Pesah is coming. One of the most challenging things about Pesah for me is the unique feeling of being stuffed and unsatiated. On Pesah we eat almost nonstop, but without chametz, I'm left feeling hungry.
What can I learn from this about Pesah?
The Holiday of Pesah is a special time set aside to recognize the difference between living a physical existence, and living a spiritual existence clothed in physical experience. When we eat on Pesah we don't feel satiated to show us that physicality itself isn't enough. The Matzah gives us a taste of spirituality, makes us hungry even starving for the spiritual part of our existence.
That's why, at the end of the seder, after we've eaten the afikoman and will eat no more, we pray "Next year in Yerushalayim rebuilt." After our physical hunger should be completely satiated and yet we still feel hunger, we recognize that that hunger is for spiritual fulfillment, the kind only possible in Jerusalem, in the Beit HaMikdash, together with all of Am Yisrael.
לשנה הבא בירושלים הבנויה
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
22.3.10
16.12.09
you may not be what you eat, but what if you are?
In his partial commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, (OH 6:1) the Mishna Berurah,(6) the Hafetz Hayyim quotes what appears to be the Ariz"l, explaining that the miraculous state of man, a combination of spiritual and physical, one of the wonders for which we praise God, is brought about specifically through eating.
"The soul benefits from the spiritual element of the food, and the body benefits from the physical element of the food, and it is through this very mechanism, food, that they are brought together."
That's an amazing revelation. (Here I am trying to learn more halachah, but it's the secrets incidentally revealed in the halachah that speak to me the most)
[Of note: this sounds similar to the Noam Elimelech's comment that the whole purpose of this world is to eat.]
If we reexamine eating from this perspective, it can change our entire world. What we eat affects how, when, and if our souls are bound to our bodies and vice versa. It also tells us that the secret in allowing the soul to reign over the body begins and ends with which food we eat and how we consume it.
Be aware of what you eat and how it affects you; especially how it affects your service of God.
At the very least, be careful about making the appropriate berachot before and after whatever you eat, even that deceptively simple step can be enough to give you a new dimension to your spirituality you never knew existed.
"The soul benefits from the spiritual element of the food, and the body benefits from the physical element of the food, and it is through this very mechanism, food, that they are brought together."
That's an amazing revelation. (Here I am trying to learn more halachah, but it's the secrets incidentally revealed in the halachah that speak to me the most)
[Of note: this sounds similar to the Noam Elimelech's comment that the whole purpose of this world is to eat.]
If we reexamine eating from this perspective, it can change our entire world. What we eat affects how, when, and if our souls are bound to our bodies and vice versa. It also tells us that the secret in allowing the soul to reign over the body begins and ends with which food we eat and how we consume it.
Be aware of what you eat and how it affects you; especially how it affects your service of God.
At the very least, be careful about making the appropriate berachot before and after whatever you eat, even that deceptively simple step can be enough to give you a new dimension to your spirituality you never knew existed.
24.6.08
if you can't join em, beat em [2/2]
Coming back to the metaphor of eating and what we can learn from it, I think it would be wise to review Rebbe Nachman's lesson we learned a while back titled "let's eat in." (see: http://awaxingwellspring.blogspot.com/2008/02/lets-eat-in.html)
We see that in addition to the act of consuming food, it is easy for us to be consumed by something else, a feeling, an idea, an experience. When we say 'consumed by' we mean it literally. We are absorbed into that experience and become a part of its nature.
Here to what we learned in part 1 applies. When we are part of an experience we are either being absorbed, consumed, and changed by it, or we are consuming and changing it. It's eat or be eaten.
Sometimes when the experience is positive and good for us, we want to be 'eaten.' It refines and purifies us, as Rebbe Nachman teaches. These kind of experiences, visiting the Holy Land, visiting a Tzaddik, learning Torah, strengthening our Emunah, (our pure faith) we want them to consume us, we want to be remade into the material of the Tzaddik, the Land of Israel, the Torah, or Emunah.
Other times, we don't want experiences that might be negative or harmful to consume us. We don't want to become part of that bad experience. Again we can find analogs in the physical world: Unfortunately people subjected to abuse often become abusive themselves. These people have been devoured by the experience, their nature has become part of the nature of abuse. (This applies even to minor verbal abuse)
Basically, every encounter we have with anything outside ourselves has the ability to influence and change us. This is the basic tenet of the psychology called behaviorism. However, it is ALWAYS within our control to choose to influence that experience, rather than be influenced by it. Note the emphasis on the word 'choose.' We can always choose what we want, but our success is not assured. Life is effort, life is work, and sometimes (though it seems unfortunate) we have more to learn and gain from the loss than we do from the victory.
What is important to be aware of is that every loss (just like every win) is an opportunity to once again be affected and consumed, or to affect and consume.
This is at the root of Teshuvah. Teshuvah is the act of turning the experience from one that consumed us into one that we consume and change into a different, higher, and more refined nature.
This is also why I've stated in the past that Teshuvah applies to mitzwoth as well as aveiroth (sins) because we can choose in the here and now to allow that past experience of a mitzwah to consume us and affect us more fully. (Just as we can do the opposite with a negative past experience.)
The one caveat here is to understand that just as in Kashrut, there are some things that no matter how we may try, they will always consume us, because they aren't palatable. And for this reason, they are always forebidden; So too, sins (aveiroth) are actions/experiences that HaShem informs us from the start: they will certainly consume you and bring you down.
Neutral experiences can be brought to great holiness, in fact, that is a major part of our job here in this world. But non-neutral negative experiences (read: sins) cannot be brought to holiness through their performance. Only after the fact, if we slipped, then Teshuvah allows us, through super-human effort, to fix, consume, and change even these negative acts.
We need to strengthen these muscles. We need to recognize that every experience is an opportunity to come closer to HaShem, to experience HaShem more fully. Whether it is through deepening the experience by letting it overwhelm us, or it is by taking control of and modifying that experience.
All of these insights you can internalize through focusing on eating and what it does to you, and what you do to the food.
(maybe I should have called it, if you can't join em, eat em.)
We see that in addition to the act of consuming food, it is easy for us to be consumed by something else, a feeling, an idea, an experience. When we say 'consumed by' we mean it literally. We are absorbed into that experience and become a part of its nature.
Here to what we learned in part 1 applies. When we are part of an experience we are either being absorbed, consumed, and changed by it, or we are consuming and changing it. It's eat or be eaten.
Sometimes when the experience is positive and good for us, we want to be 'eaten.' It refines and purifies us, as Rebbe Nachman teaches. These kind of experiences, visiting the Holy Land, visiting a Tzaddik, learning Torah, strengthening our Emunah, (our pure faith) we want them to consume us, we want to be remade into the material of the Tzaddik, the Land of Israel, the Torah, or Emunah.
Other times, we don't want experiences that might be negative or harmful to consume us. We don't want to become part of that bad experience. Again we can find analogs in the physical world: Unfortunately people subjected to abuse often become abusive themselves. These people have been devoured by the experience, their nature has become part of the nature of abuse. (This applies even to minor verbal abuse)
Basically, every encounter we have with anything outside ourselves has the ability to influence and change us. This is the basic tenet of the psychology called behaviorism. However, it is ALWAYS within our control to choose to influence that experience, rather than be influenced by it. Note the emphasis on the word 'choose.' We can always choose what we want, but our success is not assured. Life is effort, life is work, and sometimes (though it seems unfortunate) we have more to learn and gain from the loss than we do from the victory.
What is important to be aware of is that every loss (just like every win) is an opportunity to once again be affected and consumed, or to affect and consume.
This is at the root of Teshuvah. Teshuvah is the act of turning the experience from one that consumed us into one that we consume and change into a different, higher, and more refined nature.
This is also why I've stated in the past that Teshuvah applies to mitzwoth as well as aveiroth (sins) because we can choose in the here and now to allow that past experience of a mitzwah to consume us and affect us more fully. (Just as we can do the opposite with a negative past experience.)
The one caveat here is to understand that just as in Kashrut, there are some things that no matter how we may try, they will always consume us, because they aren't palatable. And for this reason, they are always forebidden; So too, sins (aveiroth) are actions/experiences that HaShem informs us from the start: they will certainly consume you and bring you down.
Neutral experiences can be brought to great holiness, in fact, that is a major part of our job here in this world. But non-neutral negative experiences (read: sins) cannot be brought to holiness through their performance. Only after the fact, if we slipped, then Teshuvah allows us, through super-human effort, to fix, consume, and change even these negative acts.
We need to strengthen these muscles. We need to recognize that every experience is an opportunity to come closer to HaShem, to experience HaShem more fully. Whether it is through deepening the experience by letting it overwhelm us, or it is by taking control of and modifying that experience.
All of these insights you can internalize through focusing on eating and what it does to you, and what you do to the food.
(maybe I should have called it, if you can't join em, eat em.)
23.6.08
if you can't join em, beat em [1/2]
As we've mentioned previously, we think of food as something physical that we eat in order to give us life. That's one level, but there's a deeper truth in which the food itself is all but extraneous, it is purely a vehicle, a means, a vessel that contains the life force which HaShem gives to us.
We learn that the manna, (מן) was pure spiritual life, it didn't have any physical 'clothing.' This matter greatly troubles the Pri Ha'aretz on parashath Beha'alotecha (Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk) who says that it is our understanding that the evil that one does is a function of the physical part of the food we consume. In the desert, when we were consuming food with no physical nature, how was it possible that people would fall in sin, whether it be a minor rebellious act, or a major infraction of Torah?
He explains that the equation isn't quite so simple. Yes, the physical side of food has the potential to weigh down a person and make them more physical, but the result ultimately rests with the person. Just as in the natural view, the proteins, nutrients, and amino acids all are absorbed and integrated into bodily systems, new bone, new blood, new skin etc. The spiritual life-force within food becomes a part of the person, it is transformed entirely into the nature of that person. When the person is a good person, always striving to perfect themselves, then the life-force makes the person better, more pure, more holy. When the opposite is the case, then the life-force can greatly strengthen one's physical/mundane nature. (heaven forebid)
I'd like to develop this idea a little further, thinking about eating and kashrut as well. The Baal HaTanya explains that when something is forebidden to us it is because we do not have the ability to rectify or raise that thing up to be used in holiness, instead that thing will bring us down and make us impure and more physical. There is a clear analog in the physical world: disease and infections. When we consume something that is infectious, rather than in the normal healthy model where what we consume becomes a part of us, the contagion consumes us and turns part of us into more contagion. (Whether it be bacterial, viral, cancerous, parasitic, symbiotic, etc)
If we look at non-kosher or forebidden food as spiritual contagions, we can at least draw a picture in our minds to understand what affect it has on us.
From all this we learn two things:
We learn that the manna, (מן) was pure spiritual life, it didn't have any physical 'clothing.' This matter greatly troubles the Pri Ha'aretz on parashath Beha'alotecha (Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk) who says that it is our understanding that the evil that one does is a function of the physical part of the food we consume. In the desert, when we were consuming food with no physical nature, how was it possible that people would fall in sin, whether it be a minor rebellious act, or a major infraction of Torah?
He explains that the equation isn't quite so simple. Yes, the physical side of food has the potential to weigh down a person and make them more physical, but the result ultimately rests with the person. Just as in the natural view, the proteins, nutrients, and amino acids all are absorbed and integrated into bodily systems, new bone, new blood, new skin etc. The spiritual life-force within food becomes a part of the person, it is transformed entirely into the nature of that person. When the person is a good person, always striving to perfect themselves, then the life-force makes the person better, more pure, more holy. When the opposite is the case, then the life-force can greatly strengthen one's physical/mundane nature. (heaven forebid)
I'd like to develop this idea a little further, thinking about eating and kashrut as well. The Baal HaTanya explains that when something is forebidden to us it is because we do not have the ability to rectify or raise that thing up to be used in holiness, instead that thing will bring us down and make us impure and more physical. There is a clear analog in the physical world: disease and infections. When we consume something that is infectious, rather than in the normal healthy model where what we consume becomes a part of us, the contagion consumes us and turns part of us into more contagion. (Whether it be bacterial, viral, cancerous, parasitic, symbiotic, etc)
If we look at non-kosher or forebidden food as spiritual contagions, we can at least draw a picture in our minds to understand what affect it has on us.
From all this we learn two things:
- Don't eat things that can be harmful to you, spiritually, because our soul cannot digest and elevate them.
- Even when eating the things permitted to us, we must remember that if we aren't careful to integrate and elevate them into our essence, they will bring us down to their level.
1.6.08
who's eating who?
Rav Azulai in Hesed l'Avraham explains that our role in this world is to perfect ourselves in the service of HaShem, as well as to perfect the world to the same end. Adam HaRishon, through naming the animals, raised the animals up to such a level that he wasn't permitted to eat them, they were so holy. He had no tikkun, no rectification left to perform with them, and so there was no reason for him to eat them.
After eating from the tree of knowledge [of good and evil], all the animals ate as well, and they were brought to such a low extent that Noah and his sons were permitted to eat as a means to raise the animals up once more. Through eating animals, they become part of the human body, as they nourish us, and so they are raised from the level of animal, of living, to the level of man, of speaking.
However, because of our lowly level, eating doesn't completely rectify the animals back to the level of Gan Eden, for our bodies are on a lower level than the animals of Gan Eden. Which means that we must try with all our might to use the energy and life we get from consuming animals to do HaShem's will, perform mitzwoth, learn Torah, pray, and think holy thoughts. Only in this way can we return the animals to their original level. Otherwise, when we consume animals we become more animal, rather than turning the animal into man, we turn into animals ourselves.
After eating from the tree of knowledge [of good and evil], all the animals ate as well, and they were brought to such a low extent that Noah and his sons were permitted to eat as a means to raise the animals up once more. Through eating animals, they become part of the human body, as they nourish us, and so they are raised from the level of animal, of living, to the level of man, of speaking.
However, because of our lowly level, eating doesn't completely rectify the animals back to the level of Gan Eden, for our bodies are on a lower level than the animals of Gan Eden. Which means that we must try with all our might to use the energy and life we get from consuming animals to do HaShem's will, perform mitzwoth, learn Torah, pray, and think holy thoughts. Only in this way can we return the animals to their original level. Otherwise, when we consume animals we become more animal, rather than turning the animal into man, we turn into animals ourselves.
1.4.08
bread of humility
Rebbe Natan explains (Likkutei Halachoth - Hilchot Tefillin) that we are nourished not by the food we eat, but rather by the life-force within the food. If our bodies were purified in that they were completely humbled before HaShem, then we would be nourished directly from the life-force and the food itself would pass through us undigested.
It is only because we have not rectified our entire bodies, that we digest and use the corporeality of the food. Whichever part of our bodies have not properly been humbled cannot receive directly from the life-force within the food and so they are forced to consume the food itself in order to derive life.
This humility is an aspect of Mosheh Rabbeinu who was utterly humble. Each of our 248 limbs and 365 sinews must expose their potential humility which is the nature of Mosheh Rabbeinu that is latent within that body part. When our whole body is in a state of awareness of its dependence on and recognition of HaShem's might, then we don't need to eat at all. This is how Mosheh survived for one hundred and twenty days on Sinai without eating or drinking.
The reason, he explains, that our digestive functions produce putrid/disgusting byproducts is to remind us of how lowly and dependent we truly are.
It seems to me that this is good to keep in mind during the time between Purim and Pesah when we are meant to work on perfecting our ability to eat in holiness.
It is only because we have not rectified our entire bodies, that we digest and use the corporeality of the food. Whichever part of our bodies have not properly been humbled cannot receive directly from the life-force within the food and so they are forced to consume the food itself in order to derive life.
This humility is an aspect of Mosheh Rabbeinu who was utterly humble. Each of our 248 limbs and 365 sinews must expose their potential humility which is the nature of Mosheh Rabbeinu that is latent within that body part. When our whole body is in a state of awareness of its dependence on and recognition of HaShem's might, then we don't need to eat at all. This is how Mosheh survived for one hundred and twenty days on Sinai without eating or drinking.
The reason, he explains, that our digestive functions produce putrid/disgusting byproducts is to remind us of how lowly and dependent we truly are.
It seems to me that this is good to keep in mind during the time between Purim and Pesah when we are meant to work on perfecting our ability to eat in holiness.
12.2.08
waiting our way to salvation
Being a Jew, and being in this world, olam haZeh, is all about mitzwoth, right? That's what I thought, and in truth, that's correct. But... The Baal HaTanya (yesterday and today in the daily Tanya) and the Noam Elimelech (end of Parashath Korah) both go to lengths to discuss how much there is to do beyond the mitzwoth.
The Noam Elimelech explains that the way a Tzaddik needs to sanctify himself through food, drink, and money is even greater than his sanctification through Torah. Why you might ask? Because the Torah is already holy and the dark side doesn't have much sway in the realm of Torah. Physicality on the other hand is rife with challenges of the dark side, and so, through proper holiness in food, drink, and money, one can greatly sanctify himself. [update: for the record, The Noam Elimelech says specifically that this is true of the Tzaddik, but for the rest of us, the avodah we do in our tefillah and Torah is more important.]
The Baal HaTanya actually gives us a hint as to how to draw close, as simple beinonim, to the level of the Tzaddik: By delaying (for even a short while) our desires for things which are permitted to us, we can make ourselves a little bit holy, and in exchange we are aided with much holiness from above, so much so that eventually we will even be able to push off the yolk of the dark side entirely. For those keeping score, that would mean we would be able to reach the level of Tzaddik.
update: we mentioned in the past something from Rav Steinsaltz that is relevant here as well, about berachot being the perfect oppurtunity to delay just a little our desires.
The Noam Elimelech explains that the way a Tzaddik needs to sanctify himself through food, drink, and money is even greater than his sanctification through Torah. Why you might ask? Because the Torah is already holy and the dark side doesn't have much sway in the realm of Torah. Physicality on the other hand is rife with challenges of the dark side, and so, through proper holiness in food, drink, and money, one can greatly sanctify himself. [update: for the record, The Noam Elimelech says specifically that this is true of the Tzaddik, but for the rest of us, the avodah we do in our tefillah and Torah is more important.]
The Baal HaTanya actually gives us a hint as to how to draw close, as simple beinonim, to the level of the Tzaddik: By delaying (for even a short while) our desires for things which are permitted to us, we can make ourselves a little bit holy, and in exchange we are aided with much holiness from above, so much so that eventually we will even be able to push off the yolk of the dark side entirely. For those keeping score, that would mean we would be able to reach the level of Tzaddik.
update: we mentioned in the past something from Rav Steinsaltz that is relevant here as well, about berachot being the perfect oppurtunity to delay just a little our desires.
18.10.07
bread of depth
I was recently bombarded by a number of very broad statements in Torah:
Sexual desire is the origin of all desire. Freud says something similar, but that doesn't prove our point. At its essence the sexual desire is to unite two parts of a single whole. All of our desires begin with a perceived lack. We see something that promises to fill that emptiness within us and that is why we desire it. The catch with desires is that we feel them, but we don't generally understand why we feel them.
Ga'avah is the basis of all sin, because we need to see ourselves as separate and important before we would sin. If we were to be aware of our life as originating from God and His mercies, we wouldn't have the audacity to sin. If we recognized the harm our actions do to ourselves and others, we also wouldn't sin. It is only when we refuse to acknowledge our source in HaShem and claim a greater importance over others that we could sin.
Eating is the basis of all tikkun. How is this so? Eating educates us in a way that solves both of our major failings at once. On the one hand, eating is one of our first challenges as living beings that allows us to become consciously aware of how our lacks, our inner emptiness, affects what we desire. On the other hand, eating forces us to recognize that we are not complete and independent. This recognition opens a door for us to walk through humbly, acknowledging all of HaShem's mercies and recognizing the needs of others as well.
When we reach complete consciousness in our eating habbits, we reach a level of awareness from which we can also vanquish our desires and acknowledge HaShem's constant kindness in filling our needs.
Tzava'ath HaRivash : Sexual desire is the source of all ta'avotHere's my attempt to understand how they interact and complement one another rather than contradict: (note that above I've already paraphrased them in a way of least possible conflict)
Noam Elimelech : Ga'avah is the force behind all aveirot
Noam Elimelech : Eating is the universal tikkun
Sexual desire is the origin of all desire. Freud says something similar, but that doesn't prove our point. At its essence the sexual desire is to unite two parts of a single whole. All of our desires begin with a perceived lack. We see something that promises to fill that emptiness within us and that is why we desire it. The catch with desires is that we feel them, but we don't generally understand why we feel them.
Ga'avah is the basis of all sin, because we need to see ourselves as separate and important before we would sin. If we were to be aware of our life as originating from God and His mercies, we wouldn't have the audacity to sin. If we recognized the harm our actions do to ourselves and others, we also wouldn't sin. It is only when we refuse to acknowledge our source in HaShem and claim a greater importance over others that we could sin.
Eating is the basis of all tikkun. How is this so? Eating educates us in a way that solves both of our major failings at once. On the one hand, eating is one of our first challenges as living beings that allows us to become consciously aware of how our lacks, our inner emptiness, affects what we desire. On the other hand, eating forces us to recognize that we are not complete and independent. This recognition opens a door for us to walk through humbly, acknowledging all of HaShem's mercies and recognizing the needs of others as well.
When we reach complete consciousness in our eating habbits, we reach a level of awareness from which we can also vanquish our desires and acknowledge HaShem's constant kindness in filling our needs.
the six day diet
I joked over here (at A Simple Jew) that perhaps eating cupcakes, or dealing with my desire for cupcakes might be my tikkun. On a related note I thought it appropriate to point out a couple of things:
1. As we've mentioned in the past, the Noam Elimelech explains how the whole current state of the world exists so that we can, through eating, rectify the sin of Adam which was also performed through eating. So, in a way, every one of us has a tikkun to do through eating.
2. This brings me to dieting. There are a number of reasons to diet, both good and bad, but whatever the reasons, many people diet. Not everyone who diets is aware of one important fact of life:
Dieting is a kind of labor and as such it falls prey to the same logical fallacies that work sometimes can. For example logically it makes sense that if we were to work one day and earn one hundred dollars, then obviously if we were to work for seven days we would earn seven hundred dollars, whereas logically if we worked only six days we would earn less than seven hundred dollars. Sound logic, right? But HaShem promises us that if we work six days, (and rest on the Holy Shabbath) we will earn even more than if we worked seven days.
Ok, I think and hope everyone reading this is saying why are you explaining the obvious nature of Shabbath? Because, many people follow a similar faulty logic when dieting: If I diet only six days a week, I will lose less weight and be less healthy than if I were to diet all seven days of the week. This is completely and utterly false. It couldn't be further from the truth.
Shabbath isn't just about not watching TV, not talking on the phone and not going to work, it is about recognizing that the rules of nature are NOTHING before HaShem. Shabbath is about recognizing that HaShem and ONLY HaShem is in charge of every single little thing that happens in the world.
I'm telling you here, first, that dieting on Shabbath will not accomplish anything. Just like excersizing on Shabbath, just like working on Shabbath.
For a slightly more spiritual explanation it goes something like this: The work that we do over the six days of the week is in order to free the sparks of holiness that have been trapped in the everyday objects of existence. Our work, excersize, diets, every action that we do consciously in order to better serve HaShem serves to raise these sparks out of their corporeal prisons and return them through our mitzwoth and our tefilloth to their supernal homes. On Shabbath, the nature of the world is utterly altered and everything that during the week takes great effort and careful planning, on Shabbath happens automatically without any effort on our part simply because we are enjoying the Shabbath. For this reason, the Baal HaTanya explains in today's Tanya, on Shabbath we eat and drink freely, what might during the week be considered gluttony is openly permitted on Shabbath.
It goes without saying that in order to reap the real benefits of Shabbath we need to truly put our emunah fully and totally in HaShem and ONLY HaShem, and make an effort to appreciate and enjoy the special gift of Shabbath.
[One vitally important caveat here is people who for critical health issues have a special diet. Diabetics for one example of many. Any decisions to do away with diets such as these on Shabbath should always involve a qualified Rav, who will (I imagine) always insist on involving a doctor in such a decision. In such a case where someone's life could possibly be endangered by deviating from said diets, there is no question at all that such a diet should be maintained on Shabbath as we always compromise on the holiness of Shabbath in a life and death situation so that the Jew in question may keep many Shabbatoth instead of chas v'shalom what otherwise might happen.]
1. As we've mentioned in the past, the Noam Elimelech explains how the whole current state of the world exists so that we can, through eating, rectify the sin of Adam which was also performed through eating. So, in a way, every one of us has a tikkun to do through eating.
2. This brings me to dieting. There are a number of reasons to diet, both good and bad, but whatever the reasons, many people diet. Not everyone who diets is aware of one important fact of life:
Dieting is a kind of labor and as such it falls prey to the same logical fallacies that work sometimes can. For example logically it makes sense that if we were to work one day and earn one hundred dollars, then obviously if we were to work for seven days we would earn seven hundred dollars, whereas logically if we worked only six days we would earn less than seven hundred dollars. Sound logic, right? But HaShem promises us that if we work six days, (and rest on the Holy Shabbath) we will earn even more than if we worked seven days.
Ok, I think and hope everyone reading this is saying why are you explaining the obvious nature of Shabbath? Because, many people follow a similar faulty logic when dieting: If I diet only six days a week, I will lose less weight and be less healthy than if I were to diet all seven days of the week. This is completely and utterly false. It couldn't be further from the truth.
Shabbath isn't just about not watching TV, not talking on the phone and not going to work, it is about recognizing that the rules of nature are NOTHING before HaShem. Shabbath is about recognizing that HaShem and ONLY HaShem is in charge of every single little thing that happens in the world.
I'm telling you here, first, that dieting on Shabbath will not accomplish anything. Just like excersizing on Shabbath, just like working on Shabbath.
For a slightly more spiritual explanation it goes something like this: The work that we do over the six days of the week is in order to free the sparks of holiness that have been trapped in the everyday objects of existence. Our work, excersize, diets, every action that we do consciously in order to better serve HaShem serves to raise these sparks out of their corporeal prisons and return them through our mitzwoth and our tefilloth to their supernal homes. On Shabbath, the nature of the world is utterly altered and everything that during the week takes great effort and careful planning, on Shabbath happens automatically without any effort on our part simply because we are enjoying the Shabbath. For this reason, the Baal HaTanya explains in today's Tanya, on Shabbath we eat and drink freely, what might during the week be considered gluttony is openly permitted on Shabbath.
It goes without saying that in order to reap the real benefits of Shabbath we need to truly put our emunah fully and totally in HaShem and ONLY HaShem, and make an effort to appreciate and enjoy the special gift of Shabbath.
[One vitally important caveat here is people who for critical health issues have a special diet. Diabetics for one example of many. Any decisions to do away with diets such as these on Shabbath should always involve a qualified Rav, who will (I imagine) always insist on involving a doctor in such a decision. In such a case where someone's life could possibly be endangered by deviating from said diets, there is no question at all that such a diet should be maintained on Shabbath as we always compromise on the holiness of Shabbath in a life and death situation so that the Jew in question may keep many Shabbatoth instead of chas v'shalom what otherwise might happen.]
22.3.07
preparing the last meal
Lately I've been so tired of eating food. The process seems so unappealing, so unexciting, not because of the options of what to eat, but because it just feels wrong. I'm tired of eating. My last respite is praying the geulah is days and not years or even months away.
Clearly, as we've mentioned in the past, eating is the essence of why we are here in this world, at least according to the Noam Elimelech. (he's not the kind of person I would doubt under any circumstances) Whenever I get into a funk about having to eat, it's this Torah that uplifts me.
God willing, this Pesah, we will have a Karbon Pesah to eat along with all the matzah.
The Rebbe M'Komarna explains that the reason Achashveyrosh had a huge seudah in Shushan was a revellation of the fact that when HaShem (He who is the beginning and end of all things, an idea hinted at by the name אחשורש) ascends to the throne of the world, he will create a feast for all of Bnei Yisrael. (Consisting of the לויתן the שור הבור and יין מרקחים) All this will Bnei Yisrael attain not through their deeds, but from the point of one-ness within them that is called the שושנה (Shoshanah) hinted at by the name of the city Shushan. [שושן he says, (and I checked. twice.) actually shares the gematria (656) of ריח ניחוח אשה לי-ה-ו-ה]
So, it seems there will be more feasting after the Geulah, maybe I'm just tired of the klipoth.
Thankfully all sources seem to agree that in Gan Eden, we will eat from our Torah learning, that sounds like something I'd prefer to chow down on, though I'd best get cracking so I have something to eat when the Moshiah arrives.
Clearly, as we've mentioned in the past, eating is the essence of why we are here in this world, at least according to the Noam Elimelech. (he's not the kind of person I would doubt under any circumstances) Whenever I get into a funk about having to eat, it's this Torah that uplifts me.
God willing, this Pesah, we will have a Karbon Pesah to eat along with all the matzah.
The Rebbe M'Komarna explains that the reason Achashveyrosh had a huge seudah in Shushan was a revellation of the fact that when HaShem (He who is the beginning and end of all things, an idea hinted at by the name אחשורש) ascends to the throne of the world, he will create a feast for all of Bnei Yisrael. (Consisting of the לויתן the שור הבור and יין מרקחים) All this will Bnei Yisrael attain not through their deeds, but from the point of one-ness within them that is called the שושנה (Shoshanah) hinted at by the name of the city Shushan. [שושן he says, (and I checked. twice.) actually shares the gematria (656) of ריח ניחוח אשה לי-ה-ו-ה]
So, it seems there will be more feasting after the Geulah, maybe I'm just tired of the klipoth.
Thankfully all sources seem to agree that in Gan Eden, we will eat from our Torah learning, that sounds like something I'd prefer to chow down on, though I'd best get cracking so I have something to eat when the Moshiah arrives.
28.12.06
because the blood is the nefesh
Every day at work my lunch arrives some time after 1pm. (13:00 here in Israel) Every day (God-willing) I pray minha at 1:30pm. (13:30) So, if lunch is a little late, I have to rush and scarf it down in order to have time to bench and get to minha on time (to say part of karbonot) so that I'm not starting my amidah when everyone is leaving (the relatively fast) minyan. Which means that I try to be done eating at 1:25pm so I can bench and run (saying karbonot while in motion) so that I can start Ashrei at 1:30pm exactly and in that way, hopefully finish ashrei right with the minyan.
Today's Tanya talks about how immediately after you eat your food is already being turned into blood to nourish your body. And how food (that is permissible to eat) gives you strength which you choose to use to serve HaShem or do something else. Obviously, serving God is preferable, and in so doing, you raise up the life-force that was in that food to holiness.
Until now I've been grumpy about the stress of having to eat quickly especially if my food is (unpredictably) late. Now, having learned this Tanya, (for the eighth time, but only just finding it meaningful and relevant) It's just plain cool to find out that my mincha lifestyle means that even the very first energy I'm getting from my food is being channeled directly into the service of HaShem.
Today's Tanya talks about how immediately after you eat your food is already being turned into blood to nourish your body. And how food (that is permissible to eat) gives you strength which you choose to use to serve HaShem or do something else. Obviously, serving God is preferable, and in so doing, you raise up the life-force that was in that food to holiness.
Until now I've been grumpy about the stress of having to eat quickly especially if my food is (unpredictably) late. Now, having learned this Tanya, (for the eighth time, but only just finding it meaningful and relevant) It's just plain cool to find out that my mincha lifestyle means that even the very first energy I'm getting from my food is being channeled directly into the service of HaShem.
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