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Failure to Escape

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PrisonRabbeinu Yonah, zt”l, teaches a lesson of teshuvah from a statement on today’s daf. “One who repeats one sin ten times has transgressed ten sins. We learn this from a nazir. A nazir gets a separate spate of lashes for every time he drank wine if the witnesses warned him before each drink.

“Even for a person who keeps the entire Torah, there is often at least one sin that he violates without much inhibition. He acts as though this sin is no sin at all. Even if this lax attitude extended to only one sin that would be serious enough. But most people have many areas that they do not take seriously. Some say the Name of heaven in vain. Others are not careful that their hands or the place they are in be clean before they say God’s Name. Some turn a blind eye to the poor, or one’s weakness may be slander, baseless hatred or arrogance. Or it may that he gazes at the forbidden. And laxness in the hardest mitzvah to fulfill properly is all too common: Torah study which counts like the entire Torah.

“It is therefore proper for every ba’al teshuvah to write down his flaws and mistakes and read this book every day. In that manner he will surely repent.”

Rabbeinu Yonah provides a famous parable on the importance of teshuvah. “This is likened to people who were jailed and managed to dig a tunnel out of their cell. Everyone escaped except one man. When the jailor noticed the tunnel and that everyone had escaped he began beating the man. ‘You fool! Why didn’t you take the opportunity and escape like everyone else?’”

When the Chiddushei HaRim, zt”l, quoted this Rabbeinuu Yonah he taught a brilliant lesson. “We see that failing to do teshuvah is worse than sinning in the first place!”

Daf Yomi Digest
Stories off the Daf
“Get Out of Jail”
Chullin 82

How interesting. If sin is putting yourself in jail, then teshuvah, the process of turning from sin back to God, is escaping from jail. We don’t normally consider a jailbreak in a positive, moral light, but think about it. If you are put in jail as the consequence of committing a crime, you wait passively. There is little or nothing you can do to secure your release except to wait for time to pass and your sentence to be up. You do not participate in your redemption in any way.

On the other hand, a jailbreak is an active process. It requires planning, gathering the right tools and, in some cases, organizing the different roles required for the escape with other people. You aren’t simply going to be released just because you’re waiting around. You actually have to do something about it. So it is with the process of repentence. So it is with the activity of making teshuvah. It won’t happen unless you take an active part.

But as in Rabbeinu Yonah’s parable, there will always be those people who, for whatever reason, continue to allow themselves to be imprisoned when they could have escaped and become free again. Failure to make amends, to repent, to turn from sin, and return to God is worse than the sin that landed you in jail in the first place.

But there’s more.

Both Passover and bringing of the first fruits are times when we must recognize our blessings and their origin. They say “there are no atheists in foxholes,” but foxholes are a lousy place to get religion! The Torah wants us to develop a connection with happiness and love, rather than fear. The curses found in this week’s reading only come about “because you did not serve HaShem your G-d with joy and a good heart, from an abundance of all.” [Deuteronomy 28:47]

-Rabbi Yaakov Menkin
Director, Project Genesis
Torah.org

This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about the mystery of “joy”. About six months ago, I wrote something called Failing Joy 101. By nature, I’m not a continuously happy or joyous person. I don’t walk around with a smile on my face all the time. I don’t always approach the day with boundless enthusiasm. I even sometimes find people who really are cheerful all the time as kind of annoying. And yet we have this. Not only are we to stage a jailbreak when we are incarcerated within sin, but essentially, we’re to do so with a song of joy in our hearts.

And if we don’t, it’s a sin. It’s sin that gets us in jail in the first place. It’s sin that keeps us in jail when we could escape. And it’s sin, even when we escape, if we don’t do so joyfully.

I think I’m getting a headache.

Joyous enthusiasm is the child of inspiration. It is the emotional elixir that galvanizes, energizes, electrifies our lives. It empowers us to move mountains and make impossible dreams come true. Without joy, we plod mechanically toward our goals, seeking relief rather than fulfillment, but with joy we soar toward glittering mountaintops.

Clearly then, joy is a critical factor in our service of the Creator. It infuses every observance, every prayer, every moment of study with a divine energy that brings us that much closer to our Father in Heaven. One of the Chassidic masters once said, “Joy is not a commandment, but no commandment can accomplish what joy can.”

But what if a person cannot achieve joy? What if a person is overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life and is unable to free his spirit and let it soar? Surely, he does not deserve to be condemned and chastised for this failure. Surely, he should continue to serve the Creator to the best of his ability even if his efforts are less than inspired.

-Rabbi Naftali Reich
“The Little Voice”
Commentary on Parshas Ki Savo
Torah.org

DespairIt’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who thinks about these things. Rabbi Reich goes on to say, “Some commentators resolve this perplexing problem homiletically. They read the verse as follows, ‘Because you did not serve Hashem your Lord – with joy.’ It is not the absence of joy which is deserving of punishment but rather the presence of inappropriate joy.’

Let’s go back to the inmate who refused to escape from jail. Why wouldn’t he leave? Why stay in sin…unless he liked it there.

I don’t know if Rabbi Reich is reaching a little too far for a solution, but it is one that we could consider. As the Rabbi says, it’s “one thing to fall short in the service of Hashem, to fall victim to the weakness of the flesh. But it is quite another to revel in sinfulness, to delight in the saccharine juices of forbidden fruit.” So the absence of joy in our acts committed for the service of the Creator may not be desirable, that’s not where our sin lies.

A king was angry with his son for neglecting his princely duties. He decided to discipline him by banishing him incognito to a remote village.

When the prince arrived in the village of his banishment, he was mortified. The place was a collection of rude huts without the most basic comforts and refinements of polite society. There were no books or works of art for miles around. The people were vulgar and ignorant. The stench in the streets was overpowering.

A year passed, and the king began to reconsider his decree of banishment against the young prince. But first he sent spies to see how the prince was faring.

The spies arrived in the village, but it was a while before they located the prince sitting among a group of peasants in a barnyard. The once handsome and elegant young prince was filthy and dressed in vermin-infested rags. He was stuffing his face with half raw meat, the red juices running down his chin. Every few minutes, he would roar with laughter at one or another of the coarse peasant stories that were being bandied about. The spies immediately returned to the palace to report on what they had seen.

When the king heard their report, he wept. “If my son is happy among the peasants, he will never be a prince.”

The parable quoted from Rabbi Reich’s commentary tells the same story as Rabbeinu Yonah’s parable. Two men were sentenced to isolation from the world of faith and hope for a certain time. The intent was to teach them, in their misery, that they should desire to return to their former lives and learn appreciation for what was temporarily denied them. Instead, we find that the opposite happened. Both men learned to become accustomed to their life of depravity and sinfulness. I suspect both men lost hope because without hope, there can never be joy.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. –Philippians 4:12-13

I suspect that Paul could write these words with sincerity because he had hope in Jesus. It was a hope that transcended circumstances and became interwoven with the very fabric of his being. It is a hope that only true trust and faith in God can create and nurture. Knowing God exists provides a certain amount of comfort. Having absolute trust in Him, regardless of your situation is where one discovers faith, hope, and finally, joy.

While we are expected to somehow just “have” these treasures, they don’t simply lie along the common path, like wildflowers growing out of the gravel. Digging an escape tunnel doesn’t just happen. It takes a lot of effort. So, for at least some of us, does the search for the fruits of the spirit.

If we have no joy in our hearts, we deny the love of God. We should not say, “Our heart is the dwelling place of lust, jealousy, anger; there is no hope for us.” Let us realize that we have another guest in us who desires to give us life and joy, notwithstanding our sin.

-Paul Philip Levertoff
Love and the Messianic Age

There’s another reason why the prisoner might choose not to escape; not due to any attraction to or love of sin, but because of the futility of hoping that any escape would be permanent or even long lived. Perhaps the son of David was right after all.

The road

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

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The Face in the Mirror

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Mirror“Rabbi Mendel of Kotsk was told of a great saint who lived in his time who claimed that during the seven days of the Feast of Booths his eyes would see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David come to the booth. Said Rabbi Mendel: “I do not see the heavenly guests; I only have faith that they are present in the booth, and to have faith is greater than to see.” (page 118)

-Abraham Joshua Heschel
God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” –John 20:29

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew 8:10-11

In the early morning when I drive to the gym for my workout, the sun is not yet risen. There is no cold bite in the air, but I can still tell that the days of summer are all but exhausted and that autumn is finally approaching. We are in the month of Elul which precedes the High Holy Days and after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, comes Sukkot or the Festival of Booths.

Although I cherish all of God’s appointed times, I must confess that Sukkot is one of my favorites. I enjoy the process of building a temporary structure that can potentially shelter the guests of Heaven, but more tangibly, that will allow my family to pray, take meals, together, and celebrate God’s provision among us. It is a custom in Judaism to invite the poor to share a meal in your sukkah and in my imagination, I picture all of us, rich and poor, great and small, sitting and eating as the Master prophesied, with “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” during Sukkot.

During Passover, it is customary to set a place at the meal for Elijah the Prophet and, at one point in the haggadah, a child is sent to the door to see if Elijah is there, for if he is, then the Messiah is coming. During Sukkot, we can set a place for anyone, “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David”, both in the hope that they may come and share a meal with us, and in anticipation of the time when (again, as the Master teaches) we will all be together as a community of God, sharing and talking and eating and teaching, and everyone “will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid…” (Micah 4:4).

However, before our eyes are allowed to witness such a wonderful and miraculous “Sukkot” feast, we must learn to see with the eyes of Rabbi Mendel and the eyes of the Baal Shem Tov.

Do not judge your fellow until you have stood in his place –Pirkei Avot 2:4

Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (the “Besht,” founder of the chassidic movement) taught: “Your fellow is your mirror. If your own face is clean, the image you perceive will also be flawless. But should you look upon your fellow man and see a blemish, it is your own imperfection that you are encountering—you are being shown what it is that you must correct within yourself.”

Quoted from Ethics of Our Fathers commentary:
“The Mirror”
Elul 9, 5771 * September 8, 2011
Chabad.org

The eyes of faith see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sitting in our Sukkah sharing a meal with our family. How do the eyes of faith see your neighbors and friends? How do you see those people around you, particularly if you view them with annoyance or scorn?

A few days ago, I wrote a morning meditation about how our thoughts and words affect our relationship with other people and with God. I hadn’t really intended to write a “sequel”, but that’s how it worked out. But if we claim to see the wonders of God through the lens of faith, yet fail to use that same lens when looking at our fellow human being, what “faith” are we really professing?

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. –James 3:9-12

SuccothI could hardly write these words with any sort of sincerity if I continued to use my own eyes to view my brothers and sisters in a less than complementary light. We are completely perfect but made in God’s image. We are only mortal, but we are capable of touching the infinite. As Rabbi Heschel writes (page 118):

This, indeed, is the greatness of man; to be able to have faith. For faith is an act of freedom, of independence of our own limited faculties, whether of reason or sense-perception. It is an act of spiritual ecstasy, of rising above our own wisdom.

To have faith is not to capitulate but to rise to a higher plane of thinking. To have faith is not to defy human reason but rather to share divine wisdom…Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these.

And from the Psalms:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth. –Psalm 121:1-2

Heschel states that, “…our faith in Him conveys to us more understanding of Him than either reason or perception is able to grasp”, but what good does that do us if we refuse to even try to see people around us as God sees them; as God sees us all? We may believe we are adoring and serving God but we have failed Him completely if we cannot adore and serve people as well.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” –Mark 12:28-34

As the commentary on Pirkei Avot states:

Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, taught: “Your fellow is your mirror. If your own face is clean, the image you encounter in your fellow will also be flawless. Should you gaze into this `mirror’ and see a blemish, it is your own imperfections that you are seeing.”

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. –Matthew 7:3-5

If looking in the mirror which is your brother’s face, you see only imperfection and error, how will you ever see the face of Abraham or the face of Jesus in your Sukkah?

Who is the light in your reflection?

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Small Stones on the Path

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Stone PathIn future generations, people will find difficulty in understanding how at one time generations existed who did not regard the idea of God as the highest concept of which man is capable, but who, on the contrary, were ashamed of it and considered the development of atheism a sign of progress in the emancipation of human thought.

Walter Schubart
Russia and Western Man (1950)
p. 62f.

Moreover, the sublime in the Biblical sense is found not only in the immense and the mighty, in the “bold, overhanging, and, as it were, threatening rocks,” but also in the pebbles on the road. “For the stone shall cry out of the wall” (Habakuk 2:11). “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (Psalms 118:27).

Abraham Joshua Heschel
God in Search of Man : A Philosophy of Judaism
pg 40

I was almost astonished when I came across the quote of Schubart in Rabbi Heschel’s book, if only because it is such a completely accurate prediction of what we experience in the world today. I had to read it over again to make sure I understood the phrase correctly. We live in an age where belief, faith, and trust in God is considered at best anachronistic and at worst, ignorance and bigotry. Religion, more than any other organized structure, is blamed by the prevailing secular world for all manner of human ills including war, famine, disease, and race-hatred. This is considered especially true if you are a Christian or a Jew (for social and political reasons, modern western culture treats Muslims as exempt from this group).

Yesterday morning, my wife sent me a link to an article written by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman (we both appreciate his writing very much) called What is Chutzpah? The following caught my attention:

Citing the words of the Mishnah, “Be fierce as a leopard,” the code tells us that this means that when you go about doing all those Jewish things that Jews do, you shouldn’t feel the slightest embarrassment before those who ridicule you.

I’m not Jewish, but anyone who is openly religious will give the appearance of being an “oddball” in the culture we live in, and certainly I am considered an “oddball” even among other Christians (read any of my blog posts to find out why). Rabbi Freeman reminds me that to live a life of faith unashamedly, you must have chutzpah; the unabashed courage to make every action and every statement an expression of who you are in God and who He is in you.

One of Rabbi Freeman’s articles, related to the one on chutzpah, addresses Emunah, which is sometimes translated as “faith” or “belief”. It’s not an entirely equivalent term to either of those English words, and contains the sense that it “is an innate conviction, a perception of truth that transcends, rather than evades, reason.” That’s something of a radical concept, because the secular world sees faith as the lack of logic and reason while emunah is described as a sort of “meta-reason” and in fact, “wisdom, understanding and knowledge can further enhance true emunah.”

Several months ago, I wrote a blog article called Getting in the Wheelbarrow which describes the difference between faith (or at least belief) and trust. In short, faith is believing in the existence of God. Trust is “living out loud”, so to speak, a life with the certainty that God will always support you in all circumstances. This means being faithful to God in all things regardless of what people say or think about you and your rather unpopular lifestyle.

It’s not easy.

Almost two weeks ago, I wrote in another blog post that “What’s more important is to realize that we have that importance in the eyes of God no matter what anyone else thinks or feels about us.” That includes our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and anyone whose thoughts, feelings, and opinions matter to us.

It’s not easy.

I’ve been following some conversations on a couple of blogs lately. One blog is written by Dr. Stuart Dauermann who believes that Jews who have faith in Jesus (Yeshua) should live a completely Jewish ethnic, cultural, and religious lifestyle. The other is maintained by Judah Gabriel Himango who believes that “Spirit-Life-giving” worship elements such as singing “Messianic” songs and performing “Davidic” dancing (this is an oversimplification..see his blog for more details) shouldn’t be sacrificed for the sake of traditional Jewish worship practices (which are somehow not “Spirit-Life-giving”). I’ve alreadyJacob's Pillar commented in the conversations on both blogs and don’t want to re-hash the arguments here, but it’s commentaries like these that remind me how much of a struggle it can be to make the simple choice to worship and honor God in a particular manner without attracting someone’s ire.

Chutzpah and Emunah are partners by necessity because living a life of the latter absolutely requires possessing the former, that is unless you choose to live in a cave or on a mountain top far away from other human beings. Isolation for the sake of faith however, is not what God had in mind.

And now the LORD says—
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD
and my God has been my strength—
he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” –Isaiah 49:5-6

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. –Matthew 5:14-16

In seeking God, we seek the sublime, the exalted and elevated, the most mighty of all Kings and the greatest of all Lords, the One God of all creation. However, Heschel says that the sublime isn’t always found in the highest heavens (pp 40-41.)

The sublime is revealed not only in the “clouds piled up in the sky, moving with lightning flashes and thunder peals,” but also in God’s causing the rain “to satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth” (Job 38:27); not only in the “volcanoes in all their violence and destruction,” but also in God’s “setting up on high those that are low” and in frustrating “the device of the crafty” (Job 5:11-12); not only in “the hurricanes with their track of devastation” but also in “the still small voice” (I Kings 19:12); not only in “the boundless ocean in the state of tumult” but in His setting a bar to the sea, saying, “Thus far shalt thou come, but no further; here shall they proud waves be stayed” (Job 38:11).

I might add that not only is the sublime found in the majestic Courts of Heaven and on the awesome Throne of God, but also in the lowliest servant of the Most High, trembling in fear and awe as he kneels before his King.

Rabbi Freeman writes that Abraham and Moses had enough chutzpah to question even God and that David’s chutzpah wouldn’t allow him to be afraid of the giant Goliath who was screaming terrible insults at the Jewish people.

The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement, had no sense of fear of anyone or anything other than G-d Himself. Those who knew him said that if a lion would jump out at him, he wouldn’t flinch.

Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch defined the kind of chutzpah that the leaders of Chabad implemented in their fight against Czarist oppression and later Bolshevik anti-religious persecution: “Just go over it.” Meaning, no matter what they do, no matter how ominous it looks, just keep your locomotive steaming straight ahead as though there’s nothing in your way.

How much less should you and I fear those around us who believe we are ignorant and failing to uphold a proper “political correctness”, all for the sake of an ancient God who they have long since concluded is a myth created by a middle eastern tribe far removed from modern enlightenment and progressiveness. In the face of an “enlightenment” that has darkened the corridor leading to true wonder and awe, we believers and disciples of the Master, small and humble though we may be, are also his only lights in the world of men. We are serving as guides through the fog and pathfinders to the confused and dazed of humanity who are wandering blind in a lost and troubled world.

We associate chutzpah and emunah with the Jewish people and it has served them well, but these tools are essential for any person who professes faith and trust in God and it is by these qualities that we shall endure, though we are only “small pebbles on the road” and stones crying “out of the wall”.

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Loving God

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Burning BushWhen God appeared to our Teacher Moses, and commanded him to address the people and to bring them the message, Moses replied that he might first be asked to prove the existence of God in the Universe, and that only after doing so he would be able to announce to them that God had sent him. For all men, with few exceptions, were ignorant of the existence of God; their highest thoughts did not extend beyond the heavenly sphere, its forms or its influences. They could not yet emancipate themselves from sensation, and had not yet attained to any intellectual perfection. Then God taught Moses how to teach them, and how to establish amongst them the belief in the existence of Himself…

Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, a name derived from the verb hayah in the sense of “existing,” for the verb hayah denotes “to be,” and in Hebrew no difference is made between the verbs “to be” and “to exist.” …This is, therefore, the expression of the idea that God exists, but not in the ordinary sense of the term; or, in other words, He is “the existing Being which is the existing Being,” that is to say, the Being whose existence is absolute.

from The Guide for the Perplexed
by Moses Maimonides
translated by M. Friedlander (1903)

This blog continues my series based on the JLI course book for Toward a Meaningful Life. If you haven’t done so yet, please review the previous blog, A Knock on the Door, and then return here and keep reading.

I don’t doubt the actual existence of God and haven’t for quite some time. Too much has happened to me that can’t be explained any other way but that God, the God of the Bible, must exist and be active in the world. It’s comprehending God and particularly, what He wants from a relationship with me that has me “perplexed”. Understanding God is no small matter and I don’t believe it’s possible for any human being to comprehend God, though that hasn’t stopped me from trying to grasp Him on some miniscule scale.

A few days ago, I wrote a blog saying, in part, that God is the only being who truly stands alone and without peer. God is a unique and radical One and there is no other like Him.

G-d replied that His name is “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh.” That is to say: the Being Whose existence depends on nothing but Himself…. “I exist because I exist, not because of another existence. Unlike other beings, My existence and power is not dependent on anything.”

This name does not apply to any other being. They cannot say, “I exist because I exist.” They are only able to say…”I exist because another being exists,” that is, the First Cause upon which all beings depend.

But G-d depends on Himself, not on any other cause….Therefore, His existence is a true existence because He does not need any other being.

Rabbi Yosef Albo
Sefer Ha’ikarim 2:27

This, as much as anything, is what makes God so incomprehensible. As people, we like to think we’re self-sufficient and independent, but even on a human scale, we must admit that our existence is dependent on our parents. On a cosmic scale, all that lives and all that exists depends on God for our very being and purpose. That is a daunting and humbling thought, and if you are a secular humanist, you will reject the concept out of hand. People don’t like to think that we aren’t in control our lives. In fact, we do control what we do with our lives, we just don’t determine why we were created in the first place, and we often don’t have a clue as to which “destiny” or purpose we are best suited. That is up to God, not a blind and random meeting between your father’s and mother’s genetic material, and not by any other set of arbitrary probabilities.

We are dependent on so much. Only God is alone.

Rabbi Albo also wrote, in Sefer Ha’ikarim 2:30:

It is impossible for anyone outside of G-d to grasp His essence. Like the answer given by the wise man upon being asked if he knows the essence of G-d – “If I knew Him I would be Him.” In other words, there is no one who can grasp G-d’s essence except God….The ultimate we can grasp about G-d is that we cannot grasp Him. As the wise man said, “The ultimate knowing of You is knowing that I cannot know You.”

Woman prayingAdmitting all of that, where does that leave humans in relation to God? We can’t know Him, at least not in the sense of His most complete essence. And yet, we are commanded to “love the Lord, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means.” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Jesus taught these very words (Matthew 22:37) so I feel confident that they apply to Jews and to everyone else. We are also taught to fear God (Deuteronomy 6:13) with (my interpretation) a fearful awesomeness. But how do we connect to God when He is so infinite and we are so…not?

An article written by Rabbi Aaron Moss is included in the JLI course material for Toward a Meaningful Life and is crafted in the form of an “Ask the Rabbi” column:

Question: Rabbi, I am uninspired, I used to pray to G-d and study Torah, but I’ve lost the spark. I feel flat and empty and I haven’t done anything spiritual in ages. What should I do to find my soul again?

I won’t attempt to replicate the Rabbi’s rather lengthy answer, but at the core, he says that if you wait for a feeling to inspire you to start praying, studying and rekindling your relationship with God, you’ll wait forever. It’s like an out-of-shape person saying that they can’t go to the gym to get back in shape until they start getting more strength and stamina. They are too out-of-shape to be able to work out in order to get back into shape. I’m sure you can see the “Catch-22” involved here.

Stephen Covey, in his bestselling book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, relates an encounter he had with a fellow after a speaking engagement. The man told Covey that he hadn’t loved his wife for many years and no matter what he tried, he couldn’t resurrect his emotional connection with her. He pleaded with Covey to give him some advice or insight as to how he could start loving his wife again.

Covey’s only answer was, “Just love her”.

If you wait for a feeling before you start treating someone as if you love them, you’ll be waiting forever. This is as true of a relationship with God as with a spouse. To love God, don’t wait for a feeling. Start praying. Start reading the Bible. Start allowing God to just be with you. By the by, you will start “feeling” the love returning.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his article Each of Us Has a Personal Relationship with God says in part:

I also believe that God supervises the smallest details and every single individual….Thus, God has a plan for each and every human being and every single creature. But I cannot know what His plan is for me. Every now and then I ask Him (and sometimes receive an answer…). What am I supposed to do now according to the plan? Have I done what You wanted me to do, or have I erred and misunderstood you?

SproutI’m sure I’ve asked those questions of God before. Rabbi Steinsaltz goes on:

That is why prayer, no matter the form, is so important. Prayer is always a conversation with God. It is the way we relate feelings, fears or aspirations, or make requests…Human beings have the right (perhaps also the duty) to converse with God, to ask things from Him and also to complain to Him…

Probably the capstone of today’s missive was written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his article When People Lose Faith in God, They Lose Faith in Humanity Also:

We are small but capable of greatness, selfish but often selfless, dust of the earth but also the image of god. When I have faith in God I find that I recover my faith in humanity as well.

Expressing faith through prayer and study, even when the heart seems empty is like coaxing a small, tender shoot to begin to bud in the desert. With persistence, care, and patience, it can grow into a forest.

“But words and music can never
touch the beauty that I’ve seen
looking into you
and that’s true”

-Jackson Browne
from his song “Looking Into You”

This series of blogs based on the JLI course Toward a Meaningful Life will conclude on Sunday’s “morning meditation” when I look at whether or not its reasonable or fair to apply a series of lessons written specifically for a Jewish audience to Christians and the world at large.

Later today, I’ll post my commentary for this week’s Torah Portion, Re’eh: When Did We Feed You?

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I’ll Get By With a Little Help

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Praying with TefillinWelcome to today’s “bonus” meditation.

Teshuvas Torah L’Shmah was asked whether a person who would not be able to concentrate while davening (praying) should daven or not. Seemingly, if he will not be able to concentrate he should be exempt since sefarim write that davening without concentration is comparable to a body without a soul. Accordingly, if he is unable to concentrate he should not daven. He responded that one who is distracted and consequently incapable of davening with proper concentration should nevertheless daven since we do not push aside the mitzvah just because of his difficulty. He then adds that someone who does not know the inner meaning or kabbalistic intent that is supposed to accompany a mitzvah is not exempt from that mitzvah. A person is expected to do what he can and even without that additional intent the mitzvah is considered fulfilled without any defect whatsoever.

Even though the individual does not know how to properly focus his thoughts on davening, God will supplement what is lacking.

Daf Yomi Digest
Halacha Highlight
“Should a person daven if he cannot properly concentrate?”
Chullin 31

In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi sets down the fundamentals of the chabad-chassidic approach to life. On the cover page of this “bible of chabad-chassidism” he defines his work as follows:

“Based on the verse, `For it [the Torah and its precepts] is something that is very close to you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it’ – it explains, with the help of G-d, how it is indeed exceedingly close, in a long and short way.”

Chabad Commentary on Chapter 2
The Ethics of Our Fathers
“The Long But Short Of It”
Tammuz 25, 5771 * July 27, 2011

If you are a person of faith, your highest desire is to draw closer to God and do to what will please Him. Any son or daughter wants to not only obey their father but to do what will make him happy. So it is between us and our Father in Heaven.

So what’s the problem? We are.

To continue from the Chabad commentary for Pirkei Avot Chapter 2:

The Torah and its mitzvos are the Creator’s blueprint for creation, detailing the manner in which He meant life to be lived and His purpose in creation to be fulfilled. But is a life that is ordered utterly by Torah indeed feasible? Can the ordinary “Everyman” be realistically expected to conduct his every act, word and thought in accordance with Torah’s most demanding directives?

…a person may argue: Why spend a lifetime pursuing this demanding regimen of mind and heart? Why must I toil to understand and feel? Why not take the direct approach–open the books and follow instructions? I’m a simple Jew, he may maintain, and the attainment of such lofty spiritual states as “comprehension of the Divine”, “love of G-d” and “awe of G-d” are way beyond my depth. I know the truth, I know what G-d wants of me—the Torah spells out the dos and don’ts of life quite clearly.

Despite the previous quote, sometimes we don’t really understand what God wants. Sometimes we don’t know how to pray. Sometimes we aren’t sure how to do our best. Sometimes we wonder, couldn’t God make loving Him “with all our heart, mind, and strength” just a little bit more straightforward? After all, I’m no saint or holy man. I’m just a regular person.

But God has an answer for that.

The Torah itself is quite clear on the matter: “For the mitzvah which I command you this day,” it states, “it is not beyond you nor is it remote from you. It is not in heaven… nor is it across the sea… Rather, it is something that is very close to you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it.” (Deut. 30:11-14) Torah’s vision of life is not an abstract ideal, nor a point of reference to strive toward, but an achievable goal.

God does not expect more of us than we are capable of giving. Our problem is often we do not believe we are capable of what God expects. Some churches compound the problem by “dumbing-down” what God requires, using “grace” as the back door out of taking personal responsibility for our behavior. God does cut us some slack, but not by simply removing the mitzvot (commandments) we think are too difficult for us.

Like the person who cannot pray because he cannot concentrate, when we have truly made our best effort, God will “supplement what is lacking” in us. After all, He knows what we are lacking because He designed us. We also have this:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. –Romans 8:26-27

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. –Hebrews 4:14-16

Praying ChildEven though we are lacking. Even though we can barely speak let alone pray, God has provided for our every need, even when we cannot see hope illuminating the darkness. Just have one simple desire as you turn to Him:

[Rabbon Gamliel the son of Rabbi Judah HaNassi] would say… Make that His will should be your will… –Ethics of the Fathers, 2:4

Jesus expressed the most important focus of our lives this way:

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” –Mark 12:28-33

Finally, when you pray, pray like this:

The ultimate prayer is the prayer of a small child.

You pray to some lofty concept of The Infinite Light or The Essence of Being or…

But the child doesn’t have any concept. Just G-d.

From the wisdom of the Rebbe
Menachem M. Schneerson
as compiled by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman in his book
Bringing Heaven Down to Earth

Good Shabbos.

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Light in the Darkness

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Man in the DarknessAs impossible as it sounds, as absurd as it may seem: The mandate of darkness is to become light; the mandate of a busy, messy world is to find oneness.

We have proof: for the greater the darkness becomes and the greater the confusion of life, the deeper our souls reach inward to discover their own essence-core.

How could it be that darkness leads us to find a deeper light? That confusion leads us to find a deeper truth?

Only because the very act of existence was set from its beginning to know its own Author.

As it says, “In the beginning . . . G-d said, ‘It shall become light!’”

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory
“Mandate Unmasked”
Chabad.org

When God began to create heaven and earth – the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water — God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. –Genesis 1:1-5 (JPS Tanakh)

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Yesterday’s morning meditation borrowed from the daf for Chullin 29 in describing a person who has fallen far from the light of God. Yesterday, I also quoted from Rabbi Freeman’s interpretation of the Rebbe’s wisdom in which he says, among other things, that we “only fall down in order to bounce back even higher”. It is said that every descent we must make is for the sake of an ascent. Every fall brings us to the point where we will rise. Drop a heavy chunk of ice into a swimming pool. First, it will sink under the surface, but then it will rise back up.

The words of Rabbi Freeman quoted above are taken from a collection called Meditations on Moshiach (Messiah). Both Christians and Jews long for the coming (or return) of the Messiah and the day when he will heal our injured, bleeding world and us along with it. Put another way, lock anyone in utter and complete darkness and they will search, perhaps in vain, for even the tiniest glimmer of light.

That’s what we’re doing. We are people in the dark, straining our eyes and our spirits, seeking to glimpse a spark of the Moshiach and a sign of his Kingdom come.

Whenever things got worse, Jews would say, “This is a sign! Moshiach is coming!”

But in those days, a messianic era would have meant a radical change in the natural order of things.

Today, though the human soul sleeps a deep slumber of materialism, the material world itself is prepared.

Rabbi Freeman’s Good Signs commentary reminds me of many in the church or even some self-styled “Messianics”. There seems to be an obsession about the “end times” and “end time prophesy”, as if people are looking for secrets and conspiracies worthy of some sort of “spiritual X-Files”. Every earthquake, every flood, every war is “a sign” that vaguely and tenuously points to some scripture confirming that the Messiah’s coming is just around the corner. However, as we see from history, our world is replete with signs and with would-be Messiahs, and yet the world is still here and we’re still waiting in the dark.

Rabbi Freeman’s interpretations of the Rebbe continue:

The final war is not fought on battlefields, nor at sea, nor in the skies above. Neither is it a war between kings or nations. It is fought in the heart of each human being, with the armies of his or her deeds in this world.

Holding onto the lightIndeed, the final battle or in my point of view, our “daily battle”, is not one of great wars, terrible disasters, or supernatural and miraculous events taking place in the larger world or in cosmic realms, but rather, it is fought moment-by-moment, hour-by-hour, in the heart and soul of each individual who professes trust and faith in God.

We are still in the dark, but it is a mistake to look to the future or to the outside, or to mystic prophecies of epic, panoramic events to see the Messiah. To find him, we must look to the light within and be mindful of where we are and what we are doing at this very moment:

At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time. –Matthew 24:23-25

While Christians sit passively, seeking signs of his coming in the world outside or in arcane interpretations of scripture, Jews understand that people, all people, have an active part in bringing the Messiah. Not that we can control the day or hour of his coming, but we can prepare the way, by ordering our lives, turning more fully to God, and helping to repair the world, fixing one small, broken piece at a time. The Rebbe knew this when he said:

There is no need to tell a Jew what he or she must do to bring Moshiach. Our job is only to wake them up. Once awake, every Jew knows what he or she must do.

If it is not evil, we must use it for good.
If it can be raised higher, we cannot leave it in the dirt.
For everything He made, He made for His glory.

Do not leave yourself in the dirt, pining for what may be coming outside of your senses. Stand up now. Act in God’s Name to make the world a better place, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant your efforts. Who knows? Even the most humble prayer of a sincere and righteous disciple could make the difference. Your actions may be modest, but the cause you join is magnificent:

When journeying upon the path of wisdom, do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. –Matsuo Basho

A Jew never gives up. We’re here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less. –Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh