The Middle Path

Living in California in 2012, I hear a lot about living healthy. From my lovely sister-in-law's health foods to my Physician father's vitamins, I have my fair share of exposure to a life of health. Unfortunately, I do not heed the calling of living healthy as much as I should. But in today's western world, it's hard to ignore the emphasis placed on being shape, working out, eating right, and doing what's in one's power to live a long and healthy life. But as we well know now, and the medical profession has confirmed, living healthy isn't only regulated to one's stomach, but also to one's mind - our inner well being.


Our greatest of Sages, with Maimonides (1135-1204) at the forefront, taught that the path to a truly healthy life - not surprisingly - is to live a balanced life. This truism pervades all of reality. Physically, balance is essential: Too much sugar, and a person can G-d forbid develop diabetes. Low blood sugar can lead to hypoglycemia. Too many bacteria-fighting white blood cells is Neutrophilia, too few - Neutropenia. We breathe in, we breathe out. Our muscles contract & relax. Just like for our bodies to work healthily, there must be balance, so too in our personal lives. It's important to work and accomplish, but also to hang out with friends and enjoy free time - to set a balanced schedule. When raising children, it is important to have a certain balance, with discipline together with kindness and free flowing love. Unfortunately, the culture around us often creates a difficult environment for us to live balanced lives. What was once an intimate family dinner, is now an I-phone/laptop/TV dinner. What was once a private home and life filled with good values, is now heavily influenced by the shallow pop culture of the trendy and famous that we see everywhere that we turn. How to dress, look, act and think. Whats "cool." How can we cure this ailment, this affront to a balanced - and therefore healthy - life? By creating borders. Deciding what enters our bodies, minds, homes, and families - of course in a balanced way.

On a spiritual level, internally, balance is also key. We are told that the angels in heaven "run" toward the light of G-d in a state of extreme love, only to pull back in awe. So too, we work to feel closer to G-d and a spiritual reality, only to bring an inspiration to our daily lives in this world in order to do good in a practical manner here. Indeed, next Friday night is the 1st "Pesach (Passover) Seder." Literally translated, Pesach means "leaping" (as G-d did when he "passed over" the homes of the Jewish people during the plague of the male first-born), while seder means "order." The seder is a 15-step, orderly method, given to help us leap to greater spiritual heights than we have ever before. Every line, every nuance of the seder, is replete with layers upon layers of amazing meaning and depth, that we unfortunately do not have room to discuss now. This theme of "ordered leaping," is one of the fundamental themes of the Torah & Judaism. Torah & its Mitzvot are in essence orderly methods of connecting to the infinite, of leaping to places that we can't dream of leaping to on our own, no matter how hard we try, for we are finite, while G-d is infinite.

And isn't that seen throughout the holiday of Passover? What makes Matzah so great in the eyes of Judaism? Is it really so different to Chametz (leaven)? What separates the two, technically, is only a few extra minutes, even seconds, of flour spent in an oven baking! But that's the point. Matzah is simply disciplined chametz. We have to know when to draw the line. In life, we mess up constantly. And we aren't expected to eliminate our animalistic and materialistic drives, but rather to work on channeling them, to tame them. And this balance is amazingly sweet, for the "upright path is the middle path" (Maimonides). We shouldn't be extreme, but we shouldn't give in on our principles and moral values either. There are only 2 areas of the human psyche that Maimonides says must be avoided to the extreme, no middle path necessary: One's anger and ego. Humility is symbolized by the matzah which is flat, while chametz is bloated and puffed up, symbolizing one who is full of himself. On Passover, one doesn't just lessen his chametz intake - he eradicates it completely!

May we all have a meaningful and joyous Passover holiday! And may we each take upon ourselves one area in our lives, where we will work to balance out in a healthy way.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

True Freedom

Regardless of one's level of Jewish observance, Passover (Pesach) holds a special significance in the life of every Jew. It's actually amazing to see how long Jews, from various backgrounds worldwide, have observed this holiday. I remember once as a teenager in high school, attending a party, that happened to be during Passover. While everyone was consuming beer, I saw out of the corner of my eye a group of Jewish teens drinking bottled wine, kosher for Passover. While it warmed my heart (not that I advocate underage drinking ;), it drives home this amazing power of Passover for every Jew, even those that don't observe very many Jewish practices during the rest of the year. What is this spiritual energy of Passover? And how come we are so obsessed with it, enough that we mention the leaving of Egypt throughout our daily prayers?

The spirtual theme of Passover is freedom. Of course we commemorate the freedom of leaving Egypt and its slavery over us. But what does that mean for us today, free to do as we please? What does it mean to truly be free?

The mistake comes in our way of thinking. We think that freedom is when all constraints on a person are taken away. Meaning, we assume that freedom is the natural state of a person - that if one is liberated from external forces that limit him, we have a "free" human being. The message of Passover is that a much greater and truer freedom can be attained. When G-d took us out of Egypt, this was but the 1st step toward Mount Sinai and the giving of the Torah. When we left Egypt, we were free in the conventional sense - no one ruled over us. But then, as we proceeded through the desert, we began to rid ourselves of the depraved culture and Pagan habits we had developed during hundreds of years in Egypt. So too, today, we can free ourselves in so many ways. TV, phones, social media and the materialistic culture that surrounds us - all trap us into thinking a certain way. Is that freedom? On a deeper level, there is ego, anger, impatience, depression - each of us has our own personal trigger reactions to our surroundings, buttons that when pressed, don't exactly elicit the finer elements of our inner selves. We have to work to free ourselves and not be subservient to our habits. Through hard work (represented by the 49 days between Passover & Shavuot when the Torah was given), we can help free ourselves from the shackles of our evil inclination, revealing the massive amount of good within.

But then we received the Torah. Then we were empowered to achieve a yet greater freedom: The ability to transcend even our good inclination. Meaning, to always improve and reach greater heights. The Torah and its divine wisdom are sometimes looked at as the opposite of freedom - limiting us with rules and regulations. But if we take a deeper look, we can see that at the end of the day, no matter how hard we work, we can't really be free. Because no matter how "great" we improve, it will always be "me." Defined by the boundaries of self. Torah & Judaism came to raise us beyond self, to a G-dly plane, an infinite one. It draws out the divine within each of us, the infinite potential we have to constantly "Pass-over" the level we were on yesterday.

May this year's Passover (Night of April 6th - 14) unleash the divine, infinite potential within each of us, infusing us with spiritual power to break all of our boundaries; to leave our personal Egypts.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

So Why Egypt?

Ahh...it's that time of year again...The smell of Matzah and Horseradish is in the air! Passover (besides for the cleaning and avoidance of leavened edibles), is always fun, a great time to spend with family & friends. We've become quite accustomed to celebrating this age old holiday every year, but have we ever stopped and asked the most glaring of questions? That being: Why did the Jewish nation have to go down to Egypt and be enslaved in the 1st place!? Couldn't G-d have kept us in the holy land, safe and sound, and given us the Torah there?

I heard a very interesting answer to this question this past week. To preface: What has practically every nation who has ever abused the Jewish people have in common with one another? From Egypt to Rome, Babylonia to Greece, Spain in the late 15th century and Germany in the mid 20th, all of these nations were powerful. But more than that, each of these nations excelled, perhaps led the world, in modernity and cultural advancement. The democracy & philosophy of Greece & Rome, the golden age of Spain, the love of art and music in Germany, each of these nations were at the forefront of their times in their appreciation of an enlightened culture in their time. But did that equate to a moral country? It seems quite the contrary! The more culturally advanced the nation was, the more cruel and disgusting their actions!

Let's look at this on an individual level. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was brilliant. By 6 years old, when most kids his age were learning to read, Mozart had composed an entire symphony, to be performed by a full philharmonic orchestra! Ludwig van Beethoven, after becoming completely deaf, composed some of his most famous symphonies - unable to hear even one note of his composition! Niccolo Paganini composed such a complex violin concerto, that for 150 years no one was able to play it - except for Paganini himself. These brilliant souls obviously were blessed with amazing skills. But what type of people were they? From what we know, they had terrible character traits! Each one more unpleasant than the next. But how could that be!? Like the nations mentioned above, the reason why these amazing innovators weren't kind and gentle, was very simply because culture isn't Torah. Skills, knowledge, culture don't translate into goodness. Why? Because it doesn't penetrate one's core - who I really am. Torah was given to the world to change one's inner self, to penetrate one's being in a way that refines the animal within. In simple yiddish: To make you into a mentsch.

And THAT'S why we had to go down to Egypt, as a precursor to accepting the Torah. If we never had, perhaps there would be wonder and curiosity as to whether we were missing out on the amazingly advanced culture of the super power Egypt! Pyramids, math, heiroglyphics! G-d said: "OK, go and see if this advanced culture translates into a good society, the best way of living life." Like the Nazis who lived culturally aware lives to the highest of degrees, we Jews have experienced every leading nation and their cultures, but none have offered as kind and just an outlook as what the Torah has given us. When we left Egypt, we could now truly appreciate Mt. Sinai.

May we remember today in our lives, that as great as the advanced nations we live in today are (with much of the goodness heavily influenced by the Torah), we must always turn to Torah and its guiding principles as our inspiration and guide to living a good life.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

Stop & Smell the Roses

Today I was busy. Good busy. Rushing from house to house, I was delivering "Mishloach Manot" - gifts of food that are given out to friends on the holiday of Purim. During this frantic travel, as I rushed to complete my stops before the 5pm Megillah reading, something hit me: "It was Purim!" Time to smile and celebrate; rejoice! It got me thinking. Too often we're not living in the moment. Either we're working to complete something, thinking and planning ahead, looking forward to future endeavors. But isn't that good? Aren't we supposed to always be challenging ourselves, not being satisfied with where we're at or what we've accomplished? Why focus on the now?

Of course, Judaism stresses effort and constant progress. Yagata, u'matzata - Ta'amin - "If he has toiled, and found (succeeded) - believe him." As beings who are alive, placed on this earth with a mission, we must constantly grow. All living things must grow. However, Judaism also stresses how vital it is for us to live in the moment. The emphasis on time is seen throughout the Torah. The holiday of Sukkot is "Z'man Simchatchem" - the time of our joy, Passover is "the time of our freedom." G-d tells us to live in the moment, enjoy the journey as well, not just the goal. Utilize the preciousness of this moment, a time with its own unique spiritual energy, one that won't come back the same ever again. Purim this year isn't Purim of next year. Take advantage. If we're only looking ahead all of the time, then we never experience life to its fullest.

As with most everything in life, it seems that a good balance is needed here. We must always improve ourselves; our character traits and how we relate to others, refining ourselves and never being satisfied with what we've accomplished until now. But we mustn't forget to sometimes do the exact opposite. It's healthy and correct to enjoy the fruits of our labors, taking pride in what we've accomplished. Enjoy the moment and where you're at right now in life. On a more micro level, enjoy the moment of the month or the week. That's the idea of Shabbat. Enclose yourself in a 24 hour cocoon of tranquility. Yes, G-d created for 6 days. But on the 7th, He simply enjoyed what he had created. In life we must be on the move. But like G-d, we must learn to stop and smell the flowers, enjoy our present situation and those around us, forget the future and revel in the now. And then we will be revitalized to approach the future.

Shabbat Shalom!

Behind the Mask

This Wednesday Night-Thursday, Jews worldwide will be celebrating the joyous, awesome holiday of Purim. What makes Purim so special, and what's it's underlying theme that we can learn from & take into our lives 2,400 years after these amazing events unfolded?

One unique aspect of "Megillat Esther" (The scroll of Purim) is that it is the only book of the 24 books of Tanach - which has NO mention of G-d, not even once! The events unfold throughout the megillah quite naturally. Sure, everything works out amazingly for the Jewish people & at every turn our arch-nemesis Haman is thwarted. But hey, we had Esther as our queen to pull strings, not to mention the influential Mordechai. Maybe it was just a case of being at the right place, at the right time?

The theme of Purim is exactly that: Our lives seem to flow naturally, without outside influence. G-d doesn't openly display his influence to us; at least not very often.
His "name" isn't mentioned. Throughout the good & bad times, it is up to us to recognize the puppeteer pulling the strings, the conductor behind the orchestra.
Megillah is etymologically connected to the word "Megaleh" - to reveal, while the Talmud states that Esther's name is connected to "Hester" - hidden. The theme of Purim is that our mission is in working to reveal He who is hidden - orchestrating the world's events and our lives.

How come there is a custom of dressing up on Purim, hiding one's face? Why do we eat hamantaschen which consist of a sweet filling hidden inside a cookie? When one wears a mask, that person hides. But if someone recognizes him and calls his name, he has no need to wear the mask anymore - the game's up! G-d's face - his presence - is hidden behind the mask of the world. It is up to us to recognize the world as merely a well fitted costume, each nuance chosen for a specific reason. And even in the bad times, events that we don't & often can't understand in our limited worldview - those too have a sweet reason behind them, like the hamantaschen, whose inner sweetness isn't always apparent from the outside.

May we all celebrate the happiest of holidays this year with the knowledge that our own lives are a megillah scroll - every event directed by G-d to produce a fantastic story. Learn about & find a synagogue near you here: PURIM

Shabbat Shalom!