July 31st, 2015
Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch would say:
Many people await the coming of Moshiach and the “better days” it will bring. In truth, however, these are the best days there are. What Moshiach will do is reveal the hidden goodness of our present-day existence.[18]
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
[18]. Sefer HaSichot 5704, p. 93.
Tags: Moshiach, meaning, truth, perspective, time, redemption, Rebbe Rashab, future
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July 31st, 2015
And G-d spoke to Moses, saying: “Send you men that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. One man, one man, per tribe shall you send, each a prince among them…
Numbers 13:1-2
And you all approached me, and said: “Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land and bring us back word regarding the road by which we shall go up and the cities into which we shall enter.” And the thing was favorable in my eyes; and I took twelve men from amongst you, one man per tribe…
Deuteronomy 1:22-23
The commentaries reconcile these two accounts of the sending of the Spies by explaining that the initiative indeed came from the people of Israel. Moses then consulted with G-d, who said to him, “Send you men…” to imply: “Send them as dictated by your understanding. I am not telling you what to do. Do as you see fit.”[12] Thus, the Spies’ mission, while receiving G-d’s consent, was a purely human endeavor, born of the desire of the people and dispatched because “the thing was favorable” in Moses’ eyes.
The result was a tragic setback in the course of Jewish history. The Spies brought back a most demoralizing report and caused the people to lose faith in G-d’s promise of the land of Israel as their eternal heritage. The entire generation was then deemed unfit to inherit the land, and it was decreed that they would live out their lives in the desert. Only 40 years later did Moses’ successor, Joshua, lead a new generation across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. (Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies to speak in favor of conquering the land, and the only two of that generation to enter the land.)
Up until that time, G-d had imparted specific directives to Moses and the people of Israel virtually every step of the way. The case of the Spies was the first instance in which G-d said, “I’m not telling you what to do—do as you see fit.” Should this not have set off a warning light in the mind of Moses?
Indeed it did. Our sages tell us that Moses sent off Joshua with the blessing, “May G-d deliver you from the conspiracy of the Spies.”[13] So why did he send them? And if, for whatever reason, he thought it necessary to send them, why did he not at least bless them as he blessed Joshua? Even more amazing is the fact that a generation later, as the Jewish people finally stood ready (for the second time) to enter the land, Joshua himself dispatches spies(!) This time, there are no adverse results; but why did he again initiate a process which had ended so tragically in the past?
Obviously, Moses was well aware of the risks involved when embarking on a course of “Do as you see fit.” For man to strike out on his own, without precise instructions from On High and with only his finite and subjective judgment as his compass, is to enter a mine-field strewn with possibilities for error and failure. Yet Moses also knew that G-d was opening a new arena of human potential.
Choice
A most crucial element of our mission in life is the element of choice. Were G-d to have created man as a creature who cannot do wrong, then He might as well have created a perfect world in the first place, or no world at all. The entire point of G-d’s desire in creation is that there be a non-perfected world, and that we should choose to perfect it. It is precisely the possibility for error on our part that lends significance to our achievements.
The concept of choice exists on two levels. When G-d issues an explicit instruction to us, we still have the choice to defy His command. This, however, is choice in a more limited sense. For, in essence, our soul is “literally a part of G-d above”[14] and, deep down, has but a single desire: to fulfill the divine will. In the words of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi: “A Jew is neither willing, nor is he able, to tear himself away from G-d.” When it comes down to it, each and every one of us desires only to do good, as defined by the will of G-d. The only “choice” we have is whether to suppress our innate will or to express it in our daily life.
Up until the episode of the Spies, this was the only choice offered the Jewish people. G-d provided unequivocal guidelines for each and every issue that confronted their lives. They had the choice to disobey, but to do so would run contrary to their deepest instincts.
The second level of choice was introduced with G-d’s reply to Moses regarding the Spies. When Moses heard G-d saying, “Do as you see fit,” he understood that G-d was opening another, even deeper and truer, dimension of choice in the life of man. By creating an area in which He, the creator and absolute master of the world, states, “I am not telling you what to do,” G-d was imparting an even greater significance to human actions. Here, and only here, is the choice truly real; here, and only here, is there nothing to compel us in either direction.
When we enter this arena, the risks are greater: the possibility to err is greater, and the consequences of our error more devastating. But when we succeed in discovering, without instruction and empowerment from Above, the optimum manner in which to “enter the Holy Land” and actualize the divine will, our deed is infinitely more valuable and significant.
The Self of Joshua
This was why Moses dispatched the Spies, though fully aware of the hazards of their mission, without so much as a blessing that they be safeguarded from the pitfalls of human endeavor. Were he to have blessed them—to have imparted to them of his own spiritual prowess to succeed in their mission—he would have undermined the uniqueness of the opportunity that G-d had granted by consenting that their mission be “by your understanding.” The entire point was that both Moses (in deciding whether to send them) and the Spies (in executing their mission) would be entirely on their own, guided and empowered solely by their own understanding and humanity.
The only one to receive Moses’ blessing was Joshua, who was Moses’ faithful “servant… never budging from [Moses’] tent.”[15] The unique relationship between Moses and Joshua is described in the Talmud with the following metaphor: “Moses’ face was like the face of the sun; Joshua’s face was like the face of the moon.”[16] On the most basic level, this expresses the superiority of Moses over Joshua, the latter being but a pale reflector of the former’s light; on a deeper level, this alludes to the depth of the bond between the greatest of teachers and the most devoted of disciples. As the moon has no luminance of its own but receives all of its light from the sun, so had Joshua completely abnegated his self to his master, so that everything he was and had derived from Moses.
For Moses to bless Joshua was not to empower Joshua with something that was not himself: Joshua’s entire self was Moses. Armed with Moses’ blessing, Joshua was truly and fully “on his own”—this was his essence and self, rather than something imposed on him from without.
Thus it was Joshua, who had successfully negotiated the arena of true and independent choice, who led the people of Israel into the land of Canaan. For the conquest of Canaan and its transformation into a “Holy Land” represents man’s entry into a place where there are no clear-cut divine directives to distinguish good from evil and right from wrong, and his independent discovery of how to sanctify this environment as a home for G-d.
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Shabbat Shelach, 5749 (July 1, 1989)[17]
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
[13]. Rashi, Numbers 13:16.
[14]. Tanya, ch. 2, after Job 31:2.
[16]. Talmud, Bava Batra 75a; Rashi on Numbers 27:20.
[17]. Sefer HaSichot 5749, vol. II, pp. 536-540.
Tags: faith, Desire, tragedy, creation, The 12 Spies, sun, human behavior, Joshua, human being, achievement, Holy Land, mission, desert, free choice, scouts, moon, potential, blessing, good and evil, Jewish history, human value, Moses, Divine will, Trust in G-d
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July 30th, 2015
And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan; and he said to them: “Go up this way by the south, and go up into the high land. And you shall see the land—what it is…”
Numbers 13:17-18
One of the greatest tragedies of Jewish history was the debacle of “The Spies.” Fifteen months after the Exodus from Egypt, as the people of Israel camped in the Paran Desert poised to enter the Holy Land, Moses dispatched twelve men—each a leader and representative of one of the twelve tribes of Israel—to spy the land that G-d had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Forty days later the spies returned praising the fertility of the land and bewailing the military might of its inhabitants. “But the people who dwell in the land are strong,” they said, “and the cities fortified and very great; we saw giants there… We won’t be able to go up against these people, for they are mightier than we.”[1]
The Spies incited panic among the people, who wept that entire night in terror and despair.
“Why is G-d bringing us to this land,” they cried, “to fall by the sword, and that our wives and children be put to prey? Why, it would be better for us to return to Egypt!”[2]
That night of faithless tears became “a weeping for generations.”[3] G-d delayed Israel’s entry into the Holy Land for more than 38 years, until that entire generation had died out and a new generation, more trusting of G-d’s promises, had grown up to replace them. When the people of Israel entered the land of Canaan, it was not Moses who led them but his disciple, Joshua, who was but a pale moon to Moses’ sun.[4] Our sages point out that Moses’ achievements were all eternal: the Torah he transmitted to us transcends the vicissitudes of time; the Sanctuary he built was never destroyed (unlike the Temples built by King Solomon and Ezra in Jerusalem). If Moses had brought us into our land, we would never have been driven from it; if Moses had built the Holy Temple, it would never have been destroyed.[5] Thus, all the travails and defeats of Jewish history are descendent from the night that Israel wept for lack of trust in the divine promise.[6]
The Reality of Sight
Where did the Spies go wrong? Why did their mission, dispatched by Moses with G-d’s approval,[7] fail so miserably?
Before their departure, Moses had instructed the Spies to observe the nature of the land, the quality of the soil, and the strength of its inhabitants. Of these they gave an honest account, reporting on these realities as they saw them. But Moses had prefaced his instructions with the injunction: “You shall see the land.”
Sight is more than a faculty, more than just another sensory tool. To hear, smell, taste or touch something is to “perceive” it, to collect data that informs us about its nature and characteristics; to see something is to experience it. When we say, “I saw it myself,” we are really saying: “This is a truth I have experienced absolutely. So there is no way that you can convince me otherwise. This is not something that has been ‘proven’ to me and which might therefore be ‘disproved’ with stronger, more compelling arguments and proofs. This is something I have seen. This, to me, is reality.”
“You shall see the land,” said Moses to the Spies. I am not sending you as mere gatherers of data; I am sending you as spies in the most literal sense of the word: as those whose mission is to see.
I am sending you, Moses was saying, to serve as the eyes of Israel: the eyes through whom the nation would achieve an absolute and unequivocal identification with their divine heritage; the eyes through whom they would experience its reality in a way that cannot be swayed by mundane data, however adverse or threatening.
This was where the Spies failed their mission. They traversed the land, examined and probed it, sniffed about and sounded it out, and analyzed the facts they had garnered. But they failed to see the land, and failed to bring back sight of the land to the people of Israel.
Seeing Today
Before his passing, Moses pleaded with G-d: “Please, let me cross over and see the good land across the Jordan; the goodly mountain and the Lebanon.”[8]
G-d did not allow Moses to “cross over,” but He did grant him his request to see.
“Ascend to the summit, and lift your eyes westward, northward, southward and eastward, and see with your eyes…. I have shown it to you so that you see it with your eyes, though you shall not cross over to there.”[9]
Our sages tell us that every soul possesses a spark of the soul of Moses.[10] Moses’ sight of the land empowers each and every one of us to “see” the holiness and perfection of G-d’s native home and make it an unequivocal reality in our lives.
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Shabbat Shelach 5711 (June 30, 1951)[11]and on other occasions
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
[3]. Talmud, Taanit 29a; see note 6 below.
[4]. Ibid., Bava Batra 75a; Rashi on Numbers 27:20.
[5]. See Talmud, Sotah 9a; Megalleh Amukot, Ofan 185; Ohr HaChaim on Deuteronomy 1:37 and 3:25; Ohr HaTorah, Va’etchanan, pp. 65, 93 and 2201; et al.
The reason that Moses’ work is eternal is that his every thought, word and deed was done in a state of utter attachment to G-d. Thus, the angel who appeared to Joshua to aid Israel’s conquest of the land said, “Now I have come” (Joshua 5:14)— “Now,” since in the days of Moses, when G-d proposed to send an angel to accompany them, Moses had insisted: “If Your own self is not going [with us], do not take us out of here” (Exodus 33:15; Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 18).
(The difference between Moses and Joshua is alluded to by the Talmudic saying that compares Moses to the enduring sun and Joshua to the fluctuating moon, whose light waxes and wanes and, on the darkest of nights, is completely concealed.)
[6]. The night following the return of the Spies was the night of Av 9—the day that saw the destruction of both the first and second Temples and numerous other tragic events in our history.
[7]. See the following essay.
[8]. Deuteronomy 3:23-25. “Lebanon” refers to the Holy Temple.
[11]. Torat Menachem—Hitvaaduyot, vol. III, pp. 164-173.
Tags: Jewish leaders, Moses, experience, soul, sight, reality, tragedy, The 12 Spies, Exodus from Egypt, Holy Land, Trust in G-d, generation gap, sparks, infinity, mission
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July 30th, 2015
In the history of a people, as in that of an individual life, things don’t always go as planned.
The original plan was to go like this: On the 15th of Nissan in the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE), the people of Israel are taken out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses. After seven weeks of preparation and self-refinement, they receive the Torah, their mandate from G-d as His “nation of priests and Holy people,”[1] at Mount Sinai. From Sinai it’s an eleven-day journey to the Land of Canaan[2] – the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as Israel’s eternal homeland-where Moses builds the Holy Temple to serve as the seat of the divine presence in the physical world, and the people of Israel implement the blueprint for life contained in the Torah, establishing the model society which serves as the keystone of a harmonious world community embodying the goodness and perfection of their Creator.
In actuality, the journey from Sinai to the Holy Land took not eleven days but forty years. The generation of the Exodus became “the generation of the desert” – only two of the 600,000 adult males who left Egypt lived to enter the Land of Canaan. The grand plan over which Moses was to preside was delayed, and still awaits completion. Moses’ disciple, Joshua, began the conquest of the Holy Land, but the task was only completed five centuries later by King David. David’s son, Solomon, built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, but this was not the eternal edifice which Moses would have constructed; it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 3338 (423 BCE), rebuilt by Ezra in 3408 (353 BCE), and destroyed once more, by the Romans, in 3829 (69 CE). The people of Israel failed to fully live up to their role as a “light unto the nations”[3] and were exiled from their land. The perfect and harmonious world which we were to have achieved by entering the Land of Canaan under Moses’ leadership still awaits attainment by Moshiach.
What went wrong? The children of Israel were encamped at Kadesh, on the border of Canaan, in preparation to enter the land, when they approached Moses with the request:
“Let us send men before us, so that they shall search out the land for us and bring us back word as to which road we should take and into which cities we shall come.”[4]
Moses conveyed the people’s request to G-d, and G-d replied: “Act according to your own understanding.”[5] I’ve been telling you what to do long enough, G-d was saying. Now that you’re about to enter and settle the land, it’s time you did things your way, in accordance with your own understanding of how to best carry out My plan. If the people believe that sending spies is the way to go about conquering the land, then go ahead and send them.[6]
Moses sent twelve spies-one representative from each of the twelve tribes of Israel-to scout the land and report on its terrain and its inhabitants. Forty days later, on the eighth day of Av of the year 2449, the spies returned, bearing samples of the land’s huge and luscious fruit and the following assessment:
“We came to the land that you have sent us, and indeed, it flows with milk and honey; this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very great; we also saw giants there. The Amalekites dwell in the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites and the Emorites in the hills, and the Canaanites at the sea and on the banks of the Jordan…. We cannot go up against these people, for they are mightier than we….[7]
Their report caused the nation to lose faith in their ability to conquer the Holy Land, despite G-d’s promises. Indeed, the commentaries note that the Hebrew word mimenu, “than we,” also translates as “than he”; the spies were, in effect, saying that “they are mightier than He” – that the conquest of the Holy Land is beyond the capacity of the Almighty Himself![8] All night the nation wept and bemoaned their fate, crying to Moses: “Why is G-d bringing us to this land to fall by the sword, and for our wives and children to fall into captivity?”[9]
Thus it came to pass that on the Ninth of Av – a day which was to bode many tragedies for the people of Israel[10] – G-d informed Moses that the generation that received the Torah at Sinai was not fit to enter the Land of Canaan. He decreed that they shall live out their lives as wanderers in the desert until a new generation can take up the challenge of conquering the land of Canaan and developing it as a “Holy Land” – as the focus of G-d’s presence in the material world.
What Happened?
The spies dispatched by Moses were no ordinary individuals: “They were all men of distinction, leaders of the children of Israel.”[11] Furthermore, in all of history, it would be difficult to find a generation whose lives were more saturated with miracles than theirs. Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth at the time, was forced to free them from slavery when “the mighty hand” of G-d inflicted ten supernatural plagues. When Pharaoh’s armies pursued them, the sea split to let them pass and then drowned their pursuers. In the desert, miracles were the stuff of their daily lives: manna from heaven was their daily bread, “Miriam’s well” (a miraculous stone which traveled along with the Israelite camp) provided them with water, and “clouds of glory” sheltered them from the desert heat and cold, kept them clothed and shod, destroyed the snakes and scorpions in their path, and flattened the terrain before them to ease their way.
For these people to doubt G-d’s ability to conquer the “mighty inhabitants” of Canaan seems nothing less than ludicrous. Yet these were the people whose leaders said, “We cannot go up against these people, for they are mightier than we” and even He. What happened? Where did they go wrong?
Desert Idyll
The daily miracles experienced by the generation of the Exodus did more than provide them with sustenance and protection – they shielded them from any and all involvement with the material world. For the first generation of our existence as a people, we lived a wholly spiritual life, free of all material concerns; the very food which nourished us was “bread from heaven.”[12] Indeed, our sages have said that, “The Torah could have been given only to the eaters of the manna.”[13] To properly receive and assimilate the divine wisdom, one must be utterly free of the responsibilities and frustrations of physical life-something that is possible only in the kind of environment which our ancestors enjoyed during their sojourn in the Sinai Desert.
This is why the spies and their generation were loath to enter the land. Becoming a people with a land would entail plowing, sowing and harvesting; it would mean engaging in commerce and levying taxes; it would require a bureaucracy to run the land and an army to defend it. Their underlying problem with the land was, as the spies expressed it, that “it is a land that consumes its inhabitants”[14] – it consumes one’s time and energy with its corporeal demands and infringes on one’s capacity to study the divine wisdom of Torah and meditate upon its truths. They were unwilling to relinquish their spiritual utopia for the entanglements of an earth-bound life.
This also explains the spies’ argument that “We cannot go up against these people, for they are mightier than we,” notwithstanding the tremendous miracles which G-d had performed and was performing for them. We cannot have it both ways, argued the spies. Either we are to be a spiritual people engaged exclusively in spiritual pursuits and sustained by supernatural means; or else we are to enter the natural world of the farmer, merchant and soldier and become subject to its laws. And under these laws-which decree that the numerous, mighty and well – fortified will defeat the few and the weak – there is no way we can defeat the inhabitants of Canaan.
They even went so far as to extend this line of reasoning to the Almighty Himself. If G-d wishes for us to live a spiritual life, then, certainly, He can sustain us with miracles. But if His desire is that we abandon our supra-natural existence to enter the land and assume a natural life, then He Himself has decreed that natural law will govern our fate. In that case, He cannot empower us to miraculously conquer the land, since were He to do so, this would defeat the entire purpose of entering the “land.” So “they are mightier than He” – even G-d cannot help us, if He Himself has chosen to transform us into a material people.
The Generation Gap
What the spies and their generation failed to understand is that the entire point of entering the Holy Land is to sanctify the material aspects of life. This is the essence of the divine objective of creation and the mission entrusted to us at Sinai: to build “a dwelling for G-d in the lowly realms”[15]-to imbue our plowing, sowing and commerce with a holy and G-dly purpose. In charging us with this mission, the Creator empowered us to indeed “have it both ways”: to create a land that is holy, a nature that is miraculous, a reality that is not bound by its own defining parameters for it serves a purpose greater than itself.
Achieving this aim required a two-phased program: an initial state of unmitigated holiness and spirituality, followed by “entrance into the land” and assumption of its material labors. For to sanctify the land, one requires the vision and guidance of the divine truth of truths – which can be attained only by a nation of “manna eaters.” So first there had to be that period of utter isolation from the material world. However, this phase of our national existence was not an end in itself, but the way in which to acquire the tools and resources to miraculize the natural and elevate the everyday.
If the “generation of the desert” would have themselves been capable of making the transition into a people of the land, the transformation of the material world into a home for G-d would have been fully and perfectly achieved in that very generation. If they would have believed in their divinely granted capacity to “have it both ways,” their sanctification of the land would have combined their ultimate apprehension of the divine truth with a full involvement with the natural reality.
But one of the most basic rules of creation is that if the achievements of man are to be meaningful and significant, they must be his own – the product of an uncompelled choice to exercise his divinely granted potentials. And free choice means license to fail as well as to succeed; it means the capacity for blunder as well as for achievement. When G-d told Moses to proceed with the conquest of the land “according to your own understanding,” He opened the possibility for greater and more meaningful achievement, but also for error on the part of His “partners in creation,”[16] and delays and regressions in the fulfillment of His master plan.
The generation of the desert failed to actualize the unique opportunity which presented itself at that particular juncture of our history: for there to be a single generation which straddled both worlds, a single generation which first inhabited a world of utter spirituality and then proceeded to apply it to a life on the land. Instead, they fell prey to the tendency of man to “compartmentalize” his life, to label his experiences and attainments as “material,” “spiritual,” “sacred,” “mundane,” “natural” and “supernatural,” thereby delegating and confining them to their respective domains. So it was left to their children to embark on the longer, more difficult journey, a journey only now reaching its culmination: to bridge the formidable “generation gap” which separates us from our manna-eating ancestors and apply the pristine truth they received in the desert to our own earth-bound lives.[17]
On a Personal Note
In our own lives, we each have a “generation of the desert” and a “generation which enters the land.” Our childhood and youth are a spiritual and miraculous time: our needs are provided to us “from above” without effort or worry on our part; the business of running the world is blessedly none of our concern. Such a hermitic existence, while contrary to the ultimate purpose of our lives, is the optimal environment for the acquisition of the beliefs, values and knowledge which will guide and inspire our development of the world when we subsequently “enter the land” in our adult years.
The same is true of each particular day of life: we begin our day with a sacrosanct hour of prayer and Torah-study before crossing over into the workday and embarking on the development and sanctification of the material world.
Here, too, exists the danger of succumbing to a “generation gap” between one’s “Sinai Desert” and “Land of Israel,” of adopting the “either/or” mentality of the spies. Therein lies the eternal lesson of the Torah’s account of the incident of the spies: do not allow the wisdom, sensitivity and inspiration of your youth to remain an isolated period in your life. Do not allow your moments of attachment to G-d each morning to remain a “miracle” with no bearing on the natural course of your day. Cross into the land, but do not leave your spiritual “childhood” behind. Remember that the purpose of it all is to make “holy” a quality of “land.”
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Shabbat Shelach 5722 (June 30 1962)[18]
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
[2] Deuteronomy 1:2; in actuality, the Israelites made this journey in just three days and were on the brink of entering the land when the episode of the spies intervened (Rashi on verse).
[5] Numbers 13:2, as per Rashi on verse.
[6] See Free Agent , Week In Review vol. IX, no. 38.
[8] Midrash Rabbah, cited by Rashi on verse.
[10] Including the destruction of both the First and Second Temples (see Talmud, Taanit 29a).
[13] Midrash Mechilta, Beshalach 17.
[15] Midrash Tanchuma, Nasso 16.
[16] Talmud, Shabbat 10a; et al.
[17] Ultimately, however, it is G-d’s desire that His master plan should go awry, creating the opportunity for the painful yet immensely profitable path of teshuvah, whose rewards cannot be anticipated, or even allowed for, by any pre-ordained plan-see G-d’s Business, WIR, vol. X, no. 4.
[18] Likkutei Sichot, vol. IV, pp. 1041-1047.
Tags: ninth of av, meaning, journey, prayer, mistake, Holy Temple, wilderness, Israel, Divine dwelling, childhood, miracles, elevating the world, Mt. Sinai, Divine will, Torah study, Matan Torah, The 12 Spies, fusion, Exodus from Egypt, Tisha B'Av, spiritual and material, truth, generation gap, Holy Land, Moses, free choice, desert, faith, Jewish leaders, scouts
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July 30th, 2015
The following is a freely translated excerpt of an address delivered by the Rebbe at a farbrengen held on Shabbat Parshat Pinchas, 5744 (July 14, 1984):
…In regard to what has been discussed above—the Redemption and the era of Moshiach—there are those who wonder (though, for obvious reasons, they do not openly express their amazement): How can a person appear in public, week after week, and repeatedly speak of one subject—the coming of Moshiach? Furthermore, this person always stresses that he is not merely speaking of the concept, but of the actual coming of Moshiach, here on physical earth, and immediately, on this very day—Shabbat Parshat Pinchas, 5744! He then instructs, on each occasion, to sing “May the Holy Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days,” emphasizing that “speedily in our days” should not be understood as “speedily, tomorrow,” but as “speedily, today”!
Certainly, every Jew believes that Moshiach can come any moment—after all, “I await his coming every day” is one of the fundamental principles of the Jewish faith. Still—they wonder—to sense that Moshiach will come at this very moment is hardly consistent with the reality of our lives. So why does this man speak incessantly about this, on every occasion, and with such single-minded intensity, as if to forcefully ram the idea into the minds of his listeners?!
Their conclusion is that all this is a nice dream (and, as we say in our prayers, “May all my dreams be positively fulfilled for me and for all of Israel”[14])—nice, but not very realistic. So what’s the point of speaking, in such length and frequency, about one’s dreams?
The truth, however, is the very opposite.
In a maamar (discourse of chassidic teaching) based on the verse, “When G-d returns the exiles of Israel, we shall be as those who have dreamed,”[15] Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that our current state of galut (exile) is comparable to a dream, in which a person’s sense of perception can tolerate the most contradictory and irrational things.[16]
In other words, our current “reality” is a dream, while the world of Moshiach is the true reality. In a single moment, we can all wake from the dream of galut and open our eyes to the true reality of our existence—the perfect world of Moshiach. It is in the power of each and every one present in this room to immediately wake himself from his dream, so that today, Shabbat Parshat Pinchas, 5744, before we even have a chance to recite the minchah prayers, indeed this very moment, we all open our eyes and see Moshiach, in the flesh, with us, here in this room!
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
[14]. Yehi Ratzon recited during the priestly blessing on the festivals.
[16]. Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 28c.
Tags: Rebbe, dreams, redemption, reality, Moshiach, Holy Temple, Shabbat, Yanki Tauber
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July 30th, 2015
From the time that I was a child attending cheder, and even before, there began to take form in my mind a picture of the future redemption—the redemption of Israel from its last exile, a redemption such as would explain the suffering, the decrees and the massacres of galut…
From a letter by the Rebbe dated Nissan 11, 5716 (March 23, 1956)[13]
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
[13]. Igrot Kodesh, vol. XII, p. 414.
Tags: redemption, Israel, murder, galut, Yanki Tauber, childhood, Rebbe, suffering
Posted in Weekly Parsha, Beliefs & Concepts, Torah Personalities, Bamidbar, Modern, Korach, Moshiach & Redemption, Torah, Rebbe | No Comments »
July 30th, 2015
The Art of Subtlety
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dedicated to the loving memory of
MRS. CHARLOTTE (SARAH) ROHR
of blessed memory
* * *
A selfless wife and mother, whose family’s selfless deeds
continue the legacy of her extraordinary life on this earth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stereotypes abound about the classic “Jewish Mother:” A nag, a yenta, overprotective and overbearing, one who is often getting involved in her children’s lives long after they have grown up, intensely loving but controlling to the point of smothering, and engendering enormous guilt in her children through the endless suffering she professes to undertake for their sakes. The cause for all our problems.
Remember the one about the three Jewish mothers in Miami Beach comparing notes how their sons celebrated their respective 80th birthdays. First Jewish mothers says: “My Barry’le. He flew down the entire family for a week to Miami just to spend time with his dear mother for her birthday. Tell me is that not a boy for you?” Mother # 2: “Ahh, that’s nuting. My Wolfie, you know what he did? He took us all for a safari in Africa. That’s what he did for my 80th birthday.” Finally mother #3 looks at the other two, and waves dismissingly with her hand: “You both have nice boys. But you want to hear what s son is, look at my Sydney. My little boy is a high-powered lawyer in New York, who makes who knows how much money. My Sydney goes to therapy three times a week, pays ich veis vifel – top dollar they say – and he talks about nothing else but me! Now, that’s a ziskeit [sweetheart] for you,” she kvels.
And then of course there is the Jewish mother-in-law…
Where all these images came from I don’t know. Some attribute the demonizing of the Jewish mother to feminist anthropologist Margaret Mead, who persuaded the American Jewish Committee to fund research at Columbia University on the European shtetl. Interviews with 128 European-born Jews who had immigrated to the United States demonstrated a range of different family experiences. But the anthropologists who wrote up the study and published it in the 1950s, in frequently cited books and articles, placed a “nagging, whining and malingering” mother at the center of the shtetl family. They reported that these mothers gave their children unshakable love but anchored it in “boundless suffering.” They retold this folktale: “A young man begs his mother for her heart, which his betrothed has demanded as a gift; having torn it out of his mother’s proffered breast, he races away with it; and as he stumbles, the heart falls to the ground, and he hears it question protectively, ‘Did you hurt yourself, my son?’”
Regardless of its root, this stereotype like all stereotypes is based on myth and is as far as it gets from the true nature of the quintessential Jewish mother.
If you want an accurate description of a true Jewish mother – the first matriarch in history – read the story of our mother Sarah.
A “mother” is not a trivial title. The Talmud (Berachot 16b) makes it clear that only four women can be called matriarchs, and Sarah is the first of them.
Many virtuous attributes are identified with the immortal Jewish mother Sarah:
Purity
Piety
Beauty
Modesty
Wisdom
Courage
Inspiring
Role model
Spiritual
Visionary
Princess
Above all, she was seamless. The opening verse of this week’s Torah portion captures the consistency of Sarah’s life: “And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years.” Why is the word “years” repeated three times? To teach us:
“that every digit is to be expounded upon individually: when she was one hundred years old, she was like a twenty-year-old in piety. And when she was twenty, she was like a seven-year-old in beauty” (Rashi from Midrash Bereishit Rabba 58:1).
What made this first Jewish matriarch tick? How did she maintain her integrity through all the ups and downs of her and Abraham’s life – and there were many: from the brink of death in Ur Kasdim through Lech Lecho, from the battles to the abduction by Pharaoh and Avimelech, from the challenges at home with Ishmael to the anguish of childlessness most of her life – Sarah never wavered from her innocence, piety and commitment.
The secret of the Jewish mother can be found in the Aishet Chayil – in the final chapter of book of Proverbs (Mishlei), which we lovingly recite and sing every Friday night. This hymn, which corresponds to the twenty-two letters of the alef beit (the Hebrew alphabet) was said about the Matriarch Sarah, from aleph to tav (Midrash Tehillim 112:1).
Without entering into an analysis of each verse, their underlying theme is one of transcendence. True virtue and dedication is invisible at the moment, but its impact becomes obvious with time.
A mother is – and therefore builds – life’s foundation. A foundation holds up the entire structure, but is undetectable to the eye. At the time a true mother’s counsel may not always be appreciated. When trouble brewed at home threatening her son Isaac, Sarah, not Abraham, insisted on a course of action that distressed her devout husband and he is reluctant to comply with, until G-d intervenes and tells Abraham “Whatever Sarah your wife says you shall listen” (Genesis 21:12).
And why? Because “Isaac shall be called your seed.” Sarah understood, with the intuitive knowledge that comes from the innermost depths of the soul that only a mother can understand, what is right for the future. Sarah was able to transcend the momentary discomfort of the present and build an everlasting future, which can be appreciated only over the years.
What is most remarkable is the fact that the more times passes the greater we can appreciate Sarah’s contributions.
The Jewish people today exist due to Sarah’s selfless dedication and wisdom in ensuring Isaac’s physical and spiritual welfare. Had she not insisted or had Abraham prevailed, all of history would have changed!
How many people can claim the same?
Her candle does not go out at night. Even when the sun sets and hope may seem lost, even when no one can see through the darkness, the mother’s flame is never extinguished. She watches over her child and her family. Who can ever measure the countless hours a mother spends silently caring and praying for her family; the innumerable little messages she gives her child through life? She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Strength and honor are her clothing, she smiles at the future. Things are not always, or perhaps never, clear in the present. But the mother’s strength and honor look ahead and beyond, and then return to infuse the life today with the wisdom and smile of tomorrow. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the lesson of kindness is on her tongue.
Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears G-d shall be praised. We identify beauty today with externals. The cosmetic and garment industry. Inner beauty is not quite as appreciated. The true mother is beautiful within and without. She is beautiful and she transcends beauty. She is a princess (as the name Sarah implies, “sar”) – first a princess to Abraham and her nation (“sarai” with a yud, my princess), then a princess to the world (“Sarah” with a heh – Berachot 13a).
No wonder that Isaac recognized his wife’s beauty when he compared her to his mother.
And Isaac brought her to the tent of Sarah his mother. He brought her to the tent, and behold, she was Sarah his mother; i.e., she became the likeness of Sarah his mother, for as long as Sarah was alive, a candle burned from one Sabbath eve to the next, a blessing was found in the dough, and a cloud was bound to the tent. When Sarah died, these things ceased, and when Rebecca arrived, they resumed (Rashi from Midrash Bereishit Rabba 60:16).
Many people today may look for a spouse that is everything but their mother (I suspect because of the stereotypes above). Isaac, however, was blessed with a true Yiddishe Mamme – someone who you want to emulate in every way.
Is their a greater tribute than that?
Indeed, being associated with Sarah was such a blessing that even:
“the letter yud of Sarai, which was removed from her name, stood and cried for many years until Yehoshua (Joshua) ben Nun came and G-d added it to his name” (Sanhedrin 107a). The letter yud flew before the throne of the Holy One, and said, “Master of the Universe, ‘have You taken me out of the name of the righteous Sarah because I am the smallest of the letters?’ The Holy One replied, ‘in the past you were at the end of a woman’s name, now I shall place you at the beginning of a man’s name: Yehoshua” (Bereishit Rabbah 47:1).
Sarah’s impact was so far reaching that even one letter from her name gave Joshua the power to lead the Jewish people into the Promised Land.
These are the attributes of the first Jewish Matriarch, Sarah, and those of every true Jewish mother.
A true Yiddishe mamme is one of the most powerful and complex figures in life. She serves as a pillar of unwavering strength, while remaining mostly invisible. Think of the love and confidence that a mother instills in her newborn child as she cradles him. As a mother’s loving eyes meets the eyes of her child, what message is being conveyed? Is there a more powerful image of nurturing, yet one that is so understated?
Many indispensable lessons can be gleaned from Sarah the mother. Especially today – coined by some as the dysfunctional age, with families in crisis, marriage in disarray, and so many of us in search of a mother (and father) – it would be wise to study Sarah’s life and dedication. She was, after all, a success story…
Practically speaking, one of the legacies Sarah left us, actually three legacies, are the three virtues manifest in her tent: A candle burned from one Sabbath eve to the next, a blessing was found in the dough, and a cloud was bound to the tent. They represent the three pillars upon which every healthy home should be built:
1) Lighting Shabbat and Yom Tov candles, every Friday before sunset – ushering in the sanctity of Shabbat into the home and world, illuminating the environment with holy and spiritual light.
2) Kosher – eating refined food. We assume what we consume.
3) Family Purity – ensuring the sanctity of intimacy (see Zohar 1:102b).
Sarah teaches us how every good wife and mother can transform her home and family with these three bedrocks, and thereby infuse all our lives with deeper meaning.
Never underestimate the power of the Jewish mother – the Yiddishe mamme – as she subtly builds an eternal edifice. She brings, in her own silent way, gentle warmth into the home, whispering prayers and blessings as she waves her hands and covers her eyes during candle lighting; she quietly instills tender love in her “dough;” she elevates the inner spirit of her home through a heightened state of sublime sensuality and intimacy, driven by subtlety, modesty and sanctity.
Another Sarah, the mother of a dear friend and selfless builder of Jewish life, passed away last week. From the ashes of the Holocaust she and her husband built an extraordinary family, dedicated to the eternity of the Jewish people. No stretch is needed to see parallels between the two Sarah’s.
The Jewish mother: She smiles at the future.
Sarah (1802-1675 bce) passed away 3683 years ago, but we talk about her till this very day. Not only about her per se – but about what she built.
No doubt the same can be said about Sarah daughter of Yekusiel Yehuda.
Tags: inspiration, beauty, story, Jewish nation, human value, women, family, personal growth
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July 30th, 2015
The theme, in this week’s Torah portion, the destruction of the wicked cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, is simple enough: These two cities were destroyed due to the exceptional cruelty of their citizens. The classical story of corruption and its consequences.
But is this the entire story?
Upon reading the elaborate details of the narrative – the way G-d debates whether to reveal His plans to Abraham; the Divine “descent” to confirm the wickedness of Sodom; dispatching an angel to destroy the city; the extensive efforts exerted to save Lot, in the merit of his uncle Abraham; Abraham’s intervention, pleading to save Sodom – it is quite apparent that there is much more going on than just the demise of another corrupt city.
And what exactly was Sodom’s terrible crime, causing an “outcry…so great, and their sin so very grave,” that led to them being singled out for such unprecedented destruction? Was there no other corrupt city in history that deserved punishment?
There is an inexplicable Midrash that only accentuates the mystery of Sodom:
“It is written I found my servant David. Where did G-d find him? In Sodom”!! (Bereishit Rabbah 41:4; 50:10).
True, the Midrash explains that Lot and his daughters are the ancestors of David: Ruth the Moabite and Na’amah the Amonite, whose progenitors were Lot’s two daughters, which means in effect that David originated from forbearers who lived for a while in Sodom. But, what is the point of emphasizing this seemingly irrelevant, and even demeaning, detail?! David was not born in Sodom and never lived in Sodom (which was destroyed long before he was born). What is the Midrash trying to tell us, and why is it important to know that G-d found David, of all places in… Sodom?!
Finally, and above all: Every detail in Torah is meant to be a relevant guide for our lives. What lesson do we learn from Sodom’s destruction today? Why is it important for us to know all the fine particulars of the story?
Looking closer at the Torah’s account we find that the Sodom story actually begins earlier, in last week’s portion. There we learn about Abraham’s long trek to Canaan – what would become the Promised Land of Israel – together with his wife Sarah (still named Sarai at the time), his nephew Lot, all their belongings and “all the souls that they had made” [brought closer to G-d]. The verse then tells us how a feud broke out between the herdsmen of Abraham’s and Lot’s flocks. Abraham suggests to his nephew, “Let us not feud…for we are brothers after all. If you [go to] the left, I will go to the right; if to the right, I will take the left. Lot looked up and saw that the entire Jordan Plain, all the way to Tzoar had plenty of water. (This was before G-d destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) It was like G-d’s own garden.” Lot thus chose to go East and settle in the Plain and he “migrated as far as Sodom.”
The Torah then adds “But the people of Sodom were very wicked, and they sinned against G-d.” – Here is the first time Sodom is mentioned.
The story continues: War broke out between the “four kings against the five,” the five including Sodom and Gomorrah, in the Siddim Valley (now the Dead Sea). The four kings were victorious and seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as capturing Abraham’s nephew Lot, who was living in Sodom.
When Abraham hears that his nephew was taken captive, he pursues the four kings and successfully attacks and recovers all the goods, as well as Lot and the people. The story concludes with the King of Sodom asking Abraham:
“Give me the souls. You can take the goods.” And Abraham replied that he does not want the goods: “Not a thread nor a shoelace! I will not take anything that is yours! You should not be able to say, ‘It was I who made Abram rich.’”
The Torah, above all, is not a story or history book; it is the Divine blueprint of existence and a spiritual guide for our lives. What part of the cosmic order is mapped out by this intricate story Lot’s capture and release, the war with Sodom and Abraham’s involvement?
In a masterful and eloquent fashion, the great 16th century scholar and mystic, Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, known as the Shaloh (1565-1630), explains the inside story beginning with a fundamental question:
Abraham’s journey to Israel was essentially a spiritual ascent to new Divine heights. Why then did he associate himself and took along the wicked Lot in this journey?! [As we see above, that Lot could not coexist peacefully with Abraham, and the Torah emphasizes more than once how he “separated” from Abraham and only then did G-d reveal Himself and spoke to Abraham about the Promised Land].
The Shaloh cites the answer of the Zohar (I 79a): What did Abraham see that caused him to bond with Lot? He foresaw with Ruach Hakodesh that Lot would merit to be the forbearer of David” (Lot’s daughter would give birth to Moab, the ancestor of Ruth, grandmother of David).
But this, says the Shaloh, requires explanation: What connection does David have to our present story?
Quoting the Ramban (Nachmanides), the Shaloh explains that “Know this fundamental principle:
All the journeys and events that happened with the Patriarchs [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] come to teach us about the future…they were shown what would happen to their descendants. For this reason the Torah documents in detail the experiences that transpired with the Patriarchs. No one should think that these are superfluous details; they actually pave the way and map out all the future events that would transpire with their children throughout history. There is nothing that happened to Abraham that would later not occur with his children (Ramban Lech Lecho 12:6).
The same is true with Abraham’s battling the four kings to free Lot and the goods they captured:
“This story happened with Abraham to foretell and show us that there would rise four major empires – Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman (represented by the four kings) – that would dominate history. But the end would be that his [Abraham’s] children would prevail over the empires. They would all fall and the children would end up redeeming all the possessions and hostages they had taken captive.
As we see, a bit further in the story, how G-d makes His covenant with Abraham, telling him:
“Know for sure that your descendants will foreigners in a land that is not theirs for 400 years. They will be enslaved and oppressed. But I will finally bring judgment against the nation who enslaves them, and they will then leave with great wealth.” And this transpires “as the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and a deep dark dread fell upon him.”
The “deep dark dread” that befell Abraham resulted from the vision shown to Abraham of the future powerful empires that would control and terrorize the world, each in their own way: the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman (and Ishmaelite) empires.
The great 15th century Kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria (known as the holy Arizal) explains that these empires – that extend over the entire span of history – represent the different stages of refinement (birur) that we achieve throughout the generations. Everything in our material existence contains Divine ‘sparks,’ i.e. spiritual energy, and we are charged with the mission to redeem and elevate these sparks, and thereby refine the material universe and transform it into its true purpose: a vehicle for spiritual expression.
Beginning with the enslavement by the Egyptian empire – the archetype and root (‘head’) of all the exiles and empires – each subsequent empire symbolizes another stage of refinement in integrating G-dliness into the material world. The process concludes with the refinement of the last two powers, Edom (Esau) and Ishmael, which leads to the Messianic age – a world where there will be no more destruction and terror and all children of Abraham serve the One G-d of Abraham in peace and harmony (see Abraham’s Vision).
This, the Shaloh explains, is the meaning of the Zohar’s brief words that Abraham bonded with Lot because he foresaw “that Lot would merit to be the forbearer of David:”
Lot and his descent into wicked Sodom – and his being captured by the four kings – represents the captivity that each of us experiences as we are taken hostage (physically and/or, even worse, psychologically) by the “empires” around us and the powerful tentacles of material existence, which want to crush our hope in building a better world and bringing spiritual redemption to the world.
But the purpose of this captivity is for us to prevail over the dominant forces of existence and redeem the “great wealth,” the powerful Divine sparks that lay trapped and embedded in the material universe, with the ultimate redemption led by Moshiach son of David, descendant of Lot.
Abraham knew that the stakes were high: Through freeing Lot from the hands of the kings, and then again when he was saved by the angel from Sodom’s destruction, Abraham’s children were empowered through the ages to free the different shapes of “Lot” trapped in the various manifestations of “Sodom” that would crop up in each generation. And by doing so, we give birth to the redemption (David).
Abraham knew that in the throes and abyss of “Sodom” laid great power, and when redeemed, “Sodom” would yield an enormous spiritual bounty. Thus, Abraham immediately laid everything on the line to free Lot from captivity. Abraham also attempted to save the entire city. At the time that was not meant to be; the city was simply too corrupt. But in the end of days, Ezekiel (16:55) tells us “Sodom with her daughters will return to their former state,” meaning the spiritual energy redeemed from Sodom – Moshiach ben Dovid.
This is the meaning of the Midrash cited above, “where did G-d find him [David]? In Sodom,” referring to Moshiach son of David. When the angels come to save Lot and his family from Sodom, they used a strange expression: “Take your wife and two daughters who are found here.” The word “found” (nimzoas) is superfluous and cryptic. Explains the Midrash that “found” implies something lost. The expression “found” is also used regarding David, “I found David my servant,” referring to Moshiach (from the House of David), who will be “found” in a strange place, as if he came out of nowhere. According to the Midrash, the verse “take your wife and two daughters who are found here” is referring to two important discoveries: Ruth the Moabite and Na’amah the Amonite, whose ancestors were Lot’s two daughters. These two daughters would be the progenitors of David and Moshiach. Thus, “the two daughters who are found here” is telling us that in the darkness of Sodom there is to be “found” – unexpectedly – Moshiach from the House of David (see also Talmud Yevamot 63a. 77a. Zohar I 110b).
How is this to be translated into our own lives?
Sodom’s grave sin was their perverted philosophy of life. The various crimes of Sodom are documented: The very name Sodom carries multiple connotations of a culture of inhospitality and moral indifference that degenerated into social oppression. Cruelty to each other and to strangers. Obsession not to help one another. Sexual depravity. But these are all symptoms. Beneath it all lay a fundamental offense – which is the root of all crimes and which underscores Sodom’s unique form of corruption that causes them to be singled out in the Torah.
In various places in the Talmud1 we find the expression “coerce them [not to behave] with the characteristic of Sodom.” That cruel characteristic is depriving someone of benefit even when you have nothing to lose. “Zeh nehneh v’zeh lo chosor.”
In Ethics of Our Fathers, the Mishne (Avot 5:13) brings two opinions: One who says ‘what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours’ – is an average quality. The second opinion states that this is “midas (the quality of) Sodom.”
The Tzemach Tzedek explains the two opinions:2 Opinion one holds that a Sodom characteristic is only when you deny another a benefit though you lose nothing (as the Talmud states). But if you have something to lose, even just a bit, it is not optimal behavior, but neither can we characterize you as Sodom. Thus, one who declares ‘what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours’ (in order not to incur a loss) is merely an average quality (not good not bad).
The second opinion, however, maintains that even if you have something to lose, the mere statement ‘what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours’ undermines the basic infrastructure of existence – a symbiotic relationship between a countless amount of diverse forces and systems.
If every aspect of nature and ecosystem, or every cell and faculty in our own bodies, would take on the attitude of ‘what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours’ – we would be left, G-d forbid, with utter annihilation. This is the psychological manifestation of Sodom – which led to its total demise.
Similarly, the lifeline of every community, state or country, and every economy or other system – especially in the increasingly shrinking global village of our world today – is dependent on the “give and take” of different strengths and contributions, all complementing each other in a mosaic-like symmetry. The antithesis of ‘what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours.’
Sodom-like isolationism lies at the heart and root of all other Sodom’s sins. The destruction of Sodom is, in a way, more a result from the ‘what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours’ attitude than from their outright criminal behavior.
Abraham represents ultimate unity – harmony of diverse forces. Sodom – and the hostages it took (represented by Lot) – symbolizes utter compartmentalization. Yet within the darkness of Sodom “David” can be found. And that is what Abraham was after.
We too, today, live in a world where he have both options. The spiritually displaced state called “exile” is a result of divisiveness (baseless hatred, sinas chinam). The divisiveness manifests in interpersonal relationships, but it always begins with an intrapersonal (an inner) dissonance.
Abraham’s encounter with Sodom teaches and empowers us to access the pioneering spirit “Abraham” within each of us and fight the urge of ‘what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours,’ and definitely the one that refuses to allow another to gain even when we have nothing to lose.
The “Abraham” within also gives us the power to “find” the “David-like” gems embedded in “Lot” within ourselves and within others.
And finally, prepare the way to discover personal and global redemption in, of all places, Sodom.
——–
1) See for example: Eruvin 49a. Baba Basra 12b. Kesubos 103a.
2) Ohr HaTorah on this week’s Parsha 99a. See also Hemshech Ayin Beis vol. 1 pp. 480; 487; 501.
Tags: mystical, economy, good and evil, psychology, body and soul, redemption, Abraham, Moshiach, Torah, politics, spiritual
Posted in Weekly Parsha, Bereishit, Beliefs & Concepts, Vayeira, Social, Sexuality, Moshiach & Redemption, Torah | 2 Comments »
July 30th, 2015
A Passover 2007 Dispatch
Did you hear about Israel’s latest plan to polish its image for the American public?
Girls.
Yes, you heard that right.
The Israeli government and other pro-Israeli groups recently commissioned Maxim magazine to fly a camera crew across the Atlantic to photograph good-looking women in an effort to remake the Jewish state’s public image. These photographs would become part of PR campaign to help correct Israel’s tarnished image in the eyes of Americans.
You see, Israel’s reputation had suffered after last summer’s war with Lebanon. Newsweek reports, that in a recent BBC poll taken in 27 countries, 56 percent of respondents considered Israel a “negative influence” in the world, higher than both Iran and the United States. But Israel’s real PR problem, according to David Saranga, an official from the Israeli consul based in New York, is that Americans—particularly men aged 18 to 35—either associate the country with war or holy relics, or don’t think of it at all. “We have to find the right hook,” he says. “And what’s relevant to men under 35? Good-looking women.” Saranga insists his campaign is just smart niche marketing. “You have to match the message to the audience,” the diplomat says.
It just makes you want to cry.
Israel – the Holy Land – is being sold as a land of flesh and skin instead of a land of milk and honey; a land of bodies instead of a land of souls.
Historically, Israel has always been the world’s spiritual center. It is the birthplace of faith; the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The entire Biblical story is around the Promised Land: From the early promises to the patriarchs, through the terrible Egyptian bondage, through the hardships of the 40 year wandering in the Sinai Wilderness – the entire journey from the beginning of Abraham to the end of the Bible and beyond – is all a yearning to reach the Promised Land.
With Jerusalem at its center, Israel is considered to be the holiest place on earth. The sages tell us that all our prayers elevate to heaven via Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The greatest events in history took place on this mountain: It is the spot from where Adam was created; where Noah brought his offering; Abraham bound Isaac; Jacob had his famous dream, the place where the Holy Temple stood – the Holy of Holies; the area that till today remains the center for billions of people. All the major religions trace their roots to Israel, and Jerusalem as their holy city. How many wars have been fought over control of Jerusalem for the last three millennia?
Now, this spiritual vortex, source of all the world’s spiritual beliefs, is being rendered into a… flesh-peddler.
How could this be? How is this possible? How could the Israeli leadership be so patently callous and blind to the nature of their Holy Land?
Will this elicit respect from Americans and the world, not to mention the Muslims who worship the sanctity of Israel?!
Did anyone in the Israeli ivory tower ever consider that maybe, just maybe, the United States and the world looks to Israel and the Jewish people as a source of faith, G-dliness, spirituality and moral direction?
Wouldn’t that be nice?
Maybe that’s why Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has a lower approval rating than the margin of error: 3% (sic).
The spiritual and moral corruption to which the Israeli leadership has fallen is simply staggering. The saddest part of it all is that its unintentional: These leaders are so out of touch with the reality of the Holy Land – due to their lack of education, political corruption, backlash to bankrupt religious dogma, or other factors – that they simply are unaware of the strength and power of the Promised Land.
But the good news is that when things become so terribly distorted, when flesh is so blatantly juxtaposed over faith, it brings to the fore the stark contrast between the holiness of the land and the depravity of those controlling its destiny.
When you hit rock bottom the only way to go is up.
What would Israel look like with a proud spiritual leader? If in Israel today arose a leader with deep faith and profound vision – someone carrying the spirit of the patriarch Abraham – what impact would it have on Israel’s Muslim neighbors? How would that affect the region?
How would the world react if Israel would be exporting all things spiritual – “From Zion will go out Torah and the word of G-d from Jerusalem”?
Perhaps these are the questions that Israel’s latest “flesh” campaign should be provoking?
As we celebrate faith during this Passover holiday, we certainly have our hands (minds and hearts) full with questions challenging the nature and future of the Divine, and the role it plays in our lives: How do we rediscover faith today, both here and the Holy Land? What is the true nature of Israel and its contribution to society? What is healthy faith and how can it be a force that overshadows the distractions of materialism?
What will be the right hook to capture the hearts and souls of Americans and the world to appreciate the virtues of Israel?
What will be the primary export of Zion?
Will it be flesh or faith?
“We have to find the right hook.” Indeed.
Tags: Jerusalem, politics, Spirituality, sexuality, Israel
Posted in Israel, Months & Holidays, Passover, Beliefs & Concepts, Exile, Social, Sexuality, Torah, Nisan, Current Events | No Comments »
July 30th, 2015
Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days” (This week’s Torah portion, genesis 49:1)
Jacob showed (revealed to) them the wars that would take place at the end of days [in Babylon (Basra) and Edom – Isaiah 34:5-6], he showed them the building and destruction of the Temples (Midrash, Bereishis Rabba 98:2)
Babylon – modern day Iraq – is in the news yet again. And so is Nebuchadnezzar, its leader. You see, Saddam Hussein, executed in a most humiliated fashion last Saturday, modeled himself after his predecessor, the king Nebuchadnezzar who ruled Babylon in the 6th century BCE.
Though Saddam Hussein was vanquished several years ago, and this tyrant who once terrorized millions and paralyzed his country in fear has long become insignificant, his being symbolizes so much of the essence of Babylon, and his execution represents a stage in the demise of Nebuchadnezzarian power.
We are taught that “the heart of kings and ministers are in the hands of G-d” (based on the verse in Proverbs (21:1): “The king’s heart is in the hand of G-d, as the rivers of water: He turns it whatever way He wills”). Thus, the rise and fall of world leaders, whether noble or cruel, signifies a major event – a key milestone in the narrative of history. Indeed, our sages and mystics always read much meaning into the historical and spiritual shifts defined by the death of the kings and leaders of nations.
The toppling of Saddam’s reign and now, his recent execution, is a benchmark in the bigger, cosmic picture. Especially considering that Saddam was not just another leader, but (in his own words) an incarnate of Nebuchadnezzar, and Iraq is not just another nation, but the perpetuation of ancient Babylon, and indeed the root of all civilization: The Garden of Eden, Abraham’s birthplace, the Tower of Babel and more (click here for a comprehensive list of the Babylonian past).
In case we should for some reason overlook this significance, it’s impossible to ignore the key dates marking Saddam’s fall, capture and execution:
- Gulf War I – which resulted from Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 – ended on Shushan Purim, when the Jews experienced a major victory precisely in that same region in the times of Persian King Achashverosh, who replaced Nebuchadnezzar (and his grandson, Babylonian King Belshazzar). Though Hussein was not toppled at the time, in retrospect, 1990 was the beginning of his end.
- Gulf War II (in March 2003) began on Purim. See Shushan War.
- Saddam Hussein was captured on Yud Tes Kislev (December 2003) – a powerful day of liberation, which symbolizes the beginning of a new stage in the sublimation of “Esau” and “Ishmael,” the forbearers of the Western and Muslim world respectively – see Kislev 19 in Babylon.
- Hussein was executed on the on the 9th of Teves, one day before we commemorate the beginning of the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Saddam’s great mentor. On the 10th of Teves 2400 years ago Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, eventually destroying the First Temple, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Jews, and sending the rest into exile. The 10th of Teves has since been established as a fast day among the Jewish people.
Many of the major milestones in history can easily remain unnoticed, like the forest that is overlooked because of our focus on the local trees. As we live through our lives moment by moment we tend to ignore the underlying big picture of the human chronicle.
We therefore are blessed with minds, with the power of insight, to look beyond the superficial, to peer beneath the surface. Often, as if an invisible hand is helping us along, certain outstanding patterns will emerge.
Is it possible to dismiss the geography and the dates that mark the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein?
“My enemies have made me wise,” says the Psalmist.
To understand the historical significance of Hussein’s end, we can learn much from his own representation.
In 1979, Hussein was quoted by his semi-official biographer as saying: “Nebuchadnezzar stirs in me everything relating to pre-Islamic ancient history. And what is most important to me about Nebuchadnezzar is the link between the Arabs’ abilities and the liberation of Palestine. Nebuchadnezzar was, after all, an Arab from Iraq, albeit ancient Iraq. … That is why whenever I remember Nebuchadnezzar I like to remind the Arabs, Iraqis in particular, of their historical responsibilities. It is a burden that should… spur them into action because of their history.”
And indeed, Hussein’s final words, as the trapdoor opened beneath him, “Palestine is Arab!” tell us about his innermost feelings. Despite the noose around his humiliated neck and the taunts of his captors, he didn’t forget his most innate instincts about Israel. Even without an in depth Freudian analysis it’s quite clear that Saddam was obsessed with the destruction of Israel. Who can forget those dark days in 1991 when Saddam Hussein, unprovoked, was shooting Scud missiles at Israel, or his bankrolling of Palestinian suicide bombers?
But what lies at the heart of his obsession? Indeed, what is root of Nebuchadnezzar’s drive to conquer Jerusalem and destroy the Holy Temple? And later –
the Romans, the Ottomans, and earlier – the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Crusaders – basically every empire and superpower throughout history felt compelled to attack, conquer and destroy Jerusalem and then turn it either into ruins or into a city in their own “pagan” image.
Why did Roman Emperor Hadrian insist on renaming Israel “Palestina,” obliterating its Jewish past and replacing it with the derogatory name that means “foreign invaders? And renaming Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina,” dedicating the city to the Roman gods of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva?
The root of the battle between Babylon and Israel – and the universal obsession with Israel, Jerusalem and the Holy Temple – can be understood by studying their Hebrew names. Hebrew is a metaphorical language; a spiritual language. Each word is filled with layers of meaning and spiritual significance, and each Hebrew name expresses and reflects the essence of the entity that goes by that name.
Babylon means confusion.
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 (Genesis 11:9).
Babylon represents the chaos and confusion of life – both physical and psychological.
Israel is the name given to Jacob by Esau’s arch-angel, after they struggled all night long, meaning “you have struggled with the divine and with man and you have triumphed” (Genesis 32:29).
Jerusalem is comprised of two words: “Yirah-Shalom,” complete awe.
As the spiritual epicenter of the universe – the “gate to heaven” – all the nations throughout history sensed the power surging from the vortex. They therefore felt (con or unconsciously) that controlling Israel and Jerusalem was the key to controlling the world.
Conversely, as the center of the universe, Israel and Jerusalem – like the central cosmic nervous system – was the first to become aware of how broken the world is without its soul connection. The Holy Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was left barren and lonely because the world had disconnected from its purpose.
Babylon and Jerusalem cannot co-exist. Similar to the Esau/Jacob dissonance captured in the verse (Ezekiel 26:2): “I shall become full from the destroyed city,” Tyre became full [gained power] only from the destruction of Jerusalem, they will not be equal in greatness; when one rises, the other will fall (Megillah 6a. Pesachim 42b). When Babylon-confusion prevails the complete awe of Jerusalem and the spiritual dominance of Israel is compromised and hurt, or even destroyed. When the spiritual clarity of Jerusalem (and Israel) is at full strength confusion melts away.
Therein lays the obsession of Saddam Hussein, King of Babylon, and all those before him: They represent the forces that resist and battle the complete and seamless integration of spirit and matter represented by Israel and Jerusalem.
Babylon was a source of chaos 2400 years ago, and even farther back – 3800 years ago (when the Tower of Babel was built), and continues to plague the world till this very day. Good old Iraq – Babylon – will just not go away easily. (see Iraq – Yesterday and Today).
Christianity (born out of the Esau, ancestor of the Roman/Western world) has over the centuries slowly learned to temper religious intolerance and integrate faith with respect of individual rights. Today, Islam (born out of Ishmael, forbearer of the Arab/Muslim world) has to come to terms with balancing religious passions and life in a material world.
Saddam Hussein, like his hero Nebuchadnezzar before him, represented the blunt force of Babylonian chaos.
Now, Saddam Hussein’s hanging on the day before the 10th of Teves, marks another stage in the decline of Babylonian strength. Hopefully, this will lead to the total conquest over the Babylonian quagmire, replaced by the Jerusalemite spiritual awe.
In personal terms, this should stir us all to muster strength to battle our own inner turmoil and confusion. As we enter a new stage in history, we have the opportunity to access our inner “Israel” which empowers us to battle the forces of the divine (within Esau) and of man and to triumph.
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Question for the week: What do you do when you get confused?
Tags: Israel, Gulf War, Jerusalem, Middle East, purim
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