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.

The Path to Becoming a Tzaddik

This week’s Torah portion is Vayeishev, which means, and he settled. Jacob settled in Canaan with his wives and 13 children. The teenage Joseph, second to the youngest, used to tattle on his older brothers. Joseph was the favorite son, the one given the coat of many colors or coat of fine wool, denoting family leadership; the dreamer who dreamed of future leadership, and let everyone know it. In this Torah portion, the brothers are pasturing their father’s flock and Jacob sends his young son, Joseph, to bring back a report. In essence, he is sent to tattle. When they see him coming, his brothers conspire to kill him. Reuben, the eldest, steers them away from murder, suggesting they throw him into a pit, with the intention of rescuing him later. Judah, the fourth son, advocates selling him to a passing caravan, agreeing with Reuben, saying, “Let our hand not be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh (Gen. 37:27).” The brothers decide to follow Judah’s lead and they do put Joseph into the pit. While they are eating a picnic lunch, traders sell Joseph before they can make a profit themselves, and he is eventually taken to Egypt and resold, ending up as a slave to Potifar, a high official.
This story pivots on hatred and jealousy – two emotions that are in every human heart. At this season of social and family gatherings, it may come up for us, making an unwelcome appearance in our lives. Why are we given these attributes? How do they serve us and, from a spiritual perspective, why are they wrong? The verse, “He is our brother, our own flesh,” is very enlightening. In a sense, all hatred is self hatred. This can be seen in the well known situation of the self hating Jew. But also, since the truth of reality, which the Torah teaches, is that we are all one: we are all part of each other. We are all brothers, sisters: family; and we are all part of the Divine Oneness. So we recognize in others that quality that is part of us: hatred or jealousy, and return it outward. Or we find a lack in ourselves and blame another person for it.
Hatred and jealousy come from a faulty understanding of the world. Rashi comments: snakes and scorpions were in the pit. The brothers placed Joseph physically in the place where they were emotionally: a place of snakes and scorpions. They separated themselves from Joseph, trying to get rid of their own negative feelings toward him. In a sense, all sins are sins of separation: separating us from one another and from God. If the truth of existence is that we are One, then any separation goes against the way the Universe is made. It is a step backward, toward the corruption of society in the time of Noah, rather than forward, into the messianic vision of the future.
One of the underlying principles of the Torah is that one who separates will herself or himself be separated. This was true of Rebecca, who was separated from her beloved son Jacob. It was true of Rachel, who was separated from Jacob, her husband, Joseph and her newborn son Benjamin, and from life itself, by her early death. And it was true of Judah in this Torah portion, whose wife and two sons died untimely deaths. Hatred and jealousy are challenges within us that we can strive against. They are prime attributes that we can decide to overcome, providing rungs on the ladder leading toward spiritual progress. They can spur us to goodness when re recognize them and honestly admit to their source within us. They can show us a path of action to redress wrongs or injustice in our relationships and in the greater society; and they can help us to achieve and attain for ourselves what we have always wanted to be, IF and only if, we put these attributes in the service of unifying and not separating. The world looks separate to us and is not. People look separate from us and are not. Hatred and jealousy hurt us, not others. The path to becoming a tzaddik, a righteous person, is long, but Joseph the tattletale achieved it. The brothers: Reuben, Judah and the others achieved it. And so can we. May jealous and hatred not find a place to lodge in our hearts, and may we grow in goodness and righteousness, acting out of and choosing the truth of our unity.

Spiritual Completion & How We Grow

This week’s Torah portion is Toldot, which means offspring. It tells of Isaac and Rebecca’s family and the birth of Rebecca’s twins. The first baby to be born was covered in red hair, so they named him Esau. Rashi says everyone called him Esau because he was fully made, completed. Esau comes from the verb ASA, to do or to make, and Esau was also a doer: a man of action. Jacob was born second, grasping Esau’s heel, and he was named Yaakov, heel or that which follows. The JPS commentary also links Yaakov to the Semitic word for protection, a plea for Divine shelter and blessing. The Torah gives a brief description of the two boys. About Esau it says, Esau became one who knows trapping, a man of the field. The description for Jacob reads, and Jacob was a quiet man, abiding in tents. Not all translations say quiet. Rashi says wholesome. The Women’s Torah commentary says homespun. Another translation is mild. But the Hebrew says, Tam. Tam literally means finished, perfect, complete whole, innocent, or simple. It is the same word used for the Simple Son in the section of the Passover Hagaddah that tells of the four children, or the four sons. The simple son is the one who is Tam: whole or complete. We can see that Jacob and Esau were very different, but that each was complete in his own way. Esau is physically complete and ready for action. Jacob’s completeness is more about inner resources, the ability to be quietly alone, to be a thinker, the ability to meditate, the ability to be in relationship with people and not only with things; but also he is a planner and a schemer. Neither boy had it all, but each was described as being complete. Their completeness brings us back to a verse in B’reisheet: “The heavens and the earth were finished and all their array. By the seventh day God completed the work which God had done, and abstained on the seventh day from all the work which God had done. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it God abstained from all the work which God created to make.” The verb, to make, Laasot, is puzzling. The end of the quotation should say, that God Made. To make, points us into the future. From this our sages derive the principle of Shutfei Elohim, being in partnership with God. My teacher, Rabbi Gelberman expressed it this way: God said, nothing I do anymore will be done alone. From now on we will finish the work of creation together. And this is precisely the case for Jacob and Esau, and also for us. We are born perfect and complete, just as creation was perfect and complete after the sixth day of creation. But we are also incomplete. The S’fat Emet expresses this in another way: “All things are brought into being by God. But the point is hidden and we have to expand it. This depends upon the point within us, for the more we expand our own souls, the more God is revealed to us in every place.” We are meant to be a work in progress that we, ourselves are bringing to completeness with our Divine partner. Or rather, that God is bringing to completeness with us as a willing or unwilling partner. Jacob and Esau are again instructive. As young men, their lack of a trusting, loving relationship is obvious. Esau’s anger and hostility toward Jacob for stealing the blessing and Jacob’s scheming, manipulative nature, his willingness to trick his way through life and run away from his problems repulse us. But their actions should give us great hope. Who of us doesn’t cringe at things we have done when we were younger, or even last year? If Jacob and Esau can become holy, so can we. As middle aged men, in next week’s Torah portion, Jacob and Esau have left their infantile selves, having done the inner work that allows them to express their love for each other and to see Divinity in each other’s faces, reestablishing their deep bond of understanding and caring for each other. We, too, are being led on a path of spiritual growth and development. Just as we have an innate program of physical development that unfold in our bodies, so we have an innate program of spiritual development that unfold in our souls. The events of our lives, our choices, and our feelings about our choices and those events are the engine which propels our growth. Each experience is an opportunity or test for us to choose with love, caring, and generosity. Each choice comes with the feedback of our feelings about how we have used the gift of free will. This is the creation of new Torah within us every day. This is how God communicates with us. Each new day is an opportunity to triumph over our yesterday’s selves. We may lose the contest numerous times before we are ready to advance. But we will surely advance, for we are being led by the Eternal One toward perfection, wholeness and the spiritual simplicity of pure love. Flawed as we are, Jacob and Esau teach us that each of us can attain great spiritual heights. Our sages said, “The offspring of the righteous are good deeds.” May we participate eagerly and fully in our growth toward righteousness, and may all our choices be deeds and words and thoughts of holiness and love.

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.