too, “there are two kinds of gratification before G-d: one, from the complete annihilation of evil ... by the righteous; the second, when evil is subdued while it is still at its strongest and most powerful ... through the efforts of the intermediate man.”[18]
This is the deeper significance of the “two nations” which Rebecca was told dwelled in her womb. The gravitation to evil exhibited by one of her twins was not a deficiency—it was the potential for the “second delicacy” craved by G-d. It was only later, when Esau chose to surrender to his evil inclination rather than battle it, that the duality of forces she birthed became a “deficient” set of twins.
As they existed within Rebecca, however, Jacob and Esau constituted a “full” pregnancy, containing both of the two fundamental potentials that G-d implanted in His creation: the delight of utter goodness, and the distinct pleasure and sense of achievement that comes only from the struggle with adversity.[19]
Tamar’s pregnancy and delivery describe the reverse process: how negative circumstances and actions can be sublimated so that the original perfection, from which every potential in existence stems, is restored. Indeed, when the potential for evil, suffering, hell and death becomes actual, the opportunity exists for an even deeper perfection to be achieved, when these are vanquished and transformed into good.
The Ascent to Mount Zion
Hence the paradox of our existence: perfection begets imperfection (as in Rebecca’s pregnancy), for nothing can be said to be truly perfect unless it possesses the potential for struggle, which means that it must be vulnerable to imperfection. And imperfection gives birth to perfection (as in Tamar’s pregnancy) when that vulnerability is exploited to reap the rewards of struggle and to attain the perfect twinship of pristine goodness and vanquished evil.
The whole of history is the noble and painful progress toward the resolution of this paradox when, in the age of Moshiach, “the saviors (descendants of Tamar) shall ascend the mountain of Zion to judge the mountain of (Rebecca’s) Esau,”[20] uniting the vulnerabilities that are born out of the perfection of G-d’s creation with the perfection that is born out of the vulnerabilities of the human condition.[21]
Based on the Rebbe’s talks on Shabbat Toledot, 5744 (1983), and on other occasions[22]
[1]. Both births involved a struggle between the twins as to which one would be the firstborn. Jacob was born with “his hand grasping the heel of Esau” (Genesis 25:26; Jacob later contrived to purchase the birthright from Esau and to receive the blessing Isaac intended for his firstborn). In the case of Peretz and Zerach, the Torah relates how Zerach’s hand was the first to emerge from the womb but was retracted when that twin yielded to Peretz’s aggressive efforts to be born first (ibid., 38:27-30).[2]. Genesis 25:21; Midrash Rabbah on verse.[3]. Genesis 25:27.[4]. The principle of levirate marriage (yibbum) is set down in Deuteronomy 25:5-6: “If brothers dwell together, and one of them should die childless, the dead man’s wife shall not marry out of the family to a stranger; her husband’s brother shall cohabit with her and take her as her as his wife in yibbum. And the firstborn to which she shall give birth shall succeed in the name of the dead brother, so that his name not be wiped out in Israel...”[5]. Genesis 38:6-26.[6]. See Ruth 4:18-22.[7]. Rashi on Genesis 25:24 and 38:27.[8]. Ibid.[9]. Genesis 25:22.[10]. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 63:6.[11]. Genesis 25:22-23.[12]. Zohar I, 138b; Yalkut Shimoni, Joshua 23.[13]. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 14:7.[14]. Ibid., 9:9-12; cf. ibid., Kohelet 3:15: “‘Good’—this is the good inclination; ‘very good’—this is the inclination for evil.”[15]. Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 5:1.[16]. Talmud, Bava Batra 16a.[17]. Tanya, ch. 27.[18]. Ibid. The “intermediate man” (beinoni) is Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s term for the so-called “wicked person” who, though his actual behavior is in full conformity with the divine will, must constantly struggle against his own animal nature and evil inclination. The state of beinoni is thus an intermediate state between the tzaddik, who has uprooted and transformed his negative traits, and the rasha, the actually wicked individual.[19]. See The Inside Story (VHH, 1997), pp. 48-56.[20]. Obadiah 1:21; see Rashi on Genesis 33:14.[21]. Cf. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 12:5: “The word toldot (“chronicles”) appears everywhere in the Torah in a deficient spelling, except in two instances: ‘These are the chronicles of Peretz’ (Ruth 4:18), and [‘These are the chronicles of the heaven and the earth upon their creation’ (Genesis 2:1)]. Why are all the others lacking [the letter vav]? ... Because of the six (vav) things taken from Adam [in wake of his sin]: his radiance, his life, his stature, the fruit of the earth, the fruit of the trees, and the luminaries.... These shall be restored only with the coming of [Moshiach] the descendent of Peretz.”[22]. Likkutei Sichot, vol. XXX, pp. 110-115, et al.
Spiritual Gems from the parsha
And he made him a coat of many colors (Gen. 37:3)
Chasidic philosophy explains that the coat was symbolic of a particular aspect of G-dliness (makif - which "envelops" creation like a garment) that is drawn into the physical world. Jacob bequeathed this ability only to Joseph, as he was the only one of the 12 brothers who was capable of accepting it. The brothers' jealousy of Joseph was, in actuality, envy of his superior spiritual abilities, which was later expressed on a more mundane level.
(Torat Chaim, Bereishit)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him (Gen. 37:4)
The main component of all controversy is the absence of dialogue, the unwillingness to listen to what someone else has to say and understand it from his perspective. If people would really know how to talk to each other, most of the time they would discover that they have nothing to argue about.
(Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And he was in the house of his master the Egyptian...and he was there in the prison (Gen. 39:2, 39:20)
The phrase "and he was" ("vayehi") is used to indicate something that is consistent and without change. Joseph was the same righteous person in Potiphar's home as he was in prison, for "the righteous person is the foundation of the world" regardless of circumstance.
(Sefat Emet)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And the L-rd was with him, and the L-rd caused all that he did to prosper in his hand (Gen. 39:3)
In principle, the measure of blessing and success we receive from G-d is directly dependent on our Torah study and observance of mitzvot, as it states, "If you will go in My ways... and I will cause the rains to fall in the proper time." In other words, the spiritual light and abundance created by our service is transformed into material blessing in the physical world. At present, however, not all of this spiritual light becomes physically revealed. Only in the Messianic era will the light that is reflected below perfectly mirror its spiritual counterpart.
(Hemshech Tav-Ayin-Reish-Beit, Vol. 3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And on the vine were three branches (Gen. 40:10)
According to the Midrash, "the vine" is symbolic of the Jewish people, as it states in Psalms (80:9), "You have brought a vine from Egypt." For just as wine "brings joy to G-d and man," so too is there an aspect of love for G-d hidden within every Jew - an inheritance acquired from our forefathers.
(Torah Ohr)
Chasidic philosophy explains that the coat was symbolic of a particular aspect of G-dliness (makif - which "envelops" creation like a garment) that is drawn into the physical world. Jacob bequeathed this ability only to Joseph, as he was the only one of the 12 brothers who was capable of accepting it. The brothers' jealousy of Joseph was, in actuality, envy of his superior spiritual abilities, which was later expressed on a more mundane level.
(Torat Chaim, Bereishit)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him (Gen. 37:4)
The main component of all controversy is the absence of dialogue, the unwillingness to listen to what someone else has to say and understand it from his perspective. If people would really know how to talk to each other, most of the time they would discover that they have nothing to argue about.
(Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And he was in the house of his master the Egyptian...and he was there in the prison (Gen. 39:2, 39:20)
The phrase "and he was" ("vayehi") is used to indicate something that is consistent and without change. Joseph was the same righteous person in Potiphar's home as he was in prison, for "the righteous person is the foundation of the world" regardless of circumstance.
(Sefat Emet)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And the L-rd was with him, and the L-rd caused all that he did to prosper in his hand (Gen. 39:3)
In principle, the measure of blessing and success we receive from G-d is directly dependent on our Torah study and observance of mitzvot, as it states, "If you will go in My ways... and I will cause the rains to fall in the proper time." In other words, the spiritual light and abundance created by our service is transformed into material blessing in the physical world. At present, however, not all of this spiritual light becomes physically revealed. Only in the Messianic era will the light that is reflected below perfectly mirror its spiritual counterpart.
(Hemshech Tav-Ayin-Reish-Beit, Vol. 3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
And on the vine were three branches (Gen. 40:10)
According to the Midrash, "the vine" is symbolic of the Jewish people, as it states in Psalms (80:9), "You have brought a vine from Egypt." For just as wine "brings joy to G-d and man," so too is there an aspect of love for G-d hidden within every Jew - an inheritance acquired from our forefathers.
(Torah Ohr)
Show Concern for Others
We should show our concern for others by providing our fellow Jews with the necessities required to celebrate the holidays of the month of Kislev with joy and happiness. Similarly, they should have the means to fulfill the custom which the Rebbes of Chabad-Lubavitch followed of giving Chanuka gelt (money) to the members of their household.(The Rebbe, 2 Kislev, 5752-1992)
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
A professor in college or university has an extraordinary opportunity to benefit his students by word, and even more so, by example.
20th of Kislev 5732 (1971)
Greeting and Blessing:
I was pleased to receive regards from you through our mutual and esteemed friend Rabbi S.D. Raichik, who has written to me about his visit with you and your participation in the worthy cause, in which you also took in your children as partners.
In the light of what Rabbi Raichik has written to me about his acquaintance with you, I am confident that you will utilized your distinguished position, which brings you into personal contact with Jewish youth, to strengthen also their Jewish identity. To be sure, the courses which you teach are undoubtedly far removed from the religious and spiritual aspects of Jewish identity. However, it is surely unnecessary to emphasize to you that students generally look up to their professors not only as experts in their particular field, but also as persons and individuals who have accomplished a great deal in their life, and have attained high status.
Consequently, the views and ideas that a professor expresses, and especially his personal way of life and world outlook, directly and indirectly influence the students, and create in them a desire to emulate their professors. And even those who for one reason or another are rebellious inwardly recognize that the achievements of their professors should be emulated.
In the light of this, a professor in college or university has an extraordinary opportunity to benefit his students by word, and even more so, by example. Even if an extra effort in this direction may entail certain difficulties which are sometimes not imaginary nor magnified, but real - the thought of how much good a little extra effort might be, and how much it can be reflected and multiplied in the loves of the young people who so badly need guidance and inspiration, should make all such difficulties worthwhile.
Although the above has been written in general terms, with a view to disseminating Jewish values, etc., it is important to bear in mind the dictum of our Sages of blessed memory that "the essential thing is the deed," namely the actual Jewish experience in the daily life.
For, Judaism is a way of life that is not relegated to several days in the year, specific holy days, or even Shabbos [the Sabbath], but embraces the entire Jewish life each and every day. It is for this reason that the Torah and Mitzvoth [commandments] are referred to as "our life," indicated that it must be continuous and uninterrupted, just as life must be continued and uninterrupted. Herein the Jewish religion radically differs from any other religion in that it is not something additional to a person, but is intimately the person himself, for a Jew and the Torah and Mitzvoth are inseparable.
Much more could be said on this subject, but I trust the above will suffice. I will only conclude that inasmuch as we are about to celebrate the festival of Chanukah, when we will be lighting the Chanukah candles in growing numbers from day to day, indicating the need to spread the light of the Torah and Mitzvoth in a growing measure, since it is written, "A Mitzvo is a lamp and the Torah is light," thereby illuminating the Jewish soul of which it is said, "A lamp of G-d is the soul of man" - may this be so with you and me and all our people.
With esteem and blessing,
When a Couple Drifts Apart....
Question of the Week: At Jewish weddings I've seen this dance where people stand facing each other in two lines, and then run towards each other and meet in the middle, then run backwards to their original places, only to do it all over again. Where does this dance come from? Answer: There is a common misconception about relationships. Many people think that if I meet the right person, things will all go smoothly from there. If a relationship is bumpy, if we need to put effort in to make it work, it must be the wrong relationship. The wedding dance, with its forward and backward motions, is there to tell us that this view is false. In any loving relationship, a couple experiences moments of closeness and love, as well as moments of distance and tension. It is not possible for two human beings to share intimate space and not go through some rough patches. If a relationship is to be real, it probably won't be smooth. But this tension is exactly what makes love so powerful. Every moment of tension in a loving relationship is an opportunity to get to know each other better. Why are you upset? What did I do to hurt you? Where did we misunderstand each other? What can we learn from this episode? The only reason you retreat from each other is in order to come close again. You take a step back so you can then rush forward. The divide that was created by your little falling out provides the fuel for you to come back together, closer and stronger than ever.
As we dance around the newlyweds we give them a powerful message. In your lives together it will invariably happen that each of you will make mistakes. There will be times of misunderstanding and distance, when you feel you have drifted apart and the love is being strained. The secret: even in those times, never turn your back. Even when you are retreating, always face each other. If you do, the tension itself will propel you back towards each other. Never fear those moments of tension in your marriage. Rather see them as doorways that lead you to a deeper connection. In the dance of love, the good times bring you close, but the tough times bring you even closer.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
As we dance around the newlyweds we give them a powerful message. In your lives together it will invariably happen that each of you will make mistakes. There will be times of misunderstanding and distance, when you feel you have drifted apart and the love is being strained. The secret: even in those times, never turn your back. Even when you are retreating, always face each other. If you do, the tension itself will propel you back towards each other. Never fear those moments of tension in your marriage. Rather see them as doorways that lead you to a deeper connection. In the dance of love, the good times bring you close, but the tough times bring you even closer.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
As related in this week's Torah portion, Vayeishev,
As related in this week's Torah portion, Vayeishev, when Joseph went at his father's behest to check on his brothers in Shechem he met a man "wandering in the field," who was actually the angel Gabriel. In response to Joseph's question if he knew where they might be, the man replied, "They have departed, for I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dotan.' "Rashi, the foremost Torah commentator, explains that with these words the angel was trying to warn Joseph to keep away from his brothers, who were intending to harm him. "They have departed" suggested "they have removed themselves from brotherhood," and "let us go to Dotan" meant they were looking for a legal way ("datot") to kill him. Nonetheless, Joseph ignored these veiled warnings and continued on his way.
Thus we see that in his desire to fulfill his father's request Joseph demonstrated true self-sacrifice, to the point that he was willing to endanger his life. Yet this in itself raises several questions: Jacob had asked Joseph to "go see the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock, and bring me back word." If Joseph were to be killed by his brothers, he would obviously not be able to report back to Jacob.
Furthermore, what justification did Joseph have for endangering his life in order to fulfill the commandment of honoring one's parents, when it is not one of the three mitzvot (commandments) a Jew is permitted to give up his life rather than transgress: idolatry, illicit relations and murder?
The great codifier of Jewish law, Moses Maimonides, explains that in certain circumstances it is indeed permissible to demonstrate this extreme level of self-sacrifice, even when it isn't "necessary": "If the person is tremendously great, pious and G-d-fearing, and sees that the generation is reckless [in observing that particular mitzva], he is permitted to sanctify G-d's Name and sacrifice his life for even a minor commandment, in order that the people see and take note."
Joseph was well aware that his brothers were lacking in the mitzva of honoring parents, which had been amply demonstrated by their behavior in the incident of Shechem as well as in their antipathy toward him. He thus resolved to fulfill his father's wishes at all costs.
The same dynamics are also evident in the story of Chanuka, which we are now celebrating. Strictly speaking, there was no need for Matityahu and his sons to risk their lives and engage in war against the Syrian-Greeks. Nonetheless, it was their willingness for self-sacrifice above and beyond the "letter of the law" that ultimately led to miracles and wonders.
In fact, in the merit of their deeds they found the "cruse of pure oil with the High Priest's seal," symbolic of the inner essence of every Jew, and merited "to institute these eight days of Chanuka to give thanks and praise to Your great Name."
Adapted from Vol. 35 of Likkutei Sichot
Being P.C. or C.P.
Potato latkas. Dreidels. Judah the Maccabee. Judith the Heroine. The Chanuka menora. Blue cardboard boxes of all different colored candles. (As a kid did you try to create an interesting pattern each night?) Chocolate Chanuka coins. The song, Maoz Tzur. "I had a little dreidel..." Clay menoras made in Hebrew school.Chanuka is made of memories and for memories. Taste the latkas and jelly donuts. See the candles burn brightly in the menora. Hear the singing of the blessings over the menora. Touch the letters engraved on the dreidle: nun, gimmel, hay, shin - "A Great Miracle Happened There."
Chanuka is a special time for family, friends and children. Chanuka is a Jewish holiday celebrating the victory of the weak (militarily) over the mighty, the few (in number) over the many.
Chanuka is a celebration of the re-dedication of the Holy Temple after it had been defiled - but not destroyed - by the Greeks. For the Greeks did not wish to destroy the Holy Temple nor the Torah; they wished only to defile the mitzvot (commandments).
The Greeks attempted to lessen their holiness, their uniqueness, their impact on our Jewish lives. "We too, have wisdom," they declared. "We, too, have gods. We, too, have holidays. Know that your Temple is like our temples. The wisdom of your Divine Torah is like our man-made wisdom. There is nothing particularly holy about them."
So what do you say to a child who wants a "Chanuka bush," or who wants a photograph with Santa? What do you do about the pressure of giving Chanuka presents instead of the Jewish custom of giving Chanuka gelt (money).
The easiest response might be: "They have their holiday and we have ours - Chanuka."
That response might be on the verge of being P.C., but it's certainly not C. P.- Chanuka Perfect. You see, as soon as we start comparing Chanuka with the 25th of December, or when we try to turn Chanuka into the Jewish equivalent of that day, it is as if we are handing over a victory to the "Greeks."
Celebrate Chanuka in the true spirit of the holiday - not as a consolation or a competition - but as an opportunity to prove in our own lives that the ancient battle and victory over the Greeks was not in vain.
Explore the themes of Chanuka, including the idea of dedication (the actual meaning of the Hebrew word Chanuka) and Jewish education (or "chinuch" in Hebrew, from the same word as Chanuka).
Light the Chanuka menora each night of Chanuka and watch Jewish pride grow as the numbers and strength of the Chanuka lights increase.
Let the lights of the Chanuka menora - and all of the beautiful and unforgettable Chanuka traditions, customs, mitzvot and memories - add their pure, holy light to the world until the G-dly light is revealed in all its glory in the Third and Eternal Holy Temple.
Chanuka is a special time for family, friends and children. Chanuka is a Jewish holiday celebrating the victory of the weak (militarily) over the mighty, the few (in number) over the many.
Chanuka is a celebration of the re-dedication of the Holy Temple after it had been defiled - but not destroyed - by the Greeks. For the Greeks did not wish to destroy the Holy Temple nor the Torah; they wished only to defile the mitzvot (commandments).
The Greeks attempted to lessen their holiness, their uniqueness, their impact on our Jewish lives. "We too, have wisdom," they declared. "We, too, have gods. We, too, have holidays. Know that your Temple is like our temples. The wisdom of your Divine Torah is like our man-made wisdom. There is nothing particularly holy about them."
So what do you say to a child who wants a "Chanuka bush," or who wants a photograph with Santa? What do you do about the pressure of giving Chanuka presents instead of the Jewish custom of giving Chanuka gelt (money).
The easiest response might be: "They have their holiday and we have ours - Chanuka."
That response might be on the verge of being P.C., but it's certainly not C. P.- Chanuka Perfect. You see, as soon as we start comparing Chanuka with the 25th of December, or when we try to turn Chanuka into the Jewish equivalent of that day, it is as if we are handing over a victory to the "Greeks."
Celebrate Chanuka in the true spirit of the holiday - not as a consolation or a competition - but as an opportunity to prove in our own lives that the ancient battle and victory over the Greeks was not in vain.
Explore the themes of Chanuka, including the idea of dedication (the actual meaning of the Hebrew word Chanuka) and Jewish education (or "chinuch" in Hebrew, from the same word as Chanuka).
Light the Chanuka menora each night of Chanuka and watch Jewish pride grow as the numbers and strength of the Chanuka lights increase.
Let the lights of the Chanuka menora - and all of the beautiful and unforgettable Chanuka traditions, customs, mitzvot and memories - add their pure, holy light to the world until the G-dly light is revealed in all its glory in the Third and Eternal Holy Temple.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
The Rain of Peace
And G-d made the two great luminaries... to give light upon the earth.Genesis 1:16-17
And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet grown; for the L-rd G-d had not caused it to rain upon the earth, as there was not yet a man to work the land. [Then] there arose a mist from the earth and watered the surface of the land.Genesis 2:5-6
On Her Own Steam.
Sunlight and rain are both crucial sustainers of life on earth. Indeed, there are certain similarities in the manner in which these two gifts are bestowed upon our planet: they both “rain” down upon earth from the skies, drenching her with energy or moisture. In both cases, we seem but passive recipients to a showering of blessing from above. But a closer examination reveals a significant difference between them: while the sun's gift is indeed a unilateral bestowal, rain originates as moisture which rises from the earth, forms clouds, and returns as life-giving waters. So unlike her relationship with the sun's radiation, the earth is not a passive beneficiary of the rain falling from the skies; it is she who generates it in the first place, releasing columns of mist from her oceans and lakes to water the thirsting soil of her landmasses.
The earth, of course, could not do this on her own. It is the sun who stimulates the release and ascent of her watery stores; it is the sun who creates the weather patterns which carry them through the atmosphere and impel them earthward. In other words, the sun, ultimately, is the primary supporter of life on earth. But the sun's gifts of nourishment fall under two categories: (a) those, such as its light - and warmth - purveying rays, which the earth simply absorbs from her benevolent provider; (b) those gifts, such as rain, which the earth herself generates, the sun serving as the catalyst who wakens her potentials for self-nurture and self-development and assists in their realization.
Ecology of the Soul
Also the world, He has placed within their hearts...Ecclesiastes 3:11
Rabbi Israel Baal-Shem-Tov (1698-1760), founder of the Chassidic movement, taught: Everything that a person may observe should serve him as a lesson in his service of the Almighty. This is especially true with regard to the workings of the universe: man, say our sages, is a miniature world;[1] so in every natural phenomenon he can find a corresponding feature within himself. His observations of the universe and natural law can help him negotiate the physics and geography of his own psyche, and assist him in the perfection of his character and behavior.[2]
Man, too, is a recipient of both “rain” and “sunlight” from Above. Ultimately, of course, everything we possess, including our potentials to initiate and create, are granted us by the Creator. But the Almighty relates to the human soul in two ways: (a) with a direct and unilateral bestowal of sensitivity and enlightenment; (b) by enabling and encouraging the soul to develop and optimize her own resources, to gravitate upward in her own, self-initiated search for truth and meaning in life.
Both are crucial to the spiritual life of the soul. On the one hand, we recognize our inherent limitations. We understand that if we are to relate to a truth that is absolute and all-transcendent, we must resort to a bequest from a higher source.
At the same time, however, human nature dictates that we identify more with what we ourselves have achieved: something earned is more appreciated than a gift, an idea figured out independently is more poignant than a teaching from the greatest master. For an experience to be real - that is, to be incorporated as part of one's essence and personality - it must stem from within.
In other words, to be truly “it” it must be granted from Above; yet to be truly meaningful it must be produced from below. We need them both. Indeed, the tension between these two needs is an ever-present feature of our growth and development in all areas, intellectual, emotional or spiritual. The real or the ideal? Mine or more?
These are the phenomena of “rain” and “sunlight” in the miniature universe that is man. Thus, as the Torah relates, the first rainfall in history did not commence until there was a human being to work the land. For rain is the expression, on the cosmic level, of human initiative and endeavor - the reflection of our ability to answer the Divine light which radiates into our lives with the product of our own resources and potentials.[3]
Two Dimensional Year
This explains a curious redundancy in the structure of the Jewish year - it is a year with not one but two beginnings! For there are two opening months in the Jewish calendar: Tishrei (which usually begins sometime in September) contains the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the festival of Sukkot and is generally considered the “head” and beginning of the Jewish year; but six months later comes Nissan (late March-early April), the month of Passover and the Exodus, which is designated by the Torah as the “first month” and also serves as the “head” of the year for certain matters of Torah law and practice.[4] Why two “heads” to the year?
In the land of Israel, the rains are confined to the half-year between Tishrei and Nissan. Thus, this six-month period is referred to by our sages as the “Season of Rains” (y'mos ha'gshomim), while the six months from Nissan to Tishrei are considered the “Season of the Sun” (y'mos ha'chamah).
To the Jew, the calendar is more than a measure of time - it is a cycle that embodies the various elements of his relationship with the Almighty that are the essence of his life as a Jew. And this cycle is comprised of two basic parts: (a) the spiritually passive “Season of the Sun,” in which we mark and re-experience, the great unilateral acts of Divine involvement in our destiny (the Exodus, the revelation at Sinai); and (b) the self-generated “Season of Rains,” which open with the soul-searching and self-improvement which characterizes the month of Tishrei.
The Paradox of Peace
A scholar from the Galilee expounded before R. Chisdah: “Blessed be the Merciful One, who gave a threefold Torah[5] to a threefold people[6] through a third one[7] on the third day[8] in the third month.[9]”
Talmud, Shabbos 88a
Indeed, Torah embodies the very essence of the number “3”. For “Torah was given to make peace in the world”[10] and “3” is the number of peace.
The number “1” implies a monopolous individuality. Where “1” dominates, there cannot be peace; for “1” insists on its absoluteness and exclusivity of being - to the negation of all else. Where “1” dominates, everything else (if there is anything else) must surrender their identity before its intolerant singularity. True, there is no conflict, for there is only one; but neither is this peace, which is the harmonious integration of two (or more) distinctive elements.
“Two” represents diversity. As the number implies, we are dealing with two parallel entities. One may be infinitely superior to the other, yet they are equal if only in that each is a distinct existence. Two-ness is often the cause of conflict, but even when it is not, it still precludes true peace. As long as each insists on retaining its apartness and distinction, the most they can achieve is a peaceful co-existence; dichotomized by their respective individualities, they cannot merge into a synthesized whole.
So what is peace? If it is neither the affirmation of identity nor its surrender, what is it? Indeed, peace is a paradox - a paradox articulated in the number “3”. Peace is when two distinct entities find common ground in a third reality, one that transcends the differences between them. A third element that embraces them both, as they are, to serve a higher ideal. A third element within whose broader context the unique and even opposite features of each complement and fulfill one another. A third element which preserves their differences - and uses them as the very ingredients of harmony.
The “3” of the World
The Torah was given to make peace in the world.
The world - a chaos of diversity and randomness. Here and there we may discern patches of cohesiveness, systems and communities driven by a unanimity of purpose. But on the whole, the world seems a jumble of elements and forces, species, nations and individuals, each with their own nature and agenda. We know that there must be something that holds it all together; we know that somehow, underneath it all, we're all on the same bandwagon, headed toward a unified goal. But on the surface, we seemed doomed to conflict, as each pursues his or its individualized aspirations.
If only we could somehow get a hold of the master plan, of the grand blueprint for the universe! If only we could read the Creator's mind, to discern His intended use for each creature's particular traits and tendencies. If only we had a vision of a “third element” of creation, a vision which incorporates them all as the component parts of a single organism. Then, we would no longer have to fight the losing battle to enforce some sort of balance between individual and communal desires to keep the world from tearing itself apart. Then, there would be no need to compromise differences for the sake of peace, since the proper application of each being's and community's differences will result in the realization of the quintessential harmony which underlies all.
Torah, given in a flurry of 3's, is all that. It is the embodiment of tifferet, “Harmony,” the third of the seven Divine Attributes. Torah lays down the do’s and don'ts of life, not as a curb on individual freedom but as the description of every man's deepest and truest aspirations. It outlines the manner in which every element of creation is to be developed and utilized, not as a program to change them but to bring to light their ultimate essence and function.
Chassidic Winter
As mentioned above, nourishment for the human soul comes in two forms: unilateral gifts from Above (akin to “sunlight”), or generated from below and within (the “rainmaking” powers of the soul).
Torah, the ultimate gift of life, has both a “light” and a “rain” dimension to it. Originally, we received Torah as a Divinely authored document; at the greatest Divine revelation of history, G-d descended upon Mount Sinai and granted us His blueprint for creation. But our reception of the Torah was based on the commitment that “We will do, and we will comprehend”[11] - that we will not suffice with accepting the Torah as the word of G-d but will also toil to understand and appreciate it. So immediately following Sinai began the process of converting sunlight into rainmaking mist: to assimilate the revealed wisdom of G-d so that it becomes something which rises from within to nourish and animate the soul.
This is also reflected in our calendar: the revelation at Sinai took place in the month of Sivan, the third month of the “Season of the Sun,” while an important landmark in the process of Torah's internalization is Kislev, the corresponding third month of the “Season of Rains.”
Since 1798, the 19th of Kislev has been celebrated as the “New Year” of Chassidism. On this day the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), was released from Czarist prison, upon being cleared of the libelous charges leveled against him and the Chassidic movement. This cleared the way for the uninhibited dissemination of its teachings.[12]
A hallmark of Chabad Chassidism is that man not only rely on instructions from Above; rather, his attainments must also involve his own effort and initiative. The teachings of Chabad guide man in utilizing his own mind and heart to comprehend and appreciate the true essence of his own self, the world about him, and his relationship with his Creator. It is therefore significant that the birth of Chabad Chassidism is linked to the third month of the “Season of Rains.” For Kislev is a month that emphasizes the “rain” element of Torah: man's ability to make his achievements in bringing true peace into the world something that is truly his, a result of his own understanding and feelings.
Based on the talks of the Rebbe during the month of Kislev 5750 (December 1989) and on other occasions
[1] Midrash Tanchuma, Pikudei 3. [2] Indeed the entirety of creation, which exists to serve and challenge man in his Divinely ordained mission in life, an outgrowth and reflection of the dynamics of the human universe.[3] See previous footnote.[4] See Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 2a.[5] Consisting of the Torah (Five Books of Moses), the Prophets and the Scriptures.[6] The Jewish people are comprised of Kohanim, Levites and Israelites.[7] Moses, the third child (following Miriam and Aaron) of Amram and Jocheved.[8] The Torah was given at Sinai after three days of sanctification and preparation on the part of Israel (Ex. 19:10-11).[9] Sivan, the 3rd month from Nissan.[10] Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, Laws of Chanukah 4:14.[11] Ex. 24:7.[12] The arrest and liberation Rabbi Schneur Zalman by the Czarist Government were but a reflection of what was occurring Above. The arrest came as a result of a heavenly challenge to the Rebbe's approach of freely revealing the most intimate elements of the Torah. His exoneration and release “below” signified the heavenly approval and endorsement of the continued dissemination of Chassidism
And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet grown; for the L-rd G-d had not caused it to rain upon the earth, as there was not yet a man to work the land. [Then] there arose a mist from the earth and watered the surface of the land.Genesis 2:5-6
On Her Own Steam.
Sunlight and rain are both crucial sustainers of life on earth. Indeed, there are certain similarities in the manner in which these two gifts are bestowed upon our planet: they both “rain” down upon earth from the skies, drenching her with energy or moisture. In both cases, we seem but passive recipients to a showering of blessing from above. But a closer examination reveals a significant difference between them: while the sun's gift is indeed a unilateral bestowal, rain originates as moisture which rises from the earth, forms clouds, and returns as life-giving waters. So unlike her relationship with the sun's radiation, the earth is not a passive beneficiary of the rain falling from the skies; it is she who generates it in the first place, releasing columns of mist from her oceans and lakes to water the thirsting soil of her landmasses.
The earth, of course, could not do this on her own. It is the sun who stimulates the release and ascent of her watery stores; it is the sun who creates the weather patterns which carry them through the atmosphere and impel them earthward. In other words, the sun, ultimately, is the primary supporter of life on earth. But the sun's gifts of nourishment fall under two categories: (a) those, such as its light - and warmth - purveying rays, which the earth simply absorbs from her benevolent provider; (b) those gifts, such as rain, which the earth herself generates, the sun serving as the catalyst who wakens her potentials for self-nurture and self-development and assists in their realization.
Ecology of the Soul
Also the world, He has placed within their hearts...Ecclesiastes 3:11
Rabbi Israel Baal-Shem-Tov (1698-1760), founder of the Chassidic movement, taught: Everything that a person may observe should serve him as a lesson in his service of the Almighty. This is especially true with regard to the workings of the universe: man, say our sages, is a miniature world;[1] so in every natural phenomenon he can find a corresponding feature within himself. His observations of the universe and natural law can help him negotiate the physics and geography of his own psyche, and assist him in the perfection of his character and behavior.[2]
Man, too, is a recipient of both “rain” and “sunlight” from Above. Ultimately, of course, everything we possess, including our potentials to initiate and create, are granted us by the Creator. But the Almighty relates to the human soul in two ways: (a) with a direct and unilateral bestowal of sensitivity and enlightenment; (b) by enabling and encouraging the soul to develop and optimize her own resources, to gravitate upward in her own, self-initiated search for truth and meaning in life.
Both are crucial to the spiritual life of the soul. On the one hand, we recognize our inherent limitations. We understand that if we are to relate to a truth that is absolute and all-transcendent, we must resort to a bequest from a higher source.
At the same time, however, human nature dictates that we identify more with what we ourselves have achieved: something earned is more appreciated than a gift, an idea figured out independently is more poignant than a teaching from the greatest master. For an experience to be real - that is, to be incorporated as part of one's essence and personality - it must stem from within.
In other words, to be truly “it” it must be granted from Above; yet to be truly meaningful it must be produced from below. We need them both. Indeed, the tension between these two needs is an ever-present feature of our growth and development in all areas, intellectual, emotional or spiritual. The real or the ideal? Mine or more?
These are the phenomena of “rain” and “sunlight” in the miniature universe that is man. Thus, as the Torah relates, the first rainfall in history did not commence until there was a human being to work the land. For rain is the expression, on the cosmic level, of human initiative and endeavor - the reflection of our ability to answer the Divine light which radiates into our lives with the product of our own resources and potentials.[3]
Two Dimensional Year
This explains a curious redundancy in the structure of the Jewish year - it is a year with not one but two beginnings! For there are two opening months in the Jewish calendar: Tishrei (which usually begins sometime in September) contains the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the festival of Sukkot and is generally considered the “head” and beginning of the Jewish year; but six months later comes Nissan (late March-early April), the month of Passover and the Exodus, which is designated by the Torah as the “first month” and also serves as the “head” of the year for certain matters of Torah law and practice.[4] Why two “heads” to the year?
In the land of Israel, the rains are confined to the half-year between Tishrei and Nissan. Thus, this six-month period is referred to by our sages as the “Season of Rains” (y'mos ha'gshomim), while the six months from Nissan to Tishrei are considered the “Season of the Sun” (y'mos ha'chamah).
To the Jew, the calendar is more than a measure of time - it is a cycle that embodies the various elements of his relationship with the Almighty that are the essence of his life as a Jew. And this cycle is comprised of two basic parts: (a) the spiritually passive “Season of the Sun,” in which we mark and re-experience, the great unilateral acts of Divine involvement in our destiny (the Exodus, the revelation at Sinai); and (b) the self-generated “Season of Rains,” which open with the soul-searching and self-improvement which characterizes the month of Tishrei.
The Paradox of Peace
A scholar from the Galilee expounded before R. Chisdah: “Blessed be the Merciful One, who gave a threefold Torah[5] to a threefold people[6] through a third one[7] on the third day[8] in the third month.[9]”
Talmud, Shabbos 88a
Indeed, Torah embodies the very essence of the number “3”. For “Torah was given to make peace in the world”[10] and “3” is the number of peace.
The number “1” implies a monopolous individuality. Where “1” dominates, there cannot be peace; for “1” insists on its absoluteness and exclusivity of being - to the negation of all else. Where “1” dominates, everything else (if there is anything else) must surrender their identity before its intolerant singularity. True, there is no conflict, for there is only one; but neither is this peace, which is the harmonious integration of two (or more) distinctive elements.
“Two” represents diversity. As the number implies, we are dealing with two parallel entities. One may be infinitely superior to the other, yet they are equal if only in that each is a distinct existence. Two-ness is often the cause of conflict, but even when it is not, it still precludes true peace. As long as each insists on retaining its apartness and distinction, the most they can achieve is a peaceful co-existence; dichotomized by their respective individualities, they cannot merge into a synthesized whole.
So what is peace? If it is neither the affirmation of identity nor its surrender, what is it? Indeed, peace is a paradox - a paradox articulated in the number “3”. Peace is when two distinct entities find common ground in a third reality, one that transcends the differences between them. A third element that embraces them both, as they are, to serve a higher ideal. A third element within whose broader context the unique and even opposite features of each complement and fulfill one another. A third element which preserves their differences - and uses them as the very ingredients of harmony.
The “3” of the World
The Torah was given to make peace in the world.
The world - a chaos of diversity and randomness. Here and there we may discern patches of cohesiveness, systems and communities driven by a unanimity of purpose. But on the whole, the world seems a jumble of elements and forces, species, nations and individuals, each with their own nature and agenda. We know that there must be something that holds it all together; we know that somehow, underneath it all, we're all on the same bandwagon, headed toward a unified goal. But on the surface, we seemed doomed to conflict, as each pursues his or its individualized aspirations.
If only we could somehow get a hold of the master plan, of the grand blueprint for the universe! If only we could read the Creator's mind, to discern His intended use for each creature's particular traits and tendencies. If only we had a vision of a “third element” of creation, a vision which incorporates them all as the component parts of a single organism. Then, we would no longer have to fight the losing battle to enforce some sort of balance between individual and communal desires to keep the world from tearing itself apart. Then, there would be no need to compromise differences for the sake of peace, since the proper application of each being's and community's differences will result in the realization of the quintessential harmony which underlies all.
Torah, given in a flurry of 3's, is all that. It is the embodiment of tifferet, “Harmony,” the third of the seven Divine Attributes. Torah lays down the do’s and don'ts of life, not as a curb on individual freedom but as the description of every man's deepest and truest aspirations. It outlines the manner in which every element of creation is to be developed and utilized, not as a program to change them but to bring to light their ultimate essence and function.
Chassidic Winter
As mentioned above, nourishment for the human soul comes in two forms: unilateral gifts from Above (akin to “sunlight”), or generated from below and within (the “rainmaking” powers of the soul).
Torah, the ultimate gift of life, has both a “light” and a “rain” dimension to it. Originally, we received Torah as a Divinely authored document; at the greatest Divine revelation of history, G-d descended upon Mount Sinai and granted us His blueprint for creation. But our reception of the Torah was based on the commitment that “We will do, and we will comprehend”[11] - that we will not suffice with accepting the Torah as the word of G-d but will also toil to understand and appreciate it. So immediately following Sinai began the process of converting sunlight into rainmaking mist: to assimilate the revealed wisdom of G-d so that it becomes something which rises from within to nourish and animate the soul.
This is also reflected in our calendar: the revelation at Sinai took place in the month of Sivan, the third month of the “Season of the Sun,” while an important landmark in the process of Torah's internalization is Kislev, the corresponding third month of the “Season of Rains.”
Since 1798, the 19th of Kislev has been celebrated as the “New Year” of Chassidism. On this day the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), was released from Czarist prison, upon being cleared of the libelous charges leveled against him and the Chassidic movement. This cleared the way for the uninhibited dissemination of its teachings.[12]
A hallmark of Chabad Chassidism is that man not only rely on instructions from Above; rather, his attainments must also involve his own effort and initiative. The teachings of Chabad guide man in utilizing his own mind and heart to comprehend and appreciate the true essence of his own self, the world about him, and his relationship with his Creator. It is therefore significant that the birth of Chabad Chassidism is linked to the third month of the “Season of Rains.” For Kislev is a month that emphasizes the “rain” element of Torah: man's ability to make his achievements in bringing true peace into the world something that is truly his, a result of his own understanding and feelings.
Based on the talks of the Rebbe during the month of Kislev 5750 (December 1989) and on other occasions
[1] Midrash Tanchuma, Pikudei 3. [2] Indeed the entirety of creation, which exists to serve and challenge man in his Divinely ordained mission in life, an outgrowth and reflection of the dynamics of the human universe.[3] See previous footnote.[4] See Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 2a.[5] Consisting of the Torah (Five Books of Moses), the Prophets and the Scriptures.[6] The Jewish people are comprised of Kohanim, Levites and Israelites.[7] Moses, the third child (following Miriam and Aaron) of Amram and Jocheved.[8] The Torah was given at Sinai after three days of sanctification and preparation on the part of Israel (Ex. 19:10-11).[9] Sivan, the 3rd month from Nissan.[10] Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, Laws of Chanukah 4:14.[11] Ex. 24:7.[12] The arrest and liberation Rabbi Schneur Zalman by the Czarist Government were but a reflection of what was occurring Above. The arrest came as a result of a heavenly challenge to the Rebbe's approach of freely revealing the most intimate elements of the Torah. His exoneration and release “below” signified the heavenly approval and endorsement of the continued dissemination of Chassidism
Spiritual Gems from the parsha
And Jacob sent messengers to Esau his brother (Gen. 32:4)
At that time, Jacob was fully ready for the Redemption. He had studied a great deal of Torah, served G-d with all his heart, and had observed the 613 commandments despite the many obstacles in Laban's house. For his part, he was prepared. Jacob sent messengers to check out the spiritual status of his brother Esau, to see if he was also ready for Moshiach. Unfortunately, they found that he had not repented of his evil ways. The Redemption was therefore delayed for thousands of years until our generation, when the nations of the world are now finally ready.
(Sichot Kodesh, Vayishlach, 5752)
"I have sojourned with Laban... and I have an ox, a donkey, flocks, servants and maids..."(Gen. 32:4,5)
In order to frighten Esau, Jacob told him that he had "an ox and a donkey." Why would Esau be afraid of a donkey? Jacob was referring to the donkey upon which Moshiach will ride. Moshiach will ride on a donkey because of his humility. He will also overcome all the nations of the world in a quiet way, without war, just as Jacob overcame Esau.
(Breishit Rabah)
These are the generations of Esau, who is Edom...these are the names of Esau's chieftains...chief Magdiel, chief Iram (Gen. 36:1, 40, 43)
The present exile is referred to as the exile of Edom for the Romans, who destroyed the Holy Temple marking the commencement of exile, descended from Edom. This exile is divided into two eras, governed by the above two kinds of leaders. Magdiel (lit., "he magnifies himself above every god"): In this first era, the Roman empire expanded throughout the world, seeking to overpower Judaism and make it difficult for Jews to observe Torah. Iram (from the Hebrew "to amass [treasures for the royal Moshiach]": This second era is the one close to the Messianic Era, when Rome will no longer oppress the Jewish people but will submit to holiness and even assist Moshiach. Rome will then realize the literal meaning of its name, related to the word "hitromemut" - exaltation.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Vayishlach, 5751)
At that time, Jacob was fully ready for the Redemption. He had studied a great deal of Torah, served G-d with all his heart, and had observed the 613 commandments despite the many obstacles in Laban's house. For his part, he was prepared. Jacob sent messengers to check out the spiritual status of his brother Esau, to see if he was also ready for Moshiach. Unfortunately, they found that he had not repented of his evil ways. The Redemption was therefore delayed for thousands of years until our generation, when the nations of the world are now finally ready.
(Sichot Kodesh, Vayishlach, 5752)
"I have sojourned with Laban... and I have an ox, a donkey, flocks, servants and maids..."(Gen. 32:4,5)
In order to frighten Esau, Jacob told him that he had "an ox and a donkey." Why would Esau be afraid of a donkey? Jacob was referring to the donkey upon which Moshiach will ride. Moshiach will ride on a donkey because of his humility. He will also overcome all the nations of the world in a quiet way, without war, just as Jacob overcame Esau.
(Breishit Rabah)
These are the generations of Esau, who is Edom...these are the names of Esau's chieftains...chief Magdiel, chief Iram (Gen. 36:1, 40, 43)
The present exile is referred to as the exile of Edom for the Romans, who destroyed the Holy Temple marking the commencement of exile, descended from Edom. This exile is divided into two eras, governed by the above two kinds of leaders. Magdiel (lit., "he magnifies himself above every god"): In this first era, the Roman empire expanded throughout the world, seeking to overpower Judaism and make it difficult for Jews to observe Torah. Iram (from the Hebrew "to amass [treasures for the royal Moshiach]": This second era is the one close to the Messianic Era, when Rome will no longer oppress the Jewish people but will submit to holiness and even assist Moshiach. Rome will then realize the literal meaning of its name, related to the word "hitromemut" - exaltation.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Vayishlach, 5751)
Get Together!
Get together in honor of 19 Kislev, the "New Year" of Chasidut and anniversary of the liberation of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the first Chabad Rebbe. Start by gathering yourself (i.e. gathering your own strengths and powers for good). Use these gatherings as an opportunity to inspire others or to be inspired to add in Torah study, prayer and acts of kindness. (From a talk of the Rebbe, 16 Kislev, 5752-1991)
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
It is both timely and meaningful to recall the following episode from his life and teachings:
13 Kislev, 5723 [1962]
I was pleased to receive the news of your forthcoming Dinner on the 20th of Kislev, the day after the historic Day of Liberation of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, author of the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch and founder of Chabad.
It is both timely and meaningful to recall the following episode from his life and teachings:
The Alter Rebbe shared his house with his oldest married son, Rabbi Dov Ber (who later succeeded him as the Mitteler Rebbe). Rabbi Dov Ber was known for his unusual power of concentration. Once, when Rabbi Dov Ber was engrossed in learning, his baby, sleeping in its cradle nearby, fell out and began to cry. The infant's father did not hear the baby's cries. But the infant's grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, also engrossed in his studies in his room on the upper floor at the time, most certainly did. He interrupted his studies, went downstairs, picked the baby up, soothed it and replaced it in its cradle. Through all this Rabbi Dov Ber remained quite oblivious.
Subsequently, the Alter Rebbe admonished his son: "No matter how engrossed one may be in the most lofty occupation, one must never remain insensitive to the cry of a child."
This story has been transmitted to us from generation to generation; I heard it from my father-in-law of saintly memory. It was handed down because of the lasting message it conveys, one which is particularly pertinent to our time. It characterizes one of the basic tenets of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement - to hearken to the cry of our distressed Jewish children.
The "child" may be an infant in years, a Jewish boy or girl of school age, fallen from the "cradle" of Torah-true Jewish education, or it may be someone who is chronologically an adult yet an "infant" insofar as Jewish life is concerned, an infant in knowledge and experience of the Jewish religion, heritage and way of life.
The souls of these Jewish "children" cry out in anguish, for they live in a spiritual void, whether they are conscious of this or feel it only subconsciously. Every Jew, no matter how preoccupied he may be with any lofty cause, must hear the cries of these Jewish children. Bringing these Jewish children back to their Jewish cradle has priority over all else.
The Eve of Yud Tes Kislev, 5724 [1963]
...In one of his well-known letters, the Alter Rebbe declares that the happy tidings of his liberation reached him when he was reading the verse (Psalms 55:19): "[G-d] has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me."
This Providential coincidence surely carries a message for every one of us. Indeed, every individual is in need of a personal liberation from all the difficulties and hindrances encountered in daily life which hamper the attainment of the goals which should be achieved every day, in both material and spiritual endeavors.
Thus, our Sages make the following meaningful commentary on the verse: "Said the Holy One, Blessed Be He: He who engages in Torah, and in acts of loving-kindness, and prays with the congregation, is regarded by Me as if he redeemed Me and My children from among the nations of the world" (Talmud, Berachot 8a).
In this way, our Sages emphasize that the personal redemption of every Jew, as well as of the entire Jewish people, together with G-d (so to speak), is directly linked with the dissemination of Torah, acts of benevolence ("duties toward fellow-Jews"), and prayer ("duties toward G-d").
Thus, every man or woman who is involved in these three things brings liberation and redemption to himself as well as to our people as a whole.
The Eve of 19 Kislev, 5730 [1969]
The Festival of Liberation of the Alter Rebbe on Yud Tes (the 19th) Kislev, and the festival of Chanuka, though widely apart in historic perspective, have much in common in spirit and significance. It is therefore no accident that Divine Providence has brought both of them together in the same auspicious month of Kislev, within a week of each other.
The Alter Rebbe sought to illuminate Jewish life, even Torah life, with the inner light of the Torah and mitzvoth [commandments], giving a new dimension of vitality and meaning to each and every Jew in his daily life. However, the light of Chabad Chasidus was threatened with extinction just as the light of the Torah and mitzvoth was in danger in the time of Matathias. Thus, Yud Tes Kislev, the day on which the Alter Rebbe and Chabad were completely vindicated, may be considered a "festival of lights" much in the same way as Chanuka.
Similarly, both Yud Tes Kislev and Chanuka stress the importance of Jewish education in all its Torah purity, permeated with the spirit of self-sacrifice. It is no exaggeration to say that the dedicated workers of Chabad-Lubavitch are true heirs of the Hasmoneans of old. They render a most vital service in forming Torah outposts and strongholds in many parts of the world, in order to preserve and spread the light of the Torah and mitzvoth, and to strengthen the foundation of Torah-true education.
I was pleased to receive the news of your forthcoming Dinner on the 20th of Kislev, the day after the historic Day of Liberation of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, author of the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch and founder of Chabad.
It is both timely and meaningful to recall the following episode from his life and teachings:
The Alter Rebbe shared his house with his oldest married son, Rabbi Dov Ber (who later succeeded him as the Mitteler Rebbe). Rabbi Dov Ber was known for his unusual power of concentration. Once, when Rabbi Dov Ber was engrossed in learning, his baby, sleeping in its cradle nearby, fell out and began to cry. The infant's father did not hear the baby's cries. But the infant's grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, also engrossed in his studies in his room on the upper floor at the time, most certainly did. He interrupted his studies, went downstairs, picked the baby up, soothed it and replaced it in its cradle. Through all this Rabbi Dov Ber remained quite oblivious.
Subsequently, the Alter Rebbe admonished his son: "No matter how engrossed one may be in the most lofty occupation, one must never remain insensitive to the cry of a child."
This story has been transmitted to us from generation to generation; I heard it from my father-in-law of saintly memory. It was handed down because of the lasting message it conveys, one which is particularly pertinent to our time. It characterizes one of the basic tenets of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement - to hearken to the cry of our distressed Jewish children.
The "child" may be an infant in years, a Jewish boy or girl of school age, fallen from the "cradle" of Torah-true Jewish education, or it may be someone who is chronologically an adult yet an "infant" insofar as Jewish life is concerned, an infant in knowledge and experience of the Jewish religion, heritage and way of life.
The souls of these Jewish "children" cry out in anguish, for they live in a spiritual void, whether they are conscious of this or feel it only subconsciously. Every Jew, no matter how preoccupied he may be with any lofty cause, must hear the cries of these Jewish children. Bringing these Jewish children back to their Jewish cradle has priority over all else.
The Eve of Yud Tes Kislev, 5724 [1963]
...In one of his well-known letters, the Alter Rebbe declares that the happy tidings of his liberation reached him when he was reading the verse (Psalms 55:19): "[G-d] has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me."
This Providential coincidence surely carries a message for every one of us. Indeed, every individual is in need of a personal liberation from all the difficulties and hindrances encountered in daily life which hamper the attainment of the goals which should be achieved every day, in both material and spiritual endeavors.
Thus, our Sages make the following meaningful commentary on the verse: "Said the Holy One, Blessed Be He: He who engages in Torah, and in acts of loving-kindness, and prays with the congregation, is regarded by Me as if he redeemed Me and My children from among the nations of the world" (Talmud, Berachot 8a).
In this way, our Sages emphasize that the personal redemption of every Jew, as well as of the entire Jewish people, together with G-d (so to speak), is directly linked with the dissemination of Torah, acts of benevolence ("duties toward fellow-Jews"), and prayer ("duties toward G-d").
Thus, every man or woman who is involved in these three things brings liberation and redemption to himself as well as to our people as a whole.
The Eve of 19 Kislev, 5730 [1969]
The Festival of Liberation of the Alter Rebbe on Yud Tes (the 19th) Kislev, and the festival of Chanuka, though widely apart in historic perspective, have much in common in spirit and significance. It is therefore no accident that Divine Providence has brought both of them together in the same auspicious month of Kislev, within a week of each other.
The Alter Rebbe sought to illuminate Jewish life, even Torah life, with the inner light of the Torah and mitzvoth [commandments], giving a new dimension of vitality and meaning to each and every Jew in his daily life. However, the light of Chabad Chasidus was threatened with extinction just as the light of the Torah and mitzvoth was in danger in the time of Matathias. Thus, Yud Tes Kislev, the day on which the Alter Rebbe and Chabad were completely vindicated, may be considered a "festival of lights" much in the same way as Chanuka.
Similarly, both Yud Tes Kislev and Chanuka stress the importance of Jewish education in all its Torah purity, permeated with the spirit of self-sacrifice. It is no exaggeration to say that the dedicated workers of Chabad-Lubavitch are true heirs of the Hasmoneans of old. They render a most vital service in forming Torah outposts and strongholds in many parts of the world, in order to preserve and spread the light of the Torah and mitzvoth, and to strengthen the foundation of Torah-true education.
Israel, Read the Sign!
"I have lost all respect for you as a Rabbi and I dont believe that a man who cant be trusted in confidence, should be giving advice to people". (Leah) Last week's email, Confessions of a Thief, elicited some heated responses. Follow the debate here. http://www.nefesh.com.au/?p=1026
Question of the Week:
What does the word Zion mean, and what are its origins? (I was asked this by my Rastafarian friend)
Answer:
The name Zion holds the secret to the power of Israel. If you understand this name, you understand the magic of the Holy Land. The word Zion appears 154 times in the Hebrew Bible, and has several connotations. Zion can refer to the Land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem or the Temple. But the actual meaning of the word is puzzling. Translated literally, Zion means a sign, or an icon. A sign is always indication of something else. When you see a sign that says "dentist", you know that the sign itself is not the dentist, it merely points out that a dentist is here. Same with an icon. When you see an icon on a website, it is not the icon itself that has any use. It is there to click on and it directs you to another page. A sign is never there for itself. It is there to alert our attention, to make us aware of or to lead us to some other reality. So too with the Land of Israel. It is a sign pointing upwards. It is the icon that you click on to be directed to G-d. The very existence of the land of Israel points to a Higher Force. The beauty of the land, the magic of Jerusalem, the holiness of the Temple mount are all indicators of a Higher presence. The awe felt when entering the Old City of Jerusalem is not due to its impressive buildings, for it has none. It is not due to its sense of history, though that too is fascinating. It is due to the sense of something bigger than life itself that fills the air. You walk the land, and you sense G-d's presence. The Holy Land is a sign pointing upwards to G-d. You can't avoid G-d in Israel. You can seek Him out or run away from Him, but you can't stay neutral. G-d is too real to ignore in Israel. Whether one is a believer or not, whether one admits it or not, the magic of Israel is divine. That's why it's called Zion, a sign of the One Above. Israel without G-d is like a dentist sign without a dentist, or an icon with a broken link. It stands for nothing and it goes nowhere. But when Israel is true to its G-d and true to its mission, it is invincible. Israel's power does not come from its military might, and not from its allies and friends. It comes from G-d. Just read the sign.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
Question of the Week:
What does the word Zion mean, and what are its origins? (I was asked this by my Rastafarian friend)
Answer:
The name Zion holds the secret to the power of Israel. If you understand this name, you understand the magic of the Holy Land. The word Zion appears 154 times in the Hebrew Bible, and has several connotations. Zion can refer to the Land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem or the Temple. But the actual meaning of the word is puzzling. Translated literally, Zion means a sign, or an icon. A sign is always indication of something else. When you see a sign that says "dentist", you know that the sign itself is not the dentist, it merely points out that a dentist is here. Same with an icon. When you see an icon on a website, it is not the icon itself that has any use. It is there to click on and it directs you to another page. A sign is never there for itself. It is there to alert our attention, to make us aware of or to lead us to some other reality. So too with the Land of Israel. It is a sign pointing upwards. It is the icon that you click on to be directed to G-d. The very existence of the land of Israel points to a Higher Force. The beauty of the land, the magic of Jerusalem, the holiness of the Temple mount are all indicators of a Higher presence. The awe felt when entering the Old City of Jerusalem is not due to its impressive buildings, for it has none. It is not due to its sense of history, though that too is fascinating. It is due to the sense of something bigger than life itself that fills the air. You walk the land, and you sense G-d's presence. The Holy Land is a sign pointing upwards to G-d. You can't avoid G-d in Israel. You can seek Him out or run away from Him, but you can't stay neutral. G-d is too real to ignore in Israel. Whether one is a believer or not, whether one admits it or not, the magic of Israel is divine. That's why it's called Zion, a sign of the One Above. Israel without G-d is like a dentist sign without a dentist, or an icon with a broken link. It stands for nothing and it goes nowhere. But when Israel is true to its G-d and true to its mission, it is invincible. Israel's power does not come from its military might, and not from its allies and friends. It comes from G-d. Just read the sign.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
This week's Torah portion, Vayishlach, opens
This week's Torah portion, Vayishlach, opens with the words "Jacob sent malachim before him to Esau his brother."Although the word "malachim" is usually translated in this verse as "messengers," Rashi, the foremost Torah commentator, tells us that Jacob sent "malachim" in the literal sense: "angels" - actual celestial beings.
Why did Jacob find it necessary to send the angels? Furthermore, in light of the principle that "one angel cannot perform two missions at the same time," by dispatching angels to Esau, Jacob was seemingly diverting them from their Divinely-appointed missions in the heavens.
Chasidic philosophy provides us with the answer by explaining the inner meaning of the angels' mission.
Jacob understood that the entire purpose of creation is the separation of good from evil and the restoration of the "sparks of holiness" to their G-dly source; indeed, this was his sole intention when he set out for the spiritually impure Charan.
Jacob also understood that his service alone was insufficient to achieve his goal; the participation of his brother Esau was also necessary.
Esau, described as "a man of the field," is symbolic of the highest G-dly light fallen to the lowest depths; thus, the ultimate Redemption with Moshiach will only come about when gentiles as well as Jews have reached a state of perfection.
After 20 years of service in Charan, Jacob was ready for the Redemption; he hoped that in the interim Esau had sufficiently refined himself and was ready as well. This is alluded to in Jacob's reference to "a donkey" upon greeting his brother - symbolic, as our Sages tell us, of King Moshiach, who is described as "riding on a donkey."
For such an important mission - indeed, the most important mission of all, the fulfillment of the ultimate goal of creation -- only the finest emissaries would do: celestial angels. For them, this was not an inconvenience at all; on the contrary, it was a very great merit, as they too joyously anticipated the Redemption.
Unfortunately, Esau had not yet completed his service. "We came to your brother," the angels told Jacob on their return, "to Esau." In other words, Esau is still the same person as he was 20 years ago, he hasn't changed. Hearing this, Jacob realized that the road to Redemption would be long and hard, as he told his brother, "I will go ahead slowly."
This, however, was long ago; today, after thousands of years of service, most particularly after the revelation of Chasidut, the preparation for Moshiach, the entire world is ready for the Redemption. All that is left is for it to become manifest in the physical world; may this occur at once.
Adapted from Sefer HaSichot of the Rebbe, 5752, Vol. I
Chew Your Food
One admonition we've probably all heard is "chew your food." Our parents told it to us so often that we subconsciously tell it to ourselves when we notice that we're "wolfing" down the food.Chewing your food, and chewing it well, contributes to good health. How so? First, digestion begins in the mouth. And good digestion is an important component of good stomach and intestinal health.
Chewing breaks down clumps of food into smaller particles. This does three things: it reduces stress on the esophagus (it's easier to swallow smaller than larger), it it makes the stomach's job easier (smaller bits digest easier) and it keeps the the food exposed to saliva longer.
Saliva contains enzymes that begin the chemical process of digestion. There are carbohydrate digesting enzymes in saliva, and fat-digesting enzymes, as well. And chewing protein-rich foods accelerates their digestion as well.
There are other effects if we don't chew our food. If we don't chew properly, and the food fragments give the stomach and intestines problems, not only do we not get the nutrients we need, but we create a "petri dish" for bacteria. And that "petri dish" inside us can produce indigestion, in addition to other ailments.
But chewing well has two other health benefits: it relaxes the lower stomach muscle, so the stomach can finish its job; indeed, chewing starts the whole digestive process.
Enough of all that, though. The main reason to chew your food is because if you don't, you can't taste it! Chewing your food allows you to appreciate the flavors and texture and even the smell of your food.
The concept "chew your food" applies in a spiritual context, as well. Our Sages make the analogy that Torah is the food of the soul: "Your Torah is in my inner parts" (Psalms 40:9).
Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Chasidism, in the Tanya, explains the verse: When one knows Torah, the Torah is absorbed in the soul and intellect. (Just like, when you "know" a subject you've internalized it, intellectually; it's within you, part of your intellectual being.) So, by analogy, Torah is called the "bread" or "food" of the soul: just like physical bread nourishes the body when it's eaten and digested, transformed into one's flesh and blood, so too knowledge of Torah, once the person has studied it well and deeply, becomes food for the soul.
So, the concept of "chew your food" exists in a spiritual sense, as well: It's not enough to study Torah in a way of "I get it" - listening and getting the ideas in a general sense. Rather one has to "chew" a Torah concept - to think about it, contemplate it, test it, argue over it - in short, to extend the metaphor, one has to "chew it over" to make sure the Torah learned is thoroughly examined and properly understood.
So if we really want to "taste" our food - to appreciate the richness, textures and subtleties in a Talmudic discussion or Chasidic discourse, we have to delve deeply and slowly. That's the only way to truly understand, to get the full flavor of Torah, G-d's wisdom.
Chewing breaks down clumps of food into smaller particles. This does three things: it reduces stress on the esophagus (it's easier to swallow smaller than larger), it it makes the stomach's job easier (smaller bits digest easier) and it keeps the the food exposed to saliva longer.
Saliva contains enzymes that begin the chemical process of digestion. There are carbohydrate digesting enzymes in saliva, and fat-digesting enzymes, as well. And chewing protein-rich foods accelerates their digestion as well.
There are other effects if we don't chew our food. If we don't chew properly, and the food fragments give the stomach and intestines problems, not only do we not get the nutrients we need, but we create a "petri dish" for bacteria. And that "petri dish" inside us can produce indigestion, in addition to other ailments.
But chewing well has two other health benefits: it relaxes the lower stomach muscle, so the stomach can finish its job; indeed, chewing starts the whole digestive process.
Enough of all that, though. The main reason to chew your food is because if you don't, you can't taste it! Chewing your food allows you to appreciate the flavors and texture and even the smell of your food.
The concept "chew your food" applies in a spiritual context, as well. Our Sages make the analogy that Torah is the food of the soul: "Your Torah is in my inner parts" (Psalms 40:9).
Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Chasidism, in the Tanya, explains the verse: When one knows Torah, the Torah is absorbed in the soul and intellect. (Just like, when you "know" a subject you've internalized it, intellectually; it's within you, part of your intellectual being.) So, by analogy, Torah is called the "bread" or "food" of the soul: just like physical bread nourishes the body when it's eaten and digested, transformed into one's flesh and blood, so too knowledge of Torah, once the person has studied it well and deeply, becomes food for the soul.
So, the concept of "chew your food" exists in a spiritual sense, as well: It's not enough to study Torah in a way of "I get it" - listening and getting the ideas in a general sense. Rather one has to "chew" a Torah concept - to think about it, contemplate it, test it, argue over it - in short, to extend the metaphor, one has to "chew it over" to make sure the Torah learned is thoroughly examined and properly understood.
So if we really want to "taste" our food - to appreciate the richness, textures and subtleties in a Talmudic discussion or Chasidic discourse, we have to delve deeply and slowly. That's the only way to truly understand, to get the full flavor of Torah, G-d's wisdom.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Forbidden Piety
Our sages tell us that the patriarchs observed the entire Torah although G-d had not yet commanded it.[1] Yet in the 29th chapter of Genesis we find Jacob marrying Rachel after having been tricked into marrying her sister, Leah. Why did Jacob marry two sisters, a clear biblical prohibition?[2]
But Jacob had given his word to Rachel, who had waited seven years as he worked for her father to gain her hand. To refuse to marry her would have caused her grievous hurt and embarrassment. Since the laws of the Torah were not commanded to Israel before the revelation at Mount Sinai, Jacob had no right to uphold his self-assumed piety at the expense of another human being.
Therein lies an important lesson to each and every one of us. The Torah's laws are eternal and unequivocal---one cannot second-guess the Almighty, even if the observance of His commandments may appear to cause hardship and suffering. Ultimately, the Torah is the only source of life and well-being for the Jew, both spiritually and physically. Yet this applies only to what the Torah directly commands. If a person wishes to go beyond what the Torah obligates him, this is most laudable---as long as it affects only himself. Where others are affected, a fellow's needs must always take precedence over one's own loftiest “values.”
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Kislev 28, 5728 (December 30, 1967) [3]
The Modern Laban
And Laban responded to Jacob: “The daughters are my daughters, the sons are my sons, the sheep are my sheep...”
Genesis 31:43
“You, Jacob, are fine the way you are: a man raised in the old country, a man whose natural habitant are the tents of study and prayer. But what do you want of the children? They belong to another generation, another world. They must be raised in the spirit of the times, equipped to earn a living and place in society. Do you truly expect them to negotiate modern life with nothing but your ancient tomes? You, Jacob, are fine the way you are; but leave the children to me...”
“Jacob, I wouldn't dream of interfering with your holy life – I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no authority on religion. By all means, consult your sacred books on how to keep the Shabbat or how to light your Chanukah candles. But when it comes to business affairs--do you think that the commodities market conforms to the standards of the Shulchan Aruch? That you can retain both your competitive edge and your talmudical ethics? You'll be eaten alive out there. Reserve your piety for the synagogue and study hall, but do yourself a favor -- leave the sheep to me, okay?''
Based on an address by the Rebbe[4]
[1] Talmud, Yuma 28b; Rashi on Genesis 26:5. Jacob himself communicated to Esau: “I dwelt with Laban, and kept the 613 mitzvot” (Rashi on Genesis 32:5).
[2] Leviticus 18:18. To divorce Leah, in addition to the hurt and insult to her this would have involved, would not have solved the problem: the Torah's prohibition against marrying two sisters applies also to the sister of one's living divorcee.
[3] Likkuttei Sichot vol. V pp. 147-148).
[4] Likkutei Sichot vol III pg. 790
By Simon Jacobson
But Jacob had given his word to Rachel, who had waited seven years as he worked for her father to gain her hand. To refuse to marry her would have caused her grievous hurt and embarrassment. Since the laws of the Torah were not commanded to Israel before the revelation at Mount Sinai, Jacob had no right to uphold his self-assumed piety at the expense of another human being.
Therein lies an important lesson to each and every one of us. The Torah's laws are eternal and unequivocal---one cannot second-guess the Almighty, even if the observance of His commandments may appear to cause hardship and suffering. Ultimately, the Torah is the only source of life and well-being for the Jew, both spiritually and physically. Yet this applies only to what the Torah directly commands. If a person wishes to go beyond what the Torah obligates him, this is most laudable---as long as it affects only himself. Where others are affected, a fellow's needs must always take precedence over one's own loftiest “values.”
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Kislev 28, 5728 (December 30, 1967) [3]
The Modern Laban
And Laban responded to Jacob: “The daughters are my daughters, the sons are my sons, the sheep are my sheep...”
Genesis 31:43
“You, Jacob, are fine the way you are: a man raised in the old country, a man whose natural habitant are the tents of study and prayer. But what do you want of the children? They belong to another generation, another world. They must be raised in the spirit of the times, equipped to earn a living and place in society. Do you truly expect them to negotiate modern life with nothing but your ancient tomes? You, Jacob, are fine the way you are; but leave the children to me...”
“Jacob, I wouldn't dream of interfering with your holy life – I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no authority on religion. By all means, consult your sacred books on how to keep the Shabbat or how to light your Chanukah candles. But when it comes to business affairs--do you think that the commodities market conforms to the standards of the Shulchan Aruch? That you can retain both your competitive edge and your talmudical ethics? You'll be eaten alive out there. Reserve your piety for the synagogue and study hall, but do yourself a favor -- leave the sheep to me, okay?''
Based on an address by the Rebbe[4]
[1] Talmud, Yuma 28b; Rashi on Genesis 26:5. Jacob himself communicated to Esau: “I dwelt with Laban, and kept the 613 mitzvot” (Rashi on Genesis 32:5).
[2] Leviticus 18:18. To divorce Leah, in addition to the hurt and insult to her this would have involved, would not have solved the problem: the Torah's prohibition against marrying two sisters applies also to the sister of one's living divorcee.
[3] Likkuttei Sichot vol. V pp. 147-148).
[4] Likkutei Sichot vol III pg. 790
By Simon Jacobson
Spiritual Gems from the parsha
And Jacob went on his way (Gen. 32:2)
Every Jew, no matter who, is entrusted with the special mission of going from "strength to strength" in G-d's path. We learn this from the above passage. The name "Jacob" comes from the word meaning "ankle," symbolizing that this mission applies equally to all Jews, as one ankle is indistinguishable from another. The word "went" teaches us that a Jew must always be on the move, growing and ascending higher and higher in his service of G-d. "On his way" indicates the way of G-d's Torah and its laws, for which purpose an individual's soul is brought down into this world.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
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Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Charan (Gen. 28:10)
Rabbi Pinchas said, in the name of Rabbi Abahu: According to the Torah, whomever a person marries is predestined by G-d. Some people must go out to meet their mate; others have their mate come to them. Isaac's wife, Rebecca, came to him: "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field...and he lifted up his eyes and saw, behold, there were camels coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and she saw Isaac." Jacob, however, had to travel to Charan to meet his future wives.
(Breishit Rabba)
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And he reached (vayifga) a certain place (Gen. 28:11)
The Hebrew word "vayifga," "and he reached," implies prayer. It was especially necessary for Jacob to pray for guidance as he set out for Charan, for he knew that the challenges he would find there would be far more trying than those he had experienced in the rarefied atmosphere of the yeshiva. He therefore prayed for the strength to withstand the difficult trials he would encounter.
(Likutei Sichot)
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The day is yet long (Gen. 29:7)
Such is the way of the world: When a person is in his prime, he sees no need to hurry, as he still has plenty of time to devote to refining his character - "the day is yet long." When that long-delayed time comes, however, he finds that the day is almost over.
(Maharish of Mezritch)
Be "Charitable" on Shabbat
Charity should be given each and every day. But how is this accomplished on Shabbat, when it is forbidden to handle money? Instead of money, we can give food and drink to guests or we can make sure to speak well of another person, say an encouraging word to someone, pay someone a compliment.
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
To the Conference of Religious Physicians,
An official translation of a letter of the Rebbe
2nd day of Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5715 (1955)
To the Conference of Religious Physicians,I was pleased to be informed of your conference, designed to create an organized body of Jewish religious physicians. Unification of religious forces was always desirable, especially in our generation, a generation confused and perplexed by the shattering events of recent years, as a result of which many thinking people have become completely disillu-sioned in the false ideas and ideologies which they had held in the past, and are now earnestly searching for the truth.
An organized body of religious physicians could make its influence felt in these circles through a declaration of their authoritative opinion on several issues, which have been the subject of confused and misleading controversy.
Such a declaration should, first of all, do away with the misconception about any conflict between science and religion. True science, the object of which is the truth and nothing but the truth, can lead to no conclusions which are contrary to our Torah, "the Law of Truth." On the contrary, the more deeply one delves into science, the stronger must grow the recognition of the truth of the fundamental principles, as well as the ramifications, of our Jewish religion.
As physicians, in particular, you are in a position to refute decisively the materialistic philosophy, as is demonstrated by the fact that so much of physical health depends on spiritual health. If in modern days emphasis was placed on "mens sana in corpore sano" [a healthy mind in a healthy body] in our days it is a matter of general conviction that even a small defect spiritually causes a grie-vous defect physically; and the healthier the spirit and the greater its preponderance over the physical body - the greater its ability to correct or overcome physical shortcoming; so much so, that in many cases even physical treatments, prescriptions and drugs are considerably more effective if they are accompanied by the patient's strong will and determination to cooperate.
This principle of "mind over matter," i.e., of quality over quantity, is further emphasized by the fact, which is continually gaining recognition, that the vital functions of the organism do not depend on quantity, inasmuch as the glands, and the hormones, vitamins, etc., which they produce, are quite minute quantitatively.
Parenthetically: It is written in our holy Scriptures, "From my flesh I visualize G-d." Recognizing the preponderance of the soul in the physical body (the microcosm), there remains but a small step to the recognition of G-d, the "soul" of the Universe (the macrocosm). And in the words of our Sages: "As the soul fills the body, vivifies it, sees, but is not seen - so the Holy One, blessed is He, fills the world, vivifies it, sees, but is not seen."
So much for speaking in general terms. Specifically, many are the questions directly relating to the practice of the physician, some of them of practical and immediate importance, on which your voice should be heard. To mention but a few:
To declare the paramount importance of the observance of the laws of Taharas HaMishpocha - Jewish marriage; the observance of kashrus - the dietary laws; circumcision.
Elimination of treatment likely to cause sterility, and substituting for it other forms of treatment; particularly, in connection with surgery on the prostate...
Postmortem: For purposes of study of anatomy, etc., it is surely possible to use artificial forms and models; for purposes of ascertaining the case of death - in many cases it is not essential; where it may be of immediate necessity to save a life (as in the case of an accusation of poisoning, etc.), mutilation of the body should be reduced to the essential minimum, and the parts should be buried afterwards.
And so on.
Needless to say, what has been mentioned above about pointing out the health benefits that are derived from the observance of the religious precepts, should not be understood as an attempt to explain the precepts by their utilitarian value. For, the Divine precepts must be observed because they are the command and will of our Creator.
However, for the benefit of those who, by reason of spiritual "sickness," cannot be induced to observe the precepts except by making them aware of their utilitarian value, we must do everything possible to urge them to observe the mitzvos in daily life, even if we have to rationalize about the Divine commands, and emphasize their physical benefits....
2nd day of Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5715 (1955)
To the Conference of Religious Physicians,I was pleased to be informed of your conference, designed to create an organized body of Jewish religious physicians. Unification of religious forces was always desirable, especially in our generation, a generation confused and perplexed by the shattering events of recent years, as a result of which many thinking people have become completely disillu-sioned in the false ideas and ideologies which they had held in the past, and are now earnestly searching for the truth.
An organized body of religious physicians could make its influence felt in these circles through a declaration of their authoritative opinion on several issues, which have been the subject of confused and misleading controversy.
Such a declaration should, first of all, do away with the misconception about any conflict between science and religion. True science, the object of which is the truth and nothing but the truth, can lead to no conclusions which are contrary to our Torah, "the Law of Truth." On the contrary, the more deeply one delves into science, the stronger must grow the recognition of the truth of the fundamental principles, as well as the ramifications, of our Jewish religion.
As physicians, in particular, you are in a position to refute decisively the materialistic philosophy, as is demonstrated by the fact that so much of physical health depends on spiritual health. If in modern days emphasis was placed on "mens sana in corpore sano" [a healthy mind in a healthy body] in our days it is a matter of general conviction that even a small defect spiritually causes a grie-vous defect physically; and the healthier the spirit and the greater its preponderance over the physical body - the greater its ability to correct or overcome physical shortcoming; so much so, that in many cases even physical treatments, prescriptions and drugs are considerably more effective if they are accompanied by the patient's strong will and determination to cooperate.
This principle of "mind over matter," i.e., of quality over quantity, is further emphasized by the fact, which is continually gaining recognition, that the vital functions of the organism do not depend on quantity, inasmuch as the glands, and the hormones, vitamins, etc., which they produce, are quite minute quantitatively.
Parenthetically: It is written in our holy Scriptures, "From my flesh I visualize G-d." Recognizing the preponderance of the soul in the physical body (the microcosm), there remains but a small step to the recognition of G-d, the "soul" of the Universe (the macrocosm). And in the words of our Sages: "As the soul fills the body, vivifies it, sees, but is not seen - so the Holy One, blessed is He, fills the world, vivifies it, sees, but is not seen."
So much for speaking in general terms. Specifically, many are the questions directly relating to the practice of the physician, some of them of practical and immediate importance, on which your voice should be heard. To mention but a few:
To declare the paramount importance of the observance of the laws of Taharas HaMishpocha - Jewish marriage; the observance of kashrus - the dietary laws; circumcision.
Elimination of treatment likely to cause sterility, and substituting for it other forms of treatment; particularly, in connection with surgery on the prostate...
Postmortem: For purposes of study of anatomy, etc., it is surely possible to use artificial forms and models; for purposes of ascertaining the case of death - in many cases it is not essential; where it may be of immediate necessity to save a life (as in the case of an accusation of poisoning, etc.), mutilation of the body should be reduced to the essential minimum, and the parts should be buried afterwards.
And so on.
Needless to say, what has been mentioned above about pointing out the health benefits that are derived from the observance of the religious precepts, should not be understood as an attempt to explain the precepts by their utilitarian value. For, the Divine precepts must be observed because they are the command and will of our Creator.
However, for the benefit of those who, by reason of spiritual "sickness," cannot be induced to observe the precepts except by making them aware of their utilitarian value, we must do everything possible to urge them to observe the mitzvos in daily life, even if we have to rationalize about the Divine commands, and emphasize their physical benefits....
This week's Torah portion, Vayeitzei
This week's Torah portion, Vayeitzei relates how a single and solitary Jew left his home and set out for a foreign land, arriving there with nothing, save for his faith in G-d. "For with [only] my staff I passed over this Jordan," Jacob declared. Nonetheless, Jacob's steps were sure and confident, as he had full faith in G-d.Once in Charan, Jacob quickly saw that there was no one upon whom he could rely, not even his relatives. His uncle, Laban, repeatedly tricked and deceived him, yet never once did Jacob lose his faith.
Through outstanding service and dedication to G-d Jacob merited to obtain great wealth. But Jacob's main achievement in Charan was that, despite their growing up in a hostile environment, every single one of his children was a pious and religious Jew.
Abraham had one son who followed in his righteous ways, Isaac, but he also had another son who did not, Ishmael. Isaac had one son who was righteous, Jacob, but he was also the father of Esau. Both Abraham and Isaac raised their children in Israel and not in exile, yet they still had descendants who abandoned the righteous path.
Jacob, by contrast, raised his family in exile. Required to serve G-d in the most difficult of circumstances, he made sure that his twelve sons would not be affected by the negative influence of Charan. On the contrary, he strove to instill in them the Torah he had received from his forefathers and studied with his ancestors Shem and Ever, thus proving that it was possible to live a Torah-true life even on the other side of the Jordan.
In Charan, Jacob merited both spiritual and material success ("And the man increased exceedingly") by virtue of his faith in G-d. But the spiritual "great wealth" he acquired was the successful rearing of his children, who were all upright and devout individuals.
The lesson this contains for us at present is clear: The only one upon whom we can ever depend is G-d, to Whom we connect ourselves through the medium of Torah and mitzvot (commandments).
By educating our children in the ways of Torah, the eternal Torah we have inherited from our fathers and grandfathers, we will merit to go out of exile "with our youth and with our elders, with our sons and with our daughters." And when Moshiach comes we will be fully prepared to meet the Redemption.
May it be G-d's will that this happens very soon, and that we greet Moshiach speedily in our days.
Adapted for Maayan Chai from Likutei Sichot, vol. 1
Through outstanding service and dedication to G-d Jacob merited to obtain great wealth. But Jacob's main achievement in Charan was that, despite their growing up in a hostile environment, every single one of his children was a pious and religious Jew.
Abraham had one son who followed in his righteous ways, Isaac, but he also had another son who did not, Ishmael. Isaac had one son who was righteous, Jacob, but he was also the father of Esau. Both Abraham and Isaac raised their children in Israel and not in exile, yet they still had descendants who abandoned the righteous path.
Jacob, by contrast, raised his family in exile. Required to serve G-d in the most difficult of circumstances, he made sure that his twelve sons would not be affected by the negative influence of Charan. On the contrary, he strove to instill in them the Torah he had received from his forefathers and studied with his ancestors Shem and Ever, thus proving that it was possible to live a Torah-true life even on the other side of the Jordan.
In Charan, Jacob merited both spiritual and material success ("And the man increased exceedingly") by virtue of his faith in G-d. But the spiritual "great wealth" he acquired was the successful rearing of his children, who were all upright and devout individuals.
The lesson this contains for us at present is clear: The only one upon whom we can ever depend is G-d, to Whom we connect ourselves through the medium of Torah and mitzvot (commandments).
By educating our children in the ways of Torah, the eternal Torah we have inherited from our fathers and grandfathers, we will merit to go out of exile "with our youth and with our elders, with our sons and with our daughters." And when Moshiach comes we will be fully prepared to meet the Redemption.
May it be G-d's will that this happens very soon, and that we greet Moshiach speedily in our days.
Adapted for Maayan Chai from Likutei Sichot, vol. 1
Do Not Remove
Surely you've seen the "Do Not Remove" tag on furniture - couches, mattresses, pillows, etc. Sometimes the phrase "Under Penalty of Law" is in the same big letters. In smaller letters, something you probably never paid attention to, is a list of components - what's inside the pillow, what the couch is made of, how fire retardant the material is.What would happen if you did rip off the tag? Would the mattress police come and arrest you? Would some government agency revoke your couch potato license? No, not at all. If you rip "Do not Remove" tag off a piece of furniture, you will not be punished.
Well, if nothing's going to happen, if there's no penalty, why are those tags there, anyway?
A little history: In the early part of the twentieth century, many unscrupulous manufacturers would stuff bedding and other furniture with all kinds of stuff - straw, horse hair, old rags - and worse. It wasn't just a quality control issue; it was a real public health hazard. Bedding and other furniture stuffing harbored lots of communicable diseases - including smallpox.
So the government devised a simple system to protect consumers: require manufacturers to put a list of components on their mattresses, pillows - anything that had stuffing in it. The consumers could read the "warning label" and know what was inside that pillow.
The "Do Not Remove" tag provided - still provides - important information to the consumer. The "ingredients" might be normally harmless, except to someone with certain allergies. And the tag still keeps the manufacturer honest.
The "Do Not Remove" tag is there to warn the manufacturer, not the user, that attempts to deceive or hide information from consumers will have serious legal consequences.
The Jewish people have their own irremovable tag - our Jewish soul deep inside. G-d Himself places the "Do Not Remove" tag inside each of us, certifying that the Jewish essence of our souls can never be defiled, despite the soul being "stuffed" into a physical body.
We often face unscrupulous "manufacturers." The yetzer hara - our negative drive from within - or the forces of culture from outside, want us full of inferior, harmful, selfish stuff. They seek to dismiss the importance of mitzvot (commandments) and the celebration of Jewish holidays, misreading the lessons of Jewish history, discouraging Jewish pride - failing to acknowledge that the centuries of self-sacrifice come from our very essence.
But we need only look at our "Do Not Remove" tag to remind ourselves that the Highest Authority has guaranteed the immutable sanctity of our souls. When we rely on the Highest Authority, following His manufacturer's guidelines, we can also be sure that we can transform the physical world around us - we can make a world filled with goodness and kindness, of the highest quality.
As for the last half of the phrase - "Under Penalty of Law" - we are assured that ultimately, in the days of Moshiach, the enemies of Israel shall perish, and the promise made to Abraham - those who bless you will be blessed - will be fulfilled.
Well, if nothing's going to happen, if there's no penalty, why are those tags there, anyway?
A little history: In the early part of the twentieth century, many unscrupulous manufacturers would stuff bedding and other furniture with all kinds of stuff - straw, horse hair, old rags - and worse. It wasn't just a quality control issue; it was a real public health hazard. Bedding and other furniture stuffing harbored lots of communicable diseases - including smallpox.
So the government devised a simple system to protect consumers: require manufacturers to put a list of components on their mattresses, pillows - anything that had stuffing in it. The consumers could read the "warning label" and know what was inside that pillow.
The "Do Not Remove" tag provided - still provides - important information to the consumer. The "ingredients" might be normally harmless, except to someone with certain allergies. And the tag still keeps the manufacturer honest.
The "Do Not Remove" tag is there to warn the manufacturer, not the user, that attempts to deceive or hide information from consumers will have serious legal consequences.
The Jewish people have their own irremovable tag - our Jewish soul deep inside. G-d Himself places the "Do Not Remove" tag inside each of us, certifying that the Jewish essence of our souls can never be defiled, despite the soul being "stuffed" into a physical body.
We often face unscrupulous "manufacturers." The yetzer hara - our negative drive from within - or the forces of culture from outside, want us full of inferior, harmful, selfish stuff. They seek to dismiss the importance of mitzvot (commandments) and the celebration of Jewish holidays, misreading the lessons of Jewish history, discouraging Jewish pride - failing to acknowledge that the centuries of self-sacrifice come from our very essence.
But we need only look at our "Do Not Remove" tag to remind ourselves that the Highest Authority has guaranteed the immutable sanctity of our souls. When we rely on the Highest Authority, following His manufacturer's guidelines, we can also be sure that we can transform the physical world around us - we can make a world filled with goodness and kindness, of the highest quality.
As for the last half of the phrase - "Under Penalty of Law" - we are assured that ultimately, in the days of Moshiach, the enemies of Israel shall perish, and the promise made to Abraham - those who bless you will be blessed - will be fulfilled.
Confessions of a Thief
Question of the Week:
Rabbi you must keep this completely anonymous. I need to make a confession to you. I have stolen a huge amount of money from my business partner. This has gone on over the last three years, but my guilty conscience has caught up with me and so I felt I had to confess. Can you tell me what I must do to be forgiven? Again, please keep this anonymous, Bruce Hakowitz
Answer:
Bruce, I am glad you have come forward with this. I am sure it has been a burdensome secret to keep, and it is good that you have owned up. But you have confessed to the wrong person. The Jewish tradition does not believe in confessing sins to a clergyman. As a rabbi I have no right to confer forgiveness on someone who has wronged someone else. You have to go to your partner, admit your wrongdoing and beg him to forgive you. Only the wronged party can forgive. Apart from that, you must return what you stole. You can't expect to be forgiven while enjoying the benefits of your wrongdoing and leaving the injured party out of pocket. In Jewish law, a thief must return double what they stole if they were caught, but if they admitted guilt themselves before being caught, they need only return the stolen amount. This you must do to be fully exonerated of your misconduct. And finally you need to ask G-d for forgiveness, for it is His law that you have broken. But remember, even G-d can't forgive you until you have apologised to your fellow human being whom you have hurt. Once you have done all this, you need to forgive yourself. We have all done wrong, but if we take responsibility for it, try to correct it, and resolve not to repeat it, we must then move forward. Let this be a turning point for you. From this moment on you will be extra-honest and super-trustworthy. It will take hard work, but what was once your weakness should become your strength.
Bruce, I wish you well. Since you have asked this be left anonymous, I will respect your request.
All the best,
Anonymous
(Not my real name)
Rabbi you must keep this completely anonymous. I need to make a confession to you. I have stolen a huge amount of money from my business partner. This has gone on over the last three years, but my guilty conscience has caught up with me and so I felt I had to confess. Can you tell me what I must do to be forgiven? Again, please keep this anonymous, Bruce Hakowitz
Answer:
Bruce, I am glad you have come forward with this. I am sure it has been a burdensome secret to keep, and it is good that you have owned up. But you have confessed to the wrong person. The Jewish tradition does not believe in confessing sins to a clergyman. As a rabbi I have no right to confer forgiveness on someone who has wronged someone else. You have to go to your partner, admit your wrongdoing and beg him to forgive you. Only the wronged party can forgive. Apart from that, you must return what you stole. You can't expect to be forgiven while enjoying the benefits of your wrongdoing and leaving the injured party out of pocket. In Jewish law, a thief must return double what they stole if they were caught, but if they admitted guilt themselves before being caught, they need only return the stolen amount. This you must do to be fully exonerated of your misconduct. And finally you need to ask G-d for forgiveness, for it is His law that you have broken. But remember, even G-d can't forgive you until you have apologised to your fellow human being whom you have hurt. Once you have done all this, you need to forgive yourself. We have all done wrong, but if we take responsibility for it, try to correct it, and resolve not to repeat it, we must then move forward. Let this be a turning point for you. From this moment on you will be extra-honest and super-trustworthy. It will take hard work, but what was once your weakness should become your strength.
Bruce, I wish you well. Since you have asked this be left anonymous, I will respect your request.
All the best,
Anonymous
(Not my real name)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Duplicity of the Jew
When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried a great and very bitter cry; and he said to his father: “Bless me, too, my father!”
And [Isaac] said [to Esau]: “Your brother came, with cunning, and took your blessings.”
Genesis 27:34-35
Jacob, as the Torah attests, was “a guileless man, a dweller of the tents [of learning]”[1]—in contrast to his twin-brother Esau, who is described as “an adept trapper, a man of the [hunting] field.”[2] Thus we can appreciate the depth of Esau’s rage when Jacob bested him at his own game, gaining the blessings for “The dew of the heavens and the fat of the land” through cunning and stealth.[3]
The story of the stolen blessings is often understood as a contest between the two brothers for the legacy of Abraham and Isaac, with Isaac mistakenly taking Esau to be the worthy heir, while Rebecca, knowing the true nature of her elder son, devising the plan that would place Jacob at Isaac’s bedside at the crucial moment. However, a closer reading of the Torah’s account indicates that Isaac was well aware of the difference between his two children,[4] and that the blessing which he intended to grant to Esau was not the spiritual heritage of Abraham.
A most revealing passage is where Esau discovers that Jacob has received the blessings, and begs Isaac, “Bless me, too, my father!” “But I have made him your master,” says Isaac, “I have given him [the blessings of] grain and wine. What can I do for you now, my son?” “Have you only one blessing, my father?!” sobs Esau. “Bless me too, my father!” Finally, Isaac blesses Esau that “Of the fatness of the land shall be your dwelling, and of the dew of heaven above” (the fat of the land and the dew of heaven themselves having already been granted to Jacob), and promises him that should the descendants of Jacob sin and become unworthy of their blessings, they will forfeit their mastery over Esau’s descendants in material affairs.[5] But in the very next chapter we read how Isaac summons Jacob to him, and... blesses him. “May G-d Almighty bless you,” says Isaac, “make you fruitful, and multiply you, and you shall become a populous nation. And may He grant you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants, that you may inherit the land of your dwelling, which G-d has given to Abraham.”[6]
So Isaac never intended to make Esau the father of the people of Israel, never thought to bequeath the Holy Land to him, never considered him heir to “the blessing of Abraham.” There were two distinct blessings in Isaac all along (Esau seems to have sensed this when he cried, “Have you only one blessing, my father?!”), intended for his two sons: Jacob was to be given the spiritual legacy of Abraham, while Esau was to be granted the blessings of the material world.[7]
In light of this, Jacob’s behavior seems all the more out of character. Not only did he resort to connivance and trickery to receive his father’s blessing, but he did so for wholly material gifts, tailor-made for his material brother, while a second, spiritual set of blessings had been reserved for him all along. Why did not Jacob reconcile himself to this division of roles and resources? Why did this “guileless man” dress himself in Esau’s clothes, cover his smooth skin with goatskins to feel like his hairy brother to his blind father’s touch, and deceive Isaac into granting him the material world as well?
Candor and Deceit:
A History Originally, “G-d made man straight”[8] and placed him in a forthright world: good was good and evil was evil, and Eden was a place on earth with clearly defined boundaries. There was no shame in this world, nor doubt, nor any of the other attendants of ambiguity.
One serpentine creature inhabited this rectilinear world. “The snake... the most cunning among all the animals of the field that G-d created,”[9] induced the first man and woman to taste of the fruit of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” so that they might “be, like G-d, knowers of good and evil.”[10] But what in G-d is the ultimate sublimation is bedlam in mortal man. In G-d, the “knowledge of good and evil” is the knowledge of their singular essence, of the divine goodness that pervades the realm of good and hides behind the façade of evil; in man, to attempt to know both good and evil is to commingle the two, so that good becomes lost in evil and evil infiltrates good.
Adam’s sin compelled his banishment from the Garden of Eden, the sanctum of unadulterated good reserved for original man. It also spelled the collapse of the original structure of creation. No longer were “good” and “evil” the absolute demarcations they were before man tasted of the knowledge of evil. The purest and holiest things became susceptible to the baseness and selfishness of man’s animal self, while sparks of holiness were scattered throughout the realm of the profane.
From that point on, the material world has been both prison and lifeline for the soul of man, both quagmire and treasure trove. Materiality, with its brutishness, temporality and self-absorption, is the coarsest of veils to obscure the divine truth and distance the soul from its source; but it is also home to the “sparks of holiness” that had fallen and become embedded within it when the primordial serpent made our world a mishmash of good and evil. Externally, the material world opposes and counteracts all things spiritual; but trapped within it are the most lofty of spiritual potentials.
Jacob and Adam
“The visage of Jacob,” the Talmud tells us, “resembled the visage of Adam.”[11] For Jacob’s mission in life was to rectify the sin of Adam, restore the cosmic order it disrupted, and free the sparks of holiness from their corporeal imprisonment.
So Jacob could not content himself with the spiritual blessings which Isaac had reserved for him. It was imperative that he gain the dew of heaven and the fat of the land, that he receive the blessings of grain and wine. It was essential that he, not his material brother, be made master over the material world.
Originally, Esau was to be Jacob’s partner in the endeavor to redeem the “sparks of holiness.” Esau’s craftiness and hunting skills were to be employed in the task of outmaneuvering the primordial serpent and diverting the material resources of the earth to support Jacob’s spiritual endeavors, thereby exploiting their holy potential toward holy ends.[12] But Esau failed in his mission. He entered the field of worldly endeavor and became a material hunter rather than a hunter of the material. So Jacob had to assume both roles. He had to become both trapper and sublimater, both the crafty procurer of material things and the guileless tzaddik who utilizes them solely to serve G-d.
To gain the material blessings that Isaac had designated for Esau, Jacob had to garb himself in Esau’s clothes and assume Esau’s furtive manner. His own forthright nature could not have wrested the material domain from the serpent’s clutches any more than a straight-flying arrow can penetrate to the heart of a convoluted labyrinth. “With the pure be pure,” advises the Psalmist, “and with the devious be circuitous.”[13]
Such is the Jew’s approach to the material. This is a world which recognizes no master or authority, which relates no function or purpose to itself other than its own perseverance and growth. So he who enters this world—and enter it one must, by decree of He who invested our souls in a material body and environment—must master the Esauian artifices of duplicity and entrapment. He eats and drinks, ostensibly to nourish his physical life; he engages in business, ostensibly to increase his material wealth; he builds a career and a position in the community, ostensibly to amass prestige and power. For all intents and purposes, he is a full-fledged participant in the give and take of material life. But it’s only the “take” that he’s after; when it comes to the “give,” he’s unwilling to pay the price. Here he’s a shameless manipulator, claiming materialdom’s choicest bits for himself but refusing to relate to the material on its, the material’s, terms: refusing to care, refusing to become involved, refusing to pursue it for its own sake.
The Jew dresses in Esau’s clothes, but he refuses to allow the clothes to make the man. He disguises himself as a material being, but this is but a connivance, a ruse by which to ensnare the physical and exploit it toward a G-dly end.
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Shevat 13, 5711 (January 20, 1951)[14][1]. Genesis 25:27.
[2]. Ibid.
[3]. Genesis ch. 27.
[4]. See Rashi on Genesis 27:1, 4, 21 and 22.
[5]. Genesis 27:34-40.
[6]. Ibid. 28:1-4.
[7]. See Sforno’s commentary on Genesis 27:29; Shelah on Parashat Toldot (289b-290b).
[8]. Ecclesiastes 7:29.
[9]. Genesis 3:1.
[10]. Ibid. v. 5.
[11]. Talmud, Bava Batra 58a.
[12]. Cf. the holy partnership between Issachar, the tribe of Torah scholars, and Zebulun, the tribe of seafaring merchants who supported the Issacharites’ studies (Rashi, Deuteronomy 33:18).
[13]. Psalms 18:27.
And [Isaac] said [to Esau]: “Your brother came, with cunning, and took your blessings.”
Genesis 27:34-35
Jacob, as the Torah attests, was “a guileless man, a dweller of the tents [of learning]”[1]—in contrast to his twin-brother Esau, who is described as “an adept trapper, a man of the [hunting] field.”[2] Thus we can appreciate the depth of Esau’s rage when Jacob bested him at his own game, gaining the blessings for “The dew of the heavens and the fat of the land” through cunning and stealth.[3]
The story of the stolen blessings is often understood as a contest between the two brothers for the legacy of Abraham and Isaac, with Isaac mistakenly taking Esau to be the worthy heir, while Rebecca, knowing the true nature of her elder son, devising the plan that would place Jacob at Isaac’s bedside at the crucial moment. However, a closer reading of the Torah’s account indicates that Isaac was well aware of the difference between his two children,[4] and that the blessing which he intended to grant to Esau was not the spiritual heritage of Abraham.
A most revealing passage is where Esau discovers that Jacob has received the blessings, and begs Isaac, “Bless me, too, my father!” “But I have made him your master,” says Isaac, “I have given him [the blessings of] grain and wine. What can I do for you now, my son?” “Have you only one blessing, my father?!” sobs Esau. “Bless me too, my father!” Finally, Isaac blesses Esau that “Of the fatness of the land shall be your dwelling, and of the dew of heaven above” (the fat of the land and the dew of heaven themselves having already been granted to Jacob), and promises him that should the descendants of Jacob sin and become unworthy of their blessings, they will forfeit their mastery over Esau’s descendants in material affairs.[5] But in the very next chapter we read how Isaac summons Jacob to him, and... blesses him. “May G-d Almighty bless you,” says Isaac, “make you fruitful, and multiply you, and you shall become a populous nation. And may He grant you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants, that you may inherit the land of your dwelling, which G-d has given to Abraham.”[6]
So Isaac never intended to make Esau the father of the people of Israel, never thought to bequeath the Holy Land to him, never considered him heir to “the blessing of Abraham.” There were two distinct blessings in Isaac all along (Esau seems to have sensed this when he cried, “Have you only one blessing, my father?!”), intended for his two sons: Jacob was to be given the spiritual legacy of Abraham, while Esau was to be granted the blessings of the material world.[7]
In light of this, Jacob’s behavior seems all the more out of character. Not only did he resort to connivance and trickery to receive his father’s blessing, but he did so for wholly material gifts, tailor-made for his material brother, while a second, spiritual set of blessings had been reserved for him all along. Why did not Jacob reconcile himself to this division of roles and resources? Why did this “guileless man” dress himself in Esau’s clothes, cover his smooth skin with goatskins to feel like his hairy brother to his blind father’s touch, and deceive Isaac into granting him the material world as well?
Candor and Deceit:
A History Originally, “G-d made man straight”[8] and placed him in a forthright world: good was good and evil was evil, and Eden was a place on earth with clearly defined boundaries. There was no shame in this world, nor doubt, nor any of the other attendants of ambiguity.
One serpentine creature inhabited this rectilinear world. “The snake... the most cunning among all the animals of the field that G-d created,”[9] induced the first man and woman to taste of the fruit of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” so that they might “be, like G-d, knowers of good and evil.”[10] But what in G-d is the ultimate sublimation is bedlam in mortal man. In G-d, the “knowledge of good and evil” is the knowledge of their singular essence, of the divine goodness that pervades the realm of good and hides behind the façade of evil; in man, to attempt to know both good and evil is to commingle the two, so that good becomes lost in evil and evil infiltrates good.
Adam’s sin compelled his banishment from the Garden of Eden, the sanctum of unadulterated good reserved for original man. It also spelled the collapse of the original structure of creation. No longer were “good” and “evil” the absolute demarcations they were before man tasted of the knowledge of evil. The purest and holiest things became susceptible to the baseness and selfishness of man’s animal self, while sparks of holiness were scattered throughout the realm of the profane.
From that point on, the material world has been both prison and lifeline for the soul of man, both quagmire and treasure trove. Materiality, with its brutishness, temporality and self-absorption, is the coarsest of veils to obscure the divine truth and distance the soul from its source; but it is also home to the “sparks of holiness” that had fallen and become embedded within it when the primordial serpent made our world a mishmash of good and evil. Externally, the material world opposes and counteracts all things spiritual; but trapped within it are the most lofty of spiritual potentials.
Jacob and Adam
“The visage of Jacob,” the Talmud tells us, “resembled the visage of Adam.”[11] For Jacob’s mission in life was to rectify the sin of Adam, restore the cosmic order it disrupted, and free the sparks of holiness from their corporeal imprisonment.
So Jacob could not content himself with the spiritual blessings which Isaac had reserved for him. It was imperative that he gain the dew of heaven and the fat of the land, that he receive the blessings of grain and wine. It was essential that he, not his material brother, be made master over the material world.
Originally, Esau was to be Jacob’s partner in the endeavor to redeem the “sparks of holiness.” Esau’s craftiness and hunting skills were to be employed in the task of outmaneuvering the primordial serpent and diverting the material resources of the earth to support Jacob’s spiritual endeavors, thereby exploiting their holy potential toward holy ends.[12] But Esau failed in his mission. He entered the field of worldly endeavor and became a material hunter rather than a hunter of the material. So Jacob had to assume both roles. He had to become both trapper and sublimater, both the crafty procurer of material things and the guileless tzaddik who utilizes them solely to serve G-d.
To gain the material blessings that Isaac had designated for Esau, Jacob had to garb himself in Esau’s clothes and assume Esau’s furtive manner. His own forthright nature could not have wrested the material domain from the serpent’s clutches any more than a straight-flying arrow can penetrate to the heart of a convoluted labyrinth. “With the pure be pure,” advises the Psalmist, “and with the devious be circuitous.”[13]
Such is the Jew’s approach to the material. This is a world which recognizes no master or authority, which relates no function or purpose to itself other than its own perseverance and growth. So he who enters this world—and enter it one must, by decree of He who invested our souls in a material body and environment—must master the Esauian artifices of duplicity and entrapment. He eats and drinks, ostensibly to nourish his physical life; he engages in business, ostensibly to increase his material wealth; he builds a career and a position in the community, ostensibly to amass prestige and power. For all intents and purposes, he is a full-fledged participant in the give and take of material life. But it’s only the “take” that he’s after; when it comes to the “give,” he’s unwilling to pay the price. Here he’s a shameless manipulator, claiming materialdom’s choicest bits for himself but refusing to relate to the material on its, the material’s, terms: refusing to care, refusing to become involved, refusing to pursue it for its own sake.
The Jew dresses in Esau’s clothes, but he refuses to allow the clothes to make the man. He disguises himself as a material being, but this is but a connivance, a ruse by which to ensnare the physical and exploit it toward a G-dly end.
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Shevat 13, 5711 (January 20, 1951)[14][1]. Genesis 25:27.
[2]. Ibid.
[3]. Genesis ch. 27.
[4]. See Rashi on Genesis 27:1, 4, 21 and 22.
[5]. Genesis 27:34-40.
[6]. Ibid. 28:1-4.
[7]. See Sforno’s commentary on Genesis 27:29; Shelah on Parashat Toldot (289b-290b).
[8]. Ecclesiastes 7:29.
[9]. Genesis 3:1.
[10]. Ibid. v. 5.
[11]. Talmud, Bava Batra 58a.
[12]. Cf. the holy partnership between Issachar, the tribe of Torah scholars, and Zebulun, the tribe of seafaring merchants who supported the Issacharites’ studies (Rashi, Deuteronomy 33:18).
[13]. Psalms 18:27.
Spiritual Gems from the parsha
A ladder was standing on the ground and the top of it reached to heaven. (Gen 28:12)
The Hebrew word for ladder (sulam) has the same numerical value as money (mamon). This teachers us that money is like a ladder - it can be used to ascend and come closer to the heavens, or with it one can descend to the depths. Everything depends on how we use it and for what purpose.
(The Baal Shem Tov)
The man [Isaac] became great, and grew more and more... (Gen. 23:13)
It is common that as a person becomes richer, the person within him becomes smaller and smaller. The greatness of Isaac was that even though he became more and more wealthy, he increased and expanded in his qualities as a person.
(Rabbi Yitzchak of Torchow)
Isaac had grown old and his eyesight was failing. (Gen. 27:1)
Rashi explained that Isaac's eyesight was failing him so that Jacob could receive the blessing. In order to assure that Jacob would receive the blessing was it necessary for Isaac's eyesight to fail him? Wouldn't it have been "easier" for G-d to have revealed to Isaac that Esau was wicked and therefore undeserving of the blessing? However, G-d didn't want to speak badly about Esau. If this is true concerning the wicked Esau, all the more must we be extremely careful not to gossip about or slander any Jew.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
The Hebrew word for ladder (sulam) has the same numerical value as money (mamon). This teachers us that money is like a ladder - it can be used to ascend and come closer to the heavens, or with it one can descend to the depths. Everything depends on how we use it and for what purpose.
(The Baal Shem Tov)
The man [Isaac] became great, and grew more and more... (Gen. 23:13)
It is common that as a person becomes richer, the person within him becomes smaller and smaller. The greatness of Isaac was that even though he became more and more wealthy, he increased and expanded in his qualities as a person.
(Rabbi Yitzchak of Torchow)
Isaac had grown old and his eyesight was failing. (Gen. 27:1)
Rashi explained that Isaac's eyesight was failing him so that Jacob could receive the blessing. In order to assure that Jacob would receive the blessing was it necessary for Isaac's eyesight to fail him? Wouldn't it have been "easier" for G-d to have revealed to Isaac that Esau was wicked and therefore undeserving of the blessing? However, G-d didn't want to speak badly about Esau. If this is true concerning the wicked Esau, all the more must we be extremely careful not to gossip about or slander any Jew.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
Why are three steps taken backward and forward before the silent Amida prayer?
We take three steps backward to make sure that the four cubits around us are unoccupied. We take three steps forward for numerous reasons, among them: when a servant approaches a king, he does so with short, hesitant steps to display respect; when the priest was ready to mount the altar with the sacrifice it was necessary for him to take three steps to do so.
I was pleased to be informed about your steady advancement in matters of Torah, called Toras Chaim [the Torah of Life], because it is the Jew's guide
15 Av, 5735 (1975)
I was pleased to be informed about your steady advancement in matters of Torah, called Toras Chaim [the Torah of Life], because it is the Jew's guide in life, and also Toras Emes [the Torah of Truth], because it is the truth. This is doubly gratifying inasmuch as persons of your standing have an impact on the community, for people look up to you and try to emulate you. Thus, your going from strength to strength in matters of Torah and Mitzvoth [commandments] is greatly multiplied through those who are inspired by your example, not to mention direct impact on children and through them on their children in an everlasting chain reaction.
In light of the above, even if there are some difficulties to overcome, it is surely worthwhile to make the effort, inasmuch as the effort involves only the individual, while the benefit is for many. Add to this also the fact that this is also the channel to receive G-d's blessings in all needs, and that G-d rewards in kind and in a most generous measure.
The above refers to all matters of Torah and Mitzvoth, but has a special significance in regard to kashrus [the Jewish dietary laws]. As a doctor you know the immense knowledge that has been accumulated recently in the area of nutrition and diet, and how much the quality of food affects physical and mental health. For Jews the Dietary Laws have come down with the Torah itself, which revealed the true meaning of monotheism, of which the Jewish People have been the bearers ever since. It was relevant not only in those days of old, when paganism and idolatry were the general practice in the world, but it is just as relevant in the present day and age, since it is only the Torah and mitzvot that are the basis of pure monotheism, rooted in the absolute unity of G-d. This means that the Jew brings unity and harmony in this, the physical world, eliminating any departmentalization in the daily life, or having occasional practices; or, as some misguided and misconceived individuals might think, that they can practice Judaism at home, but must make concessions and compromises outside the home. All such differentiations are contrary to true unity, pure monotheism. For the concept of pure monotheism is not confined to One G-d, but at the same it requires unity in the personal life of each and every Jew, who is a member of the One People, of which it is said that it is "One People on earth." According to the explanation of the Alter Rebbe [Rabbi Shneur Zalman], founder of Chabad, "One People on earth" means that they bring oneness and unity also in earthly things, and it is only in this way that the individual can achieve complete personal harmony and unity of the body and soul, at all times, whether in the synagogue, at home, or in the office.
Thus, it is obvious how important kashrus is for a Jew, since the food and beverages that he consumes become blood and tissue and energy, and food that is not suitable (kosher) for a Jew can only alienate him from matters of Yiddishkeit [Judaism], and only the right and kosher food can nourish him physically, mentally and spiritually. As already mentioned, there is no need to elaborate on this to you, a physician, although your specialty is not directly in the field of nutrition.
The most desirable blessing that can be expressed in this case is that you should indeed serve as a living and inspiring example for others to emulate, and that through your inspiration many others will go from strength to strength in matters of Torah and Mitzvoth in daily life.
May G-d grant that you should always have good news to report.
I was pleased to be informed about your steady advancement in matters of Torah, called Toras Chaim [the Torah of Life], because it is the Jew's guide in life, and also Toras Emes [the Torah of Truth], because it is the truth. This is doubly gratifying inasmuch as persons of your standing have an impact on the community, for people look up to you and try to emulate you. Thus, your going from strength to strength in matters of Torah and Mitzvoth [commandments] is greatly multiplied through those who are inspired by your example, not to mention direct impact on children and through them on their children in an everlasting chain reaction.
In light of the above, even if there are some difficulties to overcome, it is surely worthwhile to make the effort, inasmuch as the effort involves only the individual, while the benefit is for many. Add to this also the fact that this is also the channel to receive G-d's blessings in all needs, and that G-d rewards in kind and in a most generous measure.
The above refers to all matters of Torah and Mitzvoth, but has a special significance in regard to kashrus [the Jewish dietary laws]. As a doctor you know the immense knowledge that has been accumulated recently in the area of nutrition and diet, and how much the quality of food affects physical and mental health. For Jews the Dietary Laws have come down with the Torah itself, which revealed the true meaning of monotheism, of which the Jewish People have been the bearers ever since. It was relevant not only in those days of old, when paganism and idolatry were the general practice in the world, but it is just as relevant in the present day and age, since it is only the Torah and mitzvot that are the basis of pure monotheism, rooted in the absolute unity of G-d. This means that the Jew brings unity and harmony in this, the physical world, eliminating any departmentalization in the daily life, or having occasional practices; or, as some misguided and misconceived individuals might think, that they can practice Judaism at home, but must make concessions and compromises outside the home. All such differentiations are contrary to true unity, pure monotheism. For the concept of pure monotheism is not confined to One G-d, but at the same it requires unity in the personal life of each and every Jew, who is a member of the One People, of which it is said that it is "One People on earth." According to the explanation of the Alter Rebbe [Rabbi Shneur Zalman], founder of Chabad, "One People on earth" means that they bring oneness and unity also in earthly things, and it is only in this way that the individual can achieve complete personal harmony and unity of the body and soul, at all times, whether in the synagogue, at home, or in the office.
Thus, it is obvious how important kashrus is for a Jew, since the food and beverages that he consumes become blood and tissue and energy, and food that is not suitable (kosher) for a Jew can only alienate him from matters of Yiddishkeit [Judaism], and only the right and kosher food can nourish him physically, mentally and spiritually. As already mentioned, there is no need to elaborate on this to you, a physician, although your specialty is not directly in the field of nutrition.
The most desirable blessing that can be expressed in this case is that you should indeed serve as a living and inspiring example for others to emulate, and that through your inspiration many others will go from strength to strength in matters of Torah and Mitzvoth in daily life.
May G-d grant that you should always have good news to report.
Is There a Test for Soulmates?
Question of the Week:
How can we know 100% that G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people. I feel that I cannot observe a religion if I am not certain that it is true. Is there any proof of G-d and Torah?
Answer:
Imagine you could do a blood test to determine who your soulmate is. You would go to a laboratory with a prospective partner and give blood samples, and half an hour later they would tell you yes or no. Sounds amazing? But think about it: Is that an ideal way to start a relationship? Would it be romantic to say, "Listen, the blood test came out positive, so we may as well get engaged"? The truth is we wouldn't appreciate a laboratory-tested soulmate. What makes a relationship meaningful is that it is a choice coming from within. If we based a commitment on external evidence such as a blood test, we would indeed have certainty, but the sense of freedom would be lost. Freedom is an essential ingredient of true love - certainty is not. That's why proving G-d is not helpful. G-d wants us to enter into a relationship with Him by choice, not by force. He created us as free beings who can deny Him if we want. There is no outside force or argument or proof that compels us to serve G-d. For that reason, when we do serve Him, it is by choice, it is coming from us, and that is the basis for a real relationship. There are many logical proofs of G-d's existence and the truth of Torah. But most people are only ready to appreciate these proofs after they have already established a relationship with G-d, just as most people only recognise their soulmate after they have already committed to the relationship. If you wait to know for sure that you have found your soulmate you may forever remain single. And if you wait for proof of G-d's truth you may forever live in a lonely universe. Embrace uncertainty and open yourself up to a real relationship. When you make that choice, you will find proof of G-d within your own soul.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
How can we know 100% that G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people. I feel that I cannot observe a religion if I am not certain that it is true. Is there any proof of G-d and Torah?
Answer:
Imagine you could do a blood test to determine who your soulmate is. You would go to a laboratory with a prospective partner and give blood samples, and half an hour later they would tell you yes or no. Sounds amazing? But think about it: Is that an ideal way to start a relationship? Would it be romantic to say, "Listen, the blood test came out positive, so we may as well get engaged"? The truth is we wouldn't appreciate a laboratory-tested soulmate. What makes a relationship meaningful is that it is a choice coming from within. If we based a commitment on external evidence such as a blood test, we would indeed have certainty, but the sense of freedom would be lost. Freedom is an essential ingredient of true love - certainty is not. That's why proving G-d is not helpful. G-d wants us to enter into a relationship with Him by choice, not by force. He created us as free beings who can deny Him if we want. There is no outside force or argument or proof that compels us to serve G-d. For that reason, when we do serve Him, it is by choice, it is coming from us, and that is the basis for a real relationship. There are many logical proofs of G-d's existence and the truth of Torah. But most people are only ready to appreciate these proofs after they have already established a relationship with G-d, just as most people only recognise their soulmate after they have already committed to the relationship. If you wait to know for sure that you have found your soulmate you may forever remain single. And if you wait for proof of G-d's truth you may forever live in a lonely universe. Embrace uncertainty and open yourself up to a real relationship. When you make that choice, you will find proof of G-d within your own soul.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
This week's Torah portion, Toldot
This week's Torah portion, Toldot, contains the famous story of Esau's sale of his first-born rights to his brother Jacob for a pot of porridge.Subsequently, Jacob listens to his mother's advice and dresses up as Esau in order to receive the blessing of the first-born from his father, Isaac. "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau," Isaac tells his son Jacob when Jacob comes to receive the blessings.
Our Sages comment on this verse that against the "voice of Jacob," Esau has "no hands," that is, he has no power or authority. When the "voice of Jacob" - the voice and sound of Torah learning - is heard, the "hands of Esau" - the threats of the enemies of the Jewish people - have no power over us.
The same holds true in reverse. When the voice of Torah is weakened, G-d forbid, the "hands of Esau" are able to overcome us. This latter alternative has already come to pass with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, as stated by the prophet Jeremiah: "For what reason was the land lost? Because they had forsaken My Torah."
In our times, too, nearly 2,000 years after the destruction of the Holy Temple, it must be emphasized that Jerusalem's existence still depends on the study of Torah. To be sure, we cannot change the facts of the past, but we are able to remove its cause and thus hasten the rebuilding and restoration of Jerusalem.
Our Sages state: "Any generation in whose days the Holy Temple is not rebuilt, it is reckoned against that generation as if it was destroyed in its time." The destruction is thus not simply an historical event that happened in the distant past. Its consequences extend to this very day, and the event, therefore, must be seen as something which is happening even now -- as if the Holy Temple, as it were, were being destroyed this very moment. It follows, then, that it is our duty (and we do have the ability) to rid ourselves of the cause of the destruction and prevent its present recurrence.
How can this be accomplished? Through the study of Torah.
The study of Torah is the antidote to the destruction, and will bring about the restoration of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, and the immediate revelation of our Righteous Moshiach!
Adapted from Torat Menachem, Vol. I of the Rebbe
Our Sages comment on this verse that against the "voice of Jacob," Esau has "no hands," that is, he has no power or authority. When the "voice of Jacob" - the voice and sound of Torah learning - is heard, the "hands of Esau" - the threats of the enemies of the Jewish people - have no power over us.
The same holds true in reverse. When the voice of Torah is weakened, G-d forbid, the "hands of Esau" are able to overcome us. This latter alternative has already come to pass with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, as stated by the prophet Jeremiah: "For what reason was the land lost? Because they had forsaken My Torah."
In our times, too, nearly 2,000 years after the destruction of the Holy Temple, it must be emphasized that Jerusalem's existence still depends on the study of Torah. To be sure, we cannot change the facts of the past, but we are able to remove its cause and thus hasten the rebuilding and restoration of Jerusalem.
Our Sages state: "Any generation in whose days the Holy Temple is not rebuilt, it is reckoned against that generation as if it was destroyed in its time." The destruction is thus not simply an historical event that happened in the distant past. Its consequences extend to this very day, and the event, therefore, must be seen as something which is happening even now -- as if the Holy Temple, as it were, were being destroyed this very moment. It follows, then, that it is our duty (and we do have the ability) to rid ourselves of the cause of the destruction and prevent its present recurrence.
How can this be accomplished? Through the study of Torah.
The study of Torah is the antidote to the destruction, and will bring about the restoration of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, and the immediate revelation of our Righteous Moshiach!
Adapted from Torat Menachem, Vol. I of the Rebbe
Let's Talk
"Let's talk," the significant other says to the other. "Sure. We'll go for a walk. But I have to take the phone with me. You know I'm expecting an important call." Rrrrrrrrring.
"Let's talk," Mom says to Jeremy. "Sure, Mom," blip, bleep, blip. "Let me just finish this game. I'm getting the highest score yet."
"Let's talk," Melissa says to Dad. "Sure, hon. As soon as I'm done balancing the checkbook and paying these bills I'll be right with you. Give me about an hour."
"Let's talk," Grandma says to Jennifer. "Sure, Gram. But I have to run out to the store before it closes. They're having a great sale and I want to see if the sweater I tried on last week...."
Just imagine. A candle-lit dinner. Fine wine. Fresh bread. Delicious food. And the family together to enjoy each other's company for a couple of hours without the distraction of the phone, the playstation, the t.v., shopping, or the bills.
That's a Shabbat meal, and it's yours for the taking.
In today's day and age, with cell phones and blackberries, lap-tops, iPods, and consumerism like never before, a Shabbat meal is truly an island in time.
And it's simpler than you might think.
Start the meal by sanctifying the Sabbath with the blessing over the wine. You'll be surprised at how many exquisite kosher wines are available these days. (You thought, maybe, that while technology has raced ahead kosher wines have stayed in the dark ages and are all syrupy sweet?)
Then, wash your hands and say the "Hamotzee" blessing over challah - home-made, store bought, whole wheat, or low cholesterol, any will do just fine.
And then, enjoy a Shabbat meal with your family. Prepare the food the night before with everyone pitching in, or buy it at your local kosher take-out place. Serve it on your finest china and silver (and help the environment) or use throw-away so clean-up is easier. Enjoy traditional Jewish foods, organic vegetarian, kosher gourmet, your family's favorites, or anything in-between.
But don't forget one of the main parts of this whole experience: take time to talk and take time to listen, without extraneous interruptions. Try going around the table, asking everyone to share something, anything, new that they learned that week. Prepare a story or something about the Torah portion. Or just let the conversation flow at its own unique pace to its own special place. Because, the most important part will be that you're all together as a family!
Try a Shabbat dinner with your family or close friends. You'll be amazed at how special it is.
"Let's talk," Mom says to Jeremy. "Sure, Mom," blip, bleep, blip. "Let me just finish this game. I'm getting the highest score yet."
"Let's talk," Melissa says to Dad. "Sure, hon. As soon as I'm done balancing the checkbook and paying these bills I'll be right with you. Give me about an hour."
"Let's talk," Grandma says to Jennifer. "Sure, Gram. But I have to run out to the store before it closes. They're having a great sale and I want to see if the sweater I tried on last week...."
Just imagine. A candle-lit dinner. Fine wine. Fresh bread. Delicious food. And the family together to enjoy each other's company for a couple of hours without the distraction of the phone, the playstation, the t.v., shopping, or the bills.
That's a Shabbat meal, and it's yours for the taking.
In today's day and age, with cell phones and blackberries, lap-tops, iPods, and consumerism like never before, a Shabbat meal is truly an island in time.
And it's simpler than you might think.
Start the meal by sanctifying the Sabbath with the blessing over the wine. You'll be surprised at how many exquisite kosher wines are available these days. (You thought, maybe, that while technology has raced ahead kosher wines have stayed in the dark ages and are all syrupy sweet?)
Then, wash your hands and say the "Hamotzee" blessing over challah - home-made, store bought, whole wheat, or low cholesterol, any will do just fine.
And then, enjoy a Shabbat meal with your family. Prepare the food the night before with everyone pitching in, or buy it at your local kosher take-out place. Serve it on your finest china and silver (and help the environment) or use throw-away so clean-up is easier. Enjoy traditional Jewish foods, organic vegetarian, kosher gourmet, your family's favorites, or anything in-between.
But don't forget one of the main parts of this whole experience: take time to talk and take time to listen, without extraneous interruptions. Try going around the table, asking everyone to share something, anything, new that they learned that week. Prepare a story or something about the Torah portion. Or just let the conversation flow at its own unique pace to its own special place. Because, the most important part will be that you're all together as a family!
Try a Shabbat dinner with your family or close friends. You'll be amazed at how special it is.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Eliezer’s Story
Said Rabbi Acha:
The talk of the servants of the Fathers is more desirable than the Torah of the children. For Eliezer’s story is twice recounted by the Torah, while many principles of Torah law are communicated only through allusion
The Midrash[1]
Human beings love to talk. At times, it seems that we hardly trust a thought or feeling to be our own until we have communicated it to others. To this end, we have invented hundreds of languages and dozens of media—all to say what we feel needs saying.
Indeed, our capacity for self-expression lies at the very heart of our humanity. In the second chapter of Genesis, the Torah describes the creation of man: “And the L-rd G-d formed man [from] the dust of the earth, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul.”[2] Onkelos, in his Aramaic translation/commentary on the Torah, translates the words “And man became a living soul,” as “And man became a speaking spirit.” In the philosophical and Kabbalistic works of our sages, man is called “the speaker.” (The entirety of creation is divided into four realms or “kingdoms”: domem, the “silent” or inanimate creations; tzome’ach, “growing” things; chai, the animal world; and medaber, the speaker—man).
Would it not have been more fitting to define man by his intelligence or spirituality? Of course, the ability to communicate is a mark of intelligence. It is also an indication of “spirituality”—of the ability to transcend the self and relate to something other, different and even opposite than it. But there are other human faculties that exhibit these traits. The fact that man is named “the speaker” implies that the faculty of speech is the essential component of our purpose and mission in life.
Toil of the Mouth
The centrality of speech to man’s purpose in creation is also expressed in the following Talmudic passage:
Said Rabbi Elazar: Every man was created in order to toil, as it is written, “For man is born to toil.”[3] I still do not know, however, if he was created for the toil of the mouth or for the toil of work; when the verse says, “[The toiling soul...] his mouth compels him,”[4] this tells me that he was created for the toil of the mouth. I still do not know, however, if he was created for the toil of Torah or for the toil of speech; when the verse says, “This book of Torah should not depart from your mouth,”[5] this tells me that he was created for the toil of Torah.[6]
An important rule in Torah learning is that when a supposition is introduced by the sages, it remains a valid hypothesis even after it has been “rejected” in favor of another. For the very fact that it has been presented as a possibility implies that it is true, on some level. Ideas to which there is no truth on any level are not entertained in the first place (thus, Rabbi Elazar does not begin by saying, “I do not know if man was created for toil or for relaxation; when the verse says, ‘For man is born to toil,’ I know that he was created for toil”—as he does with the other “rejected” suppositions). If we apply this to the above passage, it means that all three “toils”—the “toil of work,” the “toil of speech,” and the “toil of Torah”—are part of man’s purpose; it is only that the “toil of the mouth” expresses a higher aspect of this purpose than the “toil of work,” and that within the “toil of the mouth,” the “toil of Torah” is loftier than the “toil of speech.”
What, exactly, are these three “toils”? What, in particular, is the “toil of speech,” and why is it greater than the “toil of work,” yet not as lofty as the “toil of Torah”?
The Spoken World
“From my flesh I perceive G-d,”[7] proclaims the verse. Since G-d created us in His image,[8] we can contemplate His “personality” (i.e., the manner in which He relates to creation) by examining the workings of our own souls. The reverse is also true: by examining what the Torah tells us about how G-d relates to our existence, we can understand much about the human personality and man’s place in creation.
In describing the divine act of creation, the Torah does not say that G-d made a world, but that He spoke it. “G-d said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light”[9]; “G-d said, ‘Let the earth sprout forth vegetation...’ and it was so”[10]; and so with all other creations, each of which is contained, explicitly or implicitly, in the “Ten Utterances” with which G-d created the world.[11]
For in creating the world, G-d was doing what we do when we speak: He was communicating. He was projecting of Himself to an “audience”—to a reality which (at least in its own perception) is outside of Him. As we do when we speak, G-d wished to see His own “thoughts” and “feelings” take form in a consciousness and perception other than His own.
When we speak, we emulate G-d’s speaking the world into being. We, too, create. We, too, extend ourselves beyond the reality of our own existence to recreate ourselves and our vision of reality in the minds, hearts and deeds of others.
Effort
If we understand “speech,” both in G-d and in ourselves, as synonymous with “creativity,” we begin to understand why the “toil of speech” is central to our uniqueness as human beings. But first, let us examine the statement, “Man is born to toil.”
This, of course, is a fact of life, as well as of human nature—we experience as meaningful and satisfying only that which we have gained by effort and struggle. If a person is not compelled to work for a living, he will embark on endeavors in which he must exert himself to achieve some goal. “Retirement” invariably withers both body and mind unless one starts a second career or challenges oneself in some other way. An effortless life is ultimately a life not worth living. In the words of our sages, unearned gifts are “bread of shame” which bring no satisfaction to their recipient.[12]
Why, indeed, was man made this way? Certainly G-d, who is the essence of good, who is benevolent and merciful,[13] could just as easily have created a world that is free of hardship, and have formed the nature of man so that life in such a world is meaningful and fulfilling. Why did He create man to toil and endow him with a nature that thrives only on struggle and challenge?
But in an effortless world, man would be nothing more than a passive beneficiary of G-d’s gifts. He might derive satisfaction and pleasure from these gifts (were his nature so inclined), but his role in creation would be limited to that of recipient. Unless he were driven to toil—driven to acquire and achieve beyond what comes to him without difficulty—he could not be the “partner with G-d in creation”[14] that G-d desires him to be.
We experience effort and toil when our deeds are met with resistance, when they are at variance with the status quo. An effortless deed is a deed that is fully consistent with the present constellation of forces in the universes; a deed that isn’t challenged by anything because it changes nothing. A deed that, even if it is conducted with great fanfare, does not, in truth, do anything.
Toil defines the point at which we cease to be mere recipients, accepting the world as it is, and begin to be givers and contributors to G-d’s world. The point at which we contest the present reality and begin acting as G-d’s partners in the endeavor to build the world He desires.
Development, Creativity and Transcendence
On the most basic level, we achieve partnership with G-d through the “toil of work”—through our ongoing efforts to develop the resources of creation. Each time we plow and seed the earth to coax nourishment from it; each time we forge wood, stone and other materials into a home; each time we distill energy from matter; we are working. This is toilsome work, for we are combating the inert state of these “raw” materials. It is G-dly work, for we are furthering His enterprise of forming an ordered and civilized world out of an initial state of “chaos and formlessness.”[15] We are fulfilling the divine will expressed in the verse: “He did not create [the world] for chaos; He created it that it be settled.”[16]
This, however, is the most rudimentary level of partnership with G-d: we contribute to G-d’s work but are only involved at a lower, secondary plane. The innovative and creative aspects of the endeavor are solely the domain of the “senior partner,” while our role is limited to furthering what He has initiated. G-d, after all, created the world, while we only develop what He has created.
A higher level of partnership is achieved when we introduce our “speech”—our capacity for creativity—into our involvement with G-d’s world. When we redefine reality by communicating our experience of it to others. When we speak worlds into being, as G-d spoke the world into existence. On this level, we are partners with Him not only in that we are both contributors, but also in that we are both creators.
This level of partnership, which the Talmud calls “toil of the mouth,” consists of two elements: the “toil of speech” and the “toil of Torah.”
Mirroring the Ten Utterances of creation are the Ten Commandments spoken by G-d at Sinai. If the Ten Utterances are the “source code” of the natural world, the Ten Commandments are the essence of a higher reality—the reality of Torah. The Torah embodies a divine vision of reality which supersedes the natural reality: a reality of unadulterated goodness and perfection; a reality that is a consummate actualization of the divine will.
The Ten Utterances derive from the Ten Commandments, for the natural world, which was designed as the environment within which the Torah is to be realized, draws its essence and raison d’etre from the Torah; yet they are a lowlier and coarser expression of the divine self-expression. The Zohar goes so far as to refer to the Ten Utterances as “mundane words” in relation to the sublime words of the Ten Commandments, saying that it is beneath G-d, so to speak, to utter the world into being, as “it is not the way of the King to engage in mundane talk.”[17]
Thus the Talmud distinguishes between two areas of human creativity: the “toil of speech,” which are our creative efforts within the context of the natural world (“speech” being a reference to the Ten Utterances), and the “toil of Torah”—the effort to impose a higher, supra-natural reality upon the world by implementing the divine will, as expressed in the commandments of the Torah, in our daily lives.[18]
G-d in the Details
And yet, the Midrash also states that “The speech of the servants of the fathers is more desirable than the Torah of the children.”
In the 24th chapter of Genesis, the Torah relates the story of the journey of Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, to Mesopotamia to find a bride for Abraham’s son, Isaac. We read how Abraham summons Eliezer and sends him on his mission, instructing him to choose a bride from the family of Abraham’s brother, Nachor. Eliezer arrives in Mesopotamia and prays to G-d, asking for His guidance in finding a worthy bride for his master’s son. He then devises a sign: the maiden who, when asked for a drink of water, will offer to draw water for his camels as well, is the one destined to marry Isaac. Rebecca appears and fulfills all the requirements of the sign; when Eliezer asks after her family, he learns that she is a granddaughter of Nachor. The servant thanks G-d for “leading me on the path to the home of my master’s brother.”
Eliezer is invited to the home of Rebecca’s family. At this point, we read all the details of the events of that day for a second time—this time in Eliezer’s words, as he relates them to Rebecca’s family. The point of the story, once again, is the show of divine providence in the affairs of man. “The matter has been ordained by G-d,” agree Bethuel and Laban, Rebecca’s father and brother. “We can say nothing, good or evil.”
This long (67-verse) chapter evokes much discussion by the sages. Not only is the Torah uncharacteristically detailed in its description, but it twice recounts the entire story almost verbatim. This, in a book so concise that many complex laws are derived from an extra word or letter! Hence the conclusion that the Torah prefers the conversations of our forefathers’ servants to the intricacies of Torah law addressed to and studied by their descendants.
Eliezer’s story is a classic example of the “toil of speech”—of the manner in which we apply our creative and communicative skills to create a world in partnership with G-d. A series of events takes place at the city well of Mesopotamian town and results in the marriage of a certain woman to a certain man. These are wholly natural[19] events, strung together by what is commonly described as “coincidence.” But Eliezer transforms these events into “speech”—into a cohesive and meaningful narrative. Eliezer tells how he prayed[20] to G-d for success, expressing his belief that what is about to unfold is G-d’s doing rather than “the blind workings of fate”; he asks for a sign, and presides over its fulfillment; he then tells the story to Bethuel and Laban, communicating to them what he has experienced and convincing them that “The matter has been ordained by G-d.” In Eliezer’s experience and telling, a piece of the natural world is defined as the handiwork of G-d, as an expression the Creator’s involvement with His creation.
Ultimately, the study and implementation of Torah law ranks higher in the hierarchy of “toils” than the seeking of G-d within the workings of creation. Through the “toil of speech,” one relates to the Creator only on the level of the Ten Utterances, whereas through Torah, one supersedes the natural reality, realizing a partnership with G-d that transcends the “mundane talk” of creation. Nevertheless, there is a specialty to the “toil of speech” that makes Eliezer’s story more desirable than “the Torah of the children.” G-d derives a special pleasure from His partnership with us as we go about our daily affairs, integrating Him into the most commonplace details of the narrative of our lives.
Based on the Rebbe’s talks on various occasions[21]
[1]. As cited by Rashi on Genesis 24:42; cf. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 60:8.
[2]. Genesis 2:7.
[3]. Job 5:7.
[4]. Proverbs 16:26.
[5]. Joshua 1:8.
[6]. Talmud, Sanhedrin 99b.
[7] . Job 19:26.
[8] . Genesis 1:27.
[9]. Ibid. v. 3.
[10]. Ibid. v. 11.
[11]. See Ethics of the Fathers 5:1; Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 32a; Tanya, part II, ch. 1.
[12]. Cf. Talmud, Bava Metzia 38a; Jerusalem Talmud, Orlah 1:3; Likkutei Torah, Tzav 7d; et al.
[13] . Exodus 34:6.
[14] . Talmud, Shabbat 10a; et al.
[15]. Genesis 1:2.
[16]. Isaiah 45:18; cf. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 39:8.
[17]. Zohar, part III, 149b.
[18]. The “toil of speech” assumes its highest form in the endeavor of prayer, in which our material needs become the substance of our communication with G-d (see Talmud, Berachot 26b; Ohr HaTorah, Vayeishev 911a). But even this “spiritualization” of material life is within the context of the created reality, and is thus “mundane words” in relation to the “speech of Torah.”
[19]. A number of miracles, such as the supernatural speed at which Eliezer reached his destination, are alluded to in the Torah’s account, but these remain below the surface of Eliezer’s words.
[20]. See note 18 above.
[21]. Likkutei Sichot, vol. XX, pp. 330-335; vol. XV, pp. 93-99; vol. XXI, pp. 245-246.
The talk of the servants of the Fathers is more desirable than the Torah of the children. For Eliezer’s story is twice recounted by the Torah, while many principles of Torah law are communicated only through allusion
The Midrash[1]
Human beings love to talk. At times, it seems that we hardly trust a thought or feeling to be our own until we have communicated it to others. To this end, we have invented hundreds of languages and dozens of media—all to say what we feel needs saying.
Indeed, our capacity for self-expression lies at the very heart of our humanity. In the second chapter of Genesis, the Torah describes the creation of man: “And the L-rd G-d formed man [from] the dust of the earth, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul.”[2] Onkelos, in his Aramaic translation/commentary on the Torah, translates the words “And man became a living soul,” as “And man became a speaking spirit.” In the philosophical and Kabbalistic works of our sages, man is called “the speaker.” (The entirety of creation is divided into four realms or “kingdoms”: domem, the “silent” or inanimate creations; tzome’ach, “growing” things; chai, the animal world; and medaber, the speaker—man).
Would it not have been more fitting to define man by his intelligence or spirituality? Of course, the ability to communicate is a mark of intelligence. It is also an indication of “spirituality”—of the ability to transcend the self and relate to something other, different and even opposite than it. But there are other human faculties that exhibit these traits. The fact that man is named “the speaker” implies that the faculty of speech is the essential component of our purpose and mission in life.
Toil of the Mouth
The centrality of speech to man’s purpose in creation is also expressed in the following Talmudic passage:
Said Rabbi Elazar: Every man was created in order to toil, as it is written, “For man is born to toil.”[3] I still do not know, however, if he was created for the toil of the mouth or for the toil of work; when the verse says, “[The toiling soul...] his mouth compels him,”[4] this tells me that he was created for the toil of the mouth. I still do not know, however, if he was created for the toil of Torah or for the toil of speech; when the verse says, “This book of Torah should not depart from your mouth,”[5] this tells me that he was created for the toil of Torah.[6]
An important rule in Torah learning is that when a supposition is introduced by the sages, it remains a valid hypothesis even after it has been “rejected” in favor of another. For the very fact that it has been presented as a possibility implies that it is true, on some level. Ideas to which there is no truth on any level are not entertained in the first place (thus, Rabbi Elazar does not begin by saying, “I do not know if man was created for toil or for relaxation; when the verse says, ‘For man is born to toil,’ I know that he was created for toil”—as he does with the other “rejected” suppositions). If we apply this to the above passage, it means that all three “toils”—the “toil of work,” the “toil of speech,” and the “toil of Torah”—are part of man’s purpose; it is only that the “toil of the mouth” expresses a higher aspect of this purpose than the “toil of work,” and that within the “toil of the mouth,” the “toil of Torah” is loftier than the “toil of speech.”
What, exactly, are these three “toils”? What, in particular, is the “toil of speech,” and why is it greater than the “toil of work,” yet not as lofty as the “toil of Torah”?
The Spoken World
“From my flesh I perceive G-d,”[7] proclaims the verse. Since G-d created us in His image,[8] we can contemplate His “personality” (i.e., the manner in which He relates to creation) by examining the workings of our own souls. The reverse is also true: by examining what the Torah tells us about how G-d relates to our existence, we can understand much about the human personality and man’s place in creation.
In describing the divine act of creation, the Torah does not say that G-d made a world, but that He spoke it. “G-d said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light”[9]; “G-d said, ‘Let the earth sprout forth vegetation...’ and it was so”[10]; and so with all other creations, each of which is contained, explicitly or implicitly, in the “Ten Utterances” with which G-d created the world.[11]
For in creating the world, G-d was doing what we do when we speak: He was communicating. He was projecting of Himself to an “audience”—to a reality which (at least in its own perception) is outside of Him. As we do when we speak, G-d wished to see His own “thoughts” and “feelings” take form in a consciousness and perception other than His own.
When we speak, we emulate G-d’s speaking the world into being. We, too, create. We, too, extend ourselves beyond the reality of our own existence to recreate ourselves and our vision of reality in the minds, hearts and deeds of others.
Effort
If we understand “speech,” both in G-d and in ourselves, as synonymous with “creativity,” we begin to understand why the “toil of speech” is central to our uniqueness as human beings. But first, let us examine the statement, “Man is born to toil.”
This, of course, is a fact of life, as well as of human nature—we experience as meaningful and satisfying only that which we have gained by effort and struggle. If a person is not compelled to work for a living, he will embark on endeavors in which he must exert himself to achieve some goal. “Retirement” invariably withers both body and mind unless one starts a second career or challenges oneself in some other way. An effortless life is ultimately a life not worth living. In the words of our sages, unearned gifts are “bread of shame” which bring no satisfaction to their recipient.[12]
Why, indeed, was man made this way? Certainly G-d, who is the essence of good, who is benevolent and merciful,[13] could just as easily have created a world that is free of hardship, and have formed the nature of man so that life in such a world is meaningful and fulfilling. Why did He create man to toil and endow him with a nature that thrives only on struggle and challenge?
But in an effortless world, man would be nothing more than a passive beneficiary of G-d’s gifts. He might derive satisfaction and pleasure from these gifts (were his nature so inclined), but his role in creation would be limited to that of recipient. Unless he were driven to toil—driven to acquire and achieve beyond what comes to him without difficulty—he could not be the “partner with G-d in creation”[14] that G-d desires him to be.
We experience effort and toil when our deeds are met with resistance, when they are at variance with the status quo. An effortless deed is a deed that is fully consistent with the present constellation of forces in the universes; a deed that isn’t challenged by anything because it changes nothing. A deed that, even if it is conducted with great fanfare, does not, in truth, do anything.
Toil defines the point at which we cease to be mere recipients, accepting the world as it is, and begin to be givers and contributors to G-d’s world. The point at which we contest the present reality and begin acting as G-d’s partners in the endeavor to build the world He desires.
Development, Creativity and Transcendence
On the most basic level, we achieve partnership with G-d through the “toil of work”—through our ongoing efforts to develop the resources of creation. Each time we plow and seed the earth to coax nourishment from it; each time we forge wood, stone and other materials into a home; each time we distill energy from matter; we are working. This is toilsome work, for we are combating the inert state of these “raw” materials. It is G-dly work, for we are furthering His enterprise of forming an ordered and civilized world out of an initial state of “chaos and formlessness.”[15] We are fulfilling the divine will expressed in the verse: “He did not create [the world] for chaos; He created it that it be settled.”[16]
This, however, is the most rudimentary level of partnership with G-d: we contribute to G-d’s work but are only involved at a lower, secondary plane. The innovative and creative aspects of the endeavor are solely the domain of the “senior partner,” while our role is limited to furthering what He has initiated. G-d, after all, created the world, while we only develop what He has created.
A higher level of partnership is achieved when we introduce our “speech”—our capacity for creativity—into our involvement with G-d’s world. When we redefine reality by communicating our experience of it to others. When we speak worlds into being, as G-d spoke the world into existence. On this level, we are partners with Him not only in that we are both contributors, but also in that we are both creators.
This level of partnership, which the Talmud calls “toil of the mouth,” consists of two elements: the “toil of speech” and the “toil of Torah.”
Mirroring the Ten Utterances of creation are the Ten Commandments spoken by G-d at Sinai. If the Ten Utterances are the “source code” of the natural world, the Ten Commandments are the essence of a higher reality—the reality of Torah. The Torah embodies a divine vision of reality which supersedes the natural reality: a reality of unadulterated goodness and perfection; a reality that is a consummate actualization of the divine will.
The Ten Utterances derive from the Ten Commandments, for the natural world, which was designed as the environment within which the Torah is to be realized, draws its essence and raison d’etre from the Torah; yet they are a lowlier and coarser expression of the divine self-expression. The Zohar goes so far as to refer to the Ten Utterances as “mundane words” in relation to the sublime words of the Ten Commandments, saying that it is beneath G-d, so to speak, to utter the world into being, as “it is not the way of the King to engage in mundane talk.”[17]
Thus the Talmud distinguishes between two areas of human creativity: the “toil of speech,” which are our creative efforts within the context of the natural world (“speech” being a reference to the Ten Utterances), and the “toil of Torah”—the effort to impose a higher, supra-natural reality upon the world by implementing the divine will, as expressed in the commandments of the Torah, in our daily lives.[18]
G-d in the Details
And yet, the Midrash also states that “The speech of the servants of the fathers is more desirable than the Torah of the children.”
In the 24th chapter of Genesis, the Torah relates the story of the journey of Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, to Mesopotamia to find a bride for Abraham’s son, Isaac. We read how Abraham summons Eliezer and sends him on his mission, instructing him to choose a bride from the family of Abraham’s brother, Nachor. Eliezer arrives in Mesopotamia and prays to G-d, asking for His guidance in finding a worthy bride for his master’s son. He then devises a sign: the maiden who, when asked for a drink of water, will offer to draw water for his camels as well, is the one destined to marry Isaac. Rebecca appears and fulfills all the requirements of the sign; when Eliezer asks after her family, he learns that she is a granddaughter of Nachor. The servant thanks G-d for “leading me on the path to the home of my master’s brother.”
Eliezer is invited to the home of Rebecca’s family. At this point, we read all the details of the events of that day for a second time—this time in Eliezer’s words, as he relates them to Rebecca’s family. The point of the story, once again, is the show of divine providence in the affairs of man. “The matter has been ordained by G-d,” agree Bethuel and Laban, Rebecca’s father and brother. “We can say nothing, good or evil.”
This long (67-verse) chapter evokes much discussion by the sages. Not only is the Torah uncharacteristically detailed in its description, but it twice recounts the entire story almost verbatim. This, in a book so concise that many complex laws are derived from an extra word or letter! Hence the conclusion that the Torah prefers the conversations of our forefathers’ servants to the intricacies of Torah law addressed to and studied by their descendants.
Eliezer’s story is a classic example of the “toil of speech”—of the manner in which we apply our creative and communicative skills to create a world in partnership with G-d. A series of events takes place at the city well of Mesopotamian town and results in the marriage of a certain woman to a certain man. These are wholly natural[19] events, strung together by what is commonly described as “coincidence.” But Eliezer transforms these events into “speech”—into a cohesive and meaningful narrative. Eliezer tells how he prayed[20] to G-d for success, expressing his belief that what is about to unfold is G-d’s doing rather than “the blind workings of fate”; he asks for a sign, and presides over its fulfillment; he then tells the story to Bethuel and Laban, communicating to them what he has experienced and convincing them that “The matter has been ordained by G-d.” In Eliezer’s experience and telling, a piece of the natural world is defined as the handiwork of G-d, as an expression the Creator’s involvement with His creation.
Ultimately, the study and implementation of Torah law ranks higher in the hierarchy of “toils” than the seeking of G-d within the workings of creation. Through the “toil of speech,” one relates to the Creator only on the level of the Ten Utterances, whereas through Torah, one supersedes the natural reality, realizing a partnership with G-d that transcends the “mundane talk” of creation. Nevertheless, there is a specialty to the “toil of speech” that makes Eliezer’s story more desirable than “the Torah of the children.” G-d derives a special pleasure from His partnership with us as we go about our daily affairs, integrating Him into the most commonplace details of the narrative of our lives.
Based on the Rebbe’s talks on various occasions[21]
[1]. As cited by Rashi on Genesis 24:42; cf. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 60:8.
[2]. Genesis 2:7.
[3]. Job 5:7.
[4]. Proverbs 16:26.
[5]. Joshua 1:8.
[6]. Talmud, Sanhedrin 99b.
[7] . Job 19:26.
[8] . Genesis 1:27.
[9]. Ibid. v. 3.
[10]. Ibid. v. 11.
[11]. See Ethics of the Fathers 5:1; Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 32a; Tanya, part II, ch. 1.
[12]. Cf. Talmud, Bava Metzia 38a; Jerusalem Talmud, Orlah 1:3; Likkutei Torah, Tzav 7d; et al.
[13] . Exodus 34:6.
[14] . Talmud, Shabbat 10a; et al.
[15]. Genesis 1:2.
[16]. Isaiah 45:18; cf. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 39:8.
[17]. Zohar, part III, 149b.
[18]. The “toil of speech” assumes its highest form in the endeavor of prayer, in which our material needs become the substance of our communication with G-d (see Talmud, Berachot 26b; Ohr HaTorah, Vayeishev 911a). But even this “spiritualization” of material life is within the context of the created reality, and is thus “mundane words” in relation to the “speech of Torah.”
[19]. A number of miracles, such as the supernatural speed at which Eliezer reached his destination, are alluded to in the Torah’s account, but these remain below the surface of Eliezer’s words.
[20]. See note 18 above.
[21]. Likkutei Sichot, vol. XX, pp. 330-335; vol. XV, pp. 93-99; vol. XXI, pp. 245-246.
Spiritual Gems from the parsha
Hear us, my lord (Gen. 23:6)
As a token of their respect, the sons of Chet addressed Abraham as "my lord." Abraham, however, refused to reciprocate, even in his business dealings. Abraham, the first Jew, reserved the term solely for G-d, despite social convention.
(Rabbi Yosef Horowitz, the Alter of Navhardok)
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And the servant ran to meet her (Gen. 24:17)
According to the commentator Rashi, it was only when Eliezer saw the well water miraculously rising toward Rebecca that he decided she would make the perfect wife for Isaac. Yet only the water Rebecca drew for her own use rose up by itself; the water she drew for Eliezer and his camels had to be brought up by hand. We learn from this that although G-d may perform miracles to assist a righteous person, when it comes to doing mitzvot (commandments), it is preferable to perform them oneself in a natural manner and not to rely on miracles.
(Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev)
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And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the sons of the concubines... he gave gifts (Gen. 25:5-6)
Isaac is symbolic of holiness and the spiritual realm; the "sons of the concubines" stand for the physical and corporeal world. The Torah teaches that we must give "all" of ourselves - the lion's share of our time, energy and talents - to spiritual matters. Worldly matters, however, can be placated with "gifts."
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
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Then Abraham expired, and died in a good old age (Gen. 25:8)
On the day that Abraham passed away, the greatest of the nations cried, "Woe to the world that has lost its leader; woe to the ship that has lost its captain."
(Talmud, Baba Batra)
As a token of their respect, the sons of Chet addressed Abraham as "my lord." Abraham, however, refused to reciprocate, even in his business dealings. Abraham, the first Jew, reserved the term solely for G-d, despite social convention.
(Rabbi Yosef Horowitz, the Alter of Navhardok)
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And the servant ran to meet her (Gen. 24:17)
According to the commentator Rashi, it was only when Eliezer saw the well water miraculously rising toward Rebecca that he decided she would make the perfect wife for Isaac. Yet only the water Rebecca drew for her own use rose up by itself; the water she drew for Eliezer and his camels had to be brought up by hand. We learn from this that although G-d may perform miracles to assist a righteous person, when it comes to doing mitzvot (commandments), it is preferable to perform them oneself in a natural manner and not to rely on miracles.
(Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev)
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And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the sons of the concubines... he gave gifts (Gen. 25:5-6)
Isaac is symbolic of holiness and the spiritual realm; the "sons of the concubines" stand for the physical and corporeal world. The Torah teaches that we must give "all" of ourselves - the lion's share of our time, energy and talents - to spiritual matters. Worldly matters, however, can be placated with "gifts."
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
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Then Abraham expired, and died in a good old age (Gen. 25:8)
On the day that Abraham passed away, the greatest of the nations cried, "Woe to the world that has lost its leader; woe to the ship that has lost its captain."
(Talmud, Baba Batra)
Sing While You Pray
The prayers that we are most familiar with are the ones the congregation sings together in the synagogue or the ones we learned with a melody as children. When you take time out each day to communicate with G-d, accompany your prayers with song, which is certainly in keeping with Jewish tradition. (The Rebbe, 1992)
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other kedoshim of Mumbai
Interest-free loans from persons, in order to pay off the debts and eliminate the high interest rate
22nd of Cheshvan, 5735 (1974)
This is to confirm receipt of your letter of October 10th with enclosures, which reached me with some delay. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in sending me the enclosure.
One of the reasons why my acknowledgment was delayed was the fact that there was reason to believe that Prof. Branover would be visiting the U.S., although I do not know how definite this is, when there would be an opportunity to discuss the various matters of your letter personally with him.
I was particularly gratified to read in your letter that a beginning has been made in regard to the suggestion which we discussed, namely to obtain interest-free loans from persons, in order to pay off the debts and eliminate the high interest rate.
May G-d grant that you should soon be able to complete the list of such persons, especially as some of the participants in this project have made it conditional upon the complete list of participants.
I trust that you have been active in the Five Mitzvah [commandment] Campaigns which I have stressed, and more recently also in the matter of encouraging young girls from the age of Chinuch [Jewish education], to light the candles Erev [the eve of] Shabbos and Erev Yom Tov. And while you are destined for, and are capable of, great things and accomplishments, and to participate in the above mentioned Mitzvah Campaigns may seem to you that these things should be done by others, we have one of the basic teachings of the Torah to the effect that one should not attempt to weigh the importance of big mitzvos and small mitzvos, but do them all as they come along.
It should be noted that the above statement speaks of "big" and "small" mitzvos but the conclusion is that all mitzvos should be carried out with the same eagerness and joy and vitality.
One of the explanations which explains the seeming anomaly in the above statement is that when a person does a good thing, no matter how big or small, he "pleases G-d" thereby and becomes attached to G-d through the fulfillment of His commandments. In this way G-d's unity permeates all these good actions of the person. Hence, bigness or smallness is of no consequence, since he fulfills G-d's commandments for the sole reason that G-d commanded him to do them.
At this time, before Shabbos Mevorchim Kislev [the Sabbath on which the month of Kislev is blessed], the mitzvah of the Shabbos lights is particularly pertinent inasmuch as we shall soon be observing the festival of Chanukah with the lighting of the Chanukah candles.
We are told that the Shabbos candles have a priority over the Chanukah candles (in a case where one cannot afford both), which goes to show how important the Shabbos candles are.
You do not mention about your own daughters lighting the candles, but I am certain they do. I only want to express the hope that they are a shining example to their friends in this and in every other respect.
Wishing you hatzlocha [success] in all the matters about which you write, and especially that you and your wife should have true Torah Nachas [pleasure] from each and all of your children.
This is to confirm receipt of your letter of October 10th with enclosures, which reached me with some delay. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in sending me the enclosure.
One of the reasons why my acknowledgment was delayed was the fact that there was reason to believe that Prof. Branover would be visiting the U.S., although I do not know how definite this is, when there would be an opportunity to discuss the various matters of your letter personally with him.
I was particularly gratified to read in your letter that a beginning has been made in regard to the suggestion which we discussed, namely to obtain interest-free loans from persons, in order to pay off the debts and eliminate the high interest rate.
May G-d grant that you should soon be able to complete the list of such persons, especially as some of the participants in this project have made it conditional upon the complete list of participants.
I trust that you have been active in the Five Mitzvah [commandment] Campaigns which I have stressed, and more recently also in the matter of encouraging young girls from the age of Chinuch [Jewish education], to light the candles Erev [the eve of] Shabbos and Erev Yom Tov. And while you are destined for, and are capable of, great things and accomplishments, and to participate in the above mentioned Mitzvah Campaigns may seem to you that these things should be done by others, we have one of the basic teachings of the Torah to the effect that one should not attempt to weigh the importance of big mitzvos and small mitzvos, but do them all as they come along.
It should be noted that the above statement speaks of "big" and "small" mitzvos but the conclusion is that all mitzvos should be carried out with the same eagerness and joy and vitality.
One of the explanations which explains the seeming anomaly in the above statement is that when a person does a good thing, no matter how big or small, he "pleases G-d" thereby and becomes attached to G-d through the fulfillment of His commandments. In this way G-d's unity permeates all these good actions of the person. Hence, bigness or smallness is of no consequence, since he fulfills G-d's commandments for the sole reason that G-d commanded him to do them.
At this time, before Shabbos Mevorchim Kislev [the Sabbath on which the month of Kislev is blessed], the mitzvah of the Shabbos lights is particularly pertinent inasmuch as we shall soon be observing the festival of Chanukah with the lighting of the Chanukah candles.
We are told that the Shabbos candles have a priority over the Chanukah candles (in a case where one cannot afford both), which goes to show how important the Shabbos candles are.
You do not mention about your own daughters lighting the candles, but I am certain they do. I only want to express the hope that they are a shining example to their friends in this and in every other respect.
Wishing you hatzlocha [success] in all the matters about which you write, and especially that you and your wife should have true Torah Nachas [pleasure] from each and all of your children.
Why Am I Still Single?
Question of the Week:
I enjoy reading your emails and figured I would send you a question of my own. I'm 35 and still single. I look around and see all my friends married, and I wonder what I am doing wrong. People love to tell me I'm picky and that I am looking for the wrong things when the truth is I really don't think I am. I think I'm a very level headed and rational person, but I've just been meeting the wrong guys which is why I am always the one to end the relationship. Is it possible that my time hasn't come yet, or am I to blame for being picky and not "settling" with a guy until now?
Answer:
I don't think you are picky, and I don't think you should just settle for any old guy. It could be that your time hasn't come yet. But if you find that you are always the naysayer, maybe it's time to try a different approach. Though I don't know you personally, here is a wild thought you may not have considered before. Do you really want to get married? Or is it possible that you are actually too comfortable being single? As ridiculous as it sounds, I have met many people who on the one hand say they want nothing more than to settle down with a life partner, and they are doing all they can to meet their soulmate, but in actual fact they do everything in their power to make sure no relationship gets too serious. These people go into a date just waiting to find that one reason to say no and let it fail. This may be as a result of hurts from the past. Previous relationships that resulted in disappointment and heartbreak can leave us disillusioned and jaded. Or it may be an unwillingness to part with the comforts of the status quo. Sometimes it seems easier to stay single and alone rather than make the effort necessary to share a life with someone else. Or there may be deeper personality issues. Whatever it is, if you find yourself sabotaging every promising relationship and ending it before it gets serious, you may need to work on yourself to recapture your faith and open your heart again. This may not be your problem at all. Maybe you keep saying no because you just haven't met the right guy yet. There are many wonderful people out there, just like you, who have simply not yet found their soulmate. Give your search over to G-d. Recognise that you need Him to guide you. Cry to Him. And then be open. If you are ready, he is ready.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
I enjoy reading your emails and figured I would send you a question of my own. I'm 35 and still single. I look around and see all my friends married, and I wonder what I am doing wrong. People love to tell me I'm picky and that I am looking for the wrong things when the truth is I really don't think I am. I think I'm a very level headed and rational person, but I've just been meeting the wrong guys which is why I am always the one to end the relationship. Is it possible that my time hasn't come yet, or am I to blame for being picky and not "settling" with a guy until now?
Answer:
I don't think you are picky, and I don't think you should just settle for any old guy. It could be that your time hasn't come yet. But if you find that you are always the naysayer, maybe it's time to try a different approach. Though I don't know you personally, here is a wild thought you may not have considered before. Do you really want to get married? Or is it possible that you are actually too comfortable being single? As ridiculous as it sounds, I have met many people who on the one hand say they want nothing more than to settle down with a life partner, and they are doing all they can to meet their soulmate, but in actual fact they do everything in their power to make sure no relationship gets too serious. These people go into a date just waiting to find that one reason to say no and let it fail. This may be as a result of hurts from the past. Previous relationships that resulted in disappointment and heartbreak can leave us disillusioned and jaded. Or it may be an unwillingness to part with the comforts of the status quo. Sometimes it seems easier to stay single and alone rather than make the effort necessary to share a life with someone else. Or there may be deeper personality issues. Whatever it is, if you find yourself sabotaging every promising relationship and ending it before it gets serious, you may need to work on yourself to recapture your faith and open your heart again. This may not be your problem at all. Maybe you keep saying no because you just haven't met the right guy yet. There are many wonderful people out there, just like you, who have simply not yet found their soulmate. Give your search over to G-d. Recognise that you need Him to guide you. Cry to Him. And then be open. If you are ready, he is ready.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss
As we read in this week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah,
As we read in this week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, after Sarah passed away and Abraham wanted to bury her in the Cave of Machpelah, the sons of Chet offered to give him the land for free. "A mighty prince you are among us," they said, "in the choice of our tombs bury your dead." However, Abraham refused their offer, and insisted on paying "the full price."As Rashi comments, "the full price" means "its full value." Abraham was adamant about paying the full value of the field in order to completely dissociate it from its former owner, Efron. Had Abraham received it as a gift, Efron would have still retained a certain claim on the land, even though it now officially belonged to Abraham. By paying "the full price" for the Cave of Machpelah, Abraham severed any connection it might have had to its previous owner.
King David did the same thing many years later after he conquered Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been already captured and was under his control, yet David did not wish to receive it as a gift from Aravna. Like Abraham, David insisted on paying "the full price" for the site, in order to possess it in the absolute sense.
The spiritual service of every Jew is to refine and elevate his surroundings, through learning Torah and observing mitzvot, to the point that he becomes the true "owner" of his particular corner of the world. Just as Abraham paid "the full price" for the field he bought from Efron, so too is it necessary for every Jew to pay "the full price" - to expend real effort and exertion - in his service of G-d.
A Jew must never say to himself, "I have been blessed with a good head and many talents. Why should I have to work hard if everything comes to me easily? Even my Evil Inclination isn't so powerful that it has to be fought all that vigilantly."
In the same way that Abraham and David refused to accept what was easy, rejected "gifts" and insisted on paying "the full price," so too must we invest real effort on the spiritual "labor" of Torah and mitzvot. For it only through hard work and a little "elbow grease" that we will truly succeed in refining our surroundings and by extension, the entire world.
Adapted from Likutei Sichot vol. 10 of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
King David did the same thing many years later after he conquered Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been already captured and was under his control, yet David did not wish to receive it as a gift from Aravna. Like Abraham, David insisted on paying "the full price" for the site, in order to possess it in the absolute sense.
The spiritual service of every Jew is to refine and elevate his surroundings, through learning Torah and observing mitzvot, to the point that he becomes the true "owner" of his particular corner of the world. Just as Abraham paid "the full price" for the field he bought from Efron, so too is it necessary for every Jew to pay "the full price" - to expend real effort and exertion - in his service of G-d.
A Jew must never say to himself, "I have been blessed with a good head and many talents. Why should I have to work hard if everything comes to me easily? Even my Evil Inclination isn't so powerful that it has to be fought all that vigilantly."
In the same way that Abraham and David refused to accept what was easy, rejected "gifts" and insisted on paying "the full price," so too must we invest real effort on the spiritual "labor" of Torah and mitzvot. For it only through hard work and a little "elbow grease" that we will truly succeed in refining our surroundings and by extension, the entire world.
Adapted from Likutei Sichot vol. 10 of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Retirement Funds
What with the economy not yet fully recovered, many people are thinking about money matters more and more. One of the biggest areas of concern are retirement funds.Of course, the economy's recovering, so that's good news; money put aside for retirement still earns interest, so that's good news. Investors and individuals are looking for innovative ways to create and protect retirement funds, so that should help. Some people are delaying retirement, or foregoing retirement altogether, working into their seventies and eighties.
When it comes to the "retirement fund," we're finding that we can get one and build one by many different paths.
What's the purpose of a "retirement fund" anyway?
Simply put, it's a fund - money accumulated over a period of time - that generates money - funds, income - we can use when we retire, when we're no longer working. Or working as much. We create and grow the retirement fund by putting money in it during our working years - regular contributions, usually monthly, almost always a fixed amount. This money is invested, earns interest, and hopefully grows enough to provide us with an income when we can't provide one for ourselves, or don't want to work quite so hard.
It's an investment of the present for the future, a postponing of present pleasure for future security. A retirement fund is also a testimony to a lifetime of hard work, a financial verification of our successes.
Judaism too has a "retirement fund" - a way of investing for the future. Instead of money, the Jewish people invest mitzvot (commandments). Every mitzva yields a great return on the investment - and when you "deposit a mitzva," its value always goes up. Mitzvot never depreciate, they only increase, generating more mitzvot in this world, and more spiritual reward in the World-to-Come.
In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) we are told that "one mitzva leads to another."
Still, as with any "investment," some have better "yields" than others. In our case, some of our "mitzva" investments begin "paying dividends" even in this world, while we collect full value of the "principle" in the World-to-Come.
There's a mishna in the Talmudic tractate of Shabbat that lists these "special investment, high yield" mitzvot. The Sages incorporated this mishna into the daily prayer service, placing it at the very beginning of the morning blessings.
It goes as follows: "These are the precepts, the fruits of which a person enjoys in this world, while the principle reward remains in the World to Come: honoring one's father and mother, performing deeds of kindness, early attendance at the House of Study morning and evening, hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, dowering the bride, escorting the dead, concentration in prayer, bringing peace between one person and another, and between husband and wife. And the study of Torah is equivalent to them all."
Why not check on your "retirement fund," see how your "spiritual portfolio" is doing by reciting this mishnah in the morning? And it's probably a good time to make a deposit - no automatic deductions - in your retirement fund, and increase the value of your "investment," by doing one of the mitzvot listed - or any mitzva, for that matter.
When it comes to the "retirement fund," we're finding that we can get one and build one by many different paths.
What's the purpose of a "retirement fund" anyway?
Simply put, it's a fund - money accumulated over a period of time - that generates money - funds, income - we can use when we retire, when we're no longer working. Or working as much. We create and grow the retirement fund by putting money in it during our working years - regular contributions, usually monthly, almost always a fixed amount. This money is invested, earns interest, and hopefully grows enough to provide us with an income when we can't provide one for ourselves, or don't want to work quite so hard.
It's an investment of the present for the future, a postponing of present pleasure for future security. A retirement fund is also a testimony to a lifetime of hard work, a financial verification of our successes.
Judaism too has a "retirement fund" - a way of investing for the future. Instead of money, the Jewish people invest mitzvot (commandments). Every mitzva yields a great return on the investment - and when you "deposit a mitzva," its value always goes up. Mitzvot never depreciate, they only increase, generating more mitzvot in this world, and more spiritual reward in the World-to-Come.
In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) we are told that "one mitzva leads to another."
Still, as with any "investment," some have better "yields" than others. In our case, some of our "mitzva" investments begin "paying dividends" even in this world, while we collect full value of the "principle" in the World-to-Come.
There's a mishna in the Talmudic tractate of Shabbat that lists these "special investment, high yield" mitzvot. The Sages incorporated this mishna into the daily prayer service, placing it at the very beginning of the morning blessings.
It goes as follows: "These are the precepts, the fruits of which a person enjoys in this world, while the principle reward remains in the World to Come: honoring one's father and mother, performing deeds of kindness, early attendance at the House of Study morning and evening, hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, dowering the bride, escorting the dead, concentration in prayer, bringing peace between one person and another, and between husband and wife. And the study of Torah is equivalent to them all."
Why not check on your "retirement fund," see how your "spiritual portfolio" is doing by reciting this mishnah in the morning? And it's probably a good time to make a deposit - no automatic deductions - in your retirement fund, and increase the value of your "investment," by doing one of the mitzvot listed - or any mitzva, for that matter.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
One ought to be strong in one's trust that things will continue to improve more and more
Freely translated and adapted
1 Sivan, 5712 [1952]
Greetings and Blessings!
I was very happy to receive your letter of 21 Iyar. I was already concerned that for a long time I had not heard about the health of yourself and your wife. Thank G-d, you are already walking outdoors and going to shul (synagogue), and as I understand from your letter, your wife's health is also far better than it was previously. Since even fleshly eyes can see that G-d has healed you and that your wife's health is also improving, one ought to be strong in one's trust that things will continue to improve more and more, until you yourself will also be happy.
It is disappointing and painful to encounter certain dispensable expressions in your letter. Why do you do this? - particularly in the case of a Jew who is a believer, who can even influence others by being weak in his trust in G-d. Firstly, using such expressions is damaging both spiritually and healthwise; and secondly, it weakens one's own will and desire to infuse others with liveliness and high spirits.
I hope that by the time you receive my letter your mood will improve, and that you will make a point of heeding the directive of our holy Torah, to "serve G-d with joy." As is taught in our sacred books, one should - and one can - serve G-d not only through praying and studying Torah, but also while eating and drinking and the like, and by living joyfully. When a person does that, he observes that he is plainly and simply healthier and more optimistic, and he accomplishes far more for himself and for others.
Let me conclude with the wish that your attribute of bitachon (trust) will be fortified, the earlier the better, and that you will have a Shavuos festival of tranquility and joy, which you will then extend throughout the entire year.
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2 Sivan, 5712 [1952]
Greetings and Blessings!
Your letters of 9/4 and 2/5 reached me after having been delayed on their way here, and I was very happy to read that your wife's confinement went well and that she gave birth to a son who is named.
May G-d grant that you, together with your wife, should raise him and your older son to the study of Torah, to the marriage canopy, and to the practice of good deeds, and may you be granted an ample livelihood.
Your letter mentions your anxiety about your income. You ought to keep in mind something that is written in the holy books - that when a son is born, this is an auspicious sign of blessing in the household. That includes one's livelihood. In order to accelerate this, one needs to be strong in one's trust in G-d, for it is He Who "provides nourishment and sustenance for all," and seeks to do so "from His full hand."
Another thing to keep in mind is that one has to fashion vessels that will contain G-d's blessings. In general terms, this means studying Torah and observing the mitzvos (commandments); in particular, it means contributing tzedaka (charity). If a person thinks that his livelihood is meager, he should donate more than previously. In that way he shows G-d that his charitable needs are greater [than heretofore], and as a matter of course He will then provide a greater income than heretofore.
May G-d grant that you and your wife both be firm in your trust, and that you will soon see the fulfillment of G-d's blessing for an ample livelihood.
With blessings for sound health for yourself and your wife and children, and for a happy Shavuos festival,
From In Good Hands, translated by Rabbi Uri Kaploun, published by Sichos In English
1 Sivan, 5712 [1952]
Greetings and Blessings!
I was very happy to receive your letter of 21 Iyar. I was already concerned that for a long time I had not heard about the health of yourself and your wife. Thank G-d, you are already walking outdoors and going to shul (synagogue), and as I understand from your letter, your wife's health is also far better than it was previously. Since even fleshly eyes can see that G-d has healed you and that your wife's health is also improving, one ought to be strong in one's trust that things will continue to improve more and more, until you yourself will also be happy.
It is disappointing and painful to encounter certain dispensable expressions in your letter. Why do you do this? - particularly in the case of a Jew who is a believer, who can even influence others by being weak in his trust in G-d. Firstly, using such expressions is damaging both spiritually and healthwise; and secondly, it weakens one's own will and desire to infuse others with liveliness and high spirits.
I hope that by the time you receive my letter your mood will improve, and that you will make a point of heeding the directive of our holy Torah, to "serve G-d with joy." As is taught in our sacred books, one should - and one can - serve G-d not only through praying and studying Torah, but also while eating and drinking and the like, and by living joyfully. When a person does that, he observes that he is plainly and simply healthier and more optimistic, and he accomplishes far more for himself and for others.
Let me conclude with the wish that your attribute of bitachon (trust) will be fortified, the earlier the better, and that you will have a Shavuos festival of tranquility and joy, which you will then extend throughout the entire year.
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2 Sivan, 5712 [1952]
Greetings and Blessings!
Your letters of 9/4 and 2/5 reached me after having been delayed on their way here, and I was very happy to read that your wife's confinement went well and that she gave birth to a son who is named.
May G-d grant that you, together with your wife, should raise him and your older son to the study of Torah, to the marriage canopy, and to the practice of good deeds, and may you be granted an ample livelihood.
Your letter mentions your anxiety about your income. You ought to keep in mind something that is written in the holy books - that when a son is born, this is an auspicious sign of blessing in the household. That includes one's livelihood. In order to accelerate this, one needs to be strong in one's trust in G-d, for it is He Who "provides nourishment and sustenance for all," and seeks to do so "from His full hand."
Another thing to keep in mind is that one has to fashion vessels that will contain G-d's blessings. In general terms, this means studying Torah and observing the mitzvos (commandments); in particular, it means contributing tzedaka (charity). If a person thinks that his livelihood is meager, he should donate more than previously. In that way he shows G-d that his charitable needs are greater [than heretofore], and as a matter of course He will then provide a greater income than heretofore.
May G-d grant that you and your wife both be firm in your trust, and that you will soon see the fulfillment of G-d's blessing for an ample livelihood.
With blessings for sound health for yourself and your wife and children, and for a happy Shavuos festival,
From In Good Hands, translated by Rabbi Uri Kaploun, published by Sichos In English
Flying Branches
The sukkah is a makeshift hut in which the Jew dwells during the seven-day festival of Sukkot. In commanding us to leave the stability and safety of our homes for this temporary and vulnerable structure,[1] the Torah explains that this is to remind us of how G-d sheltered us (with the miraculous “clouds of glory”) in our forty years’ journey through the desert from Egypt to the Holy Land.[2]
Yet the sukkah also has a more ancient origin, dating back four hundred years before the Exodus from Egypt to Abraham, the first Jew. In the 18th chapter of Genesis we read of Abraham’s legendary hospitality for the desert wayfarers passing by his home. Still ailing from his circumcision three days earlier, Abraham stationed himself at the doorway of his tent to await any possible guests; when he saw three travelers approaching, “he ran toward them... and bowed to the ground. And he said: ‘My Lord! If I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet; and recline yourselves under the tree. I will fetch you some bread and you shall sate your hearts; only them shall you pass on...”[3]
Says the Midrash: In the merit of Abraham’s inviting his guests to “recline yourselves under the tree,” G-d sheltered his descendants in the desert and later granted them the mitzvah of sukkah.[4]
Generic Mitzvah
Indeed, our own sukkot in many ways resemble the resting place that Abraham offered his guests in the shade of his tree. The meaning of the word “sukkah” is a structure whose function is to provide shade;[5] thus, the most important part of the sukkah is the sechach, the roof-covering, which must be dense enough so that “the shade [in the sukkah] is greater than the sunlight.”[6] And the sechach must consist of materials which, like Abraham’s tree, “grow from the earth”—branches, reeds or other unfinished vegetable matter.[7]
Yet there is also a primary difference between our sukkah and its Abrahamic predecessor. The law is that the materials of the sechach must be detached from their source of growth in the earth. Thus, a sukkah that is covered by a trellis of vines that are still connected to their roots, or that is built under a tree so that it is shaded by the tree’s still-connected branches, is invalid for use in the observance of the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah.[8]
The sukkah is unique among the mitzvot of the Torah in that it embraces the totality of the person: the mitzvah of sukkah is that a person should conduct all his activities—eating, resting, studying, socializing—inside the sukkah for seven days.[9] (With other mitzvot, only certain parts or faculties of the person are involved in the fulfillment of the divine will—e.g., Torah study involves the brain, prayer the heart and the faculty of speech, tefillin the arm and head, matzah the digestive system, etc.) Thus the mitzvah of sukkah is often cited as representative of all the mitzvot.[10]
If dwelling in the sukkah is the generic mitzvah, understanding both the similarity and the difference between our sukkah and the “sukkah” of Abraham will illuminate the nature of our relationship with the Patriarchs, and explain how our deeds derive, yet also differ, from their achievements.
The Decree
Our sages tell us that our forefathers studied the Torah and fulfilled its commandments many generations before it was “officially” given to us at Mount Sinai.[11] Yet it is the revelation at Sinai, rather than the legacy of the Patriarchs, that is the essence of our covenant with G-d and our commitment to observe the mitzvot. In the words of Maimonides:
“Everything that we avoid doing or that we do today, we do only because of G‑d’s command to Moses at Sinai, not because of any communication by G‑d to earlier prophets. For example, we refrain from eating [the flesh of] a limb taken from a live animal not because G-d forbade this to Noah,[12] but because Moses forbade it by commanding us, at Sinai, that this prohibition should be observed... We do not circumcise ourselves because our father Abraham circumcised himself and the members of his household, only because G‑d commanded us through Moses that we should circumcise ourselves as did Abraham....”[13]
The Midrash[14] explains the difference between the pre-Sinaitic mitzvot and the mitzvot we observe after Sinai with the following metaphor:
Once there was a king who decreed: “The people of Rome are forbidden to journey to Syria, and the people of Syria are forbidden to journey to Rome.” Likewise, when G‑d created the world He decreed: “The heavens are G‑d’s, and the earth is given to man.”[15] But when He wished to give the Torah to Israel, He rescinded His original decree, and declared: “The lower realms may ascend to the higher realms, and the higher realms may descend to the lower realms. And I, Myself, will begin.” As it is written, “And G‑d descended on Mount Sinai,”[16] and then it says, “And to Moses He said: Go up to G‑d.”[17]
The human being is the crown and apex of G-d’s creation, a creature whose intelligence and spirituality distinguish him as a class above the other creatures with which he shares G-d’s world. Yet man, too, is part of the “lower realms”; man, too, is finite and mortal, and even his highest achievements cannot transcend his finiteness and mortality. At least, that was the state of affairs for as long as the decree dividing between heaven and earth was in force.
But at Sinai G-d rescinded this decree, Himself descending to an earthly mountain and inviting man to “go up to G-d.” Man was empowered to live a G-dly life, to think G-dly thoughts, speak G-dly words and do G-dly deeds. The 613 mitzvot of the Torah were established by G-d as vehicles of connection to Him, as bridges between Heaven and earth.
The mitzvot as performed prior to Sinai were lofty deeds, spiritual deeds, deeds representing the heights of human achievement. Yet they were human deeds. Deeds striving upwards toward Heaven, yet never truly transcending their earthly base. It was only after Sinai that a human act could be freed of its earthbound roots to soar to the “higher realms” and assume an infinite and eternal significance.
Climbing the Mountain
Yet the revelation at Sinai did not take place in a vacuum. It was preceded by twenty-six generations of human endeavor, twenty-six generations in which man refined and perfected his finite self in preparation for the encounter with G-d at Sinai.
Thus, when G-d descended to earth to breach the frontier that separated the supernal from the terrestrial, He did not come down to the Israelite camp at the foot of Mount Sinai, only to the mountain’s summit. One might ask: if G-d had come all the way from the infinite yonder to visit our finite earth, could He not have descended another few thousand feet, instead of troubling the 80-year-old Moses to climb to the top of the mountain? But this expresses the terms on which G-d made Himself accessible to us at Sinai. First, said G-d, I want you to attain the greatest heights of which you are capable; first, I want you to develop your own potential to its utmost; then, I will meet you at the summit of human achievement and free you from its bounds.
Therein lies the significance of Abraham’s sukkah tree and its relationship to our post-Sinai sechach-covered sukkah. Before Sinai, a mitzvah could, at most, be a tree; its branches reaching heavenward—perhaps even to great heights—yet rooted in and nourished by the earth. Man could develop and refine himself, yet could not transcend his terrestrial foundations. But after Sinai, our sukkot can, and must, be made with branches cut free from their earthly roots. After Sinai, a mitzvah must entail a departure from the merely human and rise to a self-transcending bond with G-d.
At the same time, it was Abraham’s sukkah that was the cause of our receiving the gift of sukkah from G-d—just as the branches that cover our sukkot must first sprout from the earth and grow and develop in their earth-bound state. First we must develop our own, human faculties—our limited understanding, our subjective feelings, our mortal achievements—before these can be “cut loose” from their earthly moorings to serve as true vehicles of connection with G-d.
Based on an entry in the Rebbe’s journal, dated Sukkot 5702 (1941),[18] and his talks on various other occasions
[1]. The sukkah, by definition, is a “temporary dwelling” (dirat arai); if it is built in a way that implies permanence (e.g., very high walls, a water-proof roof) it is disqualified (Talmud, Sukkah 2a).[2]. Leviticus 26:42-43; Talmud, Sukkah 11b.[3]. Genesis 18:2-5.[4]. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 48:10.[5]. Isaiah 4:6; Talmud, Sukkah 2a.[6]. Talmud, loc. cit.[7]. Ibid., 11a.[8]. Ibid., 9b; 11a.[9]. As an old Chassidic saying puts it, the sukkah is the only mitzvah into which a person enters with his muddy boots.[10]. Cf. Talmud, Avodah Zarah 3a; see Home Sweet Home, WIR, vol. IV, no. 3.[11]. See Rashi on Genesis 26:5 and 46:28; Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 8:1; Talmud, Yoma 28b and Kiddushin 82a; Chizkuni on Exodus 5:4.[12]. Genesis 9:4.[13]. Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishnah, Chullin 7:6.[14]. Midrash Tanchuma, Va’eira 15.[15]. Psalms 115:16.[16]. Exodus 19:20.[17]. Ibid., 24:19.[18]. Reshimot # 62, pp. 8-11.
Yet the sukkah also has a more ancient origin, dating back four hundred years before the Exodus from Egypt to Abraham, the first Jew. In the 18th chapter of Genesis we read of Abraham’s legendary hospitality for the desert wayfarers passing by his home. Still ailing from his circumcision three days earlier, Abraham stationed himself at the doorway of his tent to await any possible guests; when he saw three travelers approaching, “he ran toward them... and bowed to the ground. And he said: ‘My Lord! If I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet; and recline yourselves under the tree. I will fetch you some bread and you shall sate your hearts; only them shall you pass on...”[3]
Says the Midrash: In the merit of Abraham’s inviting his guests to “recline yourselves under the tree,” G-d sheltered his descendants in the desert and later granted them the mitzvah of sukkah.[4]
Generic Mitzvah
Indeed, our own sukkot in many ways resemble the resting place that Abraham offered his guests in the shade of his tree. The meaning of the word “sukkah” is a structure whose function is to provide shade;[5] thus, the most important part of the sukkah is the sechach, the roof-covering, which must be dense enough so that “the shade [in the sukkah] is greater than the sunlight.”[6] And the sechach must consist of materials which, like Abraham’s tree, “grow from the earth”—branches, reeds or other unfinished vegetable matter.[7]
Yet there is also a primary difference between our sukkah and its Abrahamic predecessor. The law is that the materials of the sechach must be detached from their source of growth in the earth. Thus, a sukkah that is covered by a trellis of vines that are still connected to their roots, or that is built under a tree so that it is shaded by the tree’s still-connected branches, is invalid for use in the observance of the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah.[8]
The sukkah is unique among the mitzvot of the Torah in that it embraces the totality of the person: the mitzvah of sukkah is that a person should conduct all his activities—eating, resting, studying, socializing—inside the sukkah for seven days.[9] (With other mitzvot, only certain parts or faculties of the person are involved in the fulfillment of the divine will—e.g., Torah study involves the brain, prayer the heart and the faculty of speech, tefillin the arm and head, matzah the digestive system, etc.) Thus the mitzvah of sukkah is often cited as representative of all the mitzvot.[10]
If dwelling in the sukkah is the generic mitzvah, understanding both the similarity and the difference between our sukkah and the “sukkah” of Abraham will illuminate the nature of our relationship with the Patriarchs, and explain how our deeds derive, yet also differ, from their achievements.
The Decree
Our sages tell us that our forefathers studied the Torah and fulfilled its commandments many generations before it was “officially” given to us at Mount Sinai.[11] Yet it is the revelation at Sinai, rather than the legacy of the Patriarchs, that is the essence of our covenant with G-d and our commitment to observe the mitzvot. In the words of Maimonides:
“Everything that we avoid doing or that we do today, we do only because of G‑d’s command to Moses at Sinai, not because of any communication by G‑d to earlier prophets. For example, we refrain from eating [the flesh of] a limb taken from a live animal not because G-d forbade this to Noah,[12] but because Moses forbade it by commanding us, at Sinai, that this prohibition should be observed... We do not circumcise ourselves because our father Abraham circumcised himself and the members of his household, only because G‑d commanded us through Moses that we should circumcise ourselves as did Abraham....”[13]
The Midrash[14] explains the difference between the pre-Sinaitic mitzvot and the mitzvot we observe after Sinai with the following metaphor:
Once there was a king who decreed: “The people of Rome are forbidden to journey to Syria, and the people of Syria are forbidden to journey to Rome.” Likewise, when G‑d created the world He decreed: “The heavens are G‑d’s, and the earth is given to man.”[15] But when He wished to give the Torah to Israel, He rescinded His original decree, and declared: “The lower realms may ascend to the higher realms, and the higher realms may descend to the lower realms. And I, Myself, will begin.” As it is written, “And G‑d descended on Mount Sinai,”[16] and then it says, “And to Moses He said: Go up to G‑d.”[17]
The human being is the crown and apex of G-d’s creation, a creature whose intelligence and spirituality distinguish him as a class above the other creatures with which he shares G-d’s world. Yet man, too, is part of the “lower realms”; man, too, is finite and mortal, and even his highest achievements cannot transcend his finiteness and mortality. At least, that was the state of affairs for as long as the decree dividing between heaven and earth was in force.
But at Sinai G-d rescinded this decree, Himself descending to an earthly mountain and inviting man to “go up to G-d.” Man was empowered to live a G-dly life, to think G-dly thoughts, speak G-dly words and do G-dly deeds. The 613 mitzvot of the Torah were established by G-d as vehicles of connection to Him, as bridges between Heaven and earth.
The mitzvot as performed prior to Sinai were lofty deeds, spiritual deeds, deeds representing the heights of human achievement. Yet they were human deeds. Deeds striving upwards toward Heaven, yet never truly transcending their earthly base. It was only after Sinai that a human act could be freed of its earthbound roots to soar to the “higher realms” and assume an infinite and eternal significance.
Climbing the Mountain
Yet the revelation at Sinai did not take place in a vacuum. It was preceded by twenty-six generations of human endeavor, twenty-six generations in which man refined and perfected his finite self in preparation for the encounter with G-d at Sinai.
Thus, when G-d descended to earth to breach the frontier that separated the supernal from the terrestrial, He did not come down to the Israelite camp at the foot of Mount Sinai, only to the mountain’s summit. One might ask: if G-d had come all the way from the infinite yonder to visit our finite earth, could He not have descended another few thousand feet, instead of troubling the 80-year-old Moses to climb to the top of the mountain? But this expresses the terms on which G-d made Himself accessible to us at Sinai. First, said G-d, I want you to attain the greatest heights of which you are capable; first, I want you to develop your own potential to its utmost; then, I will meet you at the summit of human achievement and free you from its bounds.
Therein lies the significance of Abraham’s sukkah tree and its relationship to our post-Sinai sechach-covered sukkah. Before Sinai, a mitzvah could, at most, be a tree; its branches reaching heavenward—perhaps even to great heights—yet rooted in and nourished by the earth. Man could develop and refine himself, yet could not transcend his terrestrial foundations. But after Sinai, our sukkot can, and must, be made with branches cut free from their earthly roots. After Sinai, a mitzvah must entail a departure from the merely human and rise to a self-transcending bond with G-d.
At the same time, it was Abraham’s sukkah that was the cause of our receiving the gift of sukkah from G-d—just as the branches that cover our sukkot must first sprout from the earth and grow and develop in their earth-bound state. First we must develop our own, human faculties—our limited understanding, our subjective feelings, our mortal achievements—before these can be “cut loose” from their earthly moorings to serve as true vehicles of connection with G-d.
Based on an entry in the Rebbe’s journal, dated Sukkot 5702 (1941),[18] and his talks on various other occasions
[1]. The sukkah, by definition, is a “temporary dwelling” (dirat arai); if it is built in a way that implies permanence (e.g., very high walls, a water-proof roof) it is disqualified (Talmud, Sukkah 2a).[2]. Leviticus 26:42-43; Talmud, Sukkah 11b.[3]. Genesis 18:2-5.[4]. Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 48:10.[5]. Isaiah 4:6; Talmud, Sukkah 2a.[6]. Talmud, loc. cit.[7]. Ibid., 11a.[8]. Ibid., 9b; 11a.[9]. As an old Chassidic saying puts it, the sukkah is the only mitzvah into which a person enters with his muddy boots.[10]. Cf. Talmud, Avodah Zarah 3a; see Home Sweet Home, WIR, vol. IV, no. 3.[11]. See Rashi on Genesis 26:5 and 46:28; Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 8:1; Talmud, Yoma 28b and Kiddushin 82a; Chizkuni on Exodus 5:4.[12]. Genesis 9:4.[13]. Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishnah, Chullin 7:6.[14]. Midrash Tanchuma, Va’eira 15.[15]. Psalms 115:16.[16]. Exodus 19:20.[17]. Ibid., 24:19.[18]. Reshimot # 62, pp. 8-11.
Spiritual Gems from the parsha
And when he saw them, he ran to meet them (Gen. 18:2)
"Receive every person with a cheerful countenance," declared Shammai, the great Torah Sage. Even if one bestows all the treasures in the world on another, if his face is angry, it is considered as if he gave him nothing. On the other hand, if a person greets his fellow in a friendly manner, even if he gives him nothing it is considered as if he gave him a great fortune.
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"And he said, my L-rd, if I have found favor in your eyes, pass not away from your servant." (Gen. 18:3)
According to the Talmud (Shabbat 127a), Abraham was speaking to G-d and asked Him to wait until he brought the guests into his home; for the mitzva of welcoming guests and taking care of their needs is greater than kabalat penei haShechina - welcoming G-d.
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G-d has made laughter for me; whoever hears it will laugh ("yitzchak") on my account (Gen. 21:6)
"Laughter" refers to the supreme delight that will be revealed to the righteous in the World to Come. The Hebrew name "Yitzchak" ("he will laugh") is in the future tense, alluding to the time when this will take place.
(Torah Ohr)
"Receive every person with a cheerful countenance," declared Shammai, the great Torah Sage. Even if one bestows all the treasures in the world on another, if his face is angry, it is considered as if he gave him nothing. On the other hand, if a person greets his fellow in a friendly manner, even if he gives him nothing it is considered as if he gave him a great fortune.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"And he said, my L-rd, if I have found favor in your eyes, pass not away from your servant." (Gen. 18:3)
According to the Talmud (Shabbat 127a), Abraham was speaking to G-d and asked Him to wait until he brought the guests into his home; for the mitzva of welcoming guests and taking care of their needs is greater than kabalat penei haShechina - welcoming G-d.
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G-d has made laughter for me; whoever hears it will laugh ("yitzchak") on my account (Gen. 21:6)
"Laughter" refers to the supreme delight that will be revealed to the righteous in the World to Come. The Hebrew name "Yitzchak" ("he will laugh") is in the future tense, alluding to the time when this will take place.
(Torah Ohr)
Why do we say blessings on everything we eat?
When we recite a blessing we are expressing our gratitude to G-d for our sustenance. Saying a blessing transforms a commonplace activity into a holy act. Chasidic teachings explain that all food contains a G-dly spark of holiness. When we make a blessing before eating, we elevate the physical substance of the food into holiness and reunite the holy spark with its source.
In this week's Torah portion, Vayeira
In this week's Torah portion, Vayeira, we read of Abraham's attempt to save the wicked city. When G-d told Abraham He was going to destroy the city of Sodom, Abraham tried everything he could think of to dissuade Him, as the Torah tells us, "And Abraham drew near and said, 'Will You then destroy the righteous with the wicked?'"Rashi, the foremost Torah commentator, explains the meaning of this verse: "Abraham attempted all these methods: speaking harshly, appeasement, and prayer."
Abraham was willing to do anything in order to save the city of Sodom. His first approach was to "speak harshly" to G-d. When that wasn't effective, he tried to appease Him, and when that didn't work he resorted to prayer and supplication. All possible means were attempted in Abraham's bid to persuade G-d to avert the decree.
Our Patriarch Abraham was referred to by G-d as "Abraham, the one who loves Me." How then could Abraham have had the audacity to address G-d harshly?
Also, why did Abraham begin his attempt to dissuade G-d from carrying out His plan with harsh words, rather than first trying to appease G-d in a more conciliatory manner, or with prayer? Wasn't Abraham characterized by his great kindness?
The key to understanding this lies in the fact that Abraham was faced with a matter involving the saving of lives. G-d had already issued His decree; the angels had already been dispatched to destroy the city. Thus Abraham saw no other choice but to demand that G-d change His mind, even if harsh words were required.
At such a time, Abraham did not allow himself the luxury of taking personal considerations into account. No method of persuasion was off-limits or out of bounds. The only thing that mattered was that the city of Sodom not be destroyed, and Abraham tried with all his might to prevent it from happening. Speaking harshly to G-d was the antithesis of Abraham's nature; nonetheless, he did not refrain from doing so in the hope that it would bring about the desired effect of saving the city and its inhabitants.
We, the descendants of Abraham, must learn from his example and emulate his ways.
Whenever the saving of a Jewish life is involved, be it in the physical or spiritual sense, we cannot stop to weigh our choices or to calculate our options. The thing to do is act, and to act immediately. All of our efforts, all of our strengths and energy must be used to that end, even if it is contrary to our nature and even if harsh words are required. For all methods are permissible when it comes to saving the life of a fellow Jew.
Adapted for Maayan Chai from Likutei Sichot, vol. 10
Fast Food Judaism
Long before fast-food emporiums dotted the landscape like mushrooms after a rain, our Sages suggested we implement the fast-food mentality into our lives, though with a Jewish twist, of course. "Grab and eat, grab and drink," Rabbi Shmuel told his student Rabbi Yehuda Shenina (as recorded in the Talmud). "For life is like a party that will soon be over."Far from being a fatalistic outlook, or one that places the emphasis on physicality, Rabbi Shmuel's words teach us how to define our goals and motivate ourselves Jewishly.
Mitzvot (commandments) are likened to food and the Torah is likened to water, in Chasidic philosophy. "Do mitzvot, study Torah," Rabbi Shmuel taught. "For life - in this world - will soon be over and in the World to Come these same opportunities to do mitzvot and study Torah will no longer be available."
Picture yourself in a fast-food line. Are you going to stand there leisurely contemplating the menu as you would in a fine restaurant, discussing it with the people joining you, maybe even asking what the Maitre`di suggests? Or would you order quickly from the list on the wall and hungrily gobble it down? Most likely you would do the latter, since expedience and swiftness are major reasons for your choice of restaurant styles.
Similarly, Chasidic philosophy explains that since we are getting closer every day to the Redemption, the era of peace, prosperity, wisdom and health promised by G-d and foretold by the prophets, we shouldn't spend time contemplating a menu of mitzvot. We don't have time any longer to sit and relax at a fine restaurant, dillydallying until we make our choice.
Action is the main thing. Grab and eat, grab and drink. Whatever mitzva comes your way, do it. Whichever Jewish learning opportunity is available, benefit from it. We're living life in the fast-lane, traveling on the express train.
A Jewish fast-food mentality means taking hold of our every opportunity to do a mitzva, regardless of whether or not we think it should be the next one in our repertoire. There's no time for, "How can I light Shabbat candles if on Saturday I ..." Or, "Why put on tefilin if I don't..." Or, "How can I attend a Jewish mysticism/Chasidic philosophy class if I don't even know the Hebrew alphabet?"
Grab and eat, grab and drink means that these last few moments before the Messianic Era need to be filled with action not contemplation, deeds not meditations. Soon the party will be over, or will it just be beginning?
Mitzvot (commandments) are likened to food and the Torah is likened to water, in Chasidic philosophy. "Do mitzvot, study Torah," Rabbi Shmuel taught. "For life - in this world - will soon be over and in the World to Come these same opportunities to do mitzvot and study Torah will no longer be available."
Picture yourself in a fast-food line. Are you going to stand there leisurely contemplating the menu as you would in a fine restaurant, discussing it with the people joining you, maybe even asking what the Maitre`di suggests? Or would you order quickly from the list on the wall and hungrily gobble it down? Most likely you would do the latter, since expedience and swiftness are major reasons for your choice of restaurant styles.
Similarly, Chasidic philosophy explains that since we are getting closer every day to the Redemption, the era of peace, prosperity, wisdom and health promised by G-d and foretold by the prophets, we shouldn't spend time contemplating a menu of mitzvot. We don't have time any longer to sit and relax at a fine restaurant, dillydallying until we make our choice.
Action is the main thing. Grab and eat, grab and drink. Whatever mitzva comes your way, do it. Whichever Jewish learning opportunity is available, benefit from it. We're living life in the fast-lane, traveling on the express train.
A Jewish fast-food mentality means taking hold of our every opportunity to do a mitzva, regardless of whether or not we think it should be the next one in our repertoire. There's no time for, "How can I light Shabbat candles if on Saturday I ..." Or, "Why put on tefilin if I don't..." Or, "How can I attend a Jewish mysticism/Chasidic philosophy class if I don't even know the Hebrew alphabet?"
Grab and eat, grab and drink means that these last few moments before the Messianic Era need to be filled with action not contemplation, deeds not meditations. Soon the party will be over, or will it just be beginning?
