Thursday, April 15, 2010

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL ; JEWISH RENEWAL : TESHUVAH

 
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL ; JEWISH RENEWAL : TESHUVAH
 
Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 4/24/10: A Path of Transformation
 
The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network a service of Hebrew College.
 
Shalom my dear Talmidim, Chaverim v' Rabbanim:
 
I hope you all had a sweet and redemptive Pesach. I am humbled to say that I had one the best 8 days of Passover ever. It was unleavened heaven! I was with 150+ Jews from all traditions and many nations with no makloket. strife. I was honored to lead the seder, and two shabbatot. Spending time each day, learning traditions from Jews from Turkey, or Mexico, or Tashkent, or the Ukraine, or Israel, or Russia, was just an amazing opportunity for me. The song of Am Israel Chai, the People of Israel Lives, resounded in my head continually.
 
I was also blessed to be with my mom and dad and sister [ and Ellen of course } celebrating my dad's 85th birthday, baruch Ha Shem. It was a truly loving time with them as well.
 
I was really humbled to my knees being invited up to the dais of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC on Yom ha Shoah, and was asked to read a portion of the list of 6 million names of our martyrs in the Shoah. I followed the director of the museum, Ms. Sara Bloomfield. It was very moving and I fought back tears as I sounded out each name, especially when they were entire families, including children and grandparents.
 
Today we delve into the final Third of the Chapter on Teshuvah (Making Amends) in
(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal in today's class.
 
For those new to the class, and it grows each week to now over 400 from every continent except Antarctica , thank God, you can access last week's class at  Click here: RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: HANDBOOK TO JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: TRANSFORMATION  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-03-16T18%3A07%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=20  . From there, links will take you back class by class to our first one, which was circa Simchat Torah in Autumn of 2009. WELCOME!! BARUCH HA BA!!
 
We have discussed in past classes and in past chapters, how Passover is not only a holiday celebrating the Hebrew's deliverance from slavery in Egypt, but how it is a time in the Jewish calendar to learn to release ourselves from our own narrow places, (Mitzraim in Hebrew, the word for Egypt), and to get the puffiness out of our lives, symbolized by leavening, and learn to be as humble as a flat piece of matzah. We have learned how our ego enslaves us, and that we become worse than any Pharaoh, being our own jailors.
 
Teshuvah, making amends, helps rid us of destructive ego. Said Rabbi Berechia in the Midrash Tehilim (Psalms): The Exodus from Egypt is comparable to a fat man who is riding on a donkey. The donkey longs: "O when will he get off me"; and the fat man longs: "O when will I get off the donkey." As soon as he gets off, the man is happy and the donkey is happy. Still I do not know: who is the happier? So the Psalmist proclaims: "Egypt rejoiced when they went."
 
The death of ego, of our selfishness, selfcenteredness, of our resentments, and of our fears, is a joyous moment of we being literally reborn. When we rid ourselves of these destructive behaviors, we become happy, joyous and free, the way God wishes us to live.
 
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers. While change can seem very frightening, I can assure you, as we learn in Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 104a , that "one who seeks to purify himself is granted Heavenly assistance." God is our partner in our transformation.
 
Change is not a one time process. It is always ongoing.  "One should forever arouse his good inclination to subdue his evil inclination" (Talmud Bavli Tracate Beracoth  5a). We ask God to remove our defects, our ego, during our Tashlich, casting away of sins, ceremony, but we do not ask God to destroy them. We are made with free will and we cannot ask God to change the way He created us. So our ego, our yetzer ha ra, is always ready to pounce on us. It speaks to us in a smooth, loud, shinny voice of rationalization. We have to make the effort to access the ''still small voice'' of our yetzer tov, of God, to continually make sure we do what is good and right.
 
The rabbis teach: To fill yourself with wisdom, you must be full of wisdom. To fill yourself with wisdom, you must empty yourself of all your wise thoughts. To receive the Infinite Light, you must be armed with all the tools that draw light. To receive the Infinite Light, you must be still and empty. No longer do we live with the mantra of ''don't just sit there, do something.'' We learn to trust God and 'to be still and know that I am God.'' Our lives work easier this way.
 
The rabbis continue: The times that most profoundly affects the course of a person's soul are the times he struggles with and battling his persecutors and oppressors to uphold and strengthen his faith... Such an experience, though fraught with pain of the body and agony of the soul, is rich with powerful impressions. These are the days of light in the life of man
 "If you will seek it like silver and hunt for it like hidden treasures, then you will understand the love of God, and knowledge of God you will find" (Proverbs 2:4-5). R' Yochanan ben Dehavai said: Do not distance yourself from a quality that is without limit and from a labor that is without end. To what can this be compared? To someone who took water from the ocean and cast it onto dry land. The ocean did not appear any less full and the land did not become filled with water. The man grew frustrated. His employer said: "Foolish one! Why are you upset? Each day you will receive a gold coin for your work."(Avot De R' Nosson 27:3).
 
Our spiritual transformation and path is reward by itself. Staying God connected helps us live with the ups and downs of life. "Good fortune --- remember it's fickle; misfortune --- remember it will  pass,'' says R' Ibn Pakuda in his Duties of the Heart. So what is our job in this world? It is to become truth. How do we become truth? By not lying to ourselves. By doing that chesbon ha nefesh gadol, that complete moral inventory, and a daily one each night. It is not that we must do whatever we do with sincerity. Sincerity itself is the work we must do. It is what we must transform into. 

                      
CHAPTER SEVEN (LAST THIRD) :''SELICHA AND TESHUVAH-- MAKING AMENDS '', FROM (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal
 

Doing Teshuvah is not easy. It is a humbling process that will deflate your ego, but, fortunately, you are not left to do it alone. You just need to get the process started, and then God will join in and help you surmount the difficulty.

 

Moshe went to see his Rabbi. "Rabbi, last week I missed saying grace after meals."

"Why?" asked the Rabbi.

"Because I forgot to wash my hands before the meal."

"That's twice you've broken the law but you still haven't told me why."

"The food wasn't kosher."

"You ate non-kosher food?" asked the Rabbi.

"It wasn't a Jewish restaurant."

"That makes it even worse," said the now angry Rabbi. "Couldn't you have eaten in a kosher one?"

"What, on Yom Kippur?"

 

Rabbi Pinchas the Priest, son of Chama, said: "The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not desire the punishment of his creatures. For I do not want people to die, says the Lord God, but rather Return and Live." (Ez: 18:32). "As I Live, says the Lord God, I do not want the wicked to die! And what does He want? To find His creatures innocent! The Lord wants to find him innocent…" (Is: 42:21, Midrash Tanchuma; VaYera).

Once you have made your teshuvah to the people who have allowed you, and made sincere attempts to do so with the folks who want to continue holding a grudge, the process is done.

There is a verse in Psalms 38:19: "I shall tell my transgression; I agonize over my sin."  This is fine when doing vidui and objecting to your defects before doing tashlich. However, once you have done teshuvah, made your amends for past transgressions, you can no longer wallow in your sins. You might feel bad about the people who refuse to forgive you, but you cannot let this bother you. They are committing their own sin by holding a grudge.

"Wherever a person's thoughts are, that is where he himself is. If you think about a sin, you are lying in the sin. Regardless of which way one may handle mud, his hands will become soiled." (The Kotzk Rabbi Mendel).

 The Talmud says that you will know that God has forgiven you of a defect when you find yourself in a position to act on that defect but avoid it. "What is the definition of one who has successfully done Teshuvah?" Rabbi Yahudah said. "One who has the opportunity to do the same sin (implying that circumstances are such that his desire to do the sin is the same) and this time does not do it! He is a Baal (master of) Teshuvah!" (Talmud Bavli Tractate Yoma 86b).

Once you have completed teshuvah, it is time for you to put the past where it belongs, behind you, and to refrain from worrying about the future. Now you must concentrate on refraining from your defective behavior in the present moment, right here, right now, today.

Wallowing and beating your chest as you agonize over the past, instead of accepting God's forgiveness and that of friends and family who have forgiven you, is yet another sin. Remember; "God is abundant in forgiveness." (Is. 55:7). As important as it is for us to forgive others, it is equally important for us to accept Divine forgiveness and the forgiveness of others.

This leads me into the last phase of selicah and teshuvah. This phase is between you and God. It is actually easier than dealing with other people since you already know that God is all-forgiving and that His gates of teshuvah, of repentance, of return, of renewal, are always open to us.

Rabbi Yesa said: "The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Israel, 'My sons, open the door of Repentance as the eye of a needle and I will open it for you so that wagons and carriages can pass through.'" (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 24).

Simply and humbly beg God to keep you from the defects of character that you cast away in your tashlich phase and He will. If you ever feel tempted, ask Him again. If you have to leave the room or pull the car over so you can pray to God for His strength, do it. I guarantee you that if you remain faithful to your Spiritual Renewal, in time your fears, grudges, defects, et al that have plagued you for years will melt away.

While doing teshuvah to God, ask Him to help you negate your ego and self will. In growing spiritually and getting closer to understanding God and living in His world, I refer you to a quote from Isaiah 54:13: "All your children are learned of God." The word "limud" can mean "to learn." It can also mean "to teach." Another translation of this verse could be: "All your children are teachers of God." In other words, everyone wants to teach God how to run the universe.

Looking at it in writing you can clearly see that this is folly, but how many people do you know who make themselves and others miserable as they try to play God, trying to control everything and everyone around them? Remember from Chapter 1 that God does not want you to be a doormat and let people walk all over you, but also remember that true Shalom only comes when you recognize what you can and cannot control. The only things you can control are your own actions. If you don't like somebody else's behavior and you treat that person harshly, you are only teaching that person to hate. Judaism teaches us to meet with love those who try to detract from us. If you do reprove somebody, do it with kindness and gentleness, and never embarrass that person. The Talmud teaches we should rather throw ourselves into a burning oven than embarrass another person. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Ketuvoth 67b).

The ego is what stands between you and God and between you and your fellows. If you resent somebody, chances are, the Talmud teaches, you actually resent a character defect of your own that you see in that person. Psychiatrists will tell you the same thing. The non-spiritual person would rather hold a grudge against that person than work on his own defect.

When Moses said, "I stood between God and you," (Deuteronomy 5:5) he was telling Israel that he was an intermediary between God and them at Sinai. But let us look at the verse literally. "I" (ego) is actually a barrier that stands between you and God. "Anochi" is the Hebrew word used for "I." Beware of it for ego will "Edge God Out" of your life.

God wants you to have healthy self-esteem, but He wants you to earn it by doing His will. He does not appreciate fake humility, self-anointing or vanity. "A vain person is one I cannot bear." (Psalms 101:5).  Jacob said to Isaac when pretending to be Esau, "It is I, Esau your firstborn." (Genesis 27:19). "Anochi" was used here. The sages teach that the idea of wanting to be the "big man," being an "I," is a trait of Esau. 

Jacob's self-concept was expressed in his statement, "I am too small (undeserving) of all the kindnesses You have done for me." (Genesis 32:11). In the Kabbalah, about which we will learn more, Jacob is "Tiferet." This word symbolizes adornment, mercy, peace, masculinity and even spirituality. He was in harmony with all. Jacob went with God's flow.

So as part of ongoing, living teshuvah to God and your fellows, continually assess the steps you will take to keep yourself truthful, to get rid of the destructive ego, self-seeking, grudges and separation from God. Develop a deep understanding that God is in charge, so when things occur in your life, good or bad, you can bless God equally and stay in a ruach (spirit) of Shalom.

 

Hetty was the local gossip and self-appointed guardian of the town's morals. One day, she accused Moishe in front of a number of people of being an alcoholic, because she saw his car parked in front of the local wine merchant.

Moishe was a wise man. He just stared at her for a moment, said nothing and walked away.

Later that night, Moishe parked his car in front of Hetty's house and left it there until morning.

 

At this point in your Jewish Spiritual Renewal you are no longer in Mitzraim (narrow). You are Nevi (open). You are now able to make great strides in your spirituality and your encounters with God. You are ready to learn how to pray. The next chapter will open your eyes, and your heart, to what real Jewish prayer is. I'll give you a hint, it is not reciting page after page, from your sidurim (prayer books).
 
Next week, God willing we will begin Chapter 8 on learning to truly pray.
 
As always, below  are two d'vrai Torah as the Shabbat of April 24, 2010 is a double parasha portion.
 
Many Blessings,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
 

Parasha Acharei: Leviticus 16:00-18:30

Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"Well I'm not dumb, but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man, oh my Lola"

This parasha includes verse 18:22 from Leviticus, which has put liberal Judaism in the news and even on the front page of the New York Times. "You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman." This law is repeated in 20:13 with the addition of teaching us the penalty for transgression, which is death. As we read in an earlier d'var Torah, expounding on verses in a manner that ignores their historical context can have consequences that affect us still today.

While I abhor the idea of giving publicity to hate groups, I sadly refer you to the Westboro Baptist Gospel Church of Texas Web site: www.GodHatesFags.com. Their
"logical" syllogism takes Leviticus 18:22 and classifies all homosexuals as an abomination. By quoting Psalm 5:05, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity," they believe that if God hates the homosexual, so should we. They further quote Isaiah 66:24, which they translate as saying that those who have transgressed against God will not have "their fires quenched" and that this means that homosexuals will reside in hell for all eternity. By referring to the death penalty of Leviticus 20:13, they justify the killing in Texas of innocent victim of a horrid hate crime, Matthew Shepard, who was gay. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church actually proudly picketed his funeral. If there is anything of value to be found at this deplorable web site, it is that they do list the liberal Jewish temples on their list of "Fag Churches." These are places of worship where homosexuals are welcome not only as congregants, but also as rabbis and cantors, and can stand before the Torah on the bimah and have a commitment ceremony.

Please note that my use of the Westboro Baptist Gospel Church as an example is for illustrative purposes only, and is not meant to suggest that I consider them representative of the Christian position on homosexuality. I do not and neither should you.

The Anti-Defamation League reports that violent crimes against gays and lesbians are continuing to rise. The FBI says they are the third highest targeted group for hate crimes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that gay and lesbian youth are at a four times higher risk for suicide than their straight peers. According to the National Network of Runaway Youth Services, 40 percent of the homeless teens on our streets are homosexual.

The rabbis of Reform Judaism, in an overwhelming vote, approved a resolution to back any rabbi's decision to preside over a gay union through "appropriate Jewish ritual." A compromise was reached to recognize the diversity of opinion within the movement and to support those who choose not to officiate at such ceremonies. Rabbi Paul Menitof, vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) stated: "These are people who are subjected to signals, subtle and not so subtle, that they are abnormal, sinful, less than whole. Can you imagine the impact on them to finally hear a confirming message after so many negative messages from all these religious groups?"

Please note that the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) does not call these commitment ceremonies marriages nor does it give them the status of kiddushin (sanctification). But there is an ecclesiastic imprimatur that makes it clear that their fellow congregants and God attach holiness to their union.

In 1990 the United American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) agreed to ordain openly gay rabbis. On March 16, 2000, Vermont's House of Representatives voted to recognize same sex unions, and Hawaii and Rhode Island moved in this direction as well. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and France have created a special status called "registered partnerships." Other states, most recently California, have followed suit.  It is interesting to note that for thirty-seven years the rabbis of the Secular Humanist Jewish movement have performed same-sex commitment ceremonies for both Jewish and intermarried couples alike.

There are some aspects of Jewish tradition that oppose homosexuality. These need to be understood in the historical context of the need to have children and the need to keep us from the bad habits of our neighbors. Homosexuality was looked upon as a deviant behavior under one's control. The authors of our laws were not aware of any biological or scientific basis for homosexual behavior. Since they believed that the behavior is under one's control, they viewed homosexuality as an abomination of what was normal. But just as the ancient church had pro-gay writers such as St. Aelrod, Ausonius, and St. Anselm, so did we. In his essay Deal Gently with the Young Man, Norman Roth describes the flourishing of homoerotic Jewish literature in Spain in the Middle Ages. This essay, and his Fawn of My Delights - Boy-Love in Hebrew Verse, quote many poems of this nature. Yishaq ben Mar-Saul of Lucena in the eleventh century writes about his gay lover. "He has inflamed my passions, and consumed my heart with fire, like Joseph in his form, like Adoniah his hair, lovely eyes like David, he has slain me like Uriah!" The Jewish poet Isaac Ibn Abraham of twelfth-century Spain writes of his pain of living in a "closet:" "The secret of love, how can it be contained, the heart and the tear are talebearers."

The Rambam (Maimonides), who was close to being a contemporary of Yishaq ben Mar-Saul and Isaac Ibm Abraham, accepts Jewish homosexuals as not being violators deserving of being on his list of apostates. He based this on Talmud Bavli Tractate Chullin 4a and 5a, which clearly teaches that one who repeatedly violates a particular commandment out of inner compulsion rather than to flout the tradition is to be considered a functioning equal member of the community. Ironically this same tractate, Chullin, also gives credit to the pagans who practice homosexuality for not actually marrying each other with a ketubah.

The rabbis declared in Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 82a that two Jewish bachelors are permitted to sleep in the same bed because Jewish men are not suspected of being homosexual. We saw in an earlier d'var that the same men were allowed to herd sheep because Jewish men are not suspected of bestiality. Rabbi Harold Shulweis posits that the rabbis clearly believed that homosexual behavior was a controlled, willful act and could be avoided if one wished to do so. But they were aware of other inborn behaviors. According to Jewish law, activities that are uncontrollable, even if they are prohibited, are "patur aval asur," which means free of culpability. Talmud Bavli Tractate Nadarim 33a teaches that God "frees one from punishment who is coerced."

The Talmudic Bavli Tractate Bava Batra 43a teaches that if we are to judge, we are "to judge according to that which you see with your own eyes." If we are to see gay men and lesbian women as deviants and sinners in control of their abominable behaviors, then we will continue to judge them in this manner. But if we open our eyes to the scientific evidence and an understanding of the history of the times when our laws were written, we will see them as caring, loving folk who wish to stand on our bimah and declare their love for each other before God, and we will therefore no longer judge them.

If the rabbis of the Talmud knew that homosexuality was not a learned, controlled behavior, I believe they would have reformed the Torah in the same manner they reformed the laws requiring us to kill a rebellious son (Deut. 21:18), torture the wife of a jealous man (Num. 5:12), and destroy a city in which Jews worshipped idols (Deut. 13:13). The Talmudic rabbis called these laws theoretical and having no application to life: "Lo hayah v'lo atid lihyot." If they knew that gays' sexual orientation was not an act of their willing, the laws against homosexual behavior might well have been set aside as well.

The rabbis also abolished another law. In Talmud Bavli Tractate Yebamoth 64a, the law is given that after ten years of marriage, if the wife has not given birth, it was grounds for divorce, as the purpose of marriage was to have Jewish children. The rabbis nullified this. There is also a law forbidding a man incapable of having children from marrying a Jewish woman who is capable. But do we see any rabbi refusing to wed a healthy woman to a man who had (God forbid) prostate, penile, or testicular cancer, or who is paraplegic? We say that they can adopt and raise Jewish children. And so can gay or lesbian partners, who can also deliver biological children. Please also note that in Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 54b, where the rabbis discuss this Sabbath's parasha verse, there is no law against lesbianism.

Consider how much Judaism has reformed itself from the days of the Torah to the days of our prophets. While I am not comparing gay men to eunuchs, Deut. 23:2 says that a eunuch cannot enter into the Assembly of God. But Isaiah says in chapter 56, "As for the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who have chosen what I desire and hold fast My covenant, I will give them in My house and My walls, a monument and a name. Better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name which shall not perish." Isaiah, and hopefully we, would rather have gay and lesbian couples among us who do good mitzvoth than heterosexual couples among us who are mean-spirited.

None of us is pure. Few of us follow every halacha to the letter of the law. Sabbath breakers, according to the Torah were to be stoned – as were homosexuals. Yet we do not vilify Sabbath violators today, keep them from marriage, or call for their execution. The Rambam understood that none of us is perfect. He reminded everyone of this by signing his letters, "Moshe Ben Maimon who transgresses three negative commandments in the Torah every day." He was referring to the prohibitions of a Jew returning to and living in Egypt. The rabbis overlooked that Torah law because of the mental anguish a forced move on the Jews living in Egypt would cause.

The canard "allowing gay or lesbian couples on our bimah, under a kuppah wedding canopy will cause other people to become gay" is just ludicrous. It is just as silly as saying that mentally healthy gay men or mentally healthy lesbian women recruit children while mental healthy heterosexuals do not. The URJ did not condone child molestation. Thinking of homosexuals as perverted leads to horrible consequences. When liberal movements openly allowed rabbis to welcome homosexuals to their temples and to partake of every aspect of Jewish life, it was an indication of another ideal of liberal Judaism.

Parasha Kedoshim: Leviticus 19:01-20:27

Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"Getting Back to the Garden"

This Torah portion is entitled "Kedoshim." In it we read many of the wondrous man-to-man laws that help define our ethical relationships to one another and thereby form the basis for our civilization's codes of legal and subscribed behaviors. The word kedoshim is translated into English as holy. The root word, however, comes from the Hebrew word that means "set aside." While it is a virtual impossibility for any flesh and blood human to be truly holy, it is certainly possible for each of us to set aside a part of ourselves for holiness.

What is notable in this portion of Leviticus is that there are few priestly rituals listed. As we have seen so far, the sacrificial rituals and the priestly rules have made up the bulk of this third book of the Chumash. We therefore get a broad hint on how to achieve spirituality during our sojourn on earth. We seem to be told that the way to achieve closeness to God is by doing good to our fellow men and treating them with honesty and respect.

In pasuk (verse) 19:18 we read: "you shall love your fellow as yourself - I am God." How can we be commanded to love? What exactly is "our fellow?" Is this mitzvah so important that God had to remind us that He indeed is God? Why did Rabbi Akiva say this is "the great principle of the Torah?" Why did the medieval Jewish mystic Judah the Pious say that this will be the one question God will ask of us when we seek admittance into Heaven? Why did the student Yeshu of Nazareth, called Jesus today, say that this mitzvah is second only to the command to love God?

In the 950-year-old text Duties of the Heart, Rabbi Bachya ibn Paquda devotes his 925-page book to the concept of obeying the commandment "to love." Before we can love our fellow, we must accept the other commandment of the love of God. He asks us to understand that whatever we have is a gift, or better stated, a loan from God. We should never lose sight of our love for Him. We must further understand that all humans are God's children and beloved equally by Him. We can reach a conclusion that by loving others, we are helping to repay God for his gifts to us. Since His gifts are really just loans, we are only just in an infinitesimal way beginning to thank God by helping another with our time, resources, energies, and emotions. Can one ever fully thank our Maker for the gift of life itself?

The Hebrew word ray-eh-cha has been translated as your fellow, your friend, or your neighbor. This beautiful mitzvah has been colored by the words preceding it in the first part of the verse. They are, "you shall not bear a grudge against the children of your people." (b'nai amekah). When the verse continues and uses the word rayehcha, are we to believe that this love is just to be directed for our "fellow Jew," or to our "fellow human neighbor" in our earthly home?

One can certainly not speak for God in today's age. Traditionally we believe that our prophets were inspired divinely. They have made it quite clear to us in their writings that God meant by rayehcha, all of our fellow humans, not just our fellow Jews. As Orthodox rabbi and psychiatrist Dr. Abraham Twerski posits, Judaism teaches that spiritual drives are an expression of the neshemah (soul). The Torah states that when God created man, He "breathed the breath of life into him" (Gen. 2:07). The Zohar, the text of the Kabbalah, points out that when one exhales, he or she exhales something from within himself or herself. Thus, God - by breathing a breath of life into man - put something of Himself into each one of us. The human spirit is therefore part of God Himself.

Since God is absolute unity, all souls are one, and all humans are one spirit. Since we are separate individuals we have separate physical bodies, but our souls are attached. In other words, mankind is one in spirit, but many in corporeality. By loving all of our fellow humans, the Zohar teaches, we are striving for the essence of Judaism. We are emphasizing our spiritual soul that would keep us together rather than feeding our physical bodies with pleasures, which keep us apart.

When King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he specifically asked God to heed the prayers of non-Jews who came to the Temple (Kings I 8:41-43). The Temple was the universal center of spirituality that the prophet Isaiah called the "house of ALL nations." The service at the Temple on the week of Sukkoth featured 70 bull offerings corresponding to each of the 70 nations of the world. The sages said, with hyperbole, that if Rome knew how much benefit they were getting from the Temple, they would have never destroyed it.

When our rabbis finally wrote the Talmud, 1,000 years in the making, in 500 C.E., the concept of loving equally the Jew and non-Jew was reinterpreted. To some sages, loving your fellow became loving a fellow Jew. Ahavath rayehcha became ahavath Israel. Loving the non-Jewish stranger (ger) became loving the Jewish convert. This is not what the Torah or the prophets taught. But because the rabbis of the Talmud during this period of harsh Diaspora, said their word was the Oral Law directly from Mt. Sinai, this reasoning found its way into some teachings and traditions.

The Torah is very clear in that on a religious level a convert to Judaism is as Jewish as a born Jew. It was assumed in Torah times that when a non-Jewish woman married a Jewish man, she automatically became Jewish, as were her future children. Conversion ceremonies, independent of marriage, first appeared in the post-biblical period. We also see that in Torah law a non-Jew was equal to a Jew and should be loved and treated equally. Judaism via our Torah does not distinguish, on a human level, between those who are Jewish and the non-Jews who live among us. On a religious level the Torah does not distinguish between one who is born Jewish or one who converts either by ceremony or by marriage.

However, by the time our Talmud was put into written form this universality of the prophets was amended in some ways. In 500 C.E. Judaism was in much danger. We were dominated by the Roman Empire. We were homeless and unfortunately, but understandably, enemy-centered for mere spiritual and corporal survival.

William James once said, "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." Our Talmud - some small parts of which are embarrassing to us now in the third millennium C.E. - has some statements in it that if read out of context can be hurtful not only to others but to ourselves. Both Jews and non-Jews have read the Talmud out of its historical time frame with disastrous results. We need to remember, before continuing, that the Gemorah part of the Talmud records all opinions of the rabbis, not just the ones that became law.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Moed Kattan 17A suggests that if a Jew is tempted to do evil, he should to go to a non-Jewish city where he is not known. Tractate Bava Metzia 114B speaks of Jews being only truly human (designated men) and Tractate Beracoth 58A speaks of having sex with a non-Jewish woman as having sex with a she-ass. Tractate Bava Kamma 37B says that if a Jew's ox gores a Canaanite's ox there is no liability, but if the Canaanite's ox gores a Jew's ox, there is full liability.

The Talmudic rabbis quote Ezekiel 34:31 as their proof that gentiles are not men (adam) as Jews are, because God says that His sheep (Jews) are "men." But when did Ezekiel write? He wrote during the Babylonian captivity, and he was using poetry as a rallying cry to let Israel know that their God would soon rescue them. The Babylonians were the preying wild beasts, which Ezekiel had to refer to carefully as Egyptians, and the Jews were the set upon sheep. This was all metaphor.

We must remember that the Talmud was written during some very tough times for our people. It is a 1,000-year text. There was understandable hatred in many rabbis' hearts for the pagan Romans. Their concern was not against the early Christians. Gentile meant Roman. But as the Talmud, centuries later, found its way into the hands of the church fathers, these statements about gentiles were forced to be amended. Maimonides, in his book on the Talmud, called the Mishna Torah, says it is a religious duty in the Talmud to "eradicate traitors, minnim, and apikorsim" such as the Saducces (who denied the oral law and were against the Pharisees, the forerunners of Rabbinic Judaism), apostates, and followers of Jesus. The Rambam continues "as for gentiles, the basic Talmudic principle is that their lives must not be saved, although it is also forbidden to murder them outright." The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Avodah Zarah 26B expresses this maxim as "gentiles are neither to be lifted out of a well, nor hauled down into it." The beginning of the second millennium when the Rambam wrote was a bellicose time. Writing these pugnacious words in the relative safety of Moorish Spain or Muslim Egypt was the only safe way Maimonides, a Jew, could express his outrage at the wholesale slaughter and discrimination the Church was rendering to his people.

Tractate Bava Metzia says that if a Jew finds a lost object of a gentile it does not have to be returned. Be mindful that all of these quotes are taken out of context. For example, it is a general Talmudic principle that any object that is found that the owner has given up hope of recovery may be kept. Since Jews and non-Jews lived separately, the likelihood of a non-Jew having hope of finding a lost, unidentifiable object in a Jewish town was nil. Hence, the object was attainable by the finder. The Talmud says we should go out of our way to find this gentile and return the object. But as we have seen so many times before, when any group interprets the Torah through their eyes (especially when they say they know the right and only way of interpretation), hurtful behaviors can result. We need to understand always that the Talmud is the work of men who were doing what they thought was best for our people during the tumultuous times it was written. We as modern liberal Jews do not accept the Talmud or the books of the rabbis of the Middle Ages as divine. In Jewish Spiritual Renewal we work on ourselves with God's aid to become the best loving people we can be and use our texts for the parts within them to help us in this direction.

When every word of the Talmud is assumed to be the word of God, certain rabbis can then give license for bigotry. Thank heaven these rabbis are very small in number. Ordained, hateful behavior gets directed not only toward non-Jews, but also to Jews labeled as apikorsim or minnim. These are code words for assimilated or liberal Jews who deny that the Talmud, and works that stem from it (like the Rambam's text), are divine. In Aramaic, "shitta sidhre" means the six orders (sections) of the Mishna (oral law). The term is abbreviated sh's and pronounced shas. Is it any wonder why the Shas party of Israel spews forth such vile anti-liberal, anti-Jewish, and anti-Arab verbiage? They believe they are just quoting God as revealed in the Talmud.

As written in traditional Pesach Haggadot, when we open the door at the end of the seder to welcome Elijah, one says in a loud voice, "Pour out Thy wrath upon the Gentiles that know Thee not, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon Thy name, for they have consumed Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Pour out Thy rage upon them and let Thy fury overtake them. Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Eternal." One can easily see how our Christian neighbors might misunderstand this prayer.

Our Haggadah, codified in Talmudic times, is referring to the Roman pagans who conquered us and sent us into the Diaspora. No wonder the Christian Church in the Middle Ages demanded that we keep our doors open during our seders! The liberal movements deleted this section of the Passover ceremony. What is overlooked is the following fascinating Midrash saying that many first-born Egyptians ran to the land of Goshen to sleep in the beds of the Jews to escape the Angel of Death. And it worked! They were spared death and lived. It was not the Paschal lamb's blood on the door that saved them, but our unconditional Jewish hospitality and love for our fellow man. Is this an answer to Noah's prayer in Genesis 9:27: "May God extend Japheth and may he live in the tents of Shem?"

When Baruch Goldstein, on Purim 1994, gunned down 40 Palestinian civilians, including children, he was quoted as saying that his rebbe told him the Talmud said that "all Arabs are dogs." Professor Ehud Sprinzak described Goldstein's and his rebbe's philosophy in a1994 New York Daily News interview. "They believe it is God's will that they commit violence against 'goyem' (non-Jews)." Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg declared in a 1989 New York Times interview, "We have to recognize that Jewish blood and the blood of a goy are not the same thing." Rabbi Yaacov Perrin stated in a 1994 New York Daily News report that, "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." Presently, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, head of Israel's ultra orthodox Shas party, is being considered for criminal prosecution for calling liberal education minister Yossie Sarid "Satan, Haman, and Amalek" and saying he should be wiped out. His speech was received with thunderous applause and shouts of approval. So much for the love and the universality of man as spoken to us by our prophets.

"As water reflects a face back to a face, so one's heart is reflected back to him by another." (Prov. 27:19). As related in Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 31A, when Rabbi Hillel was asked to sum up Judaism, he said that the love of one's neighbor was most important. He said the rest of the Torah was commentary that needed to be studied. The Talmud makes it very clear that the Adam and Eve story was to teach us that we all come from the same first man and woman so that no one can say that their ancestors were better than another's. But how do we love another? We begin not by receiving from him, but by giving to him. When you give to another, a part of you becomes incorporated in that other person. He becomes an extension of you!

Rayehcha did mean all fellows even at the time we were being formed as a nation in the wilderness of Sinai. We were a mixed multitude of peoples, not just the children of Jacob. Leviticus 19:33-34 reminds us that we were strangers (ger) in Egypt and to love the stranger that resides with us as ourselves. There was no Torah double standard. A complete read of the Talmud shows there was no Talmudic double standard either. The Mishna says that saving a single soul (Jew or non-Jew) was equally important, although there are some versions of the Mishna, i.e., the traditional approved Art Scroll edition, in Tractate Sanhedren 37A, that say "who saves a single soul of Israel." The rabbis taught that we do bikur cholem (visit the sick) to Jew and non-Jew alike, as well as all acts of tzadakah (poorly translated as charity).

The thirteenth-century Spanish rabbi, Nachmanides the Ramban, speaks sarcastically of "a boor in the realm of Torah." This boor is a learned and observant Jew who has not violated a single mitzvah but still brings disgrace by misinterpretation. It is clear to so many that love of your rayehcha is a universal decree. There is a Judaic concept, not often taught, of Yirei ha Shem. This idea states that there are other ways to reach God outside of Judaism. Judaism is not the only path to spirituality. The Midrash Rabbah comments on Deuteronomy 34:10, one of the last verses of the Chumash, which says, "And there never again arose a prophet in Israel like Moses." The Midrash says this means that in Israel a prophet like Moses did not rise again, but among the other nations of the world there arose other prophets of Moses' stature. In his introduction to Duties of the Heart, Ibn Paquda, who is referred to earlier, says that he drew on teachings from the Muslims and the ancient Greeks.

God is Infinite. Can any religion really say that they know the true way to God? The twentieth-century physicist, Heisenberg, who was in charge of wartime Germany's race for the atomic bomb, states in his Uncertainty Principle that when one measures the location of a subatomic particle, the act of measuring it changes its location. When we read of a religion or philosophy that states with authority that it knows the mind of God, we must be careful. One can reach spiritual heights by going through an intermediary (like Jesus, if one is Christian). You can do the same by following ritual minutia. Or, as spiritual renewal Judaism teaches, one can study and determine what paths work well at various points in life. The Talmud teaches that "the righteous of all nations have an equal share in the world to come." The parasha at hand this week, called Kedoshim, gives us clear insights on attaining a righteous, set-aside holiness.

A wonderful Midrash asks, "What is the tzelem Elohim, the image of God, in which all humans are made?" It answers that when an ordinary king like the Roman emperor puts his image on a coin, all the coins get minted the same and are therefore identical. But when God, the ultimate Ruler, puts His image on a coin (humans), we each come out differently. God equally loves any religion or way of life that helps one seek holiness and a love for their fellow. For Jews, we have our way, and within our way, we have many ways. All are beloved of God. No one way is better than the next. We do not believe we have the "true" religion. What we do believe is that we need to derive mussar, ethical teachings, from our Torah, so that we can treat all of our fellows with love. As Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan said, "The past should have a vote, not a veto."

Even those who unfortunately misinterpret this d'var to mean love your fellow Jew miss this narrow interpretation as well. The Talmud tells of a horrible tragedy that befell our people during this period of time we now celebrate during the counting of the omer. This is the seven-week period between Pesach and Shavuot, when we were given the Torah on Mt. Sinai. About 1,900 years ago, Rabbi Akiva witnessed the sudden death of 24,000 of his students. The Talmud explains that they were punished because they disobeyed the mitzvah of ve'ahavta l'rayehcha kamocha and treated each other harshly, snubbed each other, did loshan ha ra about each other, and belittled each other's rabbis and teachings, each thinking they knew the right and only answer. God struck them dead rather than let them go out and become rabbis, judges, and teachers of our people. Those who think this verse means to just love your fellow Jew are mistaken, but those who think it means to love only your fellow Jew who is a member of your own sect or shul are also sadly mistaken.

Every person is in the image of God, b'tzelem Elohem. This is true of anyone of any creed. All of us need to understand this as we are now securely into the third millennium of the Gregorian calendar. Everyone needs, as Rabbi Judith Hauptman has written, "our active monitoring of his or her welfare and protection from discrimination and exploitation." We must be a light for the other nations.

The verse we studied today ends with "I am God." Rabbi Hillel astounded his students one day, as related in Talmud Sukah 53A, when he said, "When I am here, then everyone is here." Rabbi Hillel was an extremely humble and sensitive man, but the statement sounds so arrogant. Hillel then taught that the I in his statement was the I in our verse. He said the Torah was teaching that love for our fellow man was to be predicated on our love for God and knowing God. If our love for our fellow human is founded on our pure love for God, and not politics, ulterior motives, or religious rivalries, our joy in helping and loving others will be pure ecstatic spirituality. We will realize that, quoting author Ken Kesey, "either we are on the bus, or we are off the bus."
 
Shabbat Shalom:
 
Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
 


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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: ECO-JUDAISM :image of God, b’tzelem Elohem

 
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: ECO-JUDAISM :image of God, b'tzelem Elohem
 
Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 4/24/10: A Path of Transformation
 
The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network a service of Hebrew College.
 
Shalom my dear Talmidim, Chaverim v' Rabbanim:
 
I hope you all had a sweet and redemptive Pesach. I am humbled to say that I had one the best 8 days of Passover ever. It was unleavened heaven! I was with 150+ Jews from all traditions and many nations with no makloket. strife. I was honored to lead the seder, and two shabbatot. Spending time each day, learning traditions from Jews from Turkey, or Mexico, or Tashkent, or the Ukraine, or Israel, or Russia, was just an amazing opportunity for me. The song of Am Israel Chai, the People of Israel Lives, resounded in my head continually.
 
I was also blessed to be with my mom and dad and sister [ and Ellen of course } celebrating my dad's 85th birthday, baruch Ha Shem. It was a truly loving time with them as well.
 
I was really humbled to my knees being invited up to the dais of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC on Yom ha Shoah, and was asked to read a portion of the list of 6 million names of our martyrs in the Shoah. I followed the director of the museum, Ms. Sara Bloomfield. It was very moving and I fought back tears as I sounded out each name, especially when they were entire families, including children and grandparents.
 
Today we delve into the final Third of the Chapter on Teshuvah (Making Amends) in
(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal in today's class.
 
For those new to the class, and it grows each week to now over 400 from every continent except Antarctica , thank God, you can access last week's class at  Click here: RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: HANDBOOK TO JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: TRANSFORMATION  or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-03-16T18%3A07%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=20  . From there, links will take you back class by class to our first one, which was circa Simchat Torah in Autumn of 2009. WELCOME!! BARUCH HA BA!!
 
We have discussed in past classes and in past chapters, how Passover is not only a holiday celebrating the Hebrew's deliverance from slavery in Egypt, but how it is a time in the Jewish calendar to learn to release ourselves from our own narrow places, (Mitzraim in Hebrew, the word for Egypt), and to get the puffiness out of our lives, symbolized by leavening, and learn to be as humble as a flat piece of matzah. We have learned how our ego enslaves us, and that we become worse than any Pharaoh, being our own jailors.
 
Teshuvah, making amends, helps rid us of destructive ego. Said Rabbi Berechia in the Midrash Tehilim (Psalms): The Exodus from Egypt is comparable to a fat man who is riding on a donkey. The donkey longs: "O when will he get off me"; and the fat man longs: "O when will I get off the donkey." As soon as he gets off, the man is happy and the donkey is happy. Still I do not know: who is the happier? So the Psalmist proclaims: "Egypt rejoiced when they went."
 
The death of ego, of our selfishness, selfcenteredness, of our resentments, and of our fears, is a joyous moment of we being literally reborn. When we rid ourselves of these destructive behaviors, we become happy, joyous and free, the way God wishes us to live.
 
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers. While change can seem very frightening, I can assure you, as we learn in Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 104a , that "one who seeks to purify himself is granted Heavenly assistance." God is our partner in our transformation.
 
Change is not a one time process. It is always ongoing.  "One should forever arouse his good inclination to subdue his evil inclination" (Talmud Bavli Tracate Beracoth  5a). We ask God to remove our defects, our ego, during our Tashlich, casting away of sins, ceremony, but we do not ask God to destroy them. We are made with free will and we cannot ask God to change the way He created us. So our ego, our yetzer ha ra, is always ready to pounce on us. It speaks to us in a smooth, loud, shinny voice of rationalization. We have to make the effort to access the ''still small voice'' of our yetzer tov, of God, to continually make sure we do what is good and right.
 
The rabbis teach: To fill yourself with wisdom, you must be full of wisdom. To fill yourself with wisdom, you must empty yourself of all your wise thoughts. To receive the Infinite Light, you must be armed with all the tools that draw light. To receive the Infinite Light, you must be still and empty. No longer do we live with the mantra of ''don't just sit there, do something.'' We learn to trust God and 'to be still and know that I am God.'' Our lives work easier this way.
 
The rabbis continue: The times that most profoundly affects the course of a person's soul are the times he struggles with and battling his persecutors and oppressors to uphold and strengthen his faith... Such an experience, though fraught with pain of the body and agony of the soul, is rich with powerful impressions. These are the days of light in the life of man
 "If you will seek it like silver and hunt for it like hidden treasures, then you will understand the love of God, and knowledge of God you will find" (Proverbs 2:4-5). R' Yochanan ben Dehavai said: Do not distance yourself from a quality that is without limit and from a labor that is without end. To what can this be compared? To someone who took water from the ocean and cast it onto dry land. The ocean did not appear any less full and the land did not become filled with water. The man grew frustrated. His employer said: "Foolish one! Why are you upset? Each day you will receive a gold coin for your work."(Avot De R' Nosson 27:3).
 
Our spiritual transformation and path is reward by itself. Staying God connected helps us live with the ups and downs of life. "Good fortune --- remember it's fickle; misfortune --- remember it will  pass,'' says R' Ibn Pakuda in his Duties of the Heart. So what is our job in this world? It is to become truth. How do we become truth? By not lying to ourselves. By doing that chesbon ha nefesh gadol, that complete moral inventory, and a daily one each night. It is not that we must do whatever we do with sincerity. Sincerity itself is the work we must do. It is what we must transform into. 

                      
CHAPTER SEVEN (LAST THIRD) :''SELICHA AND TESHUVAH-- MAKING AMENDS '', FROM (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal
 

Doing Teshuvah is not easy. It is a humbling process that will deflate your ego, but, fortunately, you are not left to do it alone. You just need to get the process started, and then God will join in and help you surmount the difficulty.

 

Moshe went to see his Rabbi. "Rabbi, last week I missed saying grace after meals."

"Why?" asked the Rabbi.

"Because I forgot to wash my hands before the meal."

"That's twice you've broken the law but you still haven't told me why."

"The food wasn't kosher."

"You ate non-kosher food?" asked the Rabbi.

"It wasn't a Jewish restaurant."

"That makes it even worse," said the now angry Rabbi. "Couldn't you have eaten in a kosher one?"

"What, on Yom Kippur?"

 

Rabbi Pinchas the Priest, son of Chama, said: "The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not desire the punishment of his creatures. For I do not want people to die, says the Lord God, but rather Return and Live." (Ez: 18:32). "As I Live, says the Lord God, I do not want the wicked to die! And what does He want? To find His creatures innocent! The Lord wants to find him innocent…" (Is: 42:21, Midrash Tanchuma; VaYera).

Once you have made your teshuvah to the people who have allowed you, and made sincere attempts to do so with the folks who want to continue holding a grudge, the process is done.

There is a verse in Psalms 38:19: "I shall tell my transgression; I agonize over my sin."  This is fine when doing vidui and objecting to your defects before doing tashlich. However, once you have done teshuvah, made your amends for past transgressions, you can no longer wallow in your sins. You might feel bad about the people who refuse to forgive you, but you cannot let this bother you. They are committing their own sin by holding a grudge.

"Wherever a person's thoughts are, that is where he himself is. If you think about a sin, you are lying in the sin. Regardless of which way one may handle mud, his hands will become soiled." (The Kotzk Rabbi Mendel).

 The Talmud says that you will know that God has forgiven you of a defect when you find yourself in a position to act on that defect but avoid it. "What is the definition of one who has successfully done Teshuvah?" Rabbi Yahudah said. "One who has the opportunity to do the same sin (implying that circumstances are such that his desire to do the sin is the same) and this time does not do it! He is a Baal (master of) Teshuvah!" (Talmud Bavli Tractate Yoma 86b).

Once you have completed teshuvah, it is time for you to put the past where it belongs, behind you, and to refrain from worrying about the future. Now you must concentrate on refraining from your defective behavior in the present moment, right here, right now, today.

Wallowing and beating your chest as you agonize over the past, instead of accepting God's forgiveness and that of friends and family who have forgiven you, is yet another sin. Remember; "God is abundant in forgiveness." (Is. 55:7). As important as it is for us to forgive others, it is equally important for us to accept Divine forgiveness and the forgiveness of others.

This leads me into the last phase of selicah and teshuvah. This phase is between you and God. It is actually easier than dealing with other people since you already know that God is all-forgiving and that His gates of teshuvah, of repentance, of return, of renewal, are always open to us.

Rabbi Yesa said: "The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Israel, 'My sons, open the door of Repentance as the eye of a needle and I will open it for you so that wagons and carriages can pass through.'" (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 24).

Simply and humbly beg God to keep you from the defects of character that you cast away in your tashlich phase and He will. If you ever feel tempted, ask Him again. If you have to leave the room or pull the car over so you can pray to God for His strength, do it. I guarantee you that if you remain faithful to your Spiritual Renewal, in time your fears, grudges, defects, et al that have plagued you for years will melt away.

While doing teshuvah to God, ask Him to help you negate your ego and self will. In growing spiritually and getting closer to understanding God and living in His world, I refer you to a quote from Isaiah 54:13: "All your children are learned of God." The word "limud" can mean "to learn." It can also mean "to teach." Another translation of this verse could be: "All your children are teachers of God." In other words, everyone wants to teach God how to run the universe.

Looking at it in writing you can clearly see that this is folly, but how many people do you know who make themselves and others miserable as they try to play God, trying to control everything and everyone around them? Remember from Chapter 1 that God does not want you to be a doormat and let people walk all over you, but also remember that true Shalom only comes when you recognize what you can and cannot control. The only things you can control are your own actions. If you don't like somebody else's behavior and you treat that person harshly, you are only teaching that person to hate. Judaism teaches us to meet with love those who try to detract from us. If you do reprove somebody, do it with kindness and gentleness, and never embarrass that person. The Talmud teaches we should rather throw ourselves into a burning oven than embarrass another person. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Ketuvoth 67b).

The ego is what stands between you and God and between you and your fellows. If you resent somebody, chances are, the Talmud teaches, you actually resent a character defect of your own that you see in that person. Psychiatrists will tell you the same thing. The non-spiritual person would rather hold a grudge against that person than work on his own defect.

When Moses said, "I stood between God and you," (Deuteronomy 5:5) he was telling Israel that he was an intermediary between God and them at Sinai. But let us look at the verse literally. "I" (ego) is actually a barrier that stands between you and God. "Anochi" is the Hebrew word used for "I." Beware of it for ego will "Edge God Out" of your life.

God wants you to have healthy self-esteem, but He wants you to earn it by doing His will. He does not appreciate fake humility, self-anointing or vanity. "A vain person is one I cannot bear." (Psalms 101:5).  Jacob said to Isaac when pretending to be Esau, "It is I, Esau your firstborn." (Genesis 27:19). "Anochi" was used here. The sages teach that the idea of wanting to be the "big man," being an "I," is a trait of Esau. 

Jacob's self-concept was expressed in his statement, "I am too small (undeserving) of all the kindnesses You have done for me." (Genesis 32:11). In the Kabbalah, about which we will learn more, Jacob is "Tiferet." This word symbolizes adornment, mercy, peace, masculinity and even spirituality. He was in harmony with all. Jacob went with God's flow.

So as part of ongoing, living teshuvah to God and your fellows, continually assess the steps you will take to keep yourself truthful, to get rid of the destructive ego, self-seeking, grudges and separation from God. Develop a deep understanding that God is in charge, so when things occur in your life, good or bad, you can bless God equally and stay in a ruach (spirit) of Shalom.

 

Hetty was the local gossip and self-appointed guardian of the town's morals. One day, she accused Moishe in front of a number of people of being an alcoholic, because she saw his car parked in front of the local wine merchant.

Moishe was a wise man. He just stared at her for a moment, said nothing and walked away.

Later that night, Moishe parked his car in front of Hetty's house and left it there until morning.

 

At this point in your Jewish Spiritual Renewal you are no longer in Mitzraim (narrow). You are Nevi (open). You are now able to make great strides in your spirituality and your encounters with God. You are ready to learn how to pray. The next chapter will open your eyes, and your heart, to what real Jewish prayer is. I'll give you a hint, it is not reciting page after page, from your sidurim (prayer books).
 
Next week, God willing we will begin Chapter 8 on learning to truly pray.
 
As always, below  are two d'vrai Torah as the Shabbat of April 24, 2010 is a double parasha portion.
 
Many Blessings,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
 

Parasha Acharei: Leviticus 16:00-18:30

Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"Well I'm not dumb, but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man, oh my Lola"

This parasha includes verse 18:22 from Leviticus, which has put liberal Judaism in the news and even on the front page of the New York Times. "You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman." This law is repeated in 20:13 with the addition of teaching us the penalty for transgression, which is death. As we read in an earlier d'var Torah, expounding on verses in a manner that ignores their historical context can have consequences that affect us still today.

While I abhor the idea of giving publicity to hate groups, I sadly refer you to the Westboro Baptist Gospel Church of Texas Web site: www.GodHatesFags.com. Their
"logical" syllogism takes Leviticus 18:22 and classifies all homosexuals as an abomination. By quoting Psalm 5:05, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity," they believe that if God hates the homosexual, so should we. They further quote Isaiah 66:24, which they translate as saying that those who have transgressed against God will not have "their fires quenched" and that this means that homosexuals will reside in hell for all eternity. By referring to the death penalty of Leviticus 20:13, they justify the killing in Texas of innocent victim of a horrid hate crime, Matthew Shepard, who was gay. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church actually proudly picketed his funeral. If there is anything of value to be found at this deplorable web site, it is that they do list the liberal Jewish temples on their list of "Fag Churches." These are places of worship where homosexuals are welcome not only as congregants, but also as rabbis and cantors, and can stand before the Torah on the bimah and have a commitment ceremony.

Please note that my use of the Westboro Baptist Gospel Church as an example is for illustrative purposes only, and is not meant to suggest that I consider them representative of the Christian position on homosexuality. I do not and neither should you.

The Anti-Defamation League reports that violent crimes against gays and lesbians are continuing to rise. The FBI says they are the third highest targeted group for hate crimes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that gay and lesbian youth are at a four times higher risk for suicide than their straight peers. According to the National Network of Runaway Youth Services, 40 percent of the homeless teens on our streets are homosexual.

The rabbis of Reform Judaism, in an overwhelming vote, approved a resolution to back any rabbi's decision to preside over a gay union through "appropriate Jewish ritual." A compromise was reached to recognize the diversity of opinion within the movement and to support those who choose not to officiate at such ceremonies. Rabbi Paul Menitof, vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) stated: "These are people who are subjected to signals, subtle and not so subtle, that they are abnormal, sinful, less than whole. Can you imagine the impact on them to finally hear a confirming message after so many negative messages from all these religious groups?"

Please note that the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) does not call these commitment ceremonies marriages nor does it give them the status of kiddushin (sanctification). But there is an ecclesiastic imprimatur that makes it clear that their fellow congregants and God attach holiness to their union.

In 1990 the United American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) agreed to ordain openly gay rabbis. On March 16, 2000, Vermont's House of Representatives voted to recognize same sex unions, and Hawaii and Rhode Island moved in this direction as well. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and France have created a special status called "registered partnerships." Other states, most recently California, have followed suit.  It is interesting to note that for thirty-seven years the rabbis of the Secular Humanist Jewish movement have performed same-sex commitment ceremonies for both Jewish and intermarried couples alike.

There are some aspects of Jewish tradition that oppose homosexuality. These need to be understood in the historical context of the need to have children and the need to keep us from the bad habits of our neighbors. Homosexuality was looked upon as a deviant behavior under one's control. The authors of our laws were not aware of any biological or scientific basis for homosexual behavior. Since they believed that the behavior is under one's control, they viewed homosexuality as an abomination of what was normal. But just as the ancient church had pro-gay writers such as St. Aelrod, Ausonius, and St. Anselm, so did we. In his essay Deal Gently with the Young Man, Norman Roth describes the flourishing of homoerotic Jewish literature in Spain in the Middle Ages. This essay, and his Fawn of My Delights - Boy-Love in Hebrew Verse, quote many poems of this nature. Yishaq ben Mar-Saul of Lucena in the eleventh century writes about his gay lover. "He has inflamed my passions, and consumed my heart with fire, like Joseph in his form, like Adoniah his hair, lovely eyes like David, he has slain me like Uriah!" The Jewish poet Isaac Ibn Abraham of twelfth-century Spain writes of his pain of living in a "closet:" "The secret of love, how can it be contained, the heart and the tear are talebearers."

The Rambam (Maimonides), who was close to being a contemporary of Yishaq ben Mar-Saul and Isaac Ibm Abraham, accepts Jewish homosexuals as not being violators deserving of being on his list of apostates. He based this on Talmud Bavli Tractate Chullin 4a and 5a, which clearly teaches that one who repeatedly violates a particular commandment out of inner compulsion rather than to flout the tradition is to be considered a functioning equal member of the community. Ironically this same tractate, Chullin, also gives credit to the pagans who practice homosexuality for not actually marrying each other with a ketubah.

The rabbis declared in Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 82a that two Jewish bachelors are permitted to sleep in the same bed because Jewish men are not suspected of being homosexual. We saw in an earlier d'var that the same men were allowed to herd sheep because Jewish men are not suspected of bestiality. Rabbi Harold Shulweis posits that the rabbis clearly believed that homosexual behavior was a controlled, willful act and could be avoided if one wished to do so. But they were aware of other inborn behaviors. According to Jewish law, activities that are uncontrollable, even if they are prohibited, are "patur aval asur," which means free of culpability. Talmud Bavli Tractate Nadarim 33a teaches that God "frees one from punishment who is coerced."

The Talmudic Bavli Tractate Bava Batra 43a teaches that if we are to judge, we are "to judge according to that which you see with your own eyes." If we are to see gay men and lesbian women as deviants and sinners in control of their abominable behaviors, then we will continue to judge them in this manner. But if we open our eyes to the scientific evidence and an understanding of the history of the times when our laws were written, we will see them as caring, loving folk who wish to stand on our bimah and declare their love for each other before God, and we will therefore no longer judge them.

If the rabbis of the Talmud knew that homosexuality was not a learned, controlled behavior, I believe they would have reformed the Torah in the same manner they reformed the laws requiring us to kill a rebellious son (Deut. 21:18), torture the wife of a jealous man (Num. 5:12), and destroy a city in which Jews worshipped idols (Deut. 13:13). The Talmudic rabbis called these laws theoretical and having no application to life: "Lo hayah v'lo atid lihyot." If they knew that gays' sexual orientation was not an act of their willing, the laws against homosexual behavior might well have been set aside as well.

The rabbis also abolished another law. In Talmud Bavli Tractate Yebamoth 64a, the law is given that after ten years of marriage, if the wife has not given birth, it was grounds for divorce, as the purpose of marriage was to have Jewish children. The rabbis nullified this. There is also a law forbidding a man incapable of having children from marrying a Jewish woman who is capable. But do we see any rabbi refusing to wed a healthy woman to a man who had (God forbid) prostate, penile, or testicular cancer, or who is paraplegic? We say that they can adopt and raise Jewish children. And so can gay or lesbian partners, who can also deliver biological children. Please also note that in Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 54b, where the rabbis discuss this Sabbath's parasha verse, there is no law against lesbianism.

Consider how much Judaism has reformed itself from the days of the Torah to the days of our prophets. While I am not comparing gay men to eunuchs, Deut. 23:2 says that a eunuch cannot enter into the Assembly of God. But Isaiah says in chapter 56, "As for the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who have chosen what I desire and hold fast My covenant, I will give them in My house and My walls, a monument and a name. Better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name which shall not perish." Isaiah, and hopefully we, would rather have gay and lesbian couples among us who do good mitzvoth than heterosexual couples among us who are mean-spirited.

None of us is pure. Few of us follow every halacha to the letter of the law. Sabbath breakers, according to the Torah were to be stoned – as were homosexuals. Yet we do not vilify Sabbath violators today, keep them from marriage, or call for their execution. The Rambam understood that none of us is perfect. He reminded everyone of this by signing his letters, "Moshe Ben Maimon who transgresses three negative commandments in the Torah every day." He was referring to the prohibitions of a Jew returning to and living in Egypt. The rabbis overlooked that Torah law because of the mental anguish a forced move on the Jews living in Egypt would cause.

The canard "allowing gay or lesbian couples on our bimah, under a kuppah wedding canopy will cause other people to become gay" is just ludicrous. It is just as silly as saying that mentally healthy gay men or mentally healthy lesbian women recruit children while mental healthy heterosexuals do not. The URJ did not condone child molestation. Thinking of homosexuals as perverted leads to horrible consequences. When liberal movements openly allowed rabbis to welcome homosexuals to their temples and to partake of every aspect of Jewish life, it was an indication of another ideal of liberal Judaism.

Parasha Kedoshim: Leviticus 19:01-20:27

Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"Getting Back to the Garden"

This Torah portion is entitled "Kedoshim." In it we read many of the wondrous man-to-man laws that help define our ethical relationships to one another and thereby form the basis for our civilization's codes of legal and subscribed behaviors. The word kedoshim is translated into English as holy. The root word, however, comes from the Hebrew word that means "set aside." While it is a virtual impossibility for any flesh and blood human to be truly holy, it is certainly possible for each of us to set aside a part of ourselves for holiness.

What is notable in this portion of Leviticus is that there are few priestly rituals listed. As we have seen so far, the sacrificial rituals and the priestly rules have made up the bulk of this third book of the Chumash. We therefore get a broad hint on how to achieve spirituality during our sojourn on earth. We seem to be told that the way to achieve closeness to God is by doing good to our fellow men and treating them with honesty and respect.

In pasuk (verse) 19:18 we read: "you shall love your fellow as yourself - I am God." How can we be commanded to love? What exactly is "our fellow?" Is this mitzvah so important that God had to remind us that He indeed is God? Why did Rabbi Akiva say this is "the great principle of the Torah?" Why did the medieval Jewish mystic Judah the Pious say that this will be the one question God will ask of us when we seek admittance into Heaven? Why did the student Yeshu of Nazareth, called Jesus today, say that this mitzvah is second only to the command to love God?

In the 950-year-old text Duties of the Heart, Rabbi Bachya ibn Paquda devotes his 925-page book to the concept of obeying the commandment "to love." Before we can love our fellow, we must accept the other commandment of the love of God. He asks us to understand that whatever we have is a gift, or better stated, a loan from God. We should never lose sight of our love for Him. We must further understand that all humans are God's children and beloved equally by Him. We can reach a conclusion that by loving others, we are helping to repay God for his gifts to us. Since His gifts are really just loans, we are only just in an infinitesimal way beginning to thank God by helping another with our time, resources, energies, and emotions. Can one ever fully thank our Maker for the gift of life itself?

The Hebrew word ray-eh-cha has been translated as your fellow, your friend, or your neighbor. This beautiful mitzvah has been colored by the words preceding it in the first part of the verse. They are, "you shall not bear a grudge against the children of your people." (b'nai amekah). When the verse continues and uses the word rayehcha, are we to believe that this love is just to be directed for our "fellow Jew," or to our "fellow human neighbor" in our earthly home?

One can certainly not speak for God in today's age. Traditionally we believe that our prophets were inspired divinely. They have made it quite clear to us in their writings that God meant by rayehcha, all of our fellow humans, not just our fellow Jews. As Orthodox rabbi and psychiatrist Dr. Abraham Twerski posits, Judaism teaches that spiritual drives are an expression of the neshemah (soul). The Torah states that when God created man, He "breathed the breath of life into him" (Gen. 2:07). The Zohar, the text of the Kabbalah, points out that when one exhales, he or she exhales something from within himself or herself. Thus, God - by breathing a breath of life into man - put something of Himself into each one of us. The human spirit is therefore part of God Himself.

Since God is absolute unity, all souls are one, and all humans are one spirit. Since we are separate individuals we have separate physical bodies, but our souls are attached. In other words, mankind is one in spirit, but many in corporeality. By loving all of our fellow humans, the Zohar teaches, we are striving for the essence of Judaism. We are emphasizing our spiritual soul that would keep us together rather than feeding our physical bodies with pleasures, which keep us apart.

When King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he specifically asked God to heed the prayers of non-Jews who came to the Temple (Kings I 8:41-43). The Temple was the universal center of spirituality that the prophet Isaiah called the "house of ALL nations." The service at the Temple on the week of Sukkoth featured 70 bull offerings corresponding to each of the 70 nations of the world. The sages said, with hyperbole, that if Rome knew how much benefit they were getting from the Temple, they would have never destroyed it.

When our rabbis finally wrote the Talmud, 1,000 years in the making, in 500 C.E., the concept of loving equally the Jew and non-Jew was reinterpreted. To some sages, loving your fellow became loving a fellow Jew. Ahavath rayehcha became ahavath Israel. Loving the non-Jewish stranger (ger) became loving the Jewish convert. This is not what the Torah or the prophets taught. But because the rabbis of the Talmud during this period of harsh Diaspora, said their word was the Oral Law directly from Mt. Sinai, this reasoning found its way into some teachings and traditions.

The Torah is very clear in that on a religious level a convert to Judaism is as Jewish as a born Jew. It was assumed in Torah times that when a non-Jewish woman married a Jewish man, she automatically became Jewish, as were her future children. Conversion ceremonies, independent of marriage, first appeared in the post-biblical period. We also see that in Torah law a non-Jew was equal to a Jew and should be loved and treated equally. Judaism via our Torah does not distinguish, on a human level, between those who are Jewish and the non-Jews who live among us. On a religious level the Torah does not distinguish between one who is born Jewish or one who converts either by ceremony or by marriage.

However, by the time our Talmud was put into written form this universality of the prophets was amended in some ways. In 500 C.E. Judaism was in much danger. We were dominated by the Roman Empire. We were homeless and unfortunately, but understandably, enemy-centered for mere spiritual and corporal survival.

William James once said, "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." Our Talmud - some small parts of which are embarrassing to us now in the third millennium C.E. - has some statements in it that if read out of context can be hurtful not only to others but to ourselves. Both Jews and non-Jews have read the Talmud out of its historical time frame with disastrous results. We need to remember, before continuing, that the Gemorah part of the Talmud records all opinions of the rabbis, not just the ones that became law.

Talmud Bavli Tractate Moed Kattan 17A suggests that if a Jew is tempted to do evil, he should to go to a non-Jewish city where he is not known. Tractate Bava Metzia 114B speaks of Jews being only truly human (designated men) and Tractate Beracoth 58A speaks of having sex with a non-Jewish woman as having sex with a she-ass. Tractate Bava Kamma 37B says that if a Jew's ox gores a Canaanite's ox there is no liability, but if the Canaanite's ox gores a Jew's ox, there is full liability.

The Talmudic rabbis quote Ezekiel 34:31 as their proof that gentiles are not men (adam) as Jews are, because God says that His sheep (Jews) are "men." But when did Ezekiel write? He wrote during the Babylonian captivity, and he was using poetry as a rallying cry to let Israel know that their God would soon rescue them. The Babylonians were the preying wild beasts, which Ezekiel had to refer to carefully as Egyptians, and the Jews were the set upon sheep. This was all metaphor.

We must remember that the Talmud was written during some very tough times for our people. It is a 1,000-year text. There was understandable hatred in many rabbis' hearts for the pagan Romans. Their concern was not against the early Christians. Gentile meant Roman. But as the Talmud, centuries later, found its way into the hands of the church fathers, these statements about gentiles were forced to be amended. Maimonides, in his book on the Talmud, called the Mishna Torah, says it is a religious duty in the Talmud to "eradicate traitors, minnim, and apikorsim" such as the Saducces (who denied the oral law and were against the Pharisees, the forerunners of Rabbinic Judaism), apostates, and followers of Jesus. The Rambam continues "as for gentiles, the basic Talmudic principle is that their lives must not be saved, although it is also forbidden to murder them outright." The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Avodah Zarah 26B expresses this maxim as "gentiles are neither to be lifted out of a well, nor hauled down into it." The beginning of the second millennium when the Rambam wrote was a bellicose time. Writing these pugnacious words in the relative safety of Moorish Spain or Muslim Egypt was the only safe way Maimonides, a Jew, could express his outrage at the wholesale slaughter and discrimination the Church was rendering to his people.

Tractate Bava Metzia says that if a Jew finds a lost object of a gentile it does not have to be returned. Be mindful that all of these quotes are taken out of context. For example, it is a general Talmudic principle that any object that is found that the owner has given up hope of recovery may be kept. Since Jews and non-Jews lived separately, the likelihood of a non-Jew having hope of finding a lost, unidentifiable object in a Jewish town was nil. Hence, the object was attainable by the finder. The Talmud says we should go out of our way to find this gentile and return the object. But as we have seen so many times before, when any group interprets the Torah through their eyes (especially when they say they know the right and only way of interpretation), hurtful behaviors can result. We need to understand always that the Talmud is the work of men who were doing what they thought was best for our people during the tumultuous times it was written. We as modern liberal Jews do not accept the Talmud or the books of the rabbis of the Middle Ages as divine. In Jewish Spiritual Renewal we work on ourselves with God's aid to become the best loving people we can be and use our texts for the parts within them to help us in this direction.

When every word of the Talmud is assumed to be the word of God, certain rabbis can then give license for bigotry. Thank heaven these rabbis are very small in number. Ordained, hateful behavior gets directed not only toward non-Jews, but also to Jews labeled as apikorsim or minnim. These are code words for assimilated or liberal Jews who deny that the Talmud, and works that stem from it (like the Rambam's text), are divine. In Aramaic, "shitta sidhre" means the six orders (sections) of the Mishna (oral law). The term is abbreviated sh's and pronounced shas. Is it any wonder why the Shas party of Israel spews forth such vile anti-liberal, anti-Jewish, and anti-Arab verbiage? They believe they are just quoting God as revealed in the Talmud.

As written in traditional Pesach Haggadot, when we open the door at the end of the seder to welcome Elijah, one says in a loud voice, "Pour out Thy wrath upon the Gentiles that know Thee not, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon Thy name, for they have consumed Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Pour out Thy rage upon them and let Thy fury overtake them. Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Eternal." One can easily see how our Christian neighbors might misunderstand this prayer.

Our Haggadah, codified in Talmudic times, is referring to the Roman pagans who conquered us and sent us into the Diaspora. No wonder the Christian Church in the Middle Ages demanded that we keep our doors open during our seders! The liberal movements deleted this section of the Passover ceremony. What is overlooked is the following fascinating Midrash saying that many first-born Egyptians ran to the land of Goshen to sleep in the beds of the Jews to escape the Angel of Death. And it worked! They were spared death and lived. It was not the Paschal lamb's blood on the door that saved them, but our unconditional Jewish hospitality and love for our fellow man. Is this an answer to Noah's prayer in Genesis 9:27: "May God extend Japheth and may he live in the tents of Shem?"

When Baruch Goldstein, on Purim 1994, gunned down 40 Palestinian civilians, including children, he was quoted as saying that his rebbe told him the Talmud said that "all Arabs are dogs." Professor Ehud Sprinzak described Goldstein's and his rebbe's philosophy in a1994 New York Daily News interview. "They believe it is God's will that they commit violence against 'goyem' (non-Jews)." Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg declared in a 1989 New York Times interview, "We have to recognize that Jewish blood and the blood of a goy are not the same thing." Rabbi Yaacov Perrin stated in a 1994 New York Daily News report that, "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." Presently, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, head of Israel's ultra orthodox Shas party, is being considered for criminal prosecution for calling liberal education minister Yossie Sarid "Satan, Haman, and Amalek" and saying he should be wiped out. His speech was received with thunderous applause and shouts of approval. So much for the love and the universality of man as spoken to us by our prophets.

"As water reflects a face back to a face, so one's heart is reflected back to him by another." (Prov. 27:19). As related in Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 31A, when Rabbi Hillel was asked to sum up Judaism, he said that the love of one's neighbor was most important. He said the rest of the Torah was commentary that needed to be studied. The Talmud makes it very clear that the Adam and Eve story was to teach us that we all come from the same first man and woman so that no one can say that their ancestors were better than another's. But how do we love another? We begin not by receiving from him, but by giving to him. When you give to another, a part of you becomes incorporated in that other person. He becomes an extension of you!

Rayehcha did mean all fellows even at the time we were being formed as a nation in the wilderness of Sinai. We were a mixed multitude of peoples, not just the children of Jacob. Leviticus 19:33-34 reminds us that we were strangers (ger) in Egypt and to love the stranger that resides with us as ourselves. There was no Torah double standard. A complete read of the Talmud shows there was no Talmudic double standard either. The Mishna says that saving a single soul (Jew or non-Jew) was equally important, although there are some versions of the Mishna, i.e., the traditional approved Art Scroll edition, in Tractate Sanhedren 37A, that say "who saves a single soul of Israel." The rabbis taught that we do bikur cholem (visit the sick) to Jew and non-Jew alike, as well as all acts of tzadakah (poorly translated as charity).

The thirteenth-century Spanish rabbi, Nachmanides the Ramban, speaks sarcastically of "a boor in the realm of Torah." This boor is a learned and observant Jew who has not violated a single mitzvah but still brings disgrace by misinterpretation. It is clear to so many that love of your rayehcha is a universal decree. There is a Judaic concept, not often taught, of Yirei ha Shem. This idea states that there are other ways to reach God outside of Judaism. Judaism is not the only path to spirituality. The Midrash Rabbah comments on Deuteronomy 34:10, one of the last verses of the Chumash, which says, "And there never again arose a prophet in Israel like Moses." The Midrash says this means that in Israel a prophet like Moses did not rise again, but among the other nations of the world there arose other prophets of Moses' stature. In his introduction to Duties of the Heart, Ibn Paquda, who is referred to earlier, says that he drew on teachings from the Muslims and the ancient Greeks.

God is Infinite. Can any religion really say that they know the true way to God? The twentieth-century physicist, Heisenberg, who was in charge of wartime Germany's race for the atomic bomb, states in his Uncertainty Principle that when one measures the location of a subatomic particle, the act of measuring it changes its location. When we read of a religion or philosophy that states with authority that it knows the mind of God, we must be careful. One can reach spiritual heights by going through an intermediary (like Jesus, if one is Christian). You can do the same by following ritual minutia. Or, as spiritual renewal Judaism teaches, one can study and determine what paths work well at various points in life. The Talmud teaches that "the righteous of all nations have an equal share in the world to come." The parasha at hand this week, called Kedoshim, gives us clear insights on attaining a righteous, set-aside holiness.

A wonderful Midrash asks, "What is the tzelem Elohim, the image of God, in which all humans are made?" It answers that when an ordinary king like the Roman emperor puts his image on a coin, all the coins get minted the same and are therefore identical. But when God, the ultimate Ruler, puts His image on a coin (humans), we each come out differently. God equally loves any religion or way of life that helps one seek holiness and a love for their fellow. For Jews, we have our way, and within our way, we have many ways. All are beloved of God. No one way is better than the next. We do not believe we have the "true" religion. What we do believe is that we need to derive mussar, ethical teachings, from our Torah, so that we can treat all of our fellows with love. As Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan said, "The past should have a vote, not a veto."

Even those who unfortunately misinterpret this d'var to mean love your fellow Jew miss this narrow interpretation as well. The Talmud tells of a horrible tragedy that befell our people during this period of time we now celebrate during the counting of the omer. This is the seven-week period between Pesach and Shavuot, when we were given the Torah on Mt. Sinai. About 1,900 years ago, Rabbi Akiva witnessed the sudden death of 24,000 of his students. The Talmud explains that they were punished because they disobeyed the mitzvah of ve'ahavta l'rayehcha kamocha and treated each other harshly, snubbed each other, did loshan ha ra about each other, and belittled each other's rabbis and teachings, each thinking they knew the right and only answer. God struck them dead rather than let them go out and become rabbis, judges, and teachers of our people. Those who think this verse means to just love your fellow Jew are mistaken, but those who think it means to love only your fellow Jew who is a member of your own sect or shul are also sadly mistaken.

Every person is in the image of God, b'tzelem Elohem. This is true of anyone of any creed. All of us need to understand this as we are now securely into the third millennium of the Gregorian calendar. Everyone needs, as Rabbi Judith Hauptman has written, "our active monitoring of his or her welfare and protection from discrimination and exploitation." We must be a light for the other nations.

The verse we studied today ends with "I am God." Rabbi Hillel astounded his students one day, as related in Talmud Sukah 53A, when he said, "When I am here, then everyone is here." Rabbi Hillel was an extremely humble and sensitive man, but the statement sounds so arrogant. Hillel then taught that the I in his statement was the I in our verse. He said the Torah was teaching that love for our fellow man was to be predicated on our love for God and knowing God. If our love for our fellow human is founded on our pure love for God, and not politics, ulterior motives, or religious rivalries, our joy in helping and loving others will be pure ecstatic spirituality. We will realize that, quoting author Ken Kesey, "either we are on the bus, or we are off the bus."
 
Shabbat Shalom:
 
Rabbi Arthur Segal
www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
 


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