Inspired Judaism, Inspired Living

“When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.”

- Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)

What do Google, Starbucks, The Ritz Carleton & The National Security Agency of America have in common with eachother? You guessed it, they’re all clients of Tony Schwartz.
Tony Schwartz is a former New York Times reporter, the former associate editor at Newsweek, a best-selling author and the CEO and founder of the Energy Project.
The Energy Project’s vision and slogan  is to “energize people and companies”. This concept is based on decades of study led by Schwartz on how “the way we’re working isn’t working”.
There was a global work force study done by a leading consulting firm with 90,000 employees in 18 separate countries. What they found was that 40% are disengaged at work, another 40% feel “enrolled” with their work, while only 20% feel fully engaged. This means that out of every 5 people, only 1 is really excited, happy and engaged to be doing their daily work. Where have we gone wrong?
Schwartz says that the answer is grounded in an assumption that’s deeply rooted in most of us: that human beings operate most productively in the same one-dimensional way that machines do. Machines perform continuously, at high speeds, running multiple programs for long periods of time. Where the best way to have more done is by working longer and more continuously. The parallel of a human being to a machine is termed an assumption because it’s entirely untrue.
The truth is that “we perform our best and are most productive when we move between periods of high focus and intermittent rest. The real issue is not the number of hours a person spends at work, but rather the value they generate while they’re working.”
Schwartz strongly argues that “the more continuously we work, the less productive we become.” Where society holds onto a value of bigger, stronger, faster – society sees a product of narrow, shallow and short-term. This is all due to the misunderstanding that we operate like machines, when in truth we operate as who we really are: human beings with a human spirit.
The essential principle of The Energy Project is that in order to work productively, create things that matter and in general be happy and fulfilled in our lives, we need to focus not on what we do, but on how we do it. Not to manage our time so much as manage our energy.
In Schwartz’s book, “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working” he outlines the “four forgotten needs that energize great performance.”  Just as a car needs fuel and a computer needs electricity, we also need our own sources of fuel to perform. There are four:
Physical - Nutrition, intermittent rest, exercise and a good night’s sleep are not a luxury but a core need to live our best life.
Emotional – The emotions that we have tremendously influence how we perform and live. The higher our positive emotional state, the better our lives and work are.
Mental – We work and live better when we’re focued on what we’re doing. Interruptions, interferences and thinking something is urgent when it’s not destroy our work and life. When focused, everything we do has passion, value and meaning.
Spiritual – The highest level of energy is fueled when we have a deep value and sense of purpose in what we’re doing. If we feel that what we’re doing matters, we’re living less like a Ford and more like a Ferrari.
What has been profound for me is something that Schwartz found regarding rest. Many people’s concept of rest is only in regards to sleep. While sleep might be a form of rest, it is not the only kind.
More than 50 years ago Nathaniel Kleitman discovered the “basic rest-activity cycle”. Where every 90 minutes of our sleep we move progressively through five stages of sleep, from light to deep and then out again.
Kleitman however, discovered that this cycle is not only a pattern while we’re asleep, it’s also a pattern while we’re awake. When we’re awake, we move from higher to lower alertness every 90 minutes. What happens at the end of 90 minutes? Our body sends us a clear signal that we’re hungry, we’re losing focus, we’re anxious or fidgety – we need to take a break. By taking a break we give ourselves the necessary rest to re-enter a high-alert state. We live in this cycle of rest-activity and need to constantly renew ourselves throughout the day. By giving ourselves space and rest, we allow ourselves better focus and higher productivity.
This paradigm shift to focus on our energy, specifically in regards to giving ourselves space, is not only changing the way we live our lives, it is giving current language to core principles of the Torah.
The Torah narrative of this week is one of conflict, constriction and frustration. The ruler of Egypt, Pharoah, is fearful about the Jewish people and chooses to enslave them while killing the first-born Jewish males. The Jewish people’s spirits are embittered and they cry out to God for redemption. Moshe lets out his fury on an abusive Egyptian, tries to settle a fight between two Jews and flees for his life. God wants Moshe to be the leader and redeemer of the Jewish people – and Moshe refuses adamantly.
“God said, ‘…now go…bring my people out of Egypt.’ Moshe replied, ‘Who am I that I should go to to Pharoah? And how can I possibly get the Jewish people out of Egypt?’” (Shmot 3:10,11)
“But they will not believe me, they will not listen to me.” (Shmot 4:1)
“I beg you God, I am not a man of words…I find it difficult to speak & find the right language…I beg you God, please send someone more appropriate” (Shmot 4:10,13)
“Oh God, why did you send me? As soon as I came to Pharoah to speak in Your name, he only made things worse for these people. You have done nothing to help your people.” (Shmot 4:22)
“God spoke to Moshe saying, ‘Go speak to Pharoah…’ Moshe spoke, interrupting the revelation, ‘even the Jewish people won’t listen to me – how can I expect Pharoah to listen to me? I can hardly speak!’” (Shmot 6:10)
“God spoke to Moshe a second time. ‘I am God, relate to Pharoah all that I am saying to you.’ Interrupting the revelation Moshe said, ‘I am unable to speak! How will Pharoah ever listen to me?’” (Shmot 6:29)
This is an entirely different Moshe than we’re used to thinking of. How are these conversations characteristic of a leader? Low self-confidence, argumentative, negative, upset, interruptive and doesn’t listen. On top of all this, the conversation seems like it’s going nowhere: God asks, Moshe refuses. God asks, Moshe refuses. God asks, Moshe interrupts and refuses. This is like a bad therapy session with everyone saying the same thing over and over!
Suddenly though, almost mysteriously, everything changes:
“Moshe & Aaron did everything that God asked them, they did it exactly.” (Shmot 7:6)
Something changed. Something happened that shifted the energy of this story. Almost immediately and intriguingly Moshe shifts from someone who will absolutely not do what is asked of him to calmly accepting and performing. From here on begins the entire redemption of the Jewish people, the beginning of a wisdom that changed the world and all due to a sudden shift in energy of a single person. What happened?
What shifted was a change from “I” to “we”, from Moshe to Moshe and Aaron. In the previous chapters God suggests that Aaron accompany Moshe so they work together.
“God said to Moshe, ‘Take notice that I will make you a judge and Aaron as the spokesman. You will tell Aaron what I tell you and Aaron will relate it to Pharoah. He will then let the Jewish people leave.’” (Shmot 7:1,2)
The fundamental change from Moshe adamantly against to Moshe in high performance happened by giving Moshe space. When Moshe understands that this massive responsibility and leadership role are not his alone but rather his to share – Moshe changes. It seems then that giving space, allowing for rest, relaxation and calm are not a luxury in life, but a core need. Without fueling this core need, Moshe is negative, argumentative and short-sighted. Through fueling this need, through giving Moshe space, Moshe becomes his best self.
We are not cars, we are not computers, we are human beings with soul, spirit and purpose. When we treat ourselves like machines, we feel like machines: without soul, rusty and heavy.
The most succesful organizations in the world are realizing this. Google, Starbucks, Sony and tens of others hire The Energy Project to make that change; and they’re not alone.
There are many people today who are beginning to live their lives with purpose, passion and energy. If yesterday our lives were run on little sleep, unhealthy eating, negative emotions, interruptions, lack of focus and value – then today we need to start de-toxing. A first step in this process is giving ourselves space. Space to reflect, to think, to rest and renew. God willing we should decide to live with energy and purpose and like Moshe change the course of our lives and history.

December 18th 2010

Be Real, Not Religious

Have you ever heard of the “Candle Problem”? Imagine you are asked to enter a room and solve the following problem. As you enter the room, there is a table with a candle, a box of thumbtacks and matches. The goal is to attach the candle to the wall so the wax won’t drip on the table.
At first, many people try to stick the thumb tack into the candle to stick it into the wall – but it doesn’t work. Another idea is to melt the candle with the matches and stick the wet waxed candle to the wall – but that doesn’t work either.
So what’s the solution? If you empty the thumbtacks from the box, you free up the box to act as a holder. You then stick the tack into the box against the wall and light the candle in the box. The wax drips onto the box and everyone’s happy.

Karl Duncker (1903-1940) came up with this problem to prove the concept of “Functional Fixedness”. Functional fixedness is when we see things not as they are, but rather how we’re used to seeing them. Termed as a “cognitive bias” in that our brain identifies things not necessarily what they truly are, but merely as we’ve decided them to be.
In the candle problem, the initial response is to see the box holding the tacks as the tacks – but not as an independent box. Really they’re two separate things, but we see them as one. The solution lies in the ability to see what we perceive in a new way.
I’m sure many people were disturbed and frustrated by this week’s Globe & Mail article, “Young leading the march towards secularism”. The focus is how young people (15-29) say organized religion is out of touch with reality, irrelevant and illogical. More than half of young Canadians have either no religion or ever attend a religious service, according to Statistics Canada. While in 2002 a roaring 34% said religion is important to them, today’s importance of religion is at 22%.
The article explores a few stories of young Canadians from different religious backgrounds. Jonathon Bright, a 23-year-old law student at the University of Toronto, decided to quit being part of the Roman Catholic Church. Jonathon’s conflict of religious faith and rational thought was expressed in recent scandals and cover-ups and concluded to live an ethical life through the teachings of law. His mother and former girlfriend “were a little upset”.
The article goes through backgrounds of Sikhs, several Christian denominations and a 22 year old who combines “Taoism, Confucianism & Buddhism in a holistic mind-body spirituality”. But for all these differences lies a deep commonality: individuality & self-expression over religious tradition.
As you’re reading this, what are you feeling? Many people feel a deep frustration and disappointment, a sense of confusion and chaos, and others probably even anger. I would like to suggest that anyone who is feeling these types of emotions regarding this or any issue, will have a difficulty in not only putting a candle on a wall but also in understanding this weeks’ Torah narrative.
“And Yaakov lived in Egypt…and saw that he would soon die.” (Genesis 47:28, 29)
The name of this week’s Torah narrative is “Vayechi” (which means “and he lived”) but is a story of death. The whole parsha is themed around Yaakov’s death: he blesses his children before his death, his grandchildren, makes his children promise to bury him in Israel, they travel to Israel for the burial – and the parsha’s final words are that Yosef died as well. Why is the title of a narrative “life” when it’s content is one of death?
Yet we find that this theme of juxtaposing life and death is a theme throughout the Torah:
“And I will bring a great flood across the land to destroy all flesh who have a living spirit under the sky, everything will be destroyed. (Genesis 6:17)
“Everything that had a living spirit…died.” (Genesis 7:22)
“All of Adam’s days that he lived were 930 years, and he died.” (Genesis 5:5)
“Enosh lived 905 years..and he died” (Genesis 5:11)
This theme of a life’s term followed by death is repeated for ten generations. Later in chapter 11 of Genesis the same wording of “and he lived, and died” is also repeated for ten generations. Finally, the only two Parshas in the entire Torah that are entitled “life” are stories of death: the first is “Chayey Sarah” which tells of the death and burial of Sarah; the second one is our Parsha this week. How can two completely polar realities as death and life be so juxtaposed?
Like all problems, we cannot be fixed on how we think we see it. In the candle problem we learned that the way to solve a problem is not so much in thinking how to solve it, but rather how can we look at it differently. When seen differently, the solution becomes clear.
One of the main principles of Torah is that everything of this world lasts for a limited time while anything that is beyond this world lasts forever. Our bodies, our food, our buildings, our cars and toys – last for a short time. You’ll notice that every ten years (at least) our bodies change drastically, our food tastes good for maybe 10 seconds, our buildings if built well maybe a few decades or more, our cars now have a life-span on average of 300,000 miles or at most a decade or two.
What does last? The soul and spirit we invest in anything. Work is not getting a job done per say, but the effort and energy we put into it. When we invest ourselves, we enjoy it and it lives forever. It is the mindset and intention that is real in any action, and that is what lasts.
What the Torah is teaching us in the juxtaposition of life and death is that for every life there is a death and for every death awaits a new life. God is constantly unfolding creation and moving reality to new places. What was yesterday is not today, and we sense this nowadays. Who has a cell phone from even 10 years ago? Who has a computer from 10 years ago? Does anyone not use the internet?
Life moves, reality changes. Growth is real, being stuck is not. When Yaakov dies, his children and grandchildren continue the path. When they die, their children and grandchildren continue. Yaakov’s life was different from Avraham’s, and our lives are different from our grandparents. Life then, is defined as being in a constant state of growth and change.
What the young generation is telling the world is that we need to focus on what is real and what lasts. What is real is experience, what is meaningful is wisdom and what we want to do needs to have that meaning.
Religion is the exact opposite of that. Religion says do what you’re told, never mind understanding it. Religion says follow tradition or suffer the consequences. Religion says go to services even if you don’t like it. Religion is saying a lot of things, but now no one is listening. Thank God.
The people who subscribe to religion being illogical are logical, being irrelevant are relevant and saying institutionalized religious organizations are out of touch with reality are in touch with reality. These people are focusing on what is real and what is true, and the Torah agrees.
“With their mouths they honor me, but their hearts are far from Me.” (Yeshayahu 29:13)
“ ‘I have God with me at all times’ – this is a central principle of Torah.” (Rama, Code of Jewish Law OC 1:1)
It is time to let go of our physical structures of religion, old mindsets and embittered attitudes. It is time to hear the beauty of the Torah that teaches that what you say is not as important as what you mean and what you pray in a service is only as powerful as the emotion put into it. It is time to stop being religious and start being real. It is time to stop being afraid and worried about the future, because God isn’t afraid or worried – He’s making it happen. Things are not dying, they are evolving. With a new perspective, I’m sure we’ll all be able to light the candle that we want to see shining in the world; not with a fixed mindset, but with an evolved one.

December 10th 2010

The Dreidel Manifesto

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

- Ralf Waldo Emerson

What does world peace, global prosperity and the dreidel have in common? You’d be surprised.
One of the most recognized and well-known items of Judaism is the dreidel. Recently it has been the theme of a wildly popular song “Candelight” by the Maccabeats, having been featured on CNN, the Wall Street Journal, our own Chronicle Herald and has been viewed on YouTube almost 3 million times! More popular than ever, what exactly is the dreidel all about?

The dreidel seems to be a very simple and almost child-like toy for the Jewish people. A spinning top with a four letter acronym standing for “a great miracle happened there” is played to win chocolate or gelt. As with everything in Judaism however, there is a tremendous depth and wisdom for living, even in the dreidel.
Every year that the dreidel comes out to play, the Jewish people also read the story of Yosef in the weekly Parsha. The story is one of conflict between Yosef and his brothers. Yosef being a dreamer,  youthful and open-minded while some of his brothers are the exact opposite. Shimon and Levi specifically being very inward, skeptical and against the outside world. Yosef inspires Egypt with his wisdom while Shimon and Levi attack Sh’chem. Two brothers, two different world views, one bitter conflict.
Shimon and Levi are so against Yosef that they keep themselves from killing him by selling him as a slave instead. 22 years later they meet again, and while the brothers do not recognize Yosef,

Yosef recognizes them. Yosef then arranges a situation where the brothers are tested in the same way that they failed 22 years earlier. Yosef puts a treasured goblet in Biynomin’s sack and says that he will be imprisoned, allowing the rest of the brothers to return to Israel. The brothers have changed and instead of leaving Binyomin as they left Yosef, they offer themselves to be imprisoned. Seeing this self-sacrifice and growth, Yosef reveals himself to his brothers in their utter shock.
The story concludes with Yaakov and the remainder of the family moving to Egypt to live under Yosef’s rule, wealth and success. Yaakov will live out his last years in happiness and ease, as the brothers have found compassion and peace.
“Pharoah said to Yosef, ‘Your father and brothers have now come to you. The land of Egypt is at their disposal. Settle your father and brothers in the best area, let them settle in Goshen…”
Genesis Vayigash, 47:5,6
The place where the family dwells is called Goshen. In fact, the word “Goshen” is mentioned over and over with a constant and almost superfluous emphasis. If every letter in the Torah has meaning, and no word is extra, then there must be a deep significance as to why Goshen is emphasized to such a degree.
Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Shapiro (1783-1841, Dinov Galicia) explains the significance of the place Goshen. In his work the “Bnei Yissochar” he makes a brilliant and mind-blowing connection between Goshen and the dreidel.
You’ll remember that the four letter acronym for the dreidel is “N-G-H-SH” or nun-gimmel-shin-hey, standing for a “great miracle happened there”. These are the very letters of the place Goshen when it says that they went, “GoSHNaH”.
Goshen is the place of unity from conflict. It is the place where the brothers who are so different and in divide come together and live as one. Goshen is the place of reconcile, of calm, comfort and consolation.
If Goshen is the place of unity, then the dreidel is the device of unity. The dreidel has four corners when still, but one circle when spun. The dreidel is that which allows four different, separate and even conflicting corners to become one unified circle.
Rabbi Shapiro further explains that the numerical value of the four letters “nun-gimmel-shin-hey” add up to the same value as “Mashiach”, 358.
The Mashiach is the person in the world to bring about redemption. The redeemer of the Jewish people and existence from struggle to ease, from illness to health, from poverty to wealth. Heaven will not be a foreign idea, but a living experience on earth.
The wisdom in all this though, is that we don’t have to wait for all that to happen. Although it is a belief in Torah of world redemption, it is an even stronger calling to do it ourselves as best we can. This is the wisdom of the dreidel.
How do we deal with conflict? When someone is against us, if something doesn’t go the way we wanted, when anything is painful – how do we deal with it?
The most common mistake we all make in situations of crisis and difficulty is dwelling on the conflict, on the negative – on the four corners. Unhappiness, worry and complaint is an expression of a mindset that is centered on the negative. That choice is a mistake. The solution is to not to focus on the four corners but the unified central circle.
Yosef went through a horrific time through his initial arguments with his brothers, almost being murdered, years of slavery and prison. Yet he never complained. Not only did he not complain, he succeeded and every point! How did he maintain such an outlook?
Yosef embodied the dreidel. In all situations, after the initial and significant pain, he centered himself not on the problems, but the opportunity. The word in Hebrew for crisis is the same as a birth stool: for every time of pain exists an opportunity to learn, to grow, to be reborn. Yosef was always focusing and speaking to God – for God is the unity in the world.
Yosef was being spun from place to place, but he centered himself on God at all times. He had no anger towards his brothers and had no need for apologies because he saw the bigger picture. “Don’t worry or feel guilty…God has sent me ahead of you to save lives…it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Genesis 44:5-8) At all times, he saw the circle, he saw God’s unity and presence and was living in a completely positive and happy way despite tremendous challenge.
This is why we spin the dreidel, this is why we have this story every year at the same time, this is why we’re alive.
Who knew? The dreidel, like all of Torah and all of life is more than meets the eye. The dreidel and Yosef teach us not to be still or stuck – but to spin, to move, to grow, to evolve and always see the unity and bigger picture. To see God in all things, to see good in all situations, to see opportunity for every challenge.
If we can uncover so much depth and meaning in a spinning top, imagine how much we can uncover in our own lives and relationships? Let us all continue to look deeper, to be deeper, to spin like dreidels. Good Shabbos!

November 27th 2010

Reframing the American Dream

“Happiness cannot come from without, it must come from within”

- Helen Keller

Dr. Tal Ben Shachar, an Israeli Ph.D from Harvard started a class at Harvard back in 2006 hoping to draw at least 100 students. This class was new in Harvard and probably the only University in the world that was talking about it, so he wasn’t sure if students would sign up. It turned out that 1000 students signed up and the class became one of the most popular classes given at Harvard.
The title of the class was “Positive Psychology” and was essentially a study and understanding of happiness.
What was surprising for many was why someone would teach a class on happiness at all and especially at Harvard? Harvard is recognized as the most prestigious, elite and well respected University in the world. Why would students need a class on happiness when they should be the happiest people on earth, having achieved the highest success on earth? Perhaps they would need positive psychology classes at less respected institutions or for less successful students, but not Harvard.
Yet students at Harvard were not only hungry for this class, they were starving for it. A study showed that 80% of Harvard students suffered from “dabilitating depression”. Somehow, despite the success, students were not only unhappy, the vast majority couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. How can that be?
Dr. Shachar addressed the premise that is prevalent in Western Society and asked if it is true. The premise is that what brings a person happiness is success. When a person succeeds, then they are happy. We are told in Western Society that the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of success. We are told to get good grades to be accepted into a good school which will land us a good job which will afford us the comforts and luxuries of a high quality of life. That will make us happy.
Despite much success wealth and success nowadays, people are actually less happy. A study showed that in 1960 the youngest age a person experienced depression was 29 and by the mid 2000’s the youngest age was 14. But compared with 1960, we live in a much higher state of wealth and success. Our cars are faster and safer, our homes are bigger, there are iPods, laptops, internet, better coffee and TV and movies available 24 hours a day – so why are people less happy? Why is it that a 14 year old in 1960 had no clue what depression was, yet today they’re writing books on it?
If a 14 year old experiences depression, society is in trouble. A 14 year old should not be worrying about what college he’ll go to or his retirement plan.
Scientists call this the “Progressive Paradox”. Where despite more progress and success, people are less happy. Shawn Achor, a student of Dr. Shachar’s and recent author of “The Happiness Advantage” explains that in fact it is not a paradox because the premise is false. Success does not equate happiness.
Achor explains that scientists have uncovered that the brain is a single processor and can only devote its resources to one thing at a time. As a result, our brains are always at a crossroads to choose how to interpret and experience what is happening to us. Is this good or bad? The more we interpret “bad” the more unhappy we will be. The more we interpret, internalize and choose to experience “good” the happier we will be.
Achor explained that Western society is driven to success with the premise that it will bring happiness – yet nothing could be further from the truth. Happiness is a choice, an obligation, a mindset and attitude. Happiness does not come with success, it comes with training. This understanding is expressed in this week’s Torah narrative.
“These are the stories of Yosef, who was 17 years old”

- Genesis 37:2
The story of Yosef is a story of absolute challenge. Despised by his brothers, attempted murder by his brothers, sold as a slave, manipulated by his boss’s wife, in jail for two years. From living in wealth and comfort in his parents home to a horrid place of slavery, one would wait for bitterness from Yosef. From his father’s love to a jail cell while innocent, one would wait for complaints from Yosef. Yet despite being subject to the most trying and depressing circumstances, Yosef never utters a word of complaint, negativity or sadness.
“ And Yosef’s master saw that God was with him and that whatever Yosef did, God made successful.” – Genesis 39:3
“ That God was with him. Yosef was always speaking of God” – Rashi.
Why was Yosef so successful despite all his difficulties? How did his master see him as special? How did he notice people unhappy, when he himself should have been unhappy:

“And Yosef entered the jail in the morning and saw them (the baker and wine pourer) sad. Yosef asked them, “why are your faces sad today?” – Genesis 40:6,7
Yosef cannot understand why someone would be unhappy. Yosef is perplexed how someone can have a sad face on. Yet for the modern mind, Western society would be more perplexed as to why Yosef isn’t miserable! Clearly he must have some good anti-depressants.
Yosef was taught the principles of truth and higher living by his parents. God only does good and it is an effort and choice to see that good. Look for it, seek it and speak to God to find it.
Yosef’s success of happiness was due to his mindset, not his circumstances. The wine pourer and baker were depressed because they focused on themselves and their situation. Yosef never did and so he was able to be sensitive to them, to have compassion and listen to them.
Yosef was living on a level of constant choice and always bringing God into his life. As a slave, in jail, wherever – Yosef speaks to God about it and through that is able to draw in the light of good in everything.
The truth is that western society is catching up with the Torah. Dr. Shachar and Shawn Achor are pioneers in today’s society with a paradigm shift. The shift from thinking that happiness comes from success to the truth that happiness is a state of being that comes from within, not from without.
The American Dream needs to be reframed to Yosef’s dream. From the pursuit of happiness to the training of happiness. Happiness is not something to pursue as one pursues good grades, a career and acquisitions. Happiness will never be found in those things if happiness is not found before those things.
God willing we should slow down our pursuits of happiness and rather increase our awareness and gratitude for all the good that we already have.

November 22nd 2010

In a Different Voice:
Why women should come to Minyan

If a person looks at the Torah and books of Judaism, they will find a powerful theme of men listening and women speaking.

During Rosh Hashana and later when we read Parshat Vayera in the Torah Avraham is told by his wife Sarah to remove Yishmael from their home. Avraham, the all inclusive one, does not want to do this. God clarifies the situation by speaking to Avraham and saying, “Everything that Sarah says, listen to her voice.”

When Yitzchak & Rivka pray to have children, they do so in different ways in separate locations. God appears to Rivka and explains to her that she will have twins who will be two powerful nations. Although Yitzchak wants to give the blessing to Esav, because Rivka was given a direct prophecy from God, she knew that the blessing should go to Yaakov and not Esav, as her husband saw.

In the narrative of Exodus when Pharoah says to kill the Jewish boys, Moshe’s mother does something creative. She doesn’t listen to Pharoah but she trusts in God by putting Moshe in the Nile, hoping that someone will save the crying baby. Pharoah’s daughter finds the baby, saves him and raises him in the palace as royalty.

Pharoah though, continues on his mission to beat down and break the Jewish people and spirit, and he succeeds. The men are exhausted physically, emotionally, spiritually. When the men come home from their day of slavery, they don’t want to talk or be with their wives, they don’t want to have children. Miriam and other women solve this by creating mirrors for all the wives. The wives bring these mirrors to their husbands when they come home and ask them, “who is more beautiful – you or me?” Through the mirrors, the men are re-united with their wives and new Jewish children are born.

When Hannah is unable to have children, she prays to God with unbelievable intensity and emotion. Hannah’s prayer was so powerful that it became the source of how all Jewish people should pray forever. In the Halacha, all the laws of davening are drawn from Hannah’s mindset, sincerity and focus.

In the story of Chanukah, the Greeks not only prohibited the study of Torah, Bris Milah and Shabbos by punishment of death – they forced all the Jewish brides on their wedding night to be with a Greek soldier. As it came time for one bride to wed, on Yehudit’s wedding night, she gave the Greek officer some wine and cheese to enjoy. Second helpings and then thirds, he eventually fell asleep from that and Yehudit killed him. From that action began the Jewish revolt against the oppressive Greeks.

In the story of Purim, the Jewish people were decreed to be wiped off and killed one by one by the most powerful King at the time in Persia. Esther fasted, prayed and later spoke with the King to say that this should not be done. At the risk of her life, as it was prohibited to speak with the King without invitation, she saved the entire Jewish people.

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year as it is the day of forgiveness from the idol worship of the golden calf. Moshe came down on the 10th of Tishrei with the new tablets for forgivenss of what they worshipped months ago in the Summer. It is interesting to note that although Yom Kippur is the day of forgiveness, it is only forgiveness for the men. This is because, as the Medrash teaches, women did not partake in the worshipping of the golden calf.

On Shavuot we celebrate the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. 50 days after leaving Egypt we are given the Torah of wisdom as a guide to live life in the best possible way. On Shavuot we read the book of Ruth, the convert and great-grandmother of King David.

Rabbi Akivah, after spending 24 years studying Torah and becoming the greatest Rabbi of his time and perhaps all time, comes home to his wife Rachel. He brings his students with him and as he is about to open the door he says to all of his students, “The merit of my Torah study and your Torah study – it is her merit.”

There are many different themes in these narratives, but one theme is that women have a knowledge and wisdom that men are not inherently privy to, but need to listen for.

One of the most central aspects of Jewish life is Minyan. We are advised for our own benefit, to come together as a congregation to daven, to pray, to open up, to listen, to grow. Many people come to minyan to say Kaddish for their relatives as it is a Jewish tradition to say Kaddish to elevate the souls of the deceased.

In Israel, I always saw women come to minyan to say Kaddish. In fact, when my mother in-law came to Halifax for a visit last year, she came everyday to minyan to say Kaddish.

Men & women have different roles, different voices. The Torah instructs men to do a lot of listening before they act or speak. In all the above examples, the most powerful for me is Hannah’s prayer as it resonates daily. There is so much to pray for, there is so much that we need God to guide us with – and I would love to see and listen to more women coming to daven. Just as Hannah was an example par-excellance for how to pray, so too all of Jewish women can be examples of how to truly pray with intensity and sincerity to our Creator.

Living with the enemy

November 19th 2010, Parshat Vayishlach

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

- Sun Tzu

One of the biggest worries for Jewish people in and out of Israel right now is the threat of Iran and its leader Ahmadinejad. Working on developing and implementing nuclear weapons with an articulated mindset to wipe Israel off the map, the question on everyone’s mind is if Israel should strike before it’s God forbid too late.
Gill Hoffman, the chief political analyst and correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, was recently here in Halifax on a speaking tour. He was asked what the Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu’s policy is regarding Iran and if Israel will strike. The response was essentially that Netanyahu believed that first there needs to be an option for dialogue. To speak under the premise that Israel has a right to exist. There is no need for a military act if there is capacity for open communication.
The problem though, is that premise is completely non-existent as Iran believes that Israel does not have a right to exist. Such a belief married to nuclear capability is a dangerous combination, and so Netanyahu has been voicing to the United States and others that there needs to be a military strike. Not so much to attack but rather to defend. And when dealing with nuclear power in a small country like Israel, there isn’t an option for a counter-attack if Iran would strike first.
Taking a look at Netanyahu’s policy, it seems to be learned out from the Torah narrative of the week in Vayishlach. The Parsha begins with Yaakov preparing to meet with his brother Esav as Esav is on his way to kill Yaakov. If someone is on their way to kill you – how are you supposed to act? Are we to fight first, are to turn the other cheek, are we to be passive?
There is a story of R’ Yisrael Salanter (1810-1883), the founder of the Musar movement who upon having an upcoming appointment with a sworn hater of the Jewish people, Rabbi Salanter prepared himself by studying this story of the Torah.
How did Yaakov prepare for this meeting? Rashi explains that Yaakov prepared in three ways: in prayer, appeasement and war. Yaakov first prayed to God to be saved from this war. Yaakov then sent gifts to Esav in the hope to appease him from hating his brother. Finally, if the first two were somehow insufficient in stopping the fight, Yaakov was prepared to actually fight to defend himself.
The principle of Judaism is that this isn’t just a story, and Yaakov and Esav are not mere characters. Rather, the Torah is a map and guide of reality, teaching within it’s stories and laws (halachot & Mitzvot) the enlightened way to live our lives.
The enemy that is attacking is therefore a current reality & Yaakov’s way of preparing to stop it is a guide for us all.
The truest enemy is the enemy within, the enemy that we live with. The enemy that tells us to be upset, that influences us to be angry and judgemental of others, the enemy that brings about our own demise. Eating too much, lack of motivation and clarity, blame – these are all the enemy that we live with.
The way to deal with it is by following Yaakov’s path. First and foremost to put this in God’s hands. To acknowledge that we live with weaknesses and ask God to give us strength & wisdom to deal with. To pray and ask God to have clarity from confusion, drive from laziness and to have a tremendous amount of joy to not give in the heaviness of the “war”. To notice our being human and limited and to let God do the heavy lifting.
The second is not to wage war, but to be relaxed and giving. Yaakov gives gifts to appease Esav, and so we need to know how to appease our own inner enemy. If we are being influenced to anger or sadness – we can’t just give in to defeat nor can we just wage war. We need to first appease the anger and sadness. Appeasement comes from communication and dialogue and articulating the issues. To acknowledge the force of negativity and ask what its goals are. What is the goal of being sad, of being angry, of being in a state of blame and judgement? What is the goal of eating more than my fill, of not being productive, of not following up on my commitments? We’ll see that in the end, the goal is only self-destruction and should therefore not be done.
By noticing and articulating the goals of the enemy, we see that in fact it is not in our best interest to allow those negative states to occur.
If the above does not work, the third option is to actually fight. Yet Yaakov and Esav never fight! Esav and Yaakov first embrace as Esav is filled with tears. They then speak and conclude by going in separate directions.
Despite the apparent happy ending,  Yaakov was prepared to fight. This is based on a principle in the Torah and Talmud, “if someone rises to kill you, kill him first”. Yet Yaakov didn’t do this! Yaakov had the wisdom and foresight that war is not necessary if the enemy can be appeased. Through speaking to God and asking for help and by giving gifts to Esav, the war was no longer necessary and Esav was appeased.
Netanyahu and the state of Israel are in a difficult situation that is almost parallel to Yaakov. Similar to Yaakov, Netanyahu sought to appease Iran by first having dialogue. But while Esav acknowledged Yaakov and his right to exist, Iran does not. So Netanyahu has concluded to communicate to the US & others that the stage of appeasement and dialogue has passed, and lest Israel actually be wiped off the map God forbid, there first needs to be an attack of defense. As Yaakov himself concluded as well as the principle in the Torah above, that Judaism treasures life – and if our life is threatened, we must defend it.
But most of us are not sitting in the Prime Minister’s seat and our decision is not how to deal with Iran, but rather how to deal with our own bouts of negativity.
What is profound about Yaakov’s “preparation” was that it all came about through being in “alone time”. Yaakov’s ability to have clarity to pray, to think to send gifts and speak with Esav did not happen because he just came home from work, had a bite to eat and quickly jotted down a few notes of what to do with Esav coming to visit. Yaakov spent time alone. Yaakov spent quality time with himself and God to develop clarity, calmness and composition to know how to proceed.
Amidst the busy week, we live such hurried lives. Once a week we are given a true gift to unplug, rest and spend quality time with ourselves and our friends and family. To take advantage of this gift is to give ourselves the blessing of clarity, calmness and composition. By unplugging from our busy lives and plugging into our own inner life and family – we will have no confusion from the negativity of the enemy within but rather will have reached a true state of Shalom. Good Shabbos!

Living Simply & the lack of transparency in politics

November 5th 2010
“Simplicity is the highest possible virtue.”

- Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

This was a very exciting week in the United States of America. With the election date of November 3rd having passed, the political world of the states is filled with new hopes and anticipations for the coming years.
Not so surprising was the wave of success for the Republicans, having a new leadership with a majority in the house.
Aside from the shifting of powers and aside from anticipating if this all means if Obama will be re-elected in his next campaign – I would like to focus on how most of us feel about political leaders in general. With all the hype, hope and often hyperbole involved in political campaigning, voting and public venue – what I feel is most missing in all this is a sense of trust, security and transparency. Truth be told, people feel less and less trust from their political leadership.
Why is there a distrust? Interestingly enough, there is a deep answer in this week’s Torah narrative.
“Esav was a man of the field who knew how to hunt and Yaakov was a simple person, dwelling in the tents.” – Genesis 25:27
Rashi explains the difference between the brothers in how they communicate. Esav being someone “who knew how to hunt” means that he knew how to trap and deceive with his mouth. Where Esav asked his father questions about the Torah with the intention to fool his father into thinking that he was someone who was concious about the ways of the Torah. Yaakov’s simplicity on the other hand means that, “he was not an expert in the matters of being clever/cunning, but rather what was in his heart was in his mouth. A person who is not familiar in how to deceive is called “simple”.
The difference between the two is essentially in how they communicate. Esav is someone who says something but means something else while Yaakov merely says what is in his heart, pure and unadulterated.

The Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) writes the following about simplicity:

“There are varient elements of wisdom, of them are two qualities “wise” and “cunning”.
A wise person is someone who has studied, received from a master and possesses much knowledge.
A cunning person is someone who knows how to manipulate and to say good, sweet things, but deceit is hidden beneath the surface of his words. Even someone who knows about the ways of such speech is also called cunning.”

- The Vilna Gaon’s
Commentary on Proverbs 1:4

Someone who is simple is someone who is straightforward, means what they say and does not say one thing while meaning another.

A cunning person is someone who knows exactly how to talk sweetly to manipulate the listener. This is reflected in Esav’s asking questions that his father wanted to hear – but in fact did not mean them at all. Esav had no interest whatsoever in the questions, his interest was merely personal gain and achieved it through deceiving his father.

The question is really how we communicate. When we speak, do we mean what we say? If we talk to someone, do we have a sincere and genuine interest in the other – or do we have personal interest? How genuine are we in our communication?

The acid test is to be clear on our what is going on in the inside of us. In order to know if I mean what I say – I have to be very clear on what I am trying to mean. I have to be very clear on what I am trying to communicate.

Apple made a brilliant TV ad when first launching their  iPhone 4. They showed a clip of a grandfather speaking to his grandaughter using “FaceTime”, seeing one another on their phones. Then to a couple where the wife was having an ultra-sound but the husband, unable to be present physically, was present via the Apple iPhone 4. Finally a girlfriend speaking to her boyfriend who was overseas in Army uniform, seeing eachother in the conversation thanks to FaceTime.

The brilliance of the commercial is that they’re not just selling a phone, they’re selling relationship. Apple was tuning in to what people really want. On the outside it is a phone, but on the inside it is a means to relationship. You can connect on a deeper level using this phone. Well, who doesn’t want a grandaughter, a grandparent, a loving spouse or a boy/girlfriend – we all want relationship, so the logic is that we’ll all buy the phone.

To live in this world is to know how to see, to notice our desires. We sort of want a phone, but we really want relationship.

Simplicity is being in tune with our desires. Simplicity is being honest with ourselves so that we can be honest with others. In order to be true, in order to be real – we first need to be real with ourselves. We need to know ourselves.

Scott Belsky, the recent author of “Making Ideas Happen” wrote an article this week entitled, “What happened to downtime? The extinction of deep thinking and sacred space” that really focuses on this theme. He says that we are becoming so distracted in lives that we are not able to think or act creatively or even with inspiration. Belsky draws upon a recent phenomenon called the Sabbath Manifesto (www.sabbathmanifesto.com) – essentially unplugging from the week and having a Shabbat. The only way to live creatively, the only way to live honestly, the only way to live the life we’re meant to – is to be clear on who it is that is living. We need to unplug from the week to plug into ourselves. We need “me” time, we need downtime, we need Shabbat time.

The reason for a lack of transparency and trust in the political system is due to a lack of simplicity. It is a lack of saying what you mean instead of saying what works to achieve my own personal goal. The truth though, is that it is not only in the political system, it is in our own system, it is in us.

The cunning Esav and the simple Yaakov (or not so simple, as the Parsha unfolds) are realities within ourselves. God willing we should be absolutely clear with what we want and why we want them – not to merely want, but to understand what we want. This can only be achieved by giving time to ourselves, by setting time for Shabbat, for a day and time to unplug, to listen, to regain focus. If the whole world did this, our lives would be filled with a lot of trust and real relationships. Shabbat Shalom!

October 22nd 2010

“To increase motivation, one needs to be freed from illusion”

- Rav Kook (1865 – 1935)

Over the past few weeks, there has been much sad news about victims of bullying that led to the suicide of an 18 year old Rutgers University Freshman, Tyler Clementi.
There have been campaigns of anti-bullying day, people wearing purple or pink in defense of the attacks, and much political discussion about what governmental policies should be enacted to stop the evil.
New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg said last week at a town meeting that there needs to be an anti-bullying law & code of conduct  that prohibits harrassment.
President Obama in his YouTube address Thursday night said he was  “schocked & saddened” by the recent suicides of young people who were taunted and harrased for being gay. Obama spoke about the “It Gets Better Project” where thousands of Americans have come together to share hope and encouragement.
Regarding the message of the “It Gets Better Project Obama said, “no matter how difficult or hopeless life may seem when…tormented by your peers or [ever] feel like you don’t fit in: life will get better.”
I am all about hope and optimism, but for me, that message is incapable of bringing strength to victims of such harrassment. This is because the message does not address the victim, it only speaks about life in general. What I want to address is how one deals with challenge, even the most painful.

There is an illusion that is often experienced when one is faced with challenge. People often mistake difficulty and challenge as a negative experience that they should not be experiencing. A knee-jerk reaction often says to us that everything should be easy – I shouldn’t experience struggle, challenge or difficulty – it should all come easy to me without effort! We don’t like that feeling, and we often try to find ways to escape the difficulty.
Escaping difficulty comes in many forms, mostly when we don’t even realize it. The most common form of escaping difficulty is blame – it is much easier to channel all the negativity on someone else or something else than to look inside.
The problem is that we as a culture are not trained how to look inside. We’re trained how to look at others, how to look at the past – but we’re not trained how to look at ourselves.
How do we look at ourselves?

In the Torah narrative this week of Vayera we have a theme of struggle, challenge and difficulty.

The narrative begins with Avraham being in a tremendous amount of physical pain, being only a few after his circumsision. In relating to Avraham’s pain, God creates an extremely hot day, “And Avraham was sitting by the entrance of his home in the heat of the day” (Bresheit 18:1).

Why did God create such a hot day? Rashi explains that God did so because he knew that Avraham has a deep love and sensitivity to others and if he would see guests to his community he would go out and host them in his home – even though he was in tremendous physical pain. Therefore God kept people from being travelling by creating a hot day. Yet despite the pain, despite the heat, despite the fact that no one was outside – Avraham was waiting for them to come, “sitting by the front of his home.”

I would like to offer a different reading of the narrative, based on Rashi’s emphasis that ties into the whole description and theme of Avraham’s character.

Why would God make it hot when Avraham is in pain? Not only does that increase Avraham’s physical pain (no a/c’s back then) but Avraham’s emotional pain in not being able to help others travelling! Is God trying to torture Avraham – first with the circumsision, then with the pain that follows, then with the hot day, and finally with the lack of guests! Such a cruel God, such a cruel reailty, such challange and difficulty – how are we to relate to it?

In order to first relate to something, we need to first define who we are that is relating to something. Who am I? I am a soul: a divine, pure, righteous, powerful, passionate and good person who was created by God with purpose, with a mission, with meaning. I discover the purpose through the teachings of the Torah, my life circumstances and personality, and praying to God for clarity all along the way.

Once I have a clear definition of who I am – I can relate to the events that are happening to me. Avraham knows that his mission involves kindness, giving and inspiring people towards those values – so how can he sit down when people might be coming through?! With a clear vision of self-worth and identity Avraham cannot sit still!

What about his pain? What about the heat? Avraham has a thousand reasons why he should be angry – but do we see anger in Avraham? No blame, no anger, no negativity – just vision.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev (1772-1810) teaches that God gives us challenges to increase our desire, motivation and sense of purpose. The challenges are not to weaken us but to strengthen us. So God goes out of his way to make Avraham stronger by making it a hot day. So when Avraham runs to his guests to make them feel welcome – despite the pain, despite the heat – God shows Avraham how strong Avaraham is.

Sadly enough, we are living in a time of many challenges, difficulties and painful struggles. The suicide of an 18 year old, who felt so much pain that he could not live with it anymore, is a siren of pain in the world that we all need to wake up to and address.

The Torah is teaching us this week that pain and challenge are real – but they need wisdom to deal with. Wisdom begins with identity and identity begins with God. The many and often complex struggles that we deal with are sent not to weaken us, not to increase pain – but to strengthen us and allow us to achieve an even higher awareness of self. Challenge is an opportunity to see how strong, passionate, and soulful we all are.

We need to deal with harrasement by first defining that we are all good, and God created us all with a mission and purpose. The world needs to feel the beauty and goodness within and then life will not only get better, it will be better. Shabbat Shalom

July 20th – Tisha B’av

Correcting Blurred Vision

A friend of mine went a few years without wearing glasses though it had become necessary. Going through his day to day with a little blurred vision became normal and he got used to it. When the moment arrived to finally get glasses, something amazing happened. He put them on and noticing the amazing clarity he said, “wow, so this is how everything is supposed to look!”

We can get used to seeing with a blurred vision, when in fact – there is a whole world of clarity out there! The truth is that most people live in a state of blurred vision. Having feelings of frustration, anger, sadness, blame and any form of negativity is a result of living life without the proper lenses. Life was not given to be lived in a blurred state, but with clarity – so we need to understand how to get the right glasses. Tisha B’av is a day where we do nothing. We don’t work, we don’t bathe, we don’t eat, drink, say hello to people or even study Torah. This is all in order for us to tune in to the reality of destruciton that is in the world and in our lives. The tuning in of Tisha B’av is in order for us to realize that we shouldn’t see in a blurred vision and we shouldn’t have negativity in our lives.

God created man to give of His good to another…

-         Arizal, Beginning of Eitz Chaim

We were created to enjoy, to receive the pleasure of all that God has to offer. If we aren’t, it is only because we’re walking around without glasses, accustomed to seeing in a blurred way. May this Tisha B’av bring us all to clean our lenses from negativity so that we live life as it should be lived as taught by the Torah.

June 25th 2010

The War on Terror Begins at Home

We had the privilege of experiencing the wonder and glory of Cape Breton this week. Noted by many as one of the most beautiful places on earth, it was inspiring, breathtaking and calming. An experience of beauty whereby the day to day somehow gets lost within the grandeur of life and existence.

But like all places, even the most wonderful places, they are filled and inhabited by normal human beings, doing their daily activities and duties like any other place on earth. And while these Cape Bretoners were living their lives, one of Cape Breton’s finest was taken while fighting in Afghanistan, and we saw the flags flown at half mast.
The half-mast is done so that people who happen to be passing by the beauty, who happen to be touring amidst the green hills and mountains and even those who are just going to work, will pay attention and be sensitive to the fact that a local gave his life for all of us to live ours.
So as people go about their lives, people will need reassurance as to why it is their very best are out fighting a war overseas. As the flag is lowered the questions arise to answer the question of why it is we’re over there and why it is the right thing.
One of America’s biggest publication and most syndicated magazine happened to address that very issue this week. In a likely historic article, General Stanly McChrystal gave Rolling Stone full access to his opinions and the goings on in the war in Afghanistan. “The Runaway General” written by Michael Hastings is a now famous article portraying the arguments regarding the war in Afghanistan. As Caroline Glick points out in her weekly address published by the Jerusalem Post, there are three schools of thought regarding the war in Afghanistan. One is fight to win, the second is not interested in fighting to win, and the third is the middle ground. The President of the United States and his General McChrystal “occupy the middle ground.”

The United States and the world media have been quite excited about this tell-all of a U.S General regarding the current war in Afghanistan, especially due to the fact that he resigned his position because of it. But there is another element at work here besides the juicy gossip of a behind the scenes look at politics and war, and that is what we need to tell our troops who are overseas and the families who wait for them back home.
As of September 11th  2001, there was a global message from Islamic terrorists of the Taliban and Al-Qaida persuasion that they’re out to destroy. Out to destroy Western values, out to destroy democracy, our buildings, cities, etc. In response to this, President Bush began his campaign of “War on Terror.” This campaign led to the U.S & NATO allies first deployment of troops in Afghanistan in October 2001, with the clear goal of taking out the bad guys and their controlled infrastructure. They have been there since 2001 in the effort to prevent the Taliban from gaining control.
When Barack Obama hand-picked McChrystal to be the commander of this entire operation, McChrystal came up with a revised strategy to send in 40,000 U.S troops and NATO train and 400,000 Afghan troops to replace the current soldiers in the long run. Arguments ensued.
Vice-President Biden saw this as perhaps impossible and definitely cost-ineffective and basically said to run the heck out there ASAP.
McChrystal said that this would be a recipe for absolute disaster. Without a sufficient number of soldiers on the ground there wouldn’t be a plausible chance for gaining needed intelligence to take out the bad guys.
President Obama chose the middle path. Send in 30,000 U.S, retain the current 230,000 Afghan trained troops and promised to have the U.S completely withdrawn from Afghanistan by July 2011.
Mmmm, what to do, what to do? So many opinions, so little time, so many lives.
The Washington Post this past December explained Obama’s goal as one that, “envisions more informal local security arrangements than in Iraq, a less capable national government and a greater tolerance of insurgent violence..the guidance they (the military) said is that we’re not doing everything, and we’re not doing it forever.” As this week’s issue of Rolling Stone puts it, when executed, this guidance brings not victory nor even stability.
With such a pareve vision – one of not too strong to send in another 40,000 and abide by McChrystal’s revamped strategy, and not too weak to just pull out – Obama takes the middle path of “everyone goes home” by July 2011. Will this middle path give comfort to the parents and families of the soldiers who aren’t coming home?
What is always profound is how issues and events that occur during the week, find their way from the Parsha of the week.
Balak, the King of Moav, becomes fearful of the Jewish people and wishes their destruction. Balak’s terror though is not militarily, since he knows and saw that the Jewish people have a higher general to take care of them. So Balak’s fight against the Jewish people can only come through the spirit and concludes that to destroy them we need to curse them. Who better to curse the Jewish people than Bila’am?
So Balak hires Bila’am out to curse the Jewish people. Bila’am says that he cannot do anything that God does not let him do, even if he were paid in gold and silver.
The story unfolds where God tells Bila’am not to curse the Jewish people for they are blessed, “but if they call you again, go with them; just do as I say” So Bila’am goes, but with a hidden agenda to curse the Jewish people, yet he finds that whenever he tries to utter a curse, he says a blessing instead.
Without going into all the depths and elements at play hidden beneath the surface of this simple story – what is curious is Bila’am’s role. On the one hand he is hired to curse, on the other God says not to curse – on yet another hand he says he won’t, but he wants to (see Rashi 22:22) and he comes away with blessings. Whose side is he on? What does he stand for? Is he on Balak’s side or God’s? He seems to be on both and yet neither at the same time. Bila’am seems to be the clay of whomever is making him. When Balak says to do something he runs to it – when God says something, he also runs to it. So where is he running?
But we are not talking about a lightweight here. Bila’am is in fact he whom God has shown everything.

“There is nothing in the world that God did not show to Bila’am.”

- Tana D’vei Eliyahu Rabbah, 28

Bila’am actually sees himself as the counterpart and in competition with Avraham, whom God started the Jewish nation with.

“Bila’am said, ‘What did Avraham offer up to God after all? One ram?! We’ll bring millions!
What did Avraham sacrifice? One son? I will bring my son & daughter!”
- Tanchumah, Tzav 1

“Bila’am arose in the morning and saddled his donkey. (22:21) – The one “saddling up” is to be juxtaposed with another: Avraham arose in the morning and saddled his donkey (Bresheit 22:3)
- Medrash Breisheit Rabbah, 55:8

So deeply interconnected are Avraham and Bila’am that the Sages in the Mishna see them as counterparts.

“Whoever possesses these three qualities belongs to the disciples of Abraham our father: a good eye, a humble spirit, and a gentle soul.
But he who possesses the three opposite qualities–an evil eye, a proud spirit, and a haughty soul–is of the disciples of Balaam the wicked.”
- Pirkei Avot 5:22

What is the contrast and comparison between Avraham and Bila’am? How is it that the Sages see these two as being so closely linked together?

The sense of the above Medrashim is that Bila’am is capable – as being a prophet whom God shows everything. And despite his capabilities, Bila’am is confused in his goals and aspirations. If he means to serve God and not merely be a famous person and prophet – what need is there for competition? And why Avraham?

Avraham began the Jewish people as he chose to relate and serve God when the rest of the world was not. Bila’am desires that level, that recognition and that leadership – but not God. And so he competes with Avraham, his every move is to prove himself – yet his goals are misplaced and off; as his desires are self-absorbed and nothing more.

“Who is wise? He who learns from every person. Who is a warrior? He who conquers his own misguided passions. Who is wealthy? He who is happy with what he is given. Who is honored? He who honors others.”
Pirkei Avot 4:1

Avraham’s whole purpose was to reveal the good life of having a deep relationship with the Creator – he competed against no one. Bila’am became the clay in everyone’s hand because he wanted the honor and glory – and so he tried to appease everyone. But without a broader vision, he ends up stumbling around to make everyone happy without accomplishing either.

The vision of Avraham is in the above quoted Mishna in Pirkei Avot. A true warrior is when you have conquered your own battles. Conquering internal battles of anger, negativity, criticism, gossip, sadness bring a person to “be all that you can be.”

A person like Avraham – who is driven by a broader vision of truth, of relationship with our Creator and to live by the Creator’s guidance – will have a real understanding of how to operate and live in this world. A person like Bila’am, who is more interested in his own accomplishments than what benefit it has for humanity – will end stumbling around like clay for everyone to make differently.

The issue today is not whose vision to go by, but to have vision at all. Who are we fighting – those that plan day and night to destroy us and have succeeded in many ways. Airport security was not what it was before 9/11 and it is because terrorists seek constantly to destroy the western world.

The war on terror began as an effort to fight this. Agree or disagree – but we have thousands of Americans and Canadians who are out there sacrificing their lives who were sent there on a mission to take out the bad guys. If they are just taken home in July 2011 – what does that say for all the 10 years prior, thousands of lost lives later? Does that honor them? Is a half-mast enough?

The lack of vision by our leaders is part of a broader plan, but it needs to be understood. Caroline Glick writes in her article, “Since Obama is commander-in-chief, it is reasonable for criticism of this losing strategy to be directed towards him. But the truth is that for the better half of the last several decades, with occasional important exceptions, this sort of ‘half-pregnant’ strategy for war fighting has been the template for Western armies.

The important story of this week was not about a U.S general with abysmal judgement about the media. Rather the story is that in Afghanistan, the U.S is repeating a sorry pattern of the Western nations of not understanding – or perhaps not caring – that if you are not willing to fight a war to victory, you will lose it.”

Who is a warrior? The deep books of Torah explain that all negativity arise from our own misguided actions and judgement. The war begins at home. All forms of war are merely macrocosm of our own internal battles.

In school we are taught math, history, grammar, etc. But we are not taught how to deal with anger, how to really be happy (and not just smile), how to love or how to even raise a family. These are all secondary to the primary goal of achievement.

In Torah we are taught the opposite. That the primary goal is inner work and growth, the work of Avraham; and the secondary goal of being productive, accomplished is only real when begun with the work of Avraham.

The enemies away are the enemies inside of us – and today we are fighting neither. We ignore the heightened security at the airports, we ignore that 9/11 was not only a story of heroic American firefighters and we ignore that there are children’s songs called “When We Die As Martyrs” sung by millions of no longer innocent children. And so we pull out.

We ignore depression by taking pills, we ignore anger by abstaining from commitment and relationship and we ignore our happiness by focusing on what we don’t have and so desperately need.

Who is a warrior? Let us be warriors whose war is on depression, anger and negativity. Let us be warriors who do not sit back and complain but who actively seek solutions, resolve and truth. Let us be warriors who define our war and not ignore it. By doing so I hope to see all of our flags flying at full mast.

Friday June 11th 2010

iPads, Helen Thomas & The Zohar

Nicholas Carr is the author of a brand new book, “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” and contributed with an article at CNN on that very topic.

Carr notes that during a recent commencement address at Hampton University in Virginia, Barack Obama explained how the “internet powered media environment bombards us with all kids of content.”

Obama warned that iPads, Xboxes and other popular gadgets can turn information into “a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment” rather than a means of “empowerment.”

As Carr points out, many listeners reacted with ridicule, bloggers with accusations of Obama being old, and even Economist magazine calling Obama a “technophobe.”

Those accusations are reflective of the very problem that Obama pointed out and that Carr investigates and probes in his book. The issue being that we are bombarded constantly with so much information, that we have become unable to pass clear and true judgement.

Studies have shown that the average American spends more than 8 hours in front of a screen (whether it be a TV, computer or phone) while 72% of teenagers are official “texters” compared with only 51% in 2006.

The internet was not always around and it wasn’t always this fast, making all this quite new for the modern man to absorb. Carr’s thesis is that we have become quick but superficial. “Even as we’ve been enjoying the seemingly endless bounty of the net, neurobilogists and psychologists have been carrying out studies which suggest that the way we gather information online empedes comprehension, weakens understanding, and in general hinders learning.” Them be strong words.

Carr is not alone. There have been many articles in the New York Times recently discussing this very phenomenon. From texting to having the entire internet available in your hand at any given moment, scientists have been studying how all this information is affecting how we think and behave.

Kord Cambell is a founder of a multi-million dollar internet start-up company. In a New York Times article earlier this week entitled, “Hooked on Gadgets, & Paying a Mental Price” there is a story of Cambell missing his million dollar email offer to buy his start up. 12 days went by until Cambell finally sifted through old messages and found that he had an offer to buy his company.

“The message had slipped by him amid an electronic flood of computer screens, emails, instant messages, online chats, web browsers and the computer code he was writing.”

Cambell’s wife Brenda complains, “it seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment.” Matt Richtel, the author of this article continues by saying, “This is your brain on computers.”

Scientists say how ”our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.” These bursts of information generate within us a “primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats.” A dopamine squirt rushes in the excitement, and like any and all highs, this one can be addictive as well. In its absence, people feel bored, have potential inflictions on their creativity and deep thought, while even interrupting work and family life.

So if you have gotten this far you are of the elite. But there is more.

There is another thing that happened this week that needs a little light shed upon it. Helen Thomas has served 57 years as a correspondent and, later as, White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). Thomas is an author, reporter and columnist. She has covered every presidency from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Obama. For such an accomplished and intelligent woman, how is it at all possible for her to conclude her astonishing career with the following conversation.

Outside the Jewish Heritage Celebration Day event at the White House this past May 27th, the following exchange took place between Thomas and Rabbi David Nesenoff:

Nesenoff: Any comments on Israel? We’re asking everybody today, any comments on Israel?Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.

Nesenoff: Oooh. Any better comments on Israel?

Thomas: Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not Poland …

Nesenoff: So where should they go, what should they do?

Thomas: They go home.

Nesenoff: Where’s the home?

Thomas: Poland. Germany.

Nesenoff: So you’re saying the Jews go back to Poland and Germany?

Thomas: And America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries? See?

Thomas went on to say that she knows the history very well and in fact she is of Arab origins. Without getting into the history of this – one fact however is that the Jewish people existed centuries before Islam stepped onto the scene (610 C.E) and had always maintained a presence in the land of Israel. The Jewish “home” of Germany and Poland, as she notes, only functioned in that capacity as the Jewish people were exiled away from their homeland at the destruction of the second Temple (70 C.E). So for someone of Helen Thomas’s intelligence, success and work in government this is a non-fact based report. For someone in the innermost sanctuary of American leadership and politics for decades – how can she come away with such false, twisted historical accountings?

What I would like to explore though, is how this is really playing out on a universal scale and how these elements are both what is right in the world as well as what is off and needs fixing.

Where does one go to look to find clarity? The Torah as seen through the lens of the Kabbalah. Every week the Jewish people read a specific section of the Torah, and every week the current events of the world reflect and express those teachings.

This week the Torah examines a conflict of Korach. Korach sees Moshe & Aharon as being given a higher than thou status above the rest of the Jewish people.

“And Korach took…and rose up against Moshe with 250 prominent leaders. They gathered against Moshe and Aharon and they said, ‘Isn’t this too much? The entire Jewish people are holy and God is with them, so why would you lord yourselves over us, the congregation of God?’ ” – Numbers 16:1-3

Interesting. Until now I never really thought of it, but it makes sense. The entire Jewish people saw God at Sinai, were redeemed through miracles while enslaved in Egypt

and were promised by God to have their homeland. Why should Moshe and Aharon lord over them so? They’re no better or loftier than this wonderful nation – it is time for change. By following Korach we will see change! Change! CHANGE! (Have we mentioned change?)

There are a few fundamental problems with Korach’s argument that are brought forth through Rashi’s explanation. Rashi notes that the Torah specifically says that “Korach took” which denotes “to separate from the community and to arouse argument against the leaders.” Rashi, based on Onkelos, emphasizes the “taking” that means to separate; Also very interesting, because “taking” in the Torah means just the opposite – to be one with. In the beginning of Talmud Kiddushin 2a, they learn this out from the verse elsewhere in the Torah that uses “taking” but this time referring to unity and not separating.

In order to bring resolve to this conflict, we need to identify and clarify the following issues. The first is defining what leadership Korach is against – what exactly is the leadership role that Moshe and Aharon have the Korach accuses them of “lording over” the people? The second is Moshe’s reaction. Does Moshe admit his wrong? Does Moshe argue? Does Moshe fight fire with fire? Moshe’s reaction would be indicative of the principle issue, especially when he is being faced with such critique.

Korach accuses Moshe of “lording over” the people, of taking this leadership undeservedly and disproportionately. That is fine, so what leadership role are we talking about exactly? Is Moshe taking too much of the taxes for fancy cars, elaborate parties? Is Moshe torturing the people as a tyrant and dictator – what is Korach referring to here? The problem is that Korach doesn’t know himself. Korach must have been following the headlines and slogans like the rest of us instead of investigating the details and defining his accusations.

In truth, Moshe has no leadership whatsoever. All Moshe is trying to do is inspire, educate and bring the Jewish people to a higher level of living and deeper relationship with God. All Moshe talks about is God and following his Torah. “What does God ask of you but to be in awe of Him, to walk in all His ways, to love Him and to serve Him with all your hearts and souls.”- Dvarim 10:12. Moshe doesn’t mention himself or talk about himself so much – he just talks about the Creator. This is how the Zohar defines a King and his kingdom in general by saying, “Malchut – leit l’m’garma klum” – “Kingship has nothing in and of itself”. This is because a King and his kingdom are only for the people. All the mitzvahs and Halachas (laws, pathways) of a king reflect this. A King must always wear a Torah on his arm and is only appointed if they are a studied, pious person (see Maimonides, Laws of Kings). Moshe’s “leadership” has none of the perks or lording over that Korach is accusing Moshe of. Korach’s critique, similar to recent critiques in the world this past week, is not based on fact but emotion; not based on investigation but slogan.

If Moshe were anything like most people, upon being accused he would have accused back; but Moshe didn’t. Upon being accused of these things Moshe merely falls on his face. Rashi explains that Moshe was disheartened because this was the fourth time the Jewish people are making misguided judgments and wrong actions. By the golden calf, when they complained and last week with the spies. This fourth time Moshe was disheartened, perhaps God was tired of hearing Moshe ask for compassion and mercy on his people. Moshe was always about others, never about himself. For this reason God calls Moshe, “The humblest man on the face of the earth” Bamidbar 12:3 So what did Moshe do when there were those who act against him, complain to him, speak badly of him and even outright accuse him? He prays for God to have compassion on them and only hopes God will listen. Does that sound like someone lording over the people? What went wrong?

Life makes sense through the lens of the Zohar, as does the written Torah. The Zohar is written almost in its own language, a language that is only cryptic if not taught how to study it.

The beginning of this week’s conflict with Korach according to the Zohar begins in the following way. “Rebbe Abba opened up this Torah portion with the verse from Tehillim (psalms) 19:11, ‘More valuable than gold and a great treasure, sweeter than honey (referring to the Torah)..’ How lofty are the words of Torah, how precious they are, wonderful above and below, pleasurable to all. This is because the words of Torah are one holy name. And anyone who studies the Torah immerses themselves in His holy name, and is saved from all forms of negativity – in this world and the next…Rebbe Yitzchak said that everyone who immerses themselves in the Torah is entirely free…Were the Jewish people to honor the Torah and embody what they study, they would be free from all forms of exile and judgments…

Come and see…that Korach wanted to twist the right with the left…” – Zohar Korach, 176a

Why would the Zohar speak about two completely different realities in one? The Torah is a wonderful thing – fine. Korach had a desire to twist things around – understood. Why put them adjacent to one another?

The Zohar is opening this story with that preface in order to tell us the deeper elements happening here. They are the same elements of gadgets becoming more of a distraction than empowering, more entertainment than educational. They are the same as the issue with having too many responsibilities to focus on what is really important and to be in the moment rather than distracted. They are the same elements by which a sophisticated, successful and “informed” reporter is capable of having false facts and twisted views of reality and history.

The element is understanding. The element is study. The element is definition. The element is that we need to investigate, we need to probe, we need to ask questions before we have answers and need to challenge ourselves before we challenge others. This is only possible through attaching ourselves with leaders who are selfless like Moshe and not selfish like so many scripted politicians; leaders who have a vision of humanity and not themselves, who have a vision of relationship to the root rather than the cause, leaders who focus us on truth and the Creator. These leaders bring us to study books like the Zohar that define reality, teach us how to attain and fully live with joy, peace, unity in every aspect of our lives. The Zohar is telling us that Korach’s argument was rooted in not studying what life is about and not living with definitions – which can only come about through studying the Torah through the lens of the Zohar and other holy works.

The first step in life is asking without preconceived conclusions. Korach had conclusions prior to asking what a leader is and if Moshe is one. Asking if we are truly happy, if we live our lives with passion and drive, if we have perspective and not agenda, if we are being real with ourselves or following someone else’s script. Let us ask and pray for all these forms of negativity that the Zohar speaks of and that is expressed in too many ways these days be met with understanding to bring a holistic and complete Shalom.

Sunday November 22nd 2009

Conscious Relationships

“As the sons (Yaakov and Esav) grew up, Esav became a man who knows to hunt, a man of the field….and Yitzchak loved Esav.” -Breisheit / Genesis 25:28

What does the Torah mean when it says, “knows to hunt” instead of merely being a hunter? And why two separate things of being a hunter and also being a man of the field?

Rabbi Avraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (from Spain 1089-1164), the classic commentator and great clarifier of the Torah says that in order to succeed in hunting one needs to know how to manipulate and trick the prey. One cannot just kill an animal, but one needs to know how to trap the animal. So the Ibn Ezra is teaching us that the Torah is not merely giving us a historical accounting of Esav’s proffession – but on a deeper level is telling us what kind of person he was; and Esav knew how to trick, trap and manipulate.

The Medrash asks why does the Torah add “man of the field”? What is the Torah adding for us? The Medrash answers that Esav used to take women from their husbands out to the field, so no one could hear them scream – what a haunting description. Shocking, horrific – even graphic, but the Medrash is adding for us another level of understanding who Esav was: more than mere manipulation and trickery that he was capable of, Esav was cruel and destructive.

If this is the kind of man Esav is: a hunter, manipulator, deceiver, rapist and cruel – how is it that the Torah emphasizes, “& Yitzchak loved Esav”. How could Yitzchak, a prophet, a spiritual and utmost refined holy individual love this type of person – and why is the Torah going out of its way to emphasize this?

Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, the Ishbitzer Rebbe (Poland, 1801-1854) says the following profound reality of the relationship of Yitzchak to Esav. If a person looks closely, the word in the Torah saying how Yitzchak loves Esav is actually in the active form. This means to say that it was not merely that Yitzchak happened to especially love Esav – he actively and consciously loved him, he went out of his way to love him.

As is known, Esav is the father of the western world, the non-Jewish western world to be precise. Esav was not Jewish nor was his progeny Jewish. However, as history developed and evolved, there came to be many great Jewish leaders who trace their lineage to Esav. Ovadia the prophet, Sh’maya & Avtalyon the famous sages in the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva and many others throughout Jewish history. How is it that all of these great leaders, sages and prophets specifically stem from Esav the hunter, rapist and deceiver? Is that our Jewish heritage? What is the meaning behind this?

The Ishbitzer Rebbe says the following deep secret of the Torah to answer.

Yitzchak did not inherently love Esav any more than he did Yaakov – why should he? Should he love Esav’s ways of deceit, manipulation, hunting animals and most horrific his treatment and abuse of women?

Rather, says the Ishbitzer Rebbe, as the Torah is telling us that Yitzchak actively and consciously loved Esav – he made the deep effort to. And from everytime Yitzchak looked upon Esav with favor, love, compassion and care there sparked the souls of future righteous generations within him. From the active loving of Esav, not only despite his evil ways but because of it, there generated within him and his progeny sparks of goodness to later be actualized in Ovadia, Rabbi Akiva and thousands more.

Judaism teaches us to “nullify your will for God’s, so that God will nullify others for yours” (Pirkei Avot 2:4). The Ishbitzer Rebbe says that this is what Yitzchak did for Esav – he nullified his own internal difficulty in loving Esav to love him which later resulted in God channelling the wills of Esav’s progeny towards Torah.

The secret here is that good does not happen by accident and good people do not appear out of the blue. The truth is that one has to create good by relating to everything in a positive, deeper way. This is the deeper meaning of Yitzchak loving Esav – Yitzchak loved that which is not good in order to make it good. Not with immediate results either, for it took many generations until Yitzchak’s vision came to be a reality in the leaders mentioned above.

This is really the essence of Judaism – to have a heart filled with deep love of everyone, and if it’s not there, to make it there.

The secret of this Parsha is that the first ingredient in Judaism, life and community is loving others – and only through that will there be later success, though often not at all immediate.

How in our lives is this practical? To enhance the love that we already have for people we adore and for people that we don’t. Are there people in our lives who we think of as “Esav”, who we think bring us down? Are there things or people who we might treat negatively, even a little bit? Are there people who would benefit from our being more patient, forgiving and compassionate? To all of the “Esav’s” in our lives, let us be like Yitzchak who consciously loves to generate the hidden good within.

Friday October 9th – Hoshana Rabba & Simchat Torah

Dancing While Doing Dishes

How does one attain and come to experience the highest levels of living? How would one be able to be in and of this world within the daily experiences of errands, responsibilities, obligations, eating, drinking, sleeping and so many things that might keep a person from living and being in a state of pure joy, calm, clarity of mind and enlightenment?

Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (1534-1572) known as the Arizal (an acronym which stands for HaEloki Rav Yitzchak Zichrono Livracha – The Godly Master Yitzchak, may his memory be for a blessing) was someone who more than almost anyone in Jewish history attained a level of enlightenment, holiness, purity and entirely embodied all of the divine qualities of goodness and truth.

To illustrate the level in which he was on, one day while studying Torah early in the morning his main student and disciple Rav Chaim Vital walked in. The Arizal was very much immersed in his study and he merely glanced at Rav Chaim for a moment as he entered the room. After glancing for a mere moment at Rav Chaim, the Arizal then went back to his learning and said, “Rav Chaim – why did you insult your wife last evening?” Rav Chaim was taken aback by the immediacy of the Arizal’s vision and asked how he knew that, how he saw that. The Arizal said, “It was written in the lines of your forehead”.

There is an entire book about the greatness of the Arizal called, “Shivchei Ha’Ari” (the praises of the Ari) in which there are brilliant, mind opening and boggling descriptions of who he was, what he saw and how he brought the reality of God to people’s minds and hearts.

The Arizal was once asked how he had attained such heights, such mastery, such perfection, such holiness. He answered, “It was through the dancing on Simchas Torah”.

Although the Arizal had mastered every aspect of Torah, prayed in isolation, meditated, studied and so worked on himself to attain and experience the level that he did – it somehow all came down to his dancing on Simchat Torah.

This would really deserve an entire book dedicated to delve into the depths involved and required to truly explore this – but nevertheless we can begin with something.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov teaches in the 10th lesson of Likutey Mohoran that the experience of dancing is the synthesis and marriage of body and soul, of physical and spiritual (paraphrased). For when a person dances, they dance from the joy that they experience that brings their body to unleash its inner soul. The body is so infused by the soul’s happiness, excitement, vision and pure life force that it dances; where the body and soul become one. And therefore, to the extent of one’s connectedness and being in-tune with his soul will the body dance.

We dance on Simchat Torah after having gone through over a period of a year the entire Torah. Over the course of a year, the Jewish soul has tasted and experienced one teaching after another, week after week, day after day. With the vision of what the teachings of the Torah are, how they totally transformed his life, how they opened, expanded and infused infinite life to his heart, mind and soul – with that vision a person breaks out in dance. And if a person is seriously connected – the dancing will be an experience of infinity, of tapping into the oneness of creation and the marriage of body and soul.

With this potential of experience, the Arizal said that this is how he attained his lofty heights of living.

There are countless stories of many holy Jewish people who on Simchat Torah were seen dancing in a state of bliss and fiery energy alone in their homes. For if a person is hearing the music, he cannot stop dancing.

Whether we find ourselves in Shuls and communities that are having Simchat Torah or we find ourselves away from a larger community – may this Simchat Torah (Saturday night and Sunday morning outside of Israel, Shabbos in Israel) bring us to live our lives to the highest heights and truly develop a relationship with God.

Ultimately this vision, clarity and joy is to enlighten the way in which we walk in the world in our day to day living; enlighten our errands, careers, eating, sleeping and cleaning. So that we’ll be dancing while doing dishes…

Friday September 11th – 22nd of Elul

Hearing, Yearning & Being Spiritually In-Tune

“If you will listen to the voice of God your God…”

- Dvarim (Deuteronomy) 28:15

Perhaps this statement in the Torah is talking directly to crazy people who hear voices. It clearly seems not to be talking to people who don’t hear voices – and yet this verse is found throughout the Torah! Either the Torah is specifically geared to people who hear voices or it is entirely irrelevent…or profoundly deep.

“The Torah contains within it everything that will ever happen in the Universe, from the biggest events to the smallest details…”

- The Vilna Gaon,
In the introduction to his commentary on the
Sifra D’tzniuta of the Zohar

How can the Torah contain within it the entire universe if it is merely a collection of stories that happened thousands of years ago? From the story of creation, Adam & Eve, the Jewish people in Egypt, etc. – where is there anything more than the mere stories? But rather, the Torah is the blueprint of creation and reality, and in order to uncover its depths and secrets one needs to know how to unlock the code, how to truly understand its meaning and infinite depth – which is why the Jewish people study and immerse themselves fully in the Torah day and night, taught by spiritual masters who have been taught its secrets.

The secret of listening to God’s voice is that deep inside everyone of us we are absolutely connected to God as we are part of God. “There is nothing other than God”(Dvarim 4:35) means that there is nothing in existence that is outside the realm of God, and everything in and of existence is God and is an expression of God.

“Rav Yehoshua Ben Levi said, everyday a voice from heaven calls out and says, woah to anyone who has not immersed themselves in the study of Torah – for a person is only free through the study of Torah…”

- Pirkei Avot, 6:2

The above teaching is a description of reality. The reality that anyone who is deeply and truly connected to the spiritual realm, to the real world, hears a voice of yearning, a voice calling upon the world to experience the soul and heart of life, to connect to their truest selves. A person who is in a place of yearning, of growth, of looking beyond the veil of this world to a deeper world, a world of oneness, a world of relationship with God – will hear this voice.

In truth, perhaps people who hear voices are on a higher level.

May we listen to the inner yearnings of our heart and of God’s calling out to us. The Hebrew month of Elul is a spiritually opportune time to listen to the yearning of our deeper selves, as expressed in the sounding of the Shofar throughout this month.

Monday September 7th – 18th of Elul

Today is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov (b.1698), one of the greatest luminaries of the Jewish people – who began one of the most radical movements in Jewish history.

The movement that the Baal Shem Tov began became known as the “Chasidic” movement, from the Hebrew word “Chasid” meaning pious, righteous, invigorated and alive.

The time of the Baal Shem Tov’s birth and later revelation of his teachings came during a time to the Jewish people when the Jewish people were dejected from a false Messiah in Shabtai Tzvi, were beaten down with endless pogroms and attacks – but even more so from the lack of studying and experiencing the deeper realms of Judaism. The learned were few and even fewer were those who merited immersing themselves in the Kabbalah, inner dimension of Judaism, leaving the Jewish people as a whole missing out on the true experience, life and potential of Judaism – something that lingers especially today.

The Baal Shem Tov came in the early 1700s to spread the message that every Jew is not only royal and holy – but that every Jew is a small Messiah, and through their life they can bring about redemption. We must be in love with God, in love with the world and in love with Torah.

But how can a person come to to live this love? The Baal Shem Tov taught that inherently we are already in love, we just need to be in tune with that love. That comes about through passionate prayer and the study of the inner dimension of Torah, the Kabbalah and later Chasidic works.

His teachings essentially were that every Jew is a master and every human being is deeply connected to God, they merely need to uncover it. Every Jew is a spiritual giant with an absolutely unique mission to spread their light to the world - and that we can tap into that hidden potential through powerful prayer with God and tasting the mystical secrets of Judaism.

Among the many stories about the Baal Shem Tov’s life are about his time spent in isolated prayer and communication with God in the Carpathian mountains. His later followers, and most especially his great grandson Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, said that going out to the woods and nature to speak to God in our own language is the secret to spiritual growth for every Jew and every human being.

In Judaism there is a teaching that the day that a person dies and is born is a time where the person’s essence is revealed, and most especially their teachings to the world. Then may we tap into the Baal Shem Tov’s revolutionary teachings by going out today and everyday to a place of nature to speak to God, thanking God for having given us such a beautiful life, and asking to fully tap into our soul’s potential to reveal to the world that which we were meant to in this lifetime.

Monday August 17th – 27th of Av

Joy – The Truth of Living

1)       Dvarim 28:47 – Understanding the Outcome of a Life Without Joy

1. In the Torah’s description of cause and effect, the Torah defines the outcome of suffering “…becauseyou did not serve God with true happiness and a joyous heart”.
2. The verse does imply however that the Jewish people wereserving God. That service would include: Praying, praying with a community, giving charity, studying, teaching, keeping kosher, keeping Shabbat, etc.
3. What is this verse of the Torah (literally the guide, hor’aah, Torah) teaching us about the nature of being Jewish: Is it more important what we do, or how we do it?
4. What is the Torah teaching us about the nature of cause and effect on a deeper level?

2) Psalms 97:11 – “There is a light sown for a Tzadik/ righteous person, and joy for those with a straight heart”.

1. a. Otzar Hamidrashim / Collection of Medrashim, the 32 Character Traits of the Medrash, p. 268 – One cannot say that there is a Tzadik/ righteous person who does not have joy and a straight person who is not filled withlight. Rather this is the teaching: The righteous are those with a straight heart and their light is the light of joy.
2. b. What does the verse mean by saying a straight heart? How is this defining the ability to be joyous?

3) Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likutey Mohoran 4:5, 5:3 – A person is inherently happy, it is merely the confusion of the mind that results through mistakes of action and thought that confuse a person to be unhappy – for man’s natural state is of a “straightened heart of joy”…

4)       Proverbs 17:22 – “A joyous heart enhances one’s brilliance, and a broken spirit dries the bones”

1. Explination by Rav Shlomo Yitzchaki, Rashi- When a person is overjoyed with the life he has been given, his face shines with that joy.
2. What is Rashi adding that we didn’t know already? What is Rashi pinpointing?
3. Rashi is adding the element of, “the life one has been given” – which is being aware of the current abundant blessings in one’s life, appreciating, acknowledging the reality of all the good one has been given – not focusing on lack but realizing that there is no lack. When a person lives with the joy of the life he has – his face will shine with that joy.
4. What does the end of the verse teach us? What is the root of all “dry bones”, suffering, ailments, frustration, and difficulty?

5)       The Torah does not merely instruct, it rather defines reality and is the gauge of reality. What the first verse in Dvarim and the later teaching of Proverbs has defined for us is the following reality in the following quotes:

1. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likutey Mohoran II, 24 – The essential means of being connected to God is only through being in a consistent state of absolute joy, and to strengthen oneself to fully distance sadness and depression with all of one’s strength. For all the sicknesses that come upon a person – all of them come because of a lack of joy (literally: destruction of joy).
2. Rav Shlomo Carlebach, quoting Rebbe Nachman in his own words – People think they’re unhappy because of all the difficult things in their lives, but really it’s just the opposite: Difficult things come upon a person who is unhappy….
3. Sefer HaMidot (Book of Character Traits), Joy – Success can only come to one who is filled with joy.

i.      One might think the opposite – that when I become successful I’ll be happy!

ii.      Rather being filled with joy is our natural inherent state that brings about health, success and a true ability to relate, and be open to God! Amen!

Monday August 10th – 20th of Av

“From the 15th of Av the strength of the sun weakens, and the night grows longer. One should therefore study more Torah during these evenings, as the study of Torah during the night increases ones days and inspires their lives.”
- Talmud Ta’anit 31a with Rashi

If the study of Torah can have such an impact – why should one study it during the dark and cold night? Wouldn’t it make more sense to study during the glorious sunny Summer day? And why should one increase their study specifically during the longer nights? Unless there must be some secret to the essence of the night and its relationship to studying Torah.

“Torah can truly be experienced only when studied with all of one’s soul…For Torah to truly be studied, it must be studied at night.

Therefore, someone who wants to merit the crown of Divine Wisdom should be conscience every night of their life to immerse themselves in the study of Torah and higher consciousness.”

- Rambam, Maimonides

The Path to Study Torah, 3:12,13

The study of Torah is to open one’smind and soul to a higher reality, to experience and touch upon a deeper living. In order to fully access this, one must study it in the evening – for the evening represents darkness, concealment and confusion. Not to be perused or merely read – but “with all of one’s soul” in the darkness of night, in the climax of struggle. For that darkness of night has within it the glory of silence, the majesty of stillness and all the world is quiet. In that realm, the Torah is entirely alive and available to expand one’s mind, enliven one’s heart and settle our soul.

If a person might not know where first to look to study Torah, not knowing which books to look for, etc. I would be happy to help them find a book that most speaks to them and their unique personality.

B’chasdei Hashem we should all merit attaining the higher realms of thought, emotion and experience that God wishes to bless us with during the beginnings of these longer nights.

Thursday July 30th – Tisha B’av

“The word for Lamenting and fixing are the same in Hebrew, ‘kinot’ are the same letters as ‘tikun’ which means fixing”

- Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

Likutey Mohoran 247

On Tisha B’av morning throughout the world, the  Jewish people sing, hum and meditate on the kinot. The Kinot are poetic lamentations written in utmost beauty and glory, describing the destruction of Jerusalem and exile of the Jewish people. They are a collection of poems and liturgy written over a thousand years ago by holy Rabbis and Jews brokenhearted and spiritually shocked at the reality in which they live compared to the reality which had been.

The Kinot when translated are like food without spices or taste, it has a lost effect. The experience is almost lost without the genuine richness of the original poetic Hebrew – something in and of itself to cry and lament over; the reality that the power and grandeur of Judaism cannot be experienced by so many.

Even in English though, when going through the kinot one can taste the soul of the Jewish people, the soul of the Land of Israel, the soul being in exile and yearning for Tikun, fixing and redemption. That is the secret of the kinot.

Rebbe Nachman in the above teaching is teaching a secret about the nature of redemption and the secret to fix anything that needs fixing: by going through, and by feeling and experiencing the destruction. That in and of itself brings about Tikun. Kinot are Tikun, they are the same word, the same essence, the same reality.

If a person ever finds themselves in a place and reality of brokenness, of destruction, of exile – the secret to find completeness, building and redemption is by fully being in the reality of exile – by saying kinot, by absorbing that reality – and by understanding why we are there.

“Said Rava: If a person finds that sufferings and frustrations have come upon him – he should look at how he has been living and acting; as it says in Lamentations, ‘We shall look into our ways and analyze it, and return to God”

If a person were to look and not find any reason in his actions – then it is because of not having studied Torah…and if not because of Torah, then they are sent from God out of love to refine the person to grow”

- Talmud Brachot 5a

For things beyond our control – such as what kind of families we were born into, our personalities – that is part of a Masterplan of the Creator. But for things within our control, and we find ourselves frustrated and broken – look into our actions, say “kinot” over how we might have acted, see what we have been lacking in and misguided about – and when we say “kinot”, then we will find Tikun. For there is always a secret in suffering and a message of why it is happening to us; and once the message is understood, the suffering is no longer needed.

Evil in Hebrew is Rah, which is also the same word as Er which means to arouse, for that is the nature of experiencing evil and difficulty: to be awoken. To be made conscience, to be made aware and aroused to think about the way we have been acting in order to refine and redefine ourselves. Once awake, no arousal is needed, for only someone who is sleeping needs an alarm.

Our saying Kinot on Tisha B’avisin order to fully enter the reality and experience of exile – only to come out of it with a vision of what is deeply missing in our lives and how we can attain it.

Let this Tisha B’av be a time of clarity and vision where we experience the deeper lackingsin our lives and the world and come away with an understanding of how we can bring the Tikun about.

Wednesday July 29th – Erev Tisha B’av

On Tisha B’av we immerse ourselves in the book of Eicha (Lamentations), the poetic expression of Yirmiyahu who experienced the destruction in Jerusalem thousands of years ago.

Eicha also literally means “ayeka” which means: where are you? This was the same word that Hashem used to ask Adam where he is after he ate from the tree.

On Tisha B’av, the book of Eicha is an expression of who we are and who we can be. The destruction of Tisha B’av is not a historic thing, but a current reality of the spiritual exile and confusion that exists in the world. The day of Tisha B’avisa daywhere we can be silent with our lives and see who we really are and who we can become. God is asking all of us, “ayeka” where are we? What are our lives about? Who are we?

“The Mashiach is born on Tisha B’av”

- Talmud Yerushalmi, 2:4

Let this Tisha B’avbea dayof clarity, sensing the deeper reality in which we exist and becoming our ultimate selves – for with destruction comes true redemption and realization.

Tuesday July 28th 2009 – Two Days Before T’sha B’av

“On the 9th of Av it is prohoibited to study Torah, as Tehillim says, “…for the words of God are straight and gladden the heart’ “

- Code of Jewish Law, Orach Chaim 554:1

The words of Torah absolutely bring a person to a place of joy and settledness, giving clear consciousness, patience and understanding.

If so – so even on T’sha B’av we should learn Torah?

Because we might not experience that when we learn Torah, or even listen to words of Torah throughout the year – we might open up or hear words of Torah and that experience is not there for us.

So on T’sha B’av we should be in a completely different reality of solitude and quiet to listen to the lack of completeness in our lives, to experience the unsettled mind that one might have throughout the year. And to listen to how it is thirsting for Torah to gladden our hearts, settle our mind and expand our lives. For T’sha B’av is the day of vision for how to repair and fix all that needs perfection: first and foremost our hearts and minds.

Monday July 27th 2009 – The 9 Days

“When the Hebrew Month of Av enters, Decrease Joy”

- Talmud Ta’anit 26b

With an introductory reading of this, the meaning would be  saying that due to the many horrific tragedies that befell the Jewish people throughout this month, we therefore decrease our joy.

However, everything in Torah and Judaism is all about going deeper and uncovering the hidden meaning within everything.

“For a Jewish person must always look for the inner wisdom in everything.”

- Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

Torah Aleph in Likutey Mohoran

This statement of the Talmud is actually a secret to living with joy: When you decrease…joy! When the month of Av enters, the inner work that we have to do is decrease and focus – and when we do that: joy. This is the secret of “decrease joy“.

In Judaism, this month has the tradition of fasting, not eating meat and wine during the 9 days leading up to T’sha B’av and simplifying our lives by focusing on what really makes us happy.

During this time of destruction – the secret to rebuilding is not merely focusing on history, but rather being silent with what we have and listening to what we need to “decrease” in our lives. By focusing on that, joy will well up within us – for like children we are in a constant state of joy. If we don’t feel that, then our blocks need to be decreased.

Monday July 13th 2009, 21st of Tamuz – the 3 Weeks

The mind does not work properly, unless the heart is open.

“When a person lacks understanding in something – what should he do? He should pour out his heart to God.”

- Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

Prayer and study is one thing – when our hearts are truly open our brains are giving us true thoughts. Let us strive to constantly open our hearts through pouring out our hearts to God and then our minds will flow with holy, pure and wonderful consciousness. Tears are the gates to wisdom.

July 12th 2009

The Secret Of Living Is Living Positive

“And God related upon man saying….from the tree of knowledge of good and evil do not eat from, for the day on which you eat from it death with occur.”

- Genesis 2:16,17

“When the redemption comes we will read this verse differently: the tree of knowledge is good, and from evil do not eat – for upon consuming evil one surely dies”

- Mei Hashiloach, the Ishbitzer Rebbe

Every moment of life is a gift and opportunity from our Creator for us to perfect ourselves and the world. It is an opportunity as well as a decision, an experience that we create. Depending on how we “eat” from it, how we consume it, how we relate to it is the extent of our experience.

For eternity the Jewish people have sought wisdom for living by studying the Torah. Yet on a superficial initial look at the Torah, no wisdom can be gained from it. The story of Adam and Eve in the garden seems like a children’s story at first glance – yet upon deeper study and meditation wondrous secrets are revealed. On a deeper level of relating to the Torah, the Ishbitzer Rebbeisteachingus a profound secret of living: that through knowledge all of life is good – but as soon as we relate to life as if it were not, we bring upon ourselves death.

Death is an illusion and life is truth. All experiences of negativity, discord, arguments, sadness, depression, lack of drive and motivation are all outcomes from eating from the tree of “evil” – for they are death. From relating to the negative. Those experiences are deadly and deathly – and God tells us in the Torah not to relate to evil, not to eat it, to see it, hear it or taste it. For God wants us to live. And we live through knowledge….

“When a person has true knowledge, he lacks nothing”

- Talmud

Knowledge and experience are the same word in Hebrew, “da’at“. Knowledge is knowing, living and experiencing that God is a giver of good and we are the recipient of that good every moment of life. And how does one receive a gift, by saying thank you.

When we walk our lives in a constant state of gratitude, saying thank you for everything with utmost joy – we live Jewishly. For the word Jew in Hebrew comes from the word to be grateful: Modeh, Yehudi. Whatever might happen to us – when we “eat” it with the knowledge of gratitude, all is good, life is good.

Upon being insulted – we should say thank you for being instructed how to improve ourselves.

Upon being hurt – we should say thank you for experiencing being humbled.

Upon losing something – we should say thank you for what we had and thank you for what can come next.

Upon failing – we should say thank you for the opportunity to better appreciate success.

When living with the knowledge of gratitude, we live with the experience that all is good, we live the good life. Joy lives within gratitude – joy lives within Judaism.

From July 9th to July 30th this year is the period in the Jewish year of the 3 weeks of destruction and exile. It all stemmed from a lack of knowing gratitude, of knowing God – of knowing good. There was gossip and slander, there was stealing and murder – there was a consumption of evil. The word in Hebrew for evil is the same as shaky, “ra’uah” and so it all came tumbling down – and the Jews were exiled from their land, scattered around the world to learn the lesson of the knowledge of gratitude, the knowledge of good, the knowledge of God.

Let us all be aroused to only be positive and speak positively. Let us all be aroused to be filled with joy and never giving into the illusory temptation of negativity. Let us all be aroused to be entirely gratefully for everything we have and everyone we know – we are more blessed than we can imagine.

The lesson of the knowledge of gratitude happened in the Garden of Eden – and upon living that lesson, we immediately enter back into the Garden of Eden.

Let this time of destruction become one of building and construction. Let this time of exile become one of redemption. Let this time of mourning become one of celebration for every Jewish person, for the entire world.

All You Need is Love

There is one element among any community in the Jewish world that we struggle with. Wherever one is on the map in whatever affiliation, group and context that a Jewish community exists, there is one element that we all struggle with: eachother.

“If there were ever to be only 10 Jews who would love eachother with absolute and unconditional love, the Mashiach (Messiah) would come.”

- Rav Yisrael Meir HaKohen, the Chofetz Chaim

In fact, the Jewish nation has been struggling withthisfortwo thousand years. For two thousand years ago the Jewish people were in the land of Israel with the magnificent Beit Hamikdash standing and functioning in all its glory. It was a place of immense wealth, Divine experience and pure holiness.

So how is it that we lost it? The section of the Talmud that deals with Divorce tells the story of how the Jewish people were separated and exiled from their land. In Gittin55b there is a story of Kamtzahwhohosted a fantastic party with the entire Jewish community invited, including the leading Rabbis. But there was one person who was there that Kamtzah did not want there: Bar Kamtzah. So Kamtzah goes up to Bar Kamtzah and tells him to leave. Bar Kamtzah says, “as long as I’m here let me stay – I’ll pay for what I ate”. To which Kamtzah says no and still wants him to leave. Bar Kamtzah offers to pay for half of the entire party – but Kamtzah refuses. Bar Kamtzah offers to pay for the entire party so that he shouldn’t suffer the embarrassment of leaving – but Kamtzah refuses and forces Bar Kamtzah out of the party.

Bar Kamtzahnoticed with rage that of all the Rabbis that were at the party who witnessed the interaction, not one of them said a word. Bar Kamtzah then concluded that the Rabbis saw that the behavior of Kamtzah was thus appropriate – an outrage! How could the Rabbis see the rude behavior of one Jew to another and not say anything? So Bar Kamtzah went to the Romans to convince them that the Jewish people will rebel against them, ultimately leading to the destruction of the Temple and exile of the Jewish people.

The Talmud in Gittin concludes that becauseof the hatred amongst ourselves was the Temple destroyed and we were sent into exile – an exile that lasts until today.

“If the exile of the Jewish people was because of hatred, then our redemption will only come about through love”

- Rav Kook

As long as there is any hatred in our hearts for any Jew or any human being – we will remain in a state of exile. As long as we have the slightest negative thought for any Jew or human being – we will remain in a state of exile.

The only way to redemption is through embodying, embracing and becoming someone who loves every Jew. May we all spend time in isolated study of Torah and meditative prayer to experience the clarity that we need to love everyone, to ultimately bring about the redemption of the Jewish people and the world.

Yom Hazikaron is the day where we “remember” all the holy Jewish soldiers who gave their lives for the Jewish Land

Why is this day a day of memory? Why is specifically memory the function by which to relate to the soldiers?

In learning from the Torah where the obligation to tell our children the story of the Jewish people leaving Egypt, there is a profound difference of opinion between the Sefer HaChinuch and the Rambam, Maimonides.

The Sefer HaChinuch (13th Century) learns out from the verse in Shmot / Exodus 13:8:

“On that day (Passover) you must tell your child, ‘it is because of this that God acted for me when I left Egypt’ “

As is explicit in the verse, “tell your child” – it is almost intuitive to say that this verse is the source for the telling of the story of redemption to our children. But the Rambam doesn’t see it that way.

Hilchot Chametz & Matzah 7:1 – It is a positive Mitzvah in the Torah to tell of the wonders and the miracles that were done for our people on Pesach night as it says in Exodus 13, ‘Rememberthis day when you left Egypt’ as it says later in Exodus 20, ‘Rememberthe Shabbos day’. How do we know this is on Pesach? As it says, ‘And you shall tell your child on that day’….

The Rambam connects “remembering” the Exodus to the “remembering” of Shabbos. If remembering were limited to commemorating – then it would not be related to Shabbos. For the remembering of Shabbos is not a memory at all, but rather an experience, a living, a consciousness. Shabbos not a memory for we live it, we experience the rest, the serene calm after a work week and the extra soul that God gives us.

So the Rambam, by connecting the nature of Shabbos to the memory of leaving Egypt, is redefining memory as consciousness, or conscious experience. But we’re not done.

The Rambam continues and says that this is the whole definition of telling our children, of giving it over to the next generation. For the only way to convey a reality, message, vision and world view is not by speaking an idea, but by embodying a conscious reality. When a person remembers the Shabboshelivesit – only then will it relate to the next generation. Not through thought but through it being real with the speaker.

So Yom Hazikaron is not a memory but a living, an experience, a consciousness of understanding how the Jewish people are able to be in their land: through self-sacrifice, mesirat nefesh. We do not remember the soldiers who gave their lives for the Jewish people and their Holy Land – we consciously experience their loss, we feel it, we know it we live it. We are conscious of the reality that we are where we are because Jewish people became soldiers who sacrificed their own lives. In order to build, create, and generate the ability for the Jewish soul to return home. May God also remember – and may we see the fulfillment of the Prophets that the Land of Israel be the joyous Mother as her children return home.

The Healing Power of Spring

The entire Jewish year is a multitude and array of vast emotions and experience, as we’ve spoken about in previous blogs. Todaybeing the new month of Iyar is thus an emergence of a new reality and experience, as the name itself is a hidden message.

“The Name of the Month Iyar is an acronym of “Ani Hashem Rofecha”

I am God who heals you”

- The Bnei Yissochar

The “I” in Iyar is an aleph in Hebrew, the “y” is a yud and the “r” is a reish – the aleph is for ani, the yud is for Hashem and the reish is for rofecha.

What is the meaning behind it? Why of all months is Iyar a month whose essence has to do with healing – and specifically that God is He who heals. Why not other months?

Iyar (April, May) is the real season of Spring as everything that was cold and covered beneath the ground during the winter begins to sprout and emerge. The weather of Spring is the most inviting of seasons for it is neither cold or hot but pleasant.

Therefore what is healing about Iyar is that it is a month of growth and balance. The natural world is in a state of growth and coming out of and the temperatures are in a balanced medium. So that when a person is in this type of state, he has the capacity to heal.

Only when a person is in a state of growth, striving, emergence, challenge, overcoming and vision can he be healed. As soon as a person is in a static state and stuck with a limited perspective – there is no capacity to heal. The capacity to heal is being in a healthy, happy, loving and giving state – the essence of which is the desire to grow.

Being in a balanced state is not being overly zealous like the heat of the summer and not overly inward like the cold of the winter. But rather at ease like the Spring. As Rambam, Maimonades says that a person should strive for the middle path – not to the right and not to the left, not to an extreme, but strive for balance.

How can we fully live and embody this? Only through a mature relationship with God. “I am God who heals you“. Why is this? Because we are finite and limited, and God is infinite. We can only experience the essence and goodness of life when we are open up to the Divine.

How can one live like that? As R’ Shalom Arush teaches in his book “The Garden of Emunah” based on teachings of Rebbe Nachman – it is in three stages:

1. Living with the awareness that everything is from Hashem, God
2. Living with the awareness that everything therefore is good.
3. Living with the awareness that everything is an invitation and communication from Hashem.

When a person lives with Hashem in this way, he lives in a state of purpose, joy, balance, love and ultimately healing. For everything is part of the relationship we have with God and nothing is outside of it. If we experience

• Having negative attitudes towards people
• Anger and frustration from occurrences in life
• Not being in a constant state of joy

it is all from a lack of understanding that these things are from Hashem, for the good and that Hashem is telling me something. For how can I have ill feelings towards someone when not only are they created in the image of God – but that whatever they might have done is ultimately only from Hashem? As R’ Arush explains – it is like getting mad at an object instead of the person who the object belongs to – and the holder is the Creator.

Withallofthe above, let this new month be for all of us a time of desire to grow, be balanced in our emotions and experience the relationship of Hashem, God in everything in our lives.

Holocaust Rememberance Day: More than a Memory

Yesterday was Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. A Day where Jewish communities all over the world come together to remember the evil and destruction that befell our people.

That was yesterday.

Today is the dayafter, a regular Wednesday- are we any different after our experience of yesterday?

We might all be different in our psyche and sensation of how many lives were tortured and destroyed and the miracle of survival for those who did. We might be different in our emotions, thoughts and memories – but are we any different in our actions?

The Nazi’s did not just kill millions of innocent people – they did it systematically. The high ranking officers had to have Masters and Phd’s in order to go up in the ranks of the Nazi regime – for only someone with such intelligence can organize the killing of millions of people. They thought, planned, analyzed and met to discuss how thoroughly they can kill. How systematically they can wipe out a people. If we are only affected by the Memorial day in our minds – we have given the enemy a victory.

We must build, create, renew, energize and enliven Jewish life and community the same way it was sought to be destroyed: by coming together and thinking, planning and analyzing how we can thoroughly build our people.

When we do that we will have used to evil to create good and to create life from death. May we not just remember, but may we act.

Waking Up Before Sunrise

The Hebrew word for time is zman, but is also the same word for invitation, zimun. This is because all times of the day and of life are different invitations to experience a new world. The experience of morning is different than the  experience of night.

“The Zohar talks about the time of Midnight more than anything else. This is because being awake at midnight is the essence of being Jewish”

- Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

In fact, anyone who goes through the Zohar will see that  what is talked about again and again is the process and experience of time from Midnight to day break. The emerging energies and sensations that God inspires into the world are like a prism of light manifesting different colors at different times. The time of Midnight (Chatzot in Hebrew) begins 6 hours after the stars come out and is a time of clarity and higher sensitivity.

Even if one does not wake up for Chatzot, one can still get a taste of it by waking up before Sunrise. The beginning of the dayis an emergence of absolute newness that God inspires us with, climaxed at the point of sunrise.

This morning as I was driving during sunrise, seeing the forests of Canada and Nova Scotiaastheywere immersed in the morning dew and frost, fog and sun, I was blessed with the experience of the new day. Of God changing His colors, sensations and energies.

I was thinking how we all have a reason of where we are in all of our lives and how amazing it is to be in Halifax. Ultimately and speedily our home is really in Israel, but for the time being God sent us to Halifax to taste Chatzot and sunrise here, to see God’s revelation in Nova Scotia. I look forward to seeing more people awake, alert and present during these glorious moments….

Entering a New World

The Jewish year is cyclic in nature, ultimately going through a full gamot of emotions, awarenesses and experiences throughout the year. From the joy of Sukot to the mourning of Tish’a B’av and the 3 weeks, from the revealed miracles of Pesach to the hidden nature of Purim. From the fasting of Yom Kippur to the feasting of the other Chagim, from the rest of Shabbos to the active weeks that follow.

We have just completed the miraculous week of Pesach, and in hours are entering the holy realm of Shabbos. The Shabbos after every Chag (holiday in english) is the capacity to internalize and digest all that we strove to attain during the holiday itself. This is true of any week, but the Shabbos following a chag is especially opportune for such attainment.

For this reason Rebbe Nachman of Breslev always stayed up the entire night after Shabbos was over – to fully internalize.

God willing we will continue to deal with how to experience what is spiritually possible and come to our fullest potential and fulfillment, to completely enjoy the beautiful world which we have been given.

Good Shabbos!

and were promised by God to have their homeland. Why should Moshe and Aharon lord over them so? They’re no better or loftier than this wonderful nation – it is time for change. By following Korach we will see change! Change! CHANGE! (Have we mentioned change?)

There are a few fundamental problems with Korach’s argument that are brought forth through Rashi’s explanation. Rashi notes that the Torah specifically says that “Korach took” which denotes “to separate from the community and to arouse argument against the leaders.” Rashi, based on Onkelos, emphasizes the “taking” that means to separate; Also very interesting, because “taking” in the Torah means just the opposite – to be one with. In the beginning of Talmud Kiddushin 2a, they learn this out from the verse elsewhere in the Torah that uses “taking” but this time referring to unity and not separating.

In order to bring resolve to this conflict, we need to identify and clarify the following issues. The first is defining what leadership Korach is against – what exactly is the leadership role that Moshe and Aharon have the Korach accuses them of “lording over” the people? The second is Moshe’s reaction. Does Moshe admit his wrong? Does Moshe argue? Does Moshe fight fire with fire? Moshe’s reaction would be indicative of the principle issue, especially when he is being faced with such critique.

Korach accuses Moshe of “lording over” the people, of taking this leadership undeservedly and disproportionately. That is fine, so what leadership role are we talking about exactly? Is Moshe taking too much of the taxes for fancy cars, elaborate parties? Is Moshe torturing the people as a tyrant and dictator – what is Korach referring to here? The problem is that Korach doesn’t know himself. Korach must have been following the headlines and slogans like the rest of us instead of investigating the details and defining his accusations.

In truth, Moshe has no leadership whatsoever. All Moshe is trying to do is inspire, educate and bring the Jewish people to a higher level of living and deeper relationship with God. All Moshe talks about is God and following his Torah. “What does God ask of you but to be in awe of Him, to walk in all His ways, to love Him and to serve Him with all your hearts and souls.”- Dvarim 10:12. Moshe doesn’t mention himself or talk about himself so much – he just talks about the Creator. This is how the Zohar defines a King and his kingdom in general by saying, “Malchut – leit l’m’garma klum” – “Kingship has nothing in and of itself”. This is because a King and his kingdom are only for the people. All the mitzvahs and Halachas (laws, pathways) of a king reflect this. A King must always wear a Torah on his arm and is only appointed if they are a studied, pious person (see Maimonides, Laws of Kings). Moshe’s “leadership” has none of the perks or lording over that Korach is accusing Moshe of. Korach’s critique, similar to recent critiques in the world this past week, is not based on fact but emotion; not based on investigation but slogan.

If Moshe were anything like most people, upon being accused he would have accused back; but Moshe didn’t. Upon being accused of these things Moshe merely falls on his face. Rashi explains that Moshe was disheartened because this was the fourth time the Jewish people are making misguided judgments and wrong actions. By the golden calf, when they complained and last week with the spies. This fourth time Moshe was disheartened, perhaps God was tired of hearing Moshe ask for compassion and mercy on his people. Moshe was always about others, never about himself. For this reason God calls Moshe, “The humblest man on the face of the earth” Bamidbar 12:3 So what did Moshe do when there were those who act against him, complain to him, speak badly of him and even outright accuse him? He prays for God to have compassion on them and only hopes God will listen. Does that sound like someone lording over the people? What went wrong?