Thursday, July 7, 2011

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL : DERECH ERETZ: BE FREE OF ANGER

 RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL : DERECH ERETZ: BE FREE OF ANGER 
 
   Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Derek Eretz Zuta + Rabbah :
 
Shabbat 07/16/11
 
(aka Derech Eretz )
 
The JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL class list is hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network a service of Hebrew College/Yeshiva
 
Shalom my dear Chaverim, Talmidim, v' Rabbanim, friends, students and fellow rabbis: An oneg, joy-filled, Shabbat, Sabbath, this coming weekend... and Shavuah Tov to you for a good and peaceful week.  
 
Todah Rabbah to all of you who sent me emails about how the verses in last week's class were life changing and life affirming to you. Our Sages truly loved us and wanted us to live in love and happiness. May God continue to bless y'all.
 
We continue with our exploration into the Talmudic Tractates of Derek Eretz Zuta and Rabbah. (aka Derech Eretz Zuta, aka Derech Eretz Rabbah. As was mentioned, zuta is Aramaic for 'small', and rabbah is 'large').
 
Remember that Derek Eretz is not about Jewish ritual. It is about how we are to treat one another and what traits of character, middot, we are to try to develop. The lessons are universal and ecumenical. The development of character traits and Jewish spiritual renewal transformation is called Mussar.
 
For those new to the class, Baruch ha Ba! Welcome! You can access last week's class  at  
 
 
From here you will find links to preceding classes in this  series. So,  together we continue:
 
TALMUD BAVLI
 
TRACTATE DEREK
 
ERETZ ZUTA
 
(aka Derech Eretz)
 
Today we will begin CHAPTER 3 of Talmud Bavli Tractate Derek Eretz Zuta Verse  3:1
 

''Deliberate before a word passes your lips, and be thoughtful how you should act in your worldly affairs. See always that your steps will be rewarded. Justify the judgment that was imposed upon you and free yourself from anger. Judge favorably your neighbor, and see that your verdict will not make him guilty if his guilt is not fully established.''

 

''Deliberate before a word passes your lips, and be thoughtful how you should act in your worldly affairs.''  Ah, this is so easy to write yet so hard to do.Note that ''worldly affairs'' is translated from the Hebrew "derek eretz.'' 

The way to achieve this as we discussed in a prior series, and discussed in Chapter Ten of the Modern Mussar text: The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew is to mindfully walk with God throughout each day.

It is easy for one to teach ''watch your tongue before you use it,'' or ''look before you leap,'' but when our ego, our yetzer ha ra, is in charge of us, we will inevitably use our tongues and actions to yield non- Godly words and behaviors.

    The TaNaK is filled with stories of people walking with God. It is not difficult. It takes mindfulness. It is a conscious contact. It takes practice. It does not happen in a day or in a week. It is a lifelong process that never stops and is never truly mastered.

 "When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared and said to him: "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.'" (Genesis 17:1).

"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." (Deuteronomy 10:12).

"He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly." (Proverbs 2:7).  

    

We will remember from earlier classes that after we have finished our daily morning prayers and meditation, we should spend a few moments looking over our plans for the upcoming day. We know the things that used to stress us, the things we used to fear and the people we used to resent. We recognize our character defects such as ego, jealousy, self-seeking, gossip, dishonesty, selfishness and resentments that we might encounter during the day. Now we know to ask God simply to keep us separated from these defects.

 For example, when driving our car if we used to get nervous driving on the expressway, or had a tendency to speed or drive carelessly, or if we looked at other drivers as opponents rather than as fellows, we now know to ask God to keep us calm and connected to Him, to proceed carefully and to treat the other drivers with kindness and courtesy.

"Asei ritzono ritzoncho – Make His will, your will." We humbly ask God to align our will with His.

We have learned about your yetzer ha ra and that our hearts and minds can be "deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9) if we are not mindfully connected to God. So as we go about our day, if ego or other character defects start emerging, immediately ask God to remove them.

 In this way we will be able to think before we speak and act.

''See always that your steps will be rewarded.'' The Talmud warns us not to be like laborers who work for the sake of a reward. So what does this mean? It is another way of saying ''be thoughtful how you should act in your worldly affairs.''

The reward is living a life full of shalom and joy.

There is an undeniable link between God's abundant blessing and walking daily with God. He wants us to walk in His ways. When we do not walk with God, we walk with our yetzer ha ra.  We are back to living a life without God. When we ignore God's benevolence we only see our life's imperfections.

Walking mindfully does not mean walking perfectly. There will be times when an ego-driven thought will occur unconsciously, or we may be conscious of the thought but ignore it. We may even act upon it. Or, we might owe someone teshuvah and have not gotten around to it.  We should get to it as soon as we realize that it is owed.

"Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins." (Eccles. 7:20).

When we studied teshuvah we learned to make things right with people we have treated badly. The closer we are to God, the less apt we are to behave negatively toward others.   

Proverbs 24:16 tells us that a person walking mindfully with God will fall seven times a day. This means that we may stumble, but we will not fail. Just get up and continue on our path. Continue being mindful of our thoughts and actions throughout the day and ask that "God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do." (Jeremiah 42:3).

Have we ever asked God to show us "what is right and good in God's eyes?" (Deut. 6:8). Keep this question in our heart, mind and soul throughout the day and we will be walking with God. He will give us the answers.

''Justify the judgment that was imposed upon you and free yourself from anger. '' This is another way of saying to go with the flow of the universe. None of us are always going to get our way. We humans tend to get angry for two categories of reasons. Either we had something and it was taken away. Or we wanted something and we did not get it. Anger is human, sustained anger is not spiritual. The verse assumes we get angry and is advising us to get rid of it. Anger leads to resentments and resentments hurt us and make matters worse.

When things don't go our way, if we can fix the problem, like a flat tire, do so, but keep ourselves from anger. Think of the positive. We have a flat tires, but thank God that our car didn't crash into another car and cause us or another bodily injury.

Remember please anger is only one letter short of danger.

''Judge favorably your neighbor, and see that your verdict will not make him guilty if his guilt is not fully established.'' This is the last part of today's verse, 3:1 of Talmud Tractate Derek Eretz Zuta. I believe that while this verse was written for rabbis and laymen called to be judges, it has a spiritual lesson for all of us.

It is teaching us to judge everyone for the good. Frankly the Talmud teaches us to not judge anyone until we have been in his place. Since it is impossible to be in anyone's place, we shouldn't judge.

But again, as human's we do err and we do judge. So always judge favorably. It is our verdict, based on our prejudices that make another in our eyes guilty. How many of us had listened to lashon ha ra about someone we had not yet met, had judged him unfavorably still before meetings, and then when we met him, liked him?

We've studied lashon ha ra many times. We've studied the sages teaching us not to imagine what someone else is thinking, because most of the time we are clueless to what we are thinking.

Life is too short, all of us have an expiration due label on us, but we cannot see it. Treat everyone with love and kindness and make each day into a simcha. '' This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.'' [Ps. 118:24]

Next week, Baruch ha Shem, we will continue with chapter three of  Derek Eretz Zuta .
 
We discuss the aspects of this verse of living in peace, living in God's universe, living with humility and without resentments, and truly learning to love our fellows throughout the majority of chapters in  The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew  as well as in most chapters of A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud  .
 
What are your ideas about thinking before speaking?  How has learning to always judge favorably, if not at all, helped you in your interpersonal relationships? How has understanding the spiritual and ethical teachings of Judaism helped you live a more joyous life?
 
Next class, Baruch ha Shem, we will continue with Derek Eretz Zuta, Chapter Three. Thank you for joining me.
 
 
 Shalom:
 
Rabbi Arthur Segal www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
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Posted by Rabbi Arthur Segal at 8:11 PM