Dealing with Adversity

February 26th, 2015

by Simon Jacobson

There are four different approaches in dealing with adversity:

1) Escapists
2) Conformists
3) Fighters
4) Believers

Which type are you?

Would you believe that all four options are limited?

The first time in history when a people were “stuck between a rock and a hard place” was when the Jewish people stood before the Reed Sea with the Egyptians pursuing them close behind. What to do? The people were divided into four groups:

Some said: “Let’s jump into the sea; it’s simply not worth the effort.”

Others argued with resignation: “We should return to Egypt where we lived for so many years. True, we were enslaved, but anything is better than this stuck place where we will either be killed by the Egyptians or drown in the sea. And besides, a know evil is better than an unknown one. The challenges of life are just too overwhelming. Conformity, surrender, assimilation is the only realistic option.”

Yet another group felt: “Let us go to war with the Egyptians.”

And finally the “religionists: stated: “Let us pray to God”
All were wrong. Not only conformity and escapism, but also battle and prayer are not complete options. Was life given to us so that we spend most of our time at war? And is prayer enough when faced with challenge? We are blessed with resources to deal with every challenge. So coupled with prayer we must do our utmost to rise to the occasion.

What was the correct approach: “Move forward.“

And when they did, the sea parted before them.

G-d told them: “I who have given you life, and promised you that you can and will achieve your objectives and reach Sinai and the Promised Land, have also given you all the faculties and resources necessary to fulfill your life’s mission.

“When faced with challenge, with adversity, with the difficulties each of us encounter in life, instead of spending time ruminating about any or all of these four options, instead of being paralyzed by doubt, FORGE AHEAD. Movement is the key to success. Moving forward will bring a breakthrough. How we may not always know. But move – and things will open up.

Tags: movement, challenges, Exodus from Egypt
Posted in Months & Holidays, Passover, Torah, Nisan | 2 Comments »

Community

February 26th, 2015

And G-d said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying:

“… Speak to the entire congregation of Israel … and they shall take for themselves, every man, a lamb for each family, a lamb for each house…. And you shall hold it in safekeeping until the fourteenth day of this month; and the entire community of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it toward evening…. And they shall eat the meat that night, roasted by fire, with matzahs and bitter herbs….”

Exodus 12:1-8

Man is a lonely creature. No other inhabitant of G-d’s world harbors a sense of individuality as pronounced and as determined as that cultivated by the human being; no other creature perceives itself as apart and distinct of its fellows as we do.

Yet we are also the most social of creatures, weaving intricate webs of familial and communal relationships in our quest for validation and acceptance by others. Never content to merely be ourselves, we group by profession, class, nationality and other providers of a self-definition that transcends the personal.

If we are aware of a contradiction between our individual and communal identities, this does not lessen our need and striving for both. For while we are convinced that we are what we make of ourselves, we also know that alone, we are less than what we are and can be. In the words of the great sage Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I?”[1]

The Passover Offering

Hillel’s paradox confronts us in countless guises every day of our lives. In Hillel’s own life, it took the form of a question of Torah law that was instrumental in his ascension to the leadership of his people: Should the Passover offering be brought when the 14th of Nissan falls on Shabbat?

When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, the primary vehicle of man’s service of his Creator were the korbanot (animal and meal offerings) offered on its altar to G-d. The korbanot fall under two general categories:

a) “Individual offerings” (korbanot yachid) brought by private citizens, such as the “generosity offering” brought as a donation, the “thanksgiving offering” brought to express one’s gratitude to G-d for a personal salvation, or the “sin offering” brought to atone for a transgression.

b) “Communal offerings” (korbanot tzibbur), such as the daily morning and afternoon offerings brought by the people of Israel as a whole from a fund to which every Jew contributed an annual half-shekel.

While most offerings belong completely to one class or the other, the Passover offering straddles both categories. On the one hand, it possesses certain features (such as the fact that it is purchased with private funds and eaten by those who brought it) which would define it as an individual offering; on the other hand, there are things about it that are characteristic of the communal offering (such as the fact that it is brought en masse by “the entire community of the congregation of Israel”[2]).

When the 14th of Nissan—the day on which the Passover offering is brought—falls on a Shabbat, the question of its categorization becomes crucial. Torah law forbids the bringing of individual offerings on Shabbat, but permits and obligates the bringing of communal offerings.[3] Should the Passover offering be regarded as an “individual offering” which cannot be brought on Shabbat, or as a “communal offering” whose obligation supersedes the prohibition of work on the day of rest?

The Talmud relates that one year when Nissan 14 fell on Shabbat, the leaders of the Sanhedrin (highest court of Torah law) were unable to resolve the question of whether the Passover offering should be brought. Hillel, a scholar newly arrived in the Holy Land from Babylonia, demonstrated that the communal aspect of the Passover offering is its more dominant element, meaning that it should be offered also when its appointed time coincides with Shabbat. In recognition of his superior scholarship, the leaders of the Sanhedrin stepped down and appointed Hillel as their head.[4]

Isaiah and Jeremiah

Echoing Moses’ description of the Exodus as a time when G-d “took a nation from the womb of a nation,”[5] the prophet Ezekiel describes the event as the “birth” of the Jewish people.[6] Before the Exodus, the Jews shared a common ancestry, culture and heritage, but they did not constitute a nation; on that first Passover, the entity “Israel” was born.

Passover can thus be seen as representing the ascendancy of the communal over the individual—the point at which numerous distinct personalities surrendered to a common mission and identity. Indeed, as Hillel showed, in the Passover offering it is the communal element which dominates and determines the halachic status of the korban.

So why isn’t the Passover offering a full-fledged communal offering like the others? Why is it a hybrid of the individual and the communal, in which both elements find expression and vie for supremacy? Because the purpose of forging many individuals into a single people is not the obliteration of their individuality, but the inclusion of each member’s distinct personality within the communal whole. The community is not only a vehicle for the transcendence of the limitations of individuality and the attainment of goals unachievable by ego-encumbered individuals; it is also the framework within which each individual might optimally develop and realize his personal best.

Our relationship with G-d includes both “individual offerings,” which represent the devotion of our individual resources to G-d, as well as “communal offerings,” which express the surrender of our individuality to our communal mission. But the Passover offering, which played a formative role in our birth as a people, must belong to both categories.[7]

As the offering that marks the birth of the nation Israel, the Passover offering must express our commonality as G-d’s people; this is indeed its dominant theme. But it must also express the truth that even as we set aside our differences to devote ourselves to a common goal, our individual strengths and vulnerabilities continue to define us as distinct and unique entities. It must express the truth that the paradox of individuality and community is at the heart of who and what we are, and that the tension between these two strivings is a necessary and desirable component of our relationship with G-d.

Even at the very end of days, when the whole of human history culminates in the divinely perfect and harmonious age of Moshiach, this duality will continue to define our identity and nationhood. The ultimate redemption will be a communal redemption, when, as the prophet Jeremiah describes, “A great community shall return here”[8]; but it will also be the realization of Isaiah’s vision of a time when “You shall be collected, one by one, O children of Israel.”[9]

Based on the Rebbe’s talks during the month of Nissan, 5737 (1977)[10]

Adapted from the teachings of the Libavitcher Rebbe by Yanki Tauber

Tags: unity, Jewish law, sacrifices and offerings, individuality
Posted in Months & Holidays, Passover, Torah, Nisan | No Comments »

Birth

February 26th, 2015

More than progress, more than transition, the word implies a break from the past, entry into a new world, a radical transformation into something infinitely removed from the prenatal state.

Specifically, all births, whether literal or figurative, involve three phases or “movements”: self-negation, self-assertion, and self-transcendence. There is an utter departure from the prior state—“what was sealed is opened, and what was open is sealed.”[1] There is an assertion of the newborn’s own faculties and energy to achieve the birth. And there is an assumption of an entirely new mode of being—the fetus becomes a life; a “limb of the mother”[2] becomes an individual human being.

To gain a clearer understanding of the three aspects of birth, we might examine a birth of another sort—the birth of an idea in the mind of a student. Not every acquisition of knowledge constitutes a “birth”: often the new idea is but the development or derivative of an old one, or a kindred addition to a family of ideas that form an established philosophy and mindset. But then there are those ideas that mark a radical departure from the student’s prior thinking and the onset of a completely new vision and perspective.

Such a rebirth of mind requires, at the very onset, a virtual self-abnegation on the part of the student. In order to be receptive to an idea of such magnitude, the student must set aside all previous conceptions—obliterating, in effect, his very intellectual identity—so that nothing in his “old” way of thinking should interfere with his assimilation of the new idea. In the words of our sages, “an empty vessel can receive, a full vessel cannot.”[3] The Talmud relates that the great sage Rav Zeira fasted a hundred fasts in order to “forget” all he had learned in the Torah academies of Babylonia so that he might be able to acquire the methodology and approach to Torah practiced in the academies of the Holy Land.[4]

At the same time, the student must engage his intellectual faculties to absorb and digest the new idea. So his self-abnegation actually leads to an assertion of his intellectual self, as he labors to grasp the potent new thought with his own mental prowess.

Ultimately, however, the effect of the new idea is to create a new mind, whose scope and depth transcends the very tools that have assimilated it. In the very process of grasping and internalizing the idea, the student’s mind is supplanted by an intellect infinitely greater than its prior self. By severing its moorings from the womb of  previous thinking and amassing its own prowess to break out into a new intellectual world, the mind acheives a “birth”—a new identity, as  distant from its predessessor as a newborn life that has emerged from the fetal state.

And so it is with every birth, be it the birth of a new individual, a new idea, a new era, a new people. The newborn entity begins by relinquishing all that defined and comprised its former self—a move that, paradoxically, propels it to the zenith of its potential. And out of these contrasting agitations toward naught and being a new self is born, transcending and supplanting the old.

Freedom

Has such a  great thing ever been, or has the likes of it ever been known? … Has G-d ever endeavored to come and take for Himself a nation from the womb of a nation… as the L-rd your G-d has done for you in Egypt before your eyes?

Deuteronomy 4:32-34

The theme of the Exodus from Egypt as the “birth” of the Jewish nation is further developed in the prophecy of Ezekiel, and is elaborated on in the writings of our sages.[5] On the 15th of Nissan in the year 2448 (1313 bce), a new entity, the Jew, was born.

More than the development of an enslaved clan into a sovereign people, more than the entry of another member into the “family of nations,” the event marked the creation of a new phenomenon, something that “has never before been nor has the likes of it ever been known”: a nation consecrated to G-d, a people whose very identity lies in their commitment to serve the divine purpose in creation.

Standing before Pharaoh to deliver G-d’s demand that Egypt free the people of Israel, Moses does not say, “Let My people go!”; he says, “Let My people go, so that they may serve Me.”[6] For this was the essence of the Exodus. As G-d told Moses at Mount Sinai, where He first appeared to him in the burning bush and entrusted to him the mission to free the Jewish people, “When you take this nation out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain.”[7] Seven weeks after exiting Egypt, the people of Israel gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, the charter of their nationhood and their guide to making life’s every endeavor an exercise in the service of G-d.

How is this to be reconciled with our conception of Passover as the festival of freedom? Certainly, servitude to G-d is preferable to servitude to Egypt, and every pious man will insist that servitude to G-d is preferable to a hedonistic “freedom” in a lawless world. But servitude and freedom, by definition, polar opposites. If anything, Passover should be called “the festival of servitude”!

In truth, however, the journey from Egypt to Sinai was the ultimate march to freedom. Freedom is the liberty to be oneself, and to uninhibitedly realize the self’s deepest desires and aspirations. At Sinai, the essence of the Jewish soul came to light—a soul that is “literally a part of G-d above” and whose most basic desire is to cleave to its source.[8] This is the true self of the Jew; anything that obscures or hinders its realization—be it a whip-wielding taskmaster or the internal drives of the animal in man—is an imprisoning chain on his soul. The Torah, illuminating the Jew’s path to G-d and empowering him to overcome all that constrains his exercise of his quintessential will, is the key to his freedom and self-realization.

This was the entity born on Passover: a people whose “self” is defined not by society or nature, nor by the physical, emotional or intellectual garments of the soul, but by the spark of G-dliness that is the essence of man. A people to whom freedom means not the gratification of the body or the satiation of the spirit, but the realization of the soul’s quest to unite with its creator and source.

Three Names

The Torah calls it “The Festival of Matzot.” Twenty-two generations later, when the hundred and twenty members of the “Great Assembly” formulated a text for the daily and seasonal prayers,[9] they added the name, “Season of our Freedom.” Ultimately, however, the festival came to be called by the sages of the Talmud (and everyone else) by yet a third name—“Passover.”[10]

The three names of Passover reflect the three aspects of birth described above. Matzah, the unleavened bread, is the symbol of humility and self-abnegation;[11] the very first thing that the Jews in Egypt had to do was to utterly abnegate their prior existence and self-definition. They had to commit themselves to “first do and then comprehend,”[12] to relinquish their understanding and their will in “blind” obedience to G-d.

Having so done, they achieved the ultimate in self-assertion and freedom. Having cut the cord that bound them to the womb of Egypt, they found that this spelled not the annihilation of self but the realization of the self’s highest potentials. They found that a self freed of habit and convention, freed of the dictates of mind and heart, is a self enabled to maximize its faculties in its quest toward a higher state of being and self-realization.

Finally, the “Festival of Matzot” and the “Season of our Freedom” yielded “Passover”: a leap above and beyond the very parameters of their former reality, as a nation emerged from the throes of birth into a new world.

Based on an address by the Rebbe, Passover 5737 (1977)[13]

Tags: Divine energy, Exodus from Egypt, rebirth, birth
Posted in Months & Holidays, Passover, Torah, Nisan | No Comments »

Atmosphere

February 26th, 2015

In countless Jewish homes this Passover night, when the family gathers round the seder table, a child will ask the “Four Questions.” Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot – Why is this night different from all other nights? Why matzah instead of bread? Why do we eat bitter herbs? Why do we recline as we eat the matzah and drink the four cups of wine? Why dip twice this evening, dunking a bit of vegetable in salt-water and the bitter herbs in charoset (a paste of apples, nuts and wine)?

We wanted him or her to ask. In conducting the seder, we did everything possible to stimulate the child’s curiosity. Now we will tell him about our forefathers’ exodus from Egypt and our birth as a nation. We will explain how each of these observances represents various aspects of slavery, freedom, redemption and the faith of Israel.

Last Things First

The same four questions appear in every Passover Haggadah. But there are different customs regarding the order in which the questions are posed. In the Haggadah compiled by the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the order is as follows: a) the dipping; b) matzah; c) bitter herbs; d) reclining.

If we rate these four observances by order of their importance according to Jewish law (Halachah) we find that, while everything else seems to fall in place, the first question—regarding the “dipping”—should have come at the very end. The eating of matzah is mandated by the Torah and carries the full legal weight of a “biblical commandment” (mitzvah mideoraita). Not so the bitter herbs: though also mentioned in the Torah, it is supposed to be eaten together with the Passover lamb; since today—when we are still deprived of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem—our seder lacks the meat of the Passover offering, the eating of the bitter herbs is only a “rabbinical commandment” (mitzvah miderabanan), enacted by our sages in commemoration of the bitter herbs eaten in Temple times. A notch lower on the halachic scale is the practice of reclining on the seder night. This way of expressing the freedom and serenity achieved by the Exodus is a purely rabbinical institution, with no biblical origins at all.

Thus, the order of questions 2, 3 and 4 in Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s Haggadah is consistent with the order of their halachic prominence. The first question, however, seems entirely out of place—by rights, it should have been last on the list. The other three, whether from the Torah or the Rabbis, are all halachic obligations, while the practice of dipping at the seder is only a minhag, a “custom.” So why is this question given the place of honor at the head of the Four Questions?

But the child knows nothing of halachic levels of import, or of the distinction between biblical and rabbinical mitzvot. What he does know, sense, and absorb to the very core of his being is the holiness, the beauty and the joy of the Jewish home. And it is the Jewish minhag, the distinctive Jewish way of life, which captures the essence of our Jewishness – an essence which cannot be defined by legal formulas, no matter how crucial or lofty. This is what most captures the child’s attention at the seder table. This is what leaves the most powerful and enduring impression in his mind and heart.

A home may be impeccably Jewish, the laws of the Torah may be meticulously fulfilled, but if the Jewish customs are scorned, one is building a technical shell while neglecting the underlying foundation. Look at what your child asks about first, observe what most strikes his curiosity and lingers longest in his memory, and you will learn what it is that molds a child into a Jewish child.

Based on an address by the Rebbe, Passover 5716 (1956)[1]

Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber

—————————–

[1]. Likkutei Sichot, vol. I, pp. 244-246.

Tags: parenting, Jewish law, seder, Jewish customs
Posted in Passover, Months & Holidays, Torah, Nisan | No Comments »

A Talmudic Mind

February 25th, 2015

A Talmudic Mind

It was several days before Passover, and the Rabbi’s waiting room was full of people with questions about the observances of the upcoming festival.

Hesitantly, a young girl entered the Rabbi’s study. “My mother sent to ask,” she said, “whether it is permitted to use milk instead of wine for the Four Cups at the seder.”

“Just a moment,” said the Rabbi, and slipped out of the room. In the kitchen, he filled a basket with a large bottle of wine, two chickens and a generous cut of meat. He covered the basket with a cloth, returned to the waiting child, and said to her: “Tell your mother that her’s is a most difficult question, and I do not know if I will succeed in resolving it before the seder night. So in the meantime, I am sending her some wine to use instead of the milk.”

Later, when the Rabbi’s wife wondered about the depleted seder supplies, the Rabbi explained: “A poor woman sent to ask if she could use milk for the Four Cups; obviously, then, she could afford neither wine nor meat for her seder table.”

Tags: charity, tzedakah
Posted in Months & Holidays, Passover, Torah, Nisan | No Comments »

The Shaloh

February 25th, 2015

Rabbi Isaiah HaLevi Horowitz –The Shaloh (1565-1630)

Rabbi Isaiah, a community leader in Russia, Austria, Frankfurt, Prague and then Israel, wove together in lucid and contemporary language the legal, ethical and mystical dimensions of Torah in his magnum opus, the Shaloh, the first work to begin applying mysticism to modern life.

Biographical Highlights:

~1565: Born in Prague.
~ His first teacher is his father, R’ Abraham ben Shabse Sheftel HaLevi, author of many works includingEmek Brochoh, Chesed Avraham and Bris Avraham.
~ Family moves to Cracow in Poland, then to Lublin where he studied at the yeshivah of the Maharam.
~ Marries Chaye, daughter of a leading member of the Vienna Jewish community. Has two sons.
~ Participates in meetings of the Vaad Arba HaArotzos – Council of the Four Countries – together with
other leading Rabbis.
~ 1600: First Rabbinical post in Dubno.
~ 1602: Appointed head of Beis Din in Austria
~ 1606: Appointed Rabbi of Frankfurt.
~ 1614: Jews expelled from Frankfurt – R’ Horowitz leaves with the community.
~ 1615: Appointed chief Rabbi of Prague.
~ 1620: Wife passes away.
~ 1621: Moves to Israel. Appointed Rabbi of the Ashkenazic community in Jerusalem. Marries Chava with whom he has a daughter.
~ 1623: Completes “Shnei Luchot HaBrit” (Two Tablets of the Covenant), known as the “Shaloh.”
~ 1625: Arrested by local government together with fifteen leading Rabbis.
~ 1626: Released from prison. Goes to live in Tzfat and Tiberius in the north of Israel.
~ 1630: Passes away 11^th of Nissan. Buried in Tiberius near the graves of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai and the Rambam.
~ 1648: “Shnei Luchot HaBrit” first published in Amsterdam.
~ 1648-1930: 16 editions of “Shnei Luchot HaBrit “ published.

(Some) Concurrent Events in History:

1580-89: Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony in North America ~ Decimal fractions introduced to mathematics by Dutchman, Simon Stevin ~ Francis Drake completes circumnavigation of the globe ~ First black slaves arrive in America    1590-99: Compound microscope invented, pioneering study of microorganisms ~ William Shakespeare presents many plays  ~ Trading agency, Dutch East India Company formed after Spain closes spice market to English and Dutch
1600-10: Black Death kills more than 33 000 in London ~ German astronomer, Johannes Kepler, establishes that planets move in an inconstant rate of motion along elliptical paths ~ Plot to blow up English Parliament uncovered – Catholic perpetrators hanged by Protestant powers.
1610-20: Explorer Henry Hudson disappears after crew mutinies and strands him at James Bay ~ King
James version of Bible published in England ~ 200-year Romanov dynasty begins in Russia ~ Pocahontas, daughter of Indian chief of Powhatans, marries John Rolfe ~ Galileo Galilei arrested by Catholic Church on charges of heresy.
1620-30: The Mayflower arrives in North America ~ William Harvey proposes that the heart is a muscle that pumps blood throughout the body ~ The idiot Mustafa is restored to the Ottoman throne ~ Dutch purchase Manhattan

Published Writings:

Commentary on Emek Berocho; The Shaloh – Shnei Luchot HaBrit; Siddur Shaloh – Shaar Hashomayim (Gate of Heaven) – commentary on the prayer book; Bigdei Yesha; Mitzvat Tefillin; Commentary on Zohar; Commentary on Tur Shulchan Aruch; Names of Gittin

Resources in English:

Shnei Luchot HaBrit , Section on Torah portions translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, Jerusalem, 1992
www.kabbalahonline.org – a good, authentic resource.

Tags: mysticism
Posted in Great Mystics, Spiritual | 4 Comments »

The Ramban

February 25th, 2015

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban) – (1194-1270)

Rabbi Moshe, son of Nachman was a critical link in the transmission of ancient mystical wisdom to the modern era. His contributions cover every area of scholarship, distinguished both in the legal dimension and the esoteric one. His major commentary on the Bible – mandatory study today – is multi-dimensional, weaving the “wisdom of the truth” (mysticism) into understanding the Bible. The Ramban, distinguished also as a physician and philosopher, was a leader involved in all public matters of his day. One of his greatest mystical contributions was his ruling (in his Gate of Reward) that the ultimate reward and fulfillment of creation is in fusing the material and the spiritual.

Biographical Highlights:

~ 1194: Born in Gerona, Spain, to a noble family which includes many prominent Talmudists.
~ His primary Kabbala teachers are Rabbi Yehuda ben Yakar and Rabbi Ezra and Rabbi Ezriel of Gerona.
~ 1210: At age 16, having mastered the entire Talmud, he writes Milchamot Hashem, a defense of the work of the great Talmudist, Rabbi Isaac Alfasi against the attacks of Zerachiah Halevi.
~ Becomes a practicing physician as well as fulfilling the role of communal rabbi of Gerona.
~ Appointed chief rabbi of the entire province of Catalonia.
~ 1263: Is ordered by the king of Aragon to participate in a religious disputation with Pablo Christiani, a Jewish apostate. Ramban wins the debate, and publishes an account of the proceedings.
~ 1265: Brought to trial and condemned to banishment for “blasphemy.”
~ 1267: Leaves Spain and settles in Acco, Israel.
~ Begins a campaign to improve the spiritual and material condition of the Jewish community in Israel which is in a dismal state. Writes his famous commentary on the Torah.
~ 1270: Passes away at age 75, and is buried in Haifa.
~ His mystical writings are cited and deciphered in later mystical works, especially composed by his student, the mystic Rabbi Yitzchak Daman Ako.

Published Writings:

Commentary on Chumash; Commentary on Maimonides’ Sefer HaMitzvos; Commentary on Talmud; Writings of the Ramban, 2 volumes (Chavel): Milchamot Hashem; Toras Hashem Temimah (Treatise on the Virtue of Torah); Wedding Homily; Rosh Hashana Homily; Treatise of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes); Sefer HaGeulah; Commentary on the Book of Job; Letter on Ethics; Toras HaAdam (includes Shaar HaGomul); Ha’Emunah V’Habitachon (On Faith and Trust); Commentary on Sefer Yetzirah. Torat Haacku; Sefer Havikuach;  Iggeres HaRamban on Intimacy; Discourse on the Inner Torah; Commentary on Song of Songs; 613 Mitzvos derived from the Ten Commandments

Resources in English:

Ramban (Nachmanides): Commentary on the Torah – Five Volume Series
Translated by: Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, 1976
Ramban: Writings and Discourses – Two volumes. Translated by: Charles B. Chavel, Shilo
Ranban: His Life and Teachings – Feldheim, 1960
Ramban: The Story of Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, Yaakov Dovid Shulman
Iggeres HaRamban: A Letter for the Ages – The Ramban’s Ethical Letter
Translated by Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer (Artscroll Mesorah)
Ramban Hagaddah – by Rabbi Yosef Israel (Artscroll Mesorah)

Some Concurrent Events in History:

1000-1200: Period of the Middle Ages dominated by Crusades – wars undertaken by European Christians to conquer Israel from the Muslims and eliminate non-Christian control in Europe and the Middle East.
1085: For the Jews, the Golden Age of Spain began to wane with the Christian reconquest.
1200-30: In the Fourth Crusade, Christians conquer Constantinople ~ Famed Jewish scholar, Rambam, dies ~ Genghis Kahn invades China, the Near East & Russia ~ In the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II, King of the Holy Roman Empire is crowned King of Jerusalem after Muslims surrender.
1230-49: Pope Gregory IX establishes the Inquisition, a tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church to ‘suppress heresy’ ~ Public burning of the Rambam’s works in Paris ~ Egyptians recapture Jerusalem ~ Hebrew Talmud and holy manuscripts publicly burnt in Paris ~ Seventh Crusade led by Louis IX of France invades Egypt ~ Muslims flee Seville as Christian armies invade.
1250-70: Crusades introduce the decimal system to Europe and spices used for medicinal purposes ~ King Louis IX expels Jews from France ~ Sorbonne (University of Paris) opened by the chaplain of King Louis IX ~ Kublai Kahn establishes China’s Yuan Dynasty ~ Latin Empire of Constantinople falls to the Byzantines.

Insights:

Over the centuries the Ramban’s view on the mitzvah of settling the Land has been most influential.  He also held that even mitzvos which were obligatory outside of the Holy Land did not achieve the level of perfection as when performed within Eretz Yisrael.  Looking back at the chaotic state of the Land during the periods of non-Jewish control, he interpreted Leviticus 26:32 as promising that Israel’s enemies will be unable to settle the Land.  As part of the mitzva of settling the Land he included the admonition “that we not forsake the Land to others of the nations”  (Numbers 33:53).

Tags: mysticism, Biblical commentators
Posted in Great Mystics, Spiritual | 4 Comments »

The Ramak

February 25th, 2015

Rabbi Moshe Kordovero (Ramak) – (1522-1570)

Rabbi Moshe Kordovero had a monumental influence on mysticism, matched only by his contemporary, the holy Arizal. His mystical classic “Pardes Rimonim” (Garden of Pomegranates), written when he was only 27, synthesizes all the major topics of mysticism in an orderly and relatively philosophical system. In Tzfat, Israel he opened an academy for the study of mysticism, where many of the greatest mystics of the age studied. Even the great Arizal studied with him and greatly honored him. Ramak penned many influential Kabbalistic works and was one of the greatest disseminators of mysticism. His sublime personality and prolific literary output reached far and wide, changing the landscape of life everywhere.

Biographical Highlights:

– 1522: Born in Tzfat, Israel to a distinguished family of Spanish descent, originally from the town of Cordova. At the time, Israel was then under Ottoman Turkish rule.
– Studies under Rabbi Yosef Caro (author of the Shulchan Aruch)
– At age eighteen, is the youngest of four great rabbis to be ordained by Rabbi Yaakov BeRav – the others are Rabbi Yosef Karo, Rabbi Moshe of Trani, and Rabbi Moshe Galanti.
– 1542: At age twenty, becomes a student of his brother-in-law, Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz (composer of the famous Friday night prayer, Lecho Dodi), with whom he studies the esoteric aspect of Torah, the Kabbalah.
-1548: Completes his classic “Pardes Rimonim” (Garden of Pomegranates)
– 550: Opens an academy for the study of mysticism. Students include Rabbi Eliyahu di Vidash (author of Reishit Chochma), Rabbi Abraham Galanti, Rabbi Chaim Vital.
– In the last year of Ramak’s life, the Arizal comes to Tzfat and becomes his student.
– 1570: Passes away at age forty-eight, on the 23rd of Tammuz. The Arizal eulogizes him and observes that the bier bearing Ramak to his burial place is preceded by a pillar of fire. Ramak’s revered teacher, Rabbi Yosef Caro exclaims, “Here lies the Ark of the Torah.”

Published Writings:

Pardes Rimonim (Orchard of Pomegranates).
Ohr Yakar (The Precious Light).
Ohr Ne’erav (Pleasant Light).
Sefer Alimah Rabti (The Great Work of ‘to Elim’)
Shiur Komah (Measurement of Height).
Sefer Gerushim (Book of Banishments).
Tomer Devorah (The Palm Tree of Devorah)

Some Resources in English:

– www.thirtysevenbooks.org
– Moses Kordovero’s Introduction to Kabbalah: An Annotated Translation of His Or Ne’Erav, translated by Ira Robinson. New York, Ktav Pub. House, 1994
– Meditation for the10 days of Tshuvah: www.tabick.abel.co.uk/10days.meditation.html

Translations of Kordovero’s Tomer Devorah:
– Anthology of Jewish Mysticism, by Raphael Ben Zion (ed.), New York: Judaica Press, 1981 (includes Cordovero’s Tomer Devorah in full and 3 other texts).
– Tomer Devorah -The Palm Tree of Devorah,  by Moses Cordovero, bi-lingual edition translated & annotated by Rabbi Moshe Miller, New York: Feldheim, 1993.
– The Palm Tree of Devorah, Moses Cordovero, trans. by Louis Jacobs, London: Vallentine, Mitchell & Co., 1960.
– www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/deborah/deborah.htm

Some Concurrent Events in History:

1492 – Jews expelled from Spain – Columbus lands in America
1520-29: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Philippines during the first global circumnavigation – Monks burned alive for following teachings of religious reformer Martin Luther – Manhattan discovered by Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazano.
1530-49: England’s Henry VIII marries his mistress Anne Boleyn and renounces authority of the pope – Inquisition of Pope Paul III of Rome conducts trials of heretics – Protestants burned at the stake – Nikolaus Copernicus publishes theory of a sun-centered solar system – Europeans first visit Japan introducing firearms – Ivan IV becomes first czar of Russia; marries Anastasia of the Romanov family.
1550-59: French astrologer Nostradamus publishes a book of prophecies – Pope Paul IV orders Rome’s Jewish quarters to be walled in – Elizabethan age of England begins when Mary Tudor is succeeded by Elizabeth.
1560-70: John Calvin’s followers publish the Geneva Bible containing chapter and verse numbers – Italian artist Michelangelo dies – Anglican Church established in England – Gerardus Mercator develops the Mercator projection map, representing the world in terms of latitude and longitude, greatly simplifying navigation – Portuguese overrun previously established French colony and found Rio de Janeiro – Ivan the Terrible publicly executes most of his advisers.

Tags: kabbalah, mysticism
Posted in Great Mystics, Spiritual | 3 Comments »

The Besht

February 25th, 2015

Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (Besht) – (1698-1760)

The founder of Chassidism, the Besht single handedly reinvigorated mystical Judaism in a demoralizing period. He emphasized the power of each individual soul; the concepts of love of your fellow; serving G-d with joy; Divine Providence and perpetual creation. The Besht’s great student, Rabbi Dovber, the Maggid of Mezritch, continued his legacy and passed it on to his many students, who became the founders of each of their respective Chassidic dynasties.

Biographical Highlights:

~ 1698: Born on 18 Elul, in Okup, Ukraine on the Polish-Russian border, to Eliezer and Sarah.
Rabbi Eliezer was one of the ‘hidden tzaddikim.’[1]
~ 1703: Orphaned of both parents at age five. Placed in the care of the community.
~ Becomes a teacher’s assistant at a young age.
~ Aged 14, joins a group of ‘hidden tzaddikim’ (Nistarim) led by Rabbi Adam of Ropshitz.
~ Aged 18, introduces new service for the Nistarim, namely to devote themselves to the
education of Jewish children.
~ Becomes the spiritual leader of the Nistarim. Directs them to now focus on the education of
adults.
~ Marries Leah Rachel (daughter of renowned Talmudist, Ephraim of Brody) with whom he
has a son and daughter. Moves to the Carpathian Mountains.
~ 1724-1734: Leads a secluded life dedicated to intensive study of the Torah. Receives
instruction from Achiya of Shilo, the ancient prophet of King David’s time, who appears
regularly to teach him the secrets of the Torah.
~ 1734: Begins to teach publicly at age thirty-six. Settles in Talust and later in Medzhibuzh in
the western Ukraine. This marks the birth of Chassidism.
~ His main student and subsequent successor is Rabbi Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezeritch.
~ 1760: Passes away on Shavuot in Medzhibuzh, at age 62.

Major Concepts:

Love your Fellow
Perpetual Creation
Divine Providence
Living with Joy
Non-ascetism; transforming the material                                                                

Some Concurrent events in History:

1700-10 The Enlightenment – The Age of Reason: The rationalist, liberal, humanitarian, and scientific trend of the 18^th Century. Representatives include: Voltaire, J.J. Rousseau, Adam Smith, Swift, Hume, Kant; and in America, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. The social and political ideals they presented were enforced by enlightened despots such as Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Catherine II of Russia, and Frederick II of Prussia.
1700-10: Abraham Darby’s discovery that coke (from coal) can be used instead of charcoal for smelting will contribute immeasurably to England’s Industrial Revolution ~ Isaac Newton, pioneer of mathematics and physics, is knighted ~ Johan Sebastian Bach composes ~ Trade across the world’s oceans booms ~ Britain’s Caribbean colonies absorb approximately 20,000 slaves a year.
1720-29 Inoculation against smallpox is successful ~ foundations of photography laid when German chemist J.H. Schulze establishes that silver salts darken when exposed to light ~ Methodism conceived by John Wesley ~ Printing press introduced in Constantinople facilitates distribution of new books and ideas throughout Muslim world.
1730-39: John Kay invents fly shuttle, paving way for larger, faster looms cutting labor costs in half ~ Essay on Man penned by Alexander Pole, including the words, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” ~ Britain’s witchcraft statutes repealed – rotational system for crops devised greatly increasing productivity of land.
1740-49: Eight year War of Austrian Succession in Europe ~ Princeton University founded ~ Uprising of Black slaves in New York ~ Benjamin Franklin discovers the electrical nature of lightning ~ French and Indian Wars in American colonies.

Published Writings:

The Baal Shem Tov, like the Arizal, did not write his teachings. They were recorded by his students and passed on from generation to generation through Rebbes and Chassidim. Much of what we know is from the writings of the Baal Shem Tov’s foremost disciple, Rabbi Yakov Yosef of Polonoye, the author of the first Chassidic work ever published, Toldos Yakov Yosef. He also published Ben Poras Yosef, Tzafnas Paneach, and Kesones Pasim. Other major sources for the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov are Kesser Shem Tov, Tzava’as Harivash, Magid Devarav L’Yakov (written by the Mezericher Maggid, the Baal Shem Tov’s successor), Degel Machaneh Ephraim, and Ohr HaMei’ir.

Some Resources in English:

www.baalshemtov.com – some interesting material
Schochet, J. I. Tzava’at Harivash [The Testament of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov], Kehot Publications, 1998, Brooklyn.
Hilsenrad, Zalman Aron. The Baal Shem Tov, Kehot Publications, Brooklyn, New York.
Kaplan, Aryeh. Chassidic Masters, Maznaim Publishing Corp. 1994, Brooklyn, New York.
Kaplan, Aryeh. The Light Beyond [Adventures In Hassidic Thought], Maznaim Publishing Corp., 1981 Brooklyn, New York.
Rabin, Moshe. Seeker of Slumbering Souls – Stories of the Baal Shem Tov, Ufaratzta Publications, 2000, Israel.
Carlebach, Shlomo. Shlomo’s Stories, Jason Aronson Inc., 1996, New Jersey.
Majeski, Shlomo. The Chassidic Approach to Joy, Sichas in English, Brooklyn, New York.

[1] Spiritual pillars of the universe who exist in every generation, unknown to the general population. The “Nistarim” were pious and learned people. They disguised themselves as simple folk so that they could mix with the poor and unlearned in order to spread the teachings of Torah and uplift people both physically and spiritually.

Tags: mysticism, Baal Shem Tov
Posted in Great Mystics, Spiritual | 1 Comment »

The Arizal

February 25th, 2015

Rabbi Isaac Luria (Arizal) – (1534-1572)

Rabbi Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi ben Shlomo, known as the “Ari,” acronym for Eloki Rabbi Yitzchak, the G-dly Rabbi Isaac

Rabbi Isaac Luria revealed a powerfully elegant mystical structure which deciphers the secrets of Kabbalah from the beginning of time. The 25 volumes based on his teachings cover every mystical concept from reincarnation to kavanah (intention) of prayer; from the elevation of sparks to outlining the cosmic order of four worlds and ten sefirot. His doctrine of tzimtzum revolutionized the understanding of Divine unity, good and evil, and the human ability to touch the Divine.

Biographical Highlights:

~ 1534: Born in the Old City of Jerusalem.
~ 1541: Moves to Egypt with his mother after his father, Rabbi Shlomo Luria, passed away. Lives with his uncle, Mordechai Frances, a wealthy tax agent.
~ Teachers: Rabbi David ben Zimra (Radbaz), Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi (author of Shittah Mekubetzet).
~ 1549 (Approx.): Marries his uncle’s daughter.
~ Spends seven years in almost total self-seclusion with Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi. Around this time a copy of one volume of the Zohar comes into his hands. With this Zohar, he studies alone for another six years.
~ 1570: Travels to and settled in Tzfat in northern Israel. Becomes recognized unanimously by all the great masters as the greatest master of all.
~ R’ Chaim Vital (1542-1620) documents all the Ari’s teachings.
~ 1572: Passes away 5th of Av, at age thirty-eight. Thousands of people visit his gravesite in the Old Cemetery of Sfat as well as his mikvah.
~ 1782: First printing of the Ari’s teachings under the name “Eitz Chaim” – The Tree of Life

Some Concurrent Events in History:

1450-1600 Renaissance Period of art, literature and music. Artists include Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci.
1457: Johannes Gutenberg prints first book.
1492: Expulsion of Jews from Spain ~ Columbus lands in America.
1530-39: Ivan the Terrible takes power in Russia ~ OttomanTurks gain key control of the Mediterranean.
1540-49: Inquisition of Pope Paul III of Rome conducts trials of heretics in attempt to waylay the Reformation ~ Protestants burned at the stake ~ Copernicus defies church doctrine by publishing his theory of a sun-centered solar system ~ Colorado River discovered by Hernando de Alarcon, and Lopez de Cardenas discovers the Grand Canyon.
1550-59: The Elizabethan age of England begins with Queen Elizabeth ~ French astrologer Nostradamus publishes a book of prophecies ~ Pope Paul IV orders Rome’s Jewish quarters to be walled in.
1560-69: Anglican Church established in England ~ Portuguese overrun previously established French colonies in South America ~ England’s Queen Elizabeth gives license to Sir Gilbert to possess all
un-Christian lands in the New World.

Concepts: Primary contributions:

Tzimtzum – G-d’s “self-contraction” – the concealment of the Divine light of the Ein Sof .
Shevirat hakeilim – the shattering of the vessels in the world of Tohu.
Birur hanitzutzot – elevating the sparks – the Tikkun­ (rectification) of the shattering of the vessels.
Partzufim – literally, “visages” – compound structures of the sefirot in arrays that interact with each other.

Published Writings (documented by R’ Chaim Vital):

Etz Chaim (Tree of Life)
Pri Eitz Chaim (Fruit of the Tree of Life)
Mavoah She’arim (Entrance to the Gates)
Otzrot Chaim (Treasures of Chaim)
The Eight Gates: Sha’ar (The Gate of )… haHakdamot (Introductions); haPesukim (Verses); haMitzvot (Commandments); haKavanot (Meditations); Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit); haGilgulim (Reincarnations); Ma’amorei R’ Shimeon bar Yochai (Sayings of Rabbi Shimeon bar Yochai); Ma’amorei Chazal (Sayings of the Sages).
Sha’arei Kedusha (Gates of Holiness)
Sha’ar HaYichudim (Gate of Unifications)
Likutei Torah (Torah Selections)
Ta’amei haMitzvot (Reasons for the Commandments).
Sefer HaLikkutim (Book of Selections)
400 Shekalim Kesef (Discourse on the “Four Hundred Shekels of Silver”)
Likkutei HaShas (Selections on Talmud)

Resources in English:

R’ Chaim Vital. The Tree of Life, Jason Aronson Inc., 1999
Kaplan, Aryeh. Inner Space, New York: Moznaim Publishing, 1990
Steinsaltz, Adin. The Thirteen Petalled Rose, Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1992
www.kabbalahonline.org – a good, authentic resource.

Tags: kabbalah, Arizal, mysticism
Posted in Great Mystics, Spiritual | 7 Comments »