Emulating Aaron

The importance of emulating Aaron is demonstrated in this week’s parsha in the encounter between Moshe, Aaron and Pharaoh. Aaron "loved peace and pursued peace, loved mankind and drew them closer to Torah.

When necessity dictates that we deal in a strict manner with others as Moshe and Aaron did with Pharaoh in Va'eira, we must always make sure that we employ "the staff of Aaron" - and are guided solely by the highest principles of love for our fellow Jew.

QOTD

To defend a country you need an army. But to defend an identity you need schools.

Chief Rabbi Sacks

Moment of Zen

Don't be so upset with the world
Anger at the world is anger at God

Accept what God gives to you and what God takes away
Nothing in this world belongs to anyone

North Korea

From Foreign Policy

Information about North Korea, one of the few remaining Stalinist regimes, is hard to come by. With no human rights organizations allowed into the country, a strictly controlled state-run media, and very little citizen access to the Internet or news from the outside world, North Korea is the most secretive society in the world.

Nonetheless, based on testimonies from the estimated 300,000 North Koreans who have been able to escape, as well as satellite evidence, it is known that the Pyongyang regime runs the world's most extensive system of gulags, or Kwan li so, incarcerating as many as 200,000 unknown political prisoners spread out across six large prison camps. Testimonies from defectors describe the treatment of these prisoners in terms that amount to crimes against humanity, including systematic torture, public executions, slave labor, and forced abortions. Moreover, the regime practices "guilt by association," incarcerating family members of political prisoners, including children, for up to three generations.

Makes me feel very grateful to live in an open society, despite its problems, God Bless America.

holy seperate

In Judaism kadosh, holy, means separation. To sanctify is to separate. Why? Because when we separate, we create order. We defeat chaos. We give everything and everyone their space. I am I and not you. You are you and not I. Once we respect our difference and distance, then we can join without doing damage to one another...The most beautiful symbol of the problem and its resolution is the ceremony of havdalah at the end of Shabbat and especially the havdalah candle. The wicks are separate but the flame they make is joined. So it is between husband and wife. So it is between parent and child. And so it is, or should be, between brothers.

Rabbi J. Sacks

The Festival of Lights

The festival of lights, day one...

...and day eight

I love Hannukah, no jelly donuts this year but I did have the best potato latkes of my life, lets all try to remember to bring a little more light into the darkness this year.

QOTD

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

Bob Nesta

Trying To Find A Balance

From: Atmosphere - Trying To Find A Balance

I'm not insane, in fact I'm kind of rational

When I be askin', "Yo, where did all the passion go?"

East coast, West coast, down South, Midwest

Nowadays everybody knows how to get fresh

Somebody give me a big yes (YES!)

God Bless America, but she stole the B from "Bless" (Accept it)

Picture of the Day

A beautiful winters sunset

Always keep moving

On the first night of Chanukah, all eight candleholders stand before you. But you light only one. Tomorrow night you shall light two. You know that eventually you will light all eight. From which we learn two things: First: Move step by step in life. Take things on at a pace you can handle. Second: Always grow. Always keep moving. If you did one good thing yesterday, do two today. Your ultimate achievement is always one step ahead.

The Chanukah Lights remind us in a most obvious way that illumination begins at home, within oneself and one’s family, by increasing and intensifying the light of Torah and Mitzvos in the everyday experience, even as the Chanukah Lights are kindled in growing numbers from day to day. But though it begins at home, it does not stop there. Such is the nature of light that when one kindles the Chanukah Lights are expressly meant to illuminate the “outside,” symbolically alluding to the duty to bring light also to those who, for one reason or another, still walk in darkness.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson זצ״ל

Bageling

This wonderful story was sent to me from this blogs most loyal reader, it has the ring of truth. When the new neighbors moved into the place next to mine, I ran into one of them moving in and he immediately said to me that he had noticed my mezuzah and knew that we would get along.

As it turns out he was bageling me, I just didn’t realize it until I read this.

Enjoy:

It all started when my friend -- who wears a kippah -- was back in college and suffering through a tedious lecture. As the professor droned on, a previously-unknown young woman leaned over and whispered in his ear: 'This class is as boring as my Zayde's seder.'

The woman knew that she did not 'look' Jewish, nor did she wear any identifying signs like a Star of David. So foregoing the awkward declaration, 'I'm Jewish,' the girl devised a more nuanced of heralding her heritage.

This incident launched a hypothesis which would henceforth be known as the Bagel Theory.

The Bagel Theory stands for the principle that we Jews, regardless of how observant or affiliated we are, have a powerful need to connect with one another. To that end, we find ways to 'bagel' each other - basically, to 'out' ourselves to fellow Jews.

There are two ways to bagel. The brave or simply unimaginative will tell you straight out that they are Jewish (a plain bagel). But the more creative will concoct subtler ways to let you know that they, too, are in the know.

I suspect that Jews have been bageling even before real bagels were invented. And while my husband and I may not have invented bageling, we do seem to have a steady diet of bagel encounters.

An early bagel favorite occurred when my kippah-wearing husband and I were dating, and we spent a Saturday evening at a funky coffee house with friends. We engaged in a few boisterous rounds of Boggle. Observing our fun, a couple of college students at a nearby table asked if they could play too. After we rattled the tray and furiously scribbled our words, it was time to read our lists aloud. One of the students, who sported a Rasta hat and goatee, proudly listed the word 'yad.' Unsuspecting, we inquired, 'What's a yad?' He said with a smirk, 'You know that pointer you read the Torah with.' Yes, we were bageled at Boggle.

On our honeymoon in Rome, we were standing at the top of the Spanish steps next to a middle-aged couple holding a map. The husband piped up in an obvious voice, 'I wonder where the synagogue is.' My husband and I exchanged a knowing look at this classic Roman bagel and proceeded to strike up a conversation with this lovely couple from Chicago. After we took them to the synagogue, they asked to join us at the kosher pizza shop. As we savored the cheese less arugula and shaved beef pizza - to this day the best pizza I have ever had - this non-religious couple marveled at traveling kosher and declared they would do so in the future, a satisfying bagel to be sure.

In the years since, our bagel encounters have become precious souvenirs, yiddishe knick-knacks from our family adventures in smaller Jewish communities. Like the time the little boy at the Coffee Bean in Pasadena, California, walked up to my husband, pulled out a mezuzah from around his neck, smiled and ran away (a non-verbal bagel!). Or our day trip to the pier in San Clemente, California when an impish girl in cornrows and bikini scampered over to say 'Good Shabbos.'

We have been bageled waiting at airline ticket counters, in elevators, at the supermarket checkout. On a recent trip abroad, however, we did not get bageled even once. That was in Israel where there is no need.

Ultimately, why do we feel this need to bagel? Does it stem from our shared patriarchs, our pedigree of discrimination and isolation, a common love of latkes or just the human predisposition to be cliquey? I maintain it is something more. Our sages say that all Jews were originally one interconnected soul which stood in unison at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. Now scattered across the Earth, as we encounter each other's Jewish souls, we recognize and reconnect with a piece of our divine selves.

The bagel may have a hole, but we bagel in a quest to feel whole.

from darkness

From Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson זצ״ל,

There are dark jewels in this world that can be salvaged, purified and taken as precious bounty for the good.

And there is darkness itself, the essential absence of light, that must only wait its time to expire.

How can we tell between them?

If the darkness fights back, there is hope.

It means there is something there worth fighting for.

If I am

"If I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, I am not I and you are not you; but if I am I because I am I and you are you because you are you, then I am and you are."

R. Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

Not boycott, buy-cott

On Tuesday, November 30, anti-Israel activists in New York plan to demonstrate and call for boycotts of stores that sell Israeli products aspart of the BDS campaign against Israel - Boycott, Divest, Sanction. In response, people in all locations are encouraged to take part in an Israeli product BUY-cott, and purchase Israeli goods on Tuesday (and everyday!)

(I love Jews)

Cyber War

I'd like to thank Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for making me laugh this morning when I read a quote of his about the recent WikiLeaks release of US secret diplomatic cables about US foreign policy around the world. This has been a fascinating story on so many levels, the most fundamental being how could the US let this happen? Its such a massive breach of security.

Cyber warfare is only just starting to make its way onto the stage just like terrorism did post 9/11. Iran is battling the Stuxnet virus and a Chinese group called Government Leaks has announced a June 1, 2011 launch of leaks from the Chinese government just in time for the twenty second anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Very interesting times, heres the quote from Foreign Policy:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the information in the cables confirms Israel's own assessment of the Iranian threat. “There is not a huge gap between what we say behind closed doors and what we say openly,”

God Said and it was

Judaism marks the world’s first transition on a national scale from an oral to a literate culture. Hence the unique significance it attaches to the spoken and written word. We discover this at the very beginning of the Torah. It takes the form of the radical abandonment of myth. G-d spoke and the world came into being. There is no contest, no struggle, no use of force to subdue rival powers – as there is in every myth without exception. Instead, the key verb in Genesis 1 is simply leimor, “G-d said [vayomer], Let there be . . . and there was.” Language creates worlds.

The Chief Rabbi J. Sacks

That which is plain

Even that which is plain in the Torah is obscure, how much more so that which is already obscure - Judah Halevi

A statistical aberration

There are 195 countries in the world.

Israel is the only country in the world that is Jewish.

The chance of randomly choosing a Jewish state is 0.0051%.

Israel’s Jewishness is a statistical aberration.

Attire

Reading a very interesting new book called Yiddish Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek while he admits right at the beginning that he's neither "a learned Jew nor a professional historian," the book is very interesting thus far. I really enjoyed his insight on the Chassidic style of dress found in the quote below. Please note I've added bold for emphasis and reference.

Back in the 1950’s most London Jews dressed like everyone else. Not particularly to make themselves inconspicuous, but because they saw no reason to be different...Today’s orthodox take pride in singling themselves out by their apparel, asserting their right to look different. Moreover many Chassidim, particularly on Sabbaths and holidays, go further and wear what amounts to a historic costume: black caftan fastened with a sash round the middle, knee breaches over white stockings, together with a wheel-shaped brown fur hat – an ensemble apparently attuned to the fashion sense of seventh-century Polish noblemen. The new eagerness to stand out from the crowd isn’t simply a consequence of the rise in orthodoxy among part of the Jewish population…but rather a desire to present themselves publically as Jews. After all, being strictly religious has, in principle, little bearing on attire, which is more a symbol aimed at other people rather than a message to God… The renaissance of Polish court style among the Chassidim is, rather, just one aspect of a sudden and surprising rediscovery and reassertion of Jewry’s eastern European roots among every section of the community. Far from wishing to erase all recollection of the heym(homeland)as in the past, today’s generation is busily trying to revive its memory. p.18-19

Simplicity

Besides simplicity and purity, you should understand that there is no need to search for specially strict practices to take upon yourself. To think that you should is an illusion: it is simply one of the devices of the Evil One to deter you from serving G-d. Such practices are not part of serving G-d. As our Sages said: `The Torah was not given to the ministering angels' (Kiddushin 54a). It was given to men of flesh and blood. These exaggerated practices can put you off completely. The greatest wisdom of all is not to be wise at all. It is simply to be pure and straightforward.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

I offer up this quote in part because I feel as though many observant Jews participate implicitly if not explicitly in a sort of game of one-upmanship with their observances, and it becomes a badge of honor to be stricter in observance. But being more machmir (strict) does not necessarily mean anything in fact if you read the words of the Rebbe it might even be a bad thing, it might prevent us from getting closer to ha kadosh baruch hu, instead of drawing us nearer.

It’s okay to say you know what, I’m not so strict about this, I’m in fact mekel (lenient) on this mitzvah. This is especially important to remember when one is taking on new mitzvoth; one of the worst things to do is to feel bad about ones observance (or lack thereof) when it’s not necessary. Those feelings are a burden that doesn’t need to be carried. So learn to serve god with simplicity and sincerity and don’t let yourself get to caught up in all the hype.

L’Shalom

Chicken and Egg

What came first the chicken or the egg? Philosophers have debated this question since time in memoriam, and today I’d like to take a crack at it.

Why you might ask? Because at the moment I’m learning Talmud and the section I’m learning is called betzah, translated literally: egg. The first discussion in this tractate is centered around a discussion about whether or not it’s permitted to eat an egg that was laid on a festival. I won’t go into the details, except to say learning Talmud is always a fascinating and frustrating academic exercise. Based on what I’ve learned during these last few weeks I’d like to offer an answer to the original question I’ve posed: what came first the chicken or the egg? According to the Rabbi’s it doesn’t matter, the real question we should be asking is: can we eat them!

(Personally I can’t think of any answer more Jewish then that)

L’Shalom.

love, fear and belief

Heard at the Shabbat table...There is a little truth behind every joke...

Sephardic Jews love god, but don’t fear him. Ashkenazi Jews fear god, but don’t believe in him.

A fly also lives

I was reading The Chosen on Shabbat afternoon and came across this passage which has always resonated with me, so I plucked it out of the text to share here.

“Reuven, listen to me, do you know what the Rabbis tell us God said to Moses when he was about to die? God said: “You have toiled and labored, and now you are worthy of rest. Human beings do not live forever... We live less the then time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more then the blink of an eye…I learned along time ago, that the blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. The span of life is nothing, but the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant…a man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill ones life with meaning, a life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here. Merely to live, to exist – what sense is there in that? A fly also lives.”

I also like these two quotations: from Rabbi N. Weinberg: “When you know what you're willing to die for, then you know what to live for.” and from Martin Luther King Jr. “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

A Moment of Zen

The soul can take delight in small things if ones dreams only leave it in peace long enough.

The Journey Home

POTD

Boston is beautiful right now, autumn is crisp, the air is clear and winter is coming. This picture is a perfect example of classic New England in the fall, its the court house, on Chestnut Hill.

Threat tests Boston Jews’ security measures

From, The Herald, Threat tests Boston Jews’ security measures

An interesting article about emergency alert coordination of Boston's Jewish community.

“We’re fortunate to live in a community where there is tremendous collaboration, cooperation and trust between the Jewish community and the government,” - JEMS founder Patty Jacobson

Where is your god now?

“Where is your god now?”

This phrase was uttered to me recently by my mother. It’s a difficult phrase, one that has not been far from my mind since it was throw out at me. It was said in pain and anger so I’m trying not to dwell on it, chalking it up to the pain of possibly losing a close friend. For you see I’m been praying for quite sometime for someone who is by all accounts, dying.

It is not easy to experience the pain and suffering that come from a long drawn out death and even while I write this I’m cautioned from sounding too certain that death will be the ultimate outcome of this struggle. But I can hear it on my mother’s voice when we talk about it, her feelings of the inevitability of this outcome for her friend. My first reaction was “it isn’t my god, its just god, your god, mine, everyone’s” but I held off on the snarky comment that was itching to pop out.

In the course of our talk I happened to mention to my mother that I’d been praying for her friend to which those words were then thrown out at me “yeah well it doesn’t seem to be doing much good…where is your god now?” I could hear the sarcasm, the naivety and the pain underling those words. Its hard enough I’m sure for my mother to deal with the pain that I know she’s feeling. The pain that I can do nothing to ease but say I love you, I’m here for you and yes I’m praying for your friend. I wish that my prayers would be answered but I’ve never been naive enough to think that I’ll get everything I want or that I can even approach knowing what purpose this pain serves.

Questions about why good things happen to bad people and why bad things happen to good people have been pondered by people far greater then myself throughout the centuries. At one point in my life I thought that somehow understanding that there is a plan, that good is not always rewarded with good and that we are merely dust in the wind would somehow make me feel better in times of pain and sorrow. But for me knowing why does no such thing, there is a disconnect between my intellectual ability to know why and my emotional feelings of but why me? Why now? I tried to convey all this to my non-believing mother with little success. I could hear the bitterness in her voice, and I understood. But still its hard not to feel in moments like this that she does not understand my commitment to an observant life. I’ve learned through experience that non-believers seem to think that leading an observant life, dedicating ones life to god is an escape, that it’s a shield used to deflect facing up to the grim realities of life. For me it has never been this way in fact it just the opposite. Being observant doesn’t let me run away from the harsh realities of life: it forces me to confront them.

Everyday in the early hours of dawn I think of my mother’s friend and others, fighting for their lives. I take time in my prayers to ask god that they be given the strength and courage to keep going and to overcome the sickness that’s ravaging their bodies. I don’t know what the outcome will be, that I leave up to god. What I do know is that in asking for them to be granted all those things I am reminded of them myself, and it makes me more aware and more easily able to face my own battles each and every day armed with those tools.

The Chief Rabbi of England Jonathan Sacks says that prayer is not about transforming the world around us, it’s about transforming ourselves. That through this internal transformation we can bring about a transformation in the world around us. It is impossible on an emotional level to truly understand the place of suffering in this world. But that shouldn’t stop us from fighting, from living, from laughing and from thanking god each and everyday for each and every moment we’re given, and that is exactly where my god can be found.

L’Shalom

Who does Israel belong to?

An Israeli Sense of Humor at UN set the record straight.

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly and made the world community smile.

A representative from Israel began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses: When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath!'

Moses removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Palestinian had stolen them!

The Palestinian representative jumped up furiously and shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren't even there then.'

The Israeli representative smiled and said, 'And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech...'

Thinking outside of the box

Is it possible to be both ‘liberal’ and ‘frum’, I’m asking this question not because its incredibly original but because one of my best friends from yeshiva and I often have this conversation. It’s a tired subject in many ways but for those of us who have spent time learning Torah, who have made difficult and often painful changes to our lives in response to what we’ve learned it’s a pertinent question.

The short answer is yes it is possible, the easiest way to do it when someone asks about a controversial issue like gay marriage, or evolution or anything else is to say I don’t personally agree with it but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Its how I’ve managed to reconcile the opposition to many decisions I’ve made, you don’t have to agree you just have to accept that I’m making a valid choice for myself and I’m not asking you to make the same decision or to agree with me, just to accept me.

So again I ask the question is it possible to believe in the Torah, to accept it as truth, to live by it and still accept people who live in ways that are against it?

For this I’d like to point to a few sources first is Dov Bear, a wonderful writer who is both a god fearing Jew and a liberal, to quote:

Rav Sa'adya Gaon states in Emunot v'Deyot 7:2 there are four conditions under which the Torah is not to be taken according to its literal meaning (1) When the plain meaning is rejected by common experience, or your senses; (2) When it is repudiated by obvious logic; (3) When it is contradicted by scripture; or (4) When it is opposed by tradition.

My next source is Rabbi Schmuley Botach in is most recent article title “No Holds Barred: The Jewish view of homosexuality” he writes:

People of faith insist that homosexuality is the most serious of sins because the Bible calls it an abomination.

But the word appears approximately 122 times in the Bible. Eating nonkosher food is an abomination (Deuteronomy 14:3). A woman returning to her first husband after being married in the interim is an abomination (Deut. 24:4). And bringing a blemished sacrifice on God’s altar is an abomination (Deut. 17:1.). Proverbs goes so far as to label envy, lying and gossip as that which “the Lord hates and are an abomination to Him” (3:32, 16:22).

As an Orthodox rabbi who reveres the Bible, I do not deny the biblical prohibition on male same-sex relationships. Rather, I simply place it in context.

There are 613 commandments in the Torah. One is to refrain from gay sex. Another is for men and women to marry and have children. So when Jewish gay couples come to me for counselling and tell me they have never been attracted to the opposite sex in their entire lives and are desperately alone, I tell them, “You have 611 commandments left. That should keep you busy. Now, go create a kosher home with a mezuza on the door. Turn off the TV on the Sabbath and share your festive meal with many guests. Put on tefillin and pray to God three times a day, for you are His beloved children. He desires you and seeks you out.”

The mistake of so many well-meaning people of faith is to believe that homosexuality is a moral rather than a religious sin. A moral sin involves injury to an innocent party. But who is being harmed when two, unattached, consenting adults are in a relationship? Rather, homosexuality is akin to the prohibition of lighting fire on the Sabbath or eating bread during Passover. There is nothing immoral about it, but it violates the divine will.

Next up is the Rationalist Jew who quotes Rav Hirsh on the theory of evolution:

Even if this notion were ever to gain complete acceptance by the scientific world, Jewish thought, unlike the reasoning of the high priest of that nation (probably a reference to Thomas Huxley, who advocated Darwinism with missionary fervor—N.S.), would nonetheless never summon us to revere a still extant representative of this primal form (an ape—N.S.) as the supposed ancestor of us all. Rather, Judaism in that case would call upon its adherents to give even greater reverence than ever before to the one, sole God Who, in His boundless creative wisdom and eternal omnipotence, needed to bring into existence no more than one single, amorphous nucleus, and one single law of “adaptation and heredity” in order to bring forth, from what seemed chaos but was in fact a very definite order, the infinite variety of species we know today, each with its unique characteristics that sets it apart from all other creatures. (“The Educational Value of Judaism,” Collected Writings, vol. VII, p. 264)

To wrap this up, does one have to be a conservative to be an observant Jew? Absolutely not, all one must do it accept gods sovereignty, accept the Torah’s law as binding, and do their best to live their life accordingly, the rest is commentary.

Choose Life

In Deuteronomy 30:19, ha kadosh baruch hu says, "I call this day upon heaven and earth as witnesses. I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life." A religious person might read the words "life" and "blessing" as refering to Torah and Mitzvot, and "death" and "curse" as referring to doing sins to disconnecting oneself from Torah and Mitzvot.

Chassidus teaches us that life and death, blessing and curse, are not two separate entities from which we must choose. But in fact the Torah is telling us something much deeper: that everything in existence has life and death in it. The external of something is the death of that thing, and the internal of something is the life of it.

Judaism is not something we do. It's who we are and the Torah and Mitzvot connect us to that innermost part of ourselves. Choose life, L'shalom.

The Israel Lobby

I used to be a big fan of Andrew Sullivan and to this day still agree with much of his politics. However over the course of the last two years I’ve stopped reading his blog. I thought for a while I could just read it and ignore what I see as fundamentally flawed ideas. But in the end I’m an economist and I get that what I read, what I “pay” for (be it in time, money, etc) is ultimately who I am. So I quit reading his stuff, his feelings about Israel and the “Israel Lobby” in America have the ability to fuel what I see as a dangerous sentiments for the Jewish communities both at home and abroad.

Jeffery Goldberg and I feel similarly. Recently he wrote a lengthy response to Mr. Sullivan about one of his comments, below is an excerpt that I plucked out that has an undeniable ring of truth.

I think that critics of the "Jewish lobby" not only demonize Jewish participation in the democratic process, they fundamentally misunderstand the way powerful lobbies succeed: Lobbies succeed when they push on open doors. The NRA (which is a more powerful lobby than AIPAC, IMHO) succeeds in large part because the majority of America believes in gun rights as the NRA frames the issue. Similarly, I believe that AIPAC is pushing on open doors in Congress because the majority of Americans, polls show, are intuitively more sympathetic to Israel than to Israel's enemies. I don't believe, as AIPAC's critics do, that AIPAC creates pro-Israel legislation; I believe that pro-Israel feeling creates pro-Israel legislation. AIPAC organizes the feeling, buttresses the feeling, rewards the feeling, but I think it is obviously true that if Israel were truly unpopular in America, it would be unpopular in Congress.

Creation is our responsibility

Wisdom on parshas Noach from the Lubavitcher Rebbe:

According to the Torah, the world was created by G-d using the Name "Elokim". The Name used in reference to Noach, however, is the ineffable name of G-d that cannot be pronounced.

Elokim, has the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word for "nature," and represents a level of holiness that is limited. Whereas G-d's ineffable name (yud - hey - vav - hey) represents a level above all limitations.

We learn from this that the world, as it was created without man's contribution, has the potential for only a limited revelation of G-dliness. It is solely through the service of man that the higher, infinite and unlimited revelation of G-dliness is achieved.

In the Beginning of wisdom

I love autumn, I love waking up before the sun and feeling the cold seep through the windows (please check back with me in a month and a half when I’ll be cursing out the rain, sleet and snow that follows here in the great white north) autumn brings with it the annual cycle of holidays and a lost month of September. It was truly a crazy month and now I’m sitting and reflecting as I tend to do asking myself what did I learn? How did I grow? I’m not sure I have clear answers to anything most of the time. But these holidays and the way they are arranged do give a person the chance to spend time reflecting on themselves and on the year that was.

This is what I learned: I’ve grown a lot. Last year I had trouble following the services. If I got lost in the prayers I’d have to wait for a Kaddish or ask someone next to me where we were in order to get back on track. This year I could find my way back fairly quickly, I was even the one keeping many of those around me at the right spot. This is largely to do my command of Hebrew getting much, much better. I still have a long way to go on it but I’m getting there. Sometimes it’s hard to see but I realized this month that I can read fairly well even if I get nervous when reading out loud or for a crowd. That goes along with this observation: I’ve become more confident in my observance. I’ve learned when it’s okay to tell people to get off my back and when I need to accept a push or a prod. It hasn’t been easy. I still fight with my Rabbis and with my old friends and family seemingly about everything. There are still misunderstandings and tensions because I’ve made the choice to move from my old secular existence in the pursuit of an observant life. But it has its rewards as well.

Like experiencing for the second time the rapture that goes with making it through Yom Kippur, the ecstasy of the Neliah service at the end of the day when we trust that our prayers and confessions have been heard and accepted. I also built my first sukkah and was delighted to get to invite my neighbors to dwell in it with me (even if we did get rained out). Finally last week the final farewell for this holiday season came with Simchat Torah and with it the adventure of finding a new minyan, and the experience of feeling really connected with a new group of people. Getting to dance with the Torah with less inhibitions then I did last year and praying that next year I’ll truly be able to lose myself in the experience and dance like David HaMelach did before the ark as it was brought to Jerusalem without inhibition.

To top it all off I was called for the third aliyah to the Torah on Shabbat and I went up there with confidence and lead the minyan. That was the moment when it really hit me. For the last year I’d been struggling with taking a leadership role in my new community. In most situations I’m very vocal and assertive when I want to be but while starting the process of teshuva I’d become more reserved. Much of it had to do with feeling like a stranger in a foreign land wanting to feel at home but knowing that I was not. I used to dread being called up to the Torah so nervous and afraid of messing up the blessings that accompany it. But the other day I stepped up and just did it. It was a wonderful feeling and very affirming to feel with certainty in that moment that I do belong. That the work I’ve put in despite my knowledge that I can do more and do it better is paying off. It’s a blessing one I hope I can remember each and everyday of this new year.

Leading an observant Jewish lifestyle (as I now can safely say I do) has given me a greater appreciation for the sacredness of time. That I can’t just throw it away and that I should always be using it to get better. Taking so much time off this month, especially at the beginning of a hectic school / work time has had an even greater impact. For now we, the Jewish people decend to Egypt like our ancestors of old, as we will soon read about in the Torah. Not until Pesach will we again block off so much time for the sacred, for that which is eternal. May we all be blessed this year to learn and grow and look back at ourselves next year at this time and appreciate how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go. L’Shalom.

Bereshit

"Just as your hand, held before your eyes, can hide the tallest mountains - so this earthly life can keep you from seeing the vast radiance that fills the universe" – Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav

Ladies and gentlemen I hope you enjoyed the ride, had an AWEsome run of holidays and after all that we're back at where we began. I know I'm sure enjoying the ride...

The Sukkah and the Lulav

If the observance of Sukkah during the festival of Sukkos frees us from the bonds with which we tie ourselves to worldly possessions as the basis of our life and the anchor of our hopes, if it teaches us humility despite our material wealth and trust in God even without it, then the observance of Lulav causes us to rise to things higher–simcha, rejoicing before God in all that He has bestowed upon us.

The Sukkah negates material possessions as ultimate value; the Lulav links us again with our dependance upon our goods and chattels.

The Sukkah teaches us not to appraise too highly our worldly goods; the Lulav to value them at their true worth.

The Sukkah raises above our property to God alone; the Lulav teaches us to be imbued with the spirit of God and even to exalt our possessions as God-given.

The Sukkah prevents us from becoming too Earthly; the Lulav reminds us not to soar too high above the Earthly.

The Sukkah protects us from becoming debased by our wealth; the Lulav teaches us to cherish our possessions and dedicate them to sacred purposes as the gift of God.

The lesson of the Sukkah is that the acquisition of goods is not the sole aim of life; the Lulav teaches us to apprehend goods as instruments for our way of life before God; and so it brings us simcha, joy in living before God, in a life of godliness. For if life is understood thus, it makes no difference whether you attain much or little; the assessment of your life lies in whether you have lived it dutifully - with your much or your little. From this wells up the eternally joyful fountain of life sublime in the service of God, of simcha before God, of that happiness which rejoices him who possesses much or little as the gift of God by which he can fulfill the will of God on earth – the happiness of living in the presence of God, your God; a happiness which is as eternal as life itself and as God who is its source.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb p.132

Israel and the Saudis

War makes interesting bed fellows of us all. I say this because this morning I was reading about the United States impending $60 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia which Israel was implicitly endorsed. What would once have seemed a fantasy is now a reality. Israel is supportive of helping arm a country which is has no formal diplomatic ties to and we have Iran to thank for that. How strange would it be if the rising threat of a nuclear Iran, of a new Persian empire is what it takes to unite Israel and a significant portion of the Arab world together? It’s just a thought and it seems like a crazy one but sometimes that is exactly what people need to come together. The threat of a terrible enemy to make them realize that in the face of that, they’re differences can be overcome and dealt with. I don’t know if anything will come out of this but it’s certainly a fascinating development.

Pearls of wisdom from the Jewish Buddhist

Thought these were not only funny, but also fairly true, Enjoy.

Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

Drink tea and nourish life; with the first sip, joy; with the second sip, satisfaction; with the third sip, peace; with the fourth, a Danish.

Accept misfortune as a blessing. Do not wish for perfect health, or a life without problems. What would you talk about?

There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single Oy. Vey.

Be aware of your body. Be aware of your perceptions. Keep in mind that not every physical sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.

The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao is not Jewish.

The Torah says, Love your neighbor as yourself. The Buddha says, There is no self. So, maybe we're off the hook

Amen

The word Amen is an acronym for "Kayl Melech Ne'eman," which means, G-d, trustworthy King.

Choices

In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time - literally - substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it. - Peter Drucker

Holocaust Denial

I take Holocaust denial as Holocaust affirmation. People who say it didn't happen are people who wish it would happen again. I don't think there are any exceptions to that. This is not a fit person [Ahmadinejad] to be in command of nuclear weapons. - Christopher Hitchens

The Father of Us All

Reading The Father of Us All by Victor Davis Hanson, its a fascinating read, one quote I pulled out:

To suggest that Hezbollah and Israel, Hamas and Israel, or Syria and Israel, when the next Middle East war breaks out, be allowed to fight each other until one side wins and the other loses, and thus the source of their conflict be adjudicated by the verdict of the battlefield, is now seen not only as passé but also amoral altogether. Who would wish a no-holds-barred showdown? And would not the loser simply try to reconstitute his forces for a second round? We should remember that both victory and clear-cut defeat often put an end to a power struggles in a way armistices and timeouts do not. - p.118

What Would Brandeis Do?

From Jeffery Goldberg's interview with Jeffery Rosen.

Did he get into trouble as a result? Brandeis's embrace of Zionism came only a few years before his Supreme Court nomination, and anti-Semitism certainly played some role in the opposition his nomination... Why are there no figures of Brandeis's stature who embrace Zionism with similar bravery today? ...perhaps the moral and political stakes seemed clearer in Brandeis's day than they do in ours. Brandeis thought that for Jews to be indifferent to Israel's right to exist also meant denying their own identity as Americans and Jews, and perhaps we need to remember his challenge today.

Ear versus Eye

Perhaps the most profound difference between the two civilizations of antiquity that are most responsible for the culture of the Western world ancient Greece and ancient Israel Is their focus: the Greeks were the supreme masters of the visual arts: art, sculpture, architecture and the theatre. Jews, as a matter of profound religious principle, were not.

For Israel G-d, the sole object of worship is invisible. He transcends nature. He created the universe and is therefore beyond the universe. He cannot be seen. He reveals Himself only in speech. Therefore the supreme religious act in Judaism is to listen. Ancient Greece was a culture of the eye; ancient Israel a culture of the ear. The Greeks worshipped what they saw; Israel worshipped what they heard.

Chief Rabbi J. Sacks

Parsha Va’etchanan

This week’s Parsha contains perhaps the most famous and important idea in all of Torah. The Shema has many important ideas in it, but none more important than the imperative to teach our children the ways of our people. In this sentence we learns that although a person might think that the mitzvah of learning Torah takes precedence over that of teaching others, the opposite is in fact true. We learn from the emphasis on teaching children the proper approach we should have when we begin to learn Torah.

When Jews do mitzvah’s we create a change in the physical world, we elevate physical objects and seemingly mundane tasks and make them holy buy using those objects in the performance of mitzvoth and in our service to gd. The practical performance of the mitzvah is therefore more important than the intentions of the person doing the deed. The action itself brings spiritual illumination into the world.

In contrast to this Torah learning’s purpose is to refine and elevate the individual. When a person engages in the act of studying Torah their intellect becomes united with the gdly wisdom contained within and that wisdom affects the individual. Aiding and helping us to be more gdly people whose thoughts and actions are holy. Therefore learning Torah is in essence a process of humbling oneself and nullifying oneself with the goal of approaching gd with an open heart and mind.

Before we learn Torah we must subjugate our own ego and ask ourselves what does the Torah want from me? Our Sages say that without this prerequisite, Torah learning can be like a poisonous drug. Without asking this question we can actually damage ourselves.

I’d like to thank, Chabad.org and the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l for this insight, Shabbat Shalom.

Post Tisha B'av Thoughts

The gemara says that the Beis Ha-Mikdash was destroyed because the Jews limited their actions to the letter of the law of the Torah and did not act beyond the letter of the law. Tosfos note that the gemara in Yoma suggests a different reason, baseless hatred. Tosfos reconcile this apparent contradiction by asserting that both of these reasons caused the destruction. The Maharal adds that these weren’t two independent reasons; they operated in tandem.

I think this is a beautiful idea. However despite its beauty it also makes me sad, by my reasoning this speaks very poorly of Am Israel as a nation. To me this means that not only do we not rush to do mitzvahs and go beyond what we have to do in our obligation to gd; we also don’t go beyond our obligation to our own people by accepting each other for who we are. We hate each other because we are different, because we cannot manage to get beyond the largely ascetic differences in the way we dress, or the way we serve gd, or the way we speak and recognize each other for what we are. What each and everyone of us are is created by gd. We are created in ha kadosh baruch hu's image and therefore are sacred.

Unfortunately I was reminded of this all too viscerally just this last Shabbat when I brought my sister over to one of my closest Rabbis houses. This was my sisters first chance to see and experience life in my new city. I wanted her to see that I have a family in Boston who loves me and takes care of me. To see that I have a Rabbi who I’m friends with. Someone whose counsel I trust, who I don’t necessarily agree with all the time but whose family I love. Unfortunately my Rabbi could not get beyond my sisters level of observance, and I unfortunately checked out of the conversation, spending my time play with his kids and not listening. Afterwards my sister tried talking with me about her concerns and fears but all I could hear from her was the stereotypical, surface level criticisms about the orthodox world and I did nothing to dispel them, instead I got angry and defensive. Not that she wasn't also acting in a similar way (we are related after all), but I should have listened to her concerns and tried to get a clearer picture of what went down between the two of them instead of reacting the way I did.

Later I was filled in on the conversation by a neutral party and I feel terrible that because I didn't participate in the conversation, mediating between the two that hostility was formed and some stereotypes were reinforced. I feel terrible that because I didn't get a clear picture of what happened and instead reacted defensively my sister and I spent the night going at each other and arguing. I could have handled it better, I should of listened and found points of commonality.

I feel like an ass, that I allowed myself to get caught up in the same surface level, petty criticisms that I accused her of, before finding out the whole story. It’s because of this that we are still waiting for the redemption and the rebuilding of the Beit Ha-Mikdash. It’s because of situations like this that we still hate one another and fight with one another and can’t come together as one nation, strong and unified.

I thought about this while I fasted the other day and I’m still thinking about it today and I can only hope and pray that next time I’ll be able to be a better example for all parties involved. I also hope that this year I can increase of performance of mitzvoth, not just in regards to my relationship with gd but also in terms of my relationship of all of Am Israel and the other nations. I hope and pray that I can go about the performance of mitzvoth with enthusiasm and vigor each and every day. That I will not feel burdened by walking in the ways of my ancestors, but will instead feel empowered and rush to fulfill my many obligations. I hope that though this I will do my part in bring the redemption and the rebuilding of the temple speedily in our days.

The Orthoprax Rabbi

There has been a buzz on the Jewish blogosphere, maybe you’ve heard of The Orthoprax Rabbi's Blog,

There is one thing really struck me while I was reading it. His critiques of orthodoxy (of which there should be much debate about) and about falling out of belief are exceedingly similar to my thoughts about coming to a belief in god, in the Torah, in an absolute truth (viewed subjectively) he writes about how limiting the system is. How it emphasizes fear of god, making those who subscribe to it restrict themselves out of a fear of heaven, it constricts people and forces them into a limited world.

But I feel much the same way about the whole world and of every culture, most ideologies constrict to, that they themselves are restricting and expect people to fit into a small space. No matter what you believe, no matter how you believe you’re inevitably tying you’re self to a system and a set of beliefs and those beliefs have inherent limitations, no matter what they are.

Intense belief or non-belief of anything is or can be limiting depending on your commitment to the idea. But of course I can also be part of any group of people and still retain their ability to question and grow and struggle with what the purpose or meaning of it all is, or what’s important to them.

He relates a son of his son coming home from school and asking him it’s possible that god created everything (go to his blog and read it). He states that he doesn’t try to dispel to his son what he believes is wrong. He longs for his son to ask him the next question, well then who made god? Longing for the day when his son will ask that question and be set free. It’s a beautiful story. I to have issues with that question but I think he misses the point. While I to have trouble with that question, that one question (or anyone question) alone does not make me not believe in the Torahs truth, or in gods existence, and less for me it enhances my faith, makes it deeper and fuller.

Questions will always exist but its about what you do what you’re asking those questions that matters. That’s where your heart is and that’s what matters, when something matters to do you do it because it makes you more happy then doing something else, his anguish seems to come from his inability to be who he is, where he is.

To him and to everyone, Shabbat Shalom

I wish it wasn't so

"We are born into war, every child in Israel knows war" - Unnamed Israeli Commando

Pinchas

A thought on this weeks parsha from one of my Rabbi’s in Jerusalem.

Parshas Pinchas is always read around the beginning of the Three Weeks, the time period in which we mourn the destruction of the Beis Ha-Mikdash. The gemara (Yoma 9b) says that the first Beis Ha-Mikdash was destroyed because of the performance of three grave sins: gilui arayos (immorality), avoda zara (idolatry), and shefichas damim (murder). The second Beis Ha-Mikdash, on the other hand, was destroyed because of sinas chinam, hatred of fellow Jews. A few lines later in the gemara, we are told that the sin that lead to the destruction of the second Beis Ha-Mikdash was not revealed. How could that be? If Reuven hates Shimon, doesn’t invite him over to his house, stops talking to him, and doesn’t allow his children to play with Shimon’s, aren’t his feelings apparent? Isn’t it clear as day that Reuven hates Shimon?

I once heard a beautiful answer. Sometimes people don’t speak to others for good reasons. For example, if Reuven knows that by speaking to Shimon he will end up hearing lashon ha-ra, he must stay away from him. Reuven’s mindset is le-sheim Shamayim - he doesn’t want to do an aveira. However, if Shimon realizes that Reuven has ceased to interact with him, he may become hurt and begin to have ill feelings for Reuven. When Reuven then hears that Shimon has ill feelings towards him, there’s a very good chance that Reuven will then have ill feelings towards Shimon, unrelated to the fact that Shimon might speak lashon ha-ra; this is sinas chinam. While Reuven began with a mindset of le-sheim Shamayim, it is difficult to maintain that mindset for long. After a while, one might actually enjoy not speaking to the other person or begin to feel that he is better than him. In the times of the Beis Ha-Mikdash, the sin of sinas chinam was not revealed because on the outside it seemed that everything was le-sheim Shamayim. But Hashem knows what man’s real intentions and motivations are; He knows if they are really le-sheim Shamayim, and since they weren’t, the Beis Ha-Mikdash was destroyed.

The lesson that we learn from Pinchas is that we must constantly check and recheck our motivations. Are our actions really for the sake of Hashem? There is a beautiful mashal that illustrates this point. A woman and a cat were running around the house trying to trap a mouse. While an onlooker might assume that they were both performing the same act, there was a major difference between the two. The woman wished the mouse would never been there in the first place, while the cat was ecstatic that the “problem” existed for it to “take care of.” Sometimes, people join protests against things that are wrong, but they wish they did not have to protest at all. Others enjoy protesting and are quite happy that they have the opportunity.

Through our introspection, we can ensure that we will always act le-sheim shamayim like Pinchas (gematria 208). May the merit of our actions being le-sheim shamayim speedily bring the rebuilding of the Beis Ha-Mikdash and the ultimate comfort given by Hashem of “nachamu, nachamu” (gematria 208).

A moment of Zen

G-d lives in people, and they are rarely the most successful or even the most overtly religious. Religion, when it leads to self-righteousness, can become a barrier separating us from G-d. - The Chief Rabbi J. Sacks

The UN and Autocracy

From Foreign Policy, excerpts below:

The U.N.'s relationship with autocracy has always been fraught, but the organization has only grown more schizophrenic toward repressive rulers since the fall of the Berlin Wall, becoming more openly pro-democracy even as it has remained at times astonishingly accommodating of dictators. It's true that the U.N.'s commendable corps of experts has provided important technical assistance for elections in dozens of developing countries taking halting steps toward democracy in recent years. But most of the U.N. system remains a safe haven, offering an imprimatur of legitimacy that dictators often can't find elsewhere.

As the developing world increasingly came under the rule of military juntas, one-party systems, and other forms of authoritarianism, the U.N. accordingly became a place dictators were welcomed and outrageous abuses were ignored. No matter how loathed by their people, ghastly rulers like Uganda's Idi Amin could make use of the U.N. platform and continue to participate in U.N. activities even as they oversaw massive violations of human rights.

Decades later, the organization has not done much better in combating the pathologies of dictatorship within such countries. Look at Darfur, where the U.N. leadership decried widespread killing, but then stood by and watched.

Is the U.N. to blame for the persistence of dictators? In the end, the answer must be "no," if only because the U.N. does not have that much clout. Dictators come to power because of complex and powerful domestic forces, and that often gives them the ability to resist significant international pressure, much less the moral suasion and limited sanctions that the U.N. can propose.

Of course the U.N. could do more. But that would require an effort on the part of the great powers that, they haven't exactly been interested in. Unless they change their ways, both the U.N. and the dictators it gives aid and comfort to will look increasingly like relics of a bygone era.

Self Sacrifice

From A Fire Burns in Breslov:

How can one live a life of self sacrifice? Life is filled with tests, especially for those who keep Torah and mitzvos. We have a clear precedent for virtually every step of life. What we can and cannot do, and how to do that which we must. Those who withstand the many trials of life and fulfill Torah as it should be kept live with self-sacrifice. We have six hundred and thirteen mitzvos which teach us how to live our lives. How to eat and how to sleep; every detail is explained. Non-Jews are free to do as they please. Nevertheless, a Jew who overcomes his base urges feels filled with joy. Like a general returning from a victorious battle, he sees the positive and rejoices in his success. Most importantly, he rejoices in his portion as one of the chosen of Hashem, a son of the King.”

A Common Purpose

Being Jewish is like totally awesome, know what I mean? Maybe not so let me try to explain.

Being an observant Jew can be really hard, it forces you to change everything about your life if you grew up secular like I did. It forces you to make all these changes and sacrifices but out of those restricts and rules, there comes such beauty. Case in point, last night I had an observant friend stay the night. He had an appointment downtown and this cut an hour off his commute so no problem right? That’s just what friends do for one another. But it doesn’t end there behind that is this whole other thing, this guy is a future doctor and I live right next to a hospital that he’s going to be interning in at soon. When my girlfriend heard about this, her first reaction was to him was so of course you can come over when you’re working and use the kitchen. The fact that we are all bound together with a common purpose and common set of ideals and ideas is what creates that connection so powerfully. If not for my kitchen, he’d have to pack lunches, eat cold food, etc. But with my kitchen he can just come over and have food, with no restrictions. Being observant means opening up your home to people from all over, because they need a kosher food stop, or because it Shabbat and they’ve traveled a long way and need a place, whatever the reason, it binds us all together.

I love that this brings me and an acquaintance closer together it makes us closer friends it forces us to get to know one another, it makes me stretch myself constantly. Another example; at the beginning of this week I got sick and everyone knew why? Because there was a wedding and I didn’t go. There are always public events going on and everyone always congregates and when you become part of that web people notice stuff a lot easier and they check up on you and ask if you need anything and go out of their way for you because if you have to go to the hospital then you’ll need food, we’ll keep you in our thoughts when we pray… I hope I’m conveying the frenetic nature of it all, because it’s so vibrate, so alive all the time.

Sometimes I hear from my non-observant friends and family and from them I always hear about the hardships I must endure or the rules I must follow and what a bore it must be and what cant things be simpler, etc and I understand that because I once felt that way to, but now? I can’t imagine my life without it. Can’t imagine my life without Shabbat without a time when no matter what I’m doing I take a break I put it out of my mind and just relax, eat food with friends, take a nap in the middle of the day because worrying is for tomorrow, thinking about all the work I have to do is for the next day and I can deal with it then.

There is such freedom and such love within all the rules and restrictions it binds Am Israel together as a nation, it’s beautiful and I love it and I could never imagine going back.

Shabbat Shalom

Balak

From the Chief Rabbi:

In this weeks parsha, emissaries go from Moab to Midian. Balak king of Moab wants Bilaam to curse the Israelites. Bilaam's answer is a model of propriety: Stay the night, he says, while I consult with G-d. G-d's answer is unequivocal: "Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed."

Obediently, Bilaam refuses. Balak redoubles his efforts. He sends a second set of emissaries. Bilaam's reply is exemplary: "Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my G-d." However, he adds a fateful rider: "Now stay here tonight as the others did, and I will find out what else the LORD will tell me." The implication is clear. Bilaam is suggesting that G-d may change His mind. But this is impossible. That is not what G-d does. Yet to our surprise, that is what G-d seems to do: That night G-d came to Bilaam and said, "Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you." Why does Bilaam ask again? Why would G-d change his mind?

The true meaning of G-d's second reply, "Go with them," is, "If you insist, then I cannot stop you going - but I am angry that you should have asked a second time." G-d did not change His mind at any point in the proceedings. In scenes 1, 2 and 3, G-d did not want Bilaam to go. His "Yes" in scene 2 meant "No" - but it was a No Bilaam could not hear, was not prepared to hear. When G-d speaks and we do not listen, He does not intervene to save us from our choices. "Man is led down the path he chooses to tread."

The difference between a false prophet and a true prophet is: the false prophet speaks. The true prophet listens. The false prophet tells people what they want to hear. The true prophet tells them what they need to hear. The false prophet believes in his own powers. The true prophet knows that he has no power.

"No" is the hardest word to hear, but it is also often the most important - and the sign that someone cares. That is what Bilaam, humbled, eventually learned and what we too must discover if we are to be open to the voice of G-d.

A fly falls into a cup of coffee

The Italian - throws the cup and goes into a fit of anger.

The Frenchman - pulls out the fly and drinks the coffee.

The Chinese - eats the fly and throws out the coffee.

The Russian – drinks the coffee with the fly.

The Israeli - sells the coffee to the Frenchman, the fly to the Chinese, buys himself a new a cup of coffee and uses the remaining money to invent a device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.

The Palestinian - blames the Israeli for having thrown the fly in his coffee, complains to the UN for this act of aggression, receives a loan from the European Union to buy a cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives and then explodes himself in a cafe, where the Italian, Frenchman, Chinese, and Russian, are all trying to explain to the Israeli that he should give his cup of coffee to the unfortunate Palestinian.

The Brothers Karamazov

On Sunday night I completed a marathon, no I did not run 26.2 miles, in fact I hardly moved at all.

What I did do was finish The Brothers Karamazov. Brothers K is the final novel of Fyodor Dovstoevsky and it is a masterpiece. It’s also a 700+ page behemoth of a book that took me a solid three weeks to get through. It was a commitment but only once (when I had around 60 pages left) did I ever dream of putting it down (and I’m happy I pushed through and finished it) it was simply wonderful.

Contained within the voluminous pages of this book is the story of not just the four brothers of Pavel Karamazov, not just the intrigue of the mystery of the murder of their father but also the story of an entire country. It’s about the soul of Russia and also the soul of all men. Dovstoevsky is a philosopher and a poet; he goes on in length about what makes a man a man, what makes men good and holy, and evil and base. He struggles with g-d and man’s relationship to the creator; he struggles with the desires both good and evil of all people.

I cannot hope to translate the beauty of the experience of reading this book. But only urge readers to not be intimidated by it and to pick up the wonderful translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky and be prepared to go to battle with this book. If you dare to rise to the challenge you will not be disappointed, you will finish and think and think and think about the ideas contained within it. It will transform you and you will be better for the experience.

I’ll leave you with a quote: "First of all and before all be kind, then honest, and then - let us never forget one another...dear friends, do not be afraid of life! How good life is when you do something good and rightful!" - Alyosha Karamazov

June 13, 2010

Today is June 13, 2010

Yesterday, June 12 was the first anniversary of the Iranian elections and the start of the protests about its legitimacy. I feel tired as I write this. But a year ago yesterday the people of Iran stood up against their despotic regime and the world was silent, and yesterday once again most of the world was silent and I don’t want to make this about Israel because it’s not.

It’s about consistency. When a country, a leader says we support the rights of all people to live in relative freedom we need to be consistent, if we’re not then we do not only ourselves a disservice, but also those struggling to be free and to have the right to speak openly.

A recent report from Amnesty International states:

"Iran's latest presidential election on June 12, 2009, took place against a backdrop of discrimination, worsening repression of dissent and violent unrest.”

They continue to document serious human rights violations, including detention of human rights defenders and other prisoners of conscience, unfair trials, torture and mistreatment in detention, deaths in custody and the application of the death penalty.

“Iran has one of the highest number of recorded executions of any country in the world.... Furthermore, Iran executes more people than any other country in the world except for China. Iran is also the only country in the world that continues to execute juvenile offenders…Iran is now witnessing sweeping restrictions on the use of communications technology, including telecommunications, satellite broadcasts and internet access, a ban on peaceful demonstrations, armed attacks on students in university premises, as well as the arbitrary arrest of political activists, students, journalists, and human rights defenders."

Never mind, the rest of the world, where was the United States a year ago when protests began in Tehran? It was the twitter revolution we couldn’t get away from it and yet by and large we were silent. Me included I think we all share in the blame. The world missed an opportunity on that day, while there is no guarantee that anyone thing could have stopped the savage rulers of the Persian Empire Khamenei and Ahmadinejad from solidifying their power and silencing the opposition, we’ll never know because we were silent.

Yesterday I prayed for the people of Iran who are unable to speak their minds openly as I’m doing now. I prayed for them and prayed for myself. I prayed for forgiveness and for my indifferent heart.

Let us not forget all those who today are not free. Yibaneh Ha-Mikdash

We are one family

According to this article in the New York Time's Jew's are one family.

Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East share many genes inherited from the ancestral Jewish population that lived in the Middle East some 3,000 years ago, even though each community also carries genes from other sources.

The shared genetic elements suggest that members of any Jewish community are related to one another as closely as are fourth or fifth cousins in a large population, which is about 10 times higher than the relationship between two people chosen at random off the streets of New York City.

Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews have roughly 30 percent European ancestry, with most of the rest from the Middle East, the two surveys find.

A Safe Haven

At the end of WWII Jews were still being killed in Eastern Europe, having been thrown out of their homes when they returned many were not allowed to reclaim their homes and business and as many as 1500 were killed in Poland alone. Much of Europe made it clear that it did not want its returning Jews to come back to their homes. The United States, under its fears of communism, maintained tight quotas. So Jews turned their eyes to Eretz Israel. Life would not be easy there but in Israel they would be together and relatively safe.

In their book 'A Safe Haven', The Radoshes cite Branda Kalk, a Polish Jew who lost her husband to the Germans in 1942 during the war she and her family fled east to Russia, where they remained until the end of the war. When they returned to Poland a pogrom wiped out what remained of her family and Kalk was shot in the eye.

Before the U.N. investigating committee she had this to say, "I want to go to Palestine, I know the conditions there. But where in the world is it good for the Jew? Sooner or later he is made to suffer. In Palestine, at least, the Jews fight together for their life and their country."

A moment of Zen

From a great website I just discovered Not always right:

Clerk: “Can I help you find anything, ma’am?”

Customer: “Yeah, I’m looking for Christian passover cards.”

Clerk: “I’m sorry, ma’am, we don’t carry any Christian Passover cards. Were you maybe looking for the Easter cards?”

Customer: “No, I need Passover cards for a Christian.”

Clerk: “I’m sorry, but Passover is a Jewish holiday. We don’t carry Christian Passover cards because Christians don’t celebrate it.”

Customer: “Jesus did!”

Indifference

“The opposite of love is not hate, its indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, its indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, its indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, its indifference.”- Elie Wiesel

Be true to yourself and stay humble

I need to get this off my chest; I woke up this morning with feelings of despair. I truly felt this morning like the world was going to hell and there was nothing that anyone could do to stop it. I’m sure by now you’ve heard about what happened the other day when Israel committed one of the most egregious, stupid errors I have ever been a witness to. I am angry today, angry at Israel like I have never been before. What occurred on the seas the other day was terrible, it was a terrible thing and today Israel is paying the price for such a stupid and misguided action.

On this blog, on facebook and with my words and actions I have always been a strong supporter of Israel, the place that I love with passion and intensity and pride. But today I feel such shame and grief, shame and grief like I have never felt before towards the leaders of a great nation. Today Israel must do something that it has never before done in international court. It must be humble and admit that this operation was a mistake, a mistake on every level. The plan was stupid, the outcome and consequences were foreseeable, and Israel needs to stand up today before the world and admit that this was a mistake and it shall not be repeated. I love Israel with every fiber of by being, but this was stupid and shortsighted.

In the coming months and years Israel faces a threat like it has never faced before, Hamas in Gaza is armed, Hezbollah in Lebanon is one of the most battle hardened and sophisticated militias in the world and Iran is orchestrating the whole thing, in an attempt to stretch its hegemony in the Middle East from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. It is inconceivable to me, inconceivable that at a time like this Israel would engage in a military action that was so shortsighted, did they achieve their objectives with this operation? Yes, they stopped the ship, but Israel has traded a tactical victory for a strategic nightmare. Was this boat delivering supplies that could have been used to make weapons? I would wager yes, but was stopping this very small delivery worth the cost? I say no, and anyone who says yes is thinking in a very shortsighted manner. They didn’t have to do this, they could have turned the boat around another way, they could have done so many things differently.

Today my heart grieves for the lives lost, for the Israeli soldiers who bravely did their jobs and were put into an impossible situation by their commanders. All across the world today there are protests against this action, all around the world today people are condemning Israel. I just don't get it, I don't get the whole thing, I want to understand it, but I don't and I wish I did. I hope that with more information some sense will be made of this. But the truth is, is that it doesn't matter, the damage has been done.

The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment

A very insightful article sent to me from a friend, written by Peter Beinart in the New York Review of Books thats worth reading.

A quote:

Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens. For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.

My response to my friend:

I'll try to keep it short but what it comes down to for me and I think a majority of Israelis is a simple fact: we've tried to be reasonable but the time for that is quickly coming to an end, we've read our history we know what awaits us if we let our guard down, if we don't protect ourselves no one else will save us and while we are not perfect the enemy is at our gates and we will not sit quietly and let ourselves be destroyed.

To make a larger point, I'll quote George Orwell "Turn-the-other-cheek pacifism, only flourishes among the more prosperous classes, or among workers who have in some way escaped from their own class. The real working class, are never really pacifist, because their life teaches them something different. To abjure violence it is necessary to have no experience of it.”

Do I want peace? Yes absolutely but I sit comfortably in America, a land where (at least for now) as Jew I am safe, meanwhile there are those who choose to live in a far more hostile land, the land of our fathers, father, fathers... we to have a right to that land and that right is not recognized by most the world. We all have to make choices in life about where we stand and while I know Israel isn't perfect I stand with her.

But hell maybe this is just a perfect example of what he's talking about in his article.

love you brother, L'shalom

No Place

“There’s no place for science in this world.”

As quoted in the MA state legislature when discussing an amendment in a bill that would allow locals and not experts to determine if there is sufficient wind to justify building turbines in an area or not… You can’t make this stuff up…

For or against?

Check out this most disturbing moment of clarity. I struggle with my positions on many things, my relationship with g-d, Torah and the state of Israel. I’ve found that often the real struggle is between the liberal and conservative in me, the person who wants to keep an open mind and the person who has looked at the world with an open mind, found what it was looking for and now seeks to defend that from those who would destroy it… maybe I’m being dramatic, but I’m a dramatic guy, this clip is from David Horowitz's talk at the University of California, San Diego. It is disturbing on many levels.

A polite yet hostile student in the audience introduces herself as Jumanah Imad Albahri of the Muslim Students' Association; she refuses to condemn either Hamas or Hezbollah when Horowitz asks her to clarify her position. He asks her a series of questions which she dodges until he asks her this one:

"I am a Jew," he says. "The head of Hezbollah has said that he hopes that we will gather in Israel so he doesn’t have to hunt us down globally. For or against it?"

"For it," she says.

It is moments like this one that help me clarify my own stance. I am still a liberal in many ways but it is views like the one of this girl that make me less open to talking about Israel and its place in the world, that make me less open to the idea that there could ever be any kind of lasting peace with Hamas or Hezbollah and it is moment like these that make me say to myself, Israel may be deeply flawed but I am a Jew if I do not support it, if I do not stand against those who hate it, it will perish in a moment. Michael Totten, an excellent writer on Middle Eastern Affray has this the say:

No sooner was the video of this exchange posted when one of the student’s teachers rushed to defend her.

“This girl is actually my student,” A. Casavantes wrote in the comments’ section of Horowitz’s NewsReal blog. “I know her to be an intelligent, moral young woman who believes in peace. I do not support any organization that advocates violence against any specific group, nor do I believe that my student would do so. As a peace loving, Catholic teacher, I’m saddened that this speaker — her elder — manipulated the conversation in this fashion to make her look like someone she isn’t, out of an egotistical desire to prove his own point, rather than engaging in a constructive dialogue.”

It’s a phenomenon as peculiar as it is disturbing, motivated in large part...by fear. “Too many very intelligent people are running away from looking at some very influential and pernicious doctrines of our own time. They don’t want to look. They prefer to shut their eyes and hope for the best.”

There is a difference between being open minded and having a hole in your head

Self criticism

From Shmuley Boteach at the J-Post.

Communities that are not self-critical always risk going off the deep end. They have no internal mechanism to weed out corruption.

State of Emergency

Boston is in a state of emergency.

At 5:00pm on Shabbat a major water vane broke, thirty Massachusetts communities’ water supplies were compromised. I found out about this while walking to the Kollel for mincha. The Boston police drove through my community and announced it. When they did I wondered why they were driving through, it didn’t seem like they would have to. After all, all they had to do to get the word out was put it online, the radio, TV, etc. The only reason I could think of that they had to drive through and make an announcement was because it was Shabbat and we would have had no way of knowing what was going on otherwise.

That is exactly why they did it.

The police drove through all the religious Jewish communities and made announcements specifically for us. That made me think about how beautiful a place America is. Despite its problems it’s an amazing country. The powers that be went out of their way for a small minority group just to be sure we would be safe.

There are times I dream of Israel, it’s an ideal and everyone has one. When I was younger I dreamed of Australia just like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Too often that ideal blinds me from seeing what is right in front of my eyes, what is beautiful. Boston is in a state of emergency, but I have a smile on my face.

Purification

From the Chief Rabbi himself Jonathan Sacks, enjoy:

Rabbi Akiva said: Happy are you, Israel. Who is it before whom you are purified and who purifies you? Your Father in heaven. As it is said: And I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. And it further says: You hope of Israel, the Lord. Just as a fountain purifies the impure, so does the Holy One, blessed be He, purify Israel.

According to Rabbi Akiva specifically, and rabbinic thought generally, in the absence of a Temple, a High Priest and sacrifices, all we need to do is repent, to do teshuvah, to acknowledge our sins, to commit ourselves not to repeat them in the future, and to ask G-d to forgive us. Nothing else is required: not a Temple, not a priest, and not a sacrifice. G-d Himself purifies us. There is no need for an intermediary. What Christianity transcendentalized, Judaism democratized. As the Yiddish dramatist S. Ansky put it: Where there is true turning to G-d, every person becomes a priest, every prayer a sacrifice, every day a Day of Atonement and every place a Holy of Holies.

This really was the parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity. At stake were two quite different ways of understanding the human person, the nature of sin, the concept of guilt and its atonement, and the mediated or unmediated relationship between us and G-d. Judaism could not accept the concept of “original sin” since Jeremiah and Ezekiel had taught, six centuries before the birth of Christianity, that sin is not transferred across the generations. Nor did it need a metaphysical substitute for sacrifice, believing as it did in the words of the Psalmist (Ps. 51: 17): “The sacrifices of G-d are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O G-d, you will not despise”. We are all sons or daughters of G-d, who is close to all who call Him in truth. That is how one of the greatest tragedies to hit the Jewish people led to an unprecedented closeness between G-d and us, unmediated by a High Priest, unaccompanied by any sacrifice, achieved by nothing more or less than turning to G-d with all our heart, asking for forgiveness and trusting in His love.

Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow

This is the 4th night I’ve spent in the hospital in a row, its Shabbat but I’m typing on my computer, sometimes the rules go out the window. There’s nothing technically wrong with me, I’m fine, or so I keep telling the woman I love. Nothing wrong with me that can’t be cured if only she would feel better. Its 7:49am we’ve been up all night, we thought we were getting out of here yesterday afternoon, we thought we were getting out of here this morning. But no, last night when we fell asleep I thought that she was getting better. I thought that I would wake up in the morning next to her and find that the pain was reseeding, that after four days of tests and no answers the pain would go away the same way it came, suddenly and without warning. But no, it came back worse than before, woke up my darling in the middle of the night, brought her to tears, had us both in tears actually. I feel helpless right now, the woman that I love, the woman who I’ve been talking with about baby names all week is sick and we still don’t know why. The doctors have been great, running tests, but the tests have been coming up empty. I had the worst dreams last night that I’ve ever had in my life, I don’t even want to repeat them but they involved doctors and emergency surgeries and horrible, horrible ideas. They consume me, I try to control them but still I’ve been crying at the drop of a hat, tears spring to my eyes without notice, I just can’t help it. Life is funny sometimes; it throws you curveballs that come out of nowhere. Growing up is hard, it makes you think and feel things that you never thought possible, for instance I never realized I was such an emotional person, never realized that I could be so in love with someone that it hurts me when she’s hurting. I posted this on facebook yesterday before Shabbat: I'd just like to take this moment to wish everyone Shabbat Shalom, there are times in life that help us understand what really matters in life and what does not. I feel blessed this week to have been given such clarity...now I'd just like to take my girl home and get out of this hospital, please g-d soon.

… As I was writing this the nurse came in and gave us some news, when the pain hit hard last night they scheduled a ultrasound, again it came back negative. But another test came back and it might be something, something not so serious. If it is this then it can be treated, I’m going to go pray now, its Shabbat this is usually the day that I unplug, that I let go of everything that’s has happened during the week. Now finally I might be able to plug back in, plug back into reality, to what’s real in this world.

If you’re reading this please take a moment to think about those who you love and say a quick prayer for the woman I love and for a refuah shlema (quick recovery) for B'reena Rachel bat Danit.

Shabbat Shalom

The shortest

The shortest prayer recorded in the Torah is the prayer of Moses when he discoveres that his sister Miriam has been afflicted with leprosy. He cries out to God from the depth of his being: "Please, Lord, heal her now."His prayer is as searing as it is simple, and it captures his anguish and his complete faith in God that his prayer can and will be answered.

I ask you now, Please g-d, heal her now.

Somethings never change

In honor of Yom Haatzmaut, Israel Independence Day

ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION...by Eric Hoffer – Los Angeles Times May 26, 1968.

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it.
Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman.
Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.
Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one.
Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms.
But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace.
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.
Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.
Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on.
There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia.
But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one demonstrated against him.
The Swedes, who were ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we did in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews.
They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troops in Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world.
If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources.
Yet at this moment, Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally.
We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us.
And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israelis to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.
Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.

the order

…if we were able to understand sufficiently well the order of the universe, we should find that it surpasses all the desires of the wisest of us, and that it is impossible to render it better than it is, not only for all in general, but also for each one of us in particular… Gottfried Liebniz, The Monadology

tiny, pretty and blue

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - Neil Armstrong

fortune cookie wisdom

Writing is thinking on paper.

The guide

I consider the following opinion as most correct according to the teaching of the Bible and the results of philosophy, namely that the universe does not exist for man's sake, but that each being insists for its own sake, and not because of some other thing. Thus we believe in Creation, and yet need not inquire what purpose is served by each species of existing things, because we assume that G-d created all parts of the universe by His will; some for their own sake, and some for the sake of other beings (III:13) . . . Consider how vast are the dimensions and how great the number of these corporeal beings. If the whole of the earth would not constitute even the smallest part of the sphere of the fixed stars, what is the relation of the human species to all these created things, and how can any of us imagine that they exist for his sake and that they are instruments for his benefit? (III:14)

Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed

fortune cookie wisdom

A different world, cannot be built by indifferent people. - from a fortune cookie

Once we were slaves in the land of Egypt

Pesach is a crazy time in the Jewish calendar, its kicks off the holiday season and it’s a big one. I’ve spent the last two weeks dreading it, complaining about everything involved with it and praying to gd that I’ll be ready in time with it and freaking out that I won’t. But last night I remembered something, that amid the rush of work, school, of getting my life together enough to check out for a week and a half I’d forgotten something.

I’d forgotten why. Why it’s important to clean out ones literal and figurative house. Why it’s important to take an accounting of what I’ve done in this last year and remember that it’s okay. It’s okay that I haven’t done everything I need to do, and yet I’ve managed to come a long way. Last year at this time I moved to Boston. After coming home from Israel, I broke free and found a place I could call my own. Last year the story of Am Israel’s fight to do the same resonated with me for that reason.

This year it’s a different story. Over the course of the last year I’ve settled down, found a place I can call my own, settled in for a while and filled my life with things that will ensure, for the foreseeable future that I’m staying where I am. The uncertainly that I felt last year is not gone, it’s just changed and I was thinking about that last night. About how last year I was struggling so much finding a place where I could be me, when I could be comfortable with the person I’m constantly becoming. This year it’s a new set of worries, and I’m reminded yet again; once we were slaves in the land of Egypt, now we are free.

Same theme, same questions, different answers and so it goes.

In my worry about the physical preparation for Passover I’d forgotten about the spiritual preparation. That’s what I was thinking about last night as I searched my house for stray chometz, stray pieces of ego. Passover reminds us all that once we were slaves, once we did not control our own destiny. But now we are free, free to choose who we are. It is up to us to make our own decisions about who we are, what we stand for. Cleaning for Passover, putting thought into what we keep in our homes for this ancient and sacred holiday isn’t just a decision about physical matters, it’s about how we are internally, in the depths of our truest being.

Last year I went out in search of new land, this year I sorted out the space I was in, in hopes of making it fresh, of making it better, of making it more my own.

May we all be blessed, this year to face new challenges and remember that it is we who define who we are, through our actions.

Once we were slaves in the land of Egypt, now we are free.

L’Shalom