In reading about Torah, one comes across legends: bubbameises, or fairy tales, from the sages, which, for years, I never understood. For example, from Midrash Rabba, (I:1) "In human practice, when a mortal king builds a palace, he builds it not with his own skill but with the skill of an architect. The architect moreover does not build it out of his head, but employs plans and diagrams to know how to arrange the chambers and the …doors. Thus God consulted the Torah and created the world, while the Torah declares, IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED (I,1), BEGINNING referring to the Torah, as in the verse, God made me as the beginning of His way prior to His works of old (Prov. VIII, 22), or also, I:4 “Six things preceded the creation of the world; some of them were actually created, while the creation of the others was already contemplated. The Torah and the Throne of Glory were created;” or in the Talmud (Shabbat 88b), “When Moses ascended on high, the ministering angels spoke before the Holy One, blessed be God, ‘Sovereign of the Universe! What business has one born of woman amongst us?’ ‘He has come to receive the Torah,’ answered God to them. Said they to the Holy One, ‘That secret treasure, which has been hidden by Thee for nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created;” Or from the Zohar (I 5a) “See now, it was by means of the Torah that the Holy One created the world…. God looked at the Torah once, twice, thrice, and a fourth time. uttering the words composing her and then operated through her. … Seeing, declaring, establishing and searching out correspond to these four operations which the Holy One, blessed be God, went through before entering on the work of creation. Hence the account of the creation commences with the four words Bereshit Bara Elohim et (“In-the-beginning created God”), before mentioning “the heavens”, thus signifying the four times which the Holy One, blessed be God, looked into the Torah before performing God’s work.”
These statements tell us that the sages actually thought that Torah preceded creation, as a plan or specification precedes the construction of a building. We also encounter this idea every Friday evening in the first verse of the L’cha Dodi prayer by the 17th Century mystic Alkabetz: “Sof maaseh b’machsheva t’hila: the end of deed is first in thought.” It is only recently that for me, these bubbameises began to make sense. Not that the statements are literally true, but that they offer a window into the way the world is constituted. What the stories are trying to tell us is that the structure of creation is embedded in Torah. Torah gives us the information about the way the world is put together by giving us guidelines or underlying principles by which to understand that which happens. In this sense, what was revealed in the revelation: the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Mt Sinai, was what we as human beings felt all along. We, as part of creation, can feel Torah in our own bodies. We feel when we do what is right, and we feel when we do something wrong, simply because it is part of us and we are part of it. The Torah is the manual that describes the way the world works. It tells us that by doing certain kind or virtuous things that we are going with the mechanisms of creation; and by doing certain other things, like murder, lying, stealing, or engaging in acts of selfishness, that we are opposing creation and causing dis-harmony. This suggests that the principles of Torah are not so much commandments as a blueprint, in story form, revealing the underlying structure of creation. It is our manual for living but it is also a manual for the unseen mechanisms of cause and effect. Rabbi Arthur Green, a contemporary mystic expresses it this way: “The Torah is the key that unlocks the hidden meaning of all existence.” To have such a precious document at all is remarkable. To be able to understand it is God’s gift to us. That we are privileged to celebrate the giving of its wisdom once each year on Shavuot is a great and deep joy. May the Torah continue to speak to us, revealing its secrets, as we change and grow, allowing us to be changed; gaining insight into the functioning of the world and ourselves, expanding our hearts, and leading us to holiness.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Opening the Locks
This week we read two Torah portions, Behar, or “on the mountain,” and Bechukotai, or “my decrees.” Behar gives us the laws for the Sabbath of the land, each seven years, and for the Jubilee, every 50th year. At the Jubilee, the land was to return to its original, ancestral owner, slaves were freed, and liberty was proclaimed for all inhabitants. In this portion we are told that the land belongs to God and that we belong to God. Then there are laws to prevent poverty, such as the necessity to buy back land that was sold out of dire economic need, and the responsibility to help a relative who becomes impoverished.
This portion has a number of teachings about social justice. One statement, “You shall not aggrieve each other,” or in another translation, “you shall not wrong each other,” refers specifically to the sale of land proportional to the number of crop years; but of course, you shall not wrong one another, has much wider implications. Another statement is, “If your brother becomes impoverished and his means falter in your proximity, you shall strengthen him, proselyte or resident, so that he can live with you.” And then two more regulations are promulgated, asking us to redeem land or a contract of indentured servitude for relatives in need.
The portrait being painted here is a model society in which all members are responsible for each other. And this idea is reinforced by the use of the words, “with you, imach”, mentioned thirteen times in this portion, which affirm the idea that the poor are part of us. In the very first Torah portion, B’reisheet, Cain has just killed Abel. God asks Cain where Abel is and Cain retorts, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” It is a rhetorical question for Cain, but it demonstrates an enduring truth. The correct answer, of course is, yes, we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers. We are all responsible for each other. This is not just an idea or even an imperative. It is a fact. The Chassidic master Rabbi Noam Elimelech of Lizensk wrote, “When the Blessed God created the world, in God’s goodness The Eternal created pipelines that carry shefa, an abundance of blessings, to fulfill human needs. The blessings of shefa are ceaseless, but when we fall from our spiritual level and lack trust in our Creator, who is the true Provider, who supports and sustains everything in never-ending abundance, such a person causes a blemish in the higher worlds and with impure thoughts, that is, lack of faith and trust in God. This weakens the power of the heavenly hosts above, it disrupts the shefa. God then has to re-command or reconnect the shefa of blessings anew so that it can flow again as it did previously since the time of creation.” This quotation tells us that it is by the flow of energy from God to us that we live. We know that God is existence, which means we all live within God. So blessings should just naturally come to us. But we don’t usually perceive that they do. What we experience is that we live, breathe, eat, and work: that there are baseline blessings, the miracles we call Nature, but that there are further blessings that are denied to us. The Torah gives us certain guidelines for the way we are to treat each other, that we understand as commandments. But really they are Keys, allowing us to unlock the flow of blessings.
When we touch another person, when we help that person; when we are honest and share God’s money with them, that we regard as our money, or God’s food, that we regard as our food, we create an arc between us and them. It may simply be an arc of love or it may be an arc of love plus something tangible, but when we make that connection, then God completes the circle by being present between us: whenever our love is present; whenever our generosity is present, whenever or caring is present. The Mussar literature, Living Mussar Every Day, by Rabbi Zvi Miller, quotes the sage Chafetz Chayim in saying that, “the truth is we are never alone, we have the most loving Parent, the Master of Power and Wealth who is always there to help us.” In the Torah, God is constantly modeling behavior for us. By giving to us, the Eternal shows us that our giving to others is the mechanism by which all giving is regulated. When we create a blockage, through anger, fear, or selfishness, the interdependence of energy flow is stopped. The energy becomes diverted. Love can be expressed as hate or anger. Plenty cannot reach us and blessings go to waste. The techniques to unlock blessings are fundamental to our interdependence as part of God. If we act as though we are in isolation, which is untrue, we will become isolated. If we act as though you and I are connected, which is true, we will be linked back to God through the channels of love energy we create. The world is designed to promote the flow of blessings by our opening the channels of relationship. The Torah holds the keys that unlock the flow of abundance; and we can, if we choose, open the locks.
This portion has a number of teachings about social justice. One statement, “You shall not aggrieve each other,” or in another translation, “you shall not wrong each other,” refers specifically to the sale of land proportional to the number of crop years; but of course, you shall not wrong one another, has much wider implications. Another statement is, “If your brother becomes impoverished and his means falter in your proximity, you shall strengthen him, proselyte or resident, so that he can live with you.” And then two more regulations are promulgated, asking us to redeem land or a contract of indentured servitude for relatives in need.
The portrait being painted here is a model society in which all members are responsible for each other. And this idea is reinforced by the use of the words, “with you, imach”, mentioned thirteen times in this portion, which affirm the idea that the poor are part of us. In the very first Torah portion, B’reisheet, Cain has just killed Abel. God asks Cain where Abel is and Cain retorts, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” It is a rhetorical question for Cain, but it demonstrates an enduring truth. The correct answer, of course is, yes, we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers. We are all responsible for each other. This is not just an idea or even an imperative. It is a fact. The Chassidic master Rabbi Noam Elimelech of Lizensk wrote, “When the Blessed God created the world, in God’s goodness The Eternal created pipelines that carry shefa, an abundance of blessings, to fulfill human needs. The blessings of shefa are ceaseless, but when we fall from our spiritual level and lack trust in our Creator, who is the true Provider, who supports and sustains everything in never-ending abundance, such a person causes a blemish in the higher worlds and with impure thoughts, that is, lack of faith and trust in God. This weakens the power of the heavenly hosts above, it disrupts the shefa. God then has to re-command or reconnect the shefa of blessings anew so that it can flow again as it did previously since the time of creation.” This quotation tells us that it is by the flow of energy from God to us that we live. We know that God is existence, which means we all live within God. So blessings should just naturally come to us. But we don’t usually perceive that they do. What we experience is that we live, breathe, eat, and work: that there are baseline blessings, the miracles we call Nature, but that there are further blessings that are denied to us. The Torah gives us certain guidelines for the way we are to treat each other, that we understand as commandments. But really they are Keys, allowing us to unlock the flow of blessings.
When we touch another person, when we help that person; when we are honest and share God’s money with them, that we regard as our money, or God’s food, that we regard as our food, we create an arc between us and them. It may simply be an arc of love or it may be an arc of love plus something tangible, but when we make that connection, then God completes the circle by being present between us: whenever our love is present; whenever our generosity is present, whenever or caring is present. The Mussar literature, Living Mussar Every Day, by Rabbi Zvi Miller, quotes the sage Chafetz Chayim in saying that, “the truth is we are never alone, we have the most loving Parent, the Master of Power and Wealth who is always there to help us.” In the Torah, God is constantly modeling behavior for us. By giving to us, the Eternal shows us that our giving to others is the mechanism by which all giving is regulated. When we create a blockage, through anger, fear, or selfishness, the interdependence of energy flow is stopped. The energy becomes diverted. Love can be expressed as hate or anger. Plenty cannot reach us and blessings go to waste. The techniques to unlock blessings are fundamental to our interdependence as part of God. If we act as though we are in isolation, which is untrue, we will become isolated. If we act as though you and I are connected, which is true, we will be linked back to God through the channels of love energy we create. The world is designed to promote the flow of blessings by our opening the channels of relationship. The Torah holds the keys that unlock the flow of abundance; and we can, if we choose, open the locks.
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Divine Energy of Healing
This week’s Torah portions are Tazria and Metzora. They speak about skin diseases, discharges, and ritual purification. Metzora means one who has a skin disease, and this portion begins by describing the process by which someone who has had such an infection is purified for re-entry into the community. The person who is healed was to be examined by the priest. Then the person was to bring two birds, red wool, a bunch of hyssop, which is from a small bush, and cedar wood. He was to shave his body, wash body and clothes and then re-enter the camp. After seven days of dwelling outside his tent he was to shave and wash again and then he was declared to be pure. On the next day there were more offerings: a sin, guilt, and elevation offering to be placed before God by the Priest. The sin and guilt sacrifices were for atonement and the elevation offering was to elevate the person so that he could draw closer to God’s Presence. The blood of the guilt offering was put on the right ear, thumb, and toe of the person atoning; and oil, which was part of the offering, was sprinkled before God seven times, and was also put on the ear, thumb, and toe of the penitent and then on his head as well.
In reading this ceremony, the similarity between the purification of the Metzora and the ceremony for the consecration of the priests is inescapable. The priests underwent a seven day term of isolation in which they dwelt outside their tents, in front of the tabernacle. It was followed by a ceremony of atonement offerings, a ritual of blood applied to the ear, thumb, and toe, and the oil of anointment being put on their heads. This similarity between the consecration of the priests and the purification of a penitent seems strange. Why should they be so similar and what might this be telling us? The similarity of the two rituals points to the conclusion that the priest and the penitent were learning from each other. Skin diseases are the biblical result of slander: Lashon Hara, or evil speech. The Zohar also says that: “just as a person is punished for uttering an evil word, so is there punishment for not uttering a good word when there was the opportunity, because that speaking spirit is harmed which was prepared to speak both above and below in holiness.” In terms of Divine Justice, this can be expressed as: those who separate, through speech, will themselves be separated, through absence. Speaking ill of someone, Rashi taught, is the result of haughtiness. The person who had a skin disease was quarantined outside the camp to heal, but also to think about what he might have done to deserve such a disease. The Kohen, too, by being responsible for the purification ritual, must have been constantly reminded not to engage in slander and gossip and not to allow his position to lead him to haughtiness. We know that haughtiness is really its opposite: a lack of the feeling of self worth rather than an excess of confidence. It is only those who are insecure who need to talk about others in an effort to raise themselves by seeming to lower other people. The Kohen needed to be reminded to seek true self worth in service to God and others and not in the glory of his seemingly high position. The penitent, after the affliction was gone, was raised up in a ceremony that elevated and anointed him after his disgrace. In giving him back his dignity and having the priest serve him, transferring some of his royalty to him, he was given the impression that he could ascend to the heights of holiness through his atonement and participation in the anointment ritual. The elaborate ceremony in which the priest put the holy blood and holy oil upon his ear, hand, toe and head was a way to give him the confidence to be able to obey the commandments, do what is right, walk in God’s ways and think before speaking. The penitent could then seek true worth within himself after being purified and anointed, finding the sense of self love transmitted by God’s love, and self worth that had been missing formerly.
The Lubavicher Rebbe said that every mitzvah performed brings with it Divine Energy into our material world that will blossom and bear fruit. In a sense the mitzvot exist to give us an entry into Divine energy; a prescribed ritual by which to enter into the awe of co-creation with God. The Zohar calls the Torah a great and mighty tree of life. “It is called Torah (lit. showing) because it shows and reveals that which was hidden and unknown; and all life from above is comprised in it and issues from it. One that “takes hold” of the Torah takes hold of all, above and below.” The definition of mitzvah as commandment gives us back the awe that modern life robs us of. When we participate in awe we are all priests: serving in the knowledge that our actions contribute to the well being of all existence. The common ritual reinforces the equality of priest and penitent. The priest remembers that the penitent’s purity is as great or now greater and surpasses his own after his process of cleansing is complete. As the Talmud says, “In the place where the penitent stands, not even the completely righteous can stand.” The penitent now understands that his inner royalty has been brought forth by his being anointed to God’s service, which could only have happened because he sinned and learned from his mistakes, falling down being the pre-condition for learning. The priest knows that it is a very thin line that prevents him from sinning in the same way. The Commentary, Midradsh Rabba, refers to a quotation from Deuteronomy: “I have wounded, and I heal, Rabbi. B’re-kiah said in the name of Rabbi Levi: [A physician of] flesh and blood wounds with a knife, and heals with a bandage, but the Holy One, blessed be The Eternal, heals with the very thing with which God wounds, as it is said in Jeremiah, For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee out of thy wounds.” This ritual involves the Kohen and the penitent in the exquisite dance of Paradox: that we humans are all alike: at the same time lowly and magnificent, humble and royal, constantly called by God to greater understanding and higher deeds by being given exactly what we need to learn and grow toward Goodness and Holiness.
In reading this ceremony, the similarity between the purification of the Metzora and the ceremony for the consecration of the priests is inescapable. The priests underwent a seven day term of isolation in which they dwelt outside their tents, in front of the tabernacle. It was followed by a ceremony of atonement offerings, a ritual of blood applied to the ear, thumb, and toe, and the oil of anointment being put on their heads. This similarity between the consecration of the priests and the purification of a penitent seems strange. Why should they be so similar and what might this be telling us? The similarity of the two rituals points to the conclusion that the priest and the penitent were learning from each other. Skin diseases are the biblical result of slander: Lashon Hara, or evil speech. The Zohar also says that: “just as a person is punished for uttering an evil word, so is there punishment for not uttering a good word when there was the opportunity, because that speaking spirit is harmed which was prepared to speak both above and below in holiness.” In terms of Divine Justice, this can be expressed as: those who separate, through speech, will themselves be separated, through absence. Speaking ill of someone, Rashi taught, is the result of haughtiness. The person who had a skin disease was quarantined outside the camp to heal, but also to think about what he might have done to deserve such a disease. The Kohen, too, by being responsible for the purification ritual, must have been constantly reminded not to engage in slander and gossip and not to allow his position to lead him to haughtiness. We know that haughtiness is really its opposite: a lack of the feeling of self worth rather than an excess of confidence. It is only those who are insecure who need to talk about others in an effort to raise themselves by seeming to lower other people. The Kohen needed to be reminded to seek true self worth in service to God and others and not in the glory of his seemingly high position. The penitent, after the affliction was gone, was raised up in a ceremony that elevated and anointed him after his disgrace. In giving him back his dignity and having the priest serve him, transferring some of his royalty to him, he was given the impression that he could ascend to the heights of holiness through his atonement and participation in the anointment ritual. The elaborate ceremony in which the priest put the holy blood and holy oil upon his ear, hand, toe and head was a way to give him the confidence to be able to obey the commandments, do what is right, walk in God’s ways and think before speaking. The penitent could then seek true worth within himself after being purified and anointed, finding the sense of self love transmitted by God’s love, and self worth that had been missing formerly.
The Lubavicher Rebbe said that every mitzvah performed brings with it Divine Energy into our material world that will blossom and bear fruit. In a sense the mitzvot exist to give us an entry into Divine energy; a prescribed ritual by which to enter into the awe of co-creation with God. The Zohar calls the Torah a great and mighty tree of life. “It is called Torah (lit. showing) because it shows and reveals that which was hidden and unknown; and all life from above is comprised in it and issues from it. One that “takes hold” of the Torah takes hold of all, above and below.” The definition of mitzvah as commandment gives us back the awe that modern life robs us of. When we participate in awe we are all priests: serving in the knowledge that our actions contribute to the well being of all existence. The common ritual reinforces the equality of priest and penitent. The priest remembers that the penitent’s purity is as great or now greater and surpasses his own after his process of cleansing is complete. As the Talmud says, “In the place where the penitent stands, not even the completely righteous can stand.” The penitent now understands that his inner royalty has been brought forth by his being anointed to God’s service, which could only have happened because he sinned and learned from his mistakes, falling down being the pre-condition for learning. The priest knows that it is a very thin line that prevents him from sinning in the same way. The Commentary, Midradsh Rabba, refers to a quotation from Deuteronomy: “I have wounded, and I heal, Rabbi. B’re-kiah said in the name of Rabbi Levi: [A physician of] flesh and blood wounds with a knife, and heals with a bandage, but the Holy One, blessed be The Eternal, heals with the very thing with which God wounds, as it is said in Jeremiah, For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee out of thy wounds.” This ritual involves the Kohen and the penitent in the exquisite dance of Paradox: that we humans are all alike: at the same time lowly and magnificent, humble and royal, constantly called by God to greater understanding and higher deeds by being given exactly what we need to learn and grow toward Goodness and Holiness.
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