Rabbi Zeitlin

One of the most difficult aspects for outsiders to accept about Torah and Torah-based Judaism is that nothing is arbitrary. Of course, that’s not to say that every word every “orthodox” rabbi in history has ever said is absolutely and eternally true, but that, for the most part, the Torah itself, both Written and Oral, including the development of Halacha, liturgy and practice, fit together in an extremely complex, exquisitely beautiful, comprehensive weave of reality. Apparent textual inconsistencies are found to be deliberate, not to indicate the incompetence of editors as most academic “biblical criticism” scholars would have you believe, but, rather, to mark a deeper lesson below the surface meaning.

Likewise, the nusach, liturgy, is deliberate. At first sight, it’s perplexing indeed to understand why “Gevurot Geshamim“, the seasonal phrases מוריד הטל or משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם (Morid HaTal or Mashiv HaRuach UMorid HaGeshem) “Who brings down the dew” (spring/summer) or “Who returns the wind and brings the rain” (fall/winter) is included in the bracha (blessing) תחית המתים (Techiyat HaMeytim) “Who brings life to the dead”, the second bracha of the thrice-daily Amida. What possible relationship can attesting to God’s control over a phenomenon as mundane as the weather have with a topic as esoteric as reincarnation?

We find that not only is the relationship not arbitrary, it’s obligatory, i.e. intentional, to mention it three times daily! טעה ולא הזכיר גבורות גשמים בתחיית המתים…מחזירין אותו (Brachot 26b), “If one errs and doesn’t mention God’s power over weather he must repeat the prayer (or, more often, the entire Amida!)” It’s certainly not the case that our sages wanted to list God’s various powers and so just bunched them all together, willy-nilly, into a single prayer.

A very interesting essay about weather (1), observes that weather is “nonlinear and therefore….chaotic.” If you’ve ever wondered just why, with the latest science and most advanced computers, your daily weather forecasts are often wrong, it’s because the chain of interlocking systems that determine the weather both locally and globally are so infinitely complex that,taken together, they transform into chaos. This means that there is no valid way to predict how or where a change anywhere in the system will effect anything else there, be it a butterfly in the Brazilian rain forest or the exhaust of electrical generating stations around the world. While it might be flattering, and often politically valuable, to think we can grasp this, it can be shown mathematically that we can’t.

Likewise, most popular internet news feeds, Google, Yahoo, Bing and the like, often carry stories of the latest breakthrough in attempts to create “life” in the laboratory. The headlines are always exciting (the job of a science writer is to make science exciting, after all), but the content inevitably disappoints. There is a dream/illusion that “if we can only….”, for example map the entire human genome, completely analyze the chemicals in a cell or similar pursuits, then custom-make life is right around the corner. Somehow, even our top scientists can’t agree on a definition of what life is. What is the transition-point, for example, from a rock to a single-celled animal? How can we bridge the gap between inanimate and animate? We can’t.

The bracha reminds us of this every day. While we can, and are mandated to (look at the fourth bracha, Choneyn HaDat, especially with the Saturday night addition, Ata Chonantanu) understand as much as we can about our world, the order of “infinite knowledge” we can acquire is at the lowest order of infinity, i.e. just an infinitesimal slice of what we might label “God’s Infinite Knowledge” (if such a limiting term can even be applied). Nonetheless, certain aspects of wisdom transcend human capability. The mysteries of climate and weather are just as inaccessible to us as are the mysteries of life itself.

It’s probably true that from the very beginning of civilization there has been a strong drive for some men to substitute themselves for God, to assume absolute power and absolute knowledge. Since as humans, our ability to understand The Creator is always limited, our religions are always inadequate to one degree or another (grappling with our ignorance and trying to always refine our knowledge is one of the great rewards of Torah study). We are, however, by nature, impatient and we’ve been growing ever more impatient in our increasingly instant-gratification societies. God-based religions are often rejected; nature abhorring a vacuum, however, human-based religions such as secular scientificism which appeal to our inborn tendency towards narcissism, take their places. However, the nature of ultimate reality is not the result of vote. And it’s also not within our power. We’re stuck with never knowing it all….Baruch HaShem.

(1) http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/03/15/chaos-climate-part-1-linearity/

The mystical, kabbalistic component of our tradition describes twinned but mirror-opposite trends in the universe. On the one hand, the primal, essential unity, the pure essence of אור אין סוף (Ohr Eyn Sof), Infinite Light, evolves from unity to duality to infinite multiplicity as it descends into our material world. God, we’re taught, “desires a dwelling” in our physical, lowest energy-state realm of existence. From His Essential Unity, He comes to fill and inhabit every single element within Creation. מלא כל הארץ כבודו (Ma-leh Kol HaAretz Kvodo), “He fills the entire Creation with His Presence”, אין אתר פנוי מיניה (Eyn Atar P’nui Miney), “No place exists from which He is absent”. This describes Creation, every corner filled with His Light, His Energy.

The complementary movement, from “below” to “above”, comprises יחודים (yichudim) unifications. Before we perform mitzvot we consciously intend and recite the formula, לשם יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה (L’Shem Yichud Kudsha B’rich Hu U’Shechintey), “For the purpose of uniting The Holy Blessed One with His Shechina (Divine Presence)” and then add to that בדחילו ורחימו (B’Dechilu U’Rachimu), “With Awe and Love”–we spiritually bring together the distant realities of the Transcendent with Immanent aspects of God as well as the seeming opposite emotions of love and fear. We unite everything in this world with its opposite, it’s rival in existence, ultimately achieving דביקות (Devekut) between ourselves and God, between the spiritual and the material, re-concentrating and refocusing the diffused light of existence back into the singular Unity. We refine, rectify and return the Ohr Eyn Sof to Its sublime source. Ultimately, together with The Creator, we bring the universe to its highest state, infused with pure energy.

When we mature beyond the anthropomorphic approach to Torah and, already accepting and involved in our ever-improving performance of mitzvot, we can begin to understand, and maybe occasionally experience, our world in terms of energy or, as the Torah describes it, אור (Ohr), light. It’s no longer a matter of conformity for the sake of conformity, not even just solidarity with our fellows, but taking on the responsibility of being אור לגוים (Ohr L’Goyim), a Light to the Nations, not merely in being a example of morality, although that is also a vital part of our reason for existing, but attracting/creating, embodying and constructively directing energy into our world.

There seems to be an analog, or at least an allegory here to nuclear fission and fusion energy production. As large elements divide, and imagine the tremendous energy hinted at in מעשה בראשית (Ma’aseh Bereishit) the Act of Creation, as reality first bifurcates into את השמים ואת הארץ (Et HaShamayim V’Et HaAretz), the Heavens and the Earth and then continues splitting and splitting until not only each and every creature emerges, but so does each and every atom, each element filled with the infinite energy of Ohr Eyn Sof! And then, are we start the chain upwards, bringing more and more opposite entities into complete unity with The One, at each step uniting seeming opposites and releasing more and more energy, bringing the world to a higher and higher state, until we’re all interconnected through The Creator Himself, generating even more energy than contained in the original Creation–it’s inescapable to me that we’re describing the more powerful fusion phase of atomic energy.

Obviously, I’m not proposing that universal Jewish mitzvah performance, certainly desireable (but we still need to determine how, in an Eretz Yisrael-oriented Jewish world view that is still developing–I doubt it will be as onerous as it seems through centuries of exile) will solve the world’s energy challenges. Nor am I saying that rebuilding the Bet HaMikdash, b’m’heyrah b’yameynu, (may it be soon, in our days) will reveal the secrets of clean, unlimited energy. Nonetheless creating a human environment which aims to create infinite spiritual energy for the benefit of all might, in a non-obvious, non-empirical way bring us closer to that in physical terms as well.

Creating these unifications on any more than a basic level, the kavvanot we might say before certain mitzvot, is no light matter. In a deep sense, it is literally “playing with fire”. While, ultimately, the good will absorb the evil, the אהבה (Ahavah) love, will overwhelm the יראה (Yirah), fear, both must first be prepared. The side of Ahavah and Chesed must strengthen while the side of Yirah and Gevurah/Din must be purified, the evil weakened and defeated, as much as possible so it doesn’t, instead, overpower and pollute the good.

For the ideal of “Peace and Love” to actually manifest, savagery must be completely destroyed. Only then will it release its evil hold on people, allowing them to finally be embraced. Imagine the energy that might generate.

Shabbat Shalom

There are many arenas which are vulnerable to the bigotry of low expectations. Not the least of these is our minimizing the opportunities and expectations the Torah provides for us.

I’ve had long-standing conversations over many years with friends, students and family as to whether being a “good Jew” is the same as or even equivalent to being a “good person”. Although speaking to fellow Jews I can definitively answer “no”, I’m not sure of the related questions for people of other faiths. Perhaps being a good Christian or a good Catholic or a good Muslim or a good Buddhist or a good Hindu is the same as being a “good person”–whatever knowledge I have of those faiths is both external and superficial. But my experience with Torah, perhaps still not that far from superficial, is, at least, from the inside.

In one, very narrow, and only technical sense, Torah can be said to equal the 613 mitzvot. Related to the word הוראות (horaot), instructions, תורה Torah is the “instruction manual”, step-by-step, for a Jew to fully connect himself, via the 613-dimensioned mitzva system, to The Creator in His Infinite Light, אור אין סוף (Ohr Eyn Sof) to the greatest degree possible for a physical, flesh-and-blood being. This is not only, or even primarily, for his own pleasure and enjoyment, but rather to bring this Ohr Eyn Sof into the material world of Creation, animating, refining and perfecting it through his specific and intentional actions (this is also what we traditionally refer to as Tikkun Olam).

With this in mind, Rabbi Shalom Noah Berezovsky (1911-2000), the Slonimer Rebbe, begins his book of commentary on the Torah, Nesivos Shalom, quoting Rashi’s very first comment on Bereishit, the very first parsha of the Torah. “Rabbi Yitzchok says that the Torah (in it’s narrow definition of the 613 mitzvot) should have started with (the very first mitzva given to the Jewish people, the phrase) (החודש הזה לכם (שמות יב:א (HaChodesh HaZeh l’Chem), “This month will be for you…”(Shemot 12:1)”. In other words, it should have begun with the Jewish People’s first mitzva, in the middle of Parshat Bo, the third parsha already into the Book of Shemot, rather that with Bereishit, the story of Creation!

While Rashi goes on with a very specific reason why the Torah does, in fact, begin with Bereishit, the Slonimer teaches us a different, equally important lesson why there is so much preface to the actual mitzvot. The Middot, the seven personality traits associated with the lower seven Sefirot (Kabbalistic description of how the Ohr Eyn Sof, Infinite Light, descends into the material world until it becomes restricted and reduced enough for us, as human beings, to interact with it) are first introduced and developed in the personalities of the אבות (Avot) Patriarchs and other early personalities we meet in these first chapters(1).

Although we say that, somehow (through their individual deep spiritual connections with God) the Avot, our biblical ancestors, observed all the mitzvot even before they were given in the Torah, our interest in their lives is learning, from their modeling, basic human morality. Quantized, as it were, into the seven Noahide Mitzvot (see note (1) in “Defining Tikkun Olam“), the Avot teach us how to become good people, no small achievement in itself. However, it is only when we’ve been taught by all of these spiritual masters and ethical exemplars (flaws and all as they, too, struggle to, themselves, become good people) that we are finally prepared for our unique next step, that of becoming good Jews as well, via the Mitzvot of the Torah.

Thus, if we limit our vision as to not only our potential, but also our obligation as Jews to be kind, compassionate, just, loving and balanced, we’re depriving ourselves and the world-at-large from what we not only can be, but must be. By all means, strive to achieve these goals as well, but don’t spend too long patting yourself on the back for the accomplishment. Rather, that’s like bragging about our good grades in kindergarten while we should be working on our post-graduate degrees!

No, none of us will probably ever score a perfect 100 in mitzvah performance. Neither will we be perfect in our basic humanity. But to try for anything less (in either) is an insult to ourselves and to countless generations of our fellow Jews and an arrogant selfishness towards the rest of humanity and the universe.

(1)Avraham, for example, both introduces and models חסד (Chesed) unbounded love, Yitzchak, Gevurah, strength/structure/organization/awe, Ya’akov, Tiferet, balance/beauty/equanimity/wholeness, Yosef, Yesod, righteousness/connectivity, Moshe, Netzach, patience/permanence/stability Aharon, Hod, splendor/method and B’nei Yisrael, the Jewish People, Malchut, the culmination into real life (also represented, of course, by King David, who doesn’t appear in the Five Books at all (although a Midrash has Adam donating seventy of his own years in order to give David life at all, so in one sense, David does inhabit Sefer Bereishit!))

Although, on a Kabbalistic level we say that Evil is “merely” an obscuring of God, on a practical, existential level, Evil does exist and, indeed, our mandate, spiritual and practical, our ultimate morality, is to overcome and destroy it in its many guises: the סתרא אחרא, Sitra Achra, “Other Side”, the קליפות טמאות, Klippot Tumaot, “Corrupt Husks”, the יצר הרע, Yetzer HaRa, “Inner Drive Towards Evil” and all the other phrases we use to label and classify it. The eternal foe is Evil; Tikkun Olam, “repairing the world” is predicated on destroying evil as we try to create good. סוּר מֵרָע וַעֲשֵׂה־טוֹב וּשְׁכֹן לְעוֹלָם  (Sur mei’ra v’oseh tov u’sh’chon l’olam), “Reject Evil and do good and (you will) abide eternally” (Psalms 34:7, תהילים לד:ז)–both must be done to bring our world to its highest destiny.

Even though the compilers of our siddur composed the first bracha before the Shema,  בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ….., יוֹצֵר אוֹר, וּבוֹרֵא חֹשֶךְ, עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם וּבוֹרֵא אֶת הַכֹּל, “Blessed are You…..Who forms light and creates darkness, makes wholeness/peace and creates all”, the original phrase that appears in Isaiah 45:7/ישעיה מה:ז is יוֹצֵר אוֹר וּבוֹרֵא חֹשֶׁךְ עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם וּבוֹרֵא רָע, “Who forms light and creates darkness, makes wholeness/peace and creates evil”. While we might not want our nose rubbed in it on a daily basis as we begin each morning, our sages intended that our awareness of the real verse in the Torah be enough that we never lose sight that Evil, yes created by God, is an integral component of our material world, which must be destroyed in order to reach our ideal, spiritual world.

Additionally, we understand the power of words. They give life to ideas, good and bad. This is the mechanism by which great lies are perpetuated until they become accepted as true, as Joseph Goebbels taught Adolf Hitler, and how their disciples operate today. But since our goal is to defeat and destroy Evil, we’re careful to not invoke it’s name any more than necessary, resulting in diluting its power by referring to it as merely a part of all totality in our morning prayer.

One who suffers from cancer, even if he lifts weights, works out, eats nutritionally, has warm and mutually supportive relationships in his life, will still die unless the cancer within is completely removed. All our efforts to usher in a world of peace and love are doomed to failure until we actively root out evil.

On a metaphorical/mystical level, much of our Torah and most of our post-biblical history is seen as the often-painful process of refining out all impurities from our individual souls and, in the macrocosm, in our world. Suffering, of which we have all too much experience, is only part of the picture, only half of the means we have in  our control. There are times we also need to go to war. Kohelet (3:8), in the original, understood the totality of עֵת מִלְחָמָה וְעֵת שָׁלוֹם, “…a time for war and a time for peace.” Pete Seeger notwithstanding, we have yet to arrive at the point where peace is merely the temporary absence of war; that on its own, rather, is merely the preface to mass tragedy and suffering.

Avraham begins his, and our, journey when he not merely concludes that idolatry is evil, but rather that the idols themselves, evil personified, must be destroyed and removed from the universe before we can even begin to approach holiness.

When every living being cared only for its own desires, וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה נִשְׁחָתָה כִּי־הִשְׁחִית כָּל־בָּשָׂר אֶת־דַּרְכּוֹ עַל־הָאָ, “And God saw the earth and it was corrupt, because all flesh (every living being) corrupted its way upon the earth” (Bereishit 6:12). Individual hedonistic narcissism runs amok and there is no hope for anything. All life needs a fresh start.

When all humanity was united, but with a narcissist humanism which sees Man as “the measure of all things”, וַיְהִי כָל־הָאָרֶץ שָׂפָה אֶחָת וּדְבָרִים אֲחָדִים, “And the entire world shared one language and were united in thought and purpose” (Bereishit 11:1), they became great builders, masters of technology! They built a tower to themselves, וְנַעֲשֶׂה־לָּנוּ שֵׁם (Bereishit 11:4), “And we will make ourselves a name”, not to celebrate The Creator and join with Him as builders and creators in their own right, albeit on a lesser scale. No, they sought to become celebrities, to replace God with their own fantasized grandness. United together in totalitarian slavery to a narcissistic ideal, there is no hope for humanity. Society needs to begin anew.

One man, a righteous man, נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו, “Noah was a complete Tzadik in his generation” (Bereishit 6:9). A righteous man, but a man of his generation, a generation of individualistic narcissism, he saves himself and his family but abandons all the rest of life to the floodwaters.

The lessons aren’t that obscure, are they?

Shabbat Shalom

My father, o”h, used to delight in making repairs around our house. He also delighted in training me, from a very young age, to help him. We became very close through working together. He started by giving me simple tasks, such as tightening a single screw. When I grew a little older, more competent and more responsible, he’d ask me to hammer in a nail and, as I became even older, more competent and more responsible, he’d let me work power tools such as electric drills and saws. He also insisted that I signed up for both wood and metal shop in junior high school in order to learn more skills, to learn safety with bigger tools and also, most importantly, how to carry out complex instructions.

There is an absolute distinction between designing something and working on it. Likewise, there is a difference between the substantial work and the finishing touches. When a project is deliberately left slightly unfinished, one of the reasons is to give the person finishing a great sense of satisfaction and achievement. Another reason is to enrich the relationship between the creator and the worker. It’s not because the designer/builder lacked the ability to finish it himself.

A mistake that many adolescents make when they make their contribution is to, in their youthful enthusiasm, forget that they came in at the end of the process, not the beginning–they had no voice in the planning/design phase, nor did they participate in the substantive construction. Often, they’ll decide that the rather mundane steps they’re to follow are boring, too-easy and no-fun. Since, as many adolescents are 100% convinced ‘they’re smarter and more modern’ than the “old school” designer, the original design is often discarded and the goal is never reached.

Tikkun Olam literally means repairing the world, and Kabbalistically refers to “partnering” with God to complete His world. This isn’t because God is incapable, but rather He gives us a means to more closely approach/resemble Him. Furthermore, this is a specifically Jewish/Torah concept and it presupposes several basic understandings. First of these is that God totally transcends our potential abilities to fully grasp and understand Him in any way. This means we know only that infinitesimal slice of Him that He reveals to us. We don’t know His motives, will or goals. Thus, even though we’re invited to participate in completing/perfecting the created world, we don’t know exactly what this “complete, perfect” world looks like. Another understanding is that we, the Jewish people, have a short but definite list of detailed instructions and that the rest of humanity has an even shorter, but equally detailed list of instructions. Humanity’s instructions are the שבע מצות בני נח, Sheva Mitzvot B’nei Noah, the seven Noahide commandments (1), and the Jewish people have additional mitzvot adding up to תרי״ג (taryag), 613. (Since I’m not an authority on other religious traditions, I have no statement one way or another of the possible existence of additional mitzvot for other religions beyond that, if there are, they need to be consistent with the Noahide commandments all mankind (Jews included) are obligated to observe.)

There are many competing visions of an idealized world. But since we cannot describe God’s ultimate goal, none of these can be 100% consistent with Tikkun Olam. Tikkun Olam might or might not have elements in common with what is today described as “Social Justice”, but they are not the same. One is a secular political agenda which might have both desirable and undesirable features. Tikkun Olam is a Jewish religious concept which probably shares some, but not all, of Social Justice’s features, but we just don’t know. They are not identical. If Tikkun Olam can be said to have any “goal” whatsoever, it’s to provide us a means for our relationship with God. It’s a process, not a product.

All we know for sure about Tikkun Olam is our instruction list, which are the mitzvot: 7 (at least) for all of humanity and an additional 606 mandated for the Jewish people. We have never been granted a peek at the blueprint or of an “architect’s model” of the finished product (what little we have been shown in the Torah (both written and oral) is intentionally vague, made up of poetic hints which aren’t meant to be taken literally). Of course, Halacha, our sub-instructions to show us how to carry out our actual instructions (the mitzvot), has always (and still does) evolved to adjust to time and place (but that is a subject for at least several books). To emphasize again, Tikkun Olam is a very specific process; it is not a “product”.

I would greatly prefer if instead of appropriating and distorting our sacred religious tradition, secular organizations and institutions who proclaim they’re dedicated to “Tikkun Olam” would first find out what they’re talking about. Of course, they’re welcome to as many agendas as they wish, and I would love it if they would also promote mitzva observance as appropriate to their constituency, but all any of us, Jew and Gentile, can do to participate in Tikkun Olam is to perform those mitzvot relevant to us. Anything else is….well…..something else.

(1) Taken from Breslov.il (also discussed on many other websites) 1. Do not worship false gods. 2. Do not curse God. 3. Do not murder. 4. Do not be sexually immoral. 5. Do not steal. 6. Do not eat a limb removed from a live animal. 7. Set up courts and bring offenders to justice.

“Jewish guilt” is such a common trait that it’s a well-used (too well-used) cliché in American comedy. Woody Allen created his entire career with variations on this theme. It’s so endemic you’d think it was actually grounded in our belief system, the Torah. And if you indeed read the Torah, or more properly the Bible, since you’ll be applying a non-Jewish interpretation to the verses, you just might make that mistake.

As we all know, almost immediately after being created, first Chava (Eve) and then her husband, Adam, violate the only commandment they’ve been given by eating the fruit of the עץ הדעת טוב ורע (Etz HaDa’at Tov v’Ra) the Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil. They suddenly become self-aware of their nakedness, covering themselves with the proverbial fig leaves. When God come calling, they hide from Him. He then calls out to them אַיֶּכָּה (Ayeka), “Where are you?”

I’ll let the words (my loose translation) of Rabbi Shloime Twerski zt”l, whose yahrzeit we just observed on Simchat Torah (in the galut, Isru Chag in Eretz Yisrael) take over…

“The principle is that, given that Man transgressed (by eating the fruit), all God wants is for him to do tshuva, to learn from his mistake and to not repeat it in the future. But the yetzer hara (the evil inclination) seduces Man to either drown himself in self-condemnation and guilt or to blame someone else. It’s extremely difficult to accept responsibility for one’s (evil) actions without indulging in self-condemnation and guilt.

So, when God asks Adam, ‘Ayeka?’, He’s really asking him, ‘Where are you spiritually?’ Adam replies, ‘I saw that I was naked and I hid’, meaning that he labeled himself irredeemably evil, (i.e. unfit for God’s presence). When God continues to ask him, ‘Did you eat from the tree from which I told you not to eat?’, He’s not asking Adam if he’s an evil person and naked (bereft of all merit and worth), He’s just asking him whether or not he committed this deed. In other words, God is inviting Adam to take responsibility for his action. When Adam replies to this blaming his wife, it’s clear that he is unable/unwilling to to do so, rather shirking the responsibility onto his wife” (1)

Everyone not merely errs, falls short or other euphemisms, we, each and every one of us, from time to time in our lives, do absolutely horrible things. Since we can’t move time-travel in reverse, none of us are able to undo the damage we’ve caused. Just like Adam, we have three choices. We can accept our responsibility and learn, move forward, try to repair the damage or, at the very least, not compound it. We can also, on the other hand, fall into self-pitying depression, evading any positive effects we might now have in front of us. Or, of course, we can just blame someone else.

All too often, through the ages, we accepted our own guilt (even when we did nothing wrong) to such a degree that we’ve developed an appetite for it–we’ve become connoisseurs of guilt. Of course, the dominant cultures we’ve lived among have always been happy to feed that appetite, scapegoating and blaming us for all sorts of ills with famous and infamous blood libels through the ages. Powerless for millennia, as a people we’ve become so conditioned being assigned and then accepting blame that, for (too) many of us, it has become second nature.

Nowhere has this pathology become more common than in certain segments of our people accepting, without question or protest, let alone justification, blame for all the violence and savagery that consumes today’s middle east. “If only we’d stop oppressing those poor Palestinians and give them our heartland as their own (judenrein) nation, there would be world peace…..” is nothing but the pathetic cry of our collective neurosis, gone out of control. If anything at all is wrong in the world, we jump to claim the blame. What we won’t do, of course, is accept the responsibility of a sovereign people to guarantee our own safety and survival, because we’re so guilt-laden that we see ourselves as ערום (arum), “naked”, without worth or merit or even the right to live in peace in our own land.

Ayeka? We are we, really? Are we ready to accept reality and move forward or are we unwilling to budge from our self-imposed, totally inappropriate and unjust, prison of guilt?

(1)  מלבות שלמה פר‛ בראשית Malchut Shlomo, parshat Bereishit, Rabbi BCSM Twerski zt”l 5766

I remember close to thirty years ago, when I was much better at getting to daily minyan every morning. The day before Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, a close friend, both of whose parents were holocaust survivors, suggested we skip, or at least abbreviate Pesukai d’Zimra, the daily selection of certain psalms that immediately precedes the actual Shacharit. While I understood, as best I could, his painful associations with the holocaust, I advocated we say them nonetheless. My argument was that we include this beautiful section of poetry even on Tisha B’Av, our saddest day of the year (the day both of our Holy Temples were destroyed).

I received a selection of photographs this morning of the wedding of close friends’ son. The father had recently learned of his impending death due to illness and this always active man was confined to a wheel chair except for a few moments under the chuppah with the couple. While I can’t but feel a bittersweet sadness at this portfolio, the photos, not only of my terminally-ill friend, but also of his family, show only joy and love.

Some of the most sublime Torah of modern times was written by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro zt”l, the Piesentzner Rebbe in his sefer אש קודש, Aish Kodesh, The Holy Fire, comprising his weekly Torah lessons from within the Warsaw Ghetto where, after witnessing the brutal murders of his beloved family, he also perished. Emerging from this hell-on-earth, his words remain steadfast in his love of God and of the Jewish people.

The mitzva of Simchat Yom Tov, happiness in our festivals, was said by Rabbi Shloime Twerski zt”l to be “the hardest one in the book”. Not only are we commanded to rejoice in our holy day, but we’re enjoined to have no feelings but happy ones, וְהָיִיתָ אַךְ שָׂמֵחַ, V’Hayita Ach Sameach, and you will be only happy! Twenty-five or forty-nine hours without a moment of anger, depression or even distraction from happiness is a super-human feat.

The rapidly approaching festival of Sh’mini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (all on a single day in Israel, spanning two full days in galut, exile) is exceptionally difficult this year in the midst of terrorist murders of Israeli civilians, creating, at last (and hopefully final) count, fourteen new orphans. We need to fully grieve this terrible loss, but without this, and all other chaggim, festivals, and this especially difficult, but also all other, mitzvot, these losses lose their universality. They remain private tragedies that happened to “someone else”.

No, it’s not heartless to dance with the Torah on Simchat Torah this year. It’s heartless to not dance, to let our individual griefs distract from the principles that gave meaning to the lives of these martyrs and which give meaning to our own lives as well.

As we read just yesterday, Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot, from Kohelet, עֵת לִבְכּוֹת וְעֵת לִשְׂחוֹק עֵת סְפוֹד וְעֵת רְקוֹד, “there is a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”

Very few, if any, of us ever fully fulfills a mitzva, any mitzva. We are all works-in-progress. Perhaps our ability to, eventually, fully observe שמחת יום טוב, simchat yom tov, אַךְ שָׂמֵחַ, ach sameach, joy and only joy in our festival, is a sign that we’ve reached our goal of transforming ourselves and our world into the perfection we all await. May it be soon, even tomorrow.

Moadim l’Simcha

The symbolism of seven pervades Sukkot. בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים, “You shall dwell in Sukkot for seven days”. The ארבעת המינים (Arbat HaMinim), four species: lulav, etrog, aravot and hadassim actualize as seven separate objects (1 lulav, 1 etrog, 3 hadassim and 2 aravot). Each night we welcome the שבעה אודפיזין (Sheva Ushpizin), seven heavenly visitors, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, Yosef and David who point to the שבע מידות (Sheva Middot), seven elemental personality components (which are also the “lower” seven sefirot (heavenly emanations of Infinite Light), each of which is composed of all ten sefirot, yielding 70). Throughout this very holiday when the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was functioning, a total of 70 heads of cattle were sacrificed during this festival, including in the blessings of the holiday all “70 nations”, meaning all of our fellow humans and not just exclusively the Jewish People (just as the future Temple will be בֵּית־תְּפִלָּה יִקָּרֵא לְכָל־הָעַמִּים, a House of Prayer for All the Nations).

An unfortunate result of the popularization of certain Kabbalistic concepts, especially the middot/sefirot, is viewing them as separate and in isolation and then “choosing” one’s favorite. Of course, Chesed, “loving kindness”, represented by Avraham, wins the popularity contest hands-down. Malchut, “kingship”, (King David) too-often limited to its association with Shechinah, “in-dwelling”, which itself is too-often limited as referring only to the feminine, runs a close second. The brilliant Torah insight of how all these sefirot/middot work together to channel our prayers and deeds up to the highest realms while drawing down the purest of God’s Infinite Light, Ohr Ein Sof, into our consciousnesses and surroundings, is rarely broached.

As we travel through the festival of Sukkot, aware of each day’s special (but not exclusive, God forbid) focus on one middah/sefirah, we can not only meditate on our current level of understanding (hopefully growing daily, and if not that, at least with each new yearly cycle) of that personality quality/limb, but we also try to direct our intentions with each mitzva we perform, each bracha we say, each word of Torah we learn, through that day’s middah in order both to refine it and, perhaps even more importantly, to re-align it with the one(s) we’ve already addressed this year. We can balance our hunger and over-enthusiasm for too much love (chesed/Avraham) with a structure to contain it, (gevurah/Yitzchak) and we can move towards our center (tiferet/Yaakov) in order to not become too stiff and inflexible. The next day we can focus on our efforts to bring our balanced will into reality, whatever the effort needed (netzach/Moshe) and, after that, share with our family, loved ones, friends, community, people and humanity (hod/Aharon). We prepare to bring this all into reality, connecting with the material, not necessarily ideal, world by, among other actions, checking our own justice and righteousness (yesod/Yosef HaTzadik (Tzadik Yesod HaOlam) and only then are we fully prepared to act (asiyah-malchut/David HaMelech).

Indulging favorites and ignoring those which more challenge us is mere narcissism and rather than improving ourselves and our world we only create more damage and problems to both.

At the best of times our Sukkah is wobbly and insecure. It’s four walls (forward/backwards, love/fear), floor (on which we stand), schach (which joins the inside with the outside) and Sh’mayim above aren’t intended to last more than a week. But with hard work, rededicated specifically this week after having internalized the lessons, insights and progress of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, we can create an at least more “permanent” home for the coming year as we begin our preparations, even now, for next year’s work.

I often mention Rabbi Shloime Twerski zt”l in my writing and in my teaching. Unfortunately, there is very little Torah that he wrote down in his lifetime that survives.

This is an article I first saw in the Intermountain Jewish News, Denver’s more than 100-year-old Jewish weekly. I’m not exactly sure when it appeared, but I was thrilled to find it on the internet and I’m even more thrilled that I can share it with you.

I’ll let the Rabbi zt”l speak for himself.

Chag Sameach.