Chapter Thirteen: The Jewish Holidays
How to Make Each Holiday a Time for Spiritual Growth
In the preceding chapter I presented concrete steps for you to follow to develop spiritual Shabbat celebrations in your home every week. Now we will take a look at how to make your holiday celebrations more spiritual. In this chapter, I will not go into any lengthy explanations of how to celebrate each holiday or holy day nor will I go into their complete histories. There is ample information available elsewhere to cover all of that. My intention here is simply to give you some ideas to celebrate the holidays in a spiritual way.
Selicoth
Selicoth occurs about a week before Rosh ha Shana. Its name is derived from the Hebrew word for "I am sorry." The service, held late at night so that it ends after midnight, is full of penitential prayers. For spiritual-renewed Jews, Selicoth is a time to take stock of ourselves, and to see if we have been lax in our daily chesbon ha nefesh katon, or in our daily prayer, meditations and daily walking hand-in-hand with God. If there is anyone to whom you owe teshuvah, Selicoth is the time to ask God to give you the strength to do so. Others may look at Selicoth as just another synagogue Saturday night social event with dinner and entertainment leading up to a service filled with pomp and circumstance. But as a spiritually-renewed Jew you will use the holy day for what it is truly designed, although you may still go ahead and enjoy those other aspects if you wish.
Rosh ha Shana
Rosh ha Shana, means "the Head of Year" in Hebrew and you find everyone wishing you a happy "Jewish New Year." They are incorrect, however. Rosh ha Shana is not the Jewish new year. The first month of the Hebrew calendar is Nissan, the spring month of Passover. Tishrei, when Rosh ha Shana occurs, is the seventh month. The Talmud teaches us this spiritual message, which we should take with us and learn from each day, but especially on Rosh Ha Shana: This is the New Year of the World and of All Human kind! This is the day God created Adam and Eve, who, if we remember, were neither Jewish nor Hebrew (Talmud Bavli Tractate Rosh Ha Shana 10b-11a).
The rabbis teach that on Rosh Ha Shana we should remember that we all have one set of human parents and one Divine parent, and no one individual, people or religion is better than the next. We are all created in God's image. "Humanity was produced from one man, Adam, to show God's greatness. When a man mints a coin in a press, each coin is identical. But when the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, creates people in the form of Adam not one is similar to any other." (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 4:5).
Judaism is pluralistic, and while our sages believe God gave Jews a way to Him that is best for Jews, God gave other prophets and holy people in other religions different, but equal, paths to reach God. "God permitted to every people something He forbade to others…God sends a prophet to every people according to their own language," states Rabbi Nethanel ibn Fayyumi. The Talmud tells us that the righteous of all nations and religions have an equal share in the World to Come. This was written in a time when many were still pagans. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 105a). We need to remember to stamp out bigotry in our hearts, and, again, any individual or group resentments.
When doing the Tashlich ceremony on Rosh ha Shana, first reread the chapter on tashlich in this text. Do your Tashlich with kavenah. You may see a friend struggling with his defects, casting his sins upon water and finding them back in his pocket. Passing along what you have learned in this book may help him with the tashlich ritual. Hillel said: "Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving your fellow creatures and bringing them close to the Torah and God and one another." (Pirkei Avot 1:12).
Now that you have been spiritually renewed, you realize that this newfound spirituality is not for you alone. Your derech eretz is now a billboard announcing the presence of God in your life. Let others be attracted to what you now have. You cannot refuse to be others' guide. Torah and Spiritual Renewal with teshuvah are "Morashah k'hillat Ya'akov," an inheritance of the congregation of Jewish people. Anyone who refuses to teach it after having learned it is a thief according to the Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 91b.
Yom Kippur
At Yom Kippur you will see synagogues crowded with Jews who have not been there since last year's Yom Kippur. They will pray for God to forgive them for their sins, but they, unlike you, are not aware of what their sins or character defects are. They also are completely unaware of the problems they cause those around them. They will leave at nightfall, go to exclusive break-the-fast parties and begin immediately to sin again. You, however, are blessed by God to be out of this rut. You now know from your studies, which are an integral part of this process, that Yom Kippur is not the most important day on the Jewish calendar. Shabbat is the most important day on the Jewish calendar.
For the spiritually awakened, Yom Kippur is the day to finish the review that you began on Selicoth. When we say God writes our names into the "book of life or death," it means that living life with God leads us to life, and not doing so leads us to a living death. Yom Kippur gives you the opportunity to pray for those needing help. As Isaiah teaches, if you do not want to be in synagogue after praying at home, you may do mitzvoth of the heart by, for example, visiting the elderly and bringing a Yom Kippur service to them.
It's Yom Kippur and Yitzhak and his young son Aaron are on their way to shul. Yitzhak is watching Aaron pick his nose. "Why are you breaking the commandment 'thou shall not work on Yom Kippur, Aaron?" asks Yitzhak.
"I'm not, dad," says Aaron, "what work do you think I'm doing?"
"Digging." replies Yitzhak.
Sukkoth
Sukkoth comes from the Hebrew word for booths. We are asked by God to live in them for a week. This derives from the fall harvest festival when the Hebrews had to leave their homes and live by the fields they were harvesting. The Talmud tells us various ways of making the walls, but that the roofs should be made of the same materials, (s'chach, e.g. palm fronds), for everyone, rich or poor, so that we can see through them to see the stars at night. The spiritual connection here is that we are being taught that when we think we have control, or have "made it" by living in our big homes in gated communities, we are delusional. Sukkoth reminds us that we are in God's hands and are part of His nature and His universe. It also is spiritual reminder to us that we can live without material goods and that God provides us with what we need. Rich or poor, we can live in a hut for a week and actually come to enjoy it!
During this time we spiritually invite 7 guests, one for each night, called Ushpizin. Each represents a different character trait on the Kabbalistic Sefirot tree. During the 7 days of Sukkoth we try to grow even more spiritually. We of course invite human guests as well.
Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah is from the Hebrew words meaning "to Celebrate Torah." It is the holiday at the end of Sukkoth when we end the last parasha (portion) of Deuteronomy and immediately being the first parasha of Genesis. Spiritually you are to remember that you are never finished studying Torah, and that God's influence in our lives is never- ending.
Children are given their first lessons on this day. A bit of honey is placed on the texts for them to bring to their mouths. This is symbolically teaching them that the words of Torah and study will bring sweetness into their lives. "Mortal, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll…and I ate it and it tasted as sweet as honey to me." (Ezekiel 3:3). This can also be done at Shavuot. However, with the secular school year coinciding with Simchat Torah in autumn, and because both holidays are about Torah, this custom is commonly done for both holidays.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah means "dedication" in Hebrew. It is not the Jewish Christmas. The worst thing one can do is try to turn it into one with Hanukah bushes, decorated snowmen with Mogan Dovids around their necks, wearing kippot in lieu of winter hats and other such attempts to associate Hanukkah with the Christmas season. Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday and should be celebrated…well…Jewishly. I don't know if there is such a word, but you get the point. We can celebrate non-Jewish holidays with our non-Jewish friends; I celebrate with my Christian, Hindu and Muslim friends. They do not make adjustments to their traditions, nor should they and neither should we. I have yet to see, thank God, a Dawili, or Ramadan bush.
Hanukah is not a holiday about "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat." In fact, the rabbis were so afraid that the real meaning of the holiday would be forgotten that they added to the Haftarah, read on the Shabbat of Hanukkah, the words from Zechariah 4:6:8: "Not by might and not by armies but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts."
The rabbis wanted us to remember that as the Maccabees rededicated the Syrian-Greek desecrated
Purim
Purim, which comes from the Hebrew word for "lots," is another holiday that the rabbis did not want us to celebrate because, "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat." It took place in
The spiritual aspect of Purim is that God's name is never mentioned in the entire Book of Esther, yet we can see His Hand on almost every page. He is never hidden from us, but He was hidden from Haman, the antagonist in the story. So we are to wear masks to remember this. But you, a spiritual Jew, have renewed your Judaism. Therefore, you will never forget that God is always with you.
Passover
The spiritual aspects of Passover are many and much too numerous to fully explore in a few paragraphs. Some have been alluded to in this text. We put ourselves into bondage of ego with our narrowness, our Mitzraim (
In fact the whole spiritual context of the Talmudic Tractate of Pesachim (Passover) is about Jewish Spiritual Renewal. Biblically there is a second Passover, a month from the first, for those who were ritually impure to be allowed to accept the Pascal offering. The Rabbis say this proves that God is always giving us second chances to change from our egotistical selves doing our will, to spiritual Jews doing His will. "He and I cannot dwell in the same world," says a Talmudic Tractate quoting God speaking about the egocentric person.
Even the Four Sons in the Hagaddah are said to be just one person. Today we would call it spiritual schizophrenia. The four actually represent different aspects of the same person who is not integrated. We were like this before our Jewish Spiritual Renewal. We prayed to God, calling Him "Oseh Shalom" (Maker of Peace) and then managed to become the cause of discord.
The Talmud tells us that our Yetzer ha Ra never leaves us. Good is not the absence of Bad. One can be righteous and wise while the evil inclination persists in trying to dominate him. The Kabbalah takes the Gemetria numerical equivalent of Echad (one) son, which is 13, and multiplies it by four to arrive at 52. Fifty-two is the Gemetria numerical equivalent of Ben (son). Passover's story of the four sons is a lesson in becoming integrated and not being spiritually schizophrenic any longer.
It is not generally known that a few years ago the Jewish community in
So, in desperation, the Spanish Chief Rabbi called his friend in
So, as it is said, "The chrayn in
Shavuot
Shavuot comes from the Hebrew word for seven. It is seven weeks from the second day of Passover. During these 49 days we count the Omer, also counting up from one to 49, as we did with the Hanukkah candles. We are commanded to grow spiritually during this time. Those same 7 visitors of Sukkoth each have a week during which we study their good traits. During this time we also study Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) to aid our spiritual growth. This is in preparation for Shavuot. Shavuot is the day that God revealed Torah to Moses, the Hebrews and the other peoples at the base of
Spiritually, we are married to God and Torah under a wedding Kupah on this holiday (Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 49B), but there are other spiritual lessons. The Midrash tells us that
Another spiritual lesson is the dissolution of the idea of Jews being the "chosen people." Torah was offered to many other Nations before the Hebrews accepted it. Some Nations said, "we do not want Torah because we can no longer steal," and others said, "We do not want it because we can no longer commit adultery." (Midrash). The Hebrews said, "We will do and we will hear." (Ex.24:7). We chose God, He didn't choose us. We aren't special. We are like everyone else, although it has been quipped, "only more so."
It has also been written that once the Hebrews started to hear God speak, they became afraid and wanted to run and not accept Torah, and that God had to
We read the book of Ruth on Shavuot because she accepted God and Torah as a convert and this took place during the end of spring harvest festival on which Shavuot is biblically-based. A spiritual question for us is: "if Ruth came to our shores today, how would we treat her?"
"How does love for one's mother-in-law make a person a good Jew?" the sages ask in the Talmud. The rabbis in Talmud Bavli Tractate Ketuboth 111B posit that one cannot love another without knowing details about the person. Therefore one cannot love God, which is one of the greatest of all mitzvoth, if one has not studied God. This is one of first points of Rabbi Ibn Packuda's Duties of the Heart of circa 1050 C.E.
Sarah was taking her daily walk on a particular hot August afternoon. As she neared her local shul, she noticed that the shrubbery outside the entrance was on fire. She pounded on the gabbai's door and when he answered, urged him to call the fire brigade before the fire got out of control.
The gabbai dialed 911, identified himself, gave the location and explained the situation.
"Do you mean to tell me," said the emergency operator, "that there's a burning bush on the synagogue lawn and you want us to put it out?"
Tisha b'Av
Tisha b'Av, which means in Hebrew the "ninth day of the month of Av," is a fast day commemorating the destruction of both
The Talmud tells us over and over that when bad things happen we are to look inside ourselves for the reason, not outside (Talmud Tractate Bavli Beracoth 5a). The rabbis tell us that the first
The rabbis also talk about Hebrews following the letter of the Torah law but not the spirit of Jewish Talmudic law (Talmud Bavli Tractate Bava Metzia 30B). When the Romans heard the Jews were going to rebel, the Romans wanted to test them. They sent a calf to be sacrificed at the
Tisha b'Av mourns a number of deficits. We mourn Jews widespread lack of knowledge of their own religion. Many Jews do not understand that intrinsic to Judaism are the concepts of "love your fellow" and "Shalom ha gadol" – peace is the greatest of virtues (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 10a). Other wise teachings of the sages show that the root cause of problems with others and with ourselves stem from our own defects of character. As spiritual Jews, Tisha b'Av is a time for mourning our past character defects and working toward improving our behavior in the future.
As Moses lead the tribes out of
Moses said to the first tribe, "Please cross now," but their leader replied, "No, we don't want to cross."
"Be reasonable," said Moses, "I've just performed the miracle of the parting of the
"Why must we cross?" asked the tribe's leader.
"Because over there, on the other side," replies Moses, "we'll find a land overflowing with milk and honey. In any case, you must cross because I've just paid for a full page in the Bible."
There are many other Holy days and holidays on the Jewish calendar: the fast of Tammuz 17, Tu B'Av, a monthly Rosh Chodesh (new moon celebration), the fast of Gadaliah, Hoshana Rabba, Shemini Atzeret, fast of Tevet 10, Tu B'Shevat (the New Year for Trees), the fast of Esther, Lag B'omer and added ones like Yom Ha Shoah and Israeli Independence Day. Every one of these has a spiritual lesson. Read about them from different sources and begin to decide for yourself.
Become what the name
For example is Tu B'Shevat the "Jewish Earth Day?" Does it teach us that, as Genesis says, we are stewards of the Earth? Are we to learn from it that we have a responsibility not to pollute and to pass a "clean earth" to succeeding generations? Or is it does this holiday have even more spiritual meaning to us?
What is the spiritual lesson in "a person is like a tree of the field?" (Deut. 20:19). "When fortune has turned for someone, and they have lost all hope and are despairing, then they should ponder a tree in winter. Its leaves have fallen, its moisture has dried up, it is almost a dead stump in the ground. Then suddenly, it begins to revive and to draw moisture from the earth. Slowly it blossoms, then brings forth fruits. People should learn from this not to despair, but to take hope and have courage, for they, too, are like a tree" (Rabbi Yisrael of Chortkov).
One of the four Jewish new years, Tu B'Shevat, is the New Year for Trees. It celebrates the rebirthing of trees in the midst of winter. This is the Kabbalistic reawakening of divine energy with God as the tree of life. This holiday is the first Earth Day. The Talmud declares: "If you have a sapling, and someone says that the Messiah has come, complete the planting, and then go welcome the Messiah." (Avot d'Rabbi Natan). The idea of the importance of having faith and moving forward, as well as being stewards of the earth, is as old as Judaism itself.
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Parasha Ki Teitzei: Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
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"Bad Boy, Bad Boy, You're Such a Naughty Bad Boy. Beep Beep!"
This parasha is replete with laws to help govern society. We are given the rights of women taken captive in battle, the first born son's inviolable rights, rules of hanging and of burial, obligations to guard and protect our neighbors' property, rules about protective fences, laws for the care of a hen and her chicks, rules against defamation of a married woman's virtue, laws of adultery, rules forbidding and defining incest, rules regarding interest and pledges for loans, rights of workers, rules to protect the poor, the orphaned and the widowed, levirate marriages laws, honest business practice guidelines, and also the lashes one gets for breaking any of these laws. It would be impossible for me to list and explain each law contained in this portion. It should be read individually to be appreciated.
The middle of Autumn is when we normally read the Torah portion about Noah. We will learn about what was occurring during his time that caused God to flood the Earth. It was not a pretty sight. From the way it is described in the Midrash and Talmud, it is no wonder God was determined to flush it away. People were barbaric, amoral, and cruel to each other. Even the animals were amoral if this is possible. I went into detail in Parasha Noach, but I am mentioning it here today because the Haftarah portion for this parasha is the same portion that is read for the portion called "Noach." There is no guidepost telling us this. I recently came to discover this serendipitously. The reason for this, I decided, is that in Noah's times, the rules we will read about this week, did not exist and life was a essentially a sewer. God promised never to destroy the world again after Noah's flood. In this portion, we are taught that society needs rules and boundaries to prevent us from flushing ourselves away.
Assuming that you will read the portion, I will concentrate on just one of the many commandments listed. It is called the "law of the wayward and rebellious son," and hence the title of this D'var Torah. It is found in Deuteronomy 21:18-21. "If a man will have a wayward and rebellious son, who does not hearken to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, that they discipline him, but he does not hearken to them, then his father and mother shall grasp him and take him out to the elders of his city and the gate of his place. They shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is wayward and rebellious; he does not hearken to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' All of the men of his city shall pelt him with stones and he shall die; you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and they shall fear."
I picked this law because it allows us to see how our sages dealt with this harsh and strict law by developing Judaism from the ashes of Hebraism after the fall of the first Temple in 586 B.C.E. As mentioned in prior d'vrai, the Rabbis developed Talmudic Judaism in Babylon. The first thing the rabbis did with this law is to try to explain it. They said that the death penalty is not imposed for the sins the son committed, such as disobeying his parents, overeating and getting drunk. The death penalty is imposed for the deeds such a son will commit in the future. These crimes, they posit, will be more severe capital crimes. In Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 72A, the rabbis say, "Let him die while he is innocent, and let him not die when he is guilty of capital crimes." In other words, they are doing this young boy a favor." By killing him while he is young and a rascal with only harmless sins for which to repent, he will not have the chance to get older and commit major crimes and have heavier sins on his soul.
The second thing that the rabbis do is to legally parse each requirement of the passages. It is obvious that the rabbis do not want this law enforced. But they just cannot erase a Torah law. So they develop so many legal requirements that it is virtually impossible for this commandment ever to be fulfilled. The rabbis say, in Tractate Sanhedrin 71 A, that the death penalty "never occurred and never will occur" for this situation. One mitzvah down; 612 to go.
For example, they discuss the word "son." This implies that the boy is still a child. As a child, he is not responsible for his actions and these laws and penalties cannot apply at all. A child becomes a man at bar mitzvah, but then the parents no longer have authority over the son anyway. The rabbis decide that the only time frame during which this law can apply is the first three months after a bar mitzvah ceremony (Tractate Sanhedrin 68B). More specifically, "from the time he produces two pubic hairs until the time that his public hairs grow round." Rabbi Dimi traveled from Palestine to Babylon - where the Talmud was being written - and said he read in a baraita (part of the discussion of the Talmud that was left on the editing room floor) that "it is when the pubic hair begins to grow around the base of the penis and not yet on the testicles." In this way, the window for this law being effective is shortened to just three months. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsh says that this is when a 13-year-old boy's passions become aroused and this is when parents must exert tight discipline over their son's evil inclination, as well as his raging hormones.
Nachmonides contends that one sin will lead to another. He says these verses are here to teach us that if one shows disrespect to his parents, he will disrespect the Torah. If one is a glutton with food and wine, it is an indication of a lack of self-restraint that will make it impossible to be a holy person and develop spiritual limitations. Rabbi Bachya says that these verses teach that parents' love of God must supersede the love of their own children. He sites Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice Isaac as the prime example.
The sages still try to add more into this verse to keep it from being used. They decide that the child had to have stolen money from his parents to buy enough food and wine to have become a drunkard and a glutton. This would mean that he is addicted to food and wine and will become a murderous thief in the future to continue his habit. Because the verse says that a man has this wayward son, the rabbis decree that if a minor boy has a son, this son is exempt forever from this law. They decide from their biblical research that a boy as young as nine years old can be a father. They decide that King Solomon's forbearers on his mother Bathsheba's side, procreated when they were nine years old. They also decide that Haran was nine years old when he begat Sarah, Abraham's wife. They then decide, according to Rabbi Hillel's academy, that if a boy less than nine years old fondles his mother, even to the point of having penile-vaginal penetration, it is not incest and the mother can still marry a Kohan.
The rabbis then have the problem of deciding how much a son has to drink and eat to be a glutton. They decide that if the son steals his father's money and buys meat and drink in Jerusalem, he is excused, as the money was spent like the tithe money that is to be spent in the Holy city. If the boy gets drunk and overeats at a public feast, he is excused. They decided that gluttony means eating delicacy cuts of expensive meat and no other foods. Being a drunkard means drinking only the best... rare, strong wines. And the son must be a glutton and a drunkard at the same time. The meat cannot be salted, and the wine cannot be young. The rabbis get sidetracked discussing their favorite wines and meats, and discussing why, if wine is so bad, did God make it for man? The rabbis then derive adages about the benefits of wine and the ills of its excesses.
After what reads like a wine tasting/gourmet dinner party, the rabbis decide that the boy must steal both from his mother and father; buy the meat and wine; and eat it outside of his parent's property. If he stole the money from people other than his parents; he is not a wayward son. If the boy steals the wine and meat directly, and not the money to buy them; he is not a wayward son. Since the money that his mother has belongs to her husband, it is difficult for the son to actually steal from his mother. The husband would have had to make a legal oath that certain monies belonged to his wife. If the boy's mother and father disagreed, then the boy could not be a wayward son. And if the mother disagreed with the father for any reason, the boy could not be deemed a wayward son either.
The sages also decide that, since the verse says the parents must grasp the boy and take him, they cannot be lame or have an injured hand. Since they both must talk, they cannot be mute. They cannot be deaf, as they must hear their son's rebuff. And they cannot be blind, as they must actually see their son drunk or overindulging in food. They then decide that if all of these above contingencies are met, flogging should be the penalty not stoning. But they want at least two witnesses who saw what the parents saw and who saw the parents warn the son that what he was about to do was punishable by flogging. But if the boy isn't found guilty until after the three-month window of his bar mitzvah, punishment is not allowed.
The rabbis are also unsettled by the prospect of a precedent being set which allows them to punish people for crimes they may commit in the future, like in the film Minority Report. They not only are against this, but they bring up famous people who committed crimes, but were not punished because either there were no witnesses against them, or they were doing it for good motives. They speak of Esther, who publicly co-habitated with a non-Jewish man (King Ahashverous) and was not punished. The rabbis say Esther was completely passive when she and the King had sex, so she was not breaking any law. They say she was "as passive as the soil of the earth" when the King "tilled" her.
The rabbis then throw up their hands and ask why this law was given if they cannot follow it. The rabbis mention another law that gave them the same problem in its impossibility to enforce. This is the law of the subverted city (Deut. 13:13-19) from parasha Re'eh. To review, if a city has more than half of its inhabitants worshipping idols, the entire city and all of its inhabitants are to be burned in the town square. The rabbis first decide that if the town had no square, the law could not be carried out. They eventually decide that if just one mezuzah appeared in the town, it could not be destroyed. Since every town in the land of Israel had to have at least one mezuzah, they say that this law also was never carried out and will never be carried out (Sanhedrin 71A). Two mitzvoth down; 611 to go.
They also discuss the law about the house with tzaraat (mistranslated as leprosy) in Leviticus 14:33-53. This was a house whose walls turned scaly colors. They agree that this only happened twice, as there were ruins of houses in both Gaza and the Galilee that the people there called tzaraat house ruins. But they all agree that for many reasons they could never declare a house afflicted with tzaraat and condemn it to be destroyed in the future. Three mitzvoth down; 610 to go.
The rabbis decide that all of these laws were not meant to be carried out, but were in the Torah for teaching purposes. What the rabbis do is to use the passages to give child-rearing advice. For example, they use the phraseology of both a mother's and father's voice to show that if parents do not speak in one consistent voice, a child will grow up confused and will be apt to commit sins and crimes.
As spiritual Jews today we need to look at the words of Torah and Talmud, not as divinely given, but as teachings that are divinely inspired. The laws are there not to be followed or understood literally, but to guide us in our daily trials of being ethical and good people. The ancient sages, even before the time of the two Temples' destruction, amended and bent the Torah to adapt to changing times without losing its core belief system. This adaptability is the beauty of Judaism, and it is in this spirit that Judaism must continue to evolve and reform.
Shabbat Shalom and may you be inscribed and sealed into the book of life.
Rabbi Arthur Segal www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
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