A Rose among Thorns

In this week's Torah Portion, Chayei Sarah, we come across a very perplexing thing.

The content centers around the events leading to the marriage of our great grand-parents, Yitzchak (Issac) and Rivkah (Rebecca).
We are told in great detail and at great length, how Avraham's trusted servant Eliezer travels to Rivkah's town and finds her.
Rivkah then shows great kindness and sensitivity in providing water for each of his camels, showing the sterling character befitting as holy a mate as Yitzchak (note to those looking for a spouse: Kindness!)
Then, when he reaches the home of Rivkah's family, the ENTIRE episode is re-told to us in the Torah, as Eliezer explains the miraculous events that led to his finding Rivkah. This saga ends happily, as Rivkah agrees to marry Yitzchak and comes with Eliezer. Rivkah and Yitzchak then embark on their special lives of purity and spreading of good, and in the ultimate creation of the beginnings of the Jewish people.
Ummm, why is this so strange again?
It's strange because the Torah never wastes words. Every single letter & word is learned from & pored over by our sages. To teach us critical laws and Mitzvot about how we are to live our lives for all generations, the Torah generally suffices with very few words. Sometimes it suffices with hints in 1 letter!
Yet we find with Yitzchak and Rivkah's match and subsequent marriage, pages and pages of information told to us, not once but twice! This is the A.D.D. generation man!
Why write at such great length? The Torah could have just written:"And Yitzchak married Rivkah" - or at least something shorter than what we have.

The inner dimension of the Torah bails us out as usual, explaining to us what's really going on here.

Before his marriage, Yitzchak had reached an amazing degree of spiritual perfection. He was the 1st Jew to have a circumcision at 8 days, was then guided & educated by his father Avraham. He later showed an eagerness to sacrifice his Life for G-d, from which point he attained an extremely elevated level and was considered as a blemish-less being. He wasn't allowed to even leave the land of Israel because of his great sanctity.
Rivkah, on the other hand, is described in the mystical writings, quoting the Song of Songs, as: "A rose among the thorns."
She was born in a wicked, idolatrous family, far removed from Issac's pure upbringing.
THUS, the union of Yitzchak & Rivkah was a meeting of extremes. It is for this very reason that the Torah goes to such lengths to focus on and expound the events leading to their coming together. For Torah is a guide to uniting extremes. Whenever a mitzvah is fulfilled, a mundane physical object becomes infused with G-dliness.
The marriage of Yitzchak & Rivkah thus represents the marriage of the physical and the spiritual.
This meeting precipitated the meeting & marriage of G-d & the Jewish people under the canopy of Mt. Sinai, with the giving of the Torah, a Torah which when followed produces a fusion of physical and spiritual. A blessing of praise to G-d upon eating a salad, fuses its physicality with a spiritual force.

May we all succeed in following our parents Yitzchak and Rivkah, using this ability we all have to unite the 2 extremes of this physical existence & its spiritual counterpart -
into a beautiful harmony that can be tangibly felt.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

10 Tests Minus a Furnace

Hey Everyone! I hope you had a good week and will have an even better Shabbat & weekend!

There is so much to talk about this week in regards to the Torah Portion. Avraham and Sarah finally have a child, Issac. Sodom is destroyed because of its immorality, and many other exciting events happen. But let's focus on one specific interesting idea found this week. Our Sages teach us that G-d Tested Avraham with 10 tests, to verify Avraham's true devotion to Him:
"Our forefather Abraham was tested with ten trials and withstood all of them. This demonstrates how beloved our forefather Abraham of blessed memory was." - (Ethics of Our Fathers, Ch. 5, Mishna 4)

Some tests include leaving his birthplace for the land of Israel, circumcising himself, and ultimately being willing to sacrifice his beloved son Issac to G-d.
But practically nowhere is there mentioned an event that most of us would surely expect to be included as 1 of the 10!
When Avraham 1st comes to the conclusion that there must be a G-d that exists, he tries to spread this monotheistic belief. Unfortunately for him, his father doesn't
quite enjoy the fact that Avraham smashed all of the idols in his idol shop, and sends his own son (c'mon dad!) to King Nimrod for judgement (not to be mistaken with the Green Day CD).

Nimrod isn't too happy with this rebel Avraham, and says: "If you don't relinquish your belief in G-d, I'm throwing you into this furnace!"
Avraham stayed true to his beliefs and was thrown in. He wasn't harmed inside the flames, and ended up running away into hiding.

Now this is pretty crazy stuff! How come it isn't mentioned as 1 of his 10 tests!?

The Answer given in the mystical writings is a powerful one.

What is 1 difference we can find between Avraham's experience in Nimrod's furnace, and, let's say, the last of the 10 tests, being asked to sacrifice his son?
By the furnace, Avraham, based on his own inner feeling and will, was willing to give his life up for G-d. By the near sacrific of Isaac, G-d Asked Avraham to do it.
So what's the big difference?
When you do an amazing thing for someone, it's obviously a special thing. But it's on your terms. When someone asks for something they want, it's on their terms.
G-d Enjoys when we give over of ourselves and our emotions to Him. But greater is doing what He Asks for, for then the deed isn't mortal, it's G-dly.
The Mystics liken this to a wife and husband. Let's say they are together, and she asks her husband for a glass of water. "But I want to be with you," answers the husband.
"Yes," she responds. "But if you really loved me, you would do what I asked for."
True love and devotion is doing what another asks for, and not just what we feel like doing, even if with good intentions.
This is true in human relationships, and it is true with the Torah & Mitzvot in our relationship with G-d.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

Issac & Ishmael - 8 vs. 13

In this week's Torah portion, we are introduced to the father of Judaism - and through it many of today's major belief systems.
How did Avraham become the father of various religions? What role did his 2 sons play?

While living in Israel, Avraham & his wife Sarah experienced a great famine that hit the land of Israel.
Forced to traverse down to Egypt to acquire food, the couple runs into some problems, with Sarah taken by guards to marry her to Pharaoh.
G-d Saves Sarah by striking Pharaoh's household with a plague, and Pharaoh sends Avraham & Sarah away with great riches.
But during his short acquaintance with the holy Avraham & Sarah, after witnessing miracles wrought for them, Pharaoh, greatly impressed, sends his daughter Hagar to be a hand-maid
to Sarah, saying: "Greater a helper to Sarah, than a princess here."

Childless, Sarah asks Avraham to marry Hagar and they have a child, "Ishmael." In this week's Torah reading, Avraham is commanded to circumcise himself and the males of his household. Ishmael is 13 at the time. Soon Sarah is granted by G-d a child, Issac, and he is circumcised at 8 days old as commanded by G-d.

We are told in the Midrash, that one day, Issac and Ishmael were having an argument. Ishmael was gloating to Issac, saying:
"I am greater than you, for I had my circumcision at 13 yrs. old! I made my own decision, I chose to dedicate myself to G-d!
You were 8 days old and had no choice!" Issac answered him: "That may be, but I was circumcised & thereby dedicated to G-d at 8 days old, beyond my choice, because I am dedicated to G-d beyond
reason and understanding; beyond intellect." The nature of a Jew is his dedication to G-d, his commitment beyond reason. To be sure, Judaism places a central role on understanding
as much as possible about Judaism & G-d, but through thick & thin, as we've seen throughout history, even when it doesn't seem to make sense, we stay committed. And that's why Issac, his son Jacob, the 12 tribes, and all of the future Jewish People, had to be circumcised at 8 days old. A time when one doesn't yet "understand" G-d, but is bound with Him - body & soul.

Ishmael was born naturally, while Isaac was born miraculously, from a mother of 90 yrs. old who had always been barren. Sarah had no womb. Ever.
Every person in the world has a connection with G-d, and a spiritual self that must be nurtured, and Jews must help this happen.
It is our duty.
But to do that, we must always remember who we are, a people whose nature, as bequeathed to us spiritually by our forefathers, is a bound with G-d
that defies all logic and nature. An unalterable bond that defies any laws of a nature, any enemy, any circumstance.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

To Live with the Times

"We all must live with the times."



Those were the words of the Rebbe Shneur Zalman to his disciples before he secluded himself in his room. But what could they mean?
Could he possibly mean that the Divine intention was for man to keep up with the latest fashion and news?
So Rabbi Yehuda Leib, the Rebbe's brother, explained to the Chassidim that 'Living with the times' meant to connect with, learn from, & live with every week's Torah Portion.

Well, let's take a look at the week we find ourselves in.
As we leave the high holiday spirit that coursed throughout the Hebrew month of Tishrei, with Rosh Hashana,Yom Kippur, and who could forget Sukkot & Simchat Torah, we find ourselves ready to enter the month of Cheshvan.
Cheshvan? Check your calendars people, there's no special holiday of note (except for the weekly Shabbat of course).
Talk about a downer! From a month full of inspiration - to nada??

This week's Torah portion is Noah. Let's see if we can find in it any help to this problem and "live with the times."
In the portion we see Noah's building of a massive ark at G-d's Command, saving his family & members of the animal kingdom,and together surviving a tumultuous flood, finally arriving on land in order to restore goodness to a once corrupt earth....
Well, it looks like the 1st life lesson for this time of year is clear in our parsha! How so?

Life in this physical world is full of tests and challenges, physical & financial, troubles that engulf us like flood waters.
G-d Knows this and therefore Gives us a respite at times from these worries of the physical world, by granting us holy slots in time to take a step back.
He Brings us into an ark of holiness. Our Sages tell us that in Noah's ark, no animal attacked another, despite the cramped area and mixture of predators with prey. This is because the ark contained a holiness within it, a pervasive holiness akin to the time of the future redemption, when "The wolf shall live with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie with a young goat." (Isaiah 11:6)

Noah's ark symbolizes the month of Tishrei, an "ark" that contained us within it & shielded us from the troublesome waters of the mundanity of everyday affairs. But like we see with Noah, the purpose of the protection of the ark from the flood was not in order to only remain in it's holy environment, but in order to be strengthened to eventually re-enter the world and replenish it for the good.

As we leave the ark of Tishrei & enter the new world of Cheshvan, let's live with Noah and his mission to re-enter the world fresh and invigorated,
ready to make the world into the world G-d Intended it to be. A world full of Torah and Mitzvot, good deeds and kind words, love and joy.
The inspiration of Tishrei has strengthened us to re-invigorate the world for good.
So let's get to it!

Shabbat Shalom!

Daniel