Parashat Noach - healing the broken (5 min read)

רפואה מן התורה

 Healing from the Torah

     Last week in Parashat Bereishit we looked at the idea of unified and broken dualities.  We viewed those dualities as both the unified equality of creation but also the nature of its brokenness, touching primarily upon the relationship of the Creator and the creation, and Adam and Eve.  We could have also looked at the broken duality of Cain and Able or the Garden as opposed to the world Adam’s family would inherit.  The fact is, the story of Adam and Eve (and their family) disrupts the equality of creation only to be followed by the tension of redeeming it.  Turning to Parashat Noach, Genesis 6:9-11:32, it begins the redemptive journey to restore that broken duality as part of Noah's story in his own generation.   As such, Prashant Noach begins, אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ, “This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.”
     We learn that during the days of Noah his world was full of evil, a bad generation, with Noah choosing good.  The Narrator of Torah makes the claim that Noah was the most righteous man of his generation, but that begs the question; was he righteous because he was more faithful and observant than others or was he righteous simply because everyone else around was not?  In truth, Noah was like everyone else, he was human, imperfect, a husband, a father, a man who lived in a world needing repair, so what made him righteous?  The word “righteous” (צַדִּ֛יק) itself means one who is “just in their actions.”  Therefore, looking at Targum Yonathan (an early Midrash), what makes Noah righteous is that he is “complete in good works in his generation.”  While the original biblical text does not say anything about good works, our oral tradition came to understand “righteous” in that very way, hence Noah walking with God meant that he did good deeds of righteousness. We can therefore look at Noah’s willingness to build an Ark as his good-works in the world which he lived, yet we must also note the words of Rabbi Elie Muck that being “righteous,” is not the same as being “perfect.”

     Our tradition also teaches that if Noah lived during the days of Abraham he would not have been considered that righteous. When Abraham was faced with the perverse cites of Sodom and Gomorrah he called on the justice of life and bargained with God about the lives of people.  Noah, on the other hand, seemed more concerned about he and his family as opposed to even the few who like him deserved life.  As such, we read about the totality of such death’s in Genesis 7:22 that says, “All in whose nostrils was the merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died.”  Eben Ezra in line with tradition comments that such life lost were those of animals and not human life, life after all is precious in God’s eyes.  That is why Rabbi Jonathan Sachs is able to present a Noah that lost his title, the generation's most righteous man, simply on the point of the lost lives themselves (think of Jonah and Nineveh) but also that later Noah fell prey to his own humanity by debasing himself with too much wine (cf. Gen. 9:20-21).  Rabbi Elie Muck again comments that the shortcomings of Noah echo the evil generation of the flood when “man failed to make his soul rule over his entire being.” R’Muck reflects on other verses that paint the picture that the “breath” of the soul was given by God, meaning that the soul is furnished with the values of God.  In other words, Noah failed his quest to repair the word by not allowing his God-given soul to rule over the rest of his behavior.

     Is this a fair way to read the story of Noah?  First, as noted above, being “righteous” is not the same as being “perfect.”  Second, we have to read Noah’s humanity as our own, we too are in process and make mistakes.  Third, comparing Noah to Abraham is about growth not achievement, and while I see the value in making such a comparison, I am not sure it is relevant either since Abraham had his own issues of human failure.  And lastly, R’Sachs raises a question regarding the use of midrash, the same question that we should ask as well,  “what do these words mean, not when they were first spoken or written down, but to us, here, now?”  We can therefore read the story of Noah as one of valued driven struggles in the midst of a society that impacted the ability to do what is right.  The mystics teach that the Ark is like a sanctuary where the light of God can be found, recalling how Noah did not debase himself until after he left the Ark, itself acting as a form of protection.  Today, we live in our world, a world with its share of evil, but also good, anger and hate, yet love and caring as well.  The tension that Noah experienced was between his God-given soul to guide his greater humanity and the inciting (and enticing) power of the world around him that had its own pull in the opposite direction.

     A lesson from Parashat Noach asks us to elevate ourselves over our circumstances, whatever that might look like.  Perhaps Noah fulfilled his role and had no other beyond the Ark, or maybe there was other works that he failed to do, hence we turn to Perkei Avot that teaches, “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward”  Therefore, first, Torah (like the Ark) is to be embraced as our guide regardless if it is fully learned and/or fulfilled, its teachings are for our better.  Second, the protection of community (also like the Ark) and its support helps us to find the needed strength to persevere and grow, nurturing God given souls that govern our behavior in this world.  And finally, the story of Noah teaches that we cannot escape the impact of a world that needs repair, but we have the innate ability to transcend it and help to restore its broken dualities even if only one step at a time.  It is good to ask how the story of Noah helps to restore the world around us, but looking at Noah in particular is also a reminder that repair begins with self.    

Parashat Bereishit - spirituality and religion (5 min read)

 רפואה מן התורה

 Healing from the Torah

In Parashat Bereishit, from Genesis 1:1-6:8, we begin our Torah reading cycle all over again for the year. The nuggets or wisdom and learning that will lead to our growth and betterment begin in a parasha that can be understood to about unified and broken dualities.
  

The Mystics teach that the first verse is all we need to know, thus בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ, “In the beginning of God created the heavens and the earth.”  What it tells us is that creator and creation were unified, there was no separation even though there was distinction. We read from the start about separation and distinction; day and night, the upper and lower world, dry land and water, various types of plants, land animals and sea animals, animals and people, God and mankind, and even man and woman.  But even with man and woman, tradition teaches us that the human beings were created as androgynous and only later were separated into man and woman; an important poiunt to note as we engage the story of Adam and Eve.  But the bigger picture is this; although they were separate they we unified with no sense of difference even if their purposes were not the same.  This is unified dualities.

Yet, in the world we have good and evil, sad and happiness, positive sand negative, heaven and earth, and yes spirituality and religion, something we will return to in just a moment. Unlike the unified dualities above, these dualities exist in on-going conflict with each other. Take Adam and Eve, they lived in their world of Eden both naked and unafraid.  However, when their eyes were opened to a challenge that threatened their sense of existence, they saw their nakedness and became fearful; their unified duality became a broken one.  Likewise beforehand, in the same way that creator and creation were unified and distinct, so too was Adam and his wife, Eve  Conversely, the dissolution of that unity between Adam and Eve became emblematic of the separation between the creator and the creation.  That type of separateness is perhaps the reason why Adam and Eve were removed from the garden, meaning that it had more to do with their inability to embrace a unity with the Eternal as opposed to just a sin itself.

  

Therefore, in the same way the High Holidays come yearly to look at the past year with a hope for improvement in the next, we have a lifetime to prepare for eternity and that connection to the Eternal. Expanding that thought we look at the teaching of Rav Philip Berg was said that if Adam and Eve partook of the Tree of Life they would have a permanent unbroken connection with God, and their goal of human perfection would have been reached with no further spiritual work to do.  The idea is that that type of connection between the creator and the creation has to be repaired, which is why it takes a lifetime.  It is your choice if that rings true of not, but it offers us some insights on this idea of unified and broken dualities.

What then about the dualities of spirituality and religion?  It can be argued that in the narrowest of meanings spirituality is about a person’s inward existentialist relationship to the sense of “other,” whereas religion is an organized creedal system of deeds, values, ethics, laws, etc.  Today as most of us are aware, perhaps for yourself or another, spirituality and religion are separated and have become a broken duality.  Again looking at Adam, and his sense of being a part of the whole of creation in Eden, it was tied into his personal existentialism, or spirituality.  The sun had a job as did the rain that came from above since both participated in the growth of the garden.  Likewise, Adam had a job, thus the sun provided light, the rain provided water and Adam provided the care.  Adam saw his role as part of the whole, separate indeed, but unified in purpose.  But when Adam broke with that chain of being unified and distinct, given the first law that asked him to refrain from eating the fruit of just one tree, a broken duality that followed led to the removal from Eden, and hos broken existential spirituality.  The law we can see as religion, but it had the purpose to keep Adam upon the path of his spiritual existence since his free-will needed guidance and direction.  Let me suggest that Adam can be an example of a relationship between spirituality and religion that has become a broken duality and needs to be repaired.

Religion is the clothes of our spirits, hence our sense of “other” is dressed up in the garments of practice and tradition.  Religion does not make us spiritual but takes what is spiritual and gives it a face, order and guidance. Religion has been regulated to “organized religion” and its value has been lost to that definition.  Certainly it is man-made, so yeah it is imperfect and mistakes will be made, but that in no way takes away from its purpose and reward.  Existentially, as Jews, we are also connected to a history, family ties and values, and to whatever degree, from none to full observance, from humanistic to Orthodox Judaism, we Jews have a religion.  We have a history and a faith that is about clothing our spirits if we chose to walk on its path.

The unified duality of spirituality and religion has great benefit, the broken duality of spirituality and religion compromises our sense of “other” and larger meaning.  Being regulated and guided is a part of life; laws on the road, rules at work, even right and wrong in personal relationship’s, so why not in the relationship between that creator and creation or with guiding principles and human behavior – especially if it is about the repair of broken dualities for ours and the world’s restoration?

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, reestablishing that perfect sense of existential unity and therefore inward oneness, and hopefully, personal contentment. .  

Holiday Message (3 min read)

רפואה מן התורה
Healing from the Torah

Perhaps you are familiar with the story about the homeless man who was brought to a tailor by a kind town’s person to have a new set of cloths made for Yom Kippur. The tailor told the homeless man to come back later that day to pick up his new cloths.  Upon his return the homeless man tried on his new cloths and was out-ranged at the tailor because they did not fit right. The tailor stood there patiently as the homeless yelled at him, accusing the tailor of shaming him with miss-fitting cloths.  After the homeless man was finished with his rant the tailor said, “Sir, I assure you that the cloths fit, but you have to take the old ones off first.”  While there are a number of applications to that story I suppose, here, it about leaving our “stuff” at the door and letting the message and the meaning of our holidays into our hearts, minds and spirits.

It’s good to reflect on what we just went through.  During this time of the year it also seems that Jews in general are more willing to consider the “nuts and bolts “ of God so to speak.  On Yom Kippur we spent 25 hours looking deep within, pounding our chest’s and confessing things we don’t normally think about.  Okay so maybe we don’t do everything that we read about, but you know we have the potential, and that is just as important to consider and reflect upon.  That is somewhat reminiscent of the two goats from Leviticus 16.   One goat is sacrificed to God for Israel to say thank you for the ritual opportunity to internalize being forgiven.  The second goat called the Azazel was sent off into the wilderness, symbolically carrying the bad and evil out of the Israel’s camp, a ritual where Israel was both grateful and humbled.  Grateful because God was willing to provide a means to banish what was no good from their midst.  Humbled because that was a mirror of self, revealing to each who stood there that their sins have also been cast away.  As that goat ran off into the wilderness and slowly faded out of sight, I think it reasonable to hold that those who watched surely realized in that moment that that could have been them. 

That message of Yom Kippur, although no longer in the image of a goat running away, exists in the words of our prayers - kind of like water that flows under the ice.  We need to remember that “to pray,” להתפלל, is a reflexive verb that just does not mean to pray but “to judge oneself.” (i.e. self-examination/words are a mirror).  The words of our prayers speak to us on a level that surpasses our intellect alone and touches our sense of the spiritual.  But is that not what prayer is supposed do?  If our prayers have such high lofty values that they are beyond our human comprehension is there value in them for us?  Well, sure there is value, but like the story about the homeless man and his new cloths, you have to remove the old that fights against the prayers in order to receive the newness of its meaning.  Every year we are confronted with a new meaning to our prayers, either new lessons that came our way or old ones we are still needing to learn.  There is great value it what we experience with Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur.

This past Sunday night we begin the celebration of Sukkot.  In contrast to the solemn day of Yom Kippur that concluded 40 days of Cheshbone haNefesh that began on Elul 1, Sukkot is joyful, sweets in our sukkah’s, a week of celebration and good food!  We had a season of reflection and growth that brought new energies into our lives. We need to be grateful and joyful for that. That is why Sukkot is Zman Simchateinu, a time of our rejoicing.  But Sukkot, like our prayers and the two goats beforehand, is a mirror for our beings, thus it asks us to embrace its meaning of thanksgiving.  The Mystics believed that the power of Yom Kippur was not confined to the day itself but would act as a guide throughout the following year, asking us always to consider the place of tikkun hamiddot, the repair of our characters to be better than we were before. Yet the Mystics also believed that based on Psalm 121:5 that says יְהוָ֥ה צִ֝לְּךָ֗ עַל־יַ֥ד יְמִינֶֽךָ, “The LORD is your guardian, the LORD is your protection at your right hand,” God would accompany us on our life journeys in the same way that our shadow follows us everywhere we go.

The Holidays are not over and each of us still has the opportunity to allow its voice to make us better people and Jews, raising our values to new and restored heights.  However it is approached, just remember, take off your old clothes first so the new ones can fit perfectly.  I hope you have a great Sukkot and may it indeed be for you Zman Simchateinu, a time of rejoicing.  Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sukkot Sameach.  

 

A Holiday Message (3 min read)

Healing From the Torah

רפואה מן התורה

Perhaps you are familiar with the story about the homeless man who was brought to a tailor by a kind town’s person to have a new set of cloths made for Yom Kippur. The tailor told the homeless man to come back later that day to pick up his new cloths.  Upon his return the homeless man tried on his new cloths and was out-ranged at the tailor because they did not fit right. The tailor stood there patiently as the homeless yelled at him, accusing the tailor of shaming him with miss-fitting cloths.  After the homeless man was finished with his rant the tailor said, “Sir, I assure that the cloths fit, but you have to take the old ones off first.”  While there are a number of applications to that story I suppose, here, it about leaving our “stuff” at the door and letting the message and the meaning of our holidays into our hearts, minds and spirits.

It’s good to reflect on what we just went through.  During this time of the year it also seems that in general people are more willing to consider the “nuts and bolts “ of God so to speak.  On Yom Kippur we spent 25 hours looking deep within, pounding our chest’s and confessing things we don’t normally think about.  Okay so maybe we don’t do everything that we read about, but you know we have the potential, and that is just as important to consider and reflect upon.  That is somewhat reminiscent of what we read about on Yom Kippur from Leviticus 16 that has to do with two goats.   One goat is sacrificed to God for Israel to say thank you that for the ritual opportunity to internalize being forgiven.  The second goat called the Azazel was sent off into the wilderness, symbolically carry the bad and evil out of the Israel’s camp, a ritual where Israel was both grateful and humbled.  Grateful because God was willing to provide a means to banish what was no good from their midst.  Humbled because that was a mirror of self, revealing to each who stood there that their sins have also been cast away.  As that goat ran off into the wilderness and slowly faded out of sight, I think it reasonable to hold that those who watched surely realized in that moment that that could have been them.  That is a meaning of the story to consider. 

That message of Yom Kippur, although no longer in the image of a goat running away, exists in the words of our prayers - kind of like water that flows under the ice.  We need to remember that “to pray,” להתפלל, is a reflexive verb that just does not mean to pray but “to judge oneself.” (i.e. self-examination/words are a mirror).  The words of our prayers speak to us on a level that surpasses our intellect alone and touches our sense of the spiritual.  But is that not what prayer is supposed do?  If our prayers have such high lofty values that they are beyond our human comprehension is there value in them for us?  Well, sure there is value, but like the story about the homeless man and his new cloths, you have to remove the old that fights against the prayers in order to receive the newness of its meaning.  Every year we are confronted with a new meaning to our prayers, either new lessons that came our way or old ones we are still needing to learned.  There is great value it what we experienced from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur.

Now on Sunday night we begin the celebration of Sukkot.  In contrast to the solemn day of Yom Kippur that concluded 40 days of Cheshbone haNefesh that began on Elul 1, Sukkot is joyful, sweets are in our sukkah’s, a week of celebration and good food!  We had a season of reflection and growth that brought new energies into our lives. We need to be grateful and joyful for that. That is why Sukkot is Zman Simchateinu, a time of our rejoicing.  But Sukkot, like our prayers and the two goats beforehand, is a mirror for our beings, thus it asks us and even makes us embrace its meaning of being thankful.  The Mystics believed that the power of Yom Kippur was not confined to the day itself but would act as a guide throughout the following year, asking us always to consider the place of tikkun hamiddot, the repair of our characters to be better than we were before. Yet the Mystics also believed that based on Psalm 121:5 that says יְהוָ֥ה צִ֝לְּךָ֗ עַל־יַ֥ד יְמִינֶֽךָ, “The LORD is your guardian, the LORD is your protection at your right hand,” God would accompany us on our life journeys in the same way that our shadows follow us everywhere we go.

The Holidays are not over and each of us still has the opportunity to allow its voice to make us better people and Jews, raising our values to new and restored heights.  However it is approached, just remember, take your old clothes first so the new ones can fit perfectly.  I hope you have a great Sukkot and may it indeed be for you, Zman Simchateinu, a time of rejoicing.  Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sukkot Sameach.  

Shabbat Shuvah Thoughts (short read)

Below is teaching of Chaplain (Rabbi to be) Adam Ruditsky in conjunction with the book Preparing for the High Holidays

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רפואה מן התורה

The parasha, Vayelech, is the last words of Moses before Israel enters the land.  Here, Moses asks the children of Israel to fear (respect) the ways of God as they enter into their new reality.  It is also a moment of transition, Moses in front of all Israel hands the reign's over to Joshua, and both men in front off the entire community enter the Tent of Meeting where the presence of God reveals itself as a cloud. Both men stand before God as a new moment of time enters into Israel's reality with both the death of Moses and actually entering into the land they have dreamed about for 40 years.  This parasha is always read on Shabbat Shuvah (Shabbat of Return) because we too are about to enter into a moment of time with Yom Kippur, and continuing with the same theme we have been in since the beginning of Elul, we reflect.  But this Shabbat is different because we are in the midst of the 10 days of awe, and more so than any time of year, we seek to partner with God and plead our case to continue to do for the next year.  In order to do so, however, we must return to a right relationship with God and others, hence the shabbat of return.  We also read that Moses "wrote" the Torah and gave it to the Priests. The Hebrew word, ויכתב, is both past and future. In other words, the vav is called a reversing vav and makes it a past event, whereas the yud make it a future one.  Or, what happens in the past continues to guide us in the future, thus the same mindset the children of Israel we asked to embrace as they entered the land of promise is also being asked of us as we enter these days of awe and teshuva; seeking higher and better ways in all things. There is no shame is fixing what is broken, growth is a mixture humility and tenacity, as it takes both.