Lessons from a Thief

'Ben Zoma says: Who is wise? He who learns from every person..Who is strong? He who subdues his personal inclination.. Who is rich? He who is happy with his lot.' (Pirkei Avot, 4:1)

This has always been one of my favorite lessons from 'The Ethics of our fathers', sayings of the Sages that resonate today as strongly as they did when they were written 2,000 yrs. ago. The first thing that pops out from Ben Zoma's words, is that they are counter intuitive to what many people would think to answer to these Q's. Wealth? Having lots of money & assets. Strength? Being muscular and in shape. Wisdom? Being a PH.D. And yet we learn that one can be monetarily poor, and yet rich because of his contentment with what he has. "What I need to succeed in my personal mission in this lifetime, I have. What I wasn't given is for a reason, and I therefore don't need it." One can be physically powerful, even exerting one's passion & strength on someone who gets in the way. But holding back and controlling one's inner emotions often times takes more inner strength: "A master of his passions is better than a conqueror of a city." One can be a great philosopher and thinker. But does he really understand the world around him? Is he utilizing his life's opportunities to understand life better? One who learns a lesson from every person & opportunity is constantly growing in wisdom.

One of the examples of learning from everybody that stuck in my mind, was a story with Rabbi Zusia of Anipoli. He taught that one can learn 3 things from babies, and 7 things from robbers! 1) A baby is always busy & is not unoccupied even for a minute. 2) When he lacks something, he isn't embarrassed to cry out for his needs (Like we should do in prayer/requests to G-d). 3) Whenever his basic needs are satisfied, he is happily content. A robber? 1)Does his work under the cover of night, away from the eyes of people (we should perform good deeds without throwing it in people's faces). 2) Even if he fails one day, he will attempt again & again. 3) He is loyal to his comrades.

The list goes on, and maybe you can figure out the rest? May we continually learn good lessons from our surroundings & the people we meet, as well as work to control our anger & impatience. Let's be truly rich, by realizing that everything we have is what we need, given to us by G-d for a reason.

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom!

Jewish Revolution

This Tuesday night begins the special holiday of Shavuot, when Jewish people the world over will commemorate the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai more than 3,300 years ago. An interesting question is raised in the Talmud: "Which is greater — Study or Action?” Rabbi Akiva said, and the sages agreed: “Study, if it leads to Action.” (Kiddushin 40b) But is this really the case? Religious, spiritual life - the world over - is usually connected with study, prayer, and personal development. Where does Judaism's consummate focus on action & changing the world come from?

'Now G-d appeared to [Abraham]. And [Abraham] lifted his eyes and saw, and behold, three men were standing near him...And he said, "My L-rd..please do not leave.." And Abraham hastened..to the cattle, and he took a calf, tender and good...' (Genesis 18:1-8) At first glance, this seems to be just another example of the great love that the 1st Jew, Abraham our forefather, had for every person. But if we think about it for a second, this story is crazy! Here we have the holiest, most spiritual person on the planet, and G-d has chosen to reward him by visiting him and communicating. Instead of reveling in this unbelievable experience, Abraham sees 3 travelers and sends G-d an away message, and runs after them to invite them for lunch! But that's what Abraham, and the Torah, is teaching us: All of our spiritual efforts, our learning of Torah & prayer, should sensitize & instruct us how to help others in need.

Every Jew's spiritual DNA -your soul - contains a spark of Abraham's soul. And Abraham personified the Jewish spirit of desiring to revolutionize, to change the world. It's not an accident that even though we make up 0.2% of the world's population, Jews have won 21% of Nobel prizes (32% in the 21st century); or that the creators of Google, Facebook, cell phones & voicemail, as well as Einstein, Freud, Marx and Frankl, are Jewish. The Jewish spirit mirrors Abraham, yearning to revolutionize the world and make an impact.

On Shavuot night, we try to stay up later (some of us all night!), learning various topics of Jewish wisdom, all culled from the most trans formative book in history: The Torah. Of primary importance is the hearing of the reading of the 10 commandments on Wednesday morning, the 10 calls to action. The Jewish soul may desire to affect the world, but how can one channel that spirit and energy in the proper direction? Through the wisdom, directives, and lessons of the Torah. Wishing you a very happy and healthy receiving of the Torah on this Shavuot!

7 Spiritual Energies

Between 2 of the 3 major Jewish festivals of the year - Passover & Shavuot - there are 49 days. This is not by coincidence, as the Jewish people left Egypt (on the 1st day of Passover) & traveled in the Egyptian desert for 7 weeks until they received the Torah on Mt. Sinai (on the day of Shavuot). There is a mitzvah to count each of these days, as we re-live the anticipation and character improvement our ancestors went through before receiving the divine Torah. But the number 49 is not by accident. Jewish mysticism teaches us that every soul is made up of 3 intellectual faculties & 7 emotional faculties, called "sefirot". The 7 emotional aspects of the soul are Kindness, strength, harmony, endurance, humility, bonding, and sovereignty. Furthermore, each emotion is made up of the other 6. So it's not simply that you have the ability to be kind or strong/severe, but rather that you have the ability to sometimes express true kindness to someone by being stern with them, a simple example being to scold a child who runs in the middle of the street, so as to teach them safe behavior. So that's how we get to 49: Each day during these 49 days, we count one of the emotional aspects we need to work on improving, each one made up of 7, totaling 49.

The fact that our souls are even made up of intellectual & emotional faculties in the 1st place, is because "G-d Created man in His image.." (Genesis 1:27). We have this spiritual DNA because G-d, on some level, includes these abilities within His Being. Towards the end of the earth's creation, the Torah says a verse that we recite over wine every Friday night: "Sheses yamim asah ado-nai et hashamayim v'et ha'aretz" - "6 days G-d made the heavens and the earth." Now the proper wording, seemingly, would have been to have said: "B'sheses - IN 6 days G-d Created..." That in that amount of time G-d Created the world. However, Kabbalah teaches that this wording is exact: "6 days G-d Created" means that the spiritual energy behind each day itself created the day. The 6 emotional attributes of G-d created & infused each day with its particular energy. It's not by chance that Tuesday - when the dry earth was separated from the waters - was the 3rd day of creation (represented by the 3rd attribute of Tiferet - harmony between 2 forces). Each of the 7 days, since the beginning of time, is infused with that particular, unique spiritual energy.

But what about the 7th day, the day of Shabbat where G-d Ceased creating? That day would correspond to the 7th emotional attribute known as Malchut - sovereignty. On a spiritual level, the 7th day of creation, Shabbat, seems completely untenable; impossible. As we have seen, G-d was actually emotionally invested in creation, infusing energy into each day to give it life in a particular way. But unlike a carpenter or weaver who takes materials and forms them into finished products and then can walk away from the objects intact, G-d was Creating the very material itself! The universe needs G-d's continual investment. So how can we survive on a day when (Kabbalah teaches us that) G-d Pulls Himself & His emotional faculties inward, to a higher level? The answer is a powerful one that we can meditate on every Shabbat to appreciate the day that much more. G-d doesn't remove His spiritual energy & emotional faculties from the universe, but rather elevates the universe together with Him inwardly. We, and all of the world around us, from the food we eat to the sky we see, is all uplifted to the level of G-d's intellect - above the emotions - a higher level than the weekday energies.

May we appreciate the power of these 24 hours from Friday night to Sat. night, when every song we sing and thing we touch and sense, can be appreciated on a completely higher dimension.

Shabbat Shalom!

*To learn more about the 10 Sefirot, see here