Under separate cover I have sent you the truth about that “lovely piece of veal” you so much enjoyed. G-d never intended us to treat our fellow creatures in such a hideous way, as we find on today’s factory farms. Kosher doesn’t make it any less pardonable. If it wasn’t for the plain stupidity and/or arrogance of Noah, we would still be eating the healthy foods that G-d created for us.
Every creature is born with intelligence and instinct. Just because we can’t seem to understand each of our fellow creatures, doesn’t mean that lobsters feel no pain while dropped, alive, into a pot of boiling water. Though I am aware that shell fish are “unclean,” and not to be consumed, it doesn’t make the many other cruelties less onerous.
So, the next time you’re eating in some “posh” Manhattan kosher eatery, maybe you’ll give your taste buds something less cruelly produced.
Regards,
[name redacted]
Dear [name redacted],
I appreciate your kind advice and your enlightening about the cruel methods used to produce veal. I will be careful in the future. Is there a way to cleanse my taste buds?
I do however want to share with you what a great mystic said about a vegetarian who was questioning the consumption of meat at a festive meal: “And do you know what is happening in the vegetable world?!…”
You write that “Every creature is born with intelligence and instinct. Just because we can’t seem to understand each of our fellow creatures, doesn’t mean that lobsters feel no pain while dropped, alive, into a pot of boiling water.” Are you aware that every vegetable also has a soul, as does every mineral? The fact that we are not in tune with the vegetable’s experience that does not mean that it doesn’t feel pain when it is torn from its roots and consumed! And the same goes for minerals. What right do we have to take anything in this world, tear it away from its life and annihilate its individual experience in order to sustain ourselves?!
The answer my friend, is that indeed we have no right! In fact, damaging any part of the universe is prohibited by the Torah. Everything that exists — mineral, vegetable or animal – has a divine purpose and is sacred. The only reason that we have the right to consume any food at all is because G-d who created the entire universe gave us permission to do so, and that permissions to eat includes the animal kingdom as well as the vegetable and the mineral.
However this permission has a fundamental condition: That we use the energy we obtain from the food for constructive, higher purposes, to transform this world into a better and holier place. Mystical texts teach us that when we consume other components of the universe and using the energy we obtain in doing so for a higher purpose, the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms become elevated. Indeed, uplifting the world in this way is part of our purpose, and that is why we were created in a way that we are dependent on nourishment from sources outside of ourselves and are not self-sustaining.
When indulging in a meal just to satisfy ourselves with no greater purpose, we indeed have no right to destroy other creations — regardless of whether they are animal, vegetable or mineral.
May we all be blessed with appropriate sensitivity to the world around us – particularly to other people, and to recognize our responsibility to uplift the world, transforming it into a better, divine, place.
This, in other words, was the main point of my article.
In response to your criticism on Noah, it is true that as you write Adam and Eve were vegetarians and prohibited to eat meat, and that the consumption of meat began with Noah after the Flood. However, you are mistaken when you write that “if it wasn’t for the plain stupidity and/or arrogance of Noah, we would still be eating the healthy foods that G-d created for us.”
It wasn’t Noah that introduced human consumption of meat; it was G-d. As specifically stated in Genesis 9:3 (and explained in the Talmud Sanhedrin 109, cited in Rashi’s commentary on the verse), beginning with Noah, G-d allowed man to eat meat, lifting the prohibition that had previously been in place. (Besides for the fact that Noah is called a tzaddik in Torah [Gen. 6:9] — so I am not sure where you get the inspiration to qualify Noah’s “plain stupidity and/or arrogance….”)
The reason the consumption of meat had previously been prohibited, is that with the sin of the tree of knowledge, the world lost its natural state of spiritual refinement and man was no longer in a position to elevate meat. But then G-d did subsequently go on to allow the consumption of meat, and it cannot be that G-d sanctioned something evil.
One may feel inclined to argue that on the contrary, with mankind having further deteriorated in Noah’s time, with the world in an even lesser state of refinement, perhaps it should have been even more important to avoid the consumption of meat?! Yet, G-d did introduce the practice, allowing meat to be eaten. Why? Because today our role is to refine and elevate all of existence—including the more challenging elements.
This explains the consumption of meat in the Holy Temple offerings and in Shabbos and holiday meals, and the fact that many deeply sensitive—and certainly not cruel—tzaddikim ate meat.
All the above notwithstanding, eating meat must be approached with caution—even more care than consuming other foods—for meat is difficult to refine. That is why we find many righteous people eating meat sparingly if at all.
While these are just brief points on a topic that requires more elaboration, I hope that they provide some insight.
May we all be blessed to learn from the Torah how to be sensitive to the world around us — especially to other people, and to recognize our responsibility to transform the world, uplifting it and making it divine.
The latest media circus around Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s words about the role of Hitler and the Mufti in the Final Solution captures the compounded tragedy of current events in Israel.
Obviously, Hitler was the demonic force behind the extermination of the six million Jews in Europe. No one in their right mind would try to absolve, or diminish in any way, him and the Nazis of their unequivocal responsibility for perpetrating the greatest systematic genocide in history.
At the same time no one can equally deny the culpability of Jerusalem’s then-grand mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, in supporting, inciting and encouraging the destruction of the Jews.
This — not Bibi’s words — is the issue at hand: That the hatred demonstrated by Palestinians in Israel today, leading to young Arabs randomly attacking any Jew they can find, is not related to any of their current grievances, but to an ongoing genocidal attitude to Jews, which precedes modern Israel.
The mufti’s rabid despise of Jews shows that the forefathers of the Palestinian nation, without a country and without the so-called ‘occupation’, without land and without settlements, even then aspired to systematic incitement to exterminate the Jews.
The fact that the media can so easily become obsessed with Netanyahu’s words, instead of the real headline — understanding the root of Arab rage — reflects on the second tragedy taking place today: In addition to the obvious outrage due to the wanton murder of innocents comes the gross distortion of facts and perversion of information committed by the media – diverting focus from the real story: Why do the Arabs/Muslims hate Israel and the Jews so much?
What lies behind their rage against Israel? Compared to the millions of Muslims slaughtered by other Muslims in Sudan, Syria, Iraq and other countries, Palestinian deaths in Israel are relatively few. Yet the millions massacred and millions more repressed does not evoke Arab outrage as do the events in Israel. Why the double standard? Some argue that this double standard in the Middle East is due to the fact that Arab countries are shame-based societies, and Israeli repression of Arabs is seen not just as brutal, but also as humiliating.
They cite Arabs stating that, “Israel is a colonial outpost and that as a result while Israeli Arabs may have ballots and free speech, they have no dignity. The Israeli occupation represents a total humiliation of all the Arab regimes. It’s a continuous reminder of the weakness of the Arabs as people, of their society and political system, as well as an indication of the impotence and corruption of their regimes.”
Arab humiliation seems to have become a mainstay since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Arab world can simply not get over their lost pride as a people who once ruled and represented the epitome of civilization, and now are relegated to Third World status. Israel and America represent for the Arab world the source of this humiliation – so the argument goes.
Many other speculations are offered to explain Arab rage and frenzy against Israel and the West.
Understanding the underlying causes for Arab sentiments is not academic; it is the only way to get to the bottom of the issues. Understanding their mentality is the true key to help provide us with a meaningful strategy. We can never devise a workable plan as long as we focus on the superficial causes, and do not understand the driving force of our adversary. Does the Arab world just want justice for the Palestinians? Equal rights (rights they do not have under any Arab ruler)? Some land to live peacefully? Or perhaps they want something more that they simply are not telling us?
I submit that the true reason and core root of Arab anger is religious and not political.
The Arab world’s opposition to Israel is not due to any Israeli actions, but rather to the very existence of the Land of Israel and Jewish control over the land. This control is a perpetual thorn in their side, and the root cause for their “shame” and humiliation.
Why? Because Muslims fundamentally believe that Israel’s existence – and Jewish control over Israel – in what they consider to be their ‘conquered land,’ is a desecration of their religious vision.
This is the reason why Muslims have always built mosques on the sacred land of Jews and Christians (e.g. the Temple Mount, Bethlehem) to demonstrate their absolute belief that Muslim control over these lands fulfills and realizes the Divine will.
This religious belief is the true cause for the rage of the Arab/Muslim world against Israel. It is not about human rights, Palestinian sovereignty, Arab dignity, oil, money, harems, or any other issue. No amount of land return, no concessions will satisfy them – other than the elimination of Jewish control in Israel.
As uncomfortable as it may be, we will never be able to resolve the issues until we realize that this is a religious war not a political one.
Many of us would like to conveniently believe that the issues are political ones, because that would make the situation a lot more manageable and the problem a lot simpler. We know how to deal with political challenges. But if this is a religious war, we simply do not have the tools, experience or interest to fight such a war.
Our existing modalities are secular ones. Our political systems and governmental institutions have been built with secular goals in mind, without much consideration to spiritual and religious values, which we have relegated to the private sector. We therefore do not see the world in context of religious and spiritual vision. That’s why we cannot fathom or understand the rage of the Arab world today.
And this is why a Palestinian state is not possible, and for that matter not doable. A state will never satisfy the Arab world. They will simply see it as a step in the direction of their re-conquest of Israel. They do not want a state for political reasons, but for religious ones. That is the key to the underlying issues. As much as we wish to make the Palestinian leaders of the world our “partners in peace,” we must realize that our secular notions of peace are not part of their agenda at all.
But what lies beneath and behind – what fuels – this Arab rage and passion? To understand this we need to enter into the secret world of religious passion.
Balance between the sacred and the mundane is a central theme in the Torah and in Jewish literature. We read time and again about passionate souls who are challenged to find balance between transcendence and existence. We are clearly instructed to live holy lives. “Be holy, because I, your G-d, am holy.” But how do we do that in a deeply secular and mundane world, without annihilating our existing institutions and infrastructures?
Sanctifying yourself in the material world is no simple feat. Spirit and matter are dichotomous. Our physical existence consumes us so that it leaves little room (space and time) for spirituality. Our struggle for survival – eating, sleeping, work, shelter – hampers our search for transcendence, the pursuit of our calling and higher purpose. Material life lends itself to corruption, which explains why the scouts sent by Moses to Israel returned with a negative report, arguing that Israel is a “land that consumes its inhabitants.” Who among us does not have the struggle between our own personal higher standards and the temptation to conform to society’s standards, between home and career, between focusing on our transcendental needs when we are so preoccupied with our material ones?
The challenge of creating harmony between body and soul is twofold. When we are immersed in our daily needs it is increasingly difficult to access our souls. When we are inspired by a transcendental experience, we find it difficult to reenter regular life. It seems as if the extraordinary and the ordinary are mutually exclusive, like two different worlds that can never entirely converge.
How often do we find someone caught up in spiritual ecstasy that they cannot return intact? Being burned out by the fire of a passionate high, unable to reenter ordinary life? Case in point the famous Talmudic story of the ‘four who entered the garden,’ three unable to return unharmed. This explains why some mystics have chosen the ascetic path, separating themselves from regular life, so that they can pursue the life of the spirit.
In the book of Leviticus we read how Nadav and Avihu succumbed to this temptation. In their great passion and love for the Divine, they entered the Holy of Holies, and they… ‘burned out’ and could not return. The Torah then proceeds to define the necessary guidelines on how to enter holiness and how to internalize and integrate the experience and not self-destruct.
Of course this fear of being spiritually ‘burned out’ can lead one to argue the merit of the exact opposite position: We should just immerse ourselves in our material lives and forget about our spiritual dreams and fantasies. The argument goes: In our mundane world it is simply naïve to live a life of spiritual and ethical integrity. If we do embrace the sublime, we stand the great risk of ‘burn out’ and being unable to cope with ordinary life. Why take the risk, better to just resign ourselves to a mundane life, as close as we possible can to ‘animal bliss.’
But that type of resignation is a cop-out. Can we be healthy human beings if we repress our soul’s restless thirst for transcendence? Indeed, we are obligated to sanctify our lives. And this precisely is life’s challenge: To fuse both worlds – matter and spirit, to spiritualize our material existence. This requires a delicate balance – a delicate dance – to synthesize both experiences, without one annihilating the other.
What is sanctity? Sanctity is recognizing that that every aspect of your life is not self contained but meant to become a channel for a Higher presence. Kedusha (holiness) is bittul (see Tanya chapter 6), suspension of self that allows the Divine to enter. Selfishness and narcissism does not allow anything else in.
“Where is G-d?” the future Rebbe of Kotzk was once asked as a child. He replied: “Wherever you let Him in.”
The command “be holy” instructs us to sanctify all aspects of existence – time, space and human. We must sanctify our personal behavior, through kindness and love. Then we sanctify time – we realize the preciousness of each moment and fill it with meaningful and Divine activities. Shabbat and the holidays are sacred days. Yom Kippur – the holiest day of the year, the Holy of Holies – is the epitome of time sanctification, serving as the source of sanctity for all days of the year.
Finally we sanctify space, the homes, land and countries in which we live. The Holy Land of Israel is the epitome of space sanctification, serving as the source of sanctity that spread to the entire globe. [This is one reason why we pray facing the East – Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount].
Jerusalem – especially the Temple Mount and specifically the Holy of Holies on the Mount – is the center and nucleus of Holiness on Earth. No wonder everyone always wanted to control Jerusalem. Not just today but throughout history. How many battles have been waged over that holy real estate?
So, Jewish control of the Holy Land and particularly of the Holy of Holies is no small matter. Arab rage against Israel may have many ostensible causes. But at its core root, it stems from the Holy of Holies – from the need and will to control that vital region. As long as Jews control it, they feel utterly weak.
The Talmud gives us a profound psychological insight. At times your unconscious – your mazal – may sense something that causes a strong physical reaction. The holiness of Israel and Jerusalem is the cause for the profound enmity of the Arab world, even if there are other perceived causes and not everyone may be conscious of the true cause.
But to devise a successful strategy requires a true diagnosis of the problem. And sometimes (more often than not) the truth is something no one wants to hear or acknowledge. The war against Israel is rooted in religious belief (albeit distorted). And this is very difficult for us to accept. Why? There are many reasons. One compelling reason is this: After all, our modern secular world still lingers in the long shadow of the war between science and religion, a war many thought was won long ago by science and secularism. Suddenly religion comes back on the scene, and is threatening not just the Middle East but New York and Washington – mighty secular America.
That is too much to absorb in one shot. That’s why people are in such shock. We need to get accustomed to this new reality — a religious global war being fought, a war that will determine what G-d really wants of us, a war that will define and crystallize once and for all what is true Islam, what is true Christianity and what is true Judaism. We need to learn to reintroduce a long forgotten G-d into our lives, to reacquaint ourselves with G-d after a long hiatus, fueled by prosperity and its inevitable complacency and spiritual lethargy.
As a Jew, I know that our role is to use every platform available to us today to advocate the universal message of Torah – what Abraham taught to all his children, how G-d wants all of us to live, Jew, Muslim, Christian and all people.
The Torah’s essential message is that we can and we must sanctify the material world. We need to integrate the sacred with the mundane. One extreme or the other is simply not acceptable: Violent passion – even in the name of G-d – is destructive and therefore un-G-dly. Too much untempered chesed (Ishmael) annihilates the universe. Conversely, overabundant gevurah (Esau) and immersion in the material, or its antithesis, radical disassociation with the physical (as in celibacy), is equally destructive.
The holiness of Eretz Yisroel is complete when it creates harmony between the physical land (Eretz) and the Divine (Yisroel, meaning “You have battled with the Divine and with man and you have prevailed”).
We are now experiencing perhaps the greatest ‘market correction’ in history – in defining the truth of the world’s religions; a reality check of the vastest proportions – the final battle – and ultimate reconciliation – between the sublime and the secular, between spirit and matter.
Truth or consequences is not a game today; it has never been so apparent. The consequences of living a lie are becoming more obvious by the day. Lies and deception work well in shadows, where is difficult to discern true from false. But as the dawn breaks and we can begin to clearly see the price we pay for our falsities, the truth emerges in direct proportion to the exposed lies.
Are we really surprised that Palestinians have taken to the streets looking for Jews to stab and kill? And their leaders are calling for a new intifada?
Sometimes the most obvious truths are not stated and acknowledged because we fear the unknown. But then when we do acknowledge them we begin to realize that we have the power to face the challenge.
Let us hope and pray that we do not have to pay with any more lives to realize the truth of our situation and act accordingly.
*
Our hearts, condolences and prayers go out to all thoise that have suffered recent losses, and to all our brethren in Israel. .
WHAT IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP THE SITUATION IN ISRAEL?
Create a passionate spiritual revolution for the good.
As passions of violence have been released on us, against humanity, our most powerful response is to counter with a passionate revolution of purpose, with no less passion and drive than the evil being waged against us.
For an elaborate related discussion on this topic, please go here to view Rabbi Jacobson’s latest classes and articles on the topic of confronting a terror.
Building an Ark of Refuge Amidst a Flood of Fear
Battling a Deluge of Violence with a Deluge of Goodness
As a flood of fear sweeps across the Holy Land, we read the Torah portion of Noah, the story of the great flood that destroyed an utterly corrupt world. Noah and his family are saved from the flood by taking refuge in the ark, and then Noah, tentatively and cautiously rebuilds a new world. Yet, this new world is far from perfect. The people of Babylon build a great tower (The Tower of Babel), demonstrating their arrogance and self-worship in challenging G-d. Nevertheless the new world built by Noah ultimately also gives birth to Abraham.
Does this have a message for us? You better believe it!
Why did G-d choose water — symbol of life, cleansing, blessings and knowledge — to destroy the world in the great flood? Fire would seem so much more appropriate.
In Torah reward and punishment is really cause and effect, like bruising yourself when you fall. The flood was a natural and inevitable result of many years of corruption. When people are corrupt and self indulgent, they inevitably end up destroying each other. When you harm another person you are also harming yourself, because we are all part of one universe under one G-d. One who loves G-d, also loves whom G-d loves, and G-d loves His children. The flood was the inescapable result of people annihilating each other.
Water was the way the world was purified from its own self-destruction. Like a mikveh (ritual bath) that contains 40 cubits of water, the flood raged for 40 days and renewed the earth. Water is a metaphor for knowledge — the pure waters of daat (knowledge)– and not just plain knowledge, but Divine knowledge.
As the prophet Isaiah says, “They will not hurt or destroy… for the world will be filled with Divine knowledge as the waters cover the sea.”
Only when water/knowledge is Divine and it affects your life does it prevent hurt and destruction. When it is just ordinary water/knowledge it can become a curse lacking focus and integration.
When asked how he, as a professor of ethics, could behave unethically, Bertrand Russell once said, “I am also a teacher of mathematics and I am not a triangle.”
Academics often take pride in their detachment: “I can be completely knowledgeable of a given topic and it does not affect my behavior.” Contrast this attitude with Maimonides’ words, that a true scholar is recognized in his actions: how he talks, walks, sleeps and does business. A seamless flow between knowledge and behavior.
To have knowledge affect you this way requires bittul – total immersion in the pure waters of knowledge. True knowledge is not about you, it’s about the Divine truth of the knowledge and your humble recognition that you are a transparent channel for this knowledge. Like a fish submerged in water — always connected and aware that its entire sustenance comes from the water.
When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge — the knowledge of good and evil — they began to sense themselves as separate entities from G-d and their Divine mission. They unleashed knowledge that is divorced from its higher purpose. Ten generations later in the time of Noah this dichotomy evolved into total corruption, with one person turning on another in a blatant war against humanity, hurting and destroying each other.
The waters of the flood came to remind the world and purify it with a total immersion, reminiscent of the world as it was at the beginning of creation, completely submerged in water, the source of life. And a foretaste of the world that will be “filled with Divine knowledge as the waters cover the sea” — a knowledge that transforms the person into a Divine vehicle, preventing human hurt and destruction.
And mind you, the flood began as regular rainfall, as a warning and reminder to the people to wake up and correct their ways. First come several symptoms, a taste of what’s ahead — all attempts to remind us that we need to act. And when we do, the water does not need to turn into a flood, it can become a rain that waters the fields.
THE FLOOD OF INFORMATION
Another manifestation of the flood swamping us is the media age turned on its head. We have become victims of our own information revolution. Our Hollywood generation, addicted to a constant flow of television, Internet and reporting in every shape and form, is being inundated with hours upon hours of news about anything and everything, but especially about bad news (statistics show that the majority of news is negative). Experts on every detail stand in a long assembly line discussing ad nauseum every tragedy. The discussion itself can be more destructive to our individual and collective nervous systems than anything.
This flood of knowledge with its assault on our psyche, is in many ways worse than any physical flood. Yet, within the curse lies the cure. This flood of information alerts us to the dangers of knowledge without focus; information without integration. And it reminds us that we must embrace Divine knowledge — knowledge that lifts and empowers us to be proactive and take control of circumstances, instead of knowledge and information that turns us into robotic observers and victims as it demoralizes and makes us anxious.
REFUGE FROM THE FLOOD
What can we do to find refuge from the flood around us — the flood of violence, fear and information?
We must build an ark, a teivah, which also means “word.” By surrounding and immersing ourselves in the sacred words of Torah and Tefillah (prayer) we create an oasis of Divine knowledge and words that protect us from the raging flood outside.
Designate time each day for prayer and Torah study, build a teivah that will serve you well as a ship swimming through the swelling floodwaters that surround us.
TRANSFORMING THE FLOOD OF VIOLENCE AND FEAR INTO A FLOOD OF GOODNESS AND G-DLINESS
Yet, a defensive response is not sufficient. True, we need to protect ourselves from the flood, but the ultimate goal is to transform the world into a place where we need not fear a destructive flood. Just as Noah is commanded after the flood to “leave the ark” and build a new world, we too must build a new world. The only thing that will do justice to the flood, and the only guarantee that there will be no more hurt and destruction, is by inundating our lives with torrential goodness and kindness, creating a world flooded with Divine knowledge “as the waters cover the sea.”
From amidst the confusion of our times, we must create a new world, a world in which all nations speak one tongue and serve one G-d — unlike Babylon whose tongues were confused in their defiance of G-d (which is the meaning of the name Babylon – confusion).
G-d promised the human race that another flood would never come again. So we need not fear that the flood of violence and fear swamping our innocent brothers and sisters in Israel will turn into an apocalypse or Armageddon. Yet, we read and study the story of the flood, to teach us that we can flood the world with sublime waters.
Nothing less than a spiritual deluge will do.
*
Our hearts, condolences and prayers go out to all thise that have suffered recent losses, and to all our brethern in Israel. .
WHAT IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP THE SITUATION IN ISRAEL?
Create a passionate spiritual revolution for the good.
As passions of violence have been released on us, against humanity, our most powerful response is to counter with a passionate revolution of purpose, with no less passion and drive than the evil being waged against us.
My biggest priority as a new mom is to raise my baby with personal dignity and respect for others. It translates to teaching my baby morals from day one.
That probably sounds crazy – to teach a baby morals. When I verbalize it like that, it sounds like I am going to sit my baby down and lecture him about what’s right and wrong. That is not the case.
Babies are observant. They absorb everything they see and hear. Teaching my baby to have personal dignity and respect for others had to start from birth because – from day one – he has been learning about the world from his father and me.
My husband and I are far from perfect people, not that anyone is particularly perfect. We had this baby in our mid-thirties with whole life stories, complete with more baggage than you’d find on the luggage carousels at JFK airport on a Thursday night. Although we both come from functional families, we both went through turbulent twenties and didn’t come into our own until we hit our thirties. Having a child was a big step for us as a couple – we really had to trust that we were spiritually and psychologically ready for it. It took a lot of work, a lot of faith, and a lot of determination to get to the point where we knew we could be the kind of parents that we want to be.
Our baby came into our home because his Creator – the universal spiritual force way beyond my husband and me – wanted his little soul to be raised by us. Babies are extraordinary in that they don’t have layers of psychological callous covering their souls. When I look at my baby’s face, I see that his father and I are everything to him and that he’s watching every move we make. He’s an empty hard drive that we are solely responsible for filling with data.
The data is so far beyond teaching him to walk and talk. The data we are writing is instructions for how to be a person – and how to be a good person at that. Here are a few things we are doing to teach our baby to be a good person:
We’ve committed to making our home a safe place – spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Raising a secure child, one whose personal dignity is built rather than destroyed at home, depends on the work that we put into making our home safe. We have made a safe home for our baby our biggest priority. It is the foundation that we are basing many of our personal decisions on. It is one of the principles that guides our life.
One thing we don’t do is yell at each other. If we need to argue or are experiencing anxiety, we wait until we’ve cooled off and then sit down and talk about the issue. We went as far as to write and sign a pact together agreeing to always speak in a kind tone of voice, regardless of what is going on. It’s hard to do, but I’d rather say to my husband, “I’m really anxious right now,” and leave the room until I am calm enough to talk it out than to snap at him. Our baby will feel unsafe if his mother and father are speaking in a sharp tone of voice to each other, even if we are speaking to him
We are trying to model personal dignity for our baby, so that it’s what he sees every day. We try to eat with dignity, dress with dignity, and keep our home tidy (though it is rarely perfectly clean – tidy is the best we can do). When we want to eat the entire container of ice cream, we say to each other, “Do we want him to grow up seeing us eat in an undignified way?”
We don’t talk about other people in front of the baby. Even though he does not yet understand language, we still don’t want him to absorb negativity and criticism. Every day he seems to understand more and more – we don’t want him to learn language by listening to us criticize other people. It is not as if issues with other people never come up that my husband and I need to constructively discuss to find a solution, but we do so behind a closed door.
We are being careful about the kind of media that we play in the house. We want our baby to grow in an environment of respect for others and personal dignity, and unfortunately quite a lot of video and music involve demeaning other people or oneself. We don’t have a television, but we do have WiFi and laptops which is only a small step up from television. Even though I have a pretty bad inclination to watch schmaltzy, rude, slapstick comedy (I know almost every word of Adam Sandler’s “Billy Madison” and I genuinely love Jenna Marbles), I don’t let myself watch that stuff with the baby around. I don’t want my baby to think it’s funny to throw a pie in someone’s face. I want him to create his own sense of humor that doesn’t come at anyone – including his – expense. He’s already laughing and we want to keep his sense of humor dignified.
We sing. All the time. In my experience, and according to quite a few spiritual traditions, singing really bolsters the strength of the soul. I’ve experienced the power of song to get me through scary situations (ask me about the time I got lost in the dark hiking alone on a mountain in Colorado and sung my way down). Singing has an immense power to instil a sense of hope and dignity in a person. During the Pinochet regime in Chile, when thousands of people were imprisoned and tortured, groups of women used to stand outside prison walls and sing together so that the men inside could hear. Many men reported that hearing those songs from outside the prison walls was what kept them alive through the absolute denigration of being imprisoned and tortured. There is a lot of denigration and darkness in the world, so in our house we sing to create a feeling of joy, hope, and safety.
We have been teaching our baby physical boundaries from birth. We want him to know that his body is his, and that its purpose is to house his soul and to do positive actions, and that nobody ever has a right to transgress boundaries of appropriate touch. We give him tons of physical affection – from wearing him in a baby carrier or baby wrap to giving him hugs and kisses – so that he will experience love and bonding with us. But we also keep him safe. If he seems to want to be alone, we don’t pick him up or bother him. We let him tell us when he wants physical touch and when he does not. We watch his cues: If we’re playing a tickle game with him and he seems to be annoyed by it and not having fun, we stop. We’re showing him – from birth – that it is OK to say no and that adults must listen to him if he says to stop touching him.
We use the word “dignified” when talking to him. When I change his diaper, I’ll say something to him like, “Mama is changing your diaper because dignified people don’t wear stinky diapers.” Whether or not he understands the words, I still think he’s getting the message. At some point, he will understand the words. He’ll know that self-care is important for maintaining one’s sense of personal dignity.
Every morning, we tell our baby that he has a purpose in life and that he has a big soul in his body. It is the message that we want him to instill in him deeply. He should know from as long as he can remember that he is a soul – not just a body – and that his life matters. Throughout the day, we tell him how proud we are of him for fulfilling his mission that day. Right now that sounds like, “We’re so proud of you for growing big, and eating, and learning how to crawl.” Eventually, it will evolve to more sophisticated things like learning in school and helping other people.
At this stage in life, my baby is learning morals through immersion. So much of teaching him morals involves modeling good behavior for him. We can’t do one thing, and then later tell him to do another. He has to grow up immersed in a home where the emphasis in life is on doing right, dignified, respectful things.
We’re only human. We slip up sometimes. Yet – we’re really enjoying the focus on dignity and respect that having a baby has given us. It is a gift and a blessing for his growth – and for ours.
There is an old saying, “The whole world is a very narrow bridge, and the main point is not to be afraid.” Skinny jeans seem like a lesson in not being afraid.
With clothes shopping season in full action, my newsfeeds and in-box are full of images of clothes. I’ve gotten bombarded by pictures of skinny jeans — red ones, ripped ones, black ones, short ones, long ones, spandex ones, chino ones. Skinny jeans seem to be a trend that will not end. There has to be a lesson in skinny jeans…
Skinny jeans have eliminated a whole level of fear of showing the human body. Remember when pleated baggy pants were in style? Remember when boot-cut jeans were considered to be the most flattering? Remember palazzo pants? Remember when having a big butt meant covering it instead of showing it? How did it happen that on a culture-wide level, tight pants that reveal everything became the “flattering” cut?
The power of unity is what made skinny jeans seem flattering to the public, following a decade of boot cut jeans made with (gloriously, in my humble opinion) good old-fashioned spandex-free demin. So many people got on board with skinny jeans that they stopped being scary and became normal. So normal that The Gap is selling them this season in 20 (!) different permutations.
That’s the power of unity to eliminate fear. I know — skinny jeans are not such an uplifting example. But the truth that we can extract from them is profound: If enough people change their attitude and practice, whatever they do becomes a cultural norm.
What if, on a culture-wide level, we’d get over our fear of commitment? What if, on a culture-wide level, we’d stop being afraid to confront evil? What if as many people as wear skinny jeans would transcend their comfort zones and start fulfilling their dreams? What if it was normal — not extraordinary — to fulfill one’s dreams?
Can you imagine the good that could come out of a collective fearlessness? I think this is what it might look like if fearlessness were as normal as skinny jeans:
Bullying would disappear because all the “innocent” bystanders would not be afraid to confront bullies.
Kids who are “different” would not be marginalized because every child and adolescent would be unafraid to follow his or her own path.
Communities would embrace change and do things better instead of fearing what would happen if the status-quo was disturbed.
More folks would open their homes and wallets to help others without the fear that they will be taken advantage of by those they want to help.
We can apply the lesson of skinny jeans to pretty much anything: We’re not afraid to wear tight pants anymore. We might as well not be afraid of being wrong. Maybe one day we won’t be afraid of failing. How liberating it would be to see cultural acceptance of that kind of fearlessness!
Behold, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps – Psalms 121:4
The eyes of G-d are upon it [the land of Israel] from the beginning of the year until the end of the year – Deuteronomy 11:12
As a wave of killings and stabbings sweeps across Israel, attacking innocent men and women, can any person of integrity stand on the sidelines ignoring these inhumane events? Can we hide behind the excuse that there is nothing we can do?
Basic decency dictates that we call out and act. Because terror against one human is terror against all humanity.
Especially after witnessing the deafening silence of an indifferent world to the cries of 1.5 million Jewish children and 6 million Jews just 70 years ago…
Some may argue that why is this worse than all the other brutality taking place around the world. Why should Israel get more attention than other victimized nations?
And even more outrageous argument is that Israel is (partially) to blame for its treatment of the Arabs living in its territories.
Anyone making this claim is simply ignorant of history, willingly or unwillingly, or even worse: just plain anti-Semitic.
This is not just a Jewish issue. History bears the greatest testimony to the fact that an attack on Jews always leads to attack on all peoples. Like the miners’ canary, the Jewish people, for some reason (here is not the place to elaborate), are the first sensitive ones to bear the brunt of mans’ cruelty and injustice, often in most horrific forms.
No, murders and massacres of innocent Jews did not begin in 1948, or 1967 or 1981. They began long before Israel became a modern state and long before Jews controlled the land. Take the 1929 Chevron pogrom. Or the murder of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Tzoref in 1851, among the many other sacred Jewish martyrs (kedoshim) killed over the ages in the Holy Land, simply because they were… Jews.
When Arabs are roaming Israeli streets wielding knives and screwdrivers to stab and kill any Jew they target — and no one protests — rest assured, dictates history, that those knives are coming our way (G-d forbid). When innocent blood is flowing in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities — and we don’t react — make no mistake: this is a war against us all as much as it is against the citizens of Israel.
Up until 9/11 — September Eleventh 2001 — the USA did not directly feel on its soil the full volcanic potency of the Middle East (perhaps a tremor or two, but not more). But then on that fateful Tuesday morning, those eruptions traveled thousands of miles and shook up this country and the entire world, waking everyone up to a reality that remains very much alive, continuing to spew its venomous lava (even after Bin-Laden’s killing).
Of course, we can choose to go into denial, but does anyone really think that what happened then was an anomaly? That the issues were resolved and we now have eliminated the threat of Islamist radicalism? Are the forces that brought on the terror back them in any weaker today?
If anything, how many more children have grown since indoctrinated into believing that killing innocents is “moral” and “divine”?!
Just listen to some ex-terrorists, who describe in frightening detail how they were programmed from early age to kill Jews and Westerners, and thereby be rewarded with heaven. As we speak millions of Muslim children are conditioned from young age with a radical vision of a secular, Western world of infidels that must be destroyed and replaced with Islam. Martyrdom is deified. Children are brainwashed that the greatest thing they can do is give their lives for Islam against the infidels.
As much as we don’t want to hear it, this is a profoundly religious and ideological war, deeply rooted in centuries-old beliefs and battles.
Our obligation — the responsibility of every single one of us, wherever in the world we may live — is to come out with a loud and unambiguous voice declaring that the attack on one innocent person is an attack on all of us — on our children and families.
We must unequivocally declare that we hold responsible not just the perpetrators, not just their leaders, but the entire Muslim world for allowing the creation of this breeding ground of terror. For cultivating, or at least tolerating, violence to alleviate frustration and remedy injustices (even if they were legitimate).
I am afraid that the United States and the Western world are still as young as this 21st Century is, clueless (or worse) to the defining battle of our times — one that will last long into this century, unless we mature quickly and face the task at hand. As the wise say: Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. The only way out is through.
And the task at hand is: to challenge the Muslim world to live up to the true Abrahamic principles of virtue and justice. To embrace a policy of zero tolerance for Muslims who defy these divine laws. To begin a new era of education and inspiration of their youth — one that permeates their homes, schools and mosques — how to honor the dignity of every and all human beings created in the Divine image, even if you may disagree with them.
Nations of the world must unite and demand of the Muslim world to embrace the principles established by Abraham, father of all nations, to promote the deepest values of virtue and integrity, all with love and inspiration. To fight the pagan forces of the universe, not with violence, but with spreading light and warmth.
Today’s war must be waged with a powerful moral vision. It is not just a defensive war against terrorist attacks; it is an offensive battle for the ambitious vision of a world that will live in peace, while respecting the diversity of nations, cultures and faiths. We are fighting a war for a vision – first delivered at Sinai – which guided the Founding Father: That all people are created equal, with inalienable rights granted by virtue that we are all G-d’s children. Everyone has the right to practice and believe in their unique way. The enemy is anyone who breaches the universal and absolute law of preserving human dignity’ of violating another person’s right to exist; of hurting or killing another person; of denying and robbing any person of their fundamental, G-d given rights.
* * *
Though there is no silver lining around this new wave of terror, it does illuminate for us the glaring fact — which everyone wants to conveniently ignore — that Israel is at war. Not just today or yesterday, but for the decades, indeed centuries if not millenia. Clarity is a great blessing, knowing thy enemy, even if it comes at a high price. Because when things are clear you cannot bury your head in the sand; you have no choice but to act.
A tremendous lesson from this week’s Torah portion — the beginning of the Genesis — drives the point home about our personal responsibility for events happening in Israel today.
In this chapter we read perhaps the most famous story of all — the creation of Adam and Eve, the first human beings, and their being placed in the Garden of Eden to “serve and protect” the divine laws of refining and elevating the universe.
Why was the human being created as an individual and singular entity, unlike all the other creatures and forces in the words which were created in batches as species? And why are we told about this individualistic creation of man?
Says the Mishne (Sanhedrin 37a):
Man was created alone, to teach thee that whosoever destroys a single soul is [as guilty] as though he had destroyed a complete world; and whosoever preserves a single soul is [as guilty] as though he had preserved a complete world… When one sheds the blood of another he is] responsible for his blood and the blood of his [potential] descendants until the end of time… Therefore every single person is obliged to say: the world was created for my sake.
“The world was created for my sake” meaning that despite the fact that there are millions and billions of other people, I am solely responsible for the life of another and for the universe as a whole!
Is there any more poignant statement describing the individual responsibility we each carry for another and for the world at large?
Most people today feel, frankly, insignificant. With over seven billion people on our planet, and an increasingly depersonalized life, the prevalent sentiment is that: “I don’t matter that much. With so many people out there how can my one act possibly make any difference? Anything I do is like a paltry drop in a vast ocean.”
That is why, at the beginning of the New Year, we read the story of Adam and Eve in the opening chapter of Genesis — compelling each of us to ask: how would I lead my life if I were the only man or woman populating this world? Because each one of us is just like Adam and Eve, created as unique individuals, with total responsibility over our environment, as if no on else existed. Each of us needs to envision ourselves as Adam and Eve, carrying responsibility over the future of the world.
And if you are wondering: how can one action of a single person affect and change events at the other end of the universe? — today we need not look further than basic physics (no need for faith) which teaches us how every action has a reaction, how the most microscopic particle contains enormous energy and about the “butterfly effect,” how a butterfly flapping its wings in Kansas City can create a typhoon in Singapore.
But long before modern physics, ths week’s Torah portion techaes us this message through the lens of the first human being — a single creature carrying the responsibility of the entire universe.
When you personify Adam and Eve you become emboldened with the power to define your own destiny, instead of having others define it for you, and indeed shape the entire universe, instead of it shaping you.
Is there a more appropriate way to describe our — each and every one of our — responsibility for events in Israel today?
* * *
What then can each of us practically do?
We were thankfully are blessed with the Torah which teaches us what each of us can do to help our brethren in Israel.
Wage a spiritual war against all forces of moral apathy and ignorance. As mentioned above, take a firm and unwavering stand against any atrocity.
Strengthen the three pillars which holds up world – both personal and global: Torah, Prayer, and Kind deeds.
Intensify your commitment to Torah study – study a new text, and designate additional time to your study.
Say additional prayers for the safety of people facing danger, especially for the Israeli police and Defense Forces.
Give additional amounts of charity. Charity has a special energy to counter perilous situations.
Engage your family and friends in meaningful dialogue. Reach out to your sphere of influence and inspire them with spiritual awareness. Encourage everyone to study Torah and add a new mitzvah – a good deed. The Bible tells us that through Torah study and performance of mitzvahs G-d promises: “You will dwell securely in your land. I will provide peace in the land. You will sleep without fear” (Leviticus 26:5-6)
Initiate a gathering in your home or office, promoting additional goodness and kindness, especially in this year of Hakhel (see below)..
Jewish men should be encouraged to put on Tefillin each weekday morning. Tefillin has faculties that add in protection in threatening times.
Women and girls should be encouraged to light Shabbat and Holiday candles, 18 minutes before sundown leading into Shabbat or the Holiday. It is also customary to give some charity before lighting the candles.
Encourage children to say holy verse and prayers and add in charitable and kind deeds. Children play a particular role in time of crisis. As the verse states, “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have established the strength…to destroy an enemy and avenger” (Psalms 8:3).
In addition to all the above, we are now in a special year called the Year of Hakhel, a year of assembly or gathering. In the times of the Temple, every seventh year – the one following the Shemittah year – the mitzvah of Hakhel was preformed: “assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children” and the king of Israel should read portions of the Torah before all Israel, “in order that they hear, and in order that they learn and fear God and they will observe to do all the words of this Torah… all the days that you live.”
We recreate this gathering today by gathering together all the people, men, women and children to study Torah and commit to its precepts.
What better way is there to counter the forces that try to destroy and divide us? When any individual is being potentially hurt the greatest thing we can do is to assemble and unite together as one and reinforce our commitments to the living Torah, thereby drawing down G-d’s power to protect and thwart any plots and conspiracies against us.
As we conclude our daily prayers:
Do not fear sudden terror, nor the destruction of the wicked when it comes. Contrive a scheme, but it will be foiled; conspire a plot, but it will not materialize, for God is with us. (Proverbs 3:25. Isaiah 8:10).
* * *
In sum:
The greatest and most powerful response to the terror around us is by doubling and tripling our effort in helping those around us. As much as you have done until now, go out of your way and lend your hand to another – financially, emotionally, spiritually – in whatever way possible.
Do something to save a life, and you save not just that life but the life of the entire universe.
Do not stand by as an observer on the sidelines. Act. Do your thing today to help another person. Add an additional mitzvah. Keep Shabbat and Kashrut. Light a Shabbat candle tonight before sundown. Study Torah. Pray. All people – commit to the universal Divine laws that transform this world into a holier place.
We are not victims or mere observers. Our actions matter now and forever.
Our blood boils when we hear about those that were silent during the Holocaust. When we will be asked one day: “What did you do about the tragic events happening around you?” what will your answer be?
I for one do not want to be left with no answer, or worse yet, an answer that I did nothing. I want to know that I did everything in my power. I hope you feel the same.
Let us create a true revolution. Let us reconnect to our Divine mission. Let us move heaven and earth with our actions. We have been promised that when we do, we will save the universe – literally.
May our actions honor the Kedoshim (sanctified ones) that were killed in Israel, Eitam and Naama Henkin, and all lives ripped away from us by terrorists in Israel and abroad. May they console their grieving families.
Hashem yinkom domom. May their blood cry out to heaven and earth and be avenged.
May we honor their lives by saving and helping lives around us.
For an elaborate discussion on this topic, please go here to view Rabbi Jacobson’s latest class: If You Were Adam or Eve: Taking Responsibility for the World.
A young 14-year-old boy is keenly watching a man dancing as if there are no worries in the world. His legs pump in a rhythm only his soul could produce. He looks like a flame, flickering on and on, reaching for a place beyond anything he has ever known. Wow, the boy thinks to himself, “how could that man be so happy?”
“Which man?”
Startled, the 14-year-old boy didn’t realize he’d asked that question aloud.
“Which man?” His father asks him again.
“That man,” the young boy points to the whirling dancer. “He must be the happiest man on earth.”
As his father looks to where his son is pointing and he sees the black-bearded man with five children in tow, his eyes fill with tears and he sighs. “That man lost his young wife just six days ago.”
“But then how can he be so happy, how can he possibly dance like that?”
“Because today is Simchat Torah and it is a mitzvah to dance and to be happy. This is what a Jew does; this is what a real Chassid does.”
Although this story happened before I was born, I have heard it many times.
The year was 5730, 1969, and, on the second day of Sukkot, a young 42-year old man lost his wife to leukemia. As was the custom instituted by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, every year, on Simchat Torah, hundreds of Chassidim would walk near and far to celebrate with Jews in Synagogues across New York. This man was one of those Chassidim. Each year Simchat Torah he would take his young children to a small shul in East Flatbush where they would dance with the Torah and rejoice with the community. That year, 1969, the young man did the same. The children’s grandmother, their mother’s mother, dressed them in their finest clothing and sent them off with their father to East Flatbush.
It was there, in that little shul, that this dialogue between father and son took place.
After the dancing was over in East Flatbush, the young man and his children walked back to Crown Heights. He dropped his younger children off at home with their grandmother and hurried to 770 where the Lubavitcher Rebbe was in midst of a farbrengen. Every year on Simchat Torah, before hakofot, the Rebbe would speak for a number of hours, discussing the intricate energies of Simchat Torah and hakofot. The farbrengen would consist of several talks, each one punctuated by the singing of a niggun, a Chassidic melody sometimes dating back hundreds of years. The man of whom we are speaking was the one who began the niggunim at the Rebbe’s farbrengens.
The shul at 770 Eastern Parkway was packed from floor to ceiling; people were clinging to bleachers and rafters just as they did to the Rebbe’s every word. As the Rebbe finished one segment of his talk, the crowd looked to the new widower to begin a song. What happened next was one of the most dramatic experiences in the lives of those who attended that gathering. A rare moment of truth…
Through the hush of thousands of people, a gentle but defiant voice began to sing:“Mi vadiom nye patonyem, ee v’agniom nye s’gorim,” a vibrant Chassidic Russian melody meaning, “We in water will not drown, and in fire will not burn.” The Rebbe looked up and stared at the man – with a piercing, knowing gaze that is impossible to describe. Suddenly the Rebbe sprang up from his chair, pushing it back with such force that it nearly fell over. The Rebbe began dancing in his place, rocking up and down, swaying back and forth, with incredible intensity and passion. Witnesses say that in all the years the Rebbe never danced – never before and never after – quite like that.
As the Rebbe swung his arms, leading the singing, the crowd became more and more energized, chanting in unison, “We in water will not drown, and in fire will not burn; we in water will not drown, and in fire will not burn.” Faster and faster they chanted, as if in a trance.
People present later described the unbelievable sight of this fragile man who had just experienced utter devastation, swinging back and forth – surrounded by waves of people, being led by the Rebbe himself – singing: “We in water will not drown, and in fire will not burn,” nothing can vanquish our spirit – as if G-d had not just taken his wife, as if he was the happiest man alive.
Everyone melted in the dance and the song. The joy and the tears all dissolved into one transcendent dance; a dance that captured the essence of joy and pain, ecstasy and agony – the indestructible core of life itself. At that moment everything and nothing made sense. “Mi vadiom nye patonyem, ee v’agniom nye s’gorim,” “We in water will not drown, and in fire will not burn.”
Moments like that become frozen in time.
~~~
Fast-forward 20 years:
A phone call comes in to a major Jewish children’s organization in Crown Heights, Tzivos Hashem.
“Hello,” the voice on the other end of the line says. “I am so-and-so and I would like to sponsor children’s programs for Simchat Torah,”
“Ok, sure,” the man working in the organization happily replies. “But, if I may ask, why do you have this particular interest in children’s programs for Simchat Torah?”
“Well, you see, when I was a boy, every Simchat Torah my father and I would go to a small shul in East Flatbush to celebrate. One year, when I was fourteen, as I was watching the few people dancing in a circle, I noticed one man who looked so happy, as if everything in the world was perfect. I stood there transfixed, wondering how this man could exude so much joy. I asked my father this question, and my father told me that I should know this man just lost his wife but, because he is a real Chassid and the Torah says to be happy on Simchat Torah, he is happy. This made a very big impression on my 14-year-old mind – that a Jew could put aside all his pain and suffering and be happy just because it’s a mitzvah to be happy was unbelievable to me – so I decided I would like to help other children celebrate the happiness and joy of Simchat Torah.”
~~~
Fast-forward another 17 years:
On the 23rd of Cheshvon, 5767, 2006, the man of this story, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Gansbourg, the one who lost his wife in 1969, rejoined her in the Garden of Eden. Yet, his (and her) grandchildren, their “life,” live on. They have built families and communities, changed people’s lives, and continue to make the world a better place.
The story of the young man has taught me much: even in the saddest of times, even when all seems lost, with a little joy, a little dance, everything can change.
And it’s true, “We in water will not drown, and in fire will not burn.”
How do I know? you may ask. Because I myself am living proof. You see, my mother was the youngest of those five children that walked with their father to that small shul in East Flatbush those 41 years ago.
By the Grace of G-d
17 Menachem Av 5737
Brooklyn, NY
Greeting and Blessing:
Thank you for your letter of July 23. I am pleased to note that you recall our discussion. However, your inference from the recent blackout in support of your thesis is debatable.
At any rate, following the example of your letter, I will also make reference to a recent event in support of my position. I have in mind the visit of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and no doubt you also had an opportunity of meeting him and have evaluated the results of his visit to the USA.
One of the obvious elements of the Prime Minister’s visit is that it has demonstrated once again how vitally important it is for our people in the Holy Land to have strong and viable Jewish communities in the outside world. For, however important Aliyah is, it would be a mixed blessing if it were to erode the Jewish voice and influence in such strategically important countries as the USA and others.
And, speaking of the importance of Jewish communities in the Diaspora, the emphasis is not merely on numbers as they appear in a national census, but also and primarily on the quality of the Jewish population and leadership, namely, the extent to which Jews identify themselves with Jewishness and Jewish causes.
Here again, as I pointed out in our discussion, it is not enough just to write a check – however indispensable financial assistance is, but it must be an even more meaningful identification and personal commitment, touching deeply every Jew and reflecting in his daily life as a Jew. Such identification is not limited to the home and synagogue or when one is in the society of fellow Jews, but it must be evident everywhere, even among non-Jews, and even in the White House, with truly Jewish self-respect and avowed trust in G-d, the Guardian of Israel, and with pride in our Jewish heritage and traditions – as was so eminently expressed in word and deed by Prime Minister Begin. It is the general consensus that this worthy deportment of the Jewish representative during his first encounter with the President of the USA had an immensely favorable impact and has established a personal rapport between the two leaders which will hopefully have far-reaching beneficial results also in terms of American support.
I trust you have followed closely the highlights and details of this visit and compared it with those of his predecessors. Here, for the first time, came a Jewish Prime Minister who declared in a loud and clear voice that he comes strengthened by the prayers of his fellow Jews at home and abroad and trusts in G-d and the eternity of his people that his mission will be successful. And, as you surely know, when he sat down to break bread with President Carter, he made sure that it would be a kosher meal, and he put on a yarmulke and made a bracha and explained to the President the meaning of it. All of which has earned him the respect and admiration of the President and of all others who came in contact with him. Even from a pragmatic statesmanlike viewpoint this approach is bound to be a sure winner, though, regretfully, it has not been recognized by his predecessors.
To conclude on the concluding note of your letter, may G-d bless you with strength and wisdom to use your good offices and influence in the said direction, especially in view of your prominent position in the Jewish community.
With kind regards and with esteem and blessing,
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Image by: Government Press Office (Begin in the Knesset) [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
It happens to the best of us: Sometimes it seems like our lives don’t matter. Whether you are in the depths of depression or have survived an assault on who you are, or even if you are just having a really bad day, sometimes it seems like, “My life doesn’t matter.” However: That thought is wrong. Your life does matter.
A spiritual truth: If you are alive, your life matters. Here are 50 reasons why:
Mrs. Sarah Rifka Rosenbloom
501 W. 120th St., Apt. #6E
New York, NY 10027
Blessing and Greeting:
I duly received your letter in which you write that you and your husband are thinking of sending your son David to spend his summer vacation in a camp where Yosef Baumgarten is going to be counselor. This would be highly advisable, and for several reasons, and may G-d grant that he should have a wholesome and invigorating summer, both physically and spiritually.
Apropos of your mentioning your work with Tzach, I was pleased to receive reports from the Tzach administration about the productive meetings which you had organized, and will no doubt continue to do so in the future. Like all things of goodness and holiness, which should be on the ascendancy, I trust that your work with Tzach will likewise be advancing from strength to strength.
At this point, I cannot refrain from reiterating a remark which I have frequently made in connection with the summer vacation months. It is this: Although this period is called “vacation time” and a time for rest and recreation, etc., clearly in regard to Yiddishkeit there can be no “vacation,” both in regard to one’s self and family, as well as in regard to benefits to others.
On the contrary, inasmuch as this is a period of time when other pressures and duties are lessened, and one has more free time available, it provides a particularly good opportunity to intensify all activities relating to Torah and mitzvoth. Since the Torah and mitzvoth “are our life and the length of our days,” there can be no interruption, G-d forbid, in life and vitality. On the surface it might seem that any particular limb or aspect of the body is in a state of suspended animation. It must not be allowed to remain so for long, and should again be stimulated into activity and vitality. It is surely unnecessary to expand on this to you.
Now that I have had the opportunity of meeting your daughter and her husband personally, I take this opportunity to congratulate you on having such fine children. I was particularly gratified to note your influence on them. May you and your husband enjoy true Yiddish nachas from all your children.
