Take off the Mask

B"H

I hope this e-mail finds you in good spirits!

We have just entered the Hebrew month of Adar, a month which the Talmud says about it: "Mishenichnas Adar Marbim B'simcha" - "When Adar begins, increase in joy."

Joy is not reactionary, as many of us think, but proactive. We often think:That new thing I'm waiting to get will make me happy. But the truth is, we have to work internally on our joy. Each of us has the ability to think about that which we can be happy about. And we're actually obligated to do so! "Serve G-d in joy" - Psalm 100.

Our Jewish Belief is that G-d Controls & Causes all that happens to us. Therefore there is a reason and plan for everything

that occurs in our lives. And at any moment, we can be shown to see this plan revealed in an openly good way to our naked eyes.

If we pray and put our trust in G-d - all that seemed bad, can prove to all along have been for the good.

This is the story of Purim.

~~~~~~~~~~

If you don't know the Purim story (click: Purim), here's what happened in short: In 4th century BCE, the Persian King Ahasuerus, who practically ruled the entire world at the time, was convinced by his evil advisor Haman to issue a decree against all the Jews to be destroyed. After the Jewish people heard about this, they turned inward and decided to return to G-d. They cried out to Him, pleading to reawaken their relationship. The King's Jewish queen, Esther, was then able to successfully change the King's mind, and he issued a new decree for the Jews to defend themselves. The Jews throughout the lands subsequently won a short war, a victory which we celebrate the day of - ever since...

~~~~~~~~~~

Haman was going to the royal feast with the King & Queen. The edict with the King's seal against his enemy Mordechai and the rest

of the hated Jewish People was soon to be carried out. Gallows, 50 feet high had been erected, awaiting Mordechai's public hanging.

All seemed pretty bleak for the avg. Jew on the street.

But the Jewish People had one last secret weapon...

G-d.

The same G-d Whose Name isn't mentioned ONCE in the entire Purim story. How strange?

But that's the whole point.

G-d's Name Isn't mentioned in our lives either.

He's Hidden. Discreet. Moving behind the scenes.

But He's Running the whole show.

At the royal feast, Haman was accused by a Jewish girl who somehow ended up Queen before he even dreamed of his evil plan.

The edict was torn up. Haman was hung on the very same gallows he had originally erected for his enemy.

Evil was shown for what it truly was, and good triumphed for all to see.

"For the Jews there was light, joy, gladness,

and honor." (Megillat Esther 8:16)

And all the while, G-d Hid in the background,

His Name not mentioned even once.

And after it was all said & done, everything seemed to have gone

back to normal.

But it's apparent to us every year when we re-read the story of Purim, that G-d Peaked out from behind the curtain

of "nature," telling His People and the world:

"Don't worry. Don't forget, I'm Behind it all."

Why do you think there's such an emphasis on eating hamantaschen

on Purim, a cookie which hides the sweetness inside of it?

Or why everywhere dresses up in costumes, which hides the real

person behind it?

It's because the events of Purim signify to us that G-d Is Behind all of the events in our lives, and there is a sweet

reason behind each & every thing. This is why we celebrate

(and say l'chaim on reality impairing liquids) on Purim,

to remember that the facade of this independent,

physical world is just a mask with a certain Reality Hiding behind it.

At this time of year, let's celebrate this knowledge that everything

happens for a reason - a good reason.

Q: And what happens when everyone at the party realizes who

the person is behind the costume and mask?

A: He removes them. Because there's no purpose anymore in hiding!

The story of Purim is being written today in the events of our lives -

that each event needed to be to help reach to the final,

sweet outcome.

May we all work on realizing G-d's Presence in our own lives -

even while He Hides behind the mask of nature.

And once we do this - may it bring Him to Remove His then

useless mask -

with the coming of Moshiach & the Final Redemption

speedily in our days!

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

S. Diego, CA

'A Light Unto the Nations'

B"H

Instead of writing my own thoughts this week, I thought I'd let some of history's most important figures do the talking:

~~~~~~~~~~

“I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”
- John Adams, Second President of the United States
(From a letter to F. A. Van der Kemp [Feb. 16, 1808] Pennsylvania Historical Society)

"Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world."

-Winston Churchill

“The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of divine Providence… and what but a supernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved. Nor is the providence of God less remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, than in their preservation… We see that the great empires, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God, are all come to ruin… And if such hath been the fatal end of the enemies and oppressors of the Jews, let it serve as a warning to all those, who at any time or upon any occasion are for raising a clamor and persecution against them.”

- Thomas Newton - British Clergyman: Bishop of Bristol (1704-1782)

'Only if you have some knowledge of the human sacrifices, the vicious temple rites, the degrading superstitions and customs that were practiced . . . can you realize how much the modern world owes to the Hebrew prophets, whose monotheism and moral teachings entered into Christianity and Islam….'

- from 'Ancient and Medieval History',
by Carlton J. H. Hayes and Parker Thomas Moon

“The struggle for world domination is between me and the Jews. All else is meaningless. The Jews have inflicted two wounds on the world: Circumcision for the body and conscience for the soul. I come to free mankind from their shackles.”

-Adolf Hitler [may his name be erased] (Herman Rauschning, Hitler Speaks, p. 220)

"The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illumined with it the entire world. He is the religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions."

-Leo Tolstoy

"It was in vain that we locked them up for several hundred years behind the walls of the Ghetto. No sooner were their prison gates unbarred than they easily caught up with us, even on those paths which we opened up without their aid."

-A. A. Leroy Beaulieu, French publicist, 1842

“What is the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?!
The Jew - is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear.
The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.”

- Leo Tolstoy

"The Jew gave us the Outside and the Inside - our outlook and our inner life. We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes. Most of our best words, in fact - new, adventure, surprise, unique, individual, person, vocation, time, history, future, freedom, progress, spirit, faith, hope, justice - are the gifts of the Jews."

-Thomas Cahill, Irish Author

The last & perhaps my favorite:

”...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

-Mark Twain

(“Concerning The Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The "secret," my dear Mark, is the eternal bond between the Jewish People & G-d, which occurred when we chose to accept and follow His Torah & Mitzvot at Mt. Sinai.

TODAY in 2010, we owe it to our ancestors to live up to, as best we can, their commitment to Judaism and its ideals.
We are not expected to be at their levels, but to work at revealing our own personal potentials. As Rabbi Zusha used to say: “When I die and come before the heavenly court, if they ask me, ‘Zusha, why were you not Abraham?’ I’ll say that I didn’t have Abraham’s intellectual abilities. If they say, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ I’ll say I didn’t have Moses’ leadership abilities. For every such question, I’ll have an answer. But if they say, ‘Zusha, why were you not Zusha?’ for that, I’ll have no answer.”

Through adding in 1 mitzvah at a time, and learning our sacred Torah which is tried & proven, surviving history's tumults & ultimately influencing much of the world toward good, we can continue our ancestor's legacy and complete their efforts by bringing the final redemption, may it happen now.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel
S. Diego, CA

~{To see more quotes, check out: http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/quotes/}~

Never the Twain Shall Meet?

B"H

"G-d Descended onto Mt. Sinai, to the peak of the mountain.

G-d Summoned Moshe to the peak of the mountain, and Moshe ascended."

-------

Tomorrow morning in synagogues worldwide, the epic "10 commandments" will be read from the Torah scroll.

From Bibles to plaques in courthouses, these 10 commandments have played quite a pivotal role in the ways in which many people worldwide view G-d and morality in this world until this very day.

But besides for giving us a rule book made up of "do's" & "don'ts", what exactly was happening when G-d

Gave His Torah to 3 million Jewish men, women, and children? [to fully appreciate this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime event, see here]

Well, to understand what the giving of the Torah achieved in the world, let's take a look at what was happening beforehand.

Before the giving of the Torah, when a person would do a command of G-d, the physical object used in the deed would remain as mundane after being used as it had been before.

The 1st example that comes to mind is a story of our forefather Jacob.

The Torah tells us that Jacob used sticks (in place of the Tefillin that we have today) in order to draw down G-dliness into the world.

But what did he do with them when he was done? Were the sticks delicately placed in a bag and kept protected and cherished like a man does with his Tefillin today? Not at all! Jacob tossed the sticks out.

How come?

B/C the physical sticks hadn't changed. The physical & the spiritual had not, and could not, meet.

When G-d momentarily Revealed Himself to the world on that day in the Sinai desert and Spoke to us,

it wasn't a ONE time event. The effect was everlasting, and altered the world forever.

Before this event, there was a decree from above that the spiritual reality and the physical reality could not meet. Physical was to stay physical, and spiritual - spiritual.

When "G-d Descended onto the peak of the mountain...and Moshe ascended" - the rules changed forever.

Physical could now be infused with the spiritual.

Now, when a man takes cow's hide and wraps it around his arm and head (Tefillin), he hasforever elevated that physical object.

It is now holy.

And it must be treated as such, for it has changed; it has been elevated.

When a woman lights Shabbat candles Friday afternoon, the wax, wick & flame have now been permeated with G-dliness.

And that was the whole underlying purpose behind G-d's Revelation at Mt. Sinai.

To enable us to elevate His world from its natural mundane state - to a holy one.

To make the world into 1 big Mitzvah - a physical world that is, nonetheless, a holy world.

May each of us take full advantage of this ability re-generated at this time every year,

to work on infusing every physical object we come in contact with - with holiness.

Whether it be a spare nickel for charity, or saying a blessing to G-d over a cookie, each of us every day meets with the physical world - and we are entrusted with lifting it up.

May we all have much success, and may the blessings pour forth upon us bountifully, until

the coming of Moshiach when the whole world will be completely permeated through and through with all

of the holiness generated by all of our good deeds. May it happen now!

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel