Dawn came with a great bank of cerise-coloured clouds turning to rose as the light strengthened. Gradually they broke apart, gliding upwards and away. It seemed to augur well for a good walk. So off I set to walk across the valley and rising ground between Abbey Hill and rock-strewn Turlough Hill, known locally as the Corker.

The sky darkened with a huge flight of starlings – there were hundreds. I watched as they turned, twisted, wheeled. The Irish name for them is "druid", so named, it is thought, because of the ritual of bird divination in ancient pagan Ireland. In his diary, Samuel Pepys tells of "The Battell of the Birds", when rival flocks of starlings fought in Cork in 1621. I was thankful there was no battle while I watched.

As I walked on, mighty black clouds were moving in over the hills. A few raindrops fell. There was a pause. Then the water sluiced down, emptying the clouds of their darkness. Turlough Hill was a platinum setting for myriad jewels, as light and water combined to dazzle. Despite drenching rain it was mesmerising to witness such beauty. And the day was not over. At that time of evening when the light seems to linger, when it delineates each small leaf, the sky was suffused with pale yellow, the sea opposite our house reflecting back the light, and arching above the lovely bay was a perfect rainbow. There came a great flash and then a bang. It was lightning. "This, our Burren, is beautiful beyond compare," I said aloud.

Now, dear readers, this is my last diary for you. Thank you for your letters and loyalty over the years (since 1987!). I wish you and my fellow diarists all that is good. And I thank the Guardian for taking me on all those years ago.

For a time it was our favorite jewelry box, its drawers filled with sparkling and laughably garish accessories.

These pieces were the very birth of bling.

Whenever friends and family visited, we’d eagerly show them our fancy box of baubles. They had never seen anything like it. They would share in the wonderment of the vintage pieces, marveling at how they so clearly inspired more modern designs.

But over time, the pieces lost their luster. The jewelry box’s novelty waned; its capacity to stun ebbed with each passing year. Occasionally someone would refer to the great ornaments and speak lovingly of their antiquated charm, but the ornate box was no longer the thing to show the guests. It had become passé.

Except for their regular, meticulous dusting, the once-beloved jewels sat virtually forgotten.

Now the great box is being locked up, the jewels within to be parsed so they can be shown to a collection of new friends.

The jewelry box that is the Liberace Museum closes Sunday afternoon. After 31 years, the once-popular off-strip attraction is locking the doors for good in its original home on the corner of Trop and Spencer.

The announcement issued September that the museum would close Oct. 17 was a surprise only if you had not been paying attention to what was going on at the museum over the past several months. The museum staff was murmuring about the museum’s bleak future even during last year’s 30th anniversary. The murmurs became plaintive wails by the summer.

The famous jewelry box is going to close, they said, if action wasn’t taken immediately.

They were right.

There has been ample debate and post-mortem analysis on why the box is closing. What went wrong, here?

The museum was losing money. There is no argument about that.

To repeat depressing information reported in this column and elsewhere, visitor numbers had dipped from a high of 450,000 annually to about 36,000 this year. If malaise can be quantified, those numbers do the trick.

Oh, it's been bad on that corner. The Liberace Foundation owns the plaza the museum shares with all the businesses in the strip mall on the southwest corner of Trop and Spencer. Carluccio’s Tivoli Gardens restaurant, opened by Liberace himself and now unaffiliated with the museum, is one of those, but many businesses have pulled out and not been replaced. The Foundation pays $265,000 annually on a $2 million loan taken out in 2000 to renovate that plaza, paying a 9.3-percent interest rate on that loan.

That mortgage could be an attraction unto itself -- the Liberace Money Pit.

More telling, during a period when the Liberace Foundation was siphoning money from its scholarship program to pay operating costs at the museum, officials never cut those to balance the books. The 15 full-time staffers and equal number of part-timers were paid a total of $700,000 each year, even when the museum did well to bring in half that sum in ticket receipts. And in the face of this sagging income, the Liberace Foundation Board of Directors continued to pay those salaries when the obvious outcome would be that the scholarship fund would edge toward empty.

That finally happened this year and there seemed no Plan B to staunch the red ink.

Remarkably, during an appearance on KNPR’s “State of Nevada,” on Sept. 22, Liberace Board of Directors Chairman Jeff Koep was asked by host Luis Hernandez if all those employees were needed to keep the museum operating. Koep responded, "I am not an expert in museums. That is the number (of employees) that has been used for years. ... It's possible you could do more with less."

We'll never know now.

For years, some of the decisions made by the management of the museum were simply bad judgment. The infamous selling of an 18th-century Louis XV-style desk, purchased by Liberace from a museum in Florida, rankled some museum supporters because the piece was sold in secret -- it has never been made public who bought the desk or what its sale price was.

Consequently, museum backers began wondering what other under-the-radar sales might be made from Liberace's collection, which did nothing to engender morale among the museum staff or its small but loyal core of supporters.

Yet, in thinking out of the box, it is not hard to sort out the reason the Liberace Museum is closing. It’s not merely because it is leaking funds. Or because officials sold a desk without notifying or consulting anyone who might have a better idea for that piece of antique furniture. Or because the foundation is saddled with a lousy mortgage payment in a moribund strip mall.

The jewelry box is closing because too few people have cared deeply enough to have kept it open.

The brand of Liberace has not sustained over time largely because his classical music is not meant for the masses -- quick, name one Liberace Top 40 hit. He was never a presence on film; his TV appearances from decades ago are not replayed today on cable channels. At least, none that I can find.

Liberace's fans are dying away and not being replaced. There is an absence of even rudimentary knowledge about his career for anyone under the age of 40. It is only when you physically deliver someone to the museum for an over-the-top history lesson of Liberace that his legacy is truly appreciated.

The absence of widespread passion about Liberace’s remarkable life and career has allowed the museum to go dark.

There is hope, of course, that the long-discussed Liberace movie will help revive interest in his life and career, but fans are left to hope Michael Douglas can recover from throat cancer to play the lead role. A national tour of select Liberace collection pieces, managed by the Entertainment Development Group of St. Paul, Minn., is planned to raise enough money to help fund a new home for the museum.

A museum that could not draw visitors to the handpicked location of Liberace himself.

When it was announced that the museum would close, supporters organized a protest at the museum, targeting what they termed as gross mismanagement of the museum finances and collection by Koep and museum president Jack Rappaport. A few dozen people showed up.

Organizer Jeffrey White (a former museum official) challenged all politicians -- the very individuals who might help force a government-initiated raking of the museum's books -- to join the group in protest.

Not a single elected leader bothered to show up.

The locking of the jewel box is a sad, and maybe inevitable, chapter in Las Vegas history.

Wednesday night, prior to the final performance of "Liberace & Me" at the museum, the warm sound of a piano drifted from the attraction's main costume room. I wandered inside, wondering if a Liberace CD was playing from the recesses of that space.

Seated at the piano was Philip Fortenberry, who was first touched by Liberace's music at the age of 4. Someone from the gift shop called out to Fortenberry, asking if he wanted light. He shook his head no, and his hands kept dancing.

"I'll Be Seeing You," I think was the song.

Surrounded by the costumes and jewels of his idol, Fortenberry simply played the music, alone in the darkness, not even a candelabra to light his way.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

British Museum chose objects encompassing thousands of years and will end series next week with solar-powered charger

We now know the way the world ends: the landmark Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects, in which Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, has unlocked stories of human heroism, savagery and stolid endurance, bewitching millions of listeners across every continent, will end on 22 October with a solar-powered charger connected to a second hand mobile phone and a little square green lamp with an LED bulb.

MacGregor, still an optimist after recounting 2m years in which humans have usually behaved vilely, thinks the banal objects can do no less than free millions of people from darkness, ignorance and hunger.

Referring to the solar-powered charger, he said: "It's about capturing the sun, the oldest myth in every culture in the world," he said. "In every country light is life and light perpetual is good."

Such simple technology, he said, could harness a source of power and light which would be free for ever, which could not be turned off by a local authority, which could free women from the endless search for fuel or the huge bills for kerosene, and the respiratory illnesses that kill millions caused by crouching over smoky open cooking fires. The light can double their day, giving time for leisure and reading, previously the luxury of the rich. And the mobile phone can connect them to the wide world beyond their own small lives.

"Once everyone has access with solar power to the internet, then they have access to the knowledge of the world – and can join in that conversation with the world."

The Chinese-made lamp and charger were bought in London for $45 (£28), the clunky Nokia mobile phone in a Kampala market for $10 specially for the programme – they will now join the treasures of the museum for ever.

The series began last January, with MacGregor cradling a two million year old stone chopping tool made in the Olduvai gorge in Africa – and typically pointing out that it was not only still sharp enough to cut his thumb, but extremely beautiful. With that deceptively simple lump of black stone – few if any of of the academics and media types who gathered for the revelation of the 100th object could make such a thing – humans could kill and process large animals, and gain enough extra protein to grow a bigger brain and make ever more sophisticated tools.

Since then, as MacGregor raced through weapons, jewels, maps, books, clocks, a genteel tea service and the oldest image in the world of a couple having sex, the series has become a broadcasting phenomenon.

Tim Davie, head of music and audio at BBC radio, said "the results have been nothing short of stunning", exceeding their wildest hopes for the programme.

The broadcasts regularly pulled in up to four million listeners, but the podcast downloads have totalled 10,441,884, just over half, 5.7m, from the UK. The downloaders included Davie himself: as a runner, he said, "you don't need heavy beats, you need Neil MacGregor".

Members of the public have uploaded 3,240 objects which encapsulate some point of personal history to the website, and other museums a further 1,610, and 531 museums and heritage sites across the UK have been mounting linked events – an unprecedented partnership, MacGregor said. Museums all over the world are now racing to copy the formula, as thousands of visitors every day set out to explore the BM galleries equipped with the leaflet mapping the objects.

The last week will include a coin defaced to make a Suffragette medal, a beautiful etching by David Hockney of two men in bed made for the campaign to legalise homosexuality, and a Russian plate showing a heroic worker striding across the ruins of capitalism, towards a glowing golden factory – the plate carries the marks of both Tzar Nicholas and the Hammer and Sickle.

Discussions about how to end the series with a bang rather than a whimper have gone on for months. Rejected candidates include Didier Drogba's Chelsea football shirt, representing an African-born sportsman now playing for an English club owned by a Russian; a suit of Antarctic clothing and a stone pestle and mortar brought from Bangladesh and presented to the museum by a woman who now lives in Camden.

This year’s Jewelry Fair theme is “Beauty and the Beast”. When I first heard this theme I thought of the typical fantasy but had no idea how it would come together. I was so very pleasantly surprised to see a light and dark side of the castles and village settings like I presented in my first post of this Jewelry Fair series.

Now that I’ve experienced the fair, I saw the full theme come to life. Each sim tells its own story with complimentary designers appropriately located. This made finding designers so much easier and, for sure, allowed more lindens to leave my pocket.

Feel free to browse all four sims and get lost in the fantasy of the theme or choose to teleport to each directly. One of my good friends blogged the emergence of the theme. Her post is a wonderful story.

Read on on LunaJubilee.com for the style details and who this designer is that I showcased.

products used
*black photo*
~hair: Miamai_Never WitchBlack with head jewels
~eyes: L.Fauna Charm Eyes [Blue 1]
skin: L.Fauna {Lola . Tan 1} [Darkness] OO
~jewelry: $GaNKeD$ Black Sherbet Jewelry Set
~dress: Kyoot – DUIV Dark Lycorine Gown & Cocktail Dress
pose: my own created just for this post, unavailable

*white photo*
~hair: Miamai_Donna Bun Platinum Platinum
hairbase: W&Y Hairbase White
dress: *Evie’s Closet* Saiyge – Winter Pearl Gown
skin: L.Fauna {Lola . Tan 1} [Equinox] OO
~jewelry: $GaNKeD$ Coveted Jewelry Set BOXED

~complimentary copies

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL ; ECO-JUDAISM ; wisdom of the inward life : IBN PAKUDA

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH RENEWAL ; wisdom of the inward life : IBN PAKUDA

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

The SPIRITUALRENEWAL mailing list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network.
Join Shamash's Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.

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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL ; wisdom of the inward life

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH RENEWAL ; Daily Spiritual Growth : shachein tov ;

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

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Jewish Spiritual Renewal
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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL ; Daily Spiritual Growth 

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

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Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

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Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH SPIRITUALITY; Daily Spiritual Growth : shachein tov ;

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

The SPIRITUALRENEWAL mailing list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network.
Join Shamash's Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.

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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; ECO-JUDAISM ; Daily Spiritual Growth : shachein tov ;

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL ; JEWISH SPIRITUALITY ; Va'et-Chanan: Ve'ahavta, V'ahavtah

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

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Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

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Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
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"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL ;Va'et-Chanan: Ve'ahavta,V'ahavtah,

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL; JEWISH RENEWAL ;Va'et-Chanan: Ve'ahavta,V'ahavtah, LOVE GOD

Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.

Chapter Eleven: Daily Spiritual Growth (part three of three)

Daily Chesbon Ha Nefesh

Asking God How to Improve

This is not to say that you should not pray in a spiritually God-oriented synagogue daily, on Shabbat, and on the Holidays. I am saying that the Spiritual Path demands that you do what is truly required of you and that you not delude yourself that a weak substitution is of any effect.

In a similar vein, there is very poignant story from a disciple of the Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994), which involves his Rebbe, as Rabbi Frand relates it:

"One year, right after the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe was preparing himself on Erev Yom Kippur. One can imagine the preparations that the Rebbe would engage himself in before the holy Day of Atonement. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. A young girl came to him and said, 'Rebbe, I do not have a father anymore. No one will be able to bless me before Yom Kippur.' The Rebbe took a cloth, placed it upon her head, and blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter on Erev (night beginning) Yom Kippur.

Five minutes later there was another knock on the door. It was another girl, again without a father, again with no one to bless her before Yom Kippur, again with same request. Again the Rebbe went through the same routine. He took the cloth, he placed it upon her head, and he blessed her the way a father blesses his daughter.

This is what he did the entire Erev Yom Kippur until he blessed over eighty orphaned girls. This is the best way to celebrate Erev Yom Kippur, not with penitential prayers in Shul.  What could be a greater preparation for the High Holidays than to do mitzvoth for other humans, especially orphans?"

In Deuteronomy 8:11-17 we are told, "Guard yourself...lest you eat, be satisfied, build nice homes, live in them and become haughty, and forget God... and say my own might and the strength of my hand have made me all of this wealth." Part of growing spiritually each day is to remember that everything you have is from God, and to continually bless Him and be grateful.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 5A teaches that we are commanded not to be haughty. When we are arrogant and haughty, we are actually forgetting God. We as spiritual Jews need to remember the many blessings we have from God and to continually thank our Creator for them. If we do not get kavenah (genuine spiritual intention) by using the traditional formalized prayer, then we need to pray in our own words. If we forget about God by being haughty, calling upon His name only when bad things happen, our understanding of God is shattered. In this case we view Him only as a bandage for our suffering. But "foxhole" prayers and conversions do not last, as they lack sincerity and follow-through.

As a spiritual Jew, one needs to love God continually, be thankful to God, be ever mindful of God, be in awe of God but not fear God. The reformer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, says not to do mitzvoth because of fear of divine retribution. He says that is childlike. He says to do mitzvoth for your own spiritual growth.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 39A says there is no tangible reward for doing mitzvoth other than a spiritual one. Rabbi Akiva in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth 61B compares a Jew without God and without Torah to a fish out of water. If modern Jews do not develop a healthy sense of spirituality when things are going well, it is awfully hard to do so when things are going badly.

The Midrash teaches that it is not the big commandments that folks tend to forget. Almost all Jews go to synagogues on Yom Kippur and to seders on Passover. The rabbis try to teach that it is the ethical man-to-man laws that we tend ignore. Rabbi Aaron Kotler writes that in our day-to-day encounters we have many opportunities for good deeds. We do not do them in our pursuit of greater things in life. Simple kindness and manners are often overlooked. He writes that these seemingly insignificant encounters ultimately define us. This is the derech eretz, the mindfully walking with God throughout our day that you learned about in the last chapter.

As the songwriter Jackson Brown sang, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." The Mishna asks, "what is the path that a person should cling to?" It does not answer "halachah" (Jewish ritual law), which actually comes from the Hebrew word for "path." The rabbi's answer is, "shachein tov – be a good neighbor!"

As a spiritual Jew, all you can do is be the best individual you can be. As Isaiah writes, "We are to be a light to the nations." (Is. 49:06). Goodness and kindness to others will yield its own spiritual reward. Your role as a good Jew and a good person is not to be haughty, but to do ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness) to help each other when the inevitable bad things of life do occur. This is the essence of Jewish Spiritual Renewal's way of life. This is how you are able to deal with the universal truth that God is Adon Olam.  Furthermore, that clever phrase applies here: God may not always give you what you want, but He does give you what you need.

 

In a week, Baruch ha Shem, we will study the first third of the 12 th Chapter, ''Having a Spiritual Shabbat : How to Have a Spiritual Shabbat in Modern Times'' of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal. 

As usual, a D'var Torah for the Shabbat of July 24, 2010 follows.

 

Shalom uvracha:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

 

Parasha Va'et-Chanan: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal

 www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"A Listening People"

In the traditional Shacharit (morning) service one exclaims: "How happy are we! How blessed our lot! How sweet our destiny! How magnificent our heritage! How happy are we that as we rise and as we lie down, morning and evening, twice every day we proclaim: Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

This watchword of our faith, the Shema, is found is this parasha (Deut. 6:4). We also are retold the Ten Commandments, albeit with some different wording than is written in Exodus (Deut. 5:6-18). It has been written that all of the 613 commandments in the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) stem from one or more of these Ten Commandments. Even the sin of slander is said to derive from the admonition not to steal and not to murder, as when we commit lashon ha ra (slander) we steal and murder someone's good name.

As Jews, we are witnesses for God. No, we do not have to go out ringing doorbells and handing out copies of The Watchtower. We have a hint to this obligation in Deuteronomy Verse 6:4. If you open to the Hebrew page of your Chumash, you will notice that the letters Yud in Shema (hear) and Daled in Yechud (one) are printed in a larger font than the other letters. The letters Yud-Daled, or "ed" is the Hebrew word for "witness."

If we delve deeper, we will come to realize that each of the Ten Commandments has its roots in the Shema. If we really believed that God is One, that God is "in charge of all," would we take His name in vain? We certainly would not curse our employer, the one who signs our paycheck, to his face, would we? If we truly believed the words of the Shema, would we curse the Face of God who provides us with our very existence and who is omnipresent? If we, with certainty, believed in the Oneness of God would we be able to rest on the Sabbath and fill our lives with spiritual pursuits while forgoing the mundane? Would we have the faith that we would not lose out if we did not close a business deal or attend a secular social event on Shabbat?

We certainly would honor our parents who provided us with the vessel that houses our Godly soul and who sustained us with physical nourishment. If we believed in the concept of the Shema, how could we think about stealing another's property, spouse, life, or good name, or even think jealously of our fellow's status or belongings? If God is truly One, then everything we have or do not have is exactly the way He wishes it to be. Is this a truism? Does the Shema leads us to complacency as well?

Of course the answer is no for the Jewish people. A people, who we are traditionally taught God Himself called stiff necked, is certainly not a candidate for a complacency award. We are taught this, albeit subtlety, in verse 6:5. This verse begins what many call the "ve'ahavta" (you shall love). You will notice in the Hebrew text that the word for "heart" (lev) is spelled incorrectly with two vuvs (the letter V).

The rabbis interpret the heart as a metaphor for the seat of our craving and aspiration. Rashi says this double vuv means we are to love God with both our good and evil inclinations. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yonah says that this means we should use our good heart to perform mitzvoth and to fight the bad heart's desire to sin. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that the evil inclination (yetzer ha ra) refers to man's earthly cravings, such as the desire for food, drink, sex, wealth, etc. The "ve'ahavta" commandment demands that we channel our base drives into the service of God and of good. The Talmudic rabbis stated wisely that without man's yetzer ha ra, we would not build houses or have children. God does not want us to be complacent and accepting of bad situations. He wants us to fight with all of our might to change things to make them the best we can here in our homes and on our earth. However, we are to do so in an ethical manner. The ends do not serve to justify the means in Judaism.

What do we mean when we announce that God is One? It means that we can perceive God in many ways throughout our lives. God can be angry, kind, merciful, judgmental, wise, and yet seemingly stupid or uncaring. While it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the concept that One entity can be all of these, we are commanded to do so. In ancient times, people had different gods for each of these manifestations. We are taught that there is an inner harmony in all that God does. Whatever is happening to us or in the world - good, bad or neutral - we are commanded to believe in One God. This is why we bless God, even at the gravesites of our beloved, by calling Him the "true Judge."

In Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth, the first book of the Talmud, the first question asked is when should one say the Shema? This leads the rabbis into a fascinating discussion of the Shema, the Ve'ahavta, the Amidah and kavenah (the spiritual concentrated intention of prayer). They clearly say that it is better to say an abbreviated spiritual prayer in one's vernacular with kavenah, then the complete prayer in Hebrew in a hurried manner. A Chasidic rabbe once defined kavenah in prayer as singing "Adon" in Adon Olam (Master of the Universe) without already thinking of the word Olam.

In this Tractate the rabbis discuss the concept of loving God "with all of your soul." Rashi says that this means we should love God even if it costs us our life. Rambam says this refers to the very rare situations of idolatry, adultery and murder. Traditional Jewish law requires that one give up his life rather than sin. In Tractate Beracoth 54A the rabbis say one must love God even in the moment when He takes one's life. They recommend that the Shema be on every dying Jew's lips. In Beracoth 62B, the story is told of Rabbi Akiva who joyously says the Shema in his last dying breath as the Romans are torturing him by tearing off his flesh. His students witness this and ask why he is so happy when he is in so much pain. Rabbi Akiva answers, "all my life I prayed that I would be able to maintain my love of God even if it cost me my life. Now that I succeeded in doing so, should I not be happy?" The Talmud does not record if Rabbi Akiva then re-said the Shema to make sure they were indeed the last words on his lips before death took him.

In the Ve'ahavta, the verse following the Shema, we are commanded to love God. How does one command anyone to love anything? We are not even asked to love our parents, only to honor them. In our traditional Ketubah marriage contract a man is not commanded to love his wife, but only to care for her. How do we love God? How do we say this part of our daily service with kavenah?

The Rambam says that the Torah supplies the answer in the next few verses in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He says that Jews should think about the Torah, study it and teach it. When one meditates on God's "great and wondrous deeds and creations and sees in them His incomparable and infinite wisdom, one will immediately come to love and to praise him and be filled with longing to know Him." If only this were so easy. What if one thinks of the Torah as Midrash (stories to teach a lesson)? What if one accepts the critical theory of Torah's authorship? What if one does not believe in the tales of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, burning bushes that speak, the Ten Plagues including the Angel of Death, and Moses on Mt. Sinai for 120 days getting both the written and the oral law.

This is not a question asked sarcastically in the 21st-century. This question was asked is earnest 950 years ago by the Spanish rabbi Brachya Ibn Pakuda. His text Duties of the Heart is among the rarest jewels in the crown of Jewish spirituality. It is available in paperback by Feldheim Press. He writes that the commandments can be divided into duties of the limbs, such as obeying Shabbat or not stealing, and duties of the heart, which belong to the "hidden, private realm of the wisdom of the inward life." Some of these many duties are to love God, to refrain from revenge or grudges (Lev.18:18), to not hate your neighbor (Lev 19:17), to not be tightfisted or hardhearted (Deut.15:7), to love the stranger (Deut 10:19) and to not covet (Deut. 5:18). He discovers that the duties of the limb, which we in modern Judaism call ritual, are a small percentage of the 613 commandments, while the duties of the heart, which we in modern Judaism still cling to, are many.

Ibn Pakuda was ahead of his time in Jewish thought in that he quoted often from Greek and Muslim philosophy. Rambam did the same and was castigated for it 150 years later. Pakuda quotes his justification from Tractate Megillah 16A. "Anyone who speaks wisdom, even if he is from among the other nations of the world, is called a wise man." Pakuda says that in order to love God one must study. He says it is our duty to intellectually investigate the subject of God's unity, and even His existence. He says we should not accept the words of the Shema on faith alone. How many of us say the Shema with our tongues but not our hearts? How many really understand the meaning of God's existence and absolute Unity? Pakuda discusses those that pronounce the words of the Shema with their tongues, and think they are done with the matter of God's Oneness. He says they do not realize that their hearts are empty of the Shema's true meaning, as their thoughts are vacant of any knowledge of the subject. Pakuda says many Jews declare God's unity with their tongues but do not conceive of God within their hearts.

As a liberal Jew did you ever wonder why we stand up for the Shema while at traditional shuls they remain seated? The answer for the traditionalists is found Talmudically. Rabbi Hillel's school, the most liberal of the Talmudic era, rules that one should remain seated so as not to destroy kavenah. Rabbi Shammai's school, known as the more strict interpreters, rules that one should rise. This was at a time when Jews prayed at their own pace. The Talmud agreed with Hillel's school. Modern Jews, following Rabbi Shammai, rise to make a public display in unison of our belief in the tenets of Judaism. But as Rabbi Pakuda alludes, do some of our actions before and after we state the Shema serve to nullify its meaning?

If we really believed in God, would we treat some of our fellows disrespectfully? Would we discuss fellow congregants behind their backs and still smile to their faces? Or worse yet, would we snub them to their faces? If we really believed in the Shema and the commandment to love God that immediately follows it, I would hope that we as Spiritual Renewed Jews could truly accept the yoke of this one commandment. If we did accept this mitzvah, so many other paths to help our fellow and treat him with love would flow naturally from our hearts. Tikun Olam (repair of the world) would not be just a slogan, but it would already be an accomplishment.

I mentioned that the Ten Commandments listed in this Parasha differ in wording from Exodus. In Deuteronomy 5:12 we are told to safeguard (shomar) Shabbat. In Exodus 20:8 we are told to remember (zachor) Shabbat. Modern Jews threw off the yoke of Shomar Shabbos as well as being observant of other ritual commandments. But they never agreed to do away with remembrance of our religion. Nor did they ever agree to do away with the love and belief in God and the man-to-man laws that abound throughout the Torah. However, as we know from humankind's basic nature and our yetzer ha ra, if we give one and inch, they will take a yard. When we say from our pulpits, it is ok to forget about Shabbat, but still love your neighbor, the average congregant's yetzer ha ra hears, "It is ok to hate my neighbor as well as ignore Shabbat."

This is why so many modern and liberal Jews are returning to Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal of which teshuvah is one step.

As modern Jews we have an obligation to be informed Jews. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "Only the educated are free." We do not follow rules and regulations on faith alone. Even the concept of God must be intellectually understood and not just accepted on blind faith. We must be a learning, thinking, grappling people. We have an obligation to teach our children as well. As the Shema says, we must be a listening people for our movement and our religion to survive.

 

Shabbat Shalom for July 24, and I hope you have/had an easy fast on Tisha B'av, July 20, 2010.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

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Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/24/10 : A Path of Transformation

 

The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network, a service of Hebrew College. 

 

Shalom Dear Talmidim, Chaverim v ' Rabbanim:

 

As a note of reminder we are in the midst of the end ''The Three Weeks,''  called the ''Nine Days.'' The nine days began on the first of the month of Av, and ends on the ninth of Av ( July 12 to July 20, 2010). It sadly commemorates the Romans breaking thru the walls of Jerusalem, ending with the Temple's burning 3 weeks later on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av) 70 CE. (It also commemorates the fall of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians, as well as many other horrid events that occurred to the Hebrew and Jewish people in past and even recent history).

The spiritual aspect for us is to remember why the Talmud says Ezra's Temple was destroyed...sinat chinam...baseless hatred among Jews. During these three weeks, we are to go out of our way, to be kind to all Jews, and all of our fellow humans. Tisha B'Av begins on the eve of July 19, 2010. When we read Lamentations on Tisha B'Av , let us ask ourselves how we are doing in relating to others with love and kindness , ahavath chesed. 

 

Today we will continue with our path of transformation via Jewish Spiritual Renewal, with the last third of  Chapter 11:  '' Daily Spiritual Growth,'' from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=5C09106E770F711A24A135C59A7E346E.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1

 

To those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba, welcome! You can access last week's class, and from there work back with links to the first class, at RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY: Cease to do evil. Learn to do good  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/07/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-spirituality_2838.html

 

 

 REMEMBER PLEASE: This class is to be read over a week's period, not all at once. Enjoy and savour it.

 

Let us begin with a bit of Kabbalah from  Zohar Beresheit  and see what the traditional  author, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (c. 135 CE) writes. On Tisha B'Av (see above), we read the book of Lamentations (Eikha). Eikha does not mean Lamentations in Hebrew, just as B' Midbar does not mean Numbers in Hebrew. Eikha means 'How,' from the first words of the Book ,"How [in Hebrew, Eikha] lonely sits the city, that was full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) .'' R' Shimon teaches that in last week's parasha, Moses asks '' How (in Hebrew, 'Eikah') can I alone bear your weight, and your burden, and your strife? (Deut. 1:12).'' And R' Shimon reminds us that the Jewish people's hatred of one another, caused Jerusalem's downfall. He also teaches that when God says to Adam " 'Where are you?' [in Hebrew, 'Ayecha'?] it is a broad hint to all of us, to ask this question to ourselves each day, as we journey  with Jewish Spiritual Renewal and daily spiritual growth.