father son learning

When we learn with our children, their ability to absorb what we are teaching is directly related to how excited we are both to be learning with them and for them to learn and understand. (Iggeret HaKodesh 15)

We can apply this idea to learning Torah as well. When we sit in front of a sefer, we are sitting down to learn with God. Now there are two ways to strengthen this connection and therefore improve our Torah learning and understanding:

(1) By being excited about learning together with HaShem, we awaken (figuratively) HaShem's excitement to learn with us.

(2) By recognizing that HaShem deeply cares about us and is excited to learn with us, this in turn arouses our own excitement to learn with HaShem.

So these two methods create a feedback loop that reinforces our enjoyment and our comprehension of Torah study. It is no wonder that the true Talmidei Hachamim find nothing as enjoyable as learning Torah, and at once have such a depth of understanding when they learn.

veins of torah run deep

When scholars delve into the history and development of Judaism, especially the development of Torah alongside Judaism, one can't help but marvel at how much was lost along the way, at every stage.

The Komarna explains in the opening words of the Notzer Hesed that none of what Mosheh Rabbeinu received from the mouth of God on Har Sinai could be transmitted. (Every word would take more than seventy years to explain)

On the day Mosheh Rabbeinu died, Yehoshua forgot thousands of halachot.

The codifying of the Tanach left out a number of books from that time period. The hashing out of the mishna left a tremendous body of baraita in its wake. The Talmud is but the smallest drop of the knowledge of the Amoraim, whatever could be committed to text, and whatever we haven't lost of that over the years.

This says nothing of the thousands, maybe tens (hundreds?) of thousands of sefarim that have since vanished from the world. (We're not even going into the secrets of the Torah, we have maybe seven extent chapters (Sefer Yetzirah) from the book of Adam rumored to have at least five hundred.)

Beyond all that, even of the Torah we have maintained to this day, volumes seemingly without end, so much of it has transitioned from Torah with practical application (only in the most literal sense, chas v' shalom that someone should think it needn't be learned) to Torah for its own sake. So many practices and Halachot are no longer performed or held today, either from chumrot, kulot, or different minhagim.

But really, if you think about it, it isn't so shocking.

There are some who might look at all this and see evolution, survival of the fittest, or even a readjustment of norms to meet the expectations of modern society, but I believe that is foolishness at best.

The reality is that yes, it's entirely organic, but in a way our everyday short-sighted view couldn't begin to comprehend.

When we look at the entire Jewish people as comprising a single body, one organism that persists throughout time as well as space, we recognize the deeper meaning of the identification of these generations as the heels--the ends of the feet. It begins to dawn on us, from this perspective, that just as there are veins, arteries, sinews, nerves and more that connect the feet with the rest of the body, there are many more veins, arteries, sinews and nerves, that don't quite reach the feet, many, if not most, never even come close.

If Torah is an integral part of the Jewish body, the life force of this body, then the abundance of Torah centralized in the head (Mosheh Rabbeinu and his generations) and the chest (the Mishna/Talmud and their generations) makes the Torah in the feet almost negligible by comparison.

So, rather than being shocked and appalled by what has become of our Torah, we can begin to understand the role and part our Torah in our day plays in the greater timeless body of Israel and Torah.

night of the splitting

On the seventh night of Pesah, at the Kotel, I heard a derasha from Rav Ades. He was speaking about making oneself holy. Out of everything he said I took away two major points: 

(1) The more we awaken the different levels of our soul to Godliness, the more effect our prayers and Torah have on all the levels of our soul.

(2) In order to overcome obstacles in arousing oneself to prayer or Torah, one needs to draw the flames of Torah down into the deepest recesses of oneself.

These aren't exactly the things Rav Ades said, but this is the best understanding of it I could grasp. I've been trying to implement these teachings in my daily Tanya study. (I normally learn the daily Tanya lesson twice each morning) The first time through the daily lesson, I intend to awaken my soul as much as possible until even my toes want to be involved in the learning. The second time through, I learn with a fierce fire and passion to burn the words deep into my heart.

Rav Ades explained also the idea that the splitting of the sea was only in the merit of Yosef HaTzaddik. He said something to this effect, "Imagine, as the result of one man's holiness, the whole Jewish people survived and escaped."

really learning torah

We often worry about what we should be learning. Even while we learn a particular sefer or seder, we wonder if we wouldn't benefit more from the learning of a different tract. The answer is clearly no.

When we're learning Torah, when these thoughts come up it obviously means we aren't focusing on our learning. If something doesn't really appeal to you it is most likely that it is in fact really important for you to learn, and yet in order to reach the sweetness of this sefer, you simply need to get through the bitterness, the peel, just like with most fruit.

After all, who put this sefer in front of you? Who orchestrated the entire situation in which you now find yourself asking this question? HaShem.

There are two schools of Torah learning, the school that says learning should be entirely for its own sake, and the school that says learning should be in order to connect to HaShem. 

According to the Torah entirely for its own sake school, what could be better than a sefer you feel entirely detached from? Voila! a perfect opportunity to learn purely for the sake of learning, after all you already know you don't want to learn this sefer.

According to the school of learning in order to connect to HaShem, does the sefer limit HaShem? Maybe you should learn something else that makes you feel closer to HaShem, but do you honestly think you can't connect to HaShem through the sefer currently in front of you? Also the Baal Shem Tov teaches that sometimes HaShem hides himself in two levels of hiddeness such that He is hidden and we don't even know that He's hidden. So, there's a chance another sefer might make you feel closer to HaShem, but you might not even know how hidden He actually is. With the book in front of you, you know for sure He's hidden -- voila! only one level of hiddenness, He's now that much easier to find, guaranteed.

There are occasional reasons to stop learning particular sefarim, but they are pretty extreme: 1. If a sefer is making you depressed, stop learning it for a while. 2. If a sefer is inflating your ego it's a good sign you aren't ready for it. 3. If a sefer is making you think about things you shouldn't be thinking about, you have to work on yourself first. 4. If a sefer is actively otherwise interfering with your avodat HaShem, you should look into it. In all these cases you need to get help from a Rav/Rebbe who can guide you. It is almost always possible to overcome these challenges with the right help from a Rav/Rebbe but sometimes the dangers aren't worth the returns. (ie. if a sefer is making you depressed, that's really dangerous, likewise if it's encouraging your ego.)

In short, barring those extreme circumstances, it's important to give a sefer another chance. The first step is to remind yourself why it is you are learning Torah at all, then what your goal is, (ie. connecting to HaShem) then whether you have really been true to your goals vis a vis the sefer in question.

As the Baal Shem Tov taught, HaShem creates the walls in order for you to prove you really want to get to Him. (Randy Pausch in his 'Last Lecture' said something similar but a couple hundred years later.) The Maor Einayim actually drove the point home when he explained that a sefer is just a collection of letters, when you sit down and open the sefer, HaShem puts the wisdom into the letters, forming words, sentences, ideas etc. In other words, the letters in the book are a conduit to the Wisdom which HaShem constantly places (and re-places anew each moment) in the Torah.

If you aren't overpowered by the words on the page in front of you, then take another look and focus a little more. They can and will move you, if you make room for HaShem and let them do so.

being the voice of the universe

Imagine every single object in your periphery declaring that HaShem is One all at the same time. Your desk, computer, chair, telephone, wallpaper, floor, door, assorted books, cups, etc. (Anyways, you get the idea.) That is what happened on Har Sinai -- only it wasn't just everything talking to you -- everything was talking to all 600,000+ of you at once, telling you all in no uncertain terms that there is only one God, HaShem. That's how the Tikkunei Zohar describes it. (it's quoted in today's Tanya, the 22nd of Adar) Imagine your own body telling you, your hair, everything. 

It seems to me that the beauty of HaShem's world is this: On Har Sinai, the whole world spoke up and told us that HaShem is One. From that time on, it is our job to give voice to the whole world, to unite HaShem's name in the world and proclaim HaShem's One-ness in the name of all the world.

How is it that we can give voice to the world? The Talmud explains that mankind is called the challah of the world. Challah is a special offering, a small quantity of any dough that is prepared is given to the Kohanim and is attributed Holiness, Kedushah. In a way this is similar to the kedushah of other such tithes, ma'aser or terumah, or even the first fruits and first born. What it means is that mankind represents the microcosm of the macrocosm. 

Another midrash describes a similar idea by saying that in order to create Adam, the first man, HaShem gathered dust from the four corners of the world. Astronomers and science fiction writers take great pleasure in pointing out that most of the heavier elements that make up the world around us, including our bodies are elements that were forged in the hearts of stars in the early universe. I don't think they've ever equated these two ideas from these two vastly different frames of mind. Adam's body [and soul too] was created from a gathering of a little bit of everything created. 

There are other midrashim that hint at the same idea, one example equating different parts of the human body with different animals, etc. Other parshanim explain (as we've mentioned in the past) that the Mishkan was a microcosm of both the world, and the human body, implying that the human body is a microcosm of the world. The Tikkunei Zohar goes into this in depth, explaining the metaphor pertaining to the various major organs.

In short, we here today, each one of us, is a microcosm, gathered from the furthest reaches of space and time, heaven and earth. We are the true testament to HaShem's Oneness. If HaShem wasn't One, how could a little bit of everything created be brought together into a single creation. 

On Har Sinai the whole world proclaimed it for us, just to bring the point home. Today, it is our job every time we say Shema Yisrael, (2 (3^*1) times a day) to embody the whole world, as its representatives.

HaShem Elokeinu HaShem Echad - Hear O Israel, HaShem created and sustains everything in creation, HaShem is One.

The whole world waits every morning and every evening to hear us proclaim this deepest truth, to fulfill its deepest purpose, to bear witness to the oneness of HaShem.^*2

This is also a good kavanah to have when you recite Perek Shirah, that all the animals of the world are waiting to praise HaShem, but they need you to give voice to their prayers.

notes:

*1 We say Shema Yisrael in the morning and evening prayers, and we are meant to repeat it (a third time) on our bed every night before we sleep.

*2 The Ramhal in his Da'ath Tevunoth explains that the whole purpose of creation is to make us aware that HaShem is One.

Radical Torah Judaism

From my vantage point here in Jerusalem, I see the Jewish people and how much compassion they truly have, so much in some cases, that they are more worried about harming those who would harm us than they are about their own safety. In other cases, people (sometimes of even greater sensitivity) have been driven to call for harsh and bloody action out of desperation at the level of suffering of all those stuck helplessly in the middle of the confusion.

The state of Israel has lost direction, lost Jewish identity, they still claim to have it, but they aren't even sure what Jewish Identity is.

Jewish Identity is Torah. 

Rabi Akiva explained it in the Talmud, Jews without Torah are like fish without water. 

It's time that we had a Jewish response to the worldwide terror campaign that threatens to engulf us all.

This isn't a new idea, it's too simple for it to be a new idea. Let's just try and approach it with new fervor, new dedication, new devotion. 

It's time to combat "terror cells" with "Torah cells."

The terror infrastructure is a model of survivability, it's impossible to stop a grassroots movement that spreads anonymously through a large and growing population.

Find a friend, a chevruta, or a couple and start your own Torah cell. Learn regularly and with as much focus and fervor as you can muster. Create prayer cells, tehillim cells, mitzwah cells. Whatever you can wherever you can. Know that this is your mission.

The intent and focus of your learning: to connect to HaShem. 

Learn in order to do, to teach, and to uphold. So that whenever you do a mitzwah, it should be informed by that learning, you should connect through that learning, through that mitzwah, back to its source, HaShem. Mitzvot aren't rituals, they're actions.

Whenever you pray, let your learning inform your prayers, connect through the learning, the prayers back to the source, HaShem. Prayer isn't reciting words from a book, it's speaking to God.

1. Start a Torah cell today. Then spread the fire. Each cell member should start another cell, so that every person is a member of two cells, the cell they were invited to and the cell they create. 
2. Don't overdo it. Just two cells. Devote your time and energy to your learning in those two cells.
3. Create daily and weekly learning schedules, simple schedules you can stick to, and stick to them.
4. Anything you learn feel free to spread through blogs, email, wikis, twitter, pass the Torahs down and up the cells.
5. Let's unite and connect all of Am Yisrael in Torah.
6. Pass this on.

ooh how embarrassing

It is often taught that Torah study greatly increases our ability to pray.

This is true not only of Tefillah, prayer, but also of all the other mitzwoth, especially Teshuvah.

Whenever you are learning Torah and are reminded of your less than spectacular actions, immediately stop what you are doing, stand up, and right then ask HaShem for foregiveness.

Then, of course, sit back down and continue on with your learning.

This is a great way to learn Torah and do Teshuvah all year round, and especially in Elul.

In this manner, you do Teshuvah in the heat of your embarrassment. Right when you are reminded of your flaws and are embarrassed by them, you turn to HaShem and do Teshuvah.

This is a high level of Teshuvah, rather than doing Teshuvah because you fear HaShem's punishment, you do Teshuvah because you are arroused by the Torah to be embarrassed by your deeds before HaShem.

There are higher levels of Teshuvah still, may we all merit to reach them in the days of Elul that remain and the 10 days of repentance that are quickly approaching.

spreading the wealth

In the parable of the Baal Shem Tov, [see: parable of the baal shem tov] the son of the King is described as distributing everything in his posession for it is without value. The only thing of value to him is the presence of his Father, the King.

Classically, the midah of freely distributing one's wealth, a practice generally reserved for tzaddikim, usually deals with material wealth.

I'm going to, with the aid of a Torah of Rebbe Nachman, reexamine this midah in the realm of spiritual wealth as well.

Rebbe Nachman taught that in order to really reach fulfillment, every day we must start from scratch. We must be infinitely young, in that we start with a blank slate, knowing nothing. This in turn makes us infinitely old, since we connect to the root of Wisdom (Hochmah) which is the power of not knowing, the power of knowing to ask questions.

It seems to me, in my place of limited knowledge, that there is a grounds to practice this midah of giving all of your possessions away spiritually as well. A midah of not holding back or hoarding Torah, but rather sharing it freely so that when you get to tomorrow, you've got nothing left and you must begin again.

There are clearly some issues with this: The most obvious is Rebbe Nachman's own warning to teachers of Torah not to give over Torah which you haven't fully digested and internalized first. The second would be a teaching I heard from Rav Akiva Tatz that a Jew must always be much deeper than whatever part of himself he exposes. This plays nicely with a third Torah given over by Reb Shlomo Carlebach who said something along the lines of when anything is really true, it's too deep to be shared publicly.

But to all of these I would answer that the midah of giving away all of your possessions only applies to those things you truly possess. If you haven't internalized it yet, it isn't yours to give away. If it is so deep within you, perhaps it possesses you and not the other way around, and if it is not something disparate from you or your relationship with HaSHem, then there's nothing to reveal or give away. It's your essence.

Any Torah that you've obtained however, that can be said to be in your possession, it is yours to freely give away, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe taught, If you know Aleph, teach Aleph.

And if you want to freely give all your possessions away in order to be with your Father, the King, then who can stand in the way of the true son of the King?

tapping in

This week has been a grueling muddle. One of those times where everything seems just a little bit challenging and every little event that pops up saps just a bit more of your quickly waning energy. And right in the thick of it, the Netiv Mitzwotecha (Emunah 4:4) reminds me of the basics:

When you are caught up in the middle of a throng of challenges, and you feel unequal to the task of overcoming it, the only way to raise up all those dinim is to shine the light of Torah on them. When we sit and learn and delve to the heart, the innermost part of the Torah through simply learning l'shma (loosely translated: for the sake of heaven) then the heavens open up and the angels ride upon the letters and words of our Torah like chariots, the inhabitants of the upper worlds rejoice, and the sweet warm light of Torah floods out upon all of our challenges.

Put simply, losing yourself in learning brings us back to basics, refocuses us, connects us with the truth once again. Just as HaShem has brought us this far, He will carry us further still.

breadcrumbs from komarna

The stages of avodat HaShem are many, but it helps sometimes to have a guide. The Komarna Rebbe, in his Netiv Mitzwotecha, (Netiv HaEmunah:3 the last few letters) explains three major stages of Avodah in this world:

1. Connecting Malchut to Binah - this is accomplished through cutting oneself off from the pleasures of the world, focusing intensely on Torah study. Yaakov Avinu did this in his avodah to be Yoshev Ohalim, sitting in the tent studying rather than interacting with the enticing world at large of Esav.
   
2. Connecting Malchut to Hochmah - this next stage can only be achieved through engaging the world for the sake of HaShem with deep meditations and Yichudim while performing even the most mundane of tasks. Yaakov Avinu did this in his showdown with Lavan and all of his endeavors while away from home.
   
3. Connecting Malchut to Keter - this final stage takes us beyond the world into the realm of nothingness, where we make ourselves infinitely small in the face of constant awareness of HaShem's Greatness. We see this trait in Yaakov Avinu when he returns from abroad and turns to HaShem as the source of his salvation, rather than his own merit, saying 'I have grown small from all of Your Kindness.'

After thinking about this for a few days I asked my Rav and he agreed with my assessment of this Torah:

1. Malchut to Binah - this avodah is essentially connecting to the pnimiyut, the innermost essence, of the Torah. It corresponds to connecting to Godliness in its most basic sense, Elokut, in the nomenclature of the Baal Shem Tov. (The Baal Shem Tov says that everything in the world has three major aspects Elokut (God), Olamot (Worlds), and Neshamot (Souls))
   
2. Malchut to Hochmah - this avodah is essentially connecting to the pnimiyut of the World. Which corresponds to the Baal Shem Tov's rendering of Olamot.
3. Malchut to Keter - this avodah reaches connecting to the pnimiyut of your Soul. Which is Neshamoth according to the Baal Shem Tov.

I wish we could all experience life in a straightforward and rewarding fashion, but it seems that in our modern era we are vacillating between all three avodahs in a near-constant fashion.

Ironically, it's virtually impossible to do the avodah of Chochmah or Keter without first completing our avodah of Binah.

Since we don't generally have the luxury of stopping what we are doing and starting at the beginning, we need to be aware of and incorporate these ideas into our daily life as much as we can. Perhaps when we get to learn, we can focus on the avodah of Binah, when we're invovled in the day to day we can focus on avodat Hochmah, and when we're stuck in traffic, it's a wonderful time to work on avodat Keter.

Beyond that, we have to rely on HaShem to help us succeed despite everything that stands in our way. We may not be Yaakov Avinu, but HaShem is the same HaShem that helped Yaakov Avinu.

laying foundations

It ocurred to me today that I'm drawn to the study of Kabbalah out of the simplicity of it. No one in his right mind would call Kabbalah 'simple,' yet to me it is the closest thing to the equations that describe the spiritual underpinnings of the world. It is a system that gets down to the simplest clearest expression of the deepest forces in the world. Or at least that is what I try to draw out of it.

It is my hope that from this firm basis I will one day be able to sit down and study Tanach and Talmud as it truly can be studied. Currently, when I open a Humash I see infinite possibilities, meanings upon meanings, I'm drowning in too much information. When I open the Talmud the same is true. There's so much content, so much depth in every word. For me, the Kabbalah is a framework, the foundation, and upon it I hope to build everything else.

There is support for such a view in the writings of the Holy Komarna and the Holy Zidichover. How can I question Tzaddikim of their Holy level?

fear the vessel

In Pirkei Avoth we learn that Yirah (fear/awe) must preceed one's Torah learning.

In the Midrash, we learn that HaShem created the world initially out of Din, (judgement/might) and then joined it with Rahamim. (Mercy)

The Ramhal (Rav Mosheh Hayyim Luzzato) along with other mekubalim, (like R' Immanuel Hai Reiki in Mishnath Hasidim) explains that this Gevurah (Din) is the initial Tzimtzum that created the empty space into which the world was created. As they explain, the Tzimtzum is the root of the creation of the kli, the vessel.

It seems to me that the reason our Yirah must precede our learning, our Hochmah/wisdom, is because we need to create the vessel first that will contain our learning.

The Notzer Hesed explains that learning the secrets of the Torah, in the Zohar and the recorded writings of the Arizal, gives us proper Yirah. He says that even young children should be educated in these secrets so that they will have proper Yirah.

From this we can perhaps even understand that the learning that we do that is not l'shmah (for its own sake) still leads to learning l'shmah, because it creates the vessel for our future learning. How does it create the vessel? Through our learning, we see how much we don't know, we learn that there is so much still to learn, we get the smallest glimpse of just how great HaShem and His Torah are. This brings us to awe, which creates the vessel for our future learning.

shattered torah raining down

What happens when our learning is entirely lishmah? The goal of Torah learning is to get to a level where our learning is entirely for the sake of the Shechinah, for HaShem's divine revelation in this world. All the while that we haven't reached that level, our learning can have all kinds of positive effects as well as the opposite. Even though most people don't have the devotion, time or energy to achieve this lofty level of study, the Notzer Hesed explicitly tells us that we don't have the right to abdicate our responsibility to learn Torah altogether--even if we do it out of the best of intentions, namely that we don't want to cause adverse effects to the world.

What kind of effects can our learning have? Rebbe Nachman explains (Likkutei Moharan I:159) that when someone does learn lishmah, that the Shechinah embraces the Torah learned and elevates it up to the heavens where it brings supernal blessing down illuminating the heavens and eart.

When the learning isn't entirely lishmah, so the Shechinah won't have anything to do with it, and the Torah tries to go up to heaven on it's own but angels come and beat it, shattering it into little pieces that fall back down to earth as dew. These little pieces of Torah spread out around the world, and affect each person according to his nature.

To someone who works at serving HaShem, these sparks inspire him to learn and awaken within him the desire to serve HaShem, sometimes they even bring him new inspirations, chidushim in Torah in accordance with his level. On the other hand, if a person strives for benefit in this world, then these sparks awaken in him an even greater desire to toil for the pleasures of this world.

a worthy quarry

I never thought of repaying a loan as a happy experience, but then when you think about it, it really is, you're happy to finally be freed of the debt and the responsibility that until now was hanging over your head. Anyways, that's the metaphor the Noam Elimelech uses to describe how each Jew is meant to return the Torah to its source, as evidenced by the saying of Chazal in the Talmud: אשרי מי שבא לכאן ותלמודו בידו - praiseworthy is he who arrives here with his learning in hand.

He explains that the Torah is the means by which a Jew can return to His origins, can connect to HaShem. (playing off what we said yesterday) However this is only possible if his learning is performed l'shma, (through great self sacrifice and mesirat nefesh) for the sake of connecting to HaShem and not, heaven forebid, for other motivations.

How is this possible that (1) a Jew can return Torah to its source, (2) that the Torah helps us to return to our source? The Noam Elimelech explains, both we and the Torah were carved out from beneath the HaShem's holy throne, the kiseh haKavod.

This is the meaning of זאת חוקת התורה - this is the place from which the Torah was carved. [carved is from the root חקק, which is an interpretation of the word חוקת]

comingling of waters nourishing the tree

I Always seem to take Tu B'Shvat for granted and my wife's family is blessed to really appreciate the depth and beauty of Tu B'Shvat as my father-in-law always makes a very big deal about it.

This year I decided to get a jump start on Tu B'Shvat and so I learned the few ma'amarim the Bnei Yisaschar has on the month of Shvat and on Tu B'Shvat itself.

One thing he mentioned almost as a side point really elucidated something that I had never known before, but had always related to. (He also mentions other places he goes into more depth in the matter in his sefer, and I will have to, please God, look into them to understand the matter better)

In short he explained that the Torah of Din and Gevurah, is a gradual Torah that must build from one day to the next, whereas the Torah of Hesed is a Torah we can receive all at once.

This is the essence of the machloket of Beit Shamai and Beit Hillel regarding the actual New Year of the Tree.(s) Beit Shamai says it is the first of Shvat because from his Torah, one must build from the first in order to arrive at the proper fullness of the 15th of the month. Beit Hillel says that it is the 15th of the month because the fullness of the receiving of the New Year of the Tree can happen all at once.

In this way he also explains the story of the Hillel and Shamai and the person who asked to be taught the Torah standing on one foot. Shamai drove him off because the Torah of Gevurah requires steady growth, building from one point to the next. Hillel taught him the whole Torah at once, because the Torah of Hesed can be received in its entirety in a single moment.

This really answered a difficult question I've had most of my life. I'm so much closer to the hidden Torah, and the path of Torah that comes with great ahavah and hesed, than the path that follows din and gevurah. My life really only took a turn for the better when I began to incorporate the building and planning of Gevurah Torah into my own connection with the Torah of Hesed. Until I found that balance, I faced a lot of difficulty.

With this new insight, the two vastly different Torahs of Hesed and Gevurah can start to be integrated in my daily life to achieve a Torah of Tiffereth, of beauty, rigor, and balance.

the fastest society

There is a maxim about how armies can only move as fast as their slowest unit. This applies on the macro-scale to societies and cultures and any group that can be categorized as moving in some sense.

Here we can approach a hypothetical idealistic application of Jewish principles and see how it is that a Torah lifestyle is the most efficient one for a collective of one form or another to maintain.

In a basic capitalist society, each individual in the group progresses as fast as they possibly can, the society as a whole being chained to the progress of the slowest individual. In pseudo-financial terms, the purchasing power of the poorest members of the group ultimately limits the growth of the society/marketplace.

If you look at a society based on the Torah values of helping those in need with great alacrity, you find a situation where the weakest members of the group are aided almost immediately by the strongest and fastest members of the group. In such a society, societal progress gets very close to the speed of the average individual.. instead of the speed of the slowest individual. That's a huge gain for the collective, without sacrificing individuality at all.

Torah of the whole man

On Shabbath my wife mentioned how frustrating it can be for women, that all the Torah seems to be applicable in a straightforward manner for men, but not for women.

I explained that even though it may appear to be the case, take a passuk like זאת תורת האדם - this is the Torah of man for example, it is not really true at all. In fact, Adam does not mean man, or at least it doesn't refer to the same element as the word Ish, (איש) man. We can see this from the Talmud in which it explains that a man is not called אדם - Adam unless he is married. From this we can see that a single man is an איש and a woman an אישה (Isha) and only an איש and אישה united constitute the word אדם, Man as in Mankind.

From this we can understand that a husband and a wife are both always performing actions for the whole. When one is learning Torah (either one) the couple is involved in Torah learning. When one is praying, both are involved. When one is preparing for Shabbath, both are involved.

There is no way, shape, form, or reason to try and break this union into its two constituent halves. There is no mitzwah that affects only one half of the whole.

This isn't an apologetic attempt to excuse one spouse or the other from learning Torah or anything else, it is just the opposite. One of the reasons why performing a mitzwah is so powerful is because its effects are hidden from us in this world. (שכר מצוה בהאי עלמא ליכא - there is no reward for a mitzwah in this world because the reward couldn't fit into this world, it is too great!) If we were aware of the awesome divine light that is revealed with each little berachah, we would never get to perform a second mitzwah, we would be blissing out on the first one indefinitely. It is only because the results of our actions are hidden to us that we may stand in the presence of the holy Shechinah (without any awareness of it at all) and continue to exist.

Just as an individual needs to awaken themselves to the true value, import, and effect of his or her mitzwoth, a couple needs to come to terms with the awesome reality that some of the mitzwoth that fall on them to perform can only be accomplished through their spouse.

For the simplest explanation think of it this way, there are mitzwoth that only apply to certain parts of the body, but don't think that a mitzwah taking place locally in one part of the body means that the rest of the person hasn't fulfilled their obligation.

Don't think for a moment that just because we only see the tefillin on the left arm doesn't mean the right arm isn't wearing tefillin.

learning the body and understanding the soul

Finishing off our discussion of the holiness of the letters of Torah as discussed in the Hesed L'Avraham, (last discussed here) we reach an important question:

Well, if we do actually benefit from learning and reading the Torah even if we don't understand or remember it, then what is the point of understanding it and remembering it?

Simple. The person who learns and understands is able to connect to a far loftier reality of the Torah than one who learns without understanding. This is so much the case that the learning of the one who understands is like unto the soul compared with the body of the learning of the one who does not understand. This relationship plays out further in that the learning of one who understands the sod, the secrets of the Torah, is similarly far beyond (as the soul to the body) the learning of someone who understands only the p'shat, the simple/basic understanding.

He goes on even to list a number of levels of sod, of hidden understandings and meanings, including the understanding of the secrets of the letters, and above this the understandings of the secrets of the permutations of the letters, and above this the understandings of the secrets of the names of HaShem, and above this the understandings of the secrets of the permutations of the names of HaShem. [He warns though that while it is permitted to learn this level for the sake of growing closer to HaShem, it is forebidden to use this knowledge actively as most of this knowledge is lost to us and it is impossible to make use of it without causing dire harm to oneself [and the world.]]

words caught in the throat

The Noam Elimelech (Parashath Tazria) explains that Tzaddikim are always involved in Torah and Tefillah. Sometimes, though, to overcome boredom and weariness, they need to speak with other people. When they do so these words are words of musar and fear of heaven. These words cause others to greatly awaken in the service of HaShem, even the Tzaddikim themselves. For when they remember their words they fear that perhaps there was some small taste of sin in these words and so they awaken new fear and new teshuvah within themselves.

He goes on to explain (Parashath Metzora) that when Tzaddikim learn or pray for the sake of HaShem, their souls are bound up in the words and alight to the heavens where they, the words and their souls, are united with the Torah and therefore with HaShem.

Moshe Rabbeinu was unique in that he was able to connect with HaShem through his voice. The simple sound of his voice would alight and unite with HaShem even before he would form words. This is the meaning of the saying that the Shechinah speaks from the throat of Mosheh. (ie. The throat where the sounds of speech are modulated)

It occurred to me while learning this that one could connect the two different Torahs and find a way for Tzaddikim to emulate and connect to Mosheh Rabbeinu without having to speak words that weren't Torah or Tefillah. Through singing or humming a niggun perhaps a Tzaddik can recuperate (from boredom or weariness) without having to talk words of musar with others, and later regret these words.

the dwelling of brothers

It occurred to me last week that the internet has a few dangers we might not normally consider. The blogosphere engenders a couple of behaviors that can have negative implications especially for a Jewish blogger. I want also to make it clear that I bring up these two issues specifically because I find myself falling short in their regard, not because I've found others guilty of similar deeds.

The blogosphere is very fast paced, and very opinionated. In fact, there is probably no better way to sum up what a blog is than "the opinions of a specific person of the moment." Of course this doesn't describe all blogs, but this is definitely what the blogging status quo, the peer pressure, encourages.

In this world of emphatic opinions we start to discuss and pursue Torah discourse. It is so easy, especially because I don't have my chevruta of the moment sitting in front of me face to face, to dismiss the ideas of someone else off the cuff. It is too easy to tread on the kavod, diginity and honor that becomes my fellow Jew. I have to be so careful to afford every viewpoint of our holy discussions with the time and respect it deserves. I haven't been.

It's too easy in the rapid pace--the pressure to reply, to respond, to post--to take a statement at less than face value, or to take part of a statement and assume it represents the whole. I find myself dreading reading long posts in places, and sad of only a short post in other places, where's my kavod for the Torah of my fellow Jew?

The Beit HaMikdash was destroyed for no less.

There is a very big tikkun happening, I'm happy to say, in the blogosphere and a lot of work for me to do to be a part of it. Sharing Torah, growing as a Jew, affording others a significant portion of my time, of my kavod, and of my affection.

May we meet soon face to face (panim el panim) over the korbon Pesach.