The New Understanding

On both days of Rosh Hashana our Torah readings center on Abraham. Perhaps one reason Abraham spends every Rosh Hashana with us, or we with him, is hinted at in an observation by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak, the Seer of Lublin, quoting the spiritual Book, Duties of the Heart. It says: Abraham understood the Torah before it was given. Not that Abraham was perfect, although we know he was generous, compassionate, caring, smart, and selfless. But that Abraham was able to understand and live by concepts that his contemporaries didn’t yet comprehend. Physically, we are much like the Israelites who lived 3,000 years ago; or even the humans who lived 10,000 years ago. We are probably not very much smarter, either. But there has been a huge shift in our consciousness: We now understand and take for granted ideas like: There is one God; there is only one earth so we had better take care of it; or: freedom is a right; women and men deserve the same opportunities, rights, and pay for the same work. Education is a basic right for all. We strive to include minorities, people with disabilities, people of different races and sexual orientations into our tent of acceptance. Have things really changed? Well let’s see: 1,000 years ago human being were sold with the land they inhabited. 400 years ago there was no freedom of religion in most of the world. 250 years ago someone even so spiritually evolved as the Baal Shem Tov thought he could force the coming of the Messiah. 150 years ago there was legal slavery in this country. 100 years ago, women did not have the vote. 75 years ago there were so many quotas and restrictions for Jews in this country, including education and employment, that it was not always comfortable or convenient to be Jewish. Three months ago Gay and Lesbian citizens could not marry in New York, barring them from the same legal rights as heterosexuals. And there is still much work to be done. However, there is beginning to be a consciousness that all life is connected and that our society must reflect that truth. Religion is being greatly affected by changing attitudes in society as well. The differences between religions are not so important as they once were. Rabbi Zalman Schacter Shelomi quotes Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach quoting another sage, Rabbi Zadok Ha Kohen of Lublin, who said: “People say, the world is becoming less and less religious, but I say, on the contrary, the souls of people are becoming more and more refined. Perhaps on the outside it looks as if they are breaking away from God, but on the inside they are getting closer and closer.” In other words, it might not be obvious what is happening, but our consciousness is shifting yet again. We are moving into a new way of understanding the world and our place in it. My teacher, Rabbi Gelberman used to tell the story that “when he was eleven he knew the whole Torah by heart. He went to yeshiva where his teachers tested him on the portion each Thurs. Then at home each Sat. before the service his father, a chasid himself, would test him. Early one Sabbath morning his Father said to him, let’s see what you learned this week. Being young and cocky Rabbi Gelberman said to his Father I don’t know why you insist on doing this, it’s the same text I studied last year. You know I learn my lessons by heart. His father could have given him a slap, instead he said, you’re right, Chaim, it‘s the same text you studied last year, but are you the same person you were then?” We could ask the same question: Are we the same as we were last year? We know that we are changing and we hope that we are acquiring wisdom and understanding. Last year I spoke about Oneness, the idea that we are all connected to God and each other, as the Shema tells us. This has been known for 2,500 years. The truth of our lives is that we understand much more than our Israelite forebears who wandered in the wilderness, and not enough to be able to end war, create a just society or even make peace in our families. We are all in a manner of speaking, Not Yet. There are things that we might understand intellectually, like God is existence and being; and all being is One, so we are a part of God and each other. But on a day to day level, we are not yet spiritually evolved to the point that we can live out of that reality. So though we are moving in that direction we know that we, in our own lives, will never arrive there. We are all in the process of becoming. We are all Not Yet. And what makes things difficult is that my Not Yet may not mesh with your Not Yet. It’s as if we each of us may have a small piece of the puzzle at times, in terms of our understanding, but that my piece may not fit easily into your piece and there may be friction and conflict because of our incomplete world views and our incomplete understandings. What can we do about it? First, we can give up judging each other. We each start from such different places and our circumstances and experience can widen the gaps between us. We can only judge how far we ourselves have come, not anyone else. We can have compassion for ourselves and others while we are all still learning, and not try to punish each other for not understanding more. The Chassidic masters taught a marvelous lesson, as quoted in Martin Buber’s The Ten Rungs: “How can I love my neighbor as myself if my neighbor has wronged me? Love your neighbor as something which you yourself are. For all souls are one. Each is a spark from the original soul and this soul is inherent in all souls, just as your soul is inherent in all the parts of your body. It may come to pass that your hand will make a mistake and strike you. But would you then take a stick and chastise your hand because it lacked understanding, and so increase your pain? It is the same if your neighbor, who is of one soul with you, wrongs you, because of a lack of understanding. If you punish your neighbor, you only hurt yourself. And will you have no mercy on a person when you see that one of the Divine, holy sparks has been lost in a maze and is almost stifled?”
We can take our baby steps in the direction of love, giving up hatred and anger, vengeance and grudges. But most of all, we can deepen our commitment to keep growing: in goodness, caring, compassion, and holiness. And this is so important because we are here, alive on this earth, to continue the work of the evolution of human consciousness. We are human links in a chain stretching back over 10,000 years and forward over many more millennia than that. It is our task to bridge the gap between what was, forming a link from the old understanding, a time of greater brutality and cruelty, to what we can only now dimly imagine: a time when we will be so spiritually advanced. that we will know that we: all people; are one soul, one body, one being, and be able to live on that high plane. Perhaps this is one meaning of the verse from Genesis” And God placed the earthling in the Garden of Eden to work it and to guard it.” Perhaps this verse describes the work we are meant to do: that of spiritual evolution. Working the Garden. As the sage R. Tarphon said in Pirkei Avot, Chapters of the Fathers, it is not up to us to complete the work, but it is not up to us to desist from it either. No one can do this work of spiritual evolution for us. It has been given to us to struggle with ourselves so that we continue to purify the soul matter within us and make spiritual progress in our lives. The Garden of Eden in the verse from Genesis is the same spiritual Garden of simple Oneness & elevation that the four sages entered, as described in the Talmud (Chagigah 14b) As the legend goes, Four [Sages] entered the Garden. Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Elisha ben Avuya, called Acher - the other one - because of what happened to him after he entered the Garden, and Rabbi Akiva. Ben Azzai gazed [at the Divine Presence] and died. Ben Zoma gazed and lost his sanity. Acher became a heretic. Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace.” We are meant to do certain spiritual work while we are alive, but likewise, most of us cannot go too far beyond our spiritual understanding, or try to force the time of peace and harmony before we are ready. We know it will not be realized in our lifetime, yet we will experience it because we are part of the great soul that is One. And we will always be a part of that One. We cannot demand the coming of the Messiah, or, as I prefer to think of it, the messianic age, until all people alive, not just the Jewish people, have evolved spiritually to the point that we don’t leave anyone out: until everyone is ready and able to live in peace and harmony. When we stop and consider the past and the future, we can actually see that we are at a midpoint between the brutal and cruel time of constant death and struggle in our human past, and the place we know we have to arrive at to realize our highest aspirations as human beings. May each of us take a step into spiritual growth this year: developing an attitude of acceptance of each other’s Not Yets, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, forgiving each other, and striving to behold & respect the pure, Divine soul in every person. May we nurture our vision of how holy we could be. May we extend our innate love, the Divine love in our souls, to others, bringing healing to the world, and helping each other to overcome our lesser tendencies. This year may we choose for love, for harmony, for compassion, for forgiveness, for kindness, and for peace. Then we will surely be of those, like Abraham, whose labor and understanding will help to bring about the time of wholeness that we and God have dreamed of together.