Shavua Tov & Chodesh Tov - Wishing you all a good week and a good month.
At this time, I am writing at a time of two firsts - Motzoei Shabbat, beginning the FIRST day of the week that immediately follows the conclusion of Shabbat; and Rosh Chodesh Kislev, which is only one day this year as opposed to some other years where it consists of two days - hence, today's date is the FIRST of Kislev and not the thirtieth of Cheshvan (the way it was one year ago on Motzoei Shabbat).
Both of these occasions - Motzoei Shabbat & Rosh Chodesh - are especially connected to King David. The Melave Malka (literally means escorting the queen, which is referring to the Queen Shabbat, a real spiritual creature like the angels) meal is called Seudat David HaMelech - King David's meal, which is called such for at least two reasons. First - kabbalistically, there are four parts of the Holy Chariot which correspond to the three Patriarchs and King David; and similarly, the three meals of Shabbat correspond to the three Patriarchs, and the fourth meal which is the meal eaten on Saturday night corresponds to King David. Historically, King David was once told by Hashem that he would pass away on a Shabbat. Hoping to avert dying on Shabbat, he figured that if he learned Torah for the entire Shabbat which would prevent the Angel of Death from taking away his soul, then he wouldn't have to die on this happy day of the week. Hence, following the end of every Shabbat, he used to celebrate living through another Shabbat by having a festive meal (after fasting the whole Shabbat!).
Rosh Chodesh is especially connected to King David because the Davidic dynasty is compared to the moon, the same way that the Jewish people are compared to the moon.
Just as the moon has its waxing and weaning periods, so it is with the Jewish people and the Davidic dynasty. To note, King David was the 14th generation on the parental line from Abraham the first Jew, bearing in mind that the Gematria of the name David is 14. Hence, his son King Solomon was the 15th generation from Abraham. Similarly, the moon reaches the status of a full moon at the 14th/15th days of the month. And indeed, in the days of King Solomon whose name Shlomo means complete(ness), it was the heighlight of the utopian state of the Davidic dynasty and the living standards of the Jewish people. And then, even in King Solomon's days already, his kingdom started going downhill beginning with challenges to his kingdom, and when his son Rehoboam became king, most of the Tribes of Israel deserted his kingship for Yeroboam Ben Nevat as the first king of Israel. Finally, Zedekiah of the 30th parental generation from Abraham was the final king of Judea in whose reign the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia.
Bearing in mind that this is my 126th post, it would be most appropriate to mention Psalm 126 of Tehillim/Book of Psalms that was composed/compiled by King David. This is not just any one of the 150 psalms. This Psalm is recited immediately preceding Bircat HaMazon/Grace After Meals on a day or time that we do not recite Tachanun/supplicatory prayers, which include Saturday night & Rosh Chodesh. One reason given for reciting a psalm before the after meal blessings is because we are supposed to recite words of Torah at a meal, and so even if one did not remember or have a chance to do so, reciting a psalm which is part of the Tanach/Bible will fulfill this requirement.
I will be referring to this Psalm a little later in this post. But first, I want to write a little more about the siginifance of today being Rosh Chodesh Kislev. We see in the first chapter of the Mishnaic Tractate of Ta'anit of the breakdown of the various dates that we mention or request for rain. First, we begin the mention of rain on Shemini Atzeret (22 Tishrei). Then, there is a difference of opinion in the Mishna as to when we begin the request for rain - either 3 Cheshvan or 7 Cheshvan, of which we follow the latter view as the Halacha/Jewish Law.
Now, when we request a basic need for the Jewish people from Hashem but it doesn't get fulfilled on time, there is an obvious reason why it is so. No doubt, it is because we are not behaving right, and so Hashem is in no rush to fulfill our request. Hence, when rain doesn't come sooner rather than later, it means that we have to repent of our evil deeds, and especially in earlier times, fasting was a common occurance when things didn't happen right for the Jewish people.
Along these lines, if the 17th of Cheshvan (the date of the beginning of the Flood in Noah's time) arrived and no rain fell down yet, indiviual pious people would begin fasting. Then, if the beginning of the next month - Rosh Chodesh Kislev - arrived and still no rain in sight, then the community starts fasting. Thank G-d, it already started raining this season, which is thanks to a lot of good Jews doing the right things.
In earlier times, when Jews were expected to be on a much higher spiritual level but didn't behave accordingly, famines were not that uncommon. During one such year when it close to the month of Nissan when the rains in Israel are just about over, when it hadn't rained the winter season up to this point in time, the Jews were desperate and turned to a righteous and learned sage named Choni HaMeagel. He is called HaMeagel which literally means the one who makes circles, because in his prayers in which he pleaded with Hashem to send rain, he made a circle around himself and swore that he would not leave the circle until rain would come. As the story continues as recounted in Mishna Ta'anit 3:8, the rain finally came.
Speaking of circles, the letter of the Alef Beit that corresponds to the month of Kislev is Samech, which is the roundest of the Hebrew letters, and unlike all the other letters (except for the Mem Sophit/Final Mem), it is the only one in which there is a hole that is completely surrounded. We also see that the Mazel/constellation for this month is the Keshet/rainbow, and Hashem's speaking to Noah about His promise that He will never bring a flood for the whole world again which would be demonstrated by having a rainbow appeared took place in the beginning of Kislev which was shortly after everyone left the Ark a mere few days earlier. In any case, the rainbow has a circular appearance, in part resembling the round Samech.
With this said, perhaps there must be some kind of connection between the concept of circles, rain, and the month of Kislev, especially since we see that this month is represented by the circular letter Samech. And if there any connection, what is this supposed to teach us?
For this, we now refer to the Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Ta'anit which mentions another story of Choni Ha'Meagel. It is obvious that the origins of the Rip Van Winkle story comes from this original story, but let us recount the real story that took place.
As I promised, this is where Psalm 126 kicks in. You see, it all started when Choni HaMeagel had a question on the first verse of this Psalm - "A Song of Ascents: When Hashem will return the captives of Zion, we will be like dreamers". He wondered: "Is it possible to sleep for 70 years with one continous dream?" Now, the reason he noted 70 years is because there were 70 years to the Babylonian exile (although this verse/psalm also refers to the future Redemption). While he was thinking about this, he met someone who was planting a carob tree, and when Choni asked him how long it will take to grow, the guy told him that it would take 70 years, and that just like his ancestors planted carob trees for him, so he was also doing for his descendants after he would no longer live. The next thing Choni knows, he wakes up after 70 years of sleep, and then met the grandson of the guy who planted the carob tree 70 years earlier who was picking carobs off the tree at that very moment. Following this, since no one knew who he was or believed his story that he slept for 70 years, he realized that he could not go on living like this, and so he asked Hashem to take away his life and then he passed away.
While Hashem can do anything, some may doubt that the literal meaning of the story took place. After all, not all the Aggadic stories in the Talmud necessarily happened literally, but they can mean some spiritual, figurative meaning for us to learn from. In fact, not all the Biblical stories that we read in the Tanach necessarily happened either, such as where Hashem tells the prophet Ezekiel to revive the dead bones of a group of Jews that attempted to leave Egypt 30 years earlier before the Exodus. Some say that this was only a dream that Ezekiel had. In fact, believe it or not, but the Rambam/Maimonides believes that the story in the beginning of Parshat Vayeira of the encounter of the three angels coming to Abraham for a meal was only a dream that Abraham had, no less of a dream than the dream that the Torah explicitly states that Jacob had at the beginning of this week's Parshat Vayeitzei.
Whether this last story of Choni Hameagel was literally for real or was only a dream that he had, what is true is the Torah lesson that we can learn from this recounting.
The 70 years that Choni called a dream in fact echoes another part of the Psalms (90:10): "The days of our years in them are 70 years...", which is given as the average lifespan of mankind, which was also how long King David, composer of the Book of Psalms, lived. The point that Psalm 90 makes is that our lifespan is very short and that we need to make the best of it, and realize that this world is temporary and full of vanities, and only realizing our purpose in life and following in suit will make our lives worthwhile.
The problem with most people is that they live confused lives and don't realize what the real purpose of life is about, truly living a DREAM life. Perhaps some with religion will have a better answer for this, but it seems that even a good percentage of these people don't follow through with what they learned in the Bible and all. And even when it comes to acquiring materialistic items in life, so many have dreams of "having it all," but don't accomplish having the temporary "American Dream," and even when it seems that they have it all, this is quite often challenged by a change in the economy, losing one's dream job, divorce, loss of health, etc.
It is significant that there were 70 years to the Babylonian exile. You see, the word Bavel/Babylonia comes from the word Mevulbal "mixed up". Very unfortunately, most people are mixed up with what really counts in their average lifespan of 70 years, and for all practical purposes, are dreaming of a reality that does not exist.
They have no concept of why they were created, of why they are living, and if they are not atheists, virtually all of them think that they are going to Heaven for what they supposedly did right, forgetting all the wrong things that they did during their lifetime that they did not make amends for if they even realize or remember what they did wrong.
The Babylonian exile followed a long stretch of Jewish history of Jews living in Israel for 850 years. The reason why they became exiled from the Holy Land to begin with is because they were mixed up and confused of how they were supposed to live as Jews. They took it for granted that everything would be O.K., even as the prophet Jeremiah kept warning them of the doom that would take place if they would not better their deeds. They were truly living a false dream of a life in which they did things the way that they wanted to do them, regardless of how much this went against what Hashem said, even as Hashem explicitly warns us in the Torah time and again that if we don't follow His laws, then consequences, including exile, would take place.
And so, it only made sense that the Babylonian exile would consist of 70 years, to teach us that Babylonia was not our land and living there as Jews was for all practical purposes - a dream that Jews can live there in holiness just like in Israel but in reality could not be true, reminding the Jews that they could not continue behaving in this fashion, and it was only after 70 years that the Jews had a rebuilt Temple once more, showing that they are only living at home when they are both near the environs of the Holy Temple AND following the laws as Jews connecting ourselves to the holiness of the Temple.
It would seem a bit ironic that the main Talmud that Jews learn is called the Talmud Bavli/Babylonian Talmud, which includes this last story of Choni HaMeagel (Ta'anit 23a). It is true that this Talmud was composed in Babylonia, and was hence named as such. In another way of looking at this, perhaps we can read this as "Talmud for the confused", for unless we learn the meat of Torah learning, which is the Gemara/Talmud, we will remain confused about what the Torah teaches us, and even if we know all the laws of the Mishna, Shulchan Aruch/Code of Jewish Law, without knowing the Talmud, we will be at a loss as to where these laws stem from, or what they are based on. You see, without understanding what a Halacha/Jewish Law is based on, there is no way that someone who is "basically observant" without being knowledgable of the give and take arguments and reasonings of the Talmud will be able to come decide what the Jewish Law is, for the Talmud gives the reasons and sources for these laws.
It is the Talmud, especially the Babylonian Talmud, that gave reason for a Jew's existance in the Shteitel towns of Europe, mostly living in poverty, long after its composition a few hundred years after the Roman exile. It is the Talmud that especially demonstrates that the Torah/Bible was not a man made script, but a Divinely given set of laws which is interpreted by the teachings of the Talmud, the Oral Law, showing how Hashem was precise in His wording to teach a particular lesson or nuance. It is the Talmud which is "our life and the length of our days" both in this world and in the next, realizing that a material lifestyle doesn't quite fit in a Torah way of life except to the extent that is needed to maintain our health and the means to be able to observe the Mitzvot/Commandments.
Related to the letter Samech, there are 60 tractates of the Mishna, the foundation of the Oral Law (actually, we have them divided today as 63 due to technicalities), and Samech has the numerical value of 60. In this physical world, both beans and eggs are round objects, which are eaten by mourners as their first meal following the burial of their close relative. This is learned out from Parshat Toldot that we just read on Shabbat where Jacob served beans to Esau as on that day, their grandfather Abraham passed away, and so the meal of the day in the home of Isaac was beans. The reason for eating their circular types of foods is to remind us that life goes around in a circle - from birth to death, from riches to poverty. The world spins around, it is a new generation, and who was rich or poor in one generation may lead to descendants with the opposite financial circumstances, for life and wealth are not permanent fixtures in this world, and will change hands and families.
Hence, on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the beginning of the month that is represented by the circular letter Samech, all Jews would fast for the lack of rain. The Hebrew word used for congregation is Tzibur, which is an acronym for the words Tzadikim Beinonim V'Reshaim - righteous, average, and wicked people. ALL SPECTRUM OF JEWS had to be aware that we must start getting together as a nation and do the right thing, and not just like indivuduals, as the individuals who started fasting on the 17th of Cheshvan, represented by the fact that only a few individuals were righteous enough to be spared from the Flood - which was Noah and his family, which begin on this date.
And so, Choni made the circle around himself, as if to say that even if there were wicked people among the Jews, and it is true that they need to repent of their evil deeds, but since part of the Tzibbur also consists of righteous people, he reasoned that it was only right to bring the rain in the merit of these people, for unless everyone would be evil, it would seem to be unfair to continue hurting the righteous ones among the Jewish nation, since the Tzibbur consists of one unit, and so it would not be fair to punish the righteous because of the wicked. It is this circle that marks the totality and completeness of the Jewish people, and instead of claiming that there are only individual righteous people, it would be much more fair to say that there are only individual wicked people, and hence, the circle of life should not be broken because of a few rotten individuals.
At this point, it would be most interesting to point out that both the word Toldot - the name of this last week's Parsha, and Ta'anit - the name of the tractate about rains, both begin and end with the letter Tav/Sav. But more than just this, these sections of the Chumash & Mishna/Talmud respectively have connections with each other.
Let's note the word Ta'anit, which means fast, such as not eating. To note, this word is the Gematria of 930 years, and as we know, Adam lived for 930 years. Originally, he was not supposed to have died had it not been for the sin of the forbidden fruit, so his life was shortened to 1,000 years, from which he gave 70 years of these to King David. As a result of his sin, he both separated from his wife and fasted for 130 years. The three middle letters of the word Ta'anit, which spells the word Ahni/poor person, make up the Gematria of 130, hinting to the fact that Adam considered himself as a poor person without the pleasures of physical life to atone for the sin that he committed.
Now, take the word Toldot, which means generations. Now, all of mankind are generations/descendants of Adam & Eve. The three middle letters of this word spell the word Vlad, which means child or embryo, having the Gematria of 40, and indeed, it takes 40 days for an embryo to be formed. The reason given for why there were specifically 40 days of the Flood is because Hashem so to speak was forced to give life to embryos from illicit unions as they take 40 days to be formed. Moreover, for certain sins, the atonement mentioned for these are 40 days of fasting; perhaps reminiscent of Moses' not eating for 40 days and nights at a time on Mt. Sinai.
In both sources of Parshat Toldot & Masechet Ta'anit, the concept of mourning is mentioned; in Parshat Toldot - as I wrote earlier pertaining to the passing of Abraham, and the fourth chapter of Ta'anit mentions the mourning for the saddest day of the year - Tisha B'Av, the date on which both Temples got destroyed accompanied with Babylonian & Roman exiles. In fact, when Esau requested Jacob to give him the beans, he asked "Dump into me this reddish food...therefore his name was called Edom", meaning, that Esau's family in the future became the Edomite nation. However, the English hardly does justice as for the translation; for in fact, the word Ha'adom "the red" in describing the beans is written twice in a row, indicating a double aspect of red. Now, the beauty of the Hebrew language is that in contrast to English in which some of the letters are vowels themselves, the vowels are separate from letters in Hebrew; hence, words without vowels can be read as different words at times. In this particular instance, one can read this word twice as Ha'Adam - the man or the Adam. It seems that the reason for this repetition of word is to hint to Adam, whose sin caused himself and the world to go into mourning, for now death was decreed upon the world.
We see that following his sin, Hashem appeared to him, and as the verse states "Hashem G-d called to HA'ADAM (the man) and said to him AYEKA" (Genesis 3:9 - Note: In Hebrew, the chapter and verse number here, when put together, reads the word Get/divorce, for in fact, Hashem divorced mankind from the Garden of Eden following the forbidden fruit sin, just as Hashem divorced us out of our land upon the destruction of the Temple). Now, note that I did not immediately translate this last word of the verse. You see, while it may literally means "Where have you been?" this is not a mere physical concept of place, but a spiritual concept of place, indicating that Adam had a major spiritual fall with the sin. In fact, one again, just as the word Ha'adom can be read without vowels to also read Ha'adam, as indeed the exact word in this verse in Genesis, the word Ayeka can also be read as different vowels to read Eicha - "How...", the beginning word of the book in Tanach that is also the name of this book that is read on the night of Tisha B'Av, the national day of mourning, the date marking the destruction of both Temples by Babylonia and Rome - the latter which is called Edom in Scriptures. Hence, there is a parallel connection here between the sin of HA'ADAM & the destruction of the second Temple by HA'ADOM/EDOM, as Edom is a nation descendant from Esau who was born as Admoni/reddish. And it was these reddish beans that were cooked by Jacob in a state of mourning, the death of Abraham being the bridgepoint between the decree of death on mankind and the destruction of the Second Temple by Edom.
The good news here is that King David & his descendant the Messiah are the rectifications for these sins. First to note, the letters of Adam's name are the acronym for Adam, David & Moshiach. By Adam giving 70 years of his original slated 1,000 years of life to King David, this gave him the power to help with Adam's rectification. In fact, King David just like Esau was born with a reddish complexion, resembling the sinful desires of the body. However, the difference is that while Esau did not control his desires, King David did. And even when he had a temporary lapse of this when it came to his strong sexual urges for Bath Sheba, he repented to such a degree that his fasting conquered his evil inclination for sexual temptations.
In time, King David merited to have the Messiah descend from him, and as mentioned by the Rambam/Maimonides, the Messiah is descended from his son King Solomon, which means that he is descended from Bath-Sheba; for in fact, King David's extreme sexual urge for Bath-Sheba became the springboard for his total repentance in the away of sexual temptations. And as based on holy sources, the United States is the Edom of today, and as we see, there are in fact 51 states in the U.S., for Washington D.C. as the capitol is an area of its own that is not included in the "fifty states", and the word Edom is the Gematria of 51. This is aside from the verse about the reddish beans that are described with the repetitive word Ha'Adom which is the Gematria of 50, bearing in mind that generally, the United States is referred to as having fifty states, and as this verse concludes "therefore, his name was called Edom." So indeed, Moshiach will be coming shortly at the end of the exile of Edom which began as Rome and ending as the United States, the current world power as Rome was at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple.
In connection to Jerusalem, the antithesis of Edom, we are currently in the midst of the 45th year from the liberation of Jerusalem - particularly the part of Jerusalem that includes the Holy Temple grounds, and the name Adam is the Gematria of 45, bearing in mind as to what the Midrash notes, Hashem created the head of Adam from the area of the Holy Temple grounds. And as we see the word for red(dish) mentioned in the verse Ha'Adom, without the prefix of the letter Hei, the word Adom being spelled as the same letters as Adam is the Gematria of 45, and as connected with Edom as mentioned at the end of this verse.
Yes, there will come a time that our DREAM OF A LIFETIME - the arrival of the Redemption, rebuilding of the Holy Temple, and Resurrection of the dead - will finally come to fruition. As per the 70 years of the Babylonian exile, we have a verse that also hints to the concept of 70 - "For EYE TO EYE - Ayin B'Ayin - will they see when Hashem returns to Zion", for the letter Ayin is the numerical value of 70. And as for the concept of a circle that in this physical world, denoting change in the sense of changing hands as people do not live forever in this world the way that it is created until the time of the Resurrection, we see that in the future, the concept of a circle will represent Eternity, as the conclusion of the Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Ta'anit states:
"Ulla Bira'ah said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: In the future, the Holy One Blessed Be He will make a circle for the righteous, and He will sit between them in Gan Eden, and every one of the righteous ones will point his finger towards Him, as it says: "He will say on that day: Behold (Note: In Hebrew - the word is Hinei which is the Gematria of 60, perhaps hinting to the concept of a circle which is resembled by the circular letter Samech that has the numerical value of 60) this is our G-d, we had hoped for Him and He has saved us, this is Hashem to Whom we had hoped, let us exalt and rejoice in His salvation." Amen.
Motzoei Shabbat Parshat Toldot/Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5772
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
#125 - Take Off the MASK!
It is not everyday that Rashi, whose basic commentary on the Torah basically involves the simple meaning of the verse, and uses various sources to explain what is going onin the text, sometimes bringing two or three explanations on the same words, mentions a Gematria to explain a matter. In fact, Gematria is related to the part of the Torah that is called Remez/hint rather than Pshat/simple meaning. So, when Rashi does mention a Gematria, he has good reason for bringing it; for certainly there are many more Gematriot on the Torah that are mentioned in the Talmud, Midrash and other early rabbinical sources.
While we won't be reading the story of the Golden Calf in the public Torah reading for a nice few months, this is where the basis of this post begins. The Torah describes the first god formed among the Jewish people since they left Egypt and received the Torah as a "molten calf". In Hebrew, this is an Eigel Maseicha. Rashi on the word Maseicha gives two explanations on this. First, he notes that this word is related to the word Mateicha/metal. Makes sense. But here is the punchline. All of a sudden, Rashi points out that this molten calf consisted of 125 Kanterin (a measurement) of gold, which corresponds to the word Maseicha which is the Gematria of 125.
And while this is my 125th post in relationship to what I just wrote, I will soon show the connection between the concept of idols and Parshat Chayei Sara that we read last Shabbat. But meanwhile, the question can be asked: "It's nice that Rashi brings a Gematria here. But unlike other situations where there may seem to be a difference of an opinion or a question on an opinion, and so Rashi brings another explanation, why did he mention a Gematria here after he explained very logically the connection of the word Maseicha in this context? Even if it is true that there happened to be 125 measurements of whatever in gold that they used to formed the idol as related to the Gematria of the description of the idol, what is missing here that we didn't understand about this before Rashi told us this Gematria?"
The truth is that Artscroll (check out www.artscroll.com) quotes the Levush HaOrah asking a similar question. You see, we already know that the idol was made out of gold, so why does the Torah have to mention anything about metal as Rashi points out in his first explanation? But in his second explanation, Rashi is noting the weight of this idol, and this case involves using a Gematria.
After all is said and done, who really cares how much the idol weighed? After all, we already know that it was a golden calf, and in the previous Rashi, he explained the process of how magic was used in making this.
I believe that the answer to this is focused on the mention of 125 "kanterin" of GOLD. The proof to this that the focus is on gold is the very end of the first Pasuk/verse of Sefer Devarim/Deutronomy where the list of places that the Jews journeyed during the course of 40 years in the desert are mentioned. What one finds is that there are a bunch of names of places mentioned that aren't mentioned anywhere else in the Torah. Rashi explains that these names were used to hint to the events that the Jews lived through when not behaving up to par, and so Moses hinted to their behavior by using these names. The last place in this first verse of Deutronomy is called Di Zahav, very similar to Dai Zahav "enough gold", and as Rashi brings a verse to this effect "I provided much silver for her, and gold. They made it for Ba'al (a name of an idol)." In the verse in Deutronomy, Moses rebuked the Jewish nation for the calf that the made due to how much gold that they had.
And my friends, while most us are saying to ourselves, "How stupid could these Jews have been in even thinking about other gods when they just received the Torah amidst the most terrifying Divine experience that they went through a mere 40 days later?", very unfortunately, history has repeated itself up to this generation, and this story of the Golden Calf is more relevant for us to learn than ever. It is quite ironic that there are those Jews who are Sabbath observant who would never dream of lifting a finger to work on Shabbat to make even a little extra money on the side and be present at the Torah reading about the Golden Calf story, who fall into this very trap of Golden Calf worship. Indeed, the United States was at one time referred to as the "Golden Medina". In fact, included in U.S. history is the Gold Rush of 1849. While few made the big gold bucks, Hashem allows things to happen for a reason.
And so, what is this Golden Calf worship of today that I am referring to? You see, one can be raised as an "Orthodox Jew", pray in the synagogue morning and evening, celebrate Shabbat with the family, and even donate money to one's synagogue. However, without focus on what really counts in this world, the practice of this "Orthodox Judaism" is for the most part what is called "lip service" performing the routines as what one is used to from one's youth, but not because one feels truly spiritually uplifted, or have a spiritual desire to really get close to Hashem. As I once heard one professional Modern Orthodox Jew in synagogue tell another "The days of having concentration in my prayers are over".
Well my friends, this last statement literally smacks what Rabbi Nachman of Breslov states about serving Hashem. First, each attempt we make in our service to Hashem is precious, even if we do fail. But most importantly, we are NEVER SUPPOSED TO GIVE UP HOPE. No matter how many times we fail, we are supposed to pick ourselves up and try again, learn from our past mistakes, and consult our spiritual leaders for help in achieving better spiritual results. It's one thing if one has a hard time concentrating on one's prayers. But because one is now a "professional", it is no excuse to prevent onself from even attempting to do the right thing. It's easy to pat onself in the back thinking that because he attends the daily "Minyan", it is O.K. if he doesn't do everything right, since after all, as far as he is concerned, Hashem should be lucky that even a professional takes time to pray in a public quorum.
Indeed, the Jews who sinned with the Golden Calf gave up hope very quickly when they thought that Moses was not returning from Mt. Sinai following a 40 day retreat. They didn't even entertain the possibility that perhaps they were mistaken by one day as per when Moses told them that he would return to them. And so, since they felt spiritually deprived, it led to them to being materialistic, even to the point of tearing off the earlobes of their own wives in their quick pursuit of grabing the earrings to produce the Golden idol, as mentioned in the Midrash.
And so today, many young Jews, though educated with some form of Torah background with a Yeshiva day school education, get quite caught up with the idols of today - such as baseball cards featuring many non-Jews with the exact baseball scores, and while praising them for their accomplishments, these young "Orthodox" Jews forget that they are violating a commandment in the Torah that forbids us to praise non-Jews - Lo Techaneim "Do not show them grace" (some may argue that the verse is referring specifically to non-Jewish idol worshippers, but in fact, the prohibition refers to all non-Jews). Of course, there is the television, movies, and while I would think that most have parental supervision when it comes to the internet, there is no guarantee that kids at whatever age will not have access to the internet as such that it will G-d forbid lead to seeing lewd pictures and all. Aside from the fact that television and movies include many scenes that include seeing immodest dressed women and sex scenes even outside of what is called porn, the Torah makes no differentiation when it comes to the violation of "thou shalt not stray after thine eyes". And of course, when sitting glued to the television set watching the weekly sports game, wasting several hours a week, even if there are no immediate violations of the Torah as mentioned above, the big time violation of the Torah is wasting precious time of Torah learning, for which EACH WORD OF TORAH LEARNED IS WORTH MORE THAN ALL THE OTHER COMMANDMENTS OF THE TORAH COMBINED! And as the Chofetz Chaim once experimented, a person can speak up to 200 words a minute. And so, imagine the tremendous eternal reward that some Modern Orthodox Jews lose out FOREVER as a result of the tens of thousands of hours they waste on watching games that are being played by a bunch of non-Jews and assimilated Jews who are making millions off of tube watchers. At least the ones playing the games are making a living at it, but what is the rational excuse of the ones who are simply watching them?
Yes, there are those Jews who even attend a daily Daf Yomi Shiur, listening to a daily class of a double sided page of Talmud every day in synagogue. But before or after this, how many of them when they are home when not immediately taking care of the children or speaking to the wife will at times even do so much as open a Sefer, a Torah book, to at least be an example for their children to want to do the same? Never mind the fact that some do not give any encouragement for their children to even entertain the possibility of becoming rabbis; but while we are supposed to see to it that our children have some sort of profession or work to sustain themselves and their future families, many Modern Orthodox parents are insistent on their children being particularly doctors, lawyers, or some other major profession along these lines, as though their children will be otherwise "useless". And then of course, aside from the fact that many of their children will not get married at least until their later 20s as a result, and some have problems later finding someone to marry because they put their careers way ahead of starting a family life, even some of the newly professional men will only marry a woman with similar professional backgrounds.
And while it is important that in some respects, there has to be similarities in a couple, focusing on marrying a professional woman when the men themselves can make a fine living is forgetting the role of women whose primary purpose is raising our children. Now, I am not saying that Orthodox Jewish women are forbidden to study a profession, and I do believe that women in general should not be stuck without having some means of making a living should they unfortunately become widowed in life so they can continue supporting their children; what is certain is that when materialism is made into a major importance, it usually comes on the expense of spiritualism, forgetting what our main purpose in life is, even though technically, they should know from the many years of Yeshiva education of 12 or more years that they had before they began college.
Of course, the professional Modern Orthodox parents of three children have the "heimishe" home, two cars, and for many who live in South Florida - a swimming pool. But did they ever even do so much as to think how life could be if only the husband/father had a professional career, and they didn't have such fancy, expensive cars, and who needs to worry about kids drowning in a swimming pool when they can anyways afford to hire someone to give their kids swimming lessons or send them to summer camp where they will have access to swimming grounds?
Yes my friends, all too many who are not living in the Holy Land that Hashem commands us to live, living in the Golden Medinah are worshipping golden idols, except in a different form. Today, this includes some who wear a beany on the head, and will never knowingly eat something that they know is not kosher. Oh yes, some of them can even afford to be in what is called a Kosher for Passover hotel for the whole holiday (P.S. I happen to know that many problems have occurred in these "Kosher for Passover" hotels, and so those who are truly G-d fearing will think twice before spending the Hametz/non-leaven free holiday in such a place), but how much spiritually can be felt at a Seder in a room of hundreds of other materialistic people when the ultimate place of feeling what a truly spiritually meaningful Seder can be felt only at home (or in a synagogue under the direction of a rabbi), as was originally celebrated in Egypt the night before the Exodus. As for the wives/mothers who don't have to worry and knock themselves out cleaning their homes for Passover by spending the holiday in a hotel, with a fraction of the money that they spend on the hotel, they could use to hire a young, Orthodox Jewish lady or a few ladies to clean every last speck of dirt, and the family can even enjoy Passover during the course of the eight day holiday by going to some fun outing, as even very religious Jews in Israel do with their families during this holiday.
I will be honest here. I was far from raised with a golden spoon in my mouth, in sharp contrast to most of my classmates. Most of them, being Modern Orthodox most of whom raised in homes whose parent or parents were professionals, had quite fancy Bar Mitzvas. They read the whole Parsha and Haftara, followed with a big Kiddush in the synagogue, and then there was the Sunday affair at some hotel hall with virtually all of the lavish trimmings that are present with weddings. My Bar Mitzva, on the other hand, was quite simple. It is true that since I was born on a Rosh Chodesh, I was able to celebrate my Bar Mitzva on Rosh Chodesh, even as it fell out during the workweek, so it wasn't just an ordinary Monday or Thursday thing reading the Torah, so it was a little more special because of the uniqueness of the day. However, all I had was an Aliyah to the Torah, and a breakfast in the synagogue which was located across the street from the Yeshiva day school, with mostly my classmates and old people of the synagogue in attendance. And that was it my friends, back to school for me as though nothing happened the hour before. I never even read from the Torah for my Bar Mitzva, though ironically several years later, I would become a professional Ba'al Koreh (reader of the Torah). Didn't have the lavish Shabbat Kiddush. Didn't have the fancy shmancy Bar Mitzva ballroom celebration. And so I will admit, I do feel prejudiced against the fancy lifestyle of some in the Modern Orthodox world who feel that they have to spend lavish sums for their son's Bar Mitzvah. After all, how many of them spent enough time in Israel to come to realize that many Jewish families, of all types of observant or non-observant backgrounds, barely even have enough food to eat, while many organizations in Israel attempting to help these poor familes basically receive their donations from those living in Israel without American funds? Why, there are even those mothers in Israel who dilute the formula for their babies who cry as a result of the lack of nutrition, due to not even having enough money to sufficiently feed the little mouths of their babies, let alone themselves! And so, I feel that I am perfectly justified in protesting this Golden Calf worshipping that many in what is called the observant Jewish world are trapped into.
Speaking of Modern Orthodox (by the way, the word Orthodox has been greatly misued in terms of observant Judaism, this word being taken from Christians simply to define the difference between halachic Judaism and Conservative/Reform), let's speak of Modern Hebrew. You see, this word Maseicha used in describing the gold/metal idol is used today for the word MASK. Yes, when we live a double lifestyle, professing to the claim as living as "Modern Orthodox" Jews with Sabbath, Kashrut & laws of family purity observance, but doing everything else that promotes materialism on the major expense of learning Torah, we are in essence putting a mask on our faces, something that is literally done only on Purim. You see, while we have the beautiful holiday of Purim today, what indirectly led to this was the Jews benefitting from the feast of King Achashveirosh about which Mordechai warned them not to partake of, even if it would be "Glatt Kosher". And if in case anyone wonders what was such a big sin, it is forbidden according to Halacha to eat at a non-Jewish wedding, even if one is served a Glatt Kosher meat meal at the event by an exclusive waiter. Hashem does not wish us to be socially involved with non-Jews to the point that we will forget our purpose as Jews. True, in the workplace, many if not most of us deal with non-Jews. But, the difference is that we are only permitted to be involved with non-Jews to the extent for what is necessary. However, making merry with them and being entertained with them smacks the purpose of what we are in this world for; and frankly, if we are truly busy serving Hashem, regardless if we are rabbis, professionals, or factory workers, we truly have no time for fun and games, especially with people outside our families.
The name that we call for idol worshipping - Avodah Zara, means "foreign worship," can be applied as well to other sins that also shares the common denominator of doing something different than what Hashem tells us. The fact that one who professes to be basically an observant Jew but gets sidetrackted with other things in life that do not pertain or help with worshipping or servicing Hashem - the King of kings - is in effect performing Avodah Zara, for it is as though one tells a king who wants him to do something for him, "Yes, I recognize that only you are my king; but at the moment, I like to do some extracurricular activity, and then I will get to what you want me to do."
LABAN - UNBELOVED SISTER, UNCLE AND GRANDFATHER
Now, for the recent Parsha events, lets turn to a Biblical character that we spoke of before - our good villian enemy Laban. Oh sure, he was Rebecca's sister, Jacob's uncle, and the grandfather of the Tribes of Israel, but as the Haggada attests, he wanted to do away with his observant family - at least spiritually if not also physically. With this said, his name Laban, or Lavan in Hebrew, means "white." It is quite ironic that he had a name like this, since in our Selichot prayers, we ask Hashem to make our sins like white, giving us a clean state. But as I just described the word Maseicha to describe a double life, Laban represents this very concept. For while everyone else up to Laban's time, even if they were sinners, recognized what was right and wrong, even as they did the wrong anyways; Laban had a way of making sin look like it was O.K., with no shame involved. He was the master tricker, as implied by his title Ha'Arami. While culturally, it means the Aramean, it also means "the tricker."
While the main display of the evil Laban will read in Parshat Vayeitzei of next week,
we see where Rashi pokes at him in last week's Parshat Chayei Sara. First, when Eliezer, Abraham's servant was waiting outside following Rebecca inviting him to come to her parents' home, her brother Laban wasted no time running to greet him. As Rashi notes, when Laban all of a sudden saw his three year old sister wearing a nose ring which looked quite expensive, he figured that Eliezer must be a rich man, and so he hoped to also get a "share of the pie".
In Laban formally inviting Eliezer to the parents' home, he assured him that he "cleared the home", upon which Rashi explains that he cleaned the home from idol worship (meaning, the idol statues were out of the house for that evening).
O.K., get ready for this one. Later on, following Eliezer talking at dinner about how Abraham set him on finding a Shidduch for his son Isaac and what happened with Rebecca, Laban and his father Bethuel's response to the story was "This matter occurred from Hashem..." It is at this point that Rashi immediately states "Laban was a wicked person for jumping up to speak before his father," which is derived from the fact that the verse mentiones Laban's name before his father's name.
Wait a minute. When it come to Laban's greediness for money, and his association with idol worship, Rashi didn't especially blast Laban, he simply states that Laban was eyeballing the money that Eliezer had with him and that he cleared the home of idolatry, which seems to be in fact respectful of Laban being sensitive of the religious needs of Abraham's servant. Now mind you, non-Jews are forbidden to worship idols and being greedy for money shows how unspiritual a person is to say the least. However, for the sudden spur of the moment that Laban was quite impressed with a story that involved Hashgacha Peratit/Divine Providence, actually mentioning Hashem's name with the belief that indeed, Hashem - rather than the other gods - had something to do with Eliezer's story, to the point that he spoke up before his father, Rashi immediately calls him an evil person. And while being disrespectful to one's parents is not exactly being a very righteous person, there is in fact no commandent among the Seven Laws of Noahides to obey one's parents, believe it or not.
So, why is it particularly about this factor - rather than about idolworshipping or being greedy for money, and just at the point that even the idolworshipping Laban is showing that he not only believes in Hashem, but in His Divine Providence, that Rashi, ironically, calls Laban an evil person?
Yes, idol worship is a sin, regardless of whether one believes in Hashem or not. Yes, being greedy for money quite often leads to other major sins such as murdering or stealing. However, even if honoring one's parents is not part of the Noahide Laws that non-Jews are commanded to observe, the fact that Laban had no hesitation in putting himself in front of his parents shows that he did not even had the half decency of being grateful to the ones to whom he should have naturally shown gratefulness to more than anyone else in the world. Someone like this, who is not even grateful to people who brought him to this world, took care of all his needs until being able to be independent, regardless of how kind or mean he is to the rest of the world, does not even have an excuse. You see, people who worship idols as part of a religion or culture perhaps think that this is the right way of living. Loving money as a natural desire for some, not necessarily because they want to hurt others, but simply because they feel that they will attain everything that they want.
However, mistreating the ones that we should feel respectful to is rooted in something far, far worse. Such a person like Laban who behaves like this does not even respect the ones who brought him to be the person who can now acquire whatever money or goods he wants in life. And so as such, it isn't simply someone who is used to bad habits due to the environment or one's natural urges; it is simply pure evil to disparage those who were responsible for his life to begin with. And so, what are the chances that he will even want to live any type of half decent good mannered life even if provided with the truth of religion or enough materialism that will not make him feel the necessity to run over others to aquire it, when he doesn't give a damn to anyone else who are good or evil?
The fact that Laban mentioned Hashem's name specifically when he dishonored his father doesn't even phase Rashi as perhaps being someone who is learning the truth about Hashem. In fact, idol worshipping kings in the Bible also believed in Hashem despite their own idol worshipping practices.
As far as Rashi is concerned, Laban is simply putting on a mask of religiosity to hide his own true self. After his righteous sister Rebecca, who while no doubtedly worshipped the house idols until she learned about Hashem from her husband-to-be Isaac, but had good character traits including performing deeds of kindness, left the evil family's home the next day, Laban never changed his evil ways, and was the same rotten person some 100 years later (people lived a little longer in those days) when his nephew Jacob showed up at the door, who consequently fooled around with which of his daughters that Jacob would marry, tricked the townspeople to provide a lavish wedding for his daughters' weddings with Jacob without paying them back, and messing with properly paying Jacob for his hard back breaking work of 20 years. In fact, Laban admitted to Jacob that it was only after he arrived at the Laban home many years earlier that Laban started having great financial success; but nevertheless, showed Jacob the same treatment of Hakarat HaTov/"recognition of good" that he showed his father Bethuel by speaking before him.
In a very similar vein, we find in this week's Parshat Toldot about Esau, Jacob's brother, who lived more like his uncle Laban, whom ironically he never met unlike his righteous brother Jacob who lived in Laban's home for 20 years, particularly in pretending to be a righteous person while living the lifestyle of a wicked person. Esau went to great lengths in fooling his father Isaac by asking him all sorts of halachic questions to make him think that he had a son who cared about observing the Mitzvot/commandments while he was screwing particularly married women, causing not only himself to sin, but them as well as a violation of the sin of adultery. And after some 25 years of having fun, then Esau decided that he would get married at the same age of 40 as his father Isaac did, at which Rashi compares him to a pig who figuratively shows itself to look like it's a kosher animal by showing its split hooves, which is one of the signs of a kosher animal, while unlike kosher animal, it doesn't chew its cud; and in fact, the pig is the only animal that has split hooves but doesn't chew its cud. Similarly, Esau while committing the greatest of sins outside of the one Jewish home in the world, pretended at home to still be a "good Jew."
STEVE JOBS - A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR MANKIND?
Now, let's take an example of someone very famous who recently died - Steve Jobs. Unlike you live in a shell, you will know at least something about the Apple genius, even if nothing more than his name. O.K., he was not Jewish, and I didn't come across anything that would show suggesting him to be anti-Semitic. Now, in a review of his life, one may be left with more questions than answers. However, a Torah Jew well understands that there are no surprises here.
It is true that Mr. Jobs was adopted, and at one point in his life, took the time to reunite with his birthmother and his sister, while not wishing to do the same up to the time of his death with his birthfather who was still living at the age of 80 because he felt that his father deserted his mother which led to his adoption. If Steve Jobs's parents would have stayed together, then probably, his last name would have been Jandali and would have been a practicing Moslem like his Syrian father. Since this did not happen, Mr. Jobs wound up become a Zen Buddhist at one point in his life.
While in time, Mr. Jobs settled with a wife and had a family from whom he never got divorced from, in the earlier part of his life, he had a girlfriend whom he impregnated following which the relationship ended. Apparently, he must have had grievances against his ex-girlfriend, because he went to such lengths in court to deny that the child that she bore was not his. It is true that later on, after becoming the billionaire that he became, he payed for the Harvard education of the child whom he formally denied being the father of, for after all, he wasn't planning on having the child of his ex-relationship inherit a part of his billionaire estate after leaving this world. And then there was his encounter with Bill Gates who though with many more billions was easily able to tell others with far less, including Steve Jobs, to donate money to charitable causes, Mr. Jobs apparently didn't feel the same way about charity giving the way that Mr. Gates felt.
Yes, some will call Steve Jobs a hyprocate for first denying being the father of a child whom he brought to this world, almost the same way as his own father who deserted his family following impregnating his mother. It is true that he had some difficulties making it financially until he made it financially. It is true that he felt hurt about not having been raised with his biological family. But regardless of whether Steve Jobs can be called a hyprocate based on what I already mentioned, there is one detail here that I want to focus on. He became a Zen Buddhist.
Look, I'm not going to start finding out what the difference is between a Zen Buddhist or other types of Buddhists. O.K., maybe Mr. Jobs believed that some idol is god instead of the real G-d. But my focus about all this is what the Buddhist religion is about, more than who is the god.
Basically, Buddhists are self-centered people. More than just how they may be towards one another, the religion calls for them to be meditators, chanting mantras, etc. In another words, it isn't about reaching out to others, having a positive influence on the world, or making a difference in peoples' lives. It is about perfecting oneself without concern if someone else can be perfected likewise. This reminds me of a scene in a movie where some Oriental was meditating while a robber came in and blindfolded everyone, included this guy. As one could see, all the meditating that the nice guy was doing didn't do a thing in protecting his family or friends.
And so, it is not so surprising that even as Mr. Jobs as his own choice adopted the Buddhist religion, that it did not affect his relationship with other people. No doubt that as time went on that he learned to take more responsibility, especially since he knew all too well that without this trait, he could not become the billionaire that he became. In time, he retracted his formal stance with his child out of wedlock and sent her to the most prestigious college in the United States. However, his good deeds were not necessarily motivated out of a sense of doing them simply because they are the right thing to do as opposed to doing them because they are necessary to get oneself ahead in life. His new found religion apparently had not been able to teach him the importance of treating others with due respect, or putting oneself in other people's shoes as part of spirituality, because it is devoid in itself of these concepts. While Steve Jobs didn't live in the most luxurious home as reflected by his billions according to reports, neither did he take special care to donate a half decent amount to those quite less unfortunate than he was, forgetting that at one time, he himself had only one decent meal a week for which he walked several miles. Perhaps he didn't have such a hard time dealing with that situation, but for others in his shoes in his early days, they would be hanging between life and death.
PUTTING THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE
There is a true story about two Jewish sisters in Israel one of whom became an observant Jewess and invited her sister to come to a Talmud class (though normally, women don't learn the Talmud). In this class, the particular subject was about returning lost articles. While the class seemed interesting, it didn't stop the non-observant sister from travelling to India and spending her time in the ashram as part of a cult. One time, she saw a member of the cult finding a lost article and giving it to the guru. Upon seeing this, she exclaimed, "how come you don't return the article to the one who lost it?" "It's too bad for the one who lost it" the guy replied, "and it now belongs to the guru." It was at this point that she realized that she was in the wrong religion and wasted no time returning to Israel, and became an observant Jewess like her sister.
While non-observant Jews and non-Jews of other religions may accuse Judaism of not treating other people the same good away as treating Hashem, there is nothing further away from the truth. While we see that Jacob was totally devoted to learning Torah up to the point that he came to his uncle Laban, he showed what the Torah is like by working honestly for his uncle Laban, regardless of how much of a crook his uncle was. In fact, the Torah recounts a whole conversation of Jacob with Laban in which Jacob attests to the honesty of his work habits. We see that Jacob didn't attempt to get even with Laban despite the fact that Jacob was the greatest Torah scholar alive who could have easily justified pocketing a little extra to give his wives and children that Laban selfishly refused to help out with. What Jacob did in his attempt for his livestock to increase had no bearing on hurting Laban's wealth, even as Laban changed the work payment terms 10 times (the Midrash notes that this was 100 times!) on Jacob.
There are many Mitzvot and Halachot/laws dealing with the payment of wages, stealing in all types of situations, etc. A non-Jew who reads the Bible, even if he hates Jews, at least has to have the intellectual honesty about how detailed the Bible is about the importance of our relationship with other people, because without observing these laws, we are only putting a mask on our faces, and at the end of the day after people finding out who we really are, we are no better than non-Jews who don't keep the Torah.
Yes, enough of the gold, enough of the blindfold, and enough of being sold to the devil! Even if the only holy book that we Jews would have is the Bible, without the Oral Law, if we were to truly take the Bible seriously, we would be well on our way to living a good moral life without putting materialism in front of spirituality. In one generation, the color may be white, in another generation, the color may be gold, but Hashem never changes, and the Torah never changes. However, while Hashem as He promised in the Torah, will never ex-change us for another nation, we have to make the changes within ourselves without feeling the need to resort to masking ourselves blind to the reality that Hashem reveals to us in the Torah, or the need to turn to something different that will no doubt oppose the Torah.
There is a reason why the first book of the Torah - Sefer Bereishit/Genesis, which we are in the midst of reading in the public Torah reading of Shabbat, is the first book of the Torah, relating history that took place before the Torah was given, which is 26% or more than a quarter of the Five Books of Moses, where Moses the Lawgiver had not been born yet. It is in this First Book of the Torah that we learn how to live a Torah life from our Patriarchs and Matriarchs. As our Sages tell us - Derech Eretz Kadma LaTorah "Manners come before the Torah", for if we will continously learning Torah without applying the concepts of it, especially in our relationships with others, then we are really no better - and in fact worse - than many non-Jews who also read the Bible but don't even follow the few laws that they are supposed to keep. To note, a surname given for the Book of Genesis is Sefer HaYashar - the Book of the Straight, referring to our Biblical ancestors in Genesis. The word Yosher, with the same basic meaning as Yashar, means being straight or honest.
As they say, the truth will set you free. As honesty includes truth, the ultimate motto that we should follow is HONESTY WILL SET YOU FREE.
28 Cheshvan 5772
While we won't be reading the story of the Golden Calf in the public Torah reading for a nice few months, this is where the basis of this post begins. The Torah describes the first god formed among the Jewish people since they left Egypt and received the Torah as a "molten calf". In Hebrew, this is an Eigel Maseicha. Rashi on the word Maseicha gives two explanations on this. First, he notes that this word is related to the word Mateicha/metal. Makes sense. But here is the punchline. All of a sudden, Rashi points out that this molten calf consisted of 125 Kanterin (a measurement) of gold, which corresponds to the word Maseicha which is the Gematria of 125.
And while this is my 125th post in relationship to what I just wrote, I will soon show the connection between the concept of idols and Parshat Chayei Sara that we read last Shabbat. But meanwhile, the question can be asked: "It's nice that Rashi brings a Gematria here. But unlike other situations where there may seem to be a difference of an opinion or a question on an opinion, and so Rashi brings another explanation, why did he mention a Gematria here after he explained very logically the connection of the word Maseicha in this context? Even if it is true that there happened to be 125 measurements of whatever in gold that they used to formed the idol as related to the Gematria of the description of the idol, what is missing here that we didn't understand about this before Rashi told us this Gematria?"
The truth is that Artscroll (check out www.artscroll.com) quotes the Levush HaOrah asking a similar question. You see, we already know that the idol was made out of gold, so why does the Torah have to mention anything about metal as Rashi points out in his first explanation? But in his second explanation, Rashi is noting the weight of this idol, and this case involves using a Gematria.
After all is said and done, who really cares how much the idol weighed? After all, we already know that it was a golden calf, and in the previous Rashi, he explained the process of how magic was used in making this.
I believe that the answer to this is focused on the mention of 125 "kanterin" of GOLD. The proof to this that the focus is on gold is the very end of the first Pasuk/verse of Sefer Devarim/Deutronomy where the list of places that the Jews journeyed during the course of 40 years in the desert are mentioned. What one finds is that there are a bunch of names of places mentioned that aren't mentioned anywhere else in the Torah. Rashi explains that these names were used to hint to the events that the Jews lived through when not behaving up to par, and so Moses hinted to their behavior by using these names. The last place in this first verse of Deutronomy is called Di Zahav, very similar to Dai Zahav "enough gold", and as Rashi brings a verse to this effect "I provided much silver for her, and gold. They made it for Ba'al (a name of an idol)." In the verse in Deutronomy, Moses rebuked the Jewish nation for the calf that the made due to how much gold that they had.
And my friends, while most us are saying to ourselves, "How stupid could these Jews have been in even thinking about other gods when they just received the Torah amidst the most terrifying Divine experience that they went through a mere 40 days later?", very unfortunately, history has repeated itself up to this generation, and this story of the Golden Calf is more relevant for us to learn than ever. It is quite ironic that there are those Jews who are Sabbath observant who would never dream of lifting a finger to work on Shabbat to make even a little extra money on the side and be present at the Torah reading about the Golden Calf story, who fall into this very trap of Golden Calf worship. Indeed, the United States was at one time referred to as the "Golden Medina". In fact, included in U.S. history is the Gold Rush of 1849. While few made the big gold bucks, Hashem allows things to happen for a reason.
And so, what is this Golden Calf worship of today that I am referring to? You see, one can be raised as an "Orthodox Jew", pray in the synagogue morning and evening, celebrate Shabbat with the family, and even donate money to one's synagogue. However, without focus on what really counts in this world, the practice of this "Orthodox Judaism" is for the most part what is called "lip service" performing the routines as what one is used to from one's youth, but not because one feels truly spiritually uplifted, or have a spiritual desire to really get close to Hashem. As I once heard one professional Modern Orthodox Jew in synagogue tell another "The days of having concentration in my prayers are over".
Well my friends, this last statement literally smacks what Rabbi Nachman of Breslov states about serving Hashem. First, each attempt we make in our service to Hashem is precious, even if we do fail. But most importantly, we are NEVER SUPPOSED TO GIVE UP HOPE. No matter how many times we fail, we are supposed to pick ourselves up and try again, learn from our past mistakes, and consult our spiritual leaders for help in achieving better spiritual results. It's one thing if one has a hard time concentrating on one's prayers. But because one is now a "professional", it is no excuse to prevent onself from even attempting to do the right thing. It's easy to pat onself in the back thinking that because he attends the daily "Minyan", it is O.K. if he doesn't do everything right, since after all, as far as he is concerned, Hashem should be lucky that even a professional takes time to pray in a public quorum.
Indeed, the Jews who sinned with the Golden Calf gave up hope very quickly when they thought that Moses was not returning from Mt. Sinai following a 40 day retreat. They didn't even entertain the possibility that perhaps they were mistaken by one day as per when Moses told them that he would return to them. And so, since they felt spiritually deprived, it led to them to being materialistic, even to the point of tearing off the earlobes of their own wives in their quick pursuit of grabing the earrings to produce the Golden idol, as mentioned in the Midrash.
And so today, many young Jews, though educated with some form of Torah background with a Yeshiva day school education, get quite caught up with the idols of today - such as baseball cards featuring many non-Jews with the exact baseball scores, and while praising them for their accomplishments, these young "Orthodox" Jews forget that they are violating a commandment in the Torah that forbids us to praise non-Jews - Lo Techaneim "Do not show them grace" (some may argue that the verse is referring specifically to non-Jewish idol worshippers, but in fact, the prohibition refers to all non-Jews). Of course, there is the television, movies, and while I would think that most have parental supervision when it comes to the internet, there is no guarantee that kids at whatever age will not have access to the internet as such that it will G-d forbid lead to seeing lewd pictures and all. Aside from the fact that television and movies include many scenes that include seeing immodest dressed women and sex scenes even outside of what is called porn, the Torah makes no differentiation when it comes to the violation of "thou shalt not stray after thine eyes". And of course, when sitting glued to the television set watching the weekly sports game, wasting several hours a week, even if there are no immediate violations of the Torah as mentioned above, the big time violation of the Torah is wasting precious time of Torah learning, for which EACH WORD OF TORAH LEARNED IS WORTH MORE THAN ALL THE OTHER COMMANDMENTS OF THE TORAH COMBINED! And as the Chofetz Chaim once experimented, a person can speak up to 200 words a minute. And so, imagine the tremendous eternal reward that some Modern Orthodox Jews lose out FOREVER as a result of the tens of thousands of hours they waste on watching games that are being played by a bunch of non-Jews and assimilated Jews who are making millions off of tube watchers. At least the ones playing the games are making a living at it, but what is the rational excuse of the ones who are simply watching them?
Yes, there are those Jews who even attend a daily Daf Yomi Shiur, listening to a daily class of a double sided page of Talmud every day in synagogue. But before or after this, how many of them when they are home when not immediately taking care of the children or speaking to the wife will at times even do so much as open a Sefer, a Torah book, to at least be an example for their children to want to do the same? Never mind the fact that some do not give any encouragement for their children to even entertain the possibility of becoming rabbis; but while we are supposed to see to it that our children have some sort of profession or work to sustain themselves and their future families, many Modern Orthodox parents are insistent on their children being particularly doctors, lawyers, or some other major profession along these lines, as though their children will be otherwise "useless". And then of course, aside from the fact that many of their children will not get married at least until their later 20s as a result, and some have problems later finding someone to marry because they put their careers way ahead of starting a family life, even some of the newly professional men will only marry a woman with similar professional backgrounds.
And while it is important that in some respects, there has to be similarities in a couple, focusing on marrying a professional woman when the men themselves can make a fine living is forgetting the role of women whose primary purpose is raising our children. Now, I am not saying that Orthodox Jewish women are forbidden to study a profession, and I do believe that women in general should not be stuck without having some means of making a living should they unfortunately become widowed in life so they can continue supporting their children; what is certain is that when materialism is made into a major importance, it usually comes on the expense of spiritualism, forgetting what our main purpose in life is, even though technically, they should know from the many years of Yeshiva education of 12 or more years that they had before they began college.
Of course, the professional Modern Orthodox parents of three children have the "heimishe" home, two cars, and for many who live in South Florida - a swimming pool. But did they ever even do so much as to think how life could be if only the husband/father had a professional career, and they didn't have such fancy, expensive cars, and who needs to worry about kids drowning in a swimming pool when they can anyways afford to hire someone to give their kids swimming lessons or send them to summer camp where they will have access to swimming grounds?
Yes my friends, all too many who are not living in the Holy Land that Hashem commands us to live, living in the Golden Medinah are worshipping golden idols, except in a different form. Today, this includes some who wear a beany on the head, and will never knowingly eat something that they know is not kosher. Oh yes, some of them can even afford to be in what is called a Kosher for Passover hotel for the whole holiday (P.S. I happen to know that many problems have occurred in these "Kosher for Passover" hotels, and so those who are truly G-d fearing will think twice before spending the Hametz/non-leaven free holiday in such a place), but how much spiritually can be felt at a Seder in a room of hundreds of other materialistic people when the ultimate place of feeling what a truly spiritually meaningful Seder can be felt only at home (or in a synagogue under the direction of a rabbi), as was originally celebrated in Egypt the night before the Exodus. As for the wives/mothers who don't have to worry and knock themselves out cleaning their homes for Passover by spending the holiday in a hotel, with a fraction of the money that they spend on the hotel, they could use to hire a young, Orthodox Jewish lady or a few ladies to clean every last speck of dirt, and the family can even enjoy Passover during the course of the eight day holiday by going to some fun outing, as even very religious Jews in Israel do with their families during this holiday.
I will be honest here. I was far from raised with a golden spoon in my mouth, in sharp contrast to most of my classmates. Most of them, being Modern Orthodox most of whom raised in homes whose parent or parents were professionals, had quite fancy Bar Mitzvas. They read the whole Parsha and Haftara, followed with a big Kiddush in the synagogue, and then there was the Sunday affair at some hotel hall with virtually all of the lavish trimmings that are present with weddings. My Bar Mitzva, on the other hand, was quite simple. It is true that since I was born on a Rosh Chodesh, I was able to celebrate my Bar Mitzva on Rosh Chodesh, even as it fell out during the workweek, so it wasn't just an ordinary Monday or Thursday thing reading the Torah, so it was a little more special because of the uniqueness of the day. However, all I had was an Aliyah to the Torah, and a breakfast in the synagogue which was located across the street from the Yeshiva day school, with mostly my classmates and old people of the synagogue in attendance. And that was it my friends, back to school for me as though nothing happened the hour before. I never even read from the Torah for my Bar Mitzva, though ironically several years later, I would become a professional Ba'al Koreh (reader of the Torah). Didn't have the lavish Shabbat Kiddush. Didn't have the fancy shmancy Bar Mitzva ballroom celebration. And so I will admit, I do feel prejudiced against the fancy lifestyle of some in the Modern Orthodox world who feel that they have to spend lavish sums for their son's Bar Mitzvah. After all, how many of them spent enough time in Israel to come to realize that many Jewish families, of all types of observant or non-observant backgrounds, barely even have enough food to eat, while many organizations in Israel attempting to help these poor familes basically receive their donations from those living in Israel without American funds? Why, there are even those mothers in Israel who dilute the formula for their babies who cry as a result of the lack of nutrition, due to not even having enough money to sufficiently feed the little mouths of their babies, let alone themselves! And so, I feel that I am perfectly justified in protesting this Golden Calf worshipping that many in what is called the observant Jewish world are trapped into.
Speaking of Modern Orthodox (by the way, the word Orthodox has been greatly misued in terms of observant Judaism, this word being taken from Christians simply to define the difference between halachic Judaism and Conservative/Reform), let's speak of Modern Hebrew. You see, this word Maseicha used in describing the gold/metal idol is used today for the word MASK. Yes, when we live a double lifestyle, professing to the claim as living as "Modern Orthodox" Jews with Sabbath, Kashrut & laws of family purity observance, but doing everything else that promotes materialism on the major expense of learning Torah, we are in essence putting a mask on our faces, something that is literally done only on Purim. You see, while we have the beautiful holiday of Purim today, what indirectly led to this was the Jews benefitting from the feast of King Achashveirosh about which Mordechai warned them not to partake of, even if it would be "Glatt Kosher". And if in case anyone wonders what was such a big sin, it is forbidden according to Halacha to eat at a non-Jewish wedding, even if one is served a Glatt Kosher meat meal at the event by an exclusive waiter. Hashem does not wish us to be socially involved with non-Jews to the point that we will forget our purpose as Jews. True, in the workplace, many if not most of us deal with non-Jews. But, the difference is that we are only permitted to be involved with non-Jews to the extent for what is necessary. However, making merry with them and being entertained with them smacks the purpose of what we are in this world for; and frankly, if we are truly busy serving Hashem, regardless if we are rabbis, professionals, or factory workers, we truly have no time for fun and games, especially with people outside our families.
The name that we call for idol worshipping - Avodah Zara, means "foreign worship," can be applied as well to other sins that also shares the common denominator of doing something different than what Hashem tells us. The fact that one who professes to be basically an observant Jew but gets sidetrackted with other things in life that do not pertain or help with worshipping or servicing Hashem - the King of kings - is in effect performing Avodah Zara, for it is as though one tells a king who wants him to do something for him, "Yes, I recognize that only you are my king; but at the moment, I like to do some extracurricular activity, and then I will get to what you want me to do."
LABAN - UNBELOVED SISTER, UNCLE AND GRANDFATHER
Now, for the recent Parsha events, lets turn to a Biblical character that we spoke of before - our good villian enemy Laban. Oh sure, he was Rebecca's sister, Jacob's uncle, and the grandfather of the Tribes of Israel, but as the Haggada attests, he wanted to do away with his observant family - at least spiritually if not also physically. With this said, his name Laban, or Lavan in Hebrew, means "white." It is quite ironic that he had a name like this, since in our Selichot prayers, we ask Hashem to make our sins like white, giving us a clean state. But as I just described the word Maseicha to describe a double life, Laban represents this very concept. For while everyone else up to Laban's time, even if they were sinners, recognized what was right and wrong, even as they did the wrong anyways; Laban had a way of making sin look like it was O.K., with no shame involved. He was the master tricker, as implied by his title Ha'Arami. While culturally, it means the Aramean, it also means "the tricker."
While the main display of the evil Laban will read in Parshat Vayeitzei of next week,
we see where Rashi pokes at him in last week's Parshat Chayei Sara. First, when Eliezer, Abraham's servant was waiting outside following Rebecca inviting him to come to her parents' home, her brother Laban wasted no time running to greet him. As Rashi notes, when Laban all of a sudden saw his three year old sister wearing a nose ring which looked quite expensive, he figured that Eliezer must be a rich man, and so he hoped to also get a "share of the pie".
In Laban formally inviting Eliezer to the parents' home, he assured him that he "cleared the home", upon which Rashi explains that he cleaned the home from idol worship (meaning, the idol statues were out of the house for that evening).
O.K., get ready for this one. Later on, following Eliezer talking at dinner about how Abraham set him on finding a Shidduch for his son Isaac and what happened with Rebecca, Laban and his father Bethuel's response to the story was "This matter occurred from Hashem..." It is at this point that Rashi immediately states "Laban was a wicked person for jumping up to speak before his father," which is derived from the fact that the verse mentiones Laban's name before his father's name.
Wait a minute. When it come to Laban's greediness for money, and his association with idol worship, Rashi didn't especially blast Laban, he simply states that Laban was eyeballing the money that Eliezer had with him and that he cleared the home of idolatry, which seems to be in fact respectful of Laban being sensitive of the religious needs of Abraham's servant. Now mind you, non-Jews are forbidden to worship idols and being greedy for money shows how unspiritual a person is to say the least. However, for the sudden spur of the moment that Laban was quite impressed with a story that involved Hashgacha Peratit/Divine Providence, actually mentioning Hashem's name with the belief that indeed, Hashem - rather than the other gods - had something to do with Eliezer's story, to the point that he spoke up before his father, Rashi immediately calls him an evil person. And while being disrespectful to one's parents is not exactly being a very righteous person, there is in fact no commandent among the Seven Laws of Noahides to obey one's parents, believe it or not.
So, why is it particularly about this factor - rather than about idolworshipping or being greedy for money, and just at the point that even the idolworshipping Laban is showing that he not only believes in Hashem, but in His Divine Providence, that Rashi, ironically, calls Laban an evil person?
Yes, idol worship is a sin, regardless of whether one believes in Hashem or not. Yes, being greedy for money quite often leads to other major sins such as murdering or stealing. However, even if honoring one's parents is not part of the Noahide Laws that non-Jews are commanded to observe, the fact that Laban had no hesitation in putting himself in front of his parents shows that he did not even had the half decency of being grateful to the ones to whom he should have naturally shown gratefulness to more than anyone else in the world. Someone like this, who is not even grateful to people who brought him to this world, took care of all his needs until being able to be independent, regardless of how kind or mean he is to the rest of the world, does not even have an excuse. You see, people who worship idols as part of a religion or culture perhaps think that this is the right way of living. Loving money as a natural desire for some, not necessarily because they want to hurt others, but simply because they feel that they will attain everything that they want.
However, mistreating the ones that we should feel respectful to is rooted in something far, far worse. Such a person like Laban who behaves like this does not even respect the ones who brought him to be the person who can now acquire whatever money or goods he wants in life. And so as such, it isn't simply someone who is used to bad habits due to the environment or one's natural urges; it is simply pure evil to disparage those who were responsible for his life to begin with. And so, what are the chances that he will even want to live any type of half decent good mannered life even if provided with the truth of religion or enough materialism that will not make him feel the necessity to run over others to aquire it, when he doesn't give a damn to anyone else who are good or evil?
The fact that Laban mentioned Hashem's name specifically when he dishonored his father doesn't even phase Rashi as perhaps being someone who is learning the truth about Hashem. In fact, idol worshipping kings in the Bible also believed in Hashem despite their own idol worshipping practices.
As far as Rashi is concerned, Laban is simply putting on a mask of religiosity to hide his own true self. After his righteous sister Rebecca, who while no doubtedly worshipped the house idols until she learned about Hashem from her husband-to-be Isaac, but had good character traits including performing deeds of kindness, left the evil family's home the next day, Laban never changed his evil ways, and was the same rotten person some 100 years later (people lived a little longer in those days) when his nephew Jacob showed up at the door, who consequently fooled around with which of his daughters that Jacob would marry, tricked the townspeople to provide a lavish wedding for his daughters' weddings with Jacob without paying them back, and messing with properly paying Jacob for his hard back breaking work of 20 years. In fact, Laban admitted to Jacob that it was only after he arrived at the Laban home many years earlier that Laban started having great financial success; but nevertheless, showed Jacob the same treatment of Hakarat HaTov/"recognition of good" that he showed his father Bethuel by speaking before him.
In a very similar vein, we find in this week's Parshat Toldot about Esau, Jacob's brother, who lived more like his uncle Laban, whom ironically he never met unlike his righteous brother Jacob who lived in Laban's home for 20 years, particularly in pretending to be a righteous person while living the lifestyle of a wicked person. Esau went to great lengths in fooling his father Isaac by asking him all sorts of halachic questions to make him think that he had a son who cared about observing the Mitzvot/commandments while he was screwing particularly married women, causing not only himself to sin, but them as well as a violation of the sin of adultery. And after some 25 years of having fun, then Esau decided that he would get married at the same age of 40 as his father Isaac did, at which Rashi compares him to a pig who figuratively shows itself to look like it's a kosher animal by showing its split hooves, which is one of the signs of a kosher animal, while unlike kosher animal, it doesn't chew its cud; and in fact, the pig is the only animal that has split hooves but doesn't chew its cud. Similarly, Esau while committing the greatest of sins outside of the one Jewish home in the world, pretended at home to still be a "good Jew."
STEVE JOBS - A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR MANKIND?
Now, let's take an example of someone very famous who recently died - Steve Jobs. Unlike you live in a shell, you will know at least something about the Apple genius, even if nothing more than his name. O.K., he was not Jewish, and I didn't come across anything that would show suggesting him to be anti-Semitic. Now, in a review of his life, one may be left with more questions than answers. However, a Torah Jew well understands that there are no surprises here.
It is true that Mr. Jobs was adopted, and at one point in his life, took the time to reunite with his birthmother and his sister, while not wishing to do the same up to the time of his death with his birthfather who was still living at the age of 80 because he felt that his father deserted his mother which led to his adoption. If Steve Jobs's parents would have stayed together, then probably, his last name would have been Jandali and would have been a practicing Moslem like his Syrian father. Since this did not happen, Mr. Jobs wound up become a Zen Buddhist at one point in his life.
While in time, Mr. Jobs settled with a wife and had a family from whom he never got divorced from, in the earlier part of his life, he had a girlfriend whom he impregnated following which the relationship ended. Apparently, he must have had grievances against his ex-girlfriend, because he went to such lengths in court to deny that the child that she bore was not his. It is true that later on, after becoming the billionaire that he became, he payed for the Harvard education of the child whom he formally denied being the father of, for after all, he wasn't planning on having the child of his ex-relationship inherit a part of his billionaire estate after leaving this world. And then there was his encounter with Bill Gates who though with many more billions was easily able to tell others with far less, including Steve Jobs, to donate money to charitable causes, Mr. Jobs apparently didn't feel the same way about charity giving the way that Mr. Gates felt.
Yes, some will call Steve Jobs a hyprocate for first denying being the father of a child whom he brought to this world, almost the same way as his own father who deserted his family following impregnating his mother. It is true that he had some difficulties making it financially until he made it financially. It is true that he felt hurt about not having been raised with his biological family. But regardless of whether Steve Jobs can be called a hyprocate based on what I already mentioned, there is one detail here that I want to focus on. He became a Zen Buddhist.
Look, I'm not going to start finding out what the difference is between a Zen Buddhist or other types of Buddhists. O.K., maybe Mr. Jobs believed that some idol is god instead of the real G-d. But my focus about all this is what the Buddhist religion is about, more than who is the god.
Basically, Buddhists are self-centered people. More than just how they may be towards one another, the religion calls for them to be meditators, chanting mantras, etc. In another words, it isn't about reaching out to others, having a positive influence on the world, or making a difference in peoples' lives. It is about perfecting oneself without concern if someone else can be perfected likewise. This reminds me of a scene in a movie where some Oriental was meditating while a robber came in and blindfolded everyone, included this guy. As one could see, all the meditating that the nice guy was doing didn't do a thing in protecting his family or friends.
And so, it is not so surprising that even as Mr. Jobs as his own choice adopted the Buddhist religion, that it did not affect his relationship with other people. No doubt that as time went on that he learned to take more responsibility, especially since he knew all too well that without this trait, he could not become the billionaire that he became. In time, he retracted his formal stance with his child out of wedlock and sent her to the most prestigious college in the United States. However, his good deeds were not necessarily motivated out of a sense of doing them simply because they are the right thing to do as opposed to doing them because they are necessary to get oneself ahead in life. His new found religion apparently had not been able to teach him the importance of treating others with due respect, or putting oneself in other people's shoes as part of spirituality, because it is devoid in itself of these concepts. While Steve Jobs didn't live in the most luxurious home as reflected by his billions according to reports, neither did he take special care to donate a half decent amount to those quite less unfortunate than he was, forgetting that at one time, he himself had only one decent meal a week for which he walked several miles. Perhaps he didn't have such a hard time dealing with that situation, but for others in his shoes in his early days, they would be hanging between life and death.
PUTTING THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE
There is a true story about two Jewish sisters in Israel one of whom became an observant Jewess and invited her sister to come to a Talmud class (though normally, women don't learn the Talmud). In this class, the particular subject was about returning lost articles. While the class seemed interesting, it didn't stop the non-observant sister from travelling to India and spending her time in the ashram as part of a cult. One time, she saw a member of the cult finding a lost article and giving it to the guru. Upon seeing this, she exclaimed, "how come you don't return the article to the one who lost it?" "It's too bad for the one who lost it" the guy replied, "and it now belongs to the guru." It was at this point that she realized that she was in the wrong religion and wasted no time returning to Israel, and became an observant Jewess like her sister.
While non-observant Jews and non-Jews of other religions may accuse Judaism of not treating other people the same good away as treating Hashem, there is nothing further away from the truth. While we see that Jacob was totally devoted to learning Torah up to the point that he came to his uncle Laban, he showed what the Torah is like by working honestly for his uncle Laban, regardless of how much of a crook his uncle was. In fact, the Torah recounts a whole conversation of Jacob with Laban in which Jacob attests to the honesty of his work habits. We see that Jacob didn't attempt to get even with Laban despite the fact that Jacob was the greatest Torah scholar alive who could have easily justified pocketing a little extra to give his wives and children that Laban selfishly refused to help out with. What Jacob did in his attempt for his livestock to increase had no bearing on hurting Laban's wealth, even as Laban changed the work payment terms 10 times (the Midrash notes that this was 100 times!) on Jacob.
There are many Mitzvot and Halachot/laws dealing with the payment of wages, stealing in all types of situations, etc. A non-Jew who reads the Bible, even if he hates Jews, at least has to have the intellectual honesty about how detailed the Bible is about the importance of our relationship with other people, because without observing these laws, we are only putting a mask on our faces, and at the end of the day after people finding out who we really are, we are no better than non-Jews who don't keep the Torah.
Yes, enough of the gold, enough of the blindfold, and enough of being sold to the devil! Even if the only holy book that we Jews would have is the Bible, without the Oral Law, if we were to truly take the Bible seriously, we would be well on our way to living a good moral life without putting materialism in front of spirituality. In one generation, the color may be white, in another generation, the color may be gold, but Hashem never changes, and the Torah never changes. However, while Hashem as He promised in the Torah, will never ex-change us for another nation, we have to make the changes within ourselves without feeling the need to resort to masking ourselves blind to the reality that Hashem reveals to us in the Torah, or the need to turn to something different that will no doubt oppose the Torah.
There is a reason why the first book of the Torah - Sefer Bereishit/Genesis, which we are in the midst of reading in the public Torah reading of Shabbat, is the first book of the Torah, relating history that took place before the Torah was given, which is 26% or more than a quarter of the Five Books of Moses, where Moses the Lawgiver had not been born yet. It is in this First Book of the Torah that we learn how to live a Torah life from our Patriarchs and Matriarchs. As our Sages tell us - Derech Eretz Kadma LaTorah "Manners come before the Torah", for if we will continously learning Torah without applying the concepts of it, especially in our relationships with others, then we are really no better - and in fact worse - than many non-Jews who also read the Bible but don't even follow the few laws that they are supposed to keep. To note, a surname given for the Book of Genesis is Sefer HaYashar - the Book of the Straight, referring to our Biblical ancestors in Genesis. The word Yosher, with the same basic meaning as Yashar, means being straight or honest.
As they say, the truth will set you free. As honesty includes truth, the ultimate motto that we should follow is HONESTY WILL SET YOU FREE.
28 Cheshvan 5772
Saturday, November 12, 2011
#124 - The Eternal Song of Hashem
As it turns out, I am writing this post on the 17th Yahrzeit of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach of blessed memory. While there may be those who will bring up controversial issues pertaining to him, it cannot be denied that he has had a tremendous positive influence in the Jewish world, relating to Jews of all parts of the spectrum. It wasn't just his songs that so many loved; it was his words and the personality that reflected the preciousness of every Jew - regardless of his or her spiritual level. Many can attest to the fact that they are either closer to the Torah or observant of Judaism today thanks to him. And almost unprecedented, he distributed charity to the poor like water; in fact, so much so, that one time, even after he gave some charity to a lowlife beggar who responded to him by spitting in his face, Rabbi Carlebach immediately gave him more charity. So, unless any of us would do the same exact thing as he did - instead of more like giving the beggar a nice tongue lashing to say the least - we probably are not in a position to criticize Rabbi Carlebach anymore than we are in a position of needing to criticize ourselves.
On a personal note, I happened to have met Rabbi Carlebach nearly 22 years ago. My first time was on the first night of Chanuka that fell out on Shabbat. The following evening after Shabbat, he gave a concert at which I was at attendance. Little did I know then that exactly 20 years later, I would have my Ufruf (the Aliyah to the Torah on the Shabbat before getting married) on the first day of Chanuka that again coincided with Shabbat, and that I would get married the next day on the second day of Chanuka.
Though Rabbi Carlebach is not the only Jewish singer who has had the name Shlomo, it is not surprising that he is the ultimate legend of Jewish music today. You see, the very first verse of Shir HaShirim/Song of Songs that was composed by Shlomo HaMelech/King Solomon is Shir HaShirim Asher L'Shlomo "The Song of Songs that is composed by Shlomo." While the inner meaning of this verse points out the name Shlomo to be refering to Hashem as Melech SheHaShalom Shelo "King to whom peace belongs"; no doubt that Shlomo HaMelech also began this holy Sefer/Book with this verse as refering to himself. In fact, noting that there is a custom to recite at the end of every Shemoneh Esrei prayer - a verse from the Tanach/Bible that begins with the same letter and ends with the same letter as one's name. As it turns out, this first verse of Shir HaShirim begins with the letter Shin and ends with the letter Hei, just as the name Shlomo.
While it may be possible that since King Solomon wrote this book with Ruach HaKodesh/Divine Inspiration, that he was hinting to Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, one thing is for sure is that the Shlomo of today most certainly lived up to his name, using songs to bring Jews closer to Judaism. For after all, not all Jews who have been brought closer to Judaism became this way because "the Torah says so." Perhaps to intellectuals, professors or scientists, it was the teachings of Judaism per se that convinced them that Judaism is meant to be practiced, and not merely to be studied just as another course in college. However, to many others, it is what we call the external matters in life that help bring Jews to want to know more or practice more of Judaism. To some, it was the weekly Kiddush at the synagogue that gave them good feelings, while meeting others of similar background, forming good friendships. To others, it may happen as a result of needing to say Kaddish following the passing of a close relative, and then little by little, they get more involved in the synagogue activities, until they do much more that will be a meaningful way of memorializing their departed relative. But one thing is for sure - it is song, a spiritual force, that cannot be denied being a factor for many Jews to come closer to Judaism.
And this takes us to the duties of the Levi'im/Levites in the Holy Temple, which included daily morning singing during the offering of the Korban Tamid, the daily burnt offering sacrifice. In our prayers, we recite the daily song that is called the Shir Shel Yom "Song of the Day" for the respective day of the week, comprised of one or another of the Psalms - 24,48,82,94,81,93,92 for Sunday through Shabbat respectively. While we recite these same psalms throughout the year regardless if they fall out on Jewish holidays; in the Temple during holidays, the Levites recited a different psalm as per the particular holiday.
On a personal note, adding the above number of the psalms of the seven days of the week, they add up to the total amount of 514; and presently, I am in the midst of my 514th month of life, also noting that I am a Levite! You may not believe it, but writing the topic of this post today had nothing to do with this numerical fact, I literally did the calculation not even five minutes ago. This comes to show you that at times, it is clear that there is Hashgacha Peratit/Divine Providence in what I write in my Gematriot blogspot.
Today, on the first day of the week, we recite Psalm 24. Looking at the seven psalms of the Shir Shel Yom, this is the only one that is attributed to King David, the author of the Tehillim, himself. Moreover, while it is not spelled this way in this Psalm, we see that in Divrei Hayomim/Chronicles, his name is spelled with a Yud in the midst of his name, making his name to be the total Gematria of 24. Coincidence?
These Shir Shel Yom psalms aren't just any psalms that are recited for the days of the week; but rather, they each touch on some theme corresponding to the day of the week in which the creation for that day of the week as written in the beginning of the Torah is mentioned. Accordingly, the first verse of the psalm for Sunday mentions that the whole world belongs to Hashem, as when Hashem first created the world on this day, He was the sole Being in existance.
As it turns out, I have a special connection to this very Psalm - as least for the last three and a half years since I added my present second Hebrew name Matisyahu. In my search for a verse in Tanach which would begin and end with the letters corresponding to my new name, I was looking at a total of 98 verses, some having good meaning to them. The winner was the verse in Psalms 24:3 - Mi Ya'aleh V'Har Hashem U'Mi Yakum B'Mekom Kadsho "Who will ascend the Mountain of Hashem (Mt. Moriah which is the Temple Mount) and who will arise in the place of His holiness." As it turned it, it was on a Sunday morning that I had my name Matisyahu added, the day on which we recite the Shir Shel Yom of Psalm 24.
As you can see, this verse poses a challenge, which is something that I liked about it, quite similar to the message that Matisyahu of the Chanuka story, after whom I named myself, posed - Mi LaHashem Eilai - "Whoever is for Hashem, come to me", which began the official war on the Syrian Greeks attempting to prevent the Jews from practicising Judaism, leading to the holiday of Chanuka following the Jews being able to re-enter the Temple which was located on the Temple Mount, and lighting the Menorah with pure olive oil that was not spiritually contaminated by the Syrian Greeks, as this was preserved with the seal of the Cohen Gadol/High Priest.
It's interesting to note at this point that the Yahrzeit of Matisyahu was just yesterday on Shabbat - 15 Cheshvan. In fact, it is significant to note that Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's Yahrzeit follows on the next day of 16 Cheshvan. You see, another one of Rabbi Carelbach's accomplishments was the founding of the city of Modi'in in Israel, around the same city grounds as Matisyahu and his family were living which was the city of Modi'in! In any case, many of Rabbi Carelbach's song are songs to words that are sung especially on Shabbat. In fact, the first letters of the words of the first verse of the Shir Shel Yom of Shabbat - Psalm 92 - Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat "A psalm, a song for the day of Shabbat", when rearranged, spells the name Shlomo! So, both the first verse of Shir HaShirim, and the first verse of Psalm 92 each contain four words, both hinting to the name Shlomo in one way or another. Coincidence?
In the writings of the Sages, Rabbi Akiva notes that while all of the books of Ketuvim/Scriptures are holy, Shir HaShirim is the Kodesh Kodoshom/Holy of Holies. And as we know, the Cohen Gadol was permitted to enter the Kodesh Kodoshim room of the Temple, the holiest room in the world, only on Yom Kippur. And we see that the Torah calls Yom Kippur - Shabbat Shabbaton "Sabbath of Sabbaths", even though this holiday does not necessarily fall out on Shabbat every year. So in effect, Shabbat being a time that we are not involved in the mundane affairs of the week is a time that we can devote ourselves to the "Holy of Holies", which is increased Torah learning, praying, and singing Shabbat songs at the table. Additionally, many Jews, including all Sephardic Jews, recite Shir HaShirim at the onset of every Shabbat.
But before we get back about Psalm 24 for Sunday, it is also significant to note that among the many Shabbat songs of Rabbi Carlebach, was the second and third verses of Psalm 92 starting with Tov L'Hodot LaHashem "It is good to give thanks to Hashem..."
And as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, today is the 17th Yahrzeit of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, and the word Tov/good is the Gematria of 17.
Now back to Psalm 24, there is a connection between this Psalm and King Solomon, and not just because it was his father King David who composed it. You see, at the dedication of the Temple that King Solomon built, our Rabbis tell us that King Solomon was addressing the gates of the Holy Temple "Lift up your heads, O gates, the openings of the world shall be lifted, and the King of glory will enter (verse 7)." Now, bearing in mind that ALL of creation have life forces, and most certainly the spiritual ones, the Holy Temple gates were ready to attack King Solomon, because from the words that he used, the gates got the impression that he was refering to himself as king in this verse, asking in demand, as the next verse states "Who is this king of glory?", to which King Solomon replied "Hashem Who is strong, Hashem who is strong in war," making it clear to the Holy Gates that this King was none other than Hashem.
The following two verses in conclusion of this psalm is almost a repeat of these two verses just quoted, in which King Solomon reiterates himself to make it crystal clear that he is refering to Hashem for Whom he is asking the gates to make room for (even though Hashem is everywhere without needing anyone to make "room for Him", it is the sense of spiritual readiness to accept Hashem as King), and instead of refering to Hashem at the end as someone who is a mighty warrior, King Solomon refers to the King of glory as "Hashem of Hosts, the King of glory, Selah."
To note, this psalm has the unique privilege of being recited in our prayers on two other types of occasions. Except for the Torah reading on Shabbat morning, this psalm is recited on every occasion that the Sefer Torah/Torah scroll is returned to the Holy Ark. Also, this psalm is recited on the nights of the High Holidays. To note, this psalm consists of 10 verses. As the Ramak - Rabbi Moshe Cordovero - notes in his Kabbalistic writings, the Aseret Y'Mei Teshuva "Ten Days of Repentance" from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur correspond to the 10 Sephirot/Divine Emanations. The last of these 10 Sephirot is Malchut/Kingship, and it is the 10th and final verse of Psalm 24 that mentions the word Melech/King not once, but twice. In any case, this psalm is recited on any given week at least four times - as the Song of the Day for Sunday, and on Monday morning, Thursday morning, and Shabbat afternoon when the Torah is returned to the Holy Ark following the Torah reading; hence, this psalm is recited over 200 times a year.
It is interesting to note that the word Holy is being repeated in this post in different phrases - Holy of Holies, Holy Temple, Holy Ark, being one of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's quite often used words, especially in describing Jews and the Sabbath.
The truth is that all time is holy and sacred, as Hashem gives us the time in this world to serve Him, and we are supposed to use even the mundane activities in serving Hashem, working in order to be able to support our families as is our obligation, to make a good impression of Judaism at the work place, and the work in itself to be done in honesty and be of good offering in helping others. As we know, there are 24 hours in a day, and inevitably, some of this time is spent on eating, sleeping, and using the restroom. While some things may seem to be wasted time, this is how Hashem wants us to serve Him in this temporary, physical world; for if it was all about just learning Torah and praying to Him, we could do these same things in the other world where the angels are serving Hashem only in strictly spiritual ways.
In fact, even our time that we need to relieve ourselves in the restroom is serving Hashem, believe it or not, for first of all, this is supposed to humble ourselves and not grow haughty being that we are similar to animals in some respects, and also, we are commanded by the Torah not to disgust ourselves with keeping bodily wastes in our system, and then after we finish in the restroom and wash our hands (by the way, washing our hands with soap, especially after defacating and all is part of cleaniness in keeping with what the Torah says that we are supposed to watch our health), we recite a blessing thanking Hashem for allowing our system to get rid of our wastes, noting the complex body that Hashem created for our system to work correctly or we would die in no time, constantly reminding ourselves of the great kindness that Hashem does for us. In fact, if I am not mistaken, this is the one Beracha/blessing in our prayers that the Shulchan Aruch/Code of Jewish Law explains in great detail; for after all, aside from the important message of this blessing, this is a blessing that most of us that have our bodily functions working right, recite a number of times every day.
And so, I believe that it is hardly coincidence that the number of the psalm for the Shir Shel Yom for the first day of the week is Number 24, for since we have now concluded the holy day of Shabbat, we are now supposed to be cognizant of the fact that "to Hashem is the world and its fullness", as this Psalm begins, and that everything that we do, even the mundane matters of the week that we are forbidden to perform on Shabbat, has its place in serving Hashem - 24 hours a day.
Noting the number of this post - 124, when we dissect this number in two parts, we have one (1) and twenty-four (24). Indeed, for the FIRST day of the week, we recite Psalm TWENTY FOUR as the Shir Shel Yom. And in the Tanach, there is a strong connection between the FIRST of the books of the Tanach - Sefer Bereishit/Genesis and the TWENTY FOURTH and LAST book of the Tanach - Divrei Hayomim/Chronicles - for both of them mention Adam, who is called Adam HaRishon (literally means Adam the FIRST) at the beginning of their respective books; and in fact, the word/name Adam is the very FIRST word of the TWENTY FOURTH and LAST book of the Tanach.
And as the Midrash tells us, after Adam sinned with the eating of the forbidden fruit, he was condemned to die, since after all, Hashem said straight out "on the day that you will eat of the (forbidden) fruit, you will die." However, the day of Shabbat appeared to Hashem, arguing that it wouldn't be nice to kill Adam just as Shabbat was supposed to begin. As a result, Hashem reinterpreted, so to speak, what He said "on the day..." to mean that since one day is considered in Hashem's eyes like a 1,000 years, He would allow Adam to live 1,000 years, as hinted to the big Alef of the first word Adam of the Book of Chronicles (as it turned out, Adam gave King David 70 years of his life since he saw that King David with was he was supposed to accomplish was meant to live for only three hours). Subsequently, realizing that the Sabbath pleaded on behalf of Adam, and saved his life for 1,000 years, Adam started offering praise to Hashem, with the beginning of Psalm 92.
And as for this psalm, the Shir Shel Yom for Shabbat, the conclusion of Tractate Tamid of the Mishna states on this "A psalm, a song for the day that will be entirely Shabbat and rest for the Eternal Life." Indeed, just like in the early reign of King Solomon, whose name Shlomo make up the initial letters of the first verse of this psalm, it was the utopian state of the Jewish people both spiritually with the building of the First Temple and physically with the prosperity of the times, signified by the name Shlomo that has a connotation of the word Shleima/completeness and Shalom/peaceful; so too, the future state of the Eternal Life will be just the same in terms of completeness and peacefullness with Eternal Bliss. Indeed, the Shir Shel Yom of Shabbat, in view of what it represents, is the Eternal Song - ending with the verse L'Hagid Ki Yashar Hashem Tzuri V'Lo Avlata Bo "To tell that Hashem is straightforward, my Rock Who has no flaw within Him." To note the word Yashar/straightforward has the same letters as the word Shir/Song, as if to read this verse as if to say "To tell that the Song of Hashem Who is my Rock with no flaws" - as Hashem is the ultimate completeness, represented by the words of THE ETERNAL SONG OF HASHEM.
16 Cheshvan 5772
On a personal note, I happened to have met Rabbi Carlebach nearly 22 years ago. My first time was on the first night of Chanuka that fell out on Shabbat. The following evening after Shabbat, he gave a concert at which I was at attendance. Little did I know then that exactly 20 years later, I would have my Ufruf (the Aliyah to the Torah on the Shabbat before getting married) on the first day of Chanuka that again coincided with Shabbat, and that I would get married the next day on the second day of Chanuka.
Though Rabbi Carlebach is not the only Jewish singer who has had the name Shlomo, it is not surprising that he is the ultimate legend of Jewish music today. You see, the very first verse of Shir HaShirim/Song of Songs that was composed by Shlomo HaMelech/King Solomon is Shir HaShirim Asher L'Shlomo "The Song of Songs that is composed by Shlomo." While the inner meaning of this verse points out the name Shlomo to be refering to Hashem as Melech SheHaShalom Shelo "King to whom peace belongs"; no doubt that Shlomo HaMelech also began this holy Sefer/Book with this verse as refering to himself. In fact, noting that there is a custom to recite at the end of every Shemoneh Esrei prayer - a verse from the Tanach/Bible that begins with the same letter and ends with the same letter as one's name. As it turns out, this first verse of Shir HaShirim begins with the letter Shin and ends with the letter Hei, just as the name Shlomo.
While it may be possible that since King Solomon wrote this book with Ruach HaKodesh/Divine Inspiration, that he was hinting to Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, one thing is for sure is that the Shlomo of today most certainly lived up to his name, using songs to bring Jews closer to Judaism. For after all, not all Jews who have been brought closer to Judaism became this way because "the Torah says so." Perhaps to intellectuals, professors or scientists, it was the teachings of Judaism per se that convinced them that Judaism is meant to be practiced, and not merely to be studied just as another course in college. However, to many others, it is what we call the external matters in life that help bring Jews to want to know more or practice more of Judaism. To some, it was the weekly Kiddush at the synagogue that gave them good feelings, while meeting others of similar background, forming good friendships. To others, it may happen as a result of needing to say Kaddish following the passing of a close relative, and then little by little, they get more involved in the synagogue activities, until they do much more that will be a meaningful way of memorializing their departed relative. But one thing is for sure - it is song, a spiritual force, that cannot be denied being a factor for many Jews to come closer to Judaism.
And this takes us to the duties of the Levi'im/Levites in the Holy Temple, which included daily morning singing during the offering of the Korban Tamid, the daily burnt offering sacrifice. In our prayers, we recite the daily song that is called the Shir Shel Yom "Song of the Day" for the respective day of the week, comprised of one or another of the Psalms - 24,48,82,94,81,93,92 for Sunday through Shabbat respectively. While we recite these same psalms throughout the year regardless if they fall out on Jewish holidays; in the Temple during holidays, the Levites recited a different psalm as per the particular holiday.
On a personal note, adding the above number of the psalms of the seven days of the week, they add up to the total amount of 514; and presently, I am in the midst of my 514th month of life, also noting that I am a Levite! You may not believe it, but writing the topic of this post today had nothing to do with this numerical fact, I literally did the calculation not even five minutes ago. This comes to show you that at times, it is clear that there is Hashgacha Peratit/Divine Providence in what I write in my Gematriot blogspot.
Today, on the first day of the week, we recite Psalm 24. Looking at the seven psalms of the Shir Shel Yom, this is the only one that is attributed to King David, the author of the Tehillim, himself. Moreover, while it is not spelled this way in this Psalm, we see that in Divrei Hayomim/Chronicles, his name is spelled with a Yud in the midst of his name, making his name to be the total Gematria of 24. Coincidence?
These Shir Shel Yom psalms aren't just any psalms that are recited for the days of the week; but rather, they each touch on some theme corresponding to the day of the week in which the creation for that day of the week as written in the beginning of the Torah is mentioned. Accordingly, the first verse of the psalm for Sunday mentions that the whole world belongs to Hashem, as when Hashem first created the world on this day, He was the sole Being in existance.
As it turns out, I have a special connection to this very Psalm - as least for the last three and a half years since I added my present second Hebrew name Matisyahu. In my search for a verse in Tanach which would begin and end with the letters corresponding to my new name, I was looking at a total of 98 verses, some having good meaning to them. The winner was the verse in Psalms 24:3 - Mi Ya'aleh V'Har Hashem U'Mi Yakum B'Mekom Kadsho "Who will ascend the Mountain of Hashem (Mt. Moriah which is the Temple Mount) and who will arise in the place of His holiness." As it turned it, it was on a Sunday morning that I had my name Matisyahu added, the day on which we recite the Shir Shel Yom of Psalm 24.
As you can see, this verse poses a challenge, which is something that I liked about it, quite similar to the message that Matisyahu of the Chanuka story, after whom I named myself, posed - Mi LaHashem Eilai - "Whoever is for Hashem, come to me", which began the official war on the Syrian Greeks attempting to prevent the Jews from practicising Judaism, leading to the holiday of Chanuka following the Jews being able to re-enter the Temple which was located on the Temple Mount, and lighting the Menorah with pure olive oil that was not spiritually contaminated by the Syrian Greeks, as this was preserved with the seal of the Cohen Gadol/High Priest.
It's interesting to note at this point that the Yahrzeit of Matisyahu was just yesterday on Shabbat - 15 Cheshvan. In fact, it is significant to note that Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's Yahrzeit follows on the next day of 16 Cheshvan. You see, another one of Rabbi Carelbach's accomplishments was the founding of the city of Modi'in in Israel, around the same city grounds as Matisyahu and his family were living which was the city of Modi'in! In any case, many of Rabbi Carelbach's song are songs to words that are sung especially on Shabbat. In fact, the first letters of the words of the first verse of the Shir Shel Yom of Shabbat - Psalm 92 - Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat "A psalm, a song for the day of Shabbat", when rearranged, spells the name Shlomo! So, both the first verse of Shir HaShirim, and the first verse of Psalm 92 each contain four words, both hinting to the name Shlomo in one way or another. Coincidence?
In the writings of the Sages, Rabbi Akiva notes that while all of the books of Ketuvim/Scriptures are holy, Shir HaShirim is the Kodesh Kodoshom/Holy of Holies. And as we know, the Cohen Gadol was permitted to enter the Kodesh Kodoshim room of the Temple, the holiest room in the world, only on Yom Kippur. And we see that the Torah calls Yom Kippur - Shabbat Shabbaton "Sabbath of Sabbaths", even though this holiday does not necessarily fall out on Shabbat every year. So in effect, Shabbat being a time that we are not involved in the mundane affairs of the week is a time that we can devote ourselves to the "Holy of Holies", which is increased Torah learning, praying, and singing Shabbat songs at the table. Additionally, many Jews, including all Sephardic Jews, recite Shir HaShirim at the onset of every Shabbat.
But before we get back about Psalm 24 for Sunday, it is also significant to note that among the many Shabbat songs of Rabbi Carlebach, was the second and third verses of Psalm 92 starting with Tov L'Hodot LaHashem "It is good to give thanks to Hashem..."
And as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, today is the 17th Yahrzeit of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, and the word Tov/good is the Gematria of 17.
Now back to Psalm 24, there is a connection between this Psalm and King Solomon, and not just because it was his father King David who composed it. You see, at the dedication of the Temple that King Solomon built, our Rabbis tell us that King Solomon was addressing the gates of the Holy Temple "Lift up your heads, O gates, the openings of the world shall be lifted, and the King of glory will enter (verse 7)." Now, bearing in mind that ALL of creation have life forces, and most certainly the spiritual ones, the Holy Temple gates were ready to attack King Solomon, because from the words that he used, the gates got the impression that he was refering to himself as king in this verse, asking in demand, as the next verse states "Who is this king of glory?", to which King Solomon replied "Hashem Who is strong, Hashem who is strong in war," making it clear to the Holy Gates that this King was none other than Hashem.
The following two verses in conclusion of this psalm is almost a repeat of these two verses just quoted, in which King Solomon reiterates himself to make it crystal clear that he is refering to Hashem for Whom he is asking the gates to make room for (even though Hashem is everywhere without needing anyone to make "room for Him", it is the sense of spiritual readiness to accept Hashem as King), and instead of refering to Hashem at the end as someone who is a mighty warrior, King Solomon refers to the King of glory as "Hashem of Hosts, the King of glory, Selah."
To note, this psalm has the unique privilege of being recited in our prayers on two other types of occasions. Except for the Torah reading on Shabbat morning, this psalm is recited on every occasion that the Sefer Torah/Torah scroll is returned to the Holy Ark. Also, this psalm is recited on the nights of the High Holidays. To note, this psalm consists of 10 verses. As the Ramak - Rabbi Moshe Cordovero - notes in his Kabbalistic writings, the Aseret Y'Mei Teshuva "Ten Days of Repentance" from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur correspond to the 10 Sephirot/Divine Emanations. The last of these 10 Sephirot is Malchut/Kingship, and it is the 10th and final verse of Psalm 24 that mentions the word Melech/King not once, but twice. In any case, this psalm is recited on any given week at least four times - as the Song of the Day for Sunday, and on Monday morning, Thursday morning, and Shabbat afternoon when the Torah is returned to the Holy Ark following the Torah reading; hence, this psalm is recited over 200 times a year.
It is interesting to note that the word Holy is being repeated in this post in different phrases - Holy of Holies, Holy Temple, Holy Ark, being one of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's quite often used words, especially in describing Jews and the Sabbath.
The truth is that all time is holy and sacred, as Hashem gives us the time in this world to serve Him, and we are supposed to use even the mundane activities in serving Hashem, working in order to be able to support our families as is our obligation, to make a good impression of Judaism at the work place, and the work in itself to be done in honesty and be of good offering in helping others. As we know, there are 24 hours in a day, and inevitably, some of this time is spent on eating, sleeping, and using the restroom. While some things may seem to be wasted time, this is how Hashem wants us to serve Him in this temporary, physical world; for if it was all about just learning Torah and praying to Him, we could do these same things in the other world where the angels are serving Hashem only in strictly spiritual ways.
In fact, even our time that we need to relieve ourselves in the restroom is serving Hashem, believe it or not, for first of all, this is supposed to humble ourselves and not grow haughty being that we are similar to animals in some respects, and also, we are commanded by the Torah not to disgust ourselves with keeping bodily wastes in our system, and then after we finish in the restroom and wash our hands (by the way, washing our hands with soap, especially after defacating and all is part of cleaniness in keeping with what the Torah says that we are supposed to watch our health), we recite a blessing thanking Hashem for allowing our system to get rid of our wastes, noting the complex body that Hashem created for our system to work correctly or we would die in no time, constantly reminding ourselves of the great kindness that Hashem does for us. In fact, if I am not mistaken, this is the one Beracha/blessing in our prayers that the Shulchan Aruch/Code of Jewish Law explains in great detail; for after all, aside from the important message of this blessing, this is a blessing that most of us that have our bodily functions working right, recite a number of times every day.
And so, I believe that it is hardly coincidence that the number of the psalm for the Shir Shel Yom for the first day of the week is Number 24, for since we have now concluded the holy day of Shabbat, we are now supposed to be cognizant of the fact that "to Hashem is the world and its fullness", as this Psalm begins, and that everything that we do, even the mundane matters of the week that we are forbidden to perform on Shabbat, has its place in serving Hashem - 24 hours a day.
Noting the number of this post - 124, when we dissect this number in two parts, we have one (1) and twenty-four (24). Indeed, for the FIRST day of the week, we recite Psalm TWENTY FOUR as the Shir Shel Yom. And in the Tanach, there is a strong connection between the FIRST of the books of the Tanach - Sefer Bereishit/Genesis and the TWENTY FOURTH and LAST book of the Tanach - Divrei Hayomim/Chronicles - for both of them mention Adam, who is called Adam HaRishon (literally means Adam the FIRST) at the beginning of their respective books; and in fact, the word/name Adam is the very FIRST word of the TWENTY FOURTH and LAST book of the Tanach.
And as the Midrash tells us, after Adam sinned with the eating of the forbidden fruit, he was condemned to die, since after all, Hashem said straight out "on the day that you will eat of the (forbidden) fruit, you will die." However, the day of Shabbat appeared to Hashem, arguing that it wouldn't be nice to kill Adam just as Shabbat was supposed to begin. As a result, Hashem reinterpreted, so to speak, what He said "on the day..." to mean that since one day is considered in Hashem's eyes like a 1,000 years, He would allow Adam to live 1,000 years, as hinted to the big Alef of the first word Adam of the Book of Chronicles (as it turned out, Adam gave King David 70 years of his life since he saw that King David with was he was supposed to accomplish was meant to live for only three hours). Subsequently, realizing that the Sabbath pleaded on behalf of Adam, and saved his life for 1,000 years, Adam started offering praise to Hashem, with the beginning of Psalm 92.
And as for this psalm, the Shir Shel Yom for Shabbat, the conclusion of Tractate Tamid of the Mishna states on this "A psalm, a song for the day that will be entirely Shabbat and rest for the Eternal Life." Indeed, just like in the early reign of King Solomon, whose name Shlomo make up the initial letters of the first verse of this psalm, it was the utopian state of the Jewish people both spiritually with the building of the First Temple and physically with the prosperity of the times, signified by the name Shlomo that has a connotation of the word Shleima/completeness and Shalom/peaceful; so too, the future state of the Eternal Life will be just the same in terms of completeness and peacefullness with Eternal Bliss. Indeed, the Shir Shel Yom of Shabbat, in view of what it represents, is the Eternal Song - ending with the verse L'Hagid Ki Yashar Hashem Tzuri V'Lo Avlata Bo "To tell that Hashem is straightforward, my Rock Who has no flaw within Him." To note the word Yashar/straightforward has the same letters as the word Shir/Song, as if to read this verse as if to say "To tell that the Song of Hashem Who is my Rock with no flaws" - as Hashem is the ultimate completeness, represented by the words of THE ETERNAL SONG OF HASHEM.
16 Cheshvan 5772
Sunday, November 6, 2011
#123 - Momentum Climbing Up
In the existance of this blogspot, there is something special about today as it relates to Gematriot and numbers. You see, today - 9 Cheshvan - is the 1,111th day from the founding of www.gematriot.blogspot.com. Not with the counting of every day do you see quite often a four digit number that consists of only one of the 10 numbers zero thru nine, for this can occur only nine times; and the number 1,111 is the first of these nine times.
While I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the significance of the number 11, and as you can see, the number 1,111 can be read as two of the number 11, I will be focusing today on the totals that make up the number 1,111; namely 1,000 and 111 - and of course the connection between these two numbers.
In Hebrew, this is not to hard to figure out. To begin with, the Gematria of the first letter of the Alef Beit - Alef is ONE, the Gematria of the name of this first letter is ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN (111), and when this name has its vowels changed to read this as Elef, its meaning means ONE THOUSAND (1,000).
Now, turning to the beginning of Sefer Vayikra/Leviticus, it starts with Vayikra El Moshe "He (Hashem) called to Moses..." This first word Vayikra in the Sefer Torah/Torah Scroll is spelled with a small Alef. The basic reason given for this is that Moses in his great humbleness did not feel so worthy to be the one to whom Hashem called to at any time in sharp contrast to the other prophets, for it was only to Moses that it was a direct communication without any need of prior preparation. As far as he was concerned, the word could have been written as Vayikar "He (Hashem) chanced upon", the same word used for when Hashem appeared to the wicked Bilaam who wished to curse the Jews. So while Moses had to write every letter of the Torah exactly as Hashem dictated it to him (just one more proof that every word of the Torah is from Hashem - NOT man made), he still wrote the letter Alef at the end of this word, but as a smaller Alef than usual. And since as we know from the Sages, when we run from honor, honor runs after us, it turns out that not only Parshat Vayikra is named after this word, but one of the Five Books of Moses is also named after this word - testifying to Moses' great humility!
And in case anyone thinks that the phrase that I used "Five Books of Moses" comes from a non-Jewish source, our Rabbis tell us that after the Torah was given and Satan wanted to know where the Torah went, he asked Moses at last as to where the Torah was. Not wishing to admit that it was himself who gave over the Torah to the Jewish people, he denied knowing of its whereabouts. After Hashem asked him why he lied like this, Moses replied "How can I be worthy of such a valuable item?" Upon this, Hashem replied "For this, you will be rewarded that the Torah will be named after you". As it says Zichru Torat Moshe Avdi "Remember the Torah of Moses My servant..."
(Malachi 3:22). Hence, it is not only one book of the Torah that is named after a word demonstrating Moses' great humility, but the entire Chumash/Penteteuch, or for that matter, the entire Torah, is named after Moses; for in fact, he gave over both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.
This is all very nice, and indeed, I want to use Gematriot to teach important Torah lessons, especially a most important characteristic trait as humility, but in terms of Gematriot and numbers, it is true that there was a commentator who wrote a Sefer (Torah book) called Megaleh Amukot (literally means reveals deep secrets), the contents of which was 1,000 explanations on the small Alef of this word Vayikra; unfortunately however, it got lost. In another sense, there is a BIG Alef in the Tanach/Bible - the very first letter of Divrei Hayomim/Chronicles, the 24th and final Sefer of the Tanach, just as Vayikra with its small Alef is the 24th Parsha of the Torah. I had mentioned in the past of the significance of a letter being larger than unusual as representing it to be a 1,000 times its worth; hence, it's as though the Alef in Chronicles beginning the word Adam is the Gematria of 1,000 - and indeed, Adam was slated to live 1,000 years following the sin of the forbidden fruit (but gave 70 years of his life for King David who was originally destined to live for only three hours).
Now, as per Parshat Vayikra, there are 111 verses in this Parsha, and the name of the letter Alef is the Gematria of 111. While one may say, "That's nice with the numbers, but what does have to do with Parshat Vayikra?" As we know, this Parsha is all about the various Korbanot/offerings, consisting of either animals, birds, or flour for all types of situations from atonining for sins to thanking Hashem for giving one a new lease on life. Now, the word Korban, which I translate as offering usually, while some others will translate this as sacrifice, actually comes from the word Karov/close, for through the offering that we bring to Hashem, we become closer to Him. For in fact, Hashem does not need our offerings, but these offerings are supposed to make us feel more closer and humble to Hashem. This is especially true when we bring an offering to atone for our sins, and seeing the animal being slaughtered and all should remind us that in fact, we are the ones who deserve this for every time we do a sin, but Hashem in His great mercy allows us a chance to repent and return to Him, and it is the offering that is supposed to make us feel humble and contrite. For that matter, when we bring an offering to Hashem to thank Him for allowing to continue to live despite some danger that we lived through, this is also supposed to bring us to feel humble and contrite that in fact, it is only thanks to Hashem's wishing us to continue serving Him and not necessarily because we did everything right is why we are still in existance. Hence, the humility of Moses being hinted to at the beginning of this Parsha is most apropo to the theme of this Parsha.
While I will being mentioning shortly here about Aaron, Moses' brother, this part wouldn't be complete without adding that Sefer Vayikra is given a surname Torat Cohanim "Torah of the Cohanim", for most of the laws in this Book are related to Cohanim, the priestly descendants of the male line back to Aaron the first Cohen Gadol/High Priest. And while Moses may have been the one chosen by Hashem to be the Lawgiver, and called the most humble of men, Aaron his brother was not far behind him; in fact, he excelled in the trait of peacemaking between Jews, as I have mentioned about him in the past in this blogspot. In fact, Hillel in Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers (1:12) states "Be of the disciples of Aaron, love peace, pursue peace, love human beings, and bring them close to the Torah." The last part of this phrase in Hebrew is Mekarvan L'Torah. As we see, the word Mekarvan "bringing people to the Torah" is related to the word Korban, and it was only the Cohanim who were allowed to perform the Korban, the ritual offering of the animal (aside from the Shechita/slaughtering that was able to be done by a non-Cohen); hence it made only sense for Hashem to award Aaron to be the head of all the Cohanim his descendants. More on this in a moment. But first...
COUNTING TO THREE...1...2...3!
Sounds familiar? To just about anyone who had a parent or teacher who gave him or her a chance to stop fooling around or to do what he or she was told to do. Believe it or not, not all children get it right even after the three number is pronounced. But one thing that is certain is that a humble child will not attempt to assert his or her authority by rebelling, and usually, it will not even lead to a warning like this type.
It is true that I mentioned earlier the number 24, and so when you add the numbers within the number of this post 123 - that is, one (1) and twenty three (23), the total is 24. But, I plan to write more about the number 24 in my next post. Meanwhile, I want to focus on something in the Torah that has something to do with this number 123. You see, Aharon HaCohen (Aaron the Priest), Moses' brother, passed away at the age of 123. In fact, not only is his age mentioned, but even the date of his passing of 1 Av, the sole Yahrzeit that is mentioned in the entire Tanach!
But while in a past post, I discussed while Aaron, unlike anyone else, has the unique privilege of having his Yahrzeit mentioned in the Tanach, today I pose a different question. How come when the Torah records the event of Aaron's passing at the time that it occurred, it doesn't mention any of these details of when or what age in Parshat Chukat, but only at a later Parsha when it mentions the list of places that the Jews traveled to during its sojournings in the desert for 40 years in Parshat Mas'ei, unlike with everyone else practically in the Tanach when it mentions their age of passing when they pass away or at the beginning description of them such as with the kings of Judah and Israel? In fact, we see with Moses' age when he passed away that his age of 120 years is mentioned both when he passed away and even before he passed away "I am today 120 years old...", but with Aaron, his age isn't even mentioned at his passing, but only at a later time?
Perhpas the following story will shed light on answering these questions. Once, there was someone who asked one of the great Roshei Yeshiva (heads of a Yeshiva consisting of college age and older men learning Torah) of yesteryear in Europe if he knew the Yahrzeits of the various rabbis in the Talmud. To this, the Rosh Yeshiva replied, "Yahrzeits? These rabbis are very much alive. I learn their teachings everyday. In fact, what would our Torat Chaim (Torah of Life) be today without these rabbis? I can't live without these rabbis!"
Perhaps this Rosh Yeshiva said this a little differently. But the point here is that if we are in touch with what we are in this world for, there is no question to us as to what is considered real living. True, we are living presently in a very physical and materialistic world. But, as Jews learning Torah, we should know only too well as to what is considered really real and really fake. Oh sure, money for example is very tangible to us when it makes the difference between paying the bills or not at times. Some of us won't even care to be rich if we know that we will be provided sufficiently to go through life, even without a trip around the world. But, then there are other issues that sometimes we get carried away with, and we wind up taking sides with others, which can sometimes lead to some bittle quarrels.
This is where Aaron comes in. He was the one who mastermindedly was able to bring former enemies of each other to become present friends to each other. He knew early on that fighting doesn't get you far in the long term, and after our existance, we are back to Hashem - the only question is how close we will get to Hashem, depending on our deeds of course. Now while there is a special reason while only Aaron's Yahrzeit is mentioned, the fact that not only this is not mentioned at the time of his passing in Parshat Chukat, but even his age isn't mentioned as that time, teaches us that in fact, he should still be considered very alive in our lives.
True, the ages of our Patriarchs, and particularly the ages of the Tribes of Levi & Joseph are mentioned (Levi's age is not mentioned by his passing either, but his individual passing is not mentioned, only as part of the brothers' passing unlike Joseph's whose individual passing is mentioned along with his age) around the time of their passing, but this was before the Torah was given. However, now that the Torah was given, it is now that the Torah wants to teach us, and moreover remind us, that while there may be a physical death for the righteous; however, we have to look beyond that. True, we will not have a chance to see them in this world while we are still living this physical world until the time of Techiyat HaMeitim (Resurrection of the Dead), but their teachings and way of life are the eternal life that we should be pursuing, for they already accomplished their part of serving Hashem. Now, it is up to the rest of us to learn from this, and continue on. For indeed, the Sages tell us that the wicked are called dead even while alive while the righteous are called alive even while dead.
Now with Moses, it is a little different story. It is obvious with Moses, since he is the one who directly taught us the Torah as He heard it from Hashem, that it doesn't really matter if his age of his passing is mentioned. In fact, the Torah even went so far to hint to Moses in the first Parsha of the Torah mentioning 120 years (see my 120th Post - Oct '11). But from here, we learn a different point. You see, even with someone as righteous as Moses, he didn't live forever in this physical world. So certainly, the wicked, especially in the times of the pre Flood of Noah when people lived much longer, they felt that they could do what they want whenever they wanted. Towards changing the evil ways of the world, Hashem gave the world 120 years chance to do it right. The only difference is that then, people didn't have many examples to follow to do it right. Today, especially with the Torah, we have plenty of examples.
Now, getting back to Aaron, the details of his passing are mentioned specifically in the section in the Torah within the list of places that the Jews traveled through in the desert. While the Jews could have been in Israel long earlier had they now played around and then become crybabies when they believed the propraganda and rhetoric of the blues of the Israel news brought to them by the evil Spies. However, there is a kabbalistic significance to the 42 journeys of the Jews in the desert on their way to Israel. What they needed to realize is that journeying in the desert wasn't just because it was convenient to live in a certain place while there, but one step closer to being spiritually ready to enter Israel, getting ready to making "Aliyah". In fact, this very word is also used on a Yahrzeit wishing the Neshama/soul to have an "Aliyah", which ultimately means a spiritual elevation, just as Aaron who sought to elevate Jews by bringing out the best in them making peace with one another, rather than making friends with some of them putting down their enemies, behaving politically as unfortunately some even in the Torah world today get caught up with. In short, one has a choice of either bringing out the best in people, or in bringing out the worst in people.
Speaking of Aaron who was the first Cohen Gadol/High Priest and Aliyah, we just read yesterday in Parshat Lech Lecha about Malki Tzedek, about whom we are told was Shem the son of Noah, who was a Cohen L'E-l Elyon "Priest to the High G-d". The ironic thing here is that Abraham just came back from killing some of the evil descendants of Shem/Malki Tzedek (he lived for 600 years); and yet, Shem came out to greet him and his group to feed them with bread and wine. Shem, as a righteous person in his own right, knew that his descendant Abraham did the right thing of killing some of Shem's other descendants, for in fact, we are all here in this temporary world to serve Hashem, who is the High G-d, the Big Boss, and sooner or later, we are all going to die anyways. When one thinks along these terms, there are NO POLITICS, and certainly not only will there be no fighting (and if there is fighting, it's either fighting who is truly evil or fighting those who are not - there is no inbetween), but there will be only peace. And what do we see, Shem was the "King of Salem". Shalem/Salem means complete(ness), and is related to the world Shalom/peace, for one can only have completeness with peace.
And here is a perfect example of this as pertaining to this name Shalem itself. You see, this was the original name of Jerusalem. The Midrash tells us that Shem called it Shalem, and Abraham called Hashem Yireh (Hashem will appear). In order to make peace between these two, Hashem combined these two names to create the name Yerushalayim, which in time led this city to be nicknamed "The City of Peace".
As we see, after the encounter between the two, Abraham gave to Shem his Ma'aser, tithing of what he had. The word Ma'aser is named as such because it is read as May'Eser "from ten", that is, the Mitzva of Ma'aser as we learn in the Torah is to give one tenth of the produce or crops to the Cohen. Interestingly, we see that this is the very first time that this word Ma'aser is mentioned. We know that Shem lived for 600 years, and the world is slated to exist for 6,000 years. Hence, his own life was a literal fulfillment of this concept of Ma'aser, for he had lived his whole life righteously, living one tenth of the world's existance serving Hashem.
Eventually, this Kehuna/Priesthood that Shem had was handed down to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, and in time it was the firstborn of the Jews who had this status until the sin of the Golden Calf after which time it was permanently handed over to Aaron and his descendants through parental line. But what did not change is that the one who is most worthy of the Kehuna or being the Cohen Gadol is expected to be one who has the quality of peace. We see that Shem is called Cohen L'E-l Elyon. The word Elyon/High describes the fact that we need to aspire to go up higher spiritually, to get spiritually closer and higher towards Hashem. By the way, the word Cohen itself is based on the word that means serving. So, it is not that we just serve Hashem everyday as robots or the angels who don't get higher spiritually. We are the only beings that have the opportunity to work on ourselves to go HIGHER, to go UP. We have to first of all of course have momentum, and then work on getting up even spiritually higher - learning more Torah, becoming more happy with serving Hashem, bringing other Jews closer to the Torah, etc.
It's like driving a car. When you first start it, you usually don't immediately drive off unless someone is coming after you. Chances are is that you will need a minimum of a few seconds until you know that your car is running fine. Older cars or cars with problems could take longer until they sound like they are running because if you do attempt to start driving immmediately, chances are is that the car will stop running its motor and then you will need to start it again. Now, once it is running, then you can eventually accelerate the motor to drive faster, but then again, you can't immediately expect to drive 55 miles the second after you are driving only 30 miles. You have to accelerate, and gradually, you will get to drive faster.
Of course there are times when serving Hashem when we may fall down, and feel like what we did earlier doesn't mean anything because now we have to start all over again. For this, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov teaches us that every attempt to serve Hashem, even if we fall down afterwards, is precious to Him. Moreover, the steps that we took earlier aren't just isolated steps, but are part of the process of continuously serving Hashem, just as a toddler learning to walk will fall down at one point, so that even though at first the toddler didn't walk steadily at one time but fell down here and there, but all of the early steps were part of the process of eventually being able to walk all on his or her own one day.
So, we have to have in mind two basic processes here. First is the momentum - always having Hashem the One in mind, as illustrated with the number 1,111, one of today's special numbers; and then we have to bring this MOMENTUM CLIMBING UP as illustrated in today's other special number 123, as the individual numbers in this three digit number ascend in amount value. Now, before I conclude, this number 123 reminds me of a verse in NUMBERS - in Chapter 12, Verse 3, get it? You can call this a coincidence, but let me first write the verse "The man Moses was very humble, more than any person on the face of the earth".
Perhaps we will never be as humble as Moses or have the privilege of being the High Priest as Aaron. However, in our own way, in our own set of circumstances, we can learn from the lives of these two most righteous people in the Bible, as well as from the Patriarchs and others how to live a life the way that Hashem wants us to live, not because we are simply following "orders", but because every step that we take in the service of Hashem is going to benefit everyone spiritually in the best way possible, and without feeling haughty as we ascend higher. If one thinks along these terms, then indeed, politics will not even be an issue, as politics is a way of promoting oneself or one's group above the others which sometimes steps on the Torah very unfortunately. Indeed, the righteous are called alive even when are physically dead, because it is especially after their passing, even more than when they were alive, that their teachings and righteous ways of life are more appreciated than ever, as evidenced in the passing of time.
9 Cheshvan 5772
While I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the significance of the number 11, and as you can see, the number 1,111 can be read as two of the number 11, I will be focusing today on the totals that make up the number 1,111; namely 1,000 and 111 - and of course the connection between these two numbers.
In Hebrew, this is not to hard to figure out. To begin with, the Gematria of the first letter of the Alef Beit - Alef is ONE, the Gematria of the name of this first letter is ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN (111), and when this name has its vowels changed to read this as Elef, its meaning means ONE THOUSAND (1,000).
Now, turning to the beginning of Sefer Vayikra/Leviticus, it starts with Vayikra El Moshe "He (Hashem) called to Moses..." This first word Vayikra in the Sefer Torah/Torah Scroll is spelled with a small Alef. The basic reason given for this is that Moses in his great humbleness did not feel so worthy to be the one to whom Hashem called to at any time in sharp contrast to the other prophets, for it was only to Moses that it was a direct communication without any need of prior preparation. As far as he was concerned, the word could have been written as Vayikar "He (Hashem) chanced upon", the same word used for when Hashem appeared to the wicked Bilaam who wished to curse the Jews. So while Moses had to write every letter of the Torah exactly as Hashem dictated it to him (just one more proof that every word of the Torah is from Hashem - NOT man made), he still wrote the letter Alef at the end of this word, but as a smaller Alef than usual. And since as we know from the Sages, when we run from honor, honor runs after us, it turns out that not only Parshat Vayikra is named after this word, but one of the Five Books of Moses is also named after this word - testifying to Moses' great humility!
And in case anyone thinks that the phrase that I used "Five Books of Moses" comes from a non-Jewish source, our Rabbis tell us that after the Torah was given and Satan wanted to know where the Torah went, he asked Moses at last as to where the Torah was. Not wishing to admit that it was himself who gave over the Torah to the Jewish people, he denied knowing of its whereabouts. After Hashem asked him why he lied like this, Moses replied "How can I be worthy of such a valuable item?" Upon this, Hashem replied "For this, you will be rewarded that the Torah will be named after you". As it says Zichru Torat Moshe Avdi "Remember the Torah of Moses My servant..."
(Malachi 3:22). Hence, it is not only one book of the Torah that is named after a word demonstrating Moses' great humility, but the entire Chumash/Penteteuch, or for that matter, the entire Torah, is named after Moses; for in fact, he gave over both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.
This is all very nice, and indeed, I want to use Gematriot to teach important Torah lessons, especially a most important characteristic trait as humility, but in terms of Gematriot and numbers, it is true that there was a commentator who wrote a Sefer (Torah book) called Megaleh Amukot (literally means reveals deep secrets), the contents of which was 1,000 explanations on the small Alef of this word Vayikra; unfortunately however, it got lost. In another sense, there is a BIG Alef in the Tanach/Bible - the very first letter of Divrei Hayomim/Chronicles, the 24th and final Sefer of the Tanach, just as Vayikra with its small Alef is the 24th Parsha of the Torah. I had mentioned in the past of the significance of a letter being larger than unusual as representing it to be a 1,000 times its worth; hence, it's as though the Alef in Chronicles beginning the word Adam is the Gematria of 1,000 - and indeed, Adam was slated to live 1,000 years following the sin of the forbidden fruit (but gave 70 years of his life for King David who was originally destined to live for only three hours).
Now, as per Parshat Vayikra, there are 111 verses in this Parsha, and the name of the letter Alef is the Gematria of 111. While one may say, "That's nice with the numbers, but what does have to do with Parshat Vayikra?" As we know, this Parsha is all about the various Korbanot/offerings, consisting of either animals, birds, or flour for all types of situations from atonining for sins to thanking Hashem for giving one a new lease on life. Now, the word Korban, which I translate as offering usually, while some others will translate this as sacrifice, actually comes from the word Karov/close, for through the offering that we bring to Hashem, we become closer to Him. For in fact, Hashem does not need our offerings, but these offerings are supposed to make us feel more closer and humble to Hashem. This is especially true when we bring an offering to atone for our sins, and seeing the animal being slaughtered and all should remind us that in fact, we are the ones who deserve this for every time we do a sin, but Hashem in His great mercy allows us a chance to repent and return to Him, and it is the offering that is supposed to make us feel humble and contrite. For that matter, when we bring an offering to Hashem to thank Him for allowing to continue to live despite some danger that we lived through, this is also supposed to bring us to feel humble and contrite that in fact, it is only thanks to Hashem's wishing us to continue serving Him and not necessarily because we did everything right is why we are still in existance. Hence, the humility of Moses being hinted to at the beginning of this Parsha is most apropo to the theme of this Parsha.
While I will being mentioning shortly here about Aaron, Moses' brother, this part wouldn't be complete without adding that Sefer Vayikra is given a surname Torat Cohanim "Torah of the Cohanim", for most of the laws in this Book are related to Cohanim, the priestly descendants of the male line back to Aaron the first Cohen Gadol/High Priest. And while Moses may have been the one chosen by Hashem to be the Lawgiver, and called the most humble of men, Aaron his brother was not far behind him; in fact, he excelled in the trait of peacemaking between Jews, as I have mentioned about him in the past in this blogspot. In fact, Hillel in Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers (1:12) states "Be of the disciples of Aaron, love peace, pursue peace, love human beings, and bring them close to the Torah." The last part of this phrase in Hebrew is Mekarvan L'Torah. As we see, the word Mekarvan "bringing people to the Torah" is related to the word Korban, and it was only the Cohanim who were allowed to perform the Korban, the ritual offering of the animal (aside from the Shechita/slaughtering that was able to be done by a non-Cohen); hence it made only sense for Hashem to award Aaron to be the head of all the Cohanim his descendants. More on this in a moment. But first...
COUNTING TO THREE...1...2...3!
Sounds familiar? To just about anyone who had a parent or teacher who gave him or her a chance to stop fooling around or to do what he or she was told to do. Believe it or not, not all children get it right even after the three number is pronounced. But one thing that is certain is that a humble child will not attempt to assert his or her authority by rebelling, and usually, it will not even lead to a warning like this type.
It is true that I mentioned earlier the number 24, and so when you add the numbers within the number of this post 123 - that is, one (1) and twenty three (23), the total is 24. But, I plan to write more about the number 24 in my next post. Meanwhile, I want to focus on something in the Torah that has something to do with this number 123. You see, Aharon HaCohen (Aaron the Priest), Moses' brother, passed away at the age of 123. In fact, not only is his age mentioned, but even the date of his passing of 1 Av, the sole Yahrzeit that is mentioned in the entire Tanach!
But while in a past post, I discussed while Aaron, unlike anyone else, has the unique privilege of having his Yahrzeit mentioned in the Tanach, today I pose a different question. How come when the Torah records the event of Aaron's passing at the time that it occurred, it doesn't mention any of these details of when or what age in Parshat Chukat, but only at a later Parsha when it mentions the list of places that the Jews traveled to during its sojournings in the desert for 40 years in Parshat Mas'ei, unlike with everyone else practically in the Tanach when it mentions their age of passing when they pass away or at the beginning description of them such as with the kings of Judah and Israel? In fact, we see with Moses' age when he passed away that his age of 120 years is mentioned both when he passed away and even before he passed away "I am today 120 years old...", but with Aaron, his age isn't even mentioned at his passing, but only at a later time?
Perhpas the following story will shed light on answering these questions. Once, there was someone who asked one of the great Roshei Yeshiva (heads of a Yeshiva consisting of college age and older men learning Torah) of yesteryear in Europe if he knew the Yahrzeits of the various rabbis in the Talmud. To this, the Rosh Yeshiva replied, "Yahrzeits? These rabbis are very much alive. I learn their teachings everyday. In fact, what would our Torat Chaim (Torah of Life) be today without these rabbis? I can't live without these rabbis!"
Perhaps this Rosh Yeshiva said this a little differently. But the point here is that if we are in touch with what we are in this world for, there is no question to us as to what is considered real living. True, we are living presently in a very physical and materialistic world. But, as Jews learning Torah, we should know only too well as to what is considered really real and really fake. Oh sure, money for example is very tangible to us when it makes the difference between paying the bills or not at times. Some of us won't even care to be rich if we know that we will be provided sufficiently to go through life, even without a trip around the world. But, then there are other issues that sometimes we get carried away with, and we wind up taking sides with others, which can sometimes lead to some bittle quarrels.
This is where Aaron comes in. He was the one who mastermindedly was able to bring former enemies of each other to become present friends to each other. He knew early on that fighting doesn't get you far in the long term, and after our existance, we are back to Hashem - the only question is how close we will get to Hashem, depending on our deeds of course. Now while there is a special reason while only Aaron's Yahrzeit is mentioned, the fact that not only this is not mentioned at the time of his passing in Parshat Chukat, but even his age isn't mentioned as that time, teaches us that in fact, he should still be considered very alive in our lives.
True, the ages of our Patriarchs, and particularly the ages of the Tribes of Levi & Joseph are mentioned (Levi's age is not mentioned by his passing either, but his individual passing is not mentioned, only as part of the brothers' passing unlike Joseph's whose individual passing is mentioned along with his age) around the time of their passing, but this was before the Torah was given. However, now that the Torah was given, it is now that the Torah wants to teach us, and moreover remind us, that while there may be a physical death for the righteous; however, we have to look beyond that. True, we will not have a chance to see them in this world while we are still living this physical world until the time of Techiyat HaMeitim (Resurrection of the Dead), but their teachings and way of life are the eternal life that we should be pursuing, for they already accomplished their part of serving Hashem. Now, it is up to the rest of us to learn from this, and continue on. For indeed, the Sages tell us that the wicked are called dead even while alive while the righteous are called alive even while dead.
Now with Moses, it is a little different story. It is obvious with Moses, since he is the one who directly taught us the Torah as He heard it from Hashem, that it doesn't really matter if his age of his passing is mentioned. In fact, the Torah even went so far to hint to Moses in the first Parsha of the Torah mentioning 120 years (see my 120th Post - Oct '11). But from here, we learn a different point. You see, even with someone as righteous as Moses, he didn't live forever in this physical world. So certainly, the wicked, especially in the times of the pre Flood of Noah when people lived much longer, they felt that they could do what they want whenever they wanted. Towards changing the evil ways of the world, Hashem gave the world 120 years chance to do it right. The only difference is that then, people didn't have many examples to follow to do it right. Today, especially with the Torah, we have plenty of examples.
Now, getting back to Aaron, the details of his passing are mentioned specifically in the section in the Torah within the list of places that the Jews traveled through in the desert. While the Jews could have been in Israel long earlier had they now played around and then become crybabies when they believed the propraganda and rhetoric of the blues of the Israel news brought to them by the evil Spies. However, there is a kabbalistic significance to the 42 journeys of the Jews in the desert on their way to Israel. What they needed to realize is that journeying in the desert wasn't just because it was convenient to live in a certain place while there, but one step closer to being spiritually ready to enter Israel, getting ready to making "Aliyah". In fact, this very word is also used on a Yahrzeit wishing the Neshama/soul to have an "Aliyah", which ultimately means a spiritual elevation, just as Aaron who sought to elevate Jews by bringing out the best in them making peace with one another, rather than making friends with some of them putting down their enemies, behaving politically as unfortunately some even in the Torah world today get caught up with. In short, one has a choice of either bringing out the best in people, or in bringing out the worst in people.
Speaking of Aaron who was the first Cohen Gadol/High Priest and Aliyah, we just read yesterday in Parshat Lech Lecha about Malki Tzedek, about whom we are told was Shem the son of Noah, who was a Cohen L'E-l Elyon "Priest to the High G-d". The ironic thing here is that Abraham just came back from killing some of the evil descendants of Shem/Malki Tzedek (he lived for 600 years); and yet, Shem came out to greet him and his group to feed them with bread and wine. Shem, as a righteous person in his own right, knew that his descendant Abraham did the right thing of killing some of Shem's other descendants, for in fact, we are all here in this temporary world to serve Hashem, who is the High G-d, the Big Boss, and sooner or later, we are all going to die anyways. When one thinks along these terms, there are NO POLITICS, and certainly not only will there be no fighting (and if there is fighting, it's either fighting who is truly evil or fighting those who are not - there is no inbetween), but there will be only peace. And what do we see, Shem was the "King of Salem". Shalem/Salem means complete(ness), and is related to the world Shalom/peace, for one can only have completeness with peace.
And here is a perfect example of this as pertaining to this name Shalem itself. You see, this was the original name of Jerusalem. The Midrash tells us that Shem called it Shalem, and Abraham called Hashem Yireh (Hashem will appear). In order to make peace between these two, Hashem combined these two names to create the name Yerushalayim, which in time led this city to be nicknamed "The City of Peace".
As we see, after the encounter between the two, Abraham gave to Shem his Ma'aser, tithing of what he had. The word Ma'aser is named as such because it is read as May'Eser "from ten", that is, the Mitzva of Ma'aser as we learn in the Torah is to give one tenth of the produce or crops to the Cohen. Interestingly, we see that this is the very first time that this word Ma'aser is mentioned. We know that Shem lived for 600 years, and the world is slated to exist for 6,000 years. Hence, his own life was a literal fulfillment of this concept of Ma'aser, for he had lived his whole life righteously, living one tenth of the world's existance serving Hashem.
Eventually, this Kehuna/Priesthood that Shem had was handed down to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, and in time it was the firstborn of the Jews who had this status until the sin of the Golden Calf after which time it was permanently handed over to Aaron and his descendants through parental line. But what did not change is that the one who is most worthy of the Kehuna or being the Cohen Gadol is expected to be one who has the quality of peace. We see that Shem is called Cohen L'E-l Elyon. The word Elyon/High describes the fact that we need to aspire to go up higher spiritually, to get spiritually closer and higher towards Hashem. By the way, the word Cohen itself is based on the word that means serving. So, it is not that we just serve Hashem everyday as robots or the angels who don't get higher spiritually. We are the only beings that have the opportunity to work on ourselves to go HIGHER, to go UP. We have to first of all of course have momentum, and then work on getting up even spiritually higher - learning more Torah, becoming more happy with serving Hashem, bringing other Jews closer to the Torah, etc.
It's like driving a car. When you first start it, you usually don't immediately drive off unless someone is coming after you. Chances are is that you will need a minimum of a few seconds until you know that your car is running fine. Older cars or cars with problems could take longer until they sound like they are running because if you do attempt to start driving immmediately, chances are is that the car will stop running its motor and then you will need to start it again. Now, once it is running, then you can eventually accelerate the motor to drive faster, but then again, you can't immediately expect to drive 55 miles the second after you are driving only 30 miles. You have to accelerate, and gradually, you will get to drive faster.
Of course there are times when serving Hashem when we may fall down, and feel like what we did earlier doesn't mean anything because now we have to start all over again. For this, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov teaches us that every attempt to serve Hashem, even if we fall down afterwards, is precious to Him. Moreover, the steps that we took earlier aren't just isolated steps, but are part of the process of continuously serving Hashem, just as a toddler learning to walk will fall down at one point, so that even though at first the toddler didn't walk steadily at one time but fell down here and there, but all of the early steps were part of the process of eventually being able to walk all on his or her own one day.
So, we have to have in mind two basic processes here. First is the momentum - always having Hashem the One in mind, as illustrated with the number 1,111, one of today's special numbers; and then we have to bring this MOMENTUM CLIMBING UP as illustrated in today's other special number 123, as the individual numbers in this three digit number ascend in amount value. Now, before I conclude, this number 123 reminds me of a verse in NUMBERS - in Chapter 12, Verse 3, get it? You can call this a coincidence, but let me first write the verse "The man Moses was very humble, more than any person on the face of the earth".
Perhaps we will never be as humble as Moses or have the privilege of being the High Priest as Aaron. However, in our own way, in our own set of circumstances, we can learn from the lives of these two most righteous people in the Bible, as well as from the Patriarchs and others how to live a life the way that Hashem wants us to live, not because we are simply following "orders", but because every step that we take in the service of Hashem is going to benefit everyone spiritually in the best way possible, and without feeling haughty as we ascend higher. If one thinks along these terms, then indeed, politics will not even be an issue, as politics is a way of promoting oneself or one's group above the others which sometimes steps on the Torah very unfortunately. Indeed, the righteous are called alive even when are physically dead, because it is especially after their passing, even more than when they were alive, that their teachings and righteous ways of life are more appreciated than ever, as evidenced in the passing of time.
9 Cheshvan 5772
Thursday, November 3, 2011
#122 - The Finished Product
In this week's Parshat Lech Lecha, we see the story of the Brit Bein HaBetarim "Covenant Between the Parts" (Genesis 15). Following Abraham cutting the animals, and falling into a deep sleep, Hashem informs him that his descendants will be slaves in another land for 400 years, promising him at the end that they will afterwards inherit the Land of Israel.
In a previous post #116 - Years of Slavery (Aug '11), I made it clear that in fact, the Jews were slaves in Egypt for only 116 years. The 400 years until the Exodus began with Abraham's first Jewish descendant - his son Isaac. The basic explanation given for why Hashem's statement to Abraham about the 400 years is not contradictory is that since the bad news about the slavery was already given, the period of 400 years of slavery was considered to begin with Abraham's first Jewish descendant Isaac's birth, whose descendants in turn would be slaves. Another explanation given for this is that in fact, the Jews were destined for 400 years of slavery, but since the Egyptians oppressed the Jews far more than what Hashem intended for them, they were released from Egypt in less than a "third of the time" (perhaps this is where the concept of releasing prisoners for sometimes a third of their sentence for "good behavior" comes from).
While in fact, in the chapter of the Exodus, it mentions that the Jews sojourned in Egypt for 430 years, referring to 430 years earlier when Abraham was told the bad news of the slavery; taking the Bible literally, it states that the Jews were to be slaves for 400 years, and that the Jews were already settled in Egypt 30 years earlier. In fact, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a) records a debate that took place in front of Alexander the Great in which the Egyptians of his time claimed that the Jews need to return the gold and silver that they borrowed from them. There was a Jew named Geviha Ben Pesisa who pointed out that the Jews worked for the Egyptians for 430 years, and so, the gold and silver was payment for this. The Egpytians of Alexander the Great's day then asked him to give them three days to answer this point. However, the Egyptians not being so familiar with the Torah, had no answer, and fled their country. So while it wasn't true that the Jews were slaves for so long, what was true that had the Jews not "borrowed" the gold and silver that Hashem mentioned to the to do, the Egyptians wouldn't have paid the Jews anything, since after all, the Jews were slaves to Pharaoh, and as such, were not employees who work for pay.
Anyways, we will concentrate today on the 400 years window of time. With this, the question can be asked, why did Hashem assign the Jews specifically 400 years of slavery, even as Hashem knew beforehand that they were not going to be slaves for that long. As it is, Hashem told Abraham how many generations it would be for the Jews to return to Israel. So, why was it even necessary for Hashem to mention a number, unless there is some significance to that number?
And this is where Gematriot come into play. As we know, there are 22 basic letters of the Alef Beit, which concludes with the letter Tav, which is the numerical value of 400. But before getting into details of the Gematria of this letter, let's mention a few points about this letter itself.
To begin with, both near the beginnings of the Zohar and the Midrash Yalkut Shimoni (Note: The names of the authors of the teachings of these two holy books is the name Shimon, my namesake) mention the story of the letters of the Alef Beit wanting to be the first letter of the Torah (yes, the Alef Beit that Hashem created are real spiritual creatures, like the angels). In both sources, the letters waiting in line for the request began from Tav - the last of the letters to the beginning of the letters. However, there is a major difference between the two sources. The Zohar states that the Tav's claim to be the first letter of the Torah is because the letter Tav ends the word Emet/truth, and since Hashem is called Emet, it would only be fitting then for the Torah to begin with this letter. In the Yalkut Shimoni, the Tav's claim is that it begins the word Torah, and "it is through me that Moses will begin teaching the Torah, as mentioned in the verse Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe "The Torah that Moses commanded us..." Indeed, most logical. After all, if the name Torah itself begins with a Tav, it only makes sense to begin the Torah with this very letter.
However, Hashem had different plans. The truth is that He wanted the letter Beit to be the first letter of the Torah; so in fact, what Hashem told the other letters were so to speak "excuses" for not being the letter to start the Torah. However, only Hashem is entitled to give excuses without being a Torah violation of stating a lie. For in fact, Hashem doesn't speak any falsehood, for the reasons that Hashem turned the letters down for the letter position was a good enough of a reason for all those letters not to be qualified. And so, in both sources mentioning this story, Hashem told the Tav that in the future, it would be this letter that would mark the forehead of even the Jews in the time of the destruction of the First Temple who kept the Torah "from Alef to Tav" to be marked for death, as the last letter of Mavet/death is Tav.
The letter Tav, in whatever version it was, for in fact, both accounts of what the Tav said had to have been true, or otherwise, it would be false Torah - had excellent points. For that matter, the word for the letter Beit that began the Torah ends with the letter Tav - Beit, Yud, Tav.
In any case, we do see a parallel of the various concepts as related to the letter Tav. First, it states in the Talmud (Sabbath 55a & Sanhedrin 64a) "The seal of the Holy One Blessed Be He is truth", and as we know, the seal on a letter is the final touch on the letter itself before being mailed out, just as Hashem seals our fate on Yom Kippur. And just as the letter Tav ends the word Emet, so too does it also end the word Mavet, for death concludes the life of a person in this world. And as being a sign on the forehead of those slated for death at the destruction of the First Temple, it was more than just the death of many Jews, but the death - or at least the temporary cessation - of the spiritual glory of the Jews with the destruction of the First Temple. On a positive note, it was built by King Solomon, whose name Shlomo means completeness, not only in the sense that everything was in place for the Jews physically "everyone under his vine and fig tree", but also spiritually, for it was the long awaited Temple for nearly 450 years since the Jews came to Israel was finally built. And even though the Second Temple was built a mere 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple, it was missing five things which meant that the Second Temple was not on a high spiritual level as was the First Temple, and it will be only the Third and Final Temple that we await for its speedily construction that will be the ultimate Temple in spiritually.
It is significant to note that according to the version of the Yalkut Shimoni, the Tav referred to the concept of beginning the word Torah as it relates to the verse Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe which is found in the LAST Parsha of the Torah. And this LAST Parsha of the Torah is read on Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah which occurs on the 22nd day of Tishrei (the way it is according to the Torah, and celebrated as such in Israel; Jews outside of Israel observe two days of this holiday, concluding the Torah on the second day), just as the letter Tav is the 22nd and final letter. And while we never finish learning the Torah, for in fact, we show this by immediately beginning with the reading of the beginning of the Torah (that begins with the letter Beit for the word Bereishit "In the beginning"), there is a special concept of celebrating the conclusion of learning a section of the Torah, both when we conclude reading the final section of the Sefer Torah/Torah scroll on this holiday, and when we conclude a volume of the Mishna or a tractate of the Gemara/Talmud.
In a few weeks from now, we will be reading in Parshat Toldot about Jacob, who is described as Ish Tam "man of simpleness". The Torah describes Jacob in this fashion, to teach us that unlike his brother Esau who used cleverness, craftiness, and cover ups for his evil lifestyle by pretending to be a righteous Torah scholar to his father Isaac, Jacob learned Torah for the right reasons without resorting to money, power, politics, etc. to assert his own position or comforts of life.
Relating to this, the word Tam has another meaning - finished. In fact, you will see a phrase at the end of some holy works - Tam V'Nishlam Shevach L'E-l Borei Olam "Finished and completed. Praise to G-d, the Creater of the world". And as we know, Jacob was the 22nd generation from Adam & Eve.
O.K., it's nice to note that Jacob was the 22nd generation, just as the letter Tav that begins the word Tam in describing Jacob is the 22nd and last letter of the Alef Beit. However, what does this have to do with the concept of finishing? If anything, Jacob - the one who is called the Bechir She'B'Avot "Chosen one of the Forefathers", since he represented the pillar of Torah, the greatest of Mitzvot/Commandments was the one who stared the concept of a Jewish people with the birth of his 12 sons, the Twelve Tribes of Israel?
To answer this, we have to take a step and two back in history. You see, Abraham had several sons, and the only one who fit the role of being the ancestor of the Jews was Isaac. Similarly, Isaac had two sons, and it was Jacob who fit the role of being the ancestor fo the Jews. However, ALL of Jacob's sons were righteous and fitting to have a part of being ancestors of the Jewish people. Hence, it was Jacob who was the one, as the 22nd generation from Adam & Eve, who FINISHED the refinery process of having sons who would ALL be part of the Jewish people.
And this explains why Jacob, after receiving the blessings from Isaac, and was instructed by him to go to his mother's brother's place to start a family, made a detour by learning in the Yeshiva of Shem & Ever for 14 years. True, he learned much Torah already, but as explained by others, in order for him to be prepared for the outside world without being influenced, it would be necessary for him to spend these extra years before beginning the seed of the Jewish people. For while both his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham were very righteous people, there was apparently some kind of spiritual mutation in their genes that led to begotting wicked children.
However, Jacob would have none of this. He realized that despite Abraham bringing so many other people to serve Hashem instead of the idols and Isaac being a "complete sacrifice" when Abraham brought him up to the altar and hence never left the Holy Land of Israel in his entire lifetime of 180 years, these spiritual achievements did not totally filter out bad spiritual genes that led to descendants such as the Arabs, Hindus, Amalekites, Vikings, Germans, etc. And so, Jacob made sure that through the Torah, the ultimate spiritual value, this would not happen through his descendants (Note: The fact that many evil Jews have existed does not take away from this fact because these are/were individuals in sharp contrast to whole nations who inherited the evil characteristics of Ishmael, the sons of Ketura, and Esau.)
An interesting observation to be made of a SIMPLE two letter Hebrew word Tam which means SIMPLE - Tav & Mem; when in reverse, spells the word Meit/dead. For while Jews who seem to be simple and naive without "dreying their cop" with all kinds of "narrashkeit" may seem not to be in sync with reality, the truth is that these good Jews are the very ones who are the cause of the world being in existance with their knowledge and performance of the Torat HaChaim - the Torah of life, for without it, the word Tam spelled in reverse is the spiritual death which is an eternal death, cut off from the eternal reality that is in the next world. And while there are those who boast of the physical and scholarly accomplishments of secular Jews who may have made a difference in the standards of living for the world or for their particular country, these accomplishments of Jews are meaningful to Hashem only if coupled with a life of Torah, knowing what the true purpose of life is. This is why according to Jewish law, while we say a special blessing upon seeing a non-Jewish scientist, we do not make a blessing upon seeing a Jewish scientist. Sorry Albert Einstein, but this also means you. Wait a minute - I don't think he can hear me anyways, for he willed himself to be cremated (mind you, after the Holocaust that he escaped where many Jews were cremated against their will), which means that he is now eternally damned, and as mentioned in Jewish law, not even Kaddish is said on such a person who willed to have his "image of G-d" burnt, since it won't help.
Now, getting back to the story of the Covenant of Between the Parts, Hashem made it clear that it would take 400 years for the Jews to go through the slavery process to refine them at the end. For while unfortunately, there were those Jews who still had the slavery mentality in the wilderness following the Exodus and in fact perished there because of their lack of faith in Hashem Who promised that He would take them to a land "flowing with milk and honey" without worries of being decimated by the giants that the evil Spies scared the Jews with, the ultimate purpose of the slavery was for the Jews to most appreciate wanting to serve Hashem. And so, while the physical slavery lasted only 116 years, it was a 400 year period of time related to this concept that was needed in one form or another to refine the Jews at the END, just as Tav, the numerical value of 400, marks the END of the letters.
Two more examples of the number 400 as related to death can also found in Sefer Bereishit - in the beginnings of Parshat Chayei Sara & Parshat Vayishlach - both of which we will be reading within the next several weeks. In the beginning of Parshat Chayei Sara where Abraham is looking to find a plot of land to bury his wife Sara, he is asked to fork over 400 Shekalim of silver; and then in the beginning of Parshat Vayishlach, we see that Jacob was informed that his jealous brother Esau was on his way with 400 men to kill Jacob.
And now back to the subject of slavery and serving Hashem, we note a double lettering of two words in a row in more than one place of the letters Ayin & Beit. In the beginning of Parshat Mishpatim (Exodus 21), we see that an Eved Ivri "Hebrew servant" was to serve his master no more than six years, using this wording in Hebrew where these consecutive words begin with these two letters. And then we see in Parshat Behar where Hashem states "For the Children of Israel are servants, they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 25:55). Again, we see two consecutive words Avadim Avadai (servants, My servants) beginning with these two letters.
These two letters spell the Hebrew number 72, which is the Gematria of the word Chesed/kindness, for even within the slavery of the Jews in Egypt, Hashem showed His kindness in several ways, including shortening their slavery term, recompensating them with gold and silver, providing for their needs in the wilderness, and of course the ultimate kindness of Hashem giving us the Torah, through which, we are Hashem's servants. For it was Abraham, the first Jew, who represented the pillar of kindness, and served Hashem not only by himself, but actively going out to get others to serve Hashem, including inviting them as guests to his home, providing them both physically and spiritually. And in connection to the Eved Ivri "Hebrew servant", we see that Abraham was called Ivri/Hebrew (Genesis 14:13) in this week's Parsha.
And as related to the number of this Hebrew year which ends with Ayin-Beit (72), we anxiously await Hashem's kindness of redeeming us to end our present bitter exile. Perhaps for some Jews in the United States, it may not feel quite bitter when they seem to enjoy prosperity until this day, but this only means that they are in a most bitter spiritual exile, not feeling it being covered with the fat of the land, who think that the United States is JerUSAlem. However, we must not forget the great kindness that Hashem did for us when we regained the holiest part of the world on 28 Iyar 5727 - Yom Yerushalayim/Jerusalem Day, as was declared "The Temple Mount is in our hands!" Looking at the number of the Hebrew year when this occured - 5727, you reverse the last two numbers, and presto! - we are within the 45th year since this took place, presently in 5772. For it was Adam - whose name is the Gematria of 45 - whose head was created by Hashem from the dust of this very area in the world.
In conclusion of this post - #122, we see that it consists of the numbers one (1) and twenty two (22), just as there are 22 letters of the Alef Beit, from the first letter Alef which is the first letter and Gematria of the number one, to the last letter Tav which is the 22nd letter and the Gematria of 400. And in connection to Jerusalem, let me conclude with the following words from Psalm 122 which describes the eagerness of the Jews who wanted the Temple in the times of King David "Happy was I when they said to me "Let's go to the House of Hashem". Our feet were standing in the gates of Jerusalem. Jerusalem the built city..." May this take place speedily in our days, Amen!
7 Cheshvan 5772
In a previous post #116 - Years of Slavery (Aug '11), I made it clear that in fact, the Jews were slaves in Egypt for only 116 years. The 400 years until the Exodus began with Abraham's first Jewish descendant - his son Isaac. The basic explanation given for why Hashem's statement to Abraham about the 400 years is not contradictory is that since the bad news about the slavery was already given, the period of 400 years of slavery was considered to begin with Abraham's first Jewish descendant Isaac's birth, whose descendants in turn would be slaves. Another explanation given for this is that in fact, the Jews were destined for 400 years of slavery, but since the Egyptians oppressed the Jews far more than what Hashem intended for them, they were released from Egypt in less than a "third of the time" (perhaps this is where the concept of releasing prisoners for sometimes a third of their sentence for "good behavior" comes from).
While in fact, in the chapter of the Exodus, it mentions that the Jews sojourned in Egypt for 430 years, referring to 430 years earlier when Abraham was told the bad news of the slavery; taking the Bible literally, it states that the Jews were to be slaves for 400 years, and that the Jews were already settled in Egypt 30 years earlier. In fact, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a) records a debate that took place in front of Alexander the Great in which the Egyptians of his time claimed that the Jews need to return the gold and silver that they borrowed from them. There was a Jew named Geviha Ben Pesisa who pointed out that the Jews worked for the Egyptians for 430 years, and so, the gold and silver was payment for this. The Egpytians of Alexander the Great's day then asked him to give them three days to answer this point. However, the Egyptians not being so familiar with the Torah, had no answer, and fled their country. So while it wasn't true that the Jews were slaves for so long, what was true that had the Jews not "borrowed" the gold and silver that Hashem mentioned to the to do, the Egyptians wouldn't have paid the Jews anything, since after all, the Jews were slaves to Pharaoh, and as such, were not employees who work for pay.
Anyways, we will concentrate today on the 400 years window of time. With this, the question can be asked, why did Hashem assign the Jews specifically 400 years of slavery, even as Hashem knew beforehand that they were not going to be slaves for that long. As it is, Hashem told Abraham how many generations it would be for the Jews to return to Israel. So, why was it even necessary for Hashem to mention a number, unless there is some significance to that number?
And this is where Gematriot come into play. As we know, there are 22 basic letters of the Alef Beit, which concludes with the letter Tav, which is the numerical value of 400. But before getting into details of the Gematria of this letter, let's mention a few points about this letter itself.
To begin with, both near the beginnings of the Zohar and the Midrash Yalkut Shimoni (Note: The names of the authors of the teachings of these two holy books is the name Shimon, my namesake) mention the story of the letters of the Alef Beit wanting to be the first letter of the Torah (yes, the Alef Beit that Hashem created are real spiritual creatures, like the angels). In both sources, the letters waiting in line for the request began from Tav - the last of the letters to the beginning of the letters. However, there is a major difference between the two sources. The Zohar states that the Tav's claim to be the first letter of the Torah is because the letter Tav ends the word Emet/truth, and since Hashem is called Emet, it would only be fitting then for the Torah to begin with this letter. In the Yalkut Shimoni, the Tav's claim is that it begins the word Torah, and "it is through me that Moses will begin teaching the Torah, as mentioned in the verse Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe "The Torah that Moses commanded us..." Indeed, most logical. After all, if the name Torah itself begins with a Tav, it only makes sense to begin the Torah with this very letter.
However, Hashem had different plans. The truth is that He wanted the letter Beit to be the first letter of the Torah; so in fact, what Hashem told the other letters were so to speak "excuses" for not being the letter to start the Torah. However, only Hashem is entitled to give excuses without being a Torah violation of stating a lie. For in fact, Hashem doesn't speak any falsehood, for the reasons that Hashem turned the letters down for the letter position was a good enough of a reason for all those letters not to be qualified. And so, in both sources mentioning this story, Hashem told the Tav that in the future, it would be this letter that would mark the forehead of even the Jews in the time of the destruction of the First Temple who kept the Torah "from Alef to Tav" to be marked for death, as the last letter of Mavet/death is Tav.
The letter Tav, in whatever version it was, for in fact, both accounts of what the Tav said had to have been true, or otherwise, it would be false Torah - had excellent points. For that matter, the word for the letter Beit that began the Torah ends with the letter Tav - Beit, Yud, Tav.
In any case, we do see a parallel of the various concepts as related to the letter Tav. First, it states in the Talmud (Sabbath 55a & Sanhedrin 64a) "The seal of the Holy One Blessed Be He is truth", and as we know, the seal on a letter is the final touch on the letter itself before being mailed out, just as Hashem seals our fate on Yom Kippur. And just as the letter Tav ends the word Emet, so too does it also end the word Mavet, for death concludes the life of a person in this world. And as being a sign on the forehead of those slated for death at the destruction of the First Temple, it was more than just the death of many Jews, but the death - or at least the temporary cessation - of the spiritual glory of the Jews with the destruction of the First Temple. On a positive note, it was built by King Solomon, whose name Shlomo means completeness, not only in the sense that everything was in place for the Jews physically "everyone under his vine and fig tree", but also spiritually, for it was the long awaited Temple for nearly 450 years since the Jews came to Israel was finally built. And even though the Second Temple was built a mere 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple, it was missing five things which meant that the Second Temple was not on a high spiritual level as was the First Temple, and it will be only the Third and Final Temple that we await for its speedily construction that will be the ultimate Temple in spiritually.
It is significant to note that according to the version of the Yalkut Shimoni, the Tav referred to the concept of beginning the word Torah as it relates to the verse Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe which is found in the LAST Parsha of the Torah. And this LAST Parsha of the Torah is read on Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah which occurs on the 22nd day of Tishrei (the way it is according to the Torah, and celebrated as such in Israel; Jews outside of Israel observe two days of this holiday, concluding the Torah on the second day), just as the letter Tav is the 22nd and final letter. And while we never finish learning the Torah, for in fact, we show this by immediately beginning with the reading of the beginning of the Torah (that begins with the letter Beit for the word Bereishit "In the beginning"), there is a special concept of celebrating the conclusion of learning a section of the Torah, both when we conclude reading the final section of the Sefer Torah/Torah scroll on this holiday, and when we conclude a volume of the Mishna or a tractate of the Gemara/Talmud.
In a few weeks from now, we will be reading in Parshat Toldot about Jacob, who is described as Ish Tam "man of simpleness". The Torah describes Jacob in this fashion, to teach us that unlike his brother Esau who used cleverness, craftiness, and cover ups for his evil lifestyle by pretending to be a righteous Torah scholar to his father Isaac, Jacob learned Torah for the right reasons without resorting to money, power, politics, etc. to assert his own position or comforts of life.
Relating to this, the word Tam has another meaning - finished. In fact, you will see a phrase at the end of some holy works - Tam V'Nishlam Shevach L'E-l Borei Olam "Finished and completed. Praise to G-d, the Creater of the world". And as we know, Jacob was the 22nd generation from Adam & Eve.
O.K., it's nice to note that Jacob was the 22nd generation, just as the letter Tav that begins the word Tam in describing Jacob is the 22nd and last letter of the Alef Beit. However, what does this have to do with the concept of finishing? If anything, Jacob - the one who is called the Bechir She'B'Avot "Chosen one of the Forefathers", since he represented the pillar of Torah, the greatest of Mitzvot/Commandments was the one who stared the concept of a Jewish people with the birth of his 12 sons, the Twelve Tribes of Israel?
To answer this, we have to take a step and two back in history. You see, Abraham had several sons, and the only one who fit the role of being the ancestor of the Jews was Isaac. Similarly, Isaac had two sons, and it was Jacob who fit the role of being the ancestor fo the Jews. However, ALL of Jacob's sons were righteous and fitting to have a part of being ancestors of the Jewish people. Hence, it was Jacob who was the one, as the 22nd generation from Adam & Eve, who FINISHED the refinery process of having sons who would ALL be part of the Jewish people.
And this explains why Jacob, after receiving the blessings from Isaac, and was instructed by him to go to his mother's brother's place to start a family, made a detour by learning in the Yeshiva of Shem & Ever for 14 years. True, he learned much Torah already, but as explained by others, in order for him to be prepared for the outside world without being influenced, it would be necessary for him to spend these extra years before beginning the seed of the Jewish people. For while both his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham were very righteous people, there was apparently some kind of spiritual mutation in their genes that led to begotting wicked children.
However, Jacob would have none of this. He realized that despite Abraham bringing so many other people to serve Hashem instead of the idols and Isaac being a "complete sacrifice" when Abraham brought him up to the altar and hence never left the Holy Land of Israel in his entire lifetime of 180 years, these spiritual achievements did not totally filter out bad spiritual genes that led to descendants such as the Arabs, Hindus, Amalekites, Vikings, Germans, etc. And so, Jacob made sure that through the Torah, the ultimate spiritual value, this would not happen through his descendants (Note: The fact that many evil Jews have existed does not take away from this fact because these are/were individuals in sharp contrast to whole nations who inherited the evil characteristics of Ishmael, the sons of Ketura, and Esau.)
An interesting observation to be made of a SIMPLE two letter Hebrew word Tam which means SIMPLE - Tav & Mem; when in reverse, spells the word Meit/dead. For while Jews who seem to be simple and naive without "dreying their cop" with all kinds of "narrashkeit" may seem not to be in sync with reality, the truth is that these good Jews are the very ones who are the cause of the world being in existance with their knowledge and performance of the Torat HaChaim - the Torah of life, for without it, the word Tam spelled in reverse is the spiritual death which is an eternal death, cut off from the eternal reality that is in the next world. And while there are those who boast of the physical and scholarly accomplishments of secular Jews who may have made a difference in the standards of living for the world or for their particular country, these accomplishments of Jews are meaningful to Hashem only if coupled with a life of Torah, knowing what the true purpose of life is. This is why according to Jewish law, while we say a special blessing upon seeing a non-Jewish scientist, we do not make a blessing upon seeing a Jewish scientist. Sorry Albert Einstein, but this also means you. Wait a minute - I don't think he can hear me anyways, for he willed himself to be cremated (mind you, after the Holocaust that he escaped where many Jews were cremated against their will), which means that he is now eternally damned, and as mentioned in Jewish law, not even Kaddish is said on such a person who willed to have his "image of G-d" burnt, since it won't help.
Now, getting back to the story of the Covenant of Between the Parts, Hashem made it clear that it would take 400 years for the Jews to go through the slavery process to refine them at the end. For while unfortunately, there were those Jews who still had the slavery mentality in the wilderness following the Exodus and in fact perished there because of their lack of faith in Hashem Who promised that He would take them to a land "flowing with milk and honey" without worries of being decimated by the giants that the evil Spies scared the Jews with, the ultimate purpose of the slavery was for the Jews to most appreciate wanting to serve Hashem. And so, while the physical slavery lasted only 116 years, it was a 400 year period of time related to this concept that was needed in one form or another to refine the Jews at the END, just as Tav, the numerical value of 400, marks the END of the letters.
Two more examples of the number 400 as related to death can also found in Sefer Bereishit - in the beginnings of Parshat Chayei Sara & Parshat Vayishlach - both of which we will be reading within the next several weeks. In the beginning of Parshat Chayei Sara where Abraham is looking to find a plot of land to bury his wife Sara, he is asked to fork over 400 Shekalim of silver; and then in the beginning of Parshat Vayishlach, we see that Jacob was informed that his jealous brother Esau was on his way with 400 men to kill Jacob.
And now back to the subject of slavery and serving Hashem, we note a double lettering of two words in a row in more than one place of the letters Ayin & Beit. In the beginning of Parshat Mishpatim (Exodus 21), we see that an Eved Ivri "Hebrew servant" was to serve his master no more than six years, using this wording in Hebrew where these consecutive words begin with these two letters. And then we see in Parshat Behar where Hashem states "For the Children of Israel are servants, they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 25:55). Again, we see two consecutive words Avadim Avadai (servants, My servants) beginning with these two letters.
These two letters spell the Hebrew number 72, which is the Gematria of the word Chesed/kindness, for even within the slavery of the Jews in Egypt, Hashem showed His kindness in several ways, including shortening their slavery term, recompensating them with gold and silver, providing for their needs in the wilderness, and of course the ultimate kindness of Hashem giving us the Torah, through which, we are Hashem's servants. For it was Abraham, the first Jew, who represented the pillar of kindness, and served Hashem not only by himself, but actively going out to get others to serve Hashem, including inviting them as guests to his home, providing them both physically and spiritually. And in connection to the Eved Ivri "Hebrew servant", we see that Abraham was called Ivri/Hebrew (Genesis 14:13) in this week's Parsha.
And as related to the number of this Hebrew year which ends with Ayin-Beit (72), we anxiously await Hashem's kindness of redeeming us to end our present bitter exile. Perhaps for some Jews in the United States, it may not feel quite bitter when they seem to enjoy prosperity until this day, but this only means that they are in a most bitter spiritual exile, not feeling it being covered with the fat of the land, who think that the United States is JerUSAlem. However, we must not forget the great kindness that Hashem did for us when we regained the holiest part of the world on 28 Iyar 5727 - Yom Yerushalayim/Jerusalem Day, as was declared "The Temple Mount is in our hands!" Looking at the number of the Hebrew year when this occured - 5727, you reverse the last two numbers, and presto! - we are within the 45th year since this took place, presently in 5772. For it was Adam - whose name is the Gematria of 45 - whose head was created by Hashem from the dust of this very area in the world.
In conclusion of this post - #122, we see that it consists of the numbers one (1) and twenty two (22), just as there are 22 letters of the Alef Beit, from the first letter Alef which is the first letter and Gematria of the number one, to the last letter Tav which is the 22nd letter and the Gematria of 400. And in connection to Jerusalem, let me conclude with the following words from Psalm 122 which describes the eagerness of the Jews who wanted the Temple in the times of King David "Happy was I when they said to me "Let's go to the House of Hashem". Our feet were standing in the gates of Jerusalem. Jerusalem the built city..." May this take place speedily in our days, Amen!
7 Cheshvan 5772
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