When the Parts Work Together

This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim, judgments or laws. These laws were given to Moses by God, after the 10 Commandments. The experience of the Revelation, being so close to God, was too frightening for the people; so they asked Moses to hear the laws from God and to tell them what God wished to say. There are over 50 laws in this portion, ranging from laws concerning murder, injury, theft, care for and destruction of property, negligence, and social justice. There are laws about the punishment fitting the crime, integrity of words and actions, and also about not oppressing a stranger, a widow, or an orphan, those weakest in society. Finally, there are laws about the 3 agricultural pilgrimage holidays and a vision of God, seen by the Moses, Aaron, his two sons, and the 70 elders. In the Zohar, the book of Splendor from the Middle Ages, in the commentary for Mishpatim it says, “when one (Section 2, Page 124a) observes the ordinances of the Torah and diligently studies it, it is as though that one diligently studied the Divine Name. For the whole Torah is an enfolding of the one Divine Name, the most exalted Name, the Name that comprehends all other names;” This poetic comment is at the opposite pole from the actual words in this portion. We can study the laws as they are here given; and either agree with them or disagree with them; and either do them or decide that they have been superseded by advances in society. In this portion we can find the best of the Torah: the striving for social justice; and also the worst of the Torah: those laws about slavery or the possibility of the death penalty for lesser offenses than premeditated murder. This portion begins with laws: with reasonable demands that we can all understand; but ends in a mystical vision: gazing at the appearance of God, God’s throne, and the purity of the sapphire brickwork under the feet of God. Between these two poles: the logical and the mystical, lies the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” which comes from the story of Cain and Abel in B’reisheet, the first Torah portion. Taking into account the reality stated in the quotation from the Zohar about the Divine Name; everything that is “named” in this portion, in the whole Torah, is God’s Name. Everything that is named, described, and taught, is God, because that’s all there is. The people in this portion: the widow, orphan, and stranger are God. The slave, the pregnant woman, the thief, and the virgin; the seducer and even the donkey crouching under its burden are all God. We are all a tiny part of God; “the name that comprehends all other names.” God is immanent in us, but transcendent over us. So what is the problem that is being set out for us? This portion is, in a sense, not only about action but also about peace. The S’fat Emet quotes the Psalm (29:11), “God will bless God’s people with peace,” and we say in the second Torah blessing, “God has implanted eternal life within us.” Then the S’fat Emet goes on to say, “this well is opened by the peace wrought by these statutes. For this reason the Midrash quotes here, you have established uprightness (Ps 99:4) because these statues lead people to love one another. The problem we must solve, then, is one of coordination: of getting all the parts to work together as a well oiled machine in which all the components are all operating harmoniously toward a productive end. If God is one, then everything is God and the challenge is to have it all working as if we are all one. That can only happen when we take care of each other, are fair to one another, and understand that the welfare of the whole is what we need to be aiming for, not just our own welfare; because our welfare is God’s welfare, is our neighbor’s welfare. When we cause pain, or create untruth, we cause a tear or a hole in the fabric of existence. We cause a breakdown in the oneness and harmony of the working parts, and we, ourselves will experience the pain we cause to another. We ourselves will fall into the hole we have dug or torn. It is all God, and that is why harmony is so important. Disharmony works against existence, against life, against us. Untruth severs the source of the electric current from the light bulb, so it can’t light up. The commandments are given to purify us and the Torah ties them all together so that we have a chance to understand it all. Torah is a reflection of the Oneness of all existence. It explains how all life should work, when it’s working properly. That understanding is so precious for us, because it gives us a chance to be part of a universe that is pulling together and not pulling apart. When we are focused on the welfare of the All, we are given glimpses of Divinity; intimations of the purity that is God and the harmonious, productive place that the world is meant to be. May each of us strive to realize these truths, so that the design of Oneness can become the reality; so that we can work happily, being at One with existence and expressing the harmony of all life.

Are we leading or being led?

This week’s Torah portion is Beshallach, which means, when he sent. When Pharaoh sends the Israelites out of Egypt, God leads them, with a pillar of cloud, away from the coast of the Mediterranean: not North but South. Hemmed in by the Sea of reeds ahead of them and the pursuing Egyptians behind them, the people despair that their lives are over. They cry out of God, who urges them to go forward. And you know the rest. God splits the water. They travel through the sea in safety, but the pursing Egyptian chariots and horsemen drown: the Divine retribution for throwing all male Israelite babies into the Nile. Then the people sing a song of gratitude to God. The beginning verse of this portion reads: “God did not lead them by way of the Philistines, though it was near, for God said, perhaps they will be led, when they see war, to return to Egypt.” And later it says, “God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to have them led along the way.” And in the song of the Sea, the people sing, “With your kindness you have led this people that you redeemed. You led with your might to your Holy abode.” We can see that being led: God leading us, is prominently featured in this portion. It also says that God took the people around toward the Sea of Reeds. The word around, ya-save, connotes a circle, and in fact, we originated in Canaan and eventually returned to Canaan. The question is, how does all this leading fit in with our conception of Free Will? Are we really choosing or are we being led? We know that we do have free will. We can choose what to say and what to do. We change our reality every day by our choices. The Torah, even at the very beginning of Genesis, takes a stand for the beginning of history and linear progress over the passive acceptance of the ancient idea of the wheel of life: that nothing ever changes and we are merely repeating lives that have been and will ever be the same. There is a story in Midrash about “a king who had a son to whom he wished to bequeath an inheritance, but he argued: ' If I give it to him now that he is small, he will not know how to take care of it; I will therefore wait until my son learns how to write and can understand the value, then I will bequeath it unto him.’ This is what God said: … I had better give them the Torah first and then bring them into the Land.” Midrash Rabbah - Exodus XX:15 This passage speaks about learning and future choice. The Talmud (Er 53b) talks about this too. It says, “I was once on a journey when I noticed a child sitting at a cross-road. By what road, I asked the child, can we go to the town? This one, he replied, is a short way that is long and that one is a long way that is short. I proceeded along the short but long road. When I approached the town I discovered that it was hedged in by gardens and orchards. Turning back I said to him, ‘My child, did you not tell me that this road was short?’ — ‘And’, he replied: ‘did I not also tell you: that it was also long?’ The statement “there is a long way that is short and a short way that is long.” leads us to believe that the destination is the same, but that there are two ways to get there; and choice is at the heart of the difference. The seemingly easy way out of a situation may, at first look more promising than a scrupulously moral, ethical decision. And yet, though we may think it’s the easy way, we are really being led, like pharaoh, to our doom; or like the Israelites who could have gone North, to an insurmountable barrier. In a Biblical sense, we could ask, are we choosing life or choosing death? Perhaps what we are being taught is that certain of our choices are pro-life and lead to progress, while other choices will send us circling back on ourselves so that we end up stuck: unable to make that freeing forward movement that feels good and right. I’ve been speaking about choice seen through a personal lens, but it can also be seen through a collective lens. Martin Luther King said, “On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but we must do it because Conscience tells us it is right.” Heschl spoke about choice in two essays quoted in the collection Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity. He says, “the tragedy of man is that he is so great and that he fails to recognize his greatness. Jean-Paul Sartre has said ‘Man is condemned to be free.’ God has given us choice, the greatest obligation of freedom. God is waiting for us to exercise that choice. (P 218) …This is the decision we have to make: whether our life is to be a pursuit of pleasure or an engagement for service. The world cannot remain a vacuum. Unless we make it an altar to God, it is invaded by demons. This is no time for neutrality (P. 75).”
What is true of the aggregate is also true of the individual. How are we to decide which choices will propel us forward and not back? When the Israelites were paralyzed with fear of the past, represented by Pharaoh’s pursuing army, and also of the future, represented by the Sea of Reeds, they cried out to God, the correct response in this situation. God’s answer was, “let them journey forth.” Choose the future, not the past: not old patterns or going backward. Choose with courage! The Rimanover Rebbe said, “Belief and trust are linked. One who firmly believes also trusts.” We are being led, but how soon we get there and in what way is up to us. Free will determines how our life feels. Does it feel free with the freedom of forward movement, or does it feel like the slavery of being stuck in old patterns and the hopelessness of the repeating wheel of life? The Torah tells us that we are being led toward movement and progress, out of our metaphoric Egypt. The details, the scenery, and the comfort of the journey are in our hands. We are on the way. How long will it take us to get there?

Coming Back

This week’s Torah portion is Bo, which means, Come. God commands Moses to go to Pharaoh to warn him of the last three plagues. Later in the portion, the Israelites are given instructions about the Pesach offering to God, in preparation for departure; and the protection of marking the doors with the blood from the pesach offering; and also staying inside, away from danger. We are given our own calendar and the commandments concerning Passover, to celebrate it with matzah and bitter herbs as an eternal decree; the consecration of first borns to God. Then Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.
The beginning of the portion reads, “God said to Moses, Come to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants stubborn, so that I shall place these signs of mine in his midst; and so that you may relate in the ears of your child and your child’s child how I made a mockery of Egypt and of my signs that I placed among them; that you may know that I am God.”
This portion is notable for many reasons; among them is something it does not say. Moses has repeatedly come before Pharaoh with the plea that Pharaoh let the people go on a three day journey to bring sacrifices to God. Perhaps the request is a ploy to allow Pharaoh to save face, but in any case, Moses’ request is unsuccessful. What is never said is: enslaving and subjugating people is wrong. God never says to Moses, Tell pharaoh that cruelty to other human beings, that making people suffer, is wrong. The question is, why is this never said? The first few phrases of this portion may allude to why. One reason is that we already know that cruelty is wrong. But how do we know? A clue in the text speaks about the heart. The S’fat Emet points out that the heart is always mentioned, never the mind. Also, the text says, “that I may place these, my signs in his midst.” But “In his midst” b’kirbo in Hebrew, also means within him. We are being directed to think about our inner selves. What is being addressed here is often called Natural Knowing: the emotions, the intuition, the gut, and not the conscious, intellectual functions of thought and reason.
It has been suggested that all wisdom is like a hologram rather than a photograph. In a photograph you can snip off a small price and that piece contains just the part of the picture that you cut off. But even the very tiniest piece of a hologram contains the entire picture. So it is with spiritual wisdom: we each contain the whole of spiritual wisdom in some way, whether we are conscious of it or not. Rabbi Arthur Green says, in a commentary to the writings of the S’fat Emet, “Truth is already implanted within us.” The Chassidic teaching is that the Torah is within us – those ethical commandments and deeds of loving kindness that help us to feel good about ourselves and know we are doing the right thing in the world. It’s a perfect system. What is good; what is right, feels good. Love feels good. Food feels good. Unselfishness feels good. The text gives us more clues about how to continue in this line of thinking. If we consider the name of the portion, Come; Come to pharaoh, in light of natural knowing; the word, Come, rather than go, begins to make some sense. Bo begins to mean, Come to a union, even with pharaoh. Disunity must cease. I am leading you to a new place; a place of coming together. The commentary also suggests, “I, God, am with you.” We are going on our mission together. Perhaps the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love may be winning; domination; subjugation. We are being led back to unity – to peace – to harmony, the fundamental nature of God. This is the completion of the cycle of creation. First there was One. Then creation occurs. Out of a multiplicity of forms, objects, forces, people; out of the many comes a re-union, on a different basis. Not undifferentiated Oneness, as before creation, but differentiated Oneness: the ultimate multiculturalism on the grandest scale possible, with no one and nothing left out. Forced to leave the Garden of Eden, because we have become fully conscious and responsible for our choices, we are given the mission of striving to create a new garden, based on the natural knowing that love and unity are correct and subjugation incorrect. May God help us to stay on the path that leads back to singularity. May our ability to choose love over winning, respect over disdain, and unity over separation, help us to be of those who embody the vision of eventual Oneness. May we be agents of positive change as we create harmony in our relationships, understanding and appreciating that we are playing a part in the redemption which, we hope, will occur long after we are gone. In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Tarphon said: It is not up to you to complete the work, but neither are you free to refrain from it either. Bringing goodness and unity into the world depends upon us. Come, and we will do it together, and you will know, and your will feel that it is good.

Planting Suggestions

This week’s Torah portion is Va’eira, which means, and He appeared. God speaks to Moses about the Divine Name and promises to redeem the Israelites, which reassures him. But when Moses tells the people of a coming salvation, they don’t listen, because of their servitude and hard work. Moses again has doubts about the success of his mission and brings his frustration to God. God is patient, repeatedly speaking to Moses and Aaron, to give them insight and also a positive outlook. God says, “I shall harden Pharaoh’s heart and I shall multiply my signs and wonders.” Then later God says, “Pharaoh will not heed you,” and later, “Pharaoh’s heart is heavy.” Here, God is giving Moses a window into the process of redemption, a psychological view of what needs to happen before Israel is freed.
Commentators have struggled to reconcile how God could harden Pharaoh’s heart with the principle that God never takes away our free will. I have explained this to myself with the thought that increasingly cruel decisions produce increasingly more drastic results; power meeting power; and that rule still applies, but additionally there is another way to look at this contradiction.
Did you ever get ready to leave for work in the morning when an idea popped up in your mind like: should I take an umbrella, or did I put my phone, my keys, or my papers in my briefcase or pocketbook? Do I have my gloves? I have a feeling it will rain.. Of course, we all have. And some of these little thoughts we ignore and some we pay attention to. Some are warnings, and one of the principles of Torah is that there is usually a warning before something unfortunate happens. But also, some of these little thoughts are suggestions, and I believe these suggestions are planted there to help us and also to be tests. We always have free will as to whether to pay attention to them or not. Our free will is never taken away. We have the ability to choose freely – to decide and to act, or not to act, on these suggestions. These suggestions are opportunities in disguise: the opportunity to pass tests which is really grasping onto rungs of a ladder put there for us; to lead us to increased understanding of the reality of our relationship to God and to the world; to open our eyes to a deeper reality than the one with which everyone is familiar. We all have many voices inside – not only the two common ones, the optimist and the pessimist, but also the soul’s yearning voice, the generous, and the selfish voices, and many more. The suggestions that occur to us test us and allow us to choose which voice to pay attention to: the voices of conventional and logical reasonableness or the voices of joy and aliveness, faith, hope, and understanding.
It is interesting that God instructs Moses in this psychological way of thinking. God says, Pharaoh’s heart is heavy. In other worlds, Pharaoh is an unhappy person. He is suffering. I have sent him suggestions about what to do. He won’t choose to listen to the voice of kindness or compassion because of his own misery. It’s obvious, God seems to be saying. Even you, Moses can see it’s true. Even you can predict what Pharaoh will do. It will take a tremendous show of power to get him to pay attention to you. He will be very, very hard to educate.
It is a well known Jewish teaching that no one is given a test unless they can pass it. Not that we always do pass tests, but that we can; that we are capable right now, just as we are, of passing them. So in this New Year, let us all be aware of the possibility that the little thoughts that pop up in our minds are suggestions planted there for us, for our benefit – as tests – that we can evaluate; and that can lead us to increased understanding and to a more active relationship with God. The choice is up to us. May all of our choices lead us to great blessing in this New Year.

Chaye Sara: The Life of Rebecca

This week’s Torah portion, Caye Sara, the life of Sara, is named after our first matriarch; but really centers on the life of Rebecca, Rivka, the second matriarch. Sara dies and Abraham buys the Cave of Machpeleh in order to bury Sara. Then Abraham sends his head servant back to his family in Mesopotamia to select a wife for Isaac. The servant, Eliezer, prays to God that, when he asks a maiden for a drink, the girl who says to him, Drink and I will even draw water for your camels, will be the one who has been Divinely chosen to the be the right bride for Isaac. He is not even finished praying this prayer to God when Rebecca appears and says those exact words. The servant is amazed, caught in a coincidence that he knows is supernatural.
Last week I spoke about Abraham’s kindness and willingness to give, and how the giving and receiving of love is the model for all receiving and giving in the Universe. Abraham’s kindness was demonstrated again and again by his actions. Here we see in Rebecca the same qualities. There is very little in the Rabbinic commentary about Rebecca. I always felt a little embarrassed about Rebecca. One of the few complimentary things I found about her is from the Zohar (I:50a), which says,“For when a man is at home, the foundation of his house is the wife, for it is on account of her that the Shekinah departs not from the house. So our teachers have understood the verse, “and he brought her to the tent of his mother Sarah” (Gen. 24: 67), to indicate that with Rebecca the Shekinah came to Isaac's house.” Perhaps my talk tonight might be titled, A Tribute to Rebecca. Her actions show that she was young and energetic; kind and generous. The text says three times that, like Abraham, she hurried to help. She ran to the spring and kept running to draw water until all the camels had enough to drink. The servant gives her gifts and inquires whether he and his entourage may spend the night. She answers that there is room and plentiful feed for the camels at home. Like Abraham, she is one who offers hospitality. Eliezer has arrived to find almost a second Abraham. The similarities do not stop there. Eliezer asks her family for Rebecca’s hand in marriage for Isaac. They agree. The next morning Eliezer asks to leave with Rebecca and her family asks him to remain ten months to a year. But Eliezer wants to leave immediately. Thank God for the history of women that Rebecca’s family asks her permission before they send her off. They ask, “Will you go with this man?” She says, without any hesitation, “I will go.” This parallel’s Abraham’s leaving his homeland when he received God’s call, without any indecision or questioning. Their ability to seize opportunity, resulted for both of them, in their receiving undreamed of spiritual and material gifts. Rebecca’s plucky optimism, trust, adventurous nature, and her willingness to say “Yes” to life, betting on a happy future; shows that she is Abraham’s spiritual heir, as well as his biological heir. She is, in fact, his Grand-niece.
It is Rebecca who, in next week’s portion, inquires of God about the twins jostling inside her and receives a response, making her a prophetess. It is also Rebecca who is the cause of Jacob’s stealing the blessing, taking the responsibility upon herself, but thereby insuring the spiritual legacy and continuation of Judaism. Perhaps she used the only weapons a woman had in that society, not direct confrontation, but indirect, yet decisive, action. And speaking of action, like Abraham, who went to rescue Lot, Rebecca rescues Jacob twice. She takes the blame upon herself, instructing him to lie to his Father. Then, by subsequently sending Jacob off to find a wife with her family in Mesopotamia, she further insures his survival and the continuation of their line. Sending him to her family resulted in Jacob’s 12 sons becoming the 12 tribes of Israel. Not that lying and deceiving are to be condoned. Quite the contrary: but we should remember that Abraham did it too. We are told he lied twice. Perhaps it’s a case of us giving God lemons and God making lemonade, for these actions all resulted in mostly positive outcomes.
Rebecca is our first convert: like Abraham, a person of courage and generosity, kindness, action, optimism and faith. She was wise in her choices and visionary in her actions. Perhaps we should speak about Abraham, Rebecca, and Jacob when we mention our Patriarchs, for she deserves our admiration and gratitude, not only for our continuation but also for the quality of our spiritual legacy. Rabbi Nachman of Breslau famously said, “A person walks in life on a very narrow bridge. The most important thing is not to be afraid.” And Rabbi Gelberman’s book Spiritual Truths says this too: “When we expect good we are sensitive to all its signposts. We do not miss the boat!” Rebecca’s fearlessness as she looked into the face of the unknown, her willingness to help, her taking a stand for what she knew was right, no matter the consequences, her strength, and her faith in God, make her someone we can look up to. May an appreciation of her life help us to let go of the fears that keep us from finding and experiencing our own blessings. May we confront life as she did, having faith in the goodness of life, with optimism for the future; and giving of ourselves, that we may be a blessing to others and receive all the good that is surely coming to us.

Receiving by Giving

This week’s Torah portion, Vayera, which means, and He appeared, continues the saga of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham greets three travelers who come to tell Sarah that she will have a child. Abraham hears of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and pleads for the rescue of the righteous. Lot, Abraham’s nephew who lives in Sodom, receives the angelic visitors; and he and his family are saved. Sarah gives birth to Isaac in great joy, Hagar and her son Ishmael are sent away, but are protected by God, and Abraham is tested when God asks him to sacrifice Isaac. Since the end of this portion is read on Rosh Hashanah, I’d like to look at something which comes into focus at the beginning of Vayera. Abraham has been circumcised. By tradition he is sitting healing just inside the entrance to his tent when he sees three dusty travelers. The Torah says, He saw and he ran to greet them and bowed toward the ground.” The he requested that they accept his offer of a meal and water for washing, to which they agree. The Torah says, Abraham rushed to the tent and said, Hurry! To Sarah, asking her to make fine cakes for them. Then it says Abraham ran to the herd. He selected a choice calf and saw that it was prepared with cream and milk. Then he served his guests and watched as they ate. The Talmud says about this: Rab Judah said in Rab's name: “Hospitality to travelers is greater than welcoming the Divine Presence. Shabbat 127a. And the Midrash says: Since the day when the Holy One, blessed be He, created you, you were destined to come to me. This indicates that it’s possible our purpose here on earth is to give. The story about Abraham can be seen in the larger context of his personality. Six more episodes from his life illustrate the kind of person he was. In last week’s portion, Lech Lecha, he leaves his home in Mesopotamia at God’s request, showing a lack of attachment to his property and life there. Second, He and Lot initially travel together, but later they acquire more livestock and can’t graze them in the same vicinity. Abraham, as head of the family, could choose the best land, but gives Lot his choice and takes what is left. Third, When Lot is captured in battle, Abraham goes to rescue him. He and his allies are victorious. Abraham gives away a tenth of the spoils of war to a local priest of God and then refuses any of his own share, giving all the captured possessions to his allies. About this Midrash says, R. Judah said in R. Nehorai's name: In virtue of that blessing the three great pillars of the world, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, enjoyed prosperity. In the case of Abraham it is written, And God blessed Abraham in all things (Genesis Raba XXIV, 1).Further, the Zohar says that Abraham forged a link to the upper world, allowing blessings to flow from below to above. Fourth, When there is a controversy about the ownership of well, Abraham gives Abimelech, the local chieftain, a gift of animals to placate him, even through Abraham is the injured party. Fifth, When asked by Sarah to give up his son Ishmael, Abraham is upset, but does so when God asks him to. Sixth, He even brings Isaac up to a mountain as a sacrifice, in my opinion, knowing that God with whom he has a close and trusting relationship, and who promised him descendants through Isaac, will somehow protect them both. Why does the Torah think it is important for us to know how generous Abraham was? We know that being a giving person is a good thing because it makes us feel good, and we are connected on a feeling level with each other and God; and it’s nice that the Patriarch of our religion was a generous person; but I believe that a deeper lesson is being taught here, perhaps one of the underlying principles by which the universe is structured. If God is one, then as I’ve come to understand, the moral and physical universes are one; they’re inseparable as we, too, as people are one, and inseparable with The Divine. So what we choose to do morally and ethically influences the outcomes of our lives. We know that no one will love us if we are mean, disagreeable, or continually difficult and stand offish. We have to give and be loving to receive love. But what is true in the realm of love is also true in every other area and aspect of the universe. And I think this is what all the accounts of Abraham’s generosity illustrate. Whatever we want to receive comes only to us through giving. Whether love or material things, we can only receive by first giving. This concept seems simple, but has wide implications. Unless our hearts are open, few blessings can come to us. The Zohar says, as the wicked upset the world and cause blessing to be withheld, so the righteous bring blessing to the world and for their sakes all its inhabitants are blessed…. The same principle applies to ones who seek to be attached to the sacred spirit on high. For it is by their acts, by their words, and by their fervency and devotion that they can draw to themselves that spirit from on high. Whether love or material things, we can only receive by first giving. Whether we wish to have spiritual attainment, intellectual growth, or material well being, what we work for or contribute decides what we will be able to receive. From this we can see that giving is its own special spiritual path.//This portion also speaks of improper giving. Lot, in an attempt to placate the townspeople of Sodom, and to observe the law of hospitality, offers his two virgin daughters to them, in place of his two guests. But Lot has offered that which is not his to give. His daughters are prevented from being given to the mob by the angel guests, but later the daughters’ incest with Lot testifies that, unlike Judah and Moses, who offer themselves in place of others, that Lot’s giving was unethical and clearly wrong. Abraham gave of his own possessions. The Chassidic Rabbi Yaakov Josef of Polnoye said, “that it is the sign of a truly righteous person that they are always ‘at the entrance’ as “Abraham was, aware that they have much to accomplish.” Abraham ran to have the opportunity to give: to give of himself, his time, his attention, his possessions and of his love. Each time we have the chance to give, it is a great opportunity to create goodness and kindness for others and ourselves. It is through giving that blessings can flow in this world. May Abraham be our example, teaching us that a generous open trusting heart affects the entire world. May we struggle against our lesser impulses and like Abraham be givers who receive many blessings.

Noah - Abandoning the Logical for the Real

Once upon a time there was a person whose name was Tranquility. And this person had three children; Renown, Warmth, and Beauty. If someone began to tell you a story and it started like this, what would you think?
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That is how the story of Noah begins, there was a man and his name was tranquility or rest. Other connotations are self composure, or as the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, pleasure, satisfaction, and yes, tranquility. His sons: Shem which means name and could refer to God’s name or to self esteem, or pride in a good sense, like pride in one’s work; and Ham, warmth, which connotes feeling, emotion, perhaps, or relationship; and Japhet, beauty or perfection.
Now this person, Noah, was said to be whole, perfect, and we’re told he walked with God. But then God gives him a ridiculous task: totally outlandish. Build an ark to the specifications I tell you. And then an even more improbable task: gather two of every animal and put them in the ark. How is anyone supposed to do that? They are commandments that are not reasonable. Any logical person would be thrown into a quandary as to what to do. But the Torah says twice, in two slightly different statements, Noah did everything which was commanded to him by God, so he did. And later, and Noah did everything that God commanded. What are we to think? That we should never question? That we should obey blindly? What is obviously metaphoric parable trying to teach us? I think one aspect of its teaching is about looking beneath the surface of this story at broad, general principles. First we can say that Noah accepted divine guidance. He was willing to take upon himself this unusual task, on faith and with trust. In a sense, he abandoned the logical for the real, for what turned out to be more real than logic. Let it be noted too, that he was happy working on this task for God. Later in this portion, after building the ark, after the flood was over, after his responsibilities were mostly completed: it is then that he gets drunk and becomes debased. It was only after he stopped doing God’s work and did something solely for himself; that he gets into trouble. So by being willing to follow God and doing these strange tasks he entered a deeper reality than the everyday life of human beings; a deeper reality than the appearance of our reality. The S’fat Emet speaks about Noah’s acceptance of the Divine tasks. He says, “The process takes place through human self negation, where everything returns to its source. It (concerns)…the one who understands that he has no life of his own.” This is a strange statement. We have free will. Of course we have lives of our own, don’t we? I would say, yes, and no. The Torah teaches that we are always being led to a higher, purer way of living. It’s like the morning blessing in which we thank God for guiding us on our path. By accepting Divine guidance, we partially negate our will so that we can participate in the deeper reality: that the Divine life is being lived through us. The means for improvement and healing in the world, and in ourselves, must come through us, though it does not necessarily come only from us. We are meant to be expressions of the inner life of the Divine, manifested on earth. It is our acceptance of our Divine tasks and our labor that makes this possible. We will be given tasks that may make no sense to our logical minds. As a matter of fact, evolutionary biologists have been trying to explain altruism for more than a century, without any real success. And the reason they can’t explain it is that it’s illogical, but nevertheless, very real: an observable phenomenon which permeates all of nature. We can’t always explain why following God’s commandments and guidance works. We don’t always know how it produces good results, but by being willing to negate our apparent self interest and work for the common good, we attain tranquility, pride, warmth and beauty: attributes that are not bestowed upon us, but earned by us. A person who is complete is tranquil and experiences rest, a good name, the warmth of love, and the beauty of living. It is this kind of person who can negate their own desires and attach themselves to their source, the root of all existence and all being. We were meant to live in two worlds simultaneously: the practical and the spiritual. May we be pliant enough to accept Divine guidance and take upon ourselves the tasks that we are lovingly given. May our labor be for others as well as for ourselves, that we may be an expression of the life of the Divine: tranquil, proud of our actions, connected by human warmth, and experiencing life’s beauty.

Bubbameises of Creation

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.