Appreciation

'Say to Aharon, "Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt...and they shall become blood..." (Shemot 7:19) G-d said to Moshe, "say to Aharon: Take your staff and strike strike the dust of the earth; and it will turn into lice throughout the whole land of Egypt." (Shemot 8:12)

In this week's Torah portion, Va'eira, Moshe is sent down by G-d to Egypt to redeem his brothers & sisters, the Jewish nation. During Pharaohs decree decades earlier, that every male born must be thrown into the Nile river and drowned, Moshe's mother Yocheved gave birth to Moshe. But instead of handing him over to the Egyptian authorities, she placed him in a secure basket, and placed it into the river. Miraculously, the basket flowed along until it is seen by Pharaoh's very own daughter, Batya, who saves the boy (incidentally, Batyameans 'daughter of G-d.' She is named such in honor of her saving one of G-d's children, Moshe.) Needing a mother to nurse the baby, Yocheved (mother of Moshe) is chosen. She nurses & raises Moshe, teaching him of his heritage and people, before he is given back to Batya's care. One day, already an adult in Pharaoh's household, Moshe walks out of the palace and sees an Egyptian taskmaster brutally beating a Hebrew slave. A man of action, Moshe utters a secret name of G-d, killing the Egyptian, and buries him. When Pharaoh finds out, he wants to kill Moshe, so he runs away, only to return many years later upon G-d's command.

When Moshe returns to Egypt, he demands the release of his people from slavery. When Pharaoh scoffs at this cheeky request, G-d strikes the Egyptians with 10 plagues. What's peculiar, however, as noted at the top of this page, is that G-d tells Moshe to take part in bringing down the plagues, but only the last 7 of them. It is his brother Aaron who is told to take part in the 1st 3: Water turning to blood, frogs and lice infestations. How come? The Midrash explains: "Since the river protected Moshe when he was thrown into it, it was not stuck by him at the plague of blood or that of frogs, but was instead struck by Aharon." (Midrash Shemot Rabah 9:10) And the lice? "It was not fitting that the dust be struck by Moshe because it protected him when he killed the Egyptian & hid him in the sand, so it was instead struck by Aharon." (Rashi)

~~~

A well-known Rabbi once went to visit a wealthy philanthropist for a donation. This was a man who, albeit not personally observant, supported the Torah study of many institutions. Curious, the rabbi asked him why he did this. Where did he develop such sensitivity towards yeshivot? He gave the following explanation: "I was a wild teenager, going from trouble to trouble. My parents sent me to Radin to the yeshivah of the saintly Chafetz Chaim. Perhaps there I would be inspired to calm down. Regrettably, I was not accepted. I just was not considered yeshivah material. I was not granted permission even to sleep overnight in the yeshivah. Where would I spend the night? The Chafetz Chaim said, 'You can stay at my home.' So, I went home with the Chafetz Chaim.

"The Chafetz Chaim's idea of home was a two room shack. He gave me his own bed. The room had no light and no heat. Apparently, the great Torah leader was a very poor man. I was a young boy, accustomed to a hot meal and a warm bed. Laying there at night, I was shivering from cold, tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep. The Chafetz Chaim walked in and noticed the frigid air in the room. Thinking to himself, 'It is too cold in here for such a young boy,' the sage took off his long frock, which was probably going to be his protective clothing for the night, and placed it on me, over the covers.

"Years later, I became a wealthy Jew. Although I had never become observant, I have never forgetten that incident, how the Chafetz Chaim took off his coat and covered me. I was a total stranger and he owed me nothing. Yet, he felt my pain and showed his love for me. I never forgot that feeling of being cared for and loved by a total stranger. I was so moved by that act of unsolicited kindness that whenever a representative of a Torah institution approaches me for a donation, I give it to him gladly. I will never forget that cold night in that little house, and the elderly man with the giant heart. That coat has kept me warm ever since."

The Torah teaches us the importance of gratitude. If Moshe showed such appreciation to water and earth, how much more so must we to human beings who treat us so well.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

Burning, Not Consumed

'Moses was pasturing the flocks of Jethro, his father in law, the chief of Midian, and he led the flocks after the free pastureland, and he came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from within the thorn bush, and behold, the thorn bush was burning with fire, but the thorn bush was not being consumed. So Moses said, "Let me turn now and see this great spectacle why does the thorn bush not burn up?"...and God called to him from within the thorn bush...And Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look toward God.' (Exodus 3:1-6)

In this week's Torah portion, Shemot, we are introduced to the great Jewish leader Moshe (Moses), who is born and raised in Egypt during the times of Jewish enslavement under Pharaoh. After fleeing from Egypt, Moshe settles as a shepherd for his father-in-law in a neighboring land. One day, he sees a thorn bush on fire, but miraculously it wasn't being consumed at all, as seen in the above text. G-d then directs Moshe to redeem his people. Why did G-d use a burning thorn bush as a medium to appear to Moshe and communicate with him? What was its significance?

Our Sages teach that a prickly thorn bush causes pain. The thorns signified the trials and tribulations the Jewish people would go through in the future. It would be painful, G-d was showing Moshe. But as much as the people would be burned, they would never be consumed. The Jewish people will always survive intact as before. What was Moshe's reaction to G-d's first communication with him from the thorn bush? "And Moses hid his face." Let's look one step deeper at this story.

The Mystics teach that G-d was offering something special to Moshe. When G-d Appeared in the thorn bush, He was offering Moshe a chance to see the world from a Divine perspective. To understand why there would be persecution of the Jewish people, to give G-dly insight into the age old question of why do bad things happen to good people. Many may have jumped at this incredibly profound opportunity. But Moshe refused and looked away. He did this because he preferred to see the world from his people's perspective in times of pain and hardship. Moshe knew that once he saw life's events from a heavenly perspective and saw the hidden purpose for pain, he would lose some of his inner ability to defend and argue with G-d in the future when tribulations befell his people. He chose to side with his people from their lower perspective.

This story sheds insight into the fact that all of life's trials and tribulations have an inner, Divine intention for the good, even if we don't see it. It also shows us what a true leader is. Moshe refused to lead at first, too humble to feel worthy. He chose the needs of his people over all else. May God grant us leaders like these today, especially in Israel and the USA, and ultimately send us the truest leader of all, our righteous Mashiach speedily in our days.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

Latkas and Doughnuts: The Inner Dimension

It's the 3rd Night of Hanukkah tonight, and already my digestive system is pleading with me: "What's with all of these donuts and Latkas!? Spare me, please!" Now, I know you'll tell me that the whole miracle of Hanukkah we commemorate centers around the finding of one last jar of oil in the Temple and that's why we eat all of these oily foods. But let's take a deeper look.

What were the Syrian-Greeks trying to stamp out from the minds and hearts of the Jewish people? Unlike during the times of Purim where a decree was sent for the annihilation of the Jews physically, the oppression of our people by the Greeks was not on our bodies but on our souls and our beliefs.

The Greeks valued beauty: Art, music, philosophy, intellectual pursuit. Socrates, Plato, Homer, Aristotle. If we look back to the Biblical story of Noah and his 3 sons after the flood, the love of beauty in Greek culture makes perfect sense. Noah cursed Cham (look there for reasons why), blessed his son Shem (whom Abraham descended from) with spiritual truth, and blessed his 3rd son Yefet with beauty (Yefet had a son named Yavan, the progenitor of the Greek Empire). Noah wished, however, that this beauty "should be found in the tents of Shem." That true beauty could only truly be found when in a Godly, spiritual context.

But the Torah happens to be a beautiful work, full of philosophical and intellectual debate. It's the #1 best-selling book in History! [I'll have to check Harry Potter statistics later]. It has an original and all-Powerful Author as well. So what was the Greeks' problem? They should have rejoiced in the fact that they could fulfill the wishes of Noah, that spiritual beauty and aesthetic beauty could combine together in perfect harmony. It's known that there was a point in history when this harmony resided. The Talmud mentions an event when the mighty Greek ruler Alexander the Great, when greeting the Jewish sage Shimon Hatzadik, 'alighted from his chariot and bowed down before him...he exclaimed: Blessed is the G-d of Shimon Hatzadik!' Many respectful incidents between Roman rulers and the Sages of Israel exemplify this as well.

The later Greeks' annoyance, however, centered not on the Torah's intellectual beauty. No, the Greeks disliked that the Torah didn't remain just as another intellect. Mitzvot and Jewish ritual weren't considered by the Jews as mere customs and tradition. Jews considered Torah and Mitzvot to be God's Divine Will; that there's something beyond what the human intellect can reach on its own. That there's a higher, Divine reality.

Back to the oily Latkas and Donuts. Jewish mysticism likens oil to the Essence of Torah. Many examples are given why, one being that just as oil's nature is to pervade through and through whatever it comes in contact with (just ask your mother who had to clean your pant's stain ), so too the deepest truths of Torah pervade every fabric of our reality. As the "blueprint of the world", every aspect of life and of our world can be found in Torah on some level.

But unfortunately, oil can't be healthily consumed raw! For consumption of oil, it has to be cooked or fried with something. Spiritually speaking, this need to mix raw oil with dough, or potatoes and onions, or some other more tangible food, represents the need for the Essence of Torah (oil) to come down in a more tangible, "edible" way that we can comprehend, for pure Godliness would be too lofty for us mortals to handle. But through "cooking" and "baking" this Divine wisdom into words and teachings that we can understand, we are able to digest and internalize this divine wisdom and message. This is Torah, from its practical laws to its mystical aspects: 'Digestible' Godliness.

May we all take advantage of the 'donuts & latkas' (Torah and Mitzvot) in our midst throughout the entire year beyond Hanukkah, and let the Essential oil reveal our essential connection to God. And may the 'beauty of Greece' be found in 'the tents of Shem' - the tents of Divine purpose and meaning. Now go enjoy those latkas and doughnuts!

Happy Hanukkah & Shabbat Shalom!

Lighting The Darkness

In this week's Torah portion, Vayeishev, we read about the sale of Joseph by his brothers into slavery. At only 17 years old, Joseph is forced to leave his realm of comfort and holiness in Israel with his father Jacob, venturing into the immoral abyss of Egypt. Everything happens for a reason, how much more so in the case of the lives of our forefathers. So what lessons can we learn from the life of Joseph?

After being sold by his very own brothers to a caravan heading for Egypt, Joseph goes through struggle after struggle, test after test. Still in his teen years, he is solicited incessantly by his employer's wife, and yet he resists time and again. And she couldn't have been the only one; It is said that Joseph had an indescribable beauty, such that whenever he would walk on the street, women would stop what they were doing just to catch sight of him, and would often injure themselves in the process! Yet Joseph stayed true to his moral ideals. He knew that he wasn't sent down to Egypt simply because of his brother's jealousy, but that it was God who wanted him there for some mission.

During the low points - when he was unfairly sent to prison in Egypt for 12 years for a crime he never committed, to the high points - when he was placed in control over the entire Egyptian nation, second only to Pharaoh, he knew it was for a higher purpose. Joseph not only accepted his tough situations with good faith and a smile, he embraced them with the full knowledge that he was placed there for a special mission of creating a better world that God would be proud of. Ultimately, it was Joseph whose plan ended up saving - not only the Egyptian people - but the entire world during the great famine of his time. Instead of succumbing to Egypt's temptations, or wallowing in self pity over the unfair hardships he had endured, Joseph shined, turning the darkness in his life into light.

One special example can be seen while Joseph was imprisoned in a dungeon after being falsely accused. One morning, he sees two dejected prisoners (Pharaoh's butler and baker) and walks over to them with a friendly smile. "Maduah p'neichem ra'im hayom?" he asks them. "Why are your faces sad today?" They tell Joseph of their bad dreams and he interprets them. The butler is later freed, and upon hearing Pharaoh's nightmare, he begrudgingly admits that there is a Hebrew slave that can interpret dreams. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream as meaning that starvation will hit Egypt soon, and Pharaoh then raises him to second in command, in charge of saving grain in order to eventually feed the entire starving world. How easy and normal would it have been for Joseph to have been sulking in prison, falsely accused and alone without family. Instead, he saw his miserable situation as a divinely planned opportunity. And because of one kind action, one friendly gesture, Joseph ended up saving the entire world!

Irregardless of our dire circumstances, the Jewish people have followed in their ancestor's path of looking at life as a mission with great importance. As the 2nd president of the United States, John Adams, once said: "I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation." As the eight nights of Hanukkah begin this Wednesday evening, may we take note of the light of the candles, working to illuminate the darkness of the world, one candle at a time.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

This is My Torah

Tonight is the Jewish holiday of "Shemini Atzeret," while tomorrow night is the famously joyous holiday of "Simchat Torah" - where we dance with the Torah, celebrating the completion of the yearly reading of the Torah & beginning anew. Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneerson once said: The 48 hours of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah should be highly treasured. Every moment is an opportunity to draw buckets and barrels of material and spiritual treasures. And this is accomplished through dancing. Below is an amazing true story connected to this dancing, I hope you enjoy. May you have a very happy holiday! By Ruth Benjamin

Henryk was very young in 1945, when the War ended and solitary survivors tried frantically to trace their relatives. He had spent what seemed to be most of his life with his nanny, who had hidden him away from the Nazis at his father's request. There was great personal risk involved, but the woman had readily taken it, as she loved the boy. All the Jews were being killed, and Henryk's nanny did not think for a moment that the father,Joseph Foxman, would survive the infamous destruction of the Vilna Ghetto. He would surely have been transferred to Auschwitz -— and everyone knew that nobody ever came back from Auschwitz. She therefore had no scruples about adopting the boy, having him baptized into the Catholic Church and taught catechism by the local priest.

He told his son that he was a Jew and that his name was Avraham. It was Simchat Torah when his father came to take him. The heartbroken nanny had packed all his clothing and his small catechism book, stressing to the father that the boy had become a good Catholic. Joseph Foxman took his son by the hand and led him directly to the Great Synagogue of Vilna. On the way, he told his son that he was a Jew and that his name was Avraham. Not far from the house, they passed the church and the boy reverently crossed himself, causing his father great anguish. Just then, a priest emerged who knew the boy, and when Henryk rushed over to kiss his hand, the priest spoke to him, reminding him of his Catholic faith. Everything inside of Joseph wanted to drag his son away from the priest and from the church. But he knew that this was not the way to do things. He nodded to the priest, holding his son more closely. After all, these people had harbored his child and saved the child's life. He had to show his son Judaism, living Judaism, and in this way all these foreign beliefs would be naturally abandoned and forgotten.

They entered the Great Synagogue of Vilna, now a remnant of a past, vibrant Jewish era. There they found some Jewish survivors from Auschwitz who had made their way back to Vilna and were now rebuilding their lives and their Jewish spirits. Amid the stark reality of their suffering and terrible loss, in much diminished numbers, they were singing and dancing with real joy while celebrating Simchat Torah. Avraham stared wide-eyed around him and picked up a tattered prayer book with a touch of affection. Something deep inside of him responded to the atmosphere, and he was happy to be there with the father he barely knew. He held back, though, from joining the dancing.

A Jewish man wearing a Soviet Army uniform could not take his eyes off the boy, and he came over to Joseph. "Is this child... Jewish?" he asked, a touch of awe in his voice. "This is the first live Jewish child I have come across in all this time..." The father answered that the boy was Jewish and introduced his son. As the soldier stared at Henryk-Avraham, he fought to hold back tears. "Over these four terrible years, I have traveled thousands of miles, and this is the first live Jewish child I have come across in all this time. Would you like to dance with me on my shoulders?" he asked the boy, who was staring back at him, fascinated. The father nodded permission, and the soldier hoisted the boy high onto his shoulders. With tears now coursing down his cheeks and a heart full of real joy, the soldier joined in the dancing.

"This is my Torah scroll," he cried.

Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League -- the Avraham in our story -- remembers this as his first conscious feeling of a connection with Judaism and of being a Jew.

A Rosh Hashana Meditation

~ If you are in S. Diego next Wednesday, I'd love to see you at my class on Yom Kippur. See details here: atONEment: The Kabbalah of Yom Kippur~

Tomorrow night (Wed. Night - Fri. Night) Jews worldwide will be celebrating Rosh Hashana, the special holiday which marks the beginning of the Jewish year and calendar. The Mystics describe this day as a bit deeper than the usual New Years Eve parties in Time Square. What occurred on this day originally that is significant and relevant to our lives today? What is the theme of this time?

"Rosh Hashana" marks the beginning of the year, but literally means "the head of the year." Our Sages explain that this time is like the "brain" of the year - including all of the abilities of the entire "body". All that will be with us and the world is decided on this day and expressed over the next 364 (this is not to say that we cannot effect change every moment to what's planned for us, through prayer and action. This idea needs more explanation in another essay).

Oddly enough, the Talmud teaches that Rosh Hashana does not mark the 1st day of creation, but rather the 6th day! True, this is the day Adam and Eve were formed, but God Created many beautiful things; why focus only on this day? This leads us to an amazing conclusion: God's Intention for all of creation - from the innumerable spiritual worlds and endless galaxies to the countless creatures that rove our planet and species of plants - all were for the sake of the human being to perfect this particular world through Torah, Mitzvot and good deeds. In Psalm 95, King David describes a powerful scene on the 6th day of Creation: Adam brought all created beings together, saying: "Bo'u Nishtachaveh, V'nichra'ah..." - "Come, let us prostrate ourselves and bow down; let us bend the knee before the Lord, our Maker." Man and woman and their descendants had been charged with a mission to bring an awareness of the Divine to the physical world. When you make a blessing on a fruit, place charity into a pauper's hands, or perform any of the Mitzvot with your body, you are fulfilling this unique human purpose.

How can we make such a brash and haughty statement as this, that all of existence - including the most lofty of angels - exist merely to facilitate the human mission!? Let's look at the original words in Genesis when God formed each creature. How did he do it? Through speech, as it says: 'And God said, "Let the earth sprout forth vegetation.." and it was so... And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind.." and it was so.'

However, after He created man and woman, the Torah says: "And He blew into his nostrils a soul of life, and man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) "One who blows, blows from within." (Zohar) One can speak for hours & hours without pause, because one only uses his external breath with a minimum output. A deep breath comes from the innermost depths of a person, and therefore leaves him quite breathless. God has no mouth or human form, and the Torah is speaking metaphorically; the analogy here is that the soul that each of us possesses stem from an incredibly deep level within God, deeper than the greatest of angels - who stem from the "speech" of God.

All of this leads us to a profound and also simple conclusion: 'On Rosh Hashana, whether at home or in synagogue, I am taking the time to think about this incredible gift of a soul I was given - that I am - and how I will use it to fulfill my individual mission this year to better my world and relationships, between other people and I and between God and I.' God desires that we celebrate and honor the revolutionary day when man and woman could actualize the purpose for all the rest of creation. May we all maximize this special time, and be inscribed for a very good & sweet new year with only revealed good, culminating in the final redemption speedily in our days!

-Rabbi Daniel

Bells and Pomegranates

In the times of the holy Temple in Jerusalem, behind the Western Wall, the High Holidays were a whole different ball game from what we have today. On Yom Kippur, the people didn't stand in synagogue all day. Rather, they ascended to Jerusalem and watched the Kohen Gadol, the holiest Jew of the time, perform an intricate service inside the Temple. On Yom Kippur, when entering the room known as the 'holy of holies' with the Ark, the Kohen Gadol would wear 4 garments of white, just like other Kohanim. However, the rest of the year he would wear 8 garments, including a 'me'il' (cloak) which covered his entire body, made of the special blue color of techeilet. The Torah describes that at the bottom of this garment were to be golden bells and pomegranates. What were they there for and what did they symbolize?

At first glance, there is an extremely strange argument between two of the greatest medieval commentators on the Torah regarding these bells and pomegranates. Rashi explains that on the lower helm of the garment were bells, pomegranates, bells, pomegranates - separate from one another. The Ramban (Nachmanides) argues and posits that each bell was inside each pomegranate. The reasoning he uses seems baffling: "According to Rashi's view, why not use apples instead of pomegranates?" Perhaps, explains other commentators, Ramban is referring to the circular, apple-shaped golden ornaments of the Menorah in the Temple. If they are for beauty, why not just use apples? Let's leave the pomegranates for a moment and focus on the bells. The reason for the bells was in order that the Kohen Gadol "be heard." Why was that important? The Ramban explains simply, that when entering the presence of a King without asking permission first, bursting in, is extremely insensitive and rude. So the noise of the bells symbolized his approach to a holy place. But if we look deeper, a question can arise: Is holiness really represented by sound, or is it by silence?

The loftiest time of prayer is during Shemonah Esrei - the Silent Prayer. The holy Zohar explains that one of the sources for why we pray silently at the apex of prayer comes from the vision of Elijah the Prophet in the Book of Kings: "Fire came, but God was not in the fire. An earthquake came, but God was not in the earthquake. Then a great wind came by, but God was not in the wind. Then came a 'kol demamah dakah' - still, small voice." Noise represents complexity and passion, whereas silence represents unity and oneness. Chassidic Philosophy connects this concept with the difference between the relationship with God a Baal Teshuva (repentant) has, and a Tzadik perfectly righteous person has. The newcomer is "loud", coming from an opposite world and state of mind to connect with God with a strong passion. The Tzadik is "silent", having felt one with God for as long as he's known. The angels too are divided into those that sing passionately (Ophanim V'chayot Hakodesh) and those on a higher level (Seraphim) who are unified with God in complete silence. Imagine walking into a complex class being given. There you might see 3 types of students listening: 1) The silent student who is quiet because he is spaced out and has no idea what is going on. 2) The loud student, who is beginning to understand and is asking question after question with passion. 3) The silent student who is smiling; silent because there is no complexity for him; the knowledge of his teacher has unified with his mind.

In 2013, our service of God needs to be "noisy". "Silence" in our case would be akin to the spaced out student, totally apathetic. We have to improve and grow, working to rise beyond to connect with God. Many ask why Jews who pray move so much, swaying back and forth. The Baal Shem Tov once remarked: "Have you ever seen someone that's trying to avoid drowning? They're moving passionately. To avoid "sinking" into the materialism and apathy of this world, one has to be passionate. Now we can return to our question in even stronger terms: Why would the Kohen Gadol have bells at all!? The holiest person entering the holiest place in the world - more than anyone else - should signify silence and oneness with God! The answer is a very powerful one: The Kohen Gadol didn't live for himself. He lived for the people and when entering the Temple, was spiritually bringing the entire Jewish people in with him. That's why he needed bells, signifying the service of noise of the people, fighting to connect to God. That's why the bells were at the lowest part of the hem of his cloak; the Kohen Gadol was bringing in even those who felt most distant and low. Now we can understand what the Ramban was saying to Rashi about apples and pomegranates. Apples, throughout the Kabbalah, represents a holy level. Pomegranates represent a lower level trying to connect to a higher level: "Even the empty ones among you are filled with Mitzvot like a pomegranate is filled with seeds." (Talmud Berachot 57a) The Rebbe once asked: "If every Jew is filled with Mitzvot, how can he be called empty?"

As the high holidays approach, let us take advantage of these special moments to connect with God, both with passion and at times with silence, with the full knowledge that each of us are looked at as a pomegranate - even though we can improve, we are each full of good deeds and are brought in to the holy of holies.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

King in the Field

A King decides to leave his palace, leave his large city, and enter the fields where the simple farmers work. There, all are able to come and meet the King, who embraces them with a shining and happy countenance. (Alter Rebbe, Likkutei Torah 32b)

Thus the Mystics describe by way of analogy, the spiritual dynamic of the last month of the year which we are in the middle of now - Elul. Falling in the fall season, Elul directly precedes the special month of Tishrei, full of the “high holidays” of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, where we take stock of our deeds of the past year and decide upon an improved life course for the coming year. The Mystics liken Rosh Hashanah and the high holidays to a time when the people come to crown their king in his palace. However, in the month of Elul it is the king who comes to the field to visit his people. In Elul it is God who reveals Himself to our souls and draws us closer in, providing a more accessible path to connect and feel closer. We are given a special opportunity and ability in this month to get in touch with our heritage and spirituality in a much smoother fashion than usual. Notice that the King comes to his people in the field; in their domain. He lacks royal clothes, his throne and his air of superiority; he approaches in his natural state. Just as God approaches us vulnerably, we too must approach God in our natural state. There’s no fasting, lengthy prayer, or white clothes of Yom Kippur. I approach God as myself, including all of my faults and desires. I still want to connect and have a relationship.

This experience of renewed connection is known in Hebrew as ‘Teshuva.’ Often improperly translated as ‘repentance,’ the real meaning is ‘returning’. This slight variation is significant, as it represents the Jewish view that even when we mess up, our natural state remains pure and wholesome; we merely have to return to who we really are under the mess. But returning to our soul and its mission means to change from our daily patterns of action, and who likes to change? Many of us suffer from what psychologists call a “victim mentality”. For example, there are times when certain unfortunate people feel the need to resort to begging for a livelihood (often out of need). At first ashamed, a pauper who begs can oftentimes pass a certain threshold where it isn't hard anymore for him to beg. It even becomes hard to stop and extract oneself from this new mentality. A friend of mine living in New York once saw a man whom he recognized as a beggar, driving a nice Volvo! Someone explained to him that the guy had become comfortable with begging.

While we can be thankful that we are not paupers, and we should give those begging the benefit of the doubt, we ourselves may be acting like the paupers who suffer from a victim mentality. Maybe we’re stuck in a rut, doing things simply because it has become a part of our daily routine and mentality. One can slip to such a point in behavior where he believes, ‘I am who I am. This is me. I may as well accept my mediocrity.’ It’s very difficult to come to the realization that we’re not living the way we should be and that we’ve fallen below our capabilities. And it’s even harder to extract ourselves from this new mentality we may have. Comes the months of Elul and Tishrei, an opportune time to get back in touch with one’s true inner identity. Teshuva means returning to one’s true self - not the worldly mentality we have become accustomed to, but rather the internal, Divine mentality we naturally possess in our souls. The King is in the field and accessible, smiling and awaiting our approach; all we have to do is go out to greet Him.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Infinite Light

'And God said, "Let the water that is beneath the heavens gather into one place, and let the dry land appear," and it was so' (Genesis 1:9). 'What is the way to love and awe of God? Whenever one contemplates the great wonders of God's works and creations...'(Maimonides, Foundations of the Torah 2:2).

In the beginning of the Book of Genesis, we read a description of the original formation of the universe. The Torah tell us that God did not simply "snap His fingers" and poof! Rather, He created the world through speech. But what does this mean? Since God is described as Ein Sof - Without End, a perfect unity without parts (that includes organs like a mouth), what does it mean when it says, "And God said"? Let's take a look at what speech really represents by looking at human beings, and then we will extrapolate back to God, as it says: 'God made Adam in His image' (Genesis 1:27) and 'From my flesh I see God' (Job 19:26).

When you say something, are the words that are spoken considered a part of your being? Not exactly. Yet could they be considered anything other than you? Absolutely not. The words are solely yours, but they are only emanations from your being; expressions of who you are. They are also merely a revelation outward of an idea which was hidden before within. So too, God speaking is the revealing of His inner light outwardly. The Jewish Mystics explain (Tanya, Gates of Unity Ch.1 ) that before God spoke creation, He and His Infinite Ability/Light filled all of existence. To make room for another existence, God hid His light and emanated a finite light that descended through concealment upon concealment until finally creating the physical matter of the universe. That outward revelation of His finite creative energy is called His speech. Incredibly, this means that every detail of the universe that we see is a specific expression of God's light! That blade of grass and that star and that butterfly is an emanation and manifestation of God's light; the sky and earth are the expressions of God. So when you are looking at any object in this world, you are seeing God's light condensed, tailor made to express that specific object. The mystics teach further that God is continually speaking every existence into creation, as King David: "Forever your word stands firm in the heavens" (Psalms 119:89).

If you thought this idea was deep, we are going to go one step deeper. We explained earlier that in order to emanate a finite light and create a universe full of beings that would appear and feel completely independent, God had to hide His Infinite Being and abilities. But although hidden, His Infinitude never left. Therefore, this finite expression of God's light through His speech that created all that we see, in truth, is also the Infinite reality of God. God contains the ability for infinitude and finitude just the same. Imagine the way speech is before it's spoken, in the mind of the speaker. 'There is no place devoid of Him.' (Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 57) Walking down a dark street, eating a salad, wherever you find yourself and whatever you are doing, know that you and your surroundings are within the infinite light of God. We are not just standing in front of the king; we are one with the king. All of existence is one with God's inner Being.

When we contemplate on this idea in depth and picture it, we can lift our perspective and reality from the lowest of levels to the loftiest of heights.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

Clothes of Light

What changed when Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge? Previous to the eating, the soul and body were completely united - the soul illuminated the body. During the havdalah ceremony on Saturday night, we hold our fingernails up toward the candle, and look at the reflection of the candlelight in them, representing the bodies of Adam and Eve - how they shined before the sin. Kabbalah describes their bodies as 'cotenot or' - 'garments of light.' Rather than hide the inner soul, their skin revealed! That's why they wore no clothes; originally there was no feeling of shame.

Why does nakedness cause a feeling of shame? Isn't it natural? The mystics explain that it's because of our inner awareness that we contain an inner angelic being that's being housed in an outer animal-like body. This dichotomy between the two causes shame - my soul is being represented outwardly by a body similar to an animal's. One response is to cover the nakedness in shame, the other (Jewish) approach is to hide the body in a way that demonstrates a dignity. This is known as dressing 'tzniut' - 'modestly.' Like a King or Queen who wears clothing in a way which hides the body, but also reveals that they are royalty.

The word for skin in hebrew is 'Or' with an ayin, while light is 'Or' with an alef. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Alef - ﬡ - It holds a special importance as a letter which indicates particular holiness; it's the letter of the soul. It is made up of 2 yuds and a vav, numerically equivalent to God's name which is 26. It's connected to the word commander - Aluf, and some have postulated that English words with similar meaning have ancient roots in the letter alef, such as elevate & aloof. Whenever an alef is exchanged for an ayin, it refers to a lowering in holiness. The word Or can also be read as "Iver" - blindness. This is what occurred after the eating of the fruit, as the garments of light turned into garments of skin (from alef to ayin). From revealing the soul to hiding it; blinding us to its existence through concealment. Why do you think we call skin - hide? It's no coincidence that the next 3 letters after alef is bet, gimmel, daled which spells beged - meaning garment or traitor. The garment of the soul, the body, is traitorous to what's inside of it.

When you looked at Adam or Eve originally, you saw a soul. Afterward, you noticed, faintly, a body as well. Now it's the inverse: When looking at another, we see the body. Through much effort and sensitivity, one may notice the faint glow of an inner soul. When we desire something material, what do we say? "I'd like to have that" in 1st person. And what does our soul, our conscience respond? "You shouldn't do that." The soul has taken the back seat. Most, if not all spiritual paths and religions have worked to fix this problem since the sin of Adam & Eve, through asceticism - denying of the body through celibacy and denial of physical pleasure; from nuns and priests to Buddhist monks and Islamic abstinence from wine. Judaism has always included wine in spiritual celebration and emphasizes the holy power of marriage. Jewish commandments - Mitzvot - is a word connected to tzavta, meaning binding/connecting. By doing Mitzvot, we bind the physical with the spiritual, the soul with the body. Through our actions we are able to uplift the physical - reverting the world and body back to their original state, and even higher, ultimately leading to the final redemption when we will be able to see everything and everyone for what they really are inside - their true essence revealed.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

Mind vs. Brain

The most incredible 3 lb. lump of flesh in the world has to be the human brain. By way of analogy, the brain is equivalent to an orchestra made up of millions and millions of instruments and musicians, working together in perfect harmony to produce a symphony of breathing, walking, talking, smelling, touching, thinking. The human brain is composed of 100 billion neurons, and each neuron makes between 10 - 15,000 connections with other neurons, totaling 100 quadrillion synapses. A typical supercomputer weighs about a thousand times more than our brains, with a volume 10,000 times greater, and requires a million times more energy than the brain. Even so, it can't approach the capabilities of even a small child in the area of learning, vision, or hearing. The brain is able to make 10 to the 16th power operations per second!

To posit that this incredible piece of matter was formed by chance is a bit audacious to say the least. This would be like looking out your window one day and seeing billions of wires and cables flying through the air, positioning themselves as a gigantic telephone switching station that connects communication between America and Europe.

But let's on a very interesting phenomenon: Vision occurs when electromagnetic waves reach the retina in the back of the eye and are translated into electrical impulses that travel in the optic nerve to the visual cortex. The brain uses this information to construct a 3-dimensional color motion picture. But here comes the big question: Who is watching this movie? Is it the brain itself? But the brain is just an advanced computer that decodes neuron signals. Does a computer screen "share" the experience of the viewer? This aspect of the human self is called the mind. In Judaism, the belief is that "the mind" is the soul each of us possess. "The Neshama (soul) rests upon the brain" (Kabbalist Rafael Moses Luria). When you say "I think that this is right or wrong," that's your soul. The brain is just a robotic processor; the feelings of mercy and hope stem from something greater.

May we use the incredible brains we were given to think and study Torah and Divine wisdom, and utilize our minds eye to understand the depths and mysteries of God's world.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

Walking Through Walls

Why can't I walk through a wall? This might seem like a silly question, but if, as Science has discovered, all matter is made up of primarily empty space (try 99.999999%), the question starts to make a lot more sense. Not only are the atoms themselves quite empty, but the space between two atoms are even more so! Imagine two butterflies are flying over Europe - one over the Big Ben in London and the other over the Kremlin in Moscow. That's about the corresponding space you've got between two atoms. One answer to this perplexing question comes from a likely place - Sports. Imagine 2 teams trying to play an organized baseball game on the same field. For the game to actually work according to the rules, there has to be one pitcher, one shortstop, one player at each position. Those are the rules. Except the teams here are divided into Leptons & Quarks, further broken down into 12 'players' each. So the real reason why a hand can't go through a stone table, is because there's a rule in place in the universe that says: When one pile of atoms (a person) tries to move into the realm of another pile (a wall), the two piles better match up on a quantum level - playing by the "same rules" - or they will stay apart; unless you have a huge surge of energy needed to promote the particles to another level. Wolfgang Pauli called this the exclusion principle.

What's amazing about all of this extends far beyond whether a person can walk through a wall (even though that's pretty cool). It's what keeps the universe interesting; if this rule didn't exist, everything would be the same! The fact that our universe is full of so much variety and individuality is only because of this. Pauli was amazed at the universe and "the unity of all being," as he called it. How did the universe "know" to have the right rules for creation. This general idea of how the universe in so many ways is perfectly suited for intelligent life, is called the anthropic principle. Who made these rules?

The holy Zohar writes: 'G-d looked into the Torah & created the world.' This exclusion principle, that causes two objects to remain apart with its own individuality, must therefore have a root in the Torah. Look at the very letters of Hebrew in the Torah. Unlike many other languages, there is no cursive allowed; two letters cannot be touching, otherwise the entire Torah scroll is invalid. If any letter is lacking its white space around it, the wholeness of the Torah is lost. This lesson can be applied to our lives as well: Every soul has its own unique, individual mission that no one else can accomplish. Diversity in society is vital. By denying the exclusivity of the parts, we damage the whole.

May we all recognize the Divine which dictates the "rules of the universe", and learn the importance of individuality helping the sum of parts, the mission of the entire Jewish people and world to bring redemption to the world, through each individual piece.

(Based on an essay by Tzvi Freeman)

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

The Age of the Universe

As Part II of our series on God and Science, we pick up where we left off last week. We explained the correlation between the Big Bang theory and the creation story from Genesis. But what happened after that? If Scientists today measure the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years old and the age of the world at 4.6 billion, while Torah measures it at 5,773 years old, how can we possibly bridge this tremendous gap? And how could the greatest of scientists and philosophers also believe in a Creator? To name a few: Copernicus, Bacon, Kepler, Descartes, Pascal, Boyle, Newton, Kant, Pasteur. There are many ways suggested by scientists & intellectuals to resolve the apparent contradiction, but we will look at one.

We will not focus on the fact that the effort to extrapolate backward in time to measure the age of the universe is presumptuous and unsubstantiated, since we're assuming the conditions and rate of processes we observe today have been consistent in the past millions of years. At the first moments of existence, the conditions of extreme pressure and incredibly high temperatures incomparable to anything today make it very hard for us to assume the chemical, geological, physical and cosmological were the same. Add to that Einstein's general theory of relativity, that time is relative and depends on the speed of the system in which it is measured, it becomes even more difficult to extrapolate.

LET'S disregard all of that for now and work on the assumption that the world and universe are billions of years old. This does not have to contradict whatsoever with the biblical account. In the beginning of the book of Genesis, on day 6 of creation, Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden, asked to follow just one rule: Don't eat from that tree. But let's back up a second here. Adam is only a few hours old. How can he possibly be ready to understand this directive? He's like a baby! And how is there fruit on a tree in the first place? The trees and creation at large were created just days beforehand, no time for edible fruit to grow. We have no choice but to say that everything was created ready for use. If Adam sliced open the tree, he would find rings dating it way back.The Talmud teaches that even Adam himself was created "ready-made", with the body and intellectual and psychological abilities of a healthy 20 year old. Genesis describes 4 large rivers flowing in the garden. Taking into account the rate at which a river is carved out (a few centimeters a year), rivers are sometimes dated at millions of years old!

All of the phenomena observed today in the world and universe at large can be explained with this same principle, that they were created with an advanced physical age, even though its historical age is only the age implied in the Torah. Why God did it this way, can perhaps be answered by the fact that the world had to be ready for man's use immediately, to affect and uplift the physical, to live among oxygen providing trees and rivers to travel on.

Let us appreciate the world we live in, as Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz (1640-1716) said: "We live in the best of all possible worlds. It must be the best possible because it was created by a perfect God." And as Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) said: "The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator." There is no contradiction.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

Genesis & the Big Bang

"Conflict between Science and religion is impossible." - Albert Einstein

Science and Religion; Genesis and the Big Bang. Many thoughtful people, whether of the 3 major religions or the atheist professor at your local university, have pondered the issue of Science and Religion. Are they compatible? And if so, how? On a basic level, as Einstein stated above, there cannot be conflict since Science comes to explain the how and what, whereas Religion explains why. A step deeper, science can actually complement and vitalize religious and spiritual thinking and vice versa, as Max Planck, a Nobel Prize Laureate in physics, once said: "It is certainly not by chance that the great thinkers throughout the generations had a deep religious feeling." So what seems to be the problem, the schism?

One problem throughout history, is the religious belief that the universe was created ex nihilo, from nothing (G-d Willing, we will explore the other issues some people have in upcoming email posts). There are 3 major theories recently explaining how our universe came into being: The steady state theory, the oscillating model, and the standard model, all theories that focus on the universe being eternal; it was always here with no beginning. Perhaps one of the motives for this hypothesis of a universe that always was, was fueled by a desire for scientists to refute the notion of the Torah and Genesis story, of a beginning point of creation. Because of the limited scope of this email, suffice it to say that the steady state theory has pretty much been refuted. Besides for no real evidence found, cosmological findings show that galaxies are moving apart from each other at a fixed speed from a central point and the further they are from that point the faster they go. These findings led to the standard model, according to which the Big Bang theory came about, which today is the accepted theory of the scientific community (unlike the oscillating model, the Big Bang was a one time gigantic explosion, as opposed to many).

With these recent discoveries, Science was now pointing toward a story that was written thousands of years earlier in Bereishit - Genesis! This must have made a few scientists quite uneasy, as Dr. Stephen Hawking said in 1988: "For many people it is difficult to accept the fact that time had a beginning, probably because it points to supernatural intervention in the universe." How the matter of this universe came into existence from pure energy, is a question that Albert Einstein helped explain with his famous theory of e=mc2. Besides for the completely illogical original explosion of that ball of energy (the law of inertia states that every body seeks to remain at rest forever unless an outside force acts upon it), the real question is where did this ball of energy come from? Ironic as it is to say, the Scientific community has accepted the creation of the world as an accepted fact through the Big Bang theory!

We haven't even begun to discuss how that original energy came to form our universe. If there was a bomb set off at a large scrap yard of metal parts, and a complete Boeing 747 with control panel and leather seats came into being, that would be nothing compared to our universe resulting from the explosion of the Big Bang, without a guiding hand. May we continue to further our Jewish and spiritual observance, while continuing to explore the nature of our universe, for rather than contradicting, they compliment. As Maimonides taught, to really feel a love and appreciation for G-d, one must study his intricate and incredible universe. Wishing you and yours a Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Daniel

Beauty in the Mirror

When the holy Rabbi Chaim of the city of Tzanz (known as the "Divrei Chaim" after the book he wrote) was of marriageable age, the beautiful daughter of the well respected & pious Baruch Tam was suggested & the match was made. Back in those days, matches were made & the prospective groom & bride didn't interact or even meet until the wedding would near. A week before the wedding, the two decided it would be good to meet for a short while and chat. When the bride to be entered the room where her groom was waiting, she was shocked at what she saw. The Divrei Chaim is known to have had a limp because one leg was shorter than the other. Also, while being a very holy individual, he wasn't a very handsome man to say the least. Immediately after their short meeting, the bride went to her parents and told them the wedding was off. She just couldn't see herself marrying this guy!

Both sides of the family tried to reason with her, explaining what a special person the Rabbi Chaim was, a once in a generation righteous scholar. But she wasn't going to be swayed. When word reached back to Rabbi Chaim, he asked to have a word with the girl. "But unnecessary private meetings aren't proper!" he was told. "It's over." Rabbi Chaim asked for the opportunity to have one more word with her, and the parents relented. Once together, Rabbi Chaim asked the girl to look into the large mirror in the room and tell him what she saw. Looking in the mirror, the girl saw something amazing. Rabbi Chaim appeared as a striking, very handsome man. The bride, however, now appeared with a gaunt face, crouching a bit with a noticeable limp. "Our souls were destined to be together from the beginning," said Rabbi Chaim. "But before we descended into this world, I saw that you would have this appearance and I pleaded with God to switch our appearances." The two were married a week later.

Right now, the Jewish people may not be at the apex of our spiritual abilities. We may be walking with a limp, without a very handsome appearance. But who are we still doing our best to serve and connect to? Who have we been killed for adhering to and sent into exile away from Israel for so many years? Our affliction is God's affliction. We are united at the hip and the Jewish destiny is connected to God. He feels our pain, and we feel his. Through our final acts of good deeds and Torah learning, kind acts and Jewish adherence, may God bring peace and only revealed good to the world, where both bride & groom are beautiful inside & out together, speedily in our days!

Shabbat Shalom!

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

The Wedding & The Wine

With the recent beautiful weddings of my good friends Matan Darey & Megan Marcus, I am reminded of a long bus ride I had years ago, from Northern Israel to Jerusalem. I happened to be sitting next to a man with a guitar, named Shalev. Soon we were chatting away, and I was fascinated by his life story.

Growing up as a Christian in New York, Shalev always was attracted to Judaism. He really enjoyed the synagogue he visited for his friend's bar mitzvah. He even started learning Hebrew. One day, he was speaking to his priest at church. "Why don't you ever get married?" he asked. He didn't receive an answer. Intrigued, but with no encouragement, he slowly dropped his Jewish learning. As life went on, he forgot all about His Jewish phase. One day in college, he happened to meet a Rabbi. Discussion led to question after question, renewing Shalev's interest in Judaism. But one question really hit him hard. "Do you Rabbis ever get married?" he asked. "Sure, why not?" Answered the Rabbi. "Perhaps it's considered sinful?"

The Rabbi looked at him and said: 'Marriage, in Hebrew, is called Kiddushin - sanctification. Being engaged with the physical world, the Rabbi explained, is the entire purpose of creation. By elevating this material world in the proper way, by using it out for the good, its purpose for existing is realized. On nearly every holy day in Judaism, we sanctify the day over a cup of wine. In Hebrew, this is also called Kiddush. We reveal the spiritual within the physical, and we sanctify the spiritual with the physical together. The 2 unite, fused into 1.' Awed at the contrast between the 2 perspectives, Shalev slowly progressed in his Jewish learning and observance until eventually converting...

Now this isn't an attempt to disrespect other religions. Much beauty is to be found in all religions (well, since most came from ours, they must have some!) Rather, I was inspired from Shalev's highlighting of the unique beauty in the Jewish perspective. The material world isn't to be shunned - but rather elevated. Not only that, but through engaging & elevating the physical - we can achieve a higher level of spiritual goodness than even the most supernal of angels. But we must engage the world in order to elevate it, not to be lowered by it. Every day is a challenge to highlight the good, the holy, in everything we see and come in contact with. As hard as it is, that is our mission as Jews. The Ba'al Shem Tov even taught that a person's desire for the physical, is in essence his soul's desire to extricate the spiritual sparks found in that physical thing.

May this fusion of physical & spiritual lead us to the world's ultimate fusion with Godliness, with the coming of Mashiach. We are taught that during the Messianic era, nothing will really change; only that the spiritual, G-dly core of every physical thing will be revealed as the underlying reality of the world which it truly is.

Shabbat Shalom!

Mozart & Egypt

In this week's Torah portion, Bo, we read about the final 3 plagues against Pharaoh & the Egyptian people, as the Jewish people prepare to leave Egypt in freedom. But before they do, let's take a step back & ask a simple, yet fundamental question: Why did the Jewish nation have to go down to Egypt in order to be enslaved in the 1st place!? Couldn't G-d have kept us in the holy land - safe & sound - and given us the Torah there?

What has every nation who has ever abused the Jewish people had 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 emphasis & success of the art and music in Germany; each of these nations were at the forefront of their times in their appreciation of an enlightened culture. But did that "enlightenment" equate to having a moral society? It seems quite to the contrary! The more culturally advanced the nation was, the more cruel and disgusting were 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 do not translate into goodness. Why not? It's because it doesn't penetrate into 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 one 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! Innovative architectural pyramids, mathematics, you name it! G-d said: "OK, go and see if this advanced culture translates into a good society; into the best way of living life." Like the Nazis who lived culturally aware lives to the highest of degrees, we Jews have lived together with every leading nation & their cultures throughout history. Yet none have offered as kind and as just an outlook as what the Torah has given us. When we left Egypt, we could now truly appreciate Mount Sinai.

May we remember today as well, that as great as the advanced cultures & societies of today are, we must always turn to Torah and its guiding principles & values as our inspiration and guide to living a good life. Shabbat Shalom!

Liquid Gratitude

In this week's Torah portion, Va'eira, Moshe is sent down by G-d to Egypt to redeem his brothers & sisters, the Jewish nation. During Pharaohs decree decades earlier, that every male born must be thrown into the Nile river and drowned, Moshe's mother Yocheved gave birth to Moshe. But instead of handing him over to the Egyptian authorities, she placed him in a secure basket, and placed it into the river. Miraculously, the basket flowed along until it is seen by Pharaoh's very own daughter, Batya, who saves the boy (incidentally, Batya means 'daughter of G-d.' She is named such in honor of her saving one of G-d's children, Moshe.) Needing a mother to nurse the baby, Yocheved (mother of Moshe) is chosen. She nurses & raises Moshe, teaching him of his heritage and people, before he is given back to Batya's care. One day, already an adult in Pharaoh's household, Moshe walks out of the palace and sees an Egyptian taskmaster brutally beating a Hebrew slave. A man of action, Moshe utters a secret name of G-d, killing the Egyptian, and buries him. When Pharaoh finds out, he wants to kill Moshe, so he runs away, only to return many years later upon G-d's command.

When Moshe returns to Egypt, he demands the release of his people from slavery. When Pharaoh scoffs at this cheeky request, G-d strikes the Egyptians with 10 plagues. What's peculiar, however, as noted at the top of this page, is that G-d tells Moshe to take part in bringing down the plagues, but only the last 7 of them. It is his brother Aaron who is told to take part in the 1st 3: Water turning to blood, and frogs & lice infestations. How come? The Midrash explains: "Since the river protected Moshe when he was thrown into it, it was not stuck by him at the plague of blood or that of frogs, but was instead struck by Aharon." (Midrash Shemot Rabah 9:10) And the lice? "It was not fitting that the dust be struck by Moshe because it protected him when he killed the Egyptian & hid him in the sand, so it was instead struck by Aharon." (Rashi)

Lest you think this was an isolated case of gratitude to a non human entity in Torah, look at this commentary by one of our great Sages on the Talmud: 'What is the reason why we cover the challah? The rationale is that we do not want to embarrass the bread. If the bread was to be uncovered, it would be humiliated because every day, we bless over the bread first and afterwards we bless over the wine, but on Shabbat we start with the wine.' (Mordechai, Perek Arvei Pesachim). If Judaism emphasizes the need for gratitude toward inanimate matter, how much more so toward the human beings around us! Those who choose to act kindly toward us. Unlike the river or earth in Moshe's life, the people in our lives who help us & act kindly - choose to do so. The "Hakarat Hatov," the gratitude, we need to show our Parents - for example - is tremendous. And yet, how often is it today that a son or daughter - after receiving 95% of what is needed to live happy and productive lives - have anger toward their parents for not giving something? The Torah teaches us, that for even the simplest thing given to us, we must show gratitude. And how much more so toward our Parents, and ultimately G-d, who gave us life, sustained us, and continues to support us. "For every breath I praise you" (Last verse of Psalms, according to Chassidic interpretation). May we all feel gratitude, and express it to G-d & our loved ones, as often as we can!

Shabbat Shalom!

The Child's Cry

The great Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), founder of the Chabad Chassidic movement, used to share his home with his oldest married son, Rabbi Dov Ber (who later succeeded him as the 2nd Rebbe). Rabbi Dov Ber was known for his unusual power of concentration. One day, he sat engrossed in his Torah study, completely oblivious to everything around him. At one point, Rabbi Dov Ber's infant child fell from his bed & began crying. Oblivious, the Rabbi heard nothing. The child's grandfather, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, who was studying on the top floor at the time, did indeed hear the child's cries. He interrupted his studies, went downstairs & picked up the child, soothing him and placing him back in bed. Subsequently, Rabbi Shneur Zalman admonished his son: "No matter how preoccupied one may be in the most lofty occupation, one must never remain insensitive to the cry of a child!"

When the 7th Rebbe, Menachem Mendel (1902-1994) would recount this story, he would apply a lesson to our day and age. Today, many of our fellow Jewish brothers & sisters, many of us in fact, are like "children" who have "fallen from our beds" - spiritually speaking. Knowledge of Torah & Judaism is scant if at all, many spiritually numb, their divine souls crying out for more meaning and substance, thirsty for God & spirituality. It is forbidden for us to be indifferent to the cry of others, materially or spiritually. "If you know alef, teach alef" - whatever you know about Judaism, most Jews around you do not, so teach whatever you know. This of course applies to the plight we see of those around us who cry out because of a physical or material lack.

As a new year begins (at least in the gregorian calendar that is), we can turn a new leaf in this area.However absorbed we may be in our lives and needs, even when absorbed in good things like our own spiritual betterment, we must make sure to not be indifferent to the cries of those around us - both audible and inaudible cries that emanate from the recesses of the soul. We must also hear and attend to the cry from our own souls that we often ignore, for more spiritual & Jewish nourishment. With that, may we all have an amazing 2013 - both materially & spiritually!