No Shortcuts to Heaven
The Chasidic master Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk once asked his disciples, “Where is G-d?” Puzzled, they replied, “Is it not written that G-d fills the heavens and the earth? Hence, G-d must be everywhere.”
“No,” replied the Rebbe, “G-d is where we let Him in.” While scientists have sought G-d in the design of the universe, historians in the survival of the Jewish people, and spiritualists in mystical experiences, there is a surer way. Just let Him in.
Though He could, G-d does not impose Himself on our consciousness. True, He walks in our garden, but for the most part He allows the children of Adam the deception that they can hide. His existence, at least the proof of it,...
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Why Celebrate an Ancient Mystic’s Death?
Talmud (Yevamos): 12,000 pairs of students who died between Pesach and Shavuos because they did not have the proper respect. On Lag B’omer they stopped dying. (Meiri & Shulchan Aruch)
1. 24,000 did not become students in one day, must have taken many years.
2. Lack of respect also didn’t happen in one day. It went from bad to worse in degrees.
Why did they all die in this one time period?
They didn’t have respect: How is that possible? Rabbi Akiva taught about the Rule of Torah: AhavasYisroel.
No two people think the same. Each understood the Torah of his Rebbe differently. Could not respect another view.
Could not play the game of Echad B’peh V’echad Blev.
Real Ahavas…
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It’s a Book of Light
Lag B’Omer, the thirty-third day of the Omer count from Pesach to Shavuos, is the day most associated with the teachings of Kabbalah. It is the anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the most basic Kabbalistic work, the Zohar. Literally, the Aramaic word Zohar is translated as luminance or radiance, but it is most often referred to as The Book of Splendor.
Rabbi Shimon, who brought us this so-called Bible of Jewish Mysticism, taught his disciples more than just the secrets of the Torah. He also instructed them on how to celebrate life, and sometimes even death, according to these inner disciplines. Concerning the date of his passing, he directed his students that at that…
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The Lag B’omer Mystery
The Omer period should have been a time of joyful anticipation, marking as it does, the Exodus from Egypt until the revelation at Sinai. Instead, it is a time of semi-mourning, except for Lag B’omer, when our sorrow is temporarily halted. What occurred then? The Talmud relates that during this period, Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students died from a mysterious plague sent from Heaven because, “They did not show respect to one another.” Nonetheless, on Lag B’omer the plague ended.
This only creates new questions. Why does this event merit thirty-two days of sadness when greater tragedies, such as the destruction of both Temples, are marked by a single day of grief. In sheer numbers, the Inquisition, Crusades, Chemelnitsky pogroms, and…
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Rabbi Akiva’s Moshiach
They both turned their lives around; became a success; but began as outsiders. Who were they, and why did they end their careers in disagreement?
Rabbi Akiva started his spiritual journey at the age of forty. Until then he could not have told you the difference between an Aleph and Bet. What changed everything? A rock with a hole! Hardly a miracle; not even memorable, until he asked, “What made a hole in this stone?” He was told, “The water which constantly drips every day.” Akiva immediately reflected, “If that which is soft can engrave that which is hard, then the words of Torah which are like steel can certainly penetrate my heart which is but flesh.” He immediately turned…
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The Day of Praise
For as long as men and women have been being born, they’ve had birthdays. Birthday parties are not that ancient, but they do go back at least 3,500 years (the book of Genesis mentions a banquet in honor of a Pharaoh’s birthday back in 1534 BCE). The interesting thing about birthday celebrations is that, for much of our history, they were not in vogue.
This is not to say that there are no sources in Torah hinting at the necessity of celebrating one’s birthday. True, the Talmud speaks of the specialty of a person’s date of birth as a time of empowerment and opportunity for him or her. And one of the most important days of the Jewish year is…
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A Mystic’s Vision
Lag B’omer celebrates the life and death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Though mostly identified as the ‘father” of Jewish mysticism, he was also a dominating presence in Jewish Law and Midrash. At first glance, this seems rather strange: a mystic dabbling in the minutiae of Halacha. After all, what is mysticism if not lofty abstractions and esoteric meditations, truly a world apart from the mundane and prosaic questions that make up the texture of daily life! And yet, many of the great mystics were giants in Halacha. Here, we will trace one thread of Kabbalistic thought and see how its message is applicable to so many areas of Judaism.
But before we begin this journey, let’s define - in…
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Sanctify His Name ...by Living
Jewish history is soaked in blood. Though we’ve never sought martyrdom, it has forever haunted and hunted us out. Indeed, since Abraham was thrown into a fiery furnace, countless Jews have given up their lives rather than their faith. From those who in Maccabean times were, “for the L-rd’s sake killed all day long,” (Psalms 44:23) through the Inquisition in Spain, those who glorified the name of G-d by their death became role models for all of Israel.
Perhaps the most important feature of martyrdom in Jewish tradition is the marginal role it plays in contemporary Jewish practice. Only twice in our liturgy - eleh ezkerah in the Yom Kippur service and Lamentations from Tisha B’av - is the willingness…
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Seder: a Taste of Freedom Part 1
Seder: Two Biblical Mitzvohs: 1. Higad’ta (tell over story of Exodus)
2. Eat Matzoh
Higad’ta: Mitzvah to remember Exodus a whole year.
What is unique on Pesach night?
Ans: Remember vs. verbalize…..or…..response to a question (dialogue vs. monologue).
Hence, Mah Nishtanah inserted. Four verses allude to four sons.
Question #1: Why does Torah surmise that child(ren) will only have questions on Pesach, and no other holiday?
Question #2: Maggid actually begins, “This is the poor man’s bread that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt?”
Question #3: If Maggid is a Biblical Mitzvah, why no Bracha (blessing)?
Why thank G-d for taking us out of Egypt: He put us in there in the first place?
Analogy: Doctor who breaks…
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Chanukah : the Miracle Is Us
Chanukah : The Miracle Is Us
Book of Lamentations Part 1
Tisha B’Av & the Book of Lamentations Part 1
A Lost Temple a Lost Ark
A Lost Temple A Lost Ark
Why I Like Tisha B’av
I admit that Tisha b’Av is not everyone’s favorite holiday. Not even mine. Still, there is something about the ninth day of Av that I am grateful for; not because it is enjoyable, but because of what it says about the Jewish people. Tisha b’Av warns me that I must remember. And a nation which remembers and knows its past will not forget to hope for its future.
No one weeps for Rome. There are many more Italians in the world than there are Jews. Do they gather by the tens of thousands at the Roman Forum to lament and pray? There are many more Greeks than Jews. The Acropolis is a tourist attraction - but does anyone mourn its…
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Why I Like Tisha B’av
I admit that Tisha b’Av is not everyone’s favorite holiday. Not even mine. Still, there is something about the ninth day of Av that I am grateful for; not because it is enjoyable, but because of what it says about the Jewish people. Tisha b’Av warns me that I must remember. And a nation which remembers and knows its past will not forget to hope for its future.
No one weeps for Rome. There are many more Italians in the world than there are Jews. Do they gather by the tens of thousands at the Roman Forum to lament and pray? There are many more Greeks than Jews. The Acropolis is a tourist attraction - but does anyone mourn its…
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Falling or Rising Tears
Jewish holidays are not mere memorials of ancient events. To follow the secular vogue and shift the date of a festival to create a conveniently long weekend would not only be distasteful and sacrilegious; it would miss the point entirely. Emanations of holiness reach the world on the Shabbat; streams of forgiveness on Yom Kippur, and heavenly drops of freedom revive us on Passover. These distinct forms of holiness however can only wend their way into our souls and our lives on those specific days. Just as there are times of joy, there are moments of sadness. Jewish mysticism explains that the forty days from the beginning of Tammuz until the ninth of Av are times of Jewish travail and…
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Falling or Rising Tears
Jewish holidays are not mere memorials of ancient events. To follow the secular vogue and shift the date of a festival to create a conveniently long weekend would not only be distasteful and sacrilegious; it would miss the point entirely. Emanations of holiness reach the world on the Shabbat; streams of forgiveness on Yom Kippur, and heavenly drops of freedom revive us on Passover. These distinct forms of holiness however can only wend their way into our souls and our lives on those specific days. Just as there are times of joy, there are moments of sadness. Jewish mysticism explains that the forty days from the beginning of Tammuz until the ninth of Av are times of Jewish travail and…
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No Reason to Be Simple
Why do people tell stories? I’ll tell you a story.
It was a stormy, moonless night and two men - one foolish, the other wise - groped their way through the dark, gloomy forest. With no source of illumination whatsoever, they were hopelessly lost. Suddenly, there was a deafening crash of thunder and a brilliant flash of lightning.
The simpleton looked up to admire the spectacle. The wise man exploited the brief moment of light to get his bearings.
A good story is like a flash of lightning. For some, it is nothing more than a display, and as the glimmer of the spectacle fades, so does the memory of the story. For others it is a tool to be…
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No Reason to Be Simple
Why do people tell stories? I’ll tell you a story.
It was a stormy, moonless night and two men - one foolish, the other wise - groped their way through the dark, gloomy forest. With no source of illumination whatsoever, they were hopelessly lost. Suddenly, there was a deafening crash of thunder and a brilliant flash of lightning.
The simpleton looked up to admire the spectacle. The wise man exploited the brief moment of light to get his bearings.
A good story is like a flash of lightning. For some, it is nothing more than a display, and as the glimmer of the spectacle fades, so does the memory of the story. For others it is a tool to be…
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Messianic Meals & Fast Days
Once upon a time, our people enjoyed in tranquility the Holy Land, the City of David, Mount Moriah, the Temple, and the Holy of Holies. Sadly enough, we did not fully appreciate what we had - and so we lost it.
Consequently, four fast days were instituted by the prophets and Sages to commemorate our bereavement. Days when we deprive our body of food and drink, stirring ourselves to repent the sins and shortcomings that twice caused the destruction of G-d’s home and our banishment into exile.
The strictest of these fast days is the 9th of Av: Whereas the other three fasts begin at dawn of that day, Tisha B’Av begins at sunset of the previous evening. However, when…
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Messianic Meals & Fast Days
Once upon a time, our people enjoyed in tranquility the Holy Land, the City of David, Mount Moriah, the Temple, and the Holy of Holies. Sadly enough, we did not fully appreciate what we had - and so we lost it.
Consequently, four fast days were instituted by the prophets and Sages to commemorate our bereavement. Days when we deprive our body of food and drink, stirring ourselves to repent the sins and shortcomings that twice caused the destruction of G-d’s home and our banishment into exile.
The strictest of these fast days is the 9th of Av: Whereas the other three fasts begin at dawn of that day, Tisha B’Av begins at sunset of the previous evening. However, when…
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All You Have to Do Is Listen
There is an old saying which praises the individual who can tell his neighbor, “Go to hell” and make him feel happy to be on his way. Of course, this talent of subtle diplomacy has always been a rarity as can be seen from Rabbi Akiva’s statement, “I swear that in this generation there is no one who knows how to rebuke.”
More difficult to find however is the person who can accept reproach and correction. Even the Israelites at the time of Moses, who are usually seen as spiritual role models, could not bear the brunt of a direct moral attack on their failings. Thus Moses was forced to disguise his reprimand in veiled, indirect references.
But is it…
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