Above Logic

"[The Greeks came] to make them forget Your Torah and transgress the decrees of Your will." (Al Hanisim prayer on Chanukah)

"They tried to kill us, we won, now let's eat." This is a basic summary of Jewish history - as well as of the holidays we have celebrated for thousands of years. From one of the earliest - Passover, to one of the latest - Purim, the Jewish people have been saved from physical annihilation by our enemies. However, the holiday of Chanukah (beginning this Sat. night), is different. YES, the Greeks killed. But their prime objective was not physical death, but rather the killing of the Jewish spirit. It was the intellectual & spiritual beliefs of the Jewish people that bothered them. Haman, like Hitler, had an edict passed that threatened every Jewish body. The Greeks only decreed against the learning of Torah & the performance of Mitzvot. Assimilate, avoid Jewish expression, and you would be fine!

Our Sages teach that the issue the Greeks had with Judaism was a bit more intricate. The Greeks of the time were philosophic innovators, and appreciated good logic; sound intellectual reasoning. In the Torah, they saw much good in that department! From moral reasoning & societal justice to the brilliant didactic teachings of the oral Torah, the Greeks were duly impressed with Judaism and its followers. There was one thing that didn't sit well with their outlook: The Jewish belief in that which is beyond the realms of human logic. The Mitzvot that made sense: "Don't murder", "Don't steal", "commemorate the days in which you left Egypt," were tolerable. But "keep kosher", "don't mix meat & milk", and all of the decrees of the Torah - that wasn't going to cut it!

In essence, the Greeks argued: "Judaism is nice, it's cute, it's even admirable. But leave that God nonsense alone. Appreciate the wisdom in it, but leave the divine out. Do away with the spiritual soul behind the laws and customs!" Heavily outnumbered, with their lives in danger, the Maccabees said "no" - The essence of the Torah & its Mitzvot is that its wisdom is Godly. Not human. Deeper still, the Maccabees argued: "Even those mitzvot that make total sense - like 'don't steal' - we must observe them because they are, in essence, a Divine decision that we do not steal and that we act morally. It is an added incentive that we can also understand the evil within these immoral actions.

After the Maccabees were miraculously victorious, they found a single cruse of pure oil - enough for 1 day, which miraculously lasted for 8 days. This oil & special light of the Menorah shone in the face of the Greeks & their ideology. Specifically here in the temple, a spiritual miracle was taking place. That there is a higher reality that exists on a level beyond the logical. Where 8 days of light can come from 1 day's oil. Where philosophy & the human brain can't understand.

May each of us grow and add in the light of Torah & Mitzvot, like the lights of the Menorahs we light, 1 additional candle each day, as we remember the transcendence of the spirit over the physical, of light over darkness.

Happy Chanukah & Shabbat Shalom!

Life or Death?

"And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kiryat Arba, which is Hebron" (Genesis 23:1-2)

Abraham & Sarah were quite the incredible couple. The modern world as we know it would've been completely different without them. These 2 people embarked on a journey - defying all odds and braving nearly impossible hurdles - to spread the concept of one G-d to the pagan world around them. In this week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah ("The Life of Sarah"), the Torah opens, ironically, by recounting Sarah's death! We learned about the life of Sarah in the past Torah portions; yet the name of those portions have no mention of Sarah. Yet now that we read about Sarah's passing, the title of the portion is "The life of Sarah"! What's going on?

Many of us see commercials of all kinds. Some of the most glaringly ironic commercials, are those for cigarettes. Two beautiful people, smiling with bright white teeth, hold cigarettes. On the bottom corner is a large warning that smoking this is hazardous, can harm pregnancies and could lead to death. The title on the top says: "Living life with pleasure." But what does it mean to really be alive? Is it simply biological; breathing, walking, talking, doing business? Many people who can do these things will tell you they feel dead. They don't feel emotionally alive, intellectually alive, spiritually alive. To live, to be happy, comes when one makes a difference in the world around them for the good. This is what the Torah is teaching us with these opening words, the title of this week's Torah portion. Some people impact the world, but in undesirable ways, with the effect that people are happy when they are gone. Others however, live such positively impactful lives, that even when they're not around physically, they still influence us. Sarah lived thousands of years ago, yet we still speak about her. Her impact on her husband, her son, and the world around her was such, that it didn't die with her. The Torah is teaching us that if you want to truly see one's life, you have to look at their spiritual life. The Talmud states: The wicked even in their lifetimes are called dead, and the righteous, even in death, are called alive. So if we want to really know about the life of Sarah, we have to begin at her passing. Then we can see the knowledge & wisdom she passed on to her son, the impact her life had on the world around her.

May we work to emulate our amazing mother Sarah, living our lives in a meaningful way and impacting the world around us for the good, in a way that our lives can be felt as really living. (Based on a talk by Rabbi Simon Jacobson)

Shabbat Shalom!

Why Not Me?

'And God Appeared to him in the plains of Mamre.'(Genesis 18:1)

This week's Torah portion, Vayera, opens with God "visiting" Avraham and "Appearing" to him (in some way), after Avraham circumcised himself and his children. There is a powerful story told of the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shalom Dov Ber (lived 1860-1920). When he was 4 or 5 years old, he came home from school crying. His grandfather the Tzemach Tzedek (the 3rd Rebbe), asked him what was wrong. Unlike perhaps the children of today, who may have been sad over not receiving the right version of play station for their birthdays, little Shalom Dov Ber had a different problem. "It's not fair!" He cried. "How come God revealed himself to Avraham, but not to me!?" After a moment, his grandfather answered him: "When a Jew, at 99 years old, decides to have a circumcision, to him deserves that God appear to him." And the child understood and stopped crying.

How did this answer pacify the child? And what can we learn from it in our lives today? Let's look first at his age. "5 years old" represents - not only youth in years - but in understanding. We today may not cry for spiritual elevation at 5 years old, but spiritually, many of us are at the level of "5 years old" - far removed from feeling God in our daily lives like we could. We too can cry out to God: "How come you haven't revealed yourself to me more? Show me that you are involved and care about my daily life and struggles, in an easily apparent way!" More than that: We can demand that God reveal himself to us as he did to Avraham! As it says: "Each Jew is obligated to say: "When will my deeds reach the level of my forefathers, Abraham, Issac and Jacob?" (Tana Devei Eliyahu Rabbah Ch. 25)

But what was so great about was Avraham did that he merited such a revelation? Avraham, at this point in his life, had changed the world around him as much as humanly possible, eductaing and refining all that he came in contact with about God and living a moral life. He could have sat back and relaxed; "Look what I've accomplished!" Instead, when God asked him to take another leap, he did so, leaving the ocnstraints of his ego behind. And through this act of willingness to grow, to always grow higher, no matter what plateau he may have reached, is why Averaham merited a higher revelation from God. We too must never be satisfied with our achievements, but must always desire to grow morally and spiritually, working to achieve more. Through the act of circumcision, Avraham completed the turning of his body into a mitzvah - a living vehicle for God's Infinite reality in a finite world. As we refine the world around us and our inner world, may God appear to us in turn, as he did to our forefather Avraham.

Shabbat Shalom!