down in the money

HaShem seeming far away lately? The Noam Elimelech (Parashath Re'eh) suggests this might be because you've been spending too much time worrying about money. 

Instead he suggests, spend your money on what your soul desires, not what your body desires. Your body naturally desires the fleeting pleasures of this world, whereas your soul cares only about mitzwoth, especially Tzedakah.

Through giving life to your money by spending it towards mitzwoth, you realign your world, and bring yourself closer to HaShem. In this manner you can even reach the level of the greatest Tzaddikim, the Noam Elimelech confides.

thirty years to power

Today, the second of the month of Shvat is the 208th* hilullah/yahrtzeit of Rebbe Zusha of Anapoli, and (on a more personal note) the 30th anniversary of the day of my brith milah. (According to the mekubalim of Bet El, the anniversary of the brith milah is celebrated instead of the day of the birth) My wife went to great efforts to throw a wonderful party and my sister spoke beautifully from the Sfat Emeth about the aliyah upon which I was born. (shlishi parashath va'era)

On this special occassion I wanted to share some Torah that would inspire my friends my family and myself to serve HaShem with renewed vigor. The Torah that came to me is as follows:

We think that serving HaShem and performing the mitzwoth, learning Torah, praying authentic Tefillah and giving Tzedaka are things that are almost impossible to attain. We believe the hardest thing in the world is to overcome our Yetzer Hara, our evil urge, and to do good. It isn't so. Serving HaShem is the most natural, easiest, and most rewarding thing in the world. Going against the Will of HaShem, going against his decrees, that is truly impossible. How do we know? It says in Masechet Sotah 3a: אין אדם עובר עבירה אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות - a person could not transgress [HaShem's Mitzwoth] except that a spirit of folly enters him. From this we learn that it is literally impossible for a person to go against the Will of the Master of the world. The only way it could possibly happen is if an external (divine) force enters a person and causes him to sin.

From this we can learn that when it seems like we couldn't possibly perform HaShem's Will, keep the mitzwoth and be involved in the Torah, we can take comfort in the certain knowledge that since we have transgressed the mitzwoth in our lives, we have evidence that the impossible is within our grasp.

Instead of our sins being a source of difficulty and discouragement, they can be a fountain of strength, if we know we did them, then we can know with absolute certainty that we can and will succeed in the performance of HaShem's mitzwoth. Certainly we will succeed, HaShem Himself, our father, Abba, wants our success.

* note that the 208th yahrtzeit is special to me as the name yitzhak also has gematria 208

learning in pairs or groups

A Simple Jew brought up the issue of Chevruta. (learning Torah with a study partner) It's a really difficult issue for me. I know that it is supposed to be the focal point of Jewish learning, at least in the revealed, nigleh, Torah.

I can see how learning in chevruta pertains clearly to Halachah. Halachah is an objective system that boils your subjective world down into step by step instructions for how to serve HaShem through living your daily life. It's easy to gloss over the Halachah and misunderstand how to apply some objective ruling to your subjective world. By learning with a chevrutah, you need to apply the same objective ruling always to at least two subjective worlds, this increases the chances you will correctly understand and internalize the halachah.

When learning the written Torah, or the hidden, nistar, Torah, the goal is very different. The goal of the nistar is to connect to HaShem. The goal is admittedly insurmountable from the outset. HaShem is beyond us in every imaginable way. Still, through our nistar studies we can attain a form of closeness, a relationship with HaShem.

In such an instance, it is very hard to learn with someone else. For a good example, try and explain to someone else how to do something on their computer over the phone.. You are looking at your desktop, and they are looking at theirs and you are telling them what to click and where. (I'm sure most people who can find this blog have had this experience in one instance or another) It is tremendously difficult and requires a lot of patience. The more you use your computer, the more specific and customized it becomes, the more difficult it is to relate to someone else's computer. The more personal your relationship to HaShem through the nistar, the more difficult it becomes for two people to study together.

This is how it always seemed to me anyways. But the more I thought about it the more I realized how much more there really is to it:

When two people come from a very close spiritual connection, from the same soul root, then since their connection with HaShem has many similarities it is easier to learn with them and helping them to connect actually helps you to connect. On an even deeper level all of Bnei Yisrael is connected spiritually and learning with any member of Bnei Yisrael and helping them to connect to HaShem bridges and strengthens and deepens your own connection.

This is a very high level of understanding. But, when we can relate to our fellow Jew as a part of ourselves, carved from the same source, then learning with them can be transformed from a chore to a very high level of relating to HaShem. A level above relating directly, as we learn in the Tanya in chapter 32 (לב) that truly loving HaShem is loving what He loves most, Bnei Yisrael. Giving and sharing with Bnei Yisrael allows us to get even closer to HaShem than trying to pursue HaShem directly.

This is why Gemilat Hesed is tantamount Torah learning, and Teshuvah, and Tefillah. (See Pirkei Avot) Because through the Hesed that we do with Bnei Yisrael we can attain a closeness that isn't possible through relating to HaShem directly. (The goal of Torah, Teshuvah, and Tefillah)

As we know, the highest Gemilut Hesed, the highest Tzedaka enumerated by the Rambam is teaching someone to help themselves. What could be higher than learning with another Jew and helping them to get closer to HaShem directly? That it brings us closer to HaShem shouldn't hurt either.

This understanding of Chevruta and learning for the sake of raising all those learning closer to HaShem is often demonstrated in the Zohar. In the Gemara every learning is about hearing. Come and hear. In the Zohar, there are many descriptions that use words like "over there," "on this side," and "like so." One way to understand what is going on in the Zohar is to understand that when learning and discussing the Zohar they were actually in the midst of a common mystical experience of the heavenly realms and the underlying structure of the world. This way, when they pointed to or gestured at things, it was to illustrate the idea being discussed. Outside of this common mystical experience it is much more difficult to understand the explanations according to all of their implications and manifold possibilities.

Sinat hinam, free hatred of our fellow Jews brought about the destruction of the Beith HaMikdash, without being able to come together and unique in goals of holiness like Torah learning, we can't repair that breach.

B'ezrat HaShem we should all merit to bring ourselves, those around us, and all Klal Yisrael closer to HaShem through Torah learning in chevrutah.

the nerve of some people

There's a thought I had while I was in America, that went under my radar as far as how mind-bending an idea it is. Someone asked me to speak on Shabbath in my parents' congregation, and having nothing to lose, I decided to speak about how much it behooves us all to be in Israel. I was merciless in the most loving way I could be.

Anyone who worries about parnasa in Israel doesn't understand how parnasa works, I said. The shefa for the whole world is a function of whatever falls off of Israel's table. If you can make a kli (a vessel) to receive HaShem's blessing in the diaspora, so much more so in Israel.

A close friend asked me after I returned to my seat, "Well then, why do all the schnurrers (beggars) from Israel show up here all the time?"

The answer is: HaShem creates poverty in Israel only so that the Jews of the diaspora will be able to receive reward from their charity. Poverty in Israel exists only so that Jews outside of the land will still have a connection to it.

The poor of Israel are performing tremendous mesirat nefesh so that their brothers abroad aren't lost entirely.

Update: This post was actually something I'd been thinking about for a while, but it took a post over on A Simple Jew to crystalize it properly. As you can see from the comments there, this post is only half of the idea. I'm going to copy over a small part of one of the comments that really illustrates this idea in the text of sefer Devarim:

in Devarim (15:11) (כִּי לֹא-יֶחְדַּל אֶבְיוֹן, מִקֶּרֶב הָאָרֶץ) HaShem tells us that there will always be poor people--"mikerev ha'aretz" (מקרב הארץ) it would make more sense to say "b'kerev ha'aretz" (in the midst of the land rather than from the midst of the land) From this we can see that in fact, tzedaka is "mekarev ha'aretz", it brings the land closer. It brings Eretz Yisrael closer to each Jew. If poverty was simply a result of distribution of wealth, how can HaShem tell us that there will always be poverty? Rather, since tzedaka in Israel is the means through which Jews outside of Israel can "bring the land close to them," as long as there are Jews in chutz la'aretz there will always be poverty in the land of Israel.

The end of the passuk (עַל-כֵּן אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ, לֵאמֹר, פָּתֹחַ תִּפְתַּח אֶת-יָדְךָ לְאָחִיךָ לַעֲנִיֶּךָ וּלְאֶבְיֹנְךָ, בְּאַרְצֶךָ) drives home the point: Therefore I command you, saying, open your hand to your brother, your poor b'artzecha. Literally this means "in your land." (ie. in Eretz Yisrael) But, b'artzecha can also mean for the sake of the land or in exchange for the land. So we can understand it literally to mean: "obtain the land through opening your hand to the poor."

This becomes obvious when we relate the passuk: ציון במשפת תפדה ושביה בצדקה - Zion will be redeemed through justice and her captives [will be returned] with tzedaka.

one tzedakka

Last Shabbath Rav Aharon Bina (Rosh Yeshivah of Netiv Aryeh) spoke (at my brother Yaacov's shabbath hatan) about how the essence of our avodah nowadays must be tzedakka, he quoted the Baal HaTanya who repeats many times the importance of tzedakka in our time. (in his igrot kodesh which we learn now in the yearly cycle)

It got me thinking that there are many kinds of tzedakka in this world. But what tzedakka can we do with HaShem directly? He lacks nothing. Well, the Talmud tells us that everything is in the hands of Shamayim except yirath shamayim, fear of Heaven. So, one kind of tzedakka we can do for HaShem is to have proper yirah. But, the Tanya teaches that if we truly love HaShem then we must love what He loves. What does He love? Us. How do we do tzedakka with ourselves? What's the ultimate tzedakka that is both for us and for HaShem?

HaShem is already doing all of the best things for us, but we don't always get to see His plans until they are fully executed, while they are still unfolding, sometimes we think we are left to our own devices.

Emunah is the only way to do tzedakka simultaneously with ourselves and with HaShem. We give HaShem our emunah, our blind faith that His plans are unfolding constantly to bring us everything we need, and we are doing tzedakka with ourselves by improving our relationship with HaShem and giving us tools towards a more productive life.

The proof is of course in the Tanach: Tzaddik b'emunato Yichyeh - a tzaddik lives through his emunah. The most basic tzedakka is living with emunah.

minting peace

The Talmud tells us that HaShem wants our hearts. (רחמנא לבא בעי)

The Baal HaTanya (Iggeret HaKodesh 4) explains Mosheh Rabbeinu's comments in the Torah (ומלתם את בשר לבכם) to explain that we must remove the thick outer foreskin of our hearts, to learn to love HaShem, and in turn he will remove the finer casing around our hearts, and reveal our inner essence to his light. He says that Tzedaka is the best way to hasten this process.

We see, sadly, in this day and age just how close money can get to our hearts. Bills can pile up and cause physical pain, serious stress on our fragile hearts. The best way to combat this reality is to give tzedaka. In a way through tzedaka we are putting our money where it can't be touched by anyone..we are putting it in the only sure-fire investment. Every cent or agurah that goes to tzedaka is a scale in the armor that protects us in this world and the next.

Why did Mosheh pray to HaShem through the language of ואתחנן? It seems to me to be language that relates to tzedaka and begging. Mosheh was pouring out his heart, appealing to HaShem's midah of Tzedaka, knowing that since Tzedaka is the deepest power we have, it is also the most powerful of HaShem's midoth.

Let's give tzedaka to awaken HaShem's tzedaka and bring peace to all of klal Yisrael.

give and take

Today is the hillulah of Rabbi Menachem Azarya of Pano

He shared this truly awesome Torah: (quoted from nehora.com)

The word "Tzedakah" -- Tzadi, Dalet, Kuf, Hey -- when transposed into its At-Bash equivalent (whereby each letter, according to its order in the alphabet, is interchanged with the letter in the corresponding place starting from the other side of the alphabet. Thus the first letter (Aleph) becomes the last (Tav), Bet becomes Shin, etc.) comes out to be the exact same word spelled backwards -- Hey, Kuf, Dalet, Tzadi! This may be meant to demonstrate that whatever charity a person gives is bound to return to him in the opposite direction, as "charity" from God! Give charity, and God will safeguard your wealth.

This is just amazing. If you want to see it in action, you can use my simple gematria engine (it gives you the atbash אתב"ש of the word as well as all the words in chumash that share the gematrias in question) You can also find a brief explanation of Atbash and a table of the permutation here. (it's the about page from the gematria engine)