Gaddafi versus Mubarak

Power is unique in that it can be a means or an end- it is a means to money, women, or both, or it is an end for the sake of honor itself. However, there is a difference in how it manifests. If it is a means towards physical desires, then it is limited and has the possibility of satisfaction, albeit temporary in nature for physical satisfaction always needs replenishment. However, if it is an end, then there is no possibility for even temporary satisfaction. The desire for self aggrandizing is limitless because it is anchored by the soul, and just like there is no limit to how spiritual a person can get, so too there is no limit to how arrogant a person can get.[1] A cursory view of current events seems to bear out these truths. In the case of Gaddafi, we see power as an end driving his violent struggle because he is willing to forfeit his life for the sake of power.  Mubarack seems to have used power primarily as a means[2], funneling away billions of dollars before acquiescing to demands and retiring to a Sinai resort town.  His desires seem to have had a limit. Now, radically enough, the drive behind Gadaffi’s violent struggle is not a bad thing, and in fact, in a certain sense, the world may need more of it. 

One of the main issues that plague the world is addiction.  This comes in a myriad of different forms, ranging from the destructive impact of drugs to the brain deadening impact of video games or the soul deadening impact of shopping.  There are several reasons why people become addicted, but the main one is a low self esteem that results in a consistent emotional distress that begs to be alleviated in some way or another. Low self esteem is often a result of a presupposition that the world is a just and fair place, and therefore, when parents don’t act like parents or teachers don’t act like teachers, a.k.a. the world does not act fairly, it is not the teachers or parents fault, rather the child’s.[3]  So from a young age, the injustices of the world result in a low esteem because it is too frightening as a child to accept that the world is not a just place.  For the child, it is easier to accept that he is simply not adequate. 

This feeling of inadequacy is a complete negation of what it means to be a human being.  These two weeks in the Torah document the complex grandeur of the Tabernacle, the dwelling place of G-d in the world.  Prophetic artisans and super human kindness dedicate themselves to the Temple, and all the spiritual wisdom of the world is contained therein.  Yet, when all is said and done, G-d presence does not come down into the building.  Why?  Because the building needed a spiritual human touch, the building needed Moses- ‘So Moses completed the work.  The Cloud covered the Tent of meeting, and the glory of Hashem filled the Tabernacle’[4]. 

Imagine, Man has the power to create real holiness through his actions, and this does not only apply to Moses.  A Jewish scribe can take animal skins and through proper lettering create a Torah that is Holy and has a slew of Laws associated with its handling. Or a person can write a book of Prophets that has a lower level of sanctity and cannot be placed on top of a Book of Torah.  That is the amazing G-dliness of a human being that he is able to imbue the world with Holiness that makes a difference. If a person can understand and appreciate what power that is, then a feeling of inadequacy is absurd, and irrelevant, no matter what life circumstances surrounds a person.

However, this power of the Human soul can be taken in the wrong direction, and drastically.  The same root that can create holiness to no end can create a notion of self-entitlement that knows no limits.  Though I don’t them personally, this is what seems to plague Kim Yong Ill and Gaddafi. The path to greatness is narrow, straddled between inadequacy and narcissism, but the task is to find that path and maintain the balance.  In this day in age, probably a dose of self-worth is more crucial than its possible downside.

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[1] See Rav Dessler Mictav m Eliyahu Second Volume T’ Sha B’av page 51

[2] Obviously, there were elements of both aspects to Power for each leader, but one may be more primary than the other.

[3] See 'Addictive Thinking' by Rabbi Twerski

[4] Chiddush from the Alter of Slabodka Or HaTzafon ‘Hashras Hashcina’ and See Exodus 40:34

The Higher you are, the farther you fall!

It is no secret that children hate shots. In fact, on the list of scariest things of childhood, shots probably rank in the top five, up there with darkness and leftovers.  What may be a secret, though, is that as much as children hate shots, it turns out parents may hate them as much or more.  After my wife came back from the nationalized baby service in Israel (‘Tipat Chalav’, ‘A drop of Milk’), which checks on babies monthly and ensures they receive their vaccinations, she told me she joked with the lady there after Naomi received her shots, ‘next time, I am sending my husband’.  My inner response came unexpectedly.  Rather than dismiss my wife’s sensitivities, I shuddered at the thought of having to go, and it even produced a visceral reaction of displeasure, and this despite the fact that my wife related to this ‘threat’ as a joke.  How could this be?  Intellectually, it is clear that my baby is getting the best, most loving treatment in the world.  A serum that has the capacity to safeguard her life time and again; I should jump at the opportunity to play the hero! Yet, such is life. Intellectualism is not a panacea for emotional pains.  Those remain real no matter what the circumstances.  And more importantly, those people who are closest to us have the greatest capacity to impact on our emotional well being through their pain and their actions even when seemingly insignificant. 

             With this latter idea, we can begin to understand the idea of a counting and the gravity of the Golden Calf from this week’s Torah portion.  When G-d told Moses to count the Jews, He uses a very interesting language, ‘When you take a census of the Children Israel for their count and they will give an atonement for their souls...’[1]  The language of ‘take a census’ is the name of the portion, ‘ci sisa’, כי תשא, which literally means when ‘you raise up’, and which Rashi understands to mean a ‘kaballah or reception’.  These are all one idea, though, because any person who has done squats in a gym knows that prior to raising the bar, a person needs to first receive the burden on his shoulders and bend his knees.[2]  As an aside, this is why the word for Marriage is ‘nesuin, נשואין’ from the word of נשא, or ‘to raise’. A proper marriage works on the basis that each person commits to receiving the burden of the other person with the intention to lift the other person to greater heights.  And this is connected to the idea of a count; people count things that are important and close to them, things they want to receive and raise. This count, therefore, was a sign that the Jews were close to G-d, and this special relationship to G-d is also what raised them.

            However, this special height has a down side, and a large one at that- the greater the heights the greater the repercussions of a fall, and consequently, the more exactitude a person must exert at those heights.[3]  And this is intuitive.  The higher a person climbs a ladder the more careful he becomes with each rung as the ladder become progressively less stable.  This will help explain the Golden Calf, perhaps, the most misunderstood event in Jewish history. From the outside, the entire Jewish nation worshipped an idol right after a mass revelation, which calls into the question the nature of the mass revelation.  For if the mass revelation were so great, what were the Jews doing worshipping a Golden Calf shortly thereafter?  So obviously, that is not what happened.[4]  Only ½ of a percent of the Jews were guilty of the Golden calf, and the guilt had nothing to do with idol worship.[5]  The intention of the guilty parties was to worship the same G-d that had been revealed to them.  But, since they thought that Moses had died on Mount Sinai given that forty days and forty nights without food and water is not a classically survivable feat, therefore, a few decided to create a new channel with which to concentrate their spiritual energy towards G-d.  What they transgressed was the prohibition to create an unsanctioned image.  In other words, the Jews took their religion into their own hands, and using their minds, made a change that they thought was best for their religion according to the time. This theme is a familiar one that has occurred through history.  But, the reason why the Torah describes the event as if national idol worship had occurred is because of the original idea.  A close relationship, especially an uplifting one, magnifies events.  That is why a small shot to a child could shake a parent emotionally to a great degree, or a small lie between husband and wife could impair the relationship for years, or a small misstep by the Jewish people could create a great chasm between them and G-d.  Relationships that are high are the most delicate. 

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[1] Shemos 30:11

[2] See Maharal Gur Aryieh on the first verse for an in depth look at this concept. 

[3] So close and high is the Jews closeness to G-d, that the name Israel contains the word ‘el’ or G-d.  The problem is that a severance in the relationship with G-d, in other words losing the ‘el’, means that the nation of Israel loses their very essence since there is an intrinsic link between the Jews and G-d. See Maharal in Or Chadash 188.  That is behind the reason why when the Jewish people are far from G-d they are downtrodden to the extreme.

[4] For a full explanation of the sin of the Golden Calf that follows See Kuzari 1:97

[5] Shemos 32: 29

You are HOW you eat

            Everyone loves to rave about their children, and being a parent (still very hard to believe), I can understand why.  Children are the ultimate extension of a person in this world, both genetically and ideologically. And I am sure that soon I will be able to count myself among that generic group of raving parents, but just not yet.  I have to be brutally honest with myself.  My baby has absolutely no manners.  When she is hungry she screams, and to make matters worse, upon receiving the food, she does not seem to appreciate it.  Rather, it goes down her throat without even a hint of enjoyment. 

            Now, of course she is much too young to judge, but the way we eat is a defining characteristic of who we are.  After all, the first thing G-d discussed with man is food, ‘And Hashem G-d commanded the man saying, “Of every tree of the garden you must eat, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, you must not eat thereof; for on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die”[1]. Strange.  Man’s relationship with G-d begins with G-d acting like the Jewish grandmother we all know that obsesses with food.  To add to the mystery, the Hebrew word for food, ‘לכא’ is a composite of ‘alef’ and ‘col’, ‘G-d is in everything[2]’.  I never considered Oreos to be particularly G-dly!  Further, a large part of the Talmudic section on Derech Eretz, or how to act in the world, is about man’s relationship with food.  The old adage, ‘you are what you eat’, is more appropriately stated, ‘you are what and how you eat’.  Why is food so central to Jewish thought and spirituality and why does that define our level of social refinement?

            G-d’s relationship with man begins with food because the process of eating parallels the process of acquiring wisdom and internality. The process of eating represents the break down of an external structure in order to get to its internal taste and goodness.  The mouth takes an object and through the teeth, breaks it down into little parts, and the longer it holds the food, the more taste it extracts before it passes the food to the throat.  That is exactly how a wise person looks at the world.  Wisdom is the ability to discern parts and to analyze them. To do so require that person take things in slowly, and mentally chew on them.[3]   For this reason, everything in the mouth is a hint to wisdom.  A tooth is called ‘shen’, ןש, which means sharp and it means to teach over.  There are thirty two teeth in the mouth, which mirror the thirty two paths of natural wisdom in the world.[4]  And the mouth is called a הפ, or the same as the word ‘here’.  If we learn how to eat, we can learn exactly what the depth of what is ‘here’ in the world. That is also why the word for taste, םעט, is the same for ‘reason’.  The depth of a subject is its reasoning, and that is only discovered after the external relationships are broken down and analyzed. 

             Moving away from the mystical, practically, food is our daily encounter with whether our body rules our mind or our mind rules our body. And the way we eat is a good indication as to which one it is.  The Talmud says in Derect Eretz: A person should not drink a whole cup in one swig, and if he does, he is throaty and famished.  And how fast should a person drink?  In two, that is social refinement. In three, that is arrogance.  And a person should not eat an onion from the good part first, rather from the leaves.  And if he does, he is throaty and famished.  There are many questions here that we will leave unanswered.  But the gist is as follows.  If a person, bypasses the mouth and puts ingests things directly to the throat, then that is an indication that a person is enslaved by his body and lacks wisdom.  If a person holds the food or drink in his mouth for so long, it is arrogance, because he pretends that the food is like a piece of artwork, but not really needed to sustain him; he is in denial of his physicality. If he eats or drinks carefully, but not like a connoisseur, then it shows that a person is ruled by his spiritual side, but appreciates that this food is keeping him alive.  As for the onion, the Talmud warns us about not eating ‘the frosting without the cake’.  Again, children tend to do that and it is another sign that the body is in control.  Eating is our sign for who we are. Do we appreciate wisdom, and can we control our physicality?  So remember to chew, but not too much!

  

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[1] Genesis 2:16

[2] Aleph represent G-d in many ways: It is an ineffable letter, it is one, and it is made up of the letters ‘vav’, ‘yud’, ‘yud’, which adds up to 26 in its numerical value, which is equivalent to G-d’s name.

[3] That is also why a Kosher animal chews its cud an emphasis on internalty.

[4] G-d’s name of creation, elokim appears thirty two times in the creation of the world.  It is a hint to thirty path of wisdom in the world. 

Many wonders

Many Wonders

Ever since my baby was born, a small question had bothered me.  I testified in public on the day of the kiddush that child birth was an open miracle- think Passover, as opposed to Purim.[1] How could a thinking, feeling, and soulful human being simply come out of another human being because a few chemicals were mixed together in the right environment?   And further, even the most secular relative of mine also used the word ‘miracle’ to describe the process of having a baby.  Yet, when I thought about it, the idea of a baby horse, or a baby elephant didn’t strike me as miraculous.  Of course, I find all of nature to be wondrous, mysterious, and an incredible way to approach spirituality, but the word ‘miracle’ did not come to mind.   So why is it that all can agree on the miracle of childbirth, but on the science of animal birth?  I came across an answer this week with the help of the Talmud that expresses some of the wonders of childbirth. 

Here is an excerpt from the Talmud Niddah 31a:

Rav Chanina bar Pappa expounded: What is the meaning of that which is written:

‘Who performs great deeds, beyond comprehension, and wonders beyond number?’[2]  Come and see how different the attributes are of the Holy One as compared to the attributes of flesh and blood.  The attribute of flesh and blood is that when a person places an object in a skin container that is bound and whose mouth faces upward, it is uncertain whether the object will be preserved in it or not, whereas the Holy One, wraps the fetus in the innards of a woman which is open and whose opening faces downward, yet it does not fall out.  Another example:  When a person places his things on the pan of a scale, as the weight increases, the pan descends further. Whereas the Holy one, as the fetus gets heavier it ascends to a higher chamber of the womb.

  Indeed, what are these ‘wonders’ that are beyond number?  The word ‘wonder’ in Hebrew is אלפ which connotes a miracle that is a change in nature, obvious. They are called ‘wonders’, which backwards spells out פלא, ‘aleph’ because they are a testament to the One G-d.  Generally, a real miracle where nature changes is rare, and of those that have happened, namely during the Exodus, they are already documented.  So what are the ‘wonders’ that are beyond number? The Talmud understands that the only thing that is viewed as wondrous on a large scale is childbirth.  And the Maharal[3] elaborates that the Talmud is describing the exact phenomenon I felt: ‘And even though for certain all of scientists can give reasons for all of this (that the Talmud observes), the Talmud is coming to tell us that the creation of man is a wonder in the eyes of man in way that you don’t find with any other creation.  And this is exactly the teaching of the Talmud, that man is a G-dly creation, and therefore his pregnancy is done in a wondrous way even if it can be explained scientifically.’  In other words, there are things that happen during pregnancy that are, technically speaking, within the bounds of nature; nevertheless, they are counterintuitive to the way that things normally work.  Because of this they hint to the G-dly nature of man, namely, that he is able to overcome the natural order of things and rise.  And that G-dly nature, this soulfulness, is exactly why when it comes to human beings, everyone agrees, we call it a miracle.    

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[1] Passover contained the Ten plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea and culminated at the Sinai experience. All of these things are obvious supernatural events.  Purim, on the other hand, was a series of coincidences and it was hard to see a divine hand behind everything.

[2] Job 9:10:  Deeds are things such as nature and wonders are open miracles.

[3] Chiddushei Aggados Niddah

The Big Change: The Giving of Torah

The Big Change[1]

           

            Probably the hardest part of parenting is time.  I don’t mean the lack of time generated by a child, but I mean the passing of time.  Before, time passed as a function of learning, both in school and yeshiva.  Semesters and different subjects marked that a stage had ended and a new one had begun.  Generally, time would be noticed monthly or bi-monthly at most.  Now, time hurries at a torrid pace.  Each week brings new stages of growth- a smile, a hand grab, a turning over- and therefore, new time periods.  It becomes quite hard to keep up and leaves my imagination hurtling forward to the time that she will be off at school and onwards.  Parenting at this stage is love, patience, and more love, but what will parenting look like in the future, when cuteness give way to chutzpah in some form? Surely, parenting in the same way that I parent now would be absurd, and in fact, a cruelty.  At that stage, real love will be to not fulfill all lacks at a moments notice, but to give her the space to learn to fulfill her own lacks.  This idea parallels the paradigm shift that took place in the relationship between G-d and the world at Mount Sinai in this weeks parsha. 

            In Ethics of our fathers 5:1, it says that the world was created with ten general sayings, ten תורמאמ, or ‘maimoros’ from the language of ‘omer’ or ‘say’.  And at Mount Sinai we did not receive the ‘Ten Commandements’, rather the ‘ten statements’ or the ten תורביד (statements) or dibros, from the language of ‘speak’.  In English the difference between a saying and a statement is not pronounced, but in Hebrew these represent two distinct ways that G-d relates to the world.  A ‘dibur’ is clearly enunciated and directed speech.  It is meant to lead a person somewhere.   An ‘amira’ is soft and does not lead to a specific place, rather suggests.[2]  What changed from before Sinai to after Sinai?

            Basically, G-d created the world with a general morality, a ‘saying’.   One could observe that there was a general logic and order to the world, and infer how to act, which is why the existence of a Hammurabi Code should be expected before the Ten Commandments (even though not really commandments as explained above will refer to them as they are commonly referred).  However, there was little obligation, and despite many immoral years, the world stayed afloat (after the flood that is).  In other words, we were essentially babies, and despite the fact that humans did not technically have merit to exist, for 26 generations, the world continued.  That is G-d, the all loving parent, who had little expectation and related to the world with a complete love.  

            Then, by Mount Sinai, the Israelites had finally become a people, and through the slavery and redemption from Egypt, had grown up so to speak.  The Ten plagues were the transition from the Ten sayings of creation to the Ten statements at Mt. Sinai. They introduced a higher level of justice to the world, and a people ready to grow on their own merits.  We could now handle a ‘statement’, a system based on obligations that leads and directs us.  And the way G-d related to us had now become conditional on our own personal responsibility, and how we handled our obligations.  We now needed to earn our keep.  But again, that is the higher level of love.  That is the love that gives space for the other to grow and develop. 

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[1] Based on  Pachad Yitzak Maimar 47 Pesach

[2] Gur Aryeh 19:3