What happens in vegas stays in vegas

This common catch phrase of the modern day, "What happens in vegas stays in vegas," has a lot to teach us. I was thinking about it's analog (lehavdil) in Shabbath. About how one might say, and I have a tendency to lean that way, that what happens on Shabbath stays in Shabbath. Meaning Shabbath is completely divorced from the rest of reality and whenever I return there, I've forgotten everything else, it's my safe sanctuary from whatever else might be going on in the world.

But that isn't really what Shabbath is about, and that really isn't the way Shabbath works. In fact, our Shabbath experience is directly impacted by our preparation during the week. Likewise, our week hinges on our experience of the Shabbath that preceded it. In fact, there's a teaching of the Maor Eynayim (see: two is really just one) that explains that if we were to prepare for and keep one Shabbath properly, then all the following Shabbatoth would always work out nicely. This is a result of how much of an effect Shabbath has on the following week, and how much of an effect that week has on the following Shabbath. Once you get the ball rolling, Shabbath just gets better and better. 

This is the fundamental difference between a kli, a vessel, in kabbalah, and a klipah, a shell. A kli also means a tool, it contains in order to achieve some end beyond itself. An example might be a reservoir that stores water for an entire city, so that the city can draw off the water little by little as needed. A klipah, a shell or husk, receives but never gives back, it serves no purpose other than to receive. In biology we might describe a kli as a symbiote, while a klipah would represent a parasite.

When the Kabbalah discusses a mosquito it is viewed as the lowest of creations, because "it takes but does not give." The only creature below a mosquito is a human who chooses voluntarily to take and not to give. Otherwise, when a person is generous, choosing to receive from HaShem in order to pass on the goodness to all those in need, a human is the highest of all creations, even higher than the angels.

So, reexamining the motto, "What happens in vegas stays in vegas," we can see that the inherent values of vegas are those of receiving and keeping, without any interest in giving at all. Let's make sure all of our mitzwoth aren't vegas-style mitzwoth. May we learn in order to teach and to do, rather than just to know. May we act in order to reveal HaShem's light in the world rather than to receive reward.

May whatever we do with our lives make profound (as opposed to profane) waves in all our environs.

updated: If we stop to think about this a second more. The motto could be applied nicely to this world. What happens in this world, (olam ha'zeh) stays in this world. Whenever we do anything that has no bearing beyond the immediate now in olam ha'zeh, then that whole action stays in this world [forever.] When we focus our actions on transcending this world, [moving beyond ourselves] then our actions are always outside it, beyond it, and reach to the next world, the world to come, olam ha'ba.

celebrating future independence

The Kabbalists describe some of the steps involved in creating spiritual vessels. One of the major components is that at some point the light must be removed from the vessel, this emptying out of the vessel is a crucial step in the formation and completion of the vessel. Only after the vessel is completed can the light, the contents, be returned to the vessel. This is a very abstract understanding of a very vague phenomenon, but we see how it plays out in a number of ways: We learn in the midrash that a child in the womb learns all of Torah, only to forget it when s/he is born, necessitating the re-learning of the Torah from scratch. On it's face this midrash is weird. Why would HaShem be so evil as to teach us something, make us forget it and then learn it again? When we look with the eye of a Kabbalist we can see that this 'forgetting' of Torah is the emptying of the vessel. It is only the learning and consequent forgetting in the womb that completes the vessel that is us. Only after forgetting all of Torah are we able to properly absorb and contain the Torah.

Another midrash offers a similar tale, this time however it is about Mosheh Rabbeinu. On Har Sinai, each day HaShem gave him over the whole Torah, yet each day Mosheh Rabbeinu would forget it all. Each morning they would start anew. Finally on the last day, HaShem gave over to Mosheh Rabbeinu the whole Torah as a gift and only in such a way was he able to receive it. We certainly can't understand the magnitude of HaShem's gift to Mosheh Rabbeinu, but we can see the learning and forgetting that took place as a sort of clarifying Mosheh Rabbeinu as a vessel that was fit to receive the whole Torah. When he came down from the mountain his face was glowing.

I'm sure we all often wonder what's the point of living in Olam HaZeh, only to die and then to be reanimated in Techiath HaMaytim, the resurrection of the dead? In this new light we can see death as the final completion of the body as a vessel to contain Godliness. This is perhaps why even after 120 years of perfect service Mosheh Rabbeinu still needed to go through the process of death.

Perhaps this even touches on Adam HaRishon, why was Man created as one male and female? why then was Chavah taken out of Adam and then returned to him?

This simple abstracted teaching touches on so many different questions on so many different levels, but heeding the words of our Rabbis, a wise person sees what is yet to be born. (Ezehu hacham haroeh et haNolad) There's a story about the Chabad hasidim, on the day the first Chabad Rebbe was imprisoned by the Russian government, the hasidim threw a great celebratory feast. Why, you might ask? Because they were celebrating the certainty that he would be successful and would be released. When we understand this basic idea, that it is only the removal of the light that perfects the vessel, then we can begin to see the beauty and promise in the deepest lack, the most broken heart.

It is for this reason, and with admiration and recognition to those faithful Chabad hasidim, that I propose celebrating this Yom Ha'atzmaut like we never have celebrated it before. Not celebrating the event that happened 60 years in our past, but rather celebrating, in the height of the current darkness, the independence of the Land and People of Yisrael when HaShem (may it be swiftly in our days) returns to us the light which we so sorely lack.

Everything hangs in the balance, and tomorrow we could lose it all. But we know with absolute certainty what will be in the end, a time of celebration and rejoicing beyond compare. And, if we truly know it, why not celebrate now? Why not show HaShem how deep and strong our Emunah is today?

This is the lesson of Hesed b'Tifferet; the kindness HaShem gave us clothed in the Beautiful Torah.

Sukkah and Mishkan

When one begins Masechet Sukkah it's hard to miss how hard the Talmud tries to learn out the different middot of the Sukkah from the Mishkan. It's a little bit ridiculous how extreme the examples and stretches of connections to the text get. Why all this pulling and stretching?

The Noam Elimelech towards the end of his commentary on Sefer Shemoth explains that the word Mishkan is from the word HamShachah, meaning to draw out or draw down. The Mishkan is peculiar in that it was always meant as a temporary edifice. In this sense the Mishkan represents the Reshimu, the imprint of the eventual drawing out of HaShem's godliness into the world.

The function of the reshimu is to give direction and shape, to flesh out the light that will flow into it. Just as liquid takes the shape of its container, the supernal light comes down taking the shape of the reshimu into which it is drawn. The creation of the world itself was a process of HaShem shining His divine light into the reshimu He had created through first clearing a (figurative) space in which to create the world.

From this perhaps we can see why Sukkah is learned out from the Mishkan. They share the same goal. In our yearly life, the Sukkah is the imprint of how we are going to relate to HaShem through our surroundings. From Shemini Atzeret and onwards through the rest of the year we are working on drawing down HaShem's light into the reshimu that was created over the seven days of Sukkoth.

no other

[This is my 500th post, maybe 400 of which have been divrei Torah. I thank HaShem, to whom I forever owe my being, with all my heart that though I have so much work left to do, I was able to achieve something small for the betterment of the world and klal Yisrael. May HaShem inscribe us all in the book of life, may He fill our hearts with love and awe, our souls with Torah overflowing. אין עוד מלבדו]

The Meor Eynayim explains that all the best things in life actually come from the highest realms, and so, praying for them takes the most effort, because there are so many gates to bring them down through in order to reap the benefits down here in this, the lowest of worlds.

Things like, children, a proper (shidduch) match, parnasa, rain, refuah (healing) they all derive from the highest purest supernal light.

I want to go into the details a little of what this means and what it can teach us, and then perhaps deviate on a tangent.

Drawing down HaShem's blessing in any form can always be referred to and described as a yichud , a union. Just as getting something from someone else requires relating to them in some way in order to elicit what you want, so too, receiving blessing from HaShem follows parallel 'rules.'

Here though, the process of drawing down divine light differs from obtaining things from other people. In our world, people are created in such a way that everything is exterior to ourselves. If you want money from your employer (or your parents) you ask them for it and they reach into their wallet and produce it. If you want a candybar, the store owner hands it to you from the shelf, etc.

It's only when we get into more intimate human interactions that it ceases to be a relationship of objects exterior to oneself. Let's say you want to know what your friend is thinking, or you want to hear a story, then the person needs to reach inside themselves and produce something for your. In the process they enter the recesses of their intellect or the depths of their heart, and then take that thought or feeling and winnow it down into words and sentences. Finally they turn those words and sentences into sounds through the use of their mouth and you get to hear whatever they choose to tell you.

When it is money or merchandise or clothing or anything else exterior, we can always take that thing by force. But when it is something that exists only within the person, we have to find a way to draw it out of them, we have to convince them to be willing to draw it out.

Because as the Rambam explains, nothing is external to HaShem, everything we desire from Him we must obtain through convincing, through drawing out.

Similarly, everything we want whether it be material or no, comes from HaShem's depths, from what we might refer to as His mind. Just as we never receive what is actually in our friends' mind, rather what they express through their mouth, so too HaShem's light only reaches us through similar filters and tzimtzumim. (translations)

Our prayers ascend to the heights of His intellect, and attempt to draw out His desire to bestow blessing upon us. Now, because He loves us greatly, he always is arroused to desire that which is best for us, and always replies to our prayers with what is appropriate to our needs.

Both on the way up to His highest intellect, and down back to this world, there are many stages, many filters, many tzimtzumim. On the way up, there are Angels appointed to translate, clothe, and crown our prayers with raiments appropriate to each of these levels, so that our prayers are always in the correct context. On the way down, God's light drips in the smallest of drops, (the most the world can possibly bear) to provide precisely what HaShem would like to bestow upon us, and at each level it is clothed and fleshed out to make it appropriate to our own corporeal context.

One of the metaphors used to describe this process is rain. When the thunder (prayers) reach the clouds (which represent the intellect) it draws out droplets of rain which fall to the earth, enter the ground, get pulled up into a tree, and eventually through nourishing the tree produce fruit.

In the exact same fashion a child, which starts as a mere desire in the father's mind, ends up a new born baby.

The Likkutei Halachot on Tefillin (end of Halachah 4) talks about this same idea as regards the writing of the tefillin. Reb Natan explains that the white klaf (parchment) is the clouds, the intellect, the pure unrefined and unrevealed light. It is only through the black letters that are scrolled with a quill onto the page, that the light is drawn out and channelled.

I never before understood this exactly so. The letters, I knew, were bound together and ordered through the universal light. (the klal) But only now do I begin to see how it is that the parchment represents this universal light, and the letters the channels that draw out and clothe this light in a manner that we can receive.

Beyond this, we know that the Jewish people are the letters of the Torah. We are the channels and the clothes through which the universal light of HaShem is garbed and filtered so that it is palatable to the rest of the physical world.

This is our nature, there is nothing we can do to hide or change this. Every thought, every feeling, every word, every act of ours determines how HaShem's light is revealed down here in this world. We can turn it into something despicable or we can turn it into something sublime, something breathlessly beautiful. The only thing we can't do is run away from this reality.

Jews are Jews and will always be. The divine light within you is shining for anyone who has the eyes to see. The beauty of HaShem's light has the power to eradicate any blemishes we may leave on ourselves or on the world. Teshuvah is the process where we refine ourselves so that this light can shine most clearly, where we recognize that HaShem's light is always creating the world, and that we would like to play a part in it, instead of being an obstacle that makes everyone else's world a little bit darker and dirtier.

[500 years is the distance between each world. May we be zocheh to the next level, the next world; and may we always rise from world to world, a praise and glory to the Holy One blessed be He.]

denial at its best

This year was the first year that I noticed that Elul is always incredibly difficult for me. I never can get a functional schedule down and I never make it to slichot as often as I would like. This time, being aware of the impediment, I'm still working on a schedule but I haven't let it upset me, and I'm having the best Elul ever. Thank HaShem.

As my wife quoted Rav Kook to me this evening, when we remove all of the forces that try to depress our hearts, we find a brilliant happiness.

Sometimes it's enough to figure out what it is that's making your life so difficult and then to avoid it. That's one of the secrets to happiness, that is obvious and still we often fail to achieve it.

This is the best use for our over-grown powers of denial and procrastination--put off being depressed till later.

a growing optimism

It's been such a bright and amazing day, both the end of yesterday and the first half of today (17 tammuz) it feels like the only walls that were broken down today were the walls of Yerushalayim shel ma'alah that were keeping us out. B'ezrat HaShem may we witness the rebuilding of Yerushalayim in our immediate future.

flavour of the day: undirected potential

This morning I woke up to a new experience.

Lately over the past year sometimes I will wake up to a day that's unusually full of light (in a spiritual sense) meaning that spiritual endeavors will succeed with ease and its a good day to daven at length and learn in depth.

Occassionally I will wake up to a day that is particularly dark and heavy, I know the whole day will be one big effort just to keep from stumbling, with no thought at all to trying to grow. (A grin and bear it and it will be over kind of day--I'm not on the level to 'turn such days around davka!')

The first few times these days occurred to me, I wasn't aware of what was going on, but I've come to notice when these rare days do come up, and to try to go with the flow of the day.

Today was a novelty in my admittedly limited experience in flavors of special days. Today was a day with a lot of potential, but no inherent leaning towards being a good (or light) day or a (dark or) bad day. It was just a day that was waiting to be really something, and the something depended on what we would bring to it.

So I took the time to pray and learn and I'm trying to keep with it throughout the day. I asked about this and was told by one Rav that it was a day of personal spiritual potential, but with all due respect to the Rav I asked, (and I hold him in the highest regard) it didn't feel like that when I woke up. It felt like a very big day for the klal, for all of Bnei Yisrael.

So the day is up for grabs, bend it and twist it according to your will, hopefully pray and learn a lot and the day will bear special fruit for us all as a nation, as a family.

May every day that greets us be a day of light for Bnei Yisrael.

a day full of light

Today is the yartzheit/hillulah of Rebbe Yehoshua of Dzikov, I don't know much about him, but I do know that today is full of light and I'm not sure why--i don't think it has to do with their new year. Anyways I found this torah of his via Chassidus.net. (Eerily related to yesterday's post on kriat shema.)

5. 'And Yisro heard.' (Shemos 18.1)

There are three things, according to the teachings of Chazal*, that can help a person to counter the Yetzer HaRah. 1. Learning Torah*. 2. Saying Krias Shema* 3. Remembering the day he will die. With these three things one can overcome his Yetzer HaRah.

This is what it says [in Rashi,] 'What did he hear? He heard the splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek'. Some Midrashim [like the Mechilta*] add [he heard about] the giving of the Torah [on Mount Sinai.]

The splitting of the sea is the sod* of Krias Shema as is explained in seforim. Split [the word] 'sea' [Heb. yom] in two. Half [of the word 'sea'] is 25. This is the mystery of the 25 letters that are in the verse of Krias Shema.

The war with Amalek is a remez that in the future Amalek will be destroyed, which is a remez to the day of one's death. And [with regards to the Midrash] who says the giving of the Torah [we have learning Torah. We see that] there is a remez to all three of these ideas [in this verse.] And by overcoming his Yetzer HaRah, Yisro came
and converted. (p. 70b sefer Ateres Yeshua teachings of Rebbe Yehoshua of Dzikov.)

I'll leave the quote on it's own without any additions from me..