Loose Tongue In Cheek Thoughts

Anyone visiting our website last Tuesday morning was greeted by this message:

# Defaced by DIabOlaX #
DH0 Crew: rooting your machines till die!
DIabOlaX - SgA3
::: uid=0(root) gid=0(root) :::
Security is Nowhere, Intelligence Everywhere
Challenge... I love this Game
USA and ISRAEL are Terrorists / ISLAM WINS / ALLAH AKBAR
Greats:
Cradl3 the BIG Man - vXrooT - L4c0st3 - InVainCu - Kafka
Cr4Ck3r@LinuxMail.ORG

Yes, our website meaningfullife.com was hacked. As soon as we became aware of the problem, we immediately set in motion our emergency measures. Our webmasters restored the backup, and all was well.

Whew! That was close…

Ok, so now the Meaningful Life Center has merited being up there with other major sites that hackers are targeting. Or is it that Babylon has something against us?

I say Babylon even though the hackers’ mark only mentions Islam and Allah. For some reason Babylon continues to dominate the headlines.

Together with Israel the stage of today’s hostilities is centered in Iraq, which is ancient Babylon. The quagmire in Iraq gets deeper and deeper, with no end in sight. What is it about this ancient region of Babylon that keeps entangling us even today in our modern world?

I cannot fathom why Babylon would attack us. But then a thought struck me.

A bit of Babylonian history first. The First Holy Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon 2426 years ago (in the year 422 bce). This brought on what is commonly called the Babylonian exile. Nebuchadnezzar expelled the Jews from Israel and sent many of them off to Babylon.

This exile lasted 70 years, and then many Jews returned with Ezra to Israel to rebuild the second Temple.

Despite this short period of exile, Babylon would become a major Jewish center. The Jews later established Torah academies in various Babylonian cities. These academies gave birth to what is known as the Babylonian Talmud – the vast work that is essentially the Torah’s legal constitution. The Talmud is the single most important document that lays out the framework for Torah laws, and for generations since until today every word of the Talmud is studied and analyzed the world over. It is the basis for all the codes of law that specify how we must live our lives.

It seems quite strange that the name of the Talmud should remain the “Babylonian Talmud” (Talmud Bavli). Thousands of years have passed since the Babylonian destruction and exile. What would this place become the name that would always be identified with the Talmud?

For the record, there is another Talmud called the Jerusalemite Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi), which was developed close to the time of the Babylonian Talmud. But the Babylonian Talmud is the final authority being that it is more comprehensive and was finalized 100 years after the Jerusalemite Talmud.

The question intensifies when you discover the meaning of the word Babylon. The Bible tells us that Babel (Babylon) means confusion and chaos. It was so called following the building of the Tower of Babel, because “from that place G-d scattered them all over the face of the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore He named it Babel, because this was the place where G-d confused (balal) the world’s language, and it was from there that G-d dispersed [humanity] over all the face of the earth.”

Why then would we call the entire Talmudic corpus by the name… confusion?!

Even though it’s true that the Talmud was developed and composed in the Babylonian academies, why is it vital to maintain a name that has such negative connotation, in addition to being associated with the Babylonian destruction of the Holy Temple?!

Chassidic masters explain that the Babylonian Talmud is unique in the process in which the laws are discussed. In contrast to the Jerusalemite Talmud, which presents its conclusions straightforwardly, the Babylonian Talmud presents them through a relatively long series of debates, arguments, and counter arguments, questions and counter questions, until clarity is achieved. When you study the Talmud what jumps out at you is the relentless analysis of every detail in Torah thought and the blunt disputes amongst the sages as they challenge each other to reach clarity.

The Babylonian Talmud epitomizes the ultimate intellectual process of rigorous analysis that requires us to enter an initial state of confusion and chaos that results from the barrage of different arguments and counterarguments. But it is precisely this process that allows us to achieve a crystallized clarity that is derived directly from the muddle.

As we see in our thought process: The greatest clarity comes only when you allow yourself to challenge an idea from every possible angle, even ones that go against your individual opinion.

Thus, the name “Babylonian Talmud” captures the very nature and power of this great body of work. Indeed, the development of the Talmud took place geographically in a place that is named “confusion” and one in which the sages found themselves in exile, displaced form the sacred order of their lives during the Temple period.

But all this chaos did not daunt them. On the contrary, they saw it as a challenge; an opportunity to reach deeper levels of clarity that emerge only from chaos and confusion.

And this message from Babylon is one that remains with us through all the generations [The Talmud even discusses how Babylon remains the place where we must stay until G-d redeems us (see Jeremiah 27:22. Talmud Ketubot 110b-111a). The confusion and chaos of Babel remains with us, and our work is to infuse it with order] – a message that teaches us the universal purpose of life:

We live in a fragmented and chaotic world. When we enter it from birth we have no idea in which direction our lives will take. So many unknown roads lay before us. Add into the equation the corruption, selfishness, abuse and all other human vices that we are exposed to in life, and we are left with a sense of disorder and confusion. Some thinkers go so far and argue that the natural state of the universe is one of inherent chaos.

We have three choices: We can go into denial and live as if everything is clear and organized. We can ignore the chaos around us and try to create some cohesive and organized order in our lives. The third and Torah option is that we actually use the initial chaos and confusion, which is only so on a superficial level, as a springboard and catalyst to discover deeper unity. On the surface life may seem disorganized, a set of random circumstances and it can leave us feeling like its victims. In truth however, we have the power to access the deeper unity that lies within if we allows ourselves to see it though and recognize the patterns of Divine Providence that led us in different directions, all to help us fulfill our personal mission in life.

Perhaps this can be connected to this week’s Torah portion, a double portion, in which we read the two chapters of Tazria and Metzora. “Tazria” means “conceives” in context of birth, “Metzora” means a leper. Read together Tazria-Metzora would literally be translated “conceiving a leper”! The Talmud tells us that Moshiach will be a leper, because he has the power to transform the diseases and chaos of this world into a new conception – the birth of a new world order.

All these thoughts came to me as I was sitting and ruminating over the hackers’ message on my computer screen. I know that our website is minor when compared to the larger global terrorism – in Israel and Babylon. But still I saw this hacker attack as a microcosm that reminded me of the larger issues at hand.

I can see the headline: 9/11 Bin Laden attacked America. 4/20 meaningfullife.com was attacked. Who’s next?

(Remember the tongue in cheek subtitle of this article).

As confusion grown in modern day Babylon (Iraq), ancient events bring us a powerful message.

Babylon of old no longer exists. What was once a mighty empire has long ago been destroyed, and we don’t even know the descendants of Nebuchadnezzar and his nation. The only thing that remains that still carries that name is the Babylonian Talmud. And its message resonates loud and clear, perhaps today more than ever:

Life is often very confusing. The unknown and the chaotic often govern the universe. Yet we have a choice. We have been given the power to bring light into a dark world, to bring order into chaos – to actually transform the confusion into an unprecedented clarity.

We do so by embracing our calling in life. Only when you know that you have a unique mission can you discover the underlying cohesiveness that defines your particular pattern. As it is in business: Without a mission statement no company can maintain focus, and inevitable conflicting forces will fragment and destroy the company.

Your life is a jumble of musical notes, scattered all over the place. Your job is to align them and allow them to play your unique melody.