I knew that title would get your attention.

With all the news consuming the headlines, some more important than others – oil spills, flotillas, Helen Thomas, the World Cup, Afghanistan – a major story is developing, right under our noses, with hardly anyone taking notice.

This major story will not just make history, but it promises to change the course of history.

But like all historical shifts and fundamental revolutions, this “story” is not a fleeting event; it is unfolding over time. And it takes a bit of stepping back (and rising up) to gain a birds eye view and see the forest for the trees.

Exactly four years ago this column celebrated Warren Buffett’s enormous and unprecedented $30 billion plus gift to charity, as heralding in a new era in history. I wrote then: “I submit that when the annals of history are written, this event will go down as a major milestone, marking a shift in human consciousness and leaving an impact that will reshape future attitudes.”

Some people thought that my words then were overly dramatic. I respectfully submit now that if anything my words were understated and not dramatic enough.

Buffett and Gates Act II

Now four years later, Mr. Buffett and Gates are unleashing act II in their history-making generosity.

This week – as reported by Fortune Magazine and Charlie Rose – Mr. Buffett and Gates announced their request to the richest people in America to pledge at least 50% of their wealth to charity. They established a special website just for this purpose, givingpledge.org, which states its objective: “an effort to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.”

In a public letter, Mr. Buffett states: “In 2006, I made a commitment to gradually give all of my Berkshire Hathaway stock to philanthropic foundations. I couldn’t be happier with that decision. Now, Bill and Melinda Gates and I are asking hundreds of rich Americans to pledge at least 50% of their wealth to charity. So I think it is fitting that I reiterate my intentions and explain the thinking that lies behind them.”

Buffett begins by first committing his pledge: “More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death.” And then he continues with his call and challenge to the wealthy.

What is the history behind this historic move? In a cover story titled The $600 Billion Challenge, Fortune reports that just over a year ago, in May 2009, Gates and Buffet called a confidential meeting, hosted by David Rockefeller, of 15 billionaires, in which the two wealthiest men in the world set in motion “the biggest fundraising drive in history.” The goal of the meeting was to begin a major drive to “get the super-rich, starting with the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, to pledge – literally pledge – at least 50% of their net worth to charity during their lifetimes or at death.” Fortune estimates that at minimum this 50% would add up to be… $600,000,000,000.

The attendees at that meeting, which, as Fortune writes, “would make any charity – or any conspiracy theorist – swoon,” consisted of: Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, Eli and Edythe Broad, Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, Chuck Feeney, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Julian Robertson, John and Tashia Morgridge and Pete Peterson.

Several of them have already risen to the challenge and made their pledge.

To appreciate the historical implications of this initiative, allow me to summarize what I wrote four year ago, in placing this generosity in historical context.

Throughout the ages accumulated wealth was simply not given away to charity. Quite the contrary: It was always used to gain and consolidate power and influence.

In days of old and not so old huge sums of money – let alone the value of today’s 40 billion dollars, more than the GNP of over half the countries of the world today – would be used to build monarchies, wage wars, conquer lands and construct monuments of glory.

How money was used may have something to do with the way it was accumulated, largely from non-commercial sources: usually through war, pillaging, ransoms, slavery, taxation, blood-money and bride-money – forces of dominance and control.

Indeed, the history of wealth is directly linked with the history of war and violence, and even the history of religion. Finance lies at the heart of the rise and fall of the great empires and their conquests and defeats – Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, the Viking assault on England, the Norman Conquest, the Crusades, the Hundred Years War between England and France, the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru, the aftermath in Britain of the Napoleonic Wars, the U.S. Civil War, and the financing of the two World Wars. For example: The need to transfer large sums of money to finance the Crusades (1095-1270) provided a stimulus to the re-emergence of banking in Western Europe.

Obviously, when wealth is gained through aggressive or criminal activity it will be used to perpetuate corruption, and not serve as a force for good.

And when wealth is driven by myopic, short term gain it inevitably wanes. Today it is controlled by the prevailing dominant individual or group, and tomorrow by the next vanquisher. It never lasts. Where, for instance, is the great wealth of the Roman Empire today? Who inherited the vast holdings of the British Empire? And what about Mali, the Ottoman dynasty or the Incas – each the wealthiest empire in its time; today barely remembered?

Some even make a case for a conspiracy amongst the global aristocracy of wealth, arguing that the top Western industrialists and institutions were behind the rise of Communism and Fascism around the world. As W. Cleon Skousen writes in The Naked Capitalist, his review of Dr. Carroll Quigley’s Tragedy and Hope: “Power from any source tends to create an appetite for additional power… It was almost inevitable that the super-rich would one day aspire to control not only their own wealth, but the wealth of the whole world.” “As I see it,” Skousen writes, “the great contribution which Dr. Carroll Quigley unintentionally made…was to help the ordinary American people realize the utter contempt which the network leaders have for ordinary people. Human beings are treated en masse as helpless puppets on an international chess board where giants of economic and political power subject them to wars, revolution, civil strife, confiscation, subversion, indoctrination, manipulation and outright deception as it suits their fancy and their concocted schemes for world domination.”

Whether you agree with this argument or not, no one can doubt the history of wealth as a force of control. Money was always synonymous with power, greed and all its corrupt consequences.

Now comes Mr. Buffett and with his unprecedented commitment turns the historical use of wealth on its head.

That was four year ago.

As long as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were the only ones to bequeath their fortunes to charity the argument could be made that their generosity was an anomaly. But now that the second wealthiest man in the world has joined the wealthiest one in not just giving away most of their fortunes to charity – the accumulative amount of both their charitable commitments is simply staggering – but they have also issued a challenge to the wealthiest people in the world to join them – it is impossible to dismiss and should cause us all to raise more than our eyebrows. In contrast to the way wealth was always used for personal gain, Mr. Buffet and Mr. Gates initiative should capture our attention to realize that something extraordinary is underway.

Andrew Carnegie fulfilled this ethos of generosity to its fullest extreme. In his 1889 essay “Wealth” (later named “Gospel of Wealth”) – which reportedly had a strong influence on Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett – presents a powerful argument that “the duty of the man of wealth” is to serve as a “trustee” for the larger community. The wealthy should not give their wealth to their children but to administer it for the benefit and common good of the public, and thereby create the “ideal State, in which the surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense, the property of the many”. Carnegie believed, as he wrote in another article in 1908 that “wealth is not chiefly the product of the individual…but largely the joint product of the community.”

The American model in general, and Carnegie’s philosophy and the present Buffett/Gates move in particular is a major event not just in the history of philanthropy (no one has ever bequeathed a larger charitable gift) but in the history of mankind in general. It is nothing less than Messianic: It is essentially a shift from being a taker to becoming a giver.

The difference between these two models of wealth – the historical model of greedy wealth to gain personal power or the model that is now beginning to take hold (let’s call it the post-Gates/Buffett era) of wealth as an opportunity to give – is not merely a difference in approach; it reflects a fundamental different attitude to life: Are we human beings essentially takers or givers? Is life about you, or about you serving a greater cause?

And now we have the major philanthropic stride taken by Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates.

In a world where most people ask: “What more can I take?” there are the precious few who have taken the road less traveled and ask: “What more can I give?”

Perhaps – hopefully – this will begin a trend of giving, turning takers into givers, ushering in a new era of economics: The Economics of Giving. (The recent global humanitarian effort to help Haiti was also an example of this historical shift).

Maimonides writes that the Messianic age does not necessitate miraculous or cataclysmic external change. The primary change will be from within; a radical shift of consciousness. Instead of seeing materialism as an end in itself, we will see it as a means to “knowing G-d.” This consciousness will affect our economic view. As Maimonides puts it: “Material delights will be found as dust,” which also means that the abundance of material wealth will render it valueless as dust and useless as an end unto itself. This in turn will naturally eliminate envy and competition, hunger, poverty and strife. “The business of this entire world will be to know G-d.”

Today we stand at the threshold of a new economic paradigm. The final frontier of the history of money and wealth: To see the acquisition of wealth as a means for giving and fuel for spiritual growth. Wealth, in short, will finally realize its true value: soul energy, elevating and transforming all of existence.

The wealthiest men in the world today force us all to ask the question about the nature of our own wealth and its acquisition. And how it will be used: For temporary power, to be stashed away gathering dust in some Swiss account, eventually squandered, sometimes a generation or two later, often destroying families in the process, or will the wealth be used for eternal benefit, to build and improve the world.

Here’s an additional critical fact that drives the point home as to the enormous historical shift of the Buffet/Gates initiative:

Most likely, Mr. Buffet and Gates are descendants of Esau, grandson of Abraham – who originally pioneered the concept of giving close to 4000 year ago.

It’s beyond fascinating that though Abraham’s message – and the Divine mandate – of charity was passed on to us through the generations via the Torah and via the children of Jacob (not Esau), today the ones leading the Messianic charge are not the children of Jacob, but those of his twin Esau!…

If that is not a tectonic historical shift what is?

Mediterranean Musings: A Study in Retrospect

Marbella, Spain — Sunday night, May 30, 2010.

Standing on the edge of the Mediterranean, at the southern tip of Spain, I look out to sea. A flotilla is beginning to appear in the distance, with a hostile world about to launch another attack on Israel for defending itself…

But let’s not rush things; there is something more. With Jewish music playing in the background, I close my eyes and try to envision the boats sailing over these waters carrying Jews expelled from these shores 518 years ago.

What secrets do these ancient waters carry? What mysteries lay beneath the surface of this “great sea,” the Biblical name for the Mediterranean?

Elsewhere in the Bible – in Moses’ final words – he calls the Mediterranean the “final” (or “last”) sea (yam ha’acharon). Rashi, the great commentator, explains (from Midrash) that ad ha’yam ha’acharon should be read ad ha’yom ha’acharon, which means “until the very last (final) day,” meaning that G-d showed Moses all the incidents that were destined to happen to Israel until the end of days.

As I gaze at the dark sea, glittering with the reflections of countless twinkling stars, I wonder what Moses felt that final day of his life when he saw all that would transpire through the ages.

No doubt, Moses was deeply distressed by the tragedies that would befall his people – in 1492 in Spain, in 1942 in Europe, and through all the travesties that ravaged the cities and countries surrounding the Mediterranean – Greece, Rome (Italy), Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, France, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt.

But as Jewish melodies waft over these waters on this particular Sunday night – I cannot help but wonder what Moses was thinking when he saw the Jewish renaissance that would come at the end of days.

Did Moses see us standing here – a hundred Jews or more – celebrating our heritage?

Did he see an extraordinary cross-section of the Jewish people gathering together on this retreat: People from across Europe – Munich, Brussels, Milan, Rome, London, Tel Aviv, Geneva, Budapest, Bucharest, Paris, Strasbourg. Leaders representing millions of Jews are here with us: Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger of Israel, Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar of Russia, Chief Rabbi Sholom Lipskar of The Shul in Balle Harbor, Florida.

Some are Holocaust survivors (or their children), others are survivors of different challenges – each with his own fascinating story. From a Tel Aviv fund manager to a Rome business leader, from a Munich major exporter to a Brussels giant metals CEO – executives and leaders of different industries joined together for a very heartwarming weekend, everyone united in the effort of discovering new ways to integrate Judaism and our modern society, which will undoubtedly bear many perpetual fruit.

In its third year, the European Jewish Retreat, under the auspices of the European Jewish Study Network, has brought together an impressive group of leaders and influential individuals. The Director of the Network, Rabbi Sholom Liberow and his colleague Rabbi Eli Edelkopf, assembled a quality team who ran a seamless operation on every possible level.

Besides for the excellent cuisine and venue, the retreat showcased dramatic talks, lectures and discussions. Throughout the weekend you could see passionate conversations taking place – one-on-one or small groups debating everything from the definition of G-d to Israeli politics, Jewish divisiveness to homosexuality, Israel’s economy to the role of Rabbis.

Chief Rabbi Lazar shared deeply moving stories about the radical and even miraculous changes Russian Jewry has experienced in the past two decades. “When my wife and I came to Moscow over twenty years ago, we personally met those few hidden tzaddikim that were fighting to keep the Jewish flame alive under the harsh Soviet regime – a commitment that placed them at constant risk to their own lives. We could not believe their utter commitment. To the extent that when I suggested to Reb Getche Wilensky, an elder Russian chassid, that he should go for a few days to visit the Rebbe in New York, he refused, explaining that he cannot leave his post even for a moment. “What will happen if during these days some woman, for example, would be seeking out a Jewish need and I will not be there to serve her.”

“And then we witnessed with our own eyes,” continued Rabbi Lazar, “how the Soviet Union crumbled, and with it came a new birth of Jewish life in Russia, with the complete support of the former Soviet regime – something simply impossible for anyone to ever imagine.”

Rabbi Lazar contrasted a prescient talk given by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the early ‘80s, showing how these exact events took place ten years later. Several days before Shavuot the Rebbe – speaking mysteriously in Russian – declared that children in the Soviet Union have the full right, guaranteed by the Soviet constitution (“kanstitutziya” in Russian), to attend Synagogue on Shavuot, and by law the government and militia (“melitziya”) must assure their safety. At the time no one understood to whom the Rebbe was speaking and what he intended to achieve. A decade later his words were fulfilled to the tee, as Jewish children in Russia were allowed to take off school and attend Shavuot, and the government dispatched militia to protect the children!

Chief Rabbi Metzger related his meeting with the King of Spain, and presenting him with a gift of a Shofar. “When the King asked me what the shofar was – wondering whether we too have toreros – I explained to him that this is the instrument Jews use to begin their new year. I then proceeded to tell him the story of a Marrano who served as a conductor in the Spanish court. In order to perform the mitzvah of Shofar, he convinced the King – your ancestor – who loved music dearly, to schedule a special performance in which he blew the Shofar after reciting the blessings and explaining that this was a mitzvah preformed by the Jews who once lived in Spain before they were expelled.

“With this shofar that I present you today,” the Chief Rabbi told the King of Spain, “we complete the circle that began when the Jews lived here under your predecessors.”

The Chief Rabbi went on to share other fascinating stories of his encounters with world leaders, in countries that once were hostile to Jews, and how they today are helping rebuild Jewish life. One example that stands out is the slashing incident that took place several years ago in Moscow, where a 17-year-old Russian youth went on a rampage in a Synagogue stabbing several Jews. As the young man was going on trial, Moscow’s mayor Yury Luzhkov explained to Rabbi Metzger that the teen’s defense lawyer was claiming that the teen was grabbed by members of the congregation and brought inside. His defense was that it was just a month prior to Passover and that it’s well known throughout Russia that Jews require Christian blood as an ingredient in their Passover matzos. They claimed that when the boy realized what was taking place, he pulled his knife and began to defend himself.

Rabbi Metzger was quite taken aback and asked the mayor if this is what he, too, believes. The mayor explained that up to this day, this is what is routinely taught in Russian schools. At that point, Rabbi Metzger, together with Rabbi Lazar, turned to the mayor of Moscow and proposed that it was long overdue to have a Jewish museum in Moscow so as to better explain and display Jewish life to the average Russian citizen. The mayor agreed to set aside land for just such a project, but asked the rabbi who was going to pay for it. “Lev Leviev,” Rabbi Metzger recounted, referring to the internationally renowned diamond merchant and philanthropist, “happened to be at the meeting and he pledged to put the resources together to make this happen.”

Chief Rabbi Lipskar passionately discussed the unique mystery of Jewish survival and influence throughout history. “The law of history dictates,” he said, “that within ten generation every minority either assimilates or becomes the majority. Jews have always been and always remain a minority, ‘the fewest among nations.’ And yet they have survived through the ages.” He expounded on the nature of Judaism: “Is it a religion, a culture, a race?” he asked, challenging the audience. “It’s way of life,” the rabbi declared, “a force that transcends conventional definition and one that has shaped civilization and virtue as we know it.”

Not to be undone one other speaker – though not a chief rabbi – presented the universal wisdom of Torah on various contemporary issues, including divisiveness, pain and suffering, love and relationships. The pinnacle of the retreat was the impassioned call for discovering relevance of Judaism in every aspect of our lives.

Sitting in Spain – a country that once expelled all its Jews – listening to the powerful influence that Jews have today on world leaders is quite overwhelming. We sure have come a long way.

Sunday night we were entertained in an inspiring Jewish concert, which featured music from all Jewish segments and sub-cultures – Sephardic, Ashkenazic, Israeli, ancient, modern, sung in all languages, including Yiddish, Hebrew, Italian, Hungarian, English and French. The songs and melodies got everyone singing and dancing in one glorious celebration of Jewish unity.

With the Mediterranean as a backdrop – connecting Israel, Europe, Asia and Africa – the sight was remarkable.

No doubt that Moses felt incredibly proud when he was shown the “final sea” and all the events that would take place “until the final day.” Seeing not only the expulsion and the suffering of Jews, but also their dancing and celebration over these waters – is nothing less than a total miracle.

Now yet another “libel” on the Mediterranean waters – this time in the form of a flotilla – is being hurled against Israel by Europe and the international community. Can’t avoid thinking about all the other attacks on Jews that originated from these very same waters…

But with all this Mediterranean turmoil, we remain standing tall and proud. Despite the Spanish expulsion decree of 1492 stating that “we, with the counsel and advice of prelates, great noblemen of our kingdoms, and other persons of learning and wisdom of our Council, having taken deliberation about this matter, resolve to order the said Jews and Jewesses of our kingdoms to depart and never to return or come back to them or to any of them” – here we Jews are celebrating Jewish life in Spanish Andalusia, in full glory.

Standing at the edge of the “great sea,” with Jewish melodies drifting across these ancient waters, I cannot help but smile as I recall the memorable and prophetic words of the Midrash: “All nations that reign over the Jewish people will rise to greatness,” and the Midrash elaborates how this was true with all the great empires, the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman Empires (Midrash Mechilta Exodus 14:5. Zohar II 6a. See Chagigah 13b. Toras Chaim Lech Lecho 92a). As a slight Mediterranean wave slithered to the shore, I could detect it telling us that the converse is also true: When the nations expelled the Jews from their kingdoms, they fell from power. Every one, without exception. Where today is Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome?!…

Another Mediterranean wave seems to be sighing and grinning at the same time, sending the message (when you stand long enough at the water’s edge, all types of messages, delusional or not, enter your consciousness…) – that the same is true with Spain. Spain was propelled to greatness from that rich and vibrant time we call the Golden Age. The transformation of that energy into a a lust for power and conquest corresponded with its turning on its Jews. All that life, brilliance and energy morphed into a worldwide quest for land, gold and slaves. Spain would indeed dominate the Western Hemisphere for centuries and even today, just witness the number of countries in the American hemisphere that speak Spanish. And for all that, where is Spain today in the global arena?

1492 – the year that Spain expelled its Jews – marked the both the beginning of the end of the great Spanish Empire. That same year Spain sent Columbus sailing to America, marking the highest point of Spanish glory – the discovery of the new world. Yet, that conquest was based not on respect and convivencia, as the happier days of earlier Spain were called, but by the exercise of raw power, rapacious, intolerant and destructive.

As always, there is a Divine plan that bends the will of tyrants to its own use. Think about it: Just as Spain was expelling its Jews from the shores of the Mediterranean, it was also – as its crowning achievement – sending its explorers from these same waters to discover the American shores that would welcome and offer haven to the Jewish people and to people of all faiths. And in turn, The United States, would become the next superpower…

Yes indeed, the waters of this “great” and “final” sea have many stories to tell…

Now, 518 years later, celebrating Judaism on the Spanish shores, who prevailed?

But we don’t gloat nor demean; we march ahead with dignity and pride. We bring the majesty of time-tested and war-hardened – yet refined and compassionate – wisdom and experience, not to do battle with those that oppressed us, but to illuminate them: Spain – Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Persia, Rome, England, France, Germany… – with kindness and virtue, infused with Divine knowledge that will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

In the third month following the children of Israel’s exodus from the land of Egypt; that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai… And there Israel camped opposite the mountain (Exodus 19:1-2)

At all their other encampments, the verse says vayachanu (“and they camped,” in the plural); here it says vayichan (“and he camped,” in the singular). For all other encampments were in argument and dissent, whereas here they camped as one human, with one heart (Mechilta, Rashi)

The most important of all principles – as well as the most elusive – is love and unity between individuals. The greatest of all sages, Rabbi Akiva, declared, that the mitzvah “love your fellow as yourself” is the cardinal principle – the essence – of Torah.

This may explain why loving our fellow is indeed so difficult: The more powerful a force, the greater the resistance to it.

Before the Torah could be given at Sinai it was necessary that the people stand together as one, “as one person, with one heart.”

Yet, as simple as this may sound, living in such harmony is hardly simple. It’s bad enough that inherent self-interest divides people. What is even more troubling is when people “justify” their reasoning for being divisive and rejecting others. Some even dress it up in “holy” garments, arguing that their objection to others is “not personal,” but it’s what G-d wants (as if they know what G-d really wants)…

Love your fellow takes on special significance this year on Shavuot when we honor the 250^th yahrzeit of the Baal Shem Tov (1760-2010), founder of Chassidus, who made it his life mission to propagate love to all people unconditionally.

In this spirit, we bring you a correspondence on this related subject.

Dear Rabbi Simon,

[In response to your article Was Moses Orthodox] How strange it is that Jews should love everyone unconditionally including the criminal! There are three problems with your statement: One, that we are commanded to love everyone. This is absurd! Not every one deserves to be loved equally. People should deserve love by being good and kind and loving. Two, that this love should be unconditional. What a concept! We should love our children and spouses unconditionally. The commandment concerning our parents states that we must honor our parents, the word love is not even hinted, kal va’homer people other than our parents. This is such a Christian babble! Three, that we should love the criminals unconditionally. Again, a Christian babble. Criminals should be punished and suffer, not supported and loved. You love people who deserve your love.

Where does it say in our Bible that God loves everyone including the criminals? On the contrary, He goes after the evil and wicked with a mighty wrath to teach and purify. Yes, He allows the sinners to repent but first let them ask forgiveness, admit wrongdoing, pay compensation (monetary, jail, community service, etc.), truly repent and never repeat their crimes.

When you love someone, whether a criminal or not, unconditionally, you give him the power to continue his wrongful activities because he knows that you will continue to love and support him no matter what. How can you impact someone to be good if he is evil? Do you think your exemplary behavior will change him? You are really naive. You sound like a Christian and a psychologist.

No, I don’t care whether Moses was Orthodox or not. It is enough for me that he was Jewish. I am not a hyphenated Jew, but a very proud JEW and quite a knowledgeable one.

God bless, and HAG SAME’AH to you and yours and all of Israel.

Ahuva

Dear Ahuva,

Thank you for your note. A happy holiday to you and yours.

I am glad that you are a very proud Jew. However, since you write that you are “quite a knowledgeable one” too, I assume you know that Judaism is not based on personal prejudices but on the doctrine called the Torah – Torah she’bksav and she’baal’peh and the Torah authorities throughout the ages.

I will therefore cite the sources for what I wrote about unconditional love to all Jews, even criminals. And I invite you to do the same, and present your rebuttal, in kind, with Torah sources, rather than just opinions and feelings – mine or yours.

The mitzvah is “V’ohavto le’re’echo komocho” (Leviticus 19:18). The expression used is “ahava” (love) and not “honor” (as in honoring your parents). And not just plain love, but “komocho,” to love as you love yourself. [Commentaries even wonder how it is possible to love another as you love yourself (Ramban)].

This is not just another mitzvah, but a “klal godol ba’Torah” (Rabbi Akiva, Torat Kohanim on this verse). Hillel says that its is the “entire Torah; the rest is commentary” (Shabbat 31a).

In addition there is another mitzvah “not to hate your brother” (Leviticus 19:17). It should be noted that this verse immediately precedes the mitzvah of “V’ohavto.” The Torah sees it necessary to emphasize twice: “do not hate,” and then “love.”

This love is to every single Jew (Rambam, Mishne Torah, Hilchos De’eot, 6, 3), even “reshoim” (criminals, wicked people) – Tomar Devorah (from the RaMaK, R’ Moshe Cordevero, p. 1570), chapter 2. See also Emek HaMelech, Shaar Tikkunei Teshuvah ch. 3.

The basis for this is the Mishne in Sanhedrin (90a), that “All Israel have a share in the world to come, as it says (Isaiah 60:21): And your nation are all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever; they are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, in which to take pride.” Every Jew (even a criminal) has a divine neshomo (soul) that is eternal and immutable, and will therefore ultimately do teshuvah and have “share in the world to come.” (For more sources on this, I would be happy to send you an essay I wrote, if you so request).

The Talmud Yerushalmi (Nedarim 9, 4) explains that all Jews are like “one body.” As inconceivable as it is for one hand to hurt the other, so too it is with the Jewish people. Only our bodies separate us, but by virtue of our soul the Jewish people are one. This concept is explained at length in Tanya, ch. 32, and Derech Mitzvosecho, mitzvat Ahavat Yisroel.

Question: What about the words in the Talmud (Shavuot 30a. see Pesachim 113b. Erchin 16b) that one who sees his friend sinning should hate him? Explains the Tanya (ibid), that this applies to a companion in Torah and mitzvahs,” one who is observant like himself, and only after he has rebuked him and he nevertheless has not done teshuvah. “But for the person who is not one’s colleague and is not on intimate terms with him, Hillel says, “be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving the creatures and drawing them near to the Torah.”

The Tanya then adds: “even with regard to those who are close to him and whom he has rebuked, yet they had not repented, when he is enjoined to hate them, there still remains the duty to love them also. And both are right; hatred, because of the wickedness in them; and love on account of the aspect of hidden good in them, which is the Divine spark in them, which animates their Divine soul.” One may however think that both feelings and attitudes are equal, clarifies the Tanya: “He should also awaken compassion in his heart for the divine souls that is held captive in the “evil”… Compassion destroys hatred and awakens love.”

Love is and should be the dominant force even in discipline. As the verse states: “Judge the people…(so that you) protect the people” (Numbers 35:24-25. See Sanhedrin 2a. Rosh Hashana 26a). Punishment in Torah is only a method to repair and purify, and must be done with love not hate, with the intention to heal, not destroy.

[Moses broke the Divine tablets (and said “erase my name from the Torah”) in order to save the Jews who had sinned and deserved punishment. He went up for another forty days and nights, and then for yet another forty to pray for their forgiveness. Yom Kippur is the testimony to his success – the power of atonement, teshuvah (return – to one’s essential good). Prayer is yet another testimony to the ability G-d gives us to never give up, and even stand up to G-d’s decrees.]

This is fundamental Jewish thought, based on the principle that good is always dominant and inherent, and evil is an aberration and transient. In Judaism there is no such thing as original sin, damnation, and power of the devil that is stronger than good. Each human being has the independent power to battle the forces of evil and prevail. I actually found it ironic that you described my interpretation as “Christian,” when it anything but.

In no way does this permit, endorse or even tolerate wicked behavior. You are definitely right when you say that repenting sinners must first ask “forgiveness, admit wrongdoing, pay compensation (monetary, jail, community service, etc.), truly repent and never repeat their crimes.” True unconditional love does not mean that “you give him the power to continue his wrongful activities because he knows that you will continue to love and support him no matter what.” True love means that you do everything in your power to influence and change the person’s behavior (provided, obviously, that you have that power and won’t be hurt in the process).

Even regarding “heretics and atheists,” about whom King David said “I hate them with a consummate hatred” (Psalms 139:22), because they have “no portion in the G-d of Israel” (Shabbat 116a) – it is incumbent to bring them closer to G-d. The reason: Also they are included in the statement “the sins should be erased but not the sinners” (Psalms 104:35. Berochot 10a). And even their souls remain pure, and there is hope for teshuvah, and their return to having a “share in the world to come” (Maimonides, Hilchot Teshuvah ch. 3). Even if they, G-d forbid, do not do teshuvah, their souls remain immortal (though they may live on in another state or in another body).

All this is so much more underscored in our generation, when heresy and wickedness in general is a result more of ignorance than maliciousness. In addition to the fact that we don not know what is in the heart of another person, and we must always judge a person with merit (Avot 1:6), and not judge someone until you are in his place (ibid 2:4).

Finally, and this perhaps is my most important point. I have personally witnessed and experienced the deep (and often justified) disillusionment of so many Jews in established religion (including the distorted views of an “angry” and “wrathful” G-d, and the fear and dogma related to religion), and I see the critical need to present Judaism with love and sensitivity, in a warm and non-judgmental manner, that is welcoming and allows for receptivity.

As Jews, what we need today more than anything else is to finally look at each other as brothers and sisters. And instead of all the infighting of “denominations,” recognize that we are all “one nation,” “one pillar,” “as one people, with one heart,” and that this does not need to compromise our diversity. We need to get beyond the labels and stereotypes that divide, and treat fellow Jews as our own family. If you saw your own child – or yourself, for that matter – misbehave, you would not cease to unconditionally love yourself or your child; yet, out of love you would also discipline the child, and you would let your child know that even punishment is coming out of love. In our case, we are not the ones responsible to “judge” or “discipline,” but our attitude has to be the same as with our own family. We do not need to compromise our own commitment to Judaism to love anther Jew who has not yet reached that place, and encourage him or her, and welcome them to encourage us to grow together in our relationship with G-d.

This was the motivation behind my article. So, based on your comments I wonder whether you have the same attitude as I do.

For more on all of the above references, including the unconditional element of Ahavas Yisroel – I would be happy to make available to you some original texts in Hebrew (if you read the language). But suffice it to say, that in this letter I cited primarily sources in Talmud and Halacha. If you add into the equation the rich and substantive literature of the Chassidic masters on Ahavas Yisroel, beginning from the Baal Shem Tov, you will find amazing statements – and beautiful examples from their behavior – as to the extent one has to go in loving a fellow Jew, unconditionally.

With blessings and best wishes for a meaningful and transcendent Shavuot,

Simon Jacobson

Why is G-d So Angry?

Two days before my father passed away, I wrote this article. Little did I know how these words would come to console me and many others as we walked through “the valley of the shadow of death,” helping us reach the state of “I shall not fear.” With a profound tragedy ripping yet again through the hearts of  our nation, I hope these words can now again serve them well to conquer the fear as they walk through their deep valley…

From my mailbox:

Dear Rabbi Jacobson,

I am an avid reader of your weekly e-mails and appreciate your personal and spiritual take on what otherwise would be for me irrelevant tradition. Having grown up in an observant home with no warmth or spirituality (and worse), I came to resent anything that was “dry ritual.” I therefore am very grateful to you for having opened up a resonating perspective that I never knew was there.

In this vein I would like to ask you how you would explain the many curses used in the Torah. What possible benefit – besides fear and alienation – can curses contain?

As you know, many people are easily turned away from Biblical thought when they read the terrible misfortunes that will befall people for their sins. It is demoralizing and creates the impression that G-d is a very angry entity, filled with wrath and vengeance.

Some would even argue that it is Rabbis like you who later came and “softened” up the Biblical version of G-d and turned it into a spiritual and loving relationship. But the G-d of the Bible doesn’t seem like someone you could or would want to have a relationship with?!

I am sorry for being so blunt or perhaps disrespectful, but I have learned from your writing that you welcome such questions and appreciate the direct approach rather than masquerades.

Thank you for listening,

[signed]

Dear,

Thank you for your trusting words, and yes, I do appreciate your direct question, and will respond in a more formal tone in the following essay on this week’s Torah portion.

This week’s Biblical Torah portion enumerates forty-nine (!) curses that will befall those that transgress the law (Leviticus 26:14-43).

For the record, this is the first of three places in the Torah where we read what is known as the “tochacha” (the admonition or rebuke), which describes the harsh consequences of forsaking the Divine commandments. The second and third are in the beginning and the end of the book of Deuteronomy (Devorim and Ki Tovo respectively).

Traditionally these sections are read quickly and in a lower tone than the rest of the Torah reading. No one is invited up to the Torah (in an “aliya”) for these sections. Instead, the Torah “reader” unceremoniously recites the blessings before and after the reading, but he is not called up.

Which of course brings us to the big question: Why would G-d want to curse His own children?!

A bizarre Talmudic story about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai will help illuminate us. Rabbi Shimon once sent his son, Rabbi Elozor, to a couple of distinguished sages for a blessing.

The sages conferred upon him a strange string of “blessings:” “May it be His will that you sow and not reap. That you bring in [merchandise] and not let out [sell it], and that you invest and not have a return. That your house be destroyed and your inn settled. That your table be confused and you should not see a new year.” (!!)

Rabbi Elozor returned to his father shocked: “Not only did they not bless me, he exclaimed, “they have caused me anguish!” “What did they tell you?” asked Rabbi Shimon. After Rabbi Elozor repeated their words, Rabbi Shimon reassured him: “All their words are really blessings!”

And he explained: “‘Sow and not reap’ means that you will have children who will not die in your lifetime. ‘Bring in and not let out’ means that you will bring in daughters-in-law [your children will marry] and your sons who married them will not die in their lifetime. ‘Invest and not have a return’ means that your daughters will marry and their husbands will not die, resulting in your daughters having to return home. ‘Your house be destroyed and your inn settled’ means that your grave (which is called a ‘house’) will not come to use and you will live long in this world which is compared to an inn. ‘Your table be confused’ with many sons and daughters. And ‘you should not see a new year’– your wife will not die and you will therefore not have to ‘see a new year,’ i.e. remarry and spend the ‘first year’ with a new wife.”

This episode is all nice and fine. But the commentaries are troubled by the obvious question: Why did the esteemed sages not bless Rabbi Elozor in open and direct terms, and instead cloaked their blessing in cryptic language that only Rabbi Shimon was able to decipher?!

Several different explanations are proffered:

1. The sages did so in order to challenge and sharpen Rabbi Elozor (Maharsha).
2. They did so in order to honor Rabbi Shimon, that he be the one that interprets, and thus blesses his son. In effect Rabbi Elozor would be blessed twice (Rif. Iyun Yaakov).
3. A blessing is more effective when it isn’t pronounced out loud in public (three people is considered public) (Iyun Yaakov).
4. They did so for Rabbi Elozor’s good. At times when a blessing is stated outright, the “voice of judgment” (of the “prosecuting angels”) challenges the merit of the recipient, questioning whether he truly deserves this blessing. The sages therefore disguised their blessing in language that sounds like a curse, knowing that the “prosecuting angels” cannot read their minds, so as not to provoke and stir up any resistance to these blessings (Nezer Hakodesh, cited in Eitz Yosef).

Even after all these explanations, it still seems odd that the sages would use the language of curses to convey a blessing! To elicit Rabbi Shimon’s interpretation or to mask their intentions from the “prosecutors” could have easily been achieved by using neutral language. Why the need to use terms that can seem “offensive”?! True, a blessing “disguised” as a curse is easier to “smuggle” by the forces of judgment, but it still requires explanation.

To understand the deeper meaning of these blessings dressed up in the “garments” of “curses” requires a penetrating look into the forces that lay beneath the surface of existence in general. Which will also explain why of all people it was Rabbi Shimon who illuminated the inner meaning of these blessings.

The deeper meaning – and inner dimension – of all experience is to be found in what is called the “inner wisdom.”

There are two types of wisdom, which correspond to two types of experience:

1)     Conscious or revealed wisdom – which comprehends conscious or revealed experience. This is the wisdom of most sciences – physical, social and political – the understanding of our empirical and sensory experiences (what we see, hear, taste, touch and smell).

2)     Unconscious or hidden wisdom – which relates to the unconscious and hidden dimensions of reality, the suprasensory energy that makes existence tick.

The Torah too has these two corresponding dimensions: The Outer Torah, it’s revealed dimension (nigleh), and the Inner Torah, hidden beneath the surface (nistar).

On the surface things may appear one way. Beneath the surface they may appear entirely different, sometimes even diametrically opposed as to the way they seem on the outside.

Take yourself as an example: How much of your outside (body language, facial expressions, conversations) expresses your inner self? Indeed, the deeper you travel into the intimate recesses of your psyche, the fewer words we have to express ourselves. Sometimes a laugh, a cry, an “oy-vey” expresses more than volumes can. On the deepest level silence is often the most profound expression of all (the “silent voice” in the words of the Zohar).

This is because the outer world and the inner world are two entirely different, even dichotomous, paradigms. How does your conscious match up with your unconscious? Do you even want to know?

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (known as the Alter Rebbe, author of Tanya and founder of Chabad Chassidus), in his Likkutei Torah, uses this principle to explain that the “curses” in our Torah chapter are “in truth, nothing but blessings”, blessings in disguise.

On an ostensible level – the conscious, revealed dimension – they appear as curses. On this level they too serve a “blessed” purpose to attack the “negative” forces of existence. No one would consider it a curse when white blood cells mercilessly destroy harmful bacteria in order to protect the body from infection.

But in an even deeper dimension – in the unconscious, hidden dimension – the inner workings of these apparent “curses” are nothing but profound blessings, so profound that they can only be expressed in a concealed and disguised fashion. They are actually deeper blessings than the ones we can openly recognize! [Rabbi Schneur Zalman goes on to explain the blessings in some of the ostensible “curses” in our chapter].

The Tzemach Tzedek in his gloss on Likkutei Torah of his grandfather, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, equates this concept with the above related Talmudic story with the blessings “disguised” as curses: These blessings originate in the unconscious level of experience.

For this reason the blessings need to be concealed not in neutral terms but in “cursed” language: Only then are they truly concealed. The formula works like this: The more sublime and intimate the experience, the more concealed it is. Therefore, the most sublime blessings of all are couched in the most dreadful terms.

This also explains why Rabbi Shimon was the one to recognize the profound blessings bestowed on his son, Rabbi Elozor:

Rabbi Shimon is the primary source of the “Inner Torah.” Coupled with his Talmudic genius, Rabbi Shimon is the preeminent mystic of his times; the author of the Holy Zohar – the classic text of the inner wisdom of Kabbala.

Rabbi Shimon therefore was most fittingly able to see beneath the surface of the sages’ expressions and reveal their inner meaning – the profound blessings they carried, blessings that come from the “hidden” and “unconscious” cosmic levels, greater than blessings that are expressed in a revealed way.

One way to explain the power of Rabbi Elozor’s blessings: In foresight the sages saw that Rabbi Elozor in his lifetime would face difficult challenges with his children, including perhaps the horror of losing a child in his lifetime or other forms of premature deaths of children. In order to preempt any such tragedies, the sages ingenuously and intentionally used words that could sound like just such curses, so as to so-to speak “fulfill” (in physical expressions) these premonitions. But in truth they infused these words with the deeper meaning and intention of blessings, as spelled out by Rabbi Shimon. In effect, by using these negative expressions the sages bestowed the greatest of all blessings on Rabbi Elozor: They released him of his need to actually experience any such loss, and instead be blessed with good life and marriage for him and his children.

In practical terms that each of us can relate to, we too must recognize that in our lives we receive two types of blessings, corresponding to our two forms of experience: Conscious and unconscious.

There are blessings that are apparent and revealed for all to see. But then there are blessings that are camouflaged, sometimes in “garments” that don’t appear to the naked eye to be blessed.

But the naked eye is just that: Naked. It sees very little and understands even less.

These deeper blessings can take on the shape of formidable challenges in our lives. They can take on the shape of “special children” (as discussed in previously here), or perhaps a loss that at the moment seems irreplaceable.

Lest it be misunderstood, by all means we always ask for revealed blessings, and we deserve to see with our naked eyes the gifts of life. Yet, when we are faced with a seemingly insurmountable difficulty, never underestimate the possibility of it containing profound blessings, and your ability to reveal them.

Yes, after all is said and done, we were given the power to reveal the “unrevealable.” G-d created and gave us the resources, but He concealed them in this world of ours. Everything valuable in the world lies hidden. From precious stones to oil, from hidden potential to genius talents. We have the ability – and responsibility – to excavate these resources and bring them to the surface.

On Lag B’Omer, the yahrzeit and day of celebration of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (also known by his acronym: Rashbi), his ability to see and reveal the inside becomes more accessible to us.

A concluding story:

As a child, Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch, along with the rest of the congregation, would listen to the weekly Torah reading read by his father, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. One year, his father was out of town on the Shabbat when the chapter Ki Tavo is read, a chapter that includes a section of admonition (not 49 but 98 curses). After hearing the Admonition read by the substitute Torah reader, the child was so emotionally upset that even a month later his father was unsure whether his son would be able to fast on Yom Kippur. The child was later asked, “Why were you not disturbed this way when the admonition was read in past years?” The child replied, “When father reads it, no curses are heard.”

Yes, it all depends on who’s doing the reading. We all project our attitudes on others. When “father reads” – the father that see the inner soul even in the darkest places – we hear blessings.

May we all open our ears to hear how “father” reads and reveals the profound blessings in all of our lives.

iPad Mania and the Parting Sea

The lead story dominating today’s news is the launch of Apple’s iPad – Steve Jobs latest innovative tool, lauded as a “magical and revolutionary product” that will forever change the way we do things.

It seems just too irresistible not to compare this to another breakthrough event, which dominated the news of the day, several – just a mere 3322 – years ago: The Exodus from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.

Back then history was being made by Moses leading the people out of exile and against impossible odds marching through a seemingly impenetrable sea. Today, the lead characters are people like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Bill Gates and others, and technology is the modern day miracle, emancipating us (supposedly) from our material time/space shackles.

My, how things have changed. What a difference a few years can make…

With one “small” caveat, of course. Today’s marvels are not necessarily related (and some may argue, in opposition) to spiritual and moral progress; our current gadgets may dazzle the eye, engage the mind and consume our psyches, but they ultimately only advance our existing standards. As the saying goes: “Junk in, junk out.” All the modern technologies combined, on their own, will not make us love better, build healthier relationships and families, bring peace to the world or eradicate famine and injustice. As far as their creators go – they may be wonderful people, helping improve the way we run our lives – but when it comes down to it, financial incentive is what drives the engine. Not to suggest that inventor today may not be doing it for a noble cause, but nobility is not inherent to the process.

Whereas, in strong contrast, the miracles back then blazed a new trail in human freedom; it initiated a spiritual revolution, creating a new standard of virtue and morals that would change the course of history; it opened up the door of possibility – that nothing is truly impossible (even an awesome sea can be parted).

You can say that Exodus and the parting sea were the harbingers of many of the fundamental breakthroughs that have become pillars of our civilization today. It’s a fascinating exercise to wonder about: Without these Biblical events, which led to Sinai, without which none of the major (Western) religions would have been spawned, would we have democracy today? What would our values look like?

And even though it may a be stretch to say that the scientific innovations of our time were a direct outgrowth of the miracles at the Red Sea, it would not be at all difficult to argue that our human imagination – the ability to think unconventionally; to dream and innovate; to invest and develop “out of the box” ideas – is sparked by the miracles of the past and by people who did not give up even under impossible circumstances.

Even if one were skeptical about the actual miracles, can anyone deny that just hearing about them instills in all of us the possibility – just the possibility – that we can defy the “natural” routine of things and conceive of new possibilities, and even believe that sometimes the impossible may just be possible?

Is it not a measure of faith – and even a tinge of insanity – that compelled certain innovators to observe a bird in flight and imagine that we too can learn to fly, and indeed developed the technology and engineering of air flight? Or a doctor, despite all the detractors, doggedly insisted on finding a cure to an otherwise incurable disease? Or a devoted mother, ignoring the advice of experts, not giving up on her autistic child?

The Biblical Exodus and its subsequent events etched into our consciousness, if nothing else, the indefatigable spirit of man. It declared and demonstrated, and thus heralded in a new awareness, that with faith and commitment, with a connection to the Divine, we can achieve anything, even the unfathomable.

So then the question begs: In comparing the miracles of old and the miracles of today, where have we strayed? Why is innovation today only around material objects (as “sublime” as they may be) and not around soulful ventures? Where today are the spiritual Steve Jobs’ pioneering paths to deeper consciousness and higher awareness? Even if some exist, why do they not dominate the headlines?

Is it only because iPods, iPhones and now iPads can generate huge sums of money? Are we to believe that tools to find personal happiness and spiritual growth are not money-making enterprises (or that those involved in that line of work are not driven by profit, or they get tainted once their palettes taste the sweetness of money)?

Not much is known about the deeper significance of the Parting of the Sea. But those familiar with its mystical interpretation know that it carries profound messages and lessons, that can impact not only our personal lives, but surprisingly also our ability to develop new technologies. In effect, bridging the miracles of technology with the miracles of the soul. Wouldn’t it be something if Steve Jobs were to learn about these parallels?

Here is a brief overview of the parting sea’s spiritual relevance: Land and sea represent two realities – two forms of consciousness: The “revealed worlds” of dry land are our conscious experiences. The “hidden worlds” of the sea are our unconscious experiences. In truth these two states are one seamless whole. Thus, in the beginning of time all Earth was submerged in water, as each of us (the universe in microcosm) begins our life submerged in the embryonic fluids of our mothers’ wombs. Then, a parting took place – a parting that divided separated between “land” consciousness and water consciousness. The boundaries between land and sea were set in place.

This division is actually only from our perspective. If you think about it, all land on Earth is actually an island jutting out of water. 75% of the globe is covered with water, leaving 25% uncovered. The same is true of the microcosm: Two thirds of the body is made up of water. Our conscious minds are just a “tip of the iceberg” (no pun intended) jutting out of our unconscious.

Yet a deep separation between land and water define our reality. We cannot see behind the curtain dividing our conscious and unconscious. But this separation is not airtight. At the outset of creation, when G-d separated between land and sea, He did so on the condition that the sea would always remember that it would one day part and allow man to walk through its depths as we walk on land.

The parting of the sea – in which “water was transformed into land” (Hofach yom l’yabosho) – was a one-time in history demonstration of the naked truth: That sea and land are two dimensions of one reality. The window opened up at that point, as a preparation to Sinai when the rift was bridged between spirit and matter. Until Sinai a decree dictated a “line in the sand,” which stated, “that which is above shall not come below, and that which is below shall not ascend above.”

This is also the reason that the people sang praise following the parting of the sea: Song is the language of the sea. Conventional speech (“land language”) consists of staccato-like fragments of disconnected words, separated by spaces and breaths, combining together to express an idea. Melody flows like water in one seamless stream.

The parting of the sea – an integral part of the sea’ nature from its inception – paved the way so that today we have the power to sing, the power to unite what is above and what is below, in one harmonious flow.

Now imagine this: Imagine that headlines today would be screaming not just about iPads but about unprecedented breakthroughs and insights into our souls. Imagine people being excited about discovering new dimensions of their psyches, new reservoirs of strength (to counter their fears and insecurities) – as excited as they are when they procure a new iPhone. Imagine a world enamored by exploring the deeper possibilities in our relationships and loves, by finding inner contentment – as enamored as we are by the newest gadgets coming our way.

This, in a nutshell, is the challenge of our times: To rediscover the electricity of spirituality, and integrate it with the sensations of our modern innovations.

The iPad mania reflects the design and marketing genius of Steve Jobs and his gifted team. But it also reveals the gaping vacuum in our lack of spiritual visionaries.

Who will rise today as a spiritual Steve Jobs, ready to pioneer a new spiritual path?

To Strike and to Heal: Lessons from the Egyptian Exodus on Destruction and Redemption

Passover, which is quickly approaching, is in essence the story of the classic battle between good and evil, and how good prevails. In truth, almost all enduring narratives contain this theme in one way or another.

The confrontation between good and evil is immediately recognizable to every one of us; it resonates in the struggles we each face in our own lives. At the same time, good and evil provide us with a stark contrast of opposites, a crystallized perspective – even if it may seem simplistic – on the nature of things, which, as strange as it sounds, is refreshing and even offers a measure of relief amidst the din of confusion that consumes much of our lives. The clarity of knowing your enemy is far more empowering than the doubts of not knowing who your adversary may be and when they may strike. That is why the analysis of a problem – and the identification of its root caused (as opposed to its symptoms) is the key to any solution. Awareness, our sages tell us, is half the cure of a disease.

But the problem is far more complex than it may initially seem: Is there such a thing as absolute evil? Can we always identify good from evil? Especially when we know that “there is not good without bad, and no bad without good.” When evil is intertwined with good, how do we go about eliminating the evil without also hurting the good?

One of the darkest phenomena bemoaned by mystics is, what they call, “taaruvot tov v’ra,” a disturbing concoction, which snowballs good and evil into one witches’ brew. This confusing “cholent” can be far more lethal than plain evil. When good and evil are two distinct entities, you can at least identify the enemy and deal with it accordingly. But when the enemy is hiding amidst your friends, when the evil is buried within the good, where do you begin? The lack of clarity allows the evil to grow, besides for demoralizing us and sapping our resolve to fight an invisible enemy. Some of the worst diseases known to mankind are the ones in which parasites or malignant cells intertwine themselves and “hide” between healthy cells. Once they embed themselves, the only way to eliminate them is by killing, G-d forbid, good cells together with the bad ones.

An interesting Passover related verse can teach us much a about the distinction between good and evil, and the complication involved in extricating the good while eradicating the evil.

And the L-rd shall strike (plague) Egypt, striking and healing, and they shall return to the L-rd, and He shall accept their prayer and heal them (Isaiah 19:22).

Two opinions are posited about the meaning of this verse: Rashi and the Talmud interpret that the verse refers to the first nine plagues, in which the “striking and healing” both happened to the Egyptians: first they were struck by the plagues (which were brought on by Aaron), then they were healed (by Moses’ prayer). The Zohar (II 36a), however, explains that the verse is referring to the tenth plague, when the Egyptians were “struck” and the Israelites “healed,” and both things happened at once (not in two stages).

We see from this that even when the evil was being struck it was also being healed. Until the last and final plague, which came to utterly destroy the evil. But even then, it was not about total destruction; “healing” took place for the good that remained.

Chassidic literature elaborates on the midnight before the great Exodus from Egypt. On that dark and mysterious night, at the moment when the clock struck midnight, the oppressors were struck and the oppressed were healed (“nogof l’mitzrayim v’ rofoh l’yisroel”), evil was vanquished and good prevailed. How can one distinguish between good and evil when they are all mixed together? This requires a unique Divine power, revealed at midnight, when love (chesed) meets discipline (gevurah) and opposites come together – a force that can separate between the good and the bad, and simultaneously address each accordingly (see Passover discourses of 5705).

*  *  *

One comment on my last article, Service or Slavery? was particular pointed and deserves a response.

Here is the comment:

I don’t think anyone would disagree that these raw and heart wrenching words demand a reply. Just for the record: I asked Kathi permission to print her comment and she absolutely agreed, and to do so with her name.

What I now write is directed both to Kathi and to anyone else who may have a similar “serious problem” with what I wrote, and above all – to all those that have suffered in any way.

Before waxing philosophical (which is inappropriate regardless), allow me to begin on a personal note.

A great Rebbe once told his distressed student: “I don’t have answers for you. But I can cry with you.”

My heart goes out to you, Kathi, and to every one who has in any way been abused and hurt, in any fashion, especially by parents and close ones. I will never be able to imagine the depth of anguish, pain and the long-term impact that abuse has on every aspect of a person’s entire life.

It is plain folly and foolish arrogance – if not worse – to even make an attempt “explaining” to a tortured soul how there is “good” in the evil they experienced. That is not the way of the wise. That is not the way of Torah, That is not the way of love. A mind, no matter how brilliant, cannot speak to a bleeding heart. Intellect and emotions speak different languages. Silence – and only awesome silence – remains the ultimate response in the face of atrocity. “Vayidom Aaron”, Aaron was silent when his two sons were ripped away from him in their prime. “Shetok” – be silent! Is what G-d declares when He was challenged how He can allow good people to suffer; “is this Torah and is this it’s reward?!”…

And yet. Despite the inexplicable nature of cruelty and evil, humans were given the power to console each other. We can cry together, and we can – and must – storm the heavens in outrage against the suffering innocent.

We do not attempt to justify G-d or find merit in abuse. Evil is evil. Period.

There are those that preoccupy themselves with trying to reconcile a good G-d with the evil in the universe. They call it theodicy: how do we explain an omnibenevolent and omnipotent G-d allowing for evil. Theodicy comes from the Greek theós (“G-d”) and díkē (“justice”), meaning “the justice of G-d,” or “to justify G-d” or “the justification of G-d”. But though Jewish mysticism does discuss the paradox of evil in face of a good G-d, interestingly, it never tries to justify G-d. Indeed, when one religious leader suggested reasons that justified the Holocaust, a great Rebbe silenced him saying: “G-d does not need an advocate…”

Because after all is said and done, analyzing and pontificating why terrible things happen is perhaps an exercise that bystanders can indulge in (and pat their backs for having the courage to address such a thorny subject). But it is not a luxury that someone who has experienced – actually experienced – loss and pain can allow themselves to have. No one should ever know of tragedy, but when it strikes the mind and all its philosophies is left ineffective, to put it mildly.

And oddly, when one allows the silence and humility in face of suffering to take hold, it has a mysterious healing power. Once you don’t attempt to dismiss away or justify the pain, once you acknowledge its fierce and brutal power, and you see that it has not destroyed you and your spirit – in a strange way that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I have witnessed the extraordinary refinement of people who have suffered, a refinement that you do not see regularly. It’s like a unique light that shines from their countenance; a glow that is both concealing as it is revealing. Like those deep-furrowed wrinkles of a war-torn veteran – both painful yet knowing.

And yet. Despite the silence and acceptance. Despite the lack of explanation and understanding of evil, once you “let go” of trying to rationalize and control it, a deeper wisdom settles in. Not one that understands evil or its meaning; not one that even tries to explain the purpose of evil. But one that begins to sense that the darkest crevices of human experience reveal a deeper truth, a bigger picture – an unfathomable mystery to the very nature and purpose of life.

The question becomes not how or why can evil exist in the presence of a benevolent G-d, but what allowed for it to emerge in the first place, and above all: What are we to do about it? We don’t ask why, but what we can do. Because, you see, it is simply unacceptable that we remain “victims” to the abuse and evil we may have endured. There must be a way to redeem the experience – a way to grow from it.

This is a far cry from trying to explain or justify the abuse – something that we can never do. The perpetrator is always responsible for his actions and will always remain accountable. Any type of justification would be as obscene, if not worse, than the initial abuse. In the same vein, it would be even more terrible to say that the abuse is the end of the road for the “recipient” – the survivor. Nothing can be more horrible than to argue that the criminal has control over the destiny of the survivor forever!… No one (even one who has been victimized) can be forced to remain a victim. That would be the devastating equivalent of saying that someone can irreversibly murder another person’s soul, with no hope for revival.

Enter the mystics, and explain that even the deepest evil has a speck of good. No – not that there is any good or justification in the evil perpetrated; but there is good hidden somewhere in the broad scheme of things, especially in how it affects the survivor’s life, that can be redeemed.

Firstly, nothing can exist without a Divine force energizing it. Second, as mentioned, if evil and all its consequences control everything that it comes in contact with or crosses its path, we, innocent victims would never have the possibility of healing and rebuilding our lives.

So how then do we explain absolute evil? Where is the Divine spark in this evil? Explain the Chassidic masters, that “the Divine spark in evil has become so distant and dark that it is considered as if it itself evil.” When an entity perpetrates evil the Divine spark that gives life to the entity becomes completely trapped and overwhelmed by the surrounding darkness. Think of it like a black hole, where the gravitational pull is so strong that it does not allow any light to be released.

The only way to release the Divine spark is by destroying the evil. “Their destruction is their repair.” And when the evil is destroyed we have the power to transform the remaining spark (which once was trapped to the point that it took the shape of evil) into a force for good, the “transgressions become like virtues.”

The crimes themselves (like murder, rape and child abuse, mentioned by Kathi) are completely evil. Their only fate and redemption is total and complete eradication. Yet those that have endured the crime have the ability to not remain “victims” and feel “forever damaged.” They have beautiful souls, which have the power to transcend and grow through the process.

G-d indeed destroyed the world when it “was filled with corruption and violence,” man’s “wickedness was great” and “every product of the thoughts of his heart was but evil always.” “Their destruction was their repair.” But G-d did not destroy everything; He only destroyed the evil forces, leaving the Earth intact – including the waters, fish, and of course Adam and his family, and representatives of every animal species, pure or impure. We see from this that 1) evil is redeemed through its eradication. 2) there always remain elements of good that emerge once the dominant evil is diminished or eradicated.

This is a very delicate and abstract subject, which requires much contemplation and emotional investment to appreciate. And I risk misrepresenting the full magnitude of the issue. Yet, in an attempt to help us all find some redemption in our suffering, it is well worth the effort to try conveying some of the idea in these lines.

So yes, “Nothing on Earth is completely evil. Even the worst situations have some spark of the Divine.”

In our dark and difficult world good and evil are intertwined and the true secret is to learn the balance of “striking and healing,” how to crush the evil while redeeming the good. When evil has violated the good, it is relatively easier to resort to one of the two extremes: Destroy everything, bad and good. Or tolerate the evil so that the good can survive. Passover teaches us the third path: Striking and healing – destroy the evil (which is its true repair) and release the good.

For this we absolutely are in need of Divine power – the same power that emerged the midnight before Passover – a force that allows us to achieve the ultimate paradox: Vanquish the oppressors while freeing the oppressed.

Positive and Negative Lessons From the Military

Just as I was getting my feet wet with the innocence of kabolat ol – accepting the yoke of a higher authority, in the lessons I learned (in last weeks article To Serve) from military discipline at Scott Air Force Base – I get rudely awakened by a few strong comments protesting my “dangerous naive view of the military.”

“I would hope,” writes one person, “that you would have a more skeptical view of the presentation of military culture as benign and beneficial. Indoctrinating people to believe that they must trust and obey and submit to Authority is a dangerous practice. It’s all to easy for those in power to use convince groups so indoctrinated to follow foolish or even evil paths. A prime example of this was Nazi Germany where respect for authority led to the ‘I was just following orders’ defense during the Nuremberg trials.”

Emmanuel Gruss echoes the sentiment: “The ‘city within the city’ that you describe is a slave colony… To answer your question when was the last time that we unconditionally accepted and order from a superior authority is: every morning when we say reishit chochma yirat hashem. Paraphrase your sentences and you will end with a manifesto for the German SS… Kabalat ol malchut shamayim cannot be learned from a professional military organization. It has to be taught at home m’yirat Hashem and m’ahavat Hashem.”

So there you go. For years I have been railing against corrupt establishments and false authorities. Many of my articles and talks are about the damage inflicted by the abuse of power, by religious or other types of totalitarianism. A healthy system needs to be empowered to challenge blind obedience to the inevitable subjective flaws of human authority and the drive for power and control. After all this, I finally determined last week to wax eloquent about the virtues of submitting to a higher authority that we can learn from military discipline. Only to be reminded of the dangers in blindly accept authority…

Yet, despite these accurate disclaimers about the military (something I also mentioned in my original article), I will not back down from using the military as a case study and a model lesson in discipline and submission to a higher authority. Not because I am obstinate, but due to the fact that this analogy is not my own: The Torah, and its sages, use military service (and many aspects of military behavior) as an example for Divine service.

This, however, just carries over the question to the sages: How can they compare Divine authority to human authority? It seems sacrilegious – and even foolish – to use military hierarchy, with all its inherent flaws and potential abuses, as an example to learn about submission to a pure and holy G-d?

In truth, the same question can be asked of all the physical metaphors, parables and examples in Midrash and other Torah literature given to explain spiritual concepts. We even have a verse that states, “from my flesh I behold G-d.” Can raw human flesh – infinitely inferior to anything Divine – allow us the ability to behold… G-d?!

The answer to these questions provides us with a powerful glimpse into the Judaism’s fascinating and revolutionary perspective on life.

“Kingdom on Earth is similar to Kingdom in heaven,” declares the Talmud.

All our earthly systems and institutions, including the logic and sciences we use to build our infrastructures, reflect in many ways the Divine structures. The mystics explain that everything in the material plane evolves from its ethereal counterpart in the spiritual plane. This includes all the properties of all existence, the laws of nature and the rules of logic – all crafted and shaped in the “image” that mirrors the “Divine mind.”

This doesn’t mean to say that our human structures are flawless and that we are incapable As the spiritual evolves into the physical many distortions take place. Add to that equation the imperfections of human choices, and clearly our systems will be sorely disparate from their Divine counterparts, and sometimes even directly conflict the Divine plan. Yet, despite the distortions, we can find glimmers (and sometimes far more than that) of the Divine within earthly phenomenon.

Indeed, when the Czarist regime fell to the Russian Revolution, some Chassidim were weeping over the fact that “now we have lost a metaphor that helped us understand the Divine Kingdom”… Despite the cruelty and persecution that the Jews suffered under the Russian Czars, they still were able to extract lessons in their Divine service from the Czar’s authority!

Nothing on Earth is completely evil. Even the worst situations have some spark of the Divine, and every predicament can teach us vital life lessons.

Similarly, military service, with all its flaws, remains a lesson that we can learn from in our Divine service – albeit, with all the appropriate qualifications and distinctions between accepting the yoke of heaven and the authority of human superiors.

In effect, we derive two Divine lessons from every earthly system and experience: What that system teaches us about the Divine it reflects. And what that all too-fragile system teaches us how different the Divine is from our human structures and innovations.

When we see how the military are subordinated to their superiors, with no room for variance, we learn the absolute dedication one has to apply to Divine service: Total acceptance of our heavenly calling (kabolos ol malchus shomayim).

On the other hand, as a human institution, military authority can be (and surely at times is) abusive. Absolute obedience can become a destructive force (as history has shown us far too often). This teaches us the critical distinctions between human authority and Divine authority, and that our ultimate submission is only to G-d, never to anything human, as Mordechai demonstrated when “he would not bow and kneel” to Haman.

This of course can raise an obvious question – which is an oft-cited critique on faith: if we are to be truly free human beings, then we should serve no one – not human beings, not man-made institutions, and not G-d. After all, according to this argument, how is serving G-d different than serving other people? It’s just replacing one form of slavery with another?

As we approach Passover this question is very timely: The Bible says that G-d instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh, “let My people go, and [so that] they will serve Me.” Why do we consider this an Exodus from slavery, when all it led to was another form of servitude – serving G-d?

In Leviticus G-d states, “they are My servants, who I brought out of Egypt” “not servants to my servants” (Talmud Bava Metzia, 10a). It is obviously better to be a servant to the “boss” rather than being a “servant to a servant.” But that still does not explain why being a servant to G-d is called freedom.

Questions like this can only be answered by showing how the entire question is based on a stereotypical and distorted view of G-d. If G-d is just a larger, more powerful version of ourselves, than serving Him is indeed just another form of slavery. But if G-d is a reality radically different than our own – an absolute existence that is completely unlike our relative and arbitrary existence, an omnipotent, immortal and indivisible G-d diametrically opposed to our flawed, mortal and divisible lives – then submission to the Divine is a step toward emancipation.

All man-made structures, even the most sublime, can lead us to great heights, but only to ones that we can reach with our own human tools and devices. The Divine– and the fact that we humans were created in the Divine Image – offers us the ability to reach and connect with a reality that is beyond our human parameters; to marry heaven and earth and to fuse the finite with the infinite.

However, there is one necessary condition to achieve such transcendental freedom: We humans must shed the blinding force of self-interest and respond to the call for service; we must weaken the grip that keeps us trapped and enslaved to our own temptations, and allow ourselves to be mobilized to serve – not human structures, but to serve – our higher calling.

Ok, so there you have it: The ultimate rebel is the one who rebels against all forms of human rebellion, and embraces – with kabolot ol – a higher order.

With that being said, the question arises the other way around: If serving G-d is the ultimate freedom, why then is it called service? Your thoughts are welcome.

The Disciplined Life: Lessons from the Military

Scott Air Force Base, Illinois – March 4, 2010.

I had a remarkable experience today at Scott Air Force Base.

I was invited to the base to deliver the keynote address at their annual National Prayer Luncheon. The topic was “The Power of Prayer in these Turbulent Times.” Among other ideas, I discussed the importance of remembering the fundamentals, including: the selfless service of the military in defending our freedoms and protecting others; the core values that drive this country in the first place – preserving the sacred rights of each individual crated in the Divine Image; the partnership we have with G-d in transforming this world into a garden of peace; the vital importance of connecting, emoting and bonding with G-d through prayer; seeing it as a force that counters our mortal fears, loneliness and other challenges every serviceperson faces from time to time. My talk was very well received by the several hundred military personnel that attended, but I am not writing now to describe what I taught them, but rather what they taught me.

Living in our undisciplined world – where most people just do whatever suits their fancy – it was quite surreal entering into this “city within a city,” where everything is driven by profound discipline.

Here I was sitting between Lieutenant General Vern “Rusty” Findley and Colonel Gary Goldstone. General Findley is the vice commander of Air Mobility Command, which is responsible for the US Air Force’s global mobility all around the world. He makes daily life and death decisions that affect thousands of people. Colonel Goldstone is the Commander of the entire Scott Air Force Base, where more than 17,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve, Department of Defense civilians, and contract personnel are assigned.

The manners, decorum and utmost respect that they – and everyone present – displayed were beautiful to behold. I am not naïve in thinking that these people are beyond politics, infighting and all the other maladies that plague human interactions. But what was amazing was that despite the human frailties, these officers do not allow them to affect their overall cause and driving mission. And that cause, without any question, is the underlying force that defines the community at the air base – quite a contrast to most of our communities and institutions, where politics and bureaucracy are far more dominant than any cause.

As I was taken on a tour of the base – from the two gyms to a complete mall (with the lowest prices you’ll ever find), a running track to the chapels, an air strip and railroad tracks, housing, offices, you name it – I was struck by something that I could not quite put my finger on. Honor, reverence, cordiality, a sense of unity permeates the entire base. But there was something deeper. Nestled in western Illinois, just a few miles out of St. Louis, this base was its own “universe” – very different than anything I have ever quite seen.

As we were driving away from the base back “home,” it came to me: What made this place so very different than any other is the sense of duty that permeates every detail of the Air Base. Every individual, every protocol, every move is driven by the imperative to serve: No one and no action on the base ever forgets that they are serving a cause beyond themselves. Sure they have their “time off” and are not immune to the frivolities and pettiness of all humans, but the driving engine of the base is never frivolous or lethargic – it always has a sense of urgency and higher purpose.

Perhaps this is why the military has no conniptions about religious influences in their ranks. Quite the contrary, the chaplaincy plays a prominent role and is seen as a vital component in providing the personnel with spiritual resilience.

The contrast with our regular world is startling. This powerful sense of service coupled with the deep sense of urgency – the core of military discipline – simply does not exist in the outside world. Sure there are disciplined and cordial people everywhere; but our systems and institutions do not have duty and service as their bedrock. How many of us see ourselves primarily as servicemen and women – serving a cause higher than ourselves? When was the last time that we unconditionally accepted an order from a superior authority?

Take our schools for instance. As students we may have had some fear of our authorities, but it hardly makes a dent in our personalities and our disciplines. Even if we attended excellent private schools that trained us with a strong sense of etiquette and life skills, most of us (at least in our personal and moral choices) do not live our lives answering to a higher moral calling and to a higher authority.

Don’t get me wrong. As a rebel myself, I’m the last one to preach about submission to authority. G-d knows how I have challenged the authorities in my life. Yes, despite the merit in defying the establishment (especially when it may be corrupt), there is without doubt an intensely resonating beauty in total acceptance of a higher order (when one can be found).

And I remind myself of the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak’s words: A soldier, even when he sleeps, remains a soldier. The military is the ultimate symbol of what is called “kabolat ol,” literally “accepting the yoke,” the absolute acceptance of authority and orders, without which the entire military command would fall apart. When a superior issues an order to a subordinate there are no ifs and buts; you must follow the order without any question or hesitation. Not doing so – on the battlefield – can be the difference between life and death. Imagine every person in the military deciding on their own when or when not to follow orders?

How ironic it is that only war – the need to defend against an enemy – elicits the profound duty, service and discipline of the military. Perhaps this is the secret way of the tzaddik (the righteous person) – the path of the true servant: He or she always sees life as a battlefield. The enemy – whether it is selfishness, greed or other self-serving forces – is always distinct and clear, lurking in every corner, impacting our every move. We are always on duty and must always be vigilant. And we always have the choice: to do what is right or to do what is wrong; to serve the greater good or to only serve ourselves; to live a life dedicated to a higher cause or to indulge in our own immediate pleasures.

These weekly Torah portions address the building of and the service in the Temple – a central theme in all of Judaism: That we were created not to serve ourselves or others, but to serve a Higher Reality – G-d. Avodah is the Hebrew word for service. It means to toil, to transform, to reshape our raw personality and untamed universe into a refined gem. This requires nothing less than total dedication – absolute submission to the higher cause.

If you need a strong wake-up call (and who of us does not?) visit a military base. It will teach you the dramatic difference between a life of duty and one of no duty. And the choice you make – will make all the difference of how your life is lived. Or not lived.

The Hidden Script of Your Life

Many important events mark our lives. But what value or significance would you attribute to a trivial experience, like, say, a case of insomnia?

On a broader scale how do you see your overall life: Is your life disjointed or cohesive? As you live from day to day, do you ever feel that in your struggle for survival you may be missing the bigger picture? Does the minutiae of your schedule (work, pressures) shroud your larger priorities – like finding love and building a relationship? In time of pain and anguish, are you able to recognize that these dark moments may be part of a greater story? Can you see the thread that connects the fragments of your journey, or do you just move from moment to moment, trying to make the best of what comes your way?

Well, Purim teaches us a thing or two about the seemingly random events in our lives.

The great codifier of Jewish law Maharil (Rabbi Yaakov Halevi, 1360-1427) writes, that the Megillah reader raises his voice when he begins reading the words in the Megiilah (the scroll read on Purim relating the entire Purim story) “that night the king’s sleep was disturbed,” because the primary Purim miracle begins at this point.

Due to his insomnia, the king ordered that the book of chronicles, which recorded the history of the king’s reign, be brought and read to him. The story they read was how Mordechai, a while back, had saved the king’s life from an assassination attempt. This evoked the king’s appreciation to reward Mordechai, which began a series of events, as related in the Megillah, which led to the Purim miracle rescuing the entire Jewish nation from annihilation.

This reflects one of the most powerful themes of Purim: What you see is not what you get. On the surface level, the king’s restless night – as well as many other seemingly unrelated and insignificant events in the story – would be dismissed as a trivial fluke. In truth, it turns out that this becomes a critical juncture that changed the course of history! Had the king slept peacefully (and why shouldn’t he?), he would not have been reminded of Mordechai saving his life and the rest of the narrative would never have unfolded as it had.

The Purim story – and the story behind the story – teaches us how to look at our lives in a completely new and revolutionary way.

The Talmud says: “On who reads the Megillah backwards has not fulfilled the mitzvah.” Why in the world would anyone want to read the story backwards?! The Baal Shem Tov explains the statement this way: Anyone who reads the Purim narrative as if it happened “back when” in the past (in effect, reading the story backwards, with the end being closer to us than the beginning), has not fulfilled the mitzvah, which demands of us to read and see the story as if it is unfolding and playing itself out today, from the beginning of the story till its conclusion.

The story of Purim is the story of our lives. Our lives, just like the Purim narrative, is driven by a hidden script, which is hard to recognize at the time, but in retrospect patterns emerge as we discover the underlying narrative that leads to salvation. A bigger picture takes shape from the connecting dots of seemingly disconnected events, including the smallest details that we may completely ignore and disregard due to their triviality.

Imagine: A man can’t fall asleep and the destiny of a people is changed forever! How many other quirky details in existence are affecting our very lives as we speak?

Long before Kierkegaard wrote that “you can only understand life backwards, but we must live it forwards,” we have the story of Purim that tells us about the mysterious internal drama that shapes our outer lives. G-d’s name is never mentioned in the entire Megillah, emphasizing that the Divine Choreographer remains behind the scenes, even as He orchestrates a series of events, which may appear random to us, when in fact they are frames of a larger drama unfolding.

Purim teaches us how to discern the hidden narrative playing itself out in our lives today. How to see the forest for the trees. It helps us transcend the moment and connect it to the birds’ eye vision of your life story.

So the next time you cannot sleep – or experience some else seemingly trivial – you never know: It may be the beginning of your salvation.

Soul Inscription

The most famous statement ever uttered in all of history – The Ten Commandments – begins with an unusual four-letter word: Anochi. The word means “I,” referring to G-d – I the Lord Your G-d took you out of Egypt…” But “ani” is the common Hebrew pronoun for “I.”

Explains the Talmud (Shabbat 105a), that Anochi is an acronym for Ana Nafshi Ketovit Yehovit. Simply translated: I Myself wrote [these words and] gave [them to you]. But on closer inspection the actual translation is far more intriguing: I wrote down My very Soul and gave it to you. Or more poetically: My Soul is inscribed in these words that I gave you.

As the opening word of the Ten Commandments, Anochi clearly must carry profound significance, which sets the tone and captures the essence of all the commandments and of the entire Torah. Indeed, the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak emphasizes that the entire Torah is encompassed in the Ten Commandments; the Ten Commandments are all contained in the first two commandments, which in turn are contained in the first commandment; and the first commandment is reflected in microcosm in the first word, Anochi. And since all of existence originates from and is included in the Torah, which is the blueprint with which the Cosmic Architect constructed the universe, we can conclude that Anochi illuminates for us a fundamental aspect of our entire reality.

Anochi captures the essence and purpose of all existence: To inscribe and reveal the soul in our every word and in our every experience.

No small feat. We live in a highly fragmented and compartmentalized universe. The greatest dichotomy is between body and soul, matter and spirit. Yet, beneath the fissured surface an underlying unity connects all the pieces. Initially we seem all separate from one another – each of us with our own range of experiences, different exposures and life trajectories. But when we begin to communicate with each other, we discover common threads, shared reactions, mutual interests, which transcend our differences. As diverse as we may be, we learn that we celebrate similar milestones, smile at similar experiences, shed the same tears, suffer over the same pains.

Human compartmentalization is acutely and powerfully expressed in the words of Bertrand Russell. When asked how he, as a professor of ethics, could behave unethically, Russell said, “I am also a teacher of mathematics and I am not a triangle.” Academics often take pride in their detachment: “I can be completely knowledgeable of a given topic and it does not affect my behavior.” Contrast this attitude with Maimonides’ words, that a true scholar is recognized in his actions: how he talks, walks, sleeps and does business. A seamless flow between knowledge and behavior.

Russell was following nothing less that the natural laws of all beings – “the way of all flesh” – driven by and justifying fundamental compartmentalizing between ideals and actions. What you teach is not necessarily what you do, and vice versa. Your writing does not necessarily reflect your soul. Maimonides, on the other hand, was following the lead of Anochi – seamless integration between soul and words.

The opening of the Ten Commandments, Anochi, defines the essence of life’s purpose, of all our interactions and of all our words – to manifest the unifying soul in our fragmented universe.

Had G-d not inscribed His soul into the words, our relationship with the Divine would remain detached. The same is true on a human level. If all our interactions were commercial and mundane, we would never connect, truly connect, with one another.

By inscribing His Spirit in His words, every word, now imbued with profound spirituality, evoked a unifying tranquility in all of existence. As the Midrash beautifully describes the state of the universe when G-d spoke all these words (Exodus 20:1): No bird twittered, no fowl flew, no ox lowed, none of the angels stirred a wing, the seraphim did not say “Holy, Holy,” the sea did not roar, the creatures spoke not, the whole world was hushed into breathless silence and the voice went forth: “I am G-d your G-d.”

[As an aside, Ten Commandments is not an accurate translation of the original Hebrew “Aseres ha’Dibrot,” which actually means Ten Words, or Ten Statements. Words seem so much more comforting than commandments…].

We too can and ought to learn this from of communication: To inscribe our souls into our words, so that our every utterance becomes a transparent channel for our souls expression.

True communication is not merely the process of conveying messages, ideas and feelings. It is about a relationship – a connection and bond between the parties communicating with each other.

A writer, a speaker, a composer inscribes – engraves – his soul in his work. This allows him to reach into the soul of the reader or listener. Words from the heart enter the heart. A work that is lacking sincerity and soulfullness will not resonate.

Think of it this way: During an average day how many of our conversations are about superficial subjects, spoken with hollow words? How many of our interactions and transactions are transitory experiences? How many of our desires and craving are fleeting and short-lived?

Our mission – taking the cue from G-d etching His soul into the Divine words He imparted to us – is to reach deeper into ourselves, to reveal the soul in every one of our experiences, even casual or trivial ones.

Imagine how people would react to you if they heard your spirit singing instead of your body whining; your beckoning soul instead of your hawking mouthpiece; your gentle words instead of aggressive demands.

Speak from your heart and soul and you too can bring soothing stillness to a chaotic and turbulent world.