Wednesday, December 2, 2009

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:Vayeishev: JEWISH RENEWAL:CHANUKAH:INCREASE SPIRITUALLY

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:Vayeishev: JEWISH RENEWAL:CHANUKAH:INCREASE SPIRITUALLY
 
Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 12/12/09:A Path of Transformation
 
Shalom to my dear Talmidim, Chaverim v' Rabbanim:
 
For those new to the class,  baruch ha ba, welcome!! You may access the most recent class at
Each class has a link taking one back to the prior class, and also where to get course materials, online.
 
This class is for the Shabbat beginning at sundown December 11, 2009. This is also the time that the 8 nights of Chanukah begin. While I could give you much spiritual information about this holiday, and I have published such in many monographs, and there is a bit in Chapter 13 of  (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=1AAD298F635FC0CDB0E40D45B4556F39.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1  which is the course book for this class, I would like to invite you to shema, to listen, to learn, a few spiritual points.
 
The students of Rabbis Hillel and Shammai debated in the Talmud about which way one should light the Chanukeah, the Chanukah Menorah. Shammai's followers declared that it should have 8 (plus the shamash) candles on the first night, and then 7 on the second and so forth, down to one. The students of Hillel said the opposite. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 21b).
 
Now this is not just another case of we Jews finding ourselves arguing over anything and everything. :-)
Beit Hillel's point is that Chanukah is about rededicating ourselves to doing God's will and increasing in spirituality. Hence the Chanukeah increases in light, in spirituality, as so should we. We should never decrease in our spirituality.
 
In fact Hillel himself taught in Talmud Tractate Pirkei Avot 1:13 " One who does not increase in spirituality, diminishes.'' In other words, when we Jews do not study, and work on our own personal Jewish Spiritual Renewal, a process which never ends, we do not just stay at the level at which we stopped. We go backwards. We do not just stagnate, we regress.
 
And hence this is the major spiritual teaching of Chanukah.
 
There is another, a bit more subtle. All of our other holidays celebrate events that happened in 'the open,' with witnesses. As we work thru the calendar, with Nissan, our first month, Passover was witnessed by Hebrews and Egyptians, and the word spread through out the area, so that even Jericho's Rehab, the prostitute with a good heart, related knowing about it, 40 years after the event.
 
Shavuot, the time of the giving of Torah on Mt. Sinai to the Hebrews as well as the world, was witnessed by not only the Hebrews but the ''erev rav'' that came with them from Egypt, [mixed multitude].
 
Lag B'Omer was witnessed by the 24,000 rabbis who pointed fingers at each other, declaring that their semicha (ordination) was better than someone else's, and that one was a rabbi while others were not. God struck them all dead with a plague.
 
Tisha B'Av was witnessed not only by Hebrews but by the Babylonians who destroyed Solomon's Temple and by the Romans who destroyed Ezra's Temple.
 
Rosh ha Shana, the creation of humankind, has it evidence for anyone reading this. And Yom Kippur was done in the presence of all of the Hebrews, with the scapegoat  being sent off into the wilderness.
 
And Sukkoth which celebrates not only a harvest, but also liberation from Egypt, also had its many witnesses, as did Purim, with actually letters being sent to all points of the Persian Empire telling Jews and Persian citizens alike, of the events that unfolded.
 
But Chanukah's miracle happened only in front of a handful of Hebrew soldiers, bloodied, and ritually impure, who could not press ritually pure olive oil. They found one unit that should have lasted for one day, but lasted for 8, giving them time to become ritually pure from their battles, and press more oil.
 
So because Chanukah happened in private we announce to all peoples the miracle of God, by placing the Chanukeah in our door ways, or windows.
 
One last spiritual lesson about Chanukah. The rabbis argue whether the miracle was 8 days or seven. Why? Well, the first day was not a miracle. The menorah burned because it had oil. That is basic chemistry and physics. The last seven days were the miracle because the oil was not supposed to last those seven days. So the miracle of oil was only seven days!
 
So why do we say  Chanukah is 8 nights for 8 days of miracles? The answer is that the Hebrew Macabees had faith, trust, belief and experience with God, to light the Menorah, and rededicate the Temple of Ezra, even though they knew that they only had enough oil for one day. That spirituality of humans straight from the battlefield, is the miracle of Chanukah.
 
When we are soon done with Chapter Three from (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal  we will immediately begin with our Chesbon ha Nefesh, a moral inventory of our souls. In order to grow, we must take honest stock of ourselves. We don't let this intimidate us, as God knows our defects, and believe me, our friends and family do as well.  "Can a man hide in concealments that I cannot see him? — the word of God (Jer. 23:24).
 
There are times when moving forward is not enough. There are times when we can't just change what we do, how we speak and how we think about things. Sometimes, we have to change who we are. We need to leap from our comfort zone.  As Rabbi Hillel said above , we have to keep moving forward. As long as we are holding on to where we were yesterday, we are not only standing still but moving backwards. 
 
But there is a bit of Kabbalistic wisdom to this growth. Regarding our souls yearning to grow spiritually, as our soul stands above, before its descent, the soul steps higher each day. And that is a prison, because the soul is Godly and Godly means infinite. So for a  Godly entity, stepping higher each day is still standing still.
 
Now keep in mind that our souls always remain pure, no matter how much yuck we have done in our lives. Jewish Spiritual Renewal (www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org, www.JewishRenewal.info ) is a giant power washing of our souls.

But our souls, so pure , yet covered over with schmutz, are blind to its own prison. So Kabbalistically speaking, the soul must descend below into our bodies and minds. There the soul will experience the ultimate confines of our bodies. And our souls, our yetzer tov, will come face to face with our yetzer ha ra. And with the steps outlined in this Path of Transformation, our souls, our yetzer ha tov,  will transform our yetzer ha ra, to yearn to be connected with the Godhead.

Then we will learn to leap, to break out of all boundaries, to escape the prison of the bondage of self, and of ego.
 
Allow me to end with a Midrash from Midrash Rabbah - Genesis 77:24. The rabbis teach from this very Shabbat's parasha that while Jacob was wrestling with ''the man,'' he was also going back and forth over a river. Millennia later, two rabbis (Hiyya and Simeon) were in the silk trade in Tyre (now Lebanon). After they left Tyre, one said to the other "Let us emulate Jacob, and cross back over and see if we left anything behind." And they found a bale of forgotten silk. So they tell of how Jacob made a deal with this wrestling angel for each to help the other cross the river. The angel carried Jacob's 'stuff', and Jacob carried the angel's belongings. And every time Jacob went back, he found 'more camels and flocks.'
 
What is the point and why am I boring you with a  Midrash of traveling salesman?

Jacob's luggage, what really is our sacks of 'the stuff of our lives,' are light as feathers when we get Divine aid in carrying them. The Talmud tells us when we pick up the yoke of God and Torah, all other human and societal yokes fall from our shoulders. (Pirkei Avot 3:5).
 
So what kind of 'stuff' does an angel carry? Angels carry a never ending inventory of blessings for us.
 
Our job is to simply act in concert with God, and keeping on returning to His side of the river. Continual returning, renewal, teshuvah, guarantees us spiritual growth. With Jewish Spiritual Renewal life no longer is schlepping baggage full of worries, angst, guilt, grudges, expectations, disconnecting us from our fellows and God. Instead we live a life of being happy, joyous and free.
 
May this week and Chanukah season bring you all closer to God and your neighbors, and into Jewish Spiritual Renewal.
 
  We will now continue with Chapter Three from:

(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal

http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=1AAD298F635FC0CDB0E40D45B4556F39.qscstrfrnt03?productId=1&categoryId=1 

from Chapter Three: A Life with God

The next question that you have to ask is: "What is God's will for modern Jews?" Does He require us go out and buy four complete sets of Lenox, one for everyday dairy, one for everyday meat, and one each for Passover dairy and meat? No. The Mishna in a section called "Ethics of the Father" sums up God's will nicely: "Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving your fellow creatures and bringing them close to the Torah."

Micah the Prophet says it well also: "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8).

These ideas of Hillel in 100 B.C.E. and Micah in 700 B.C.E. are not totally original. The Torah in Deut. 10:12-13 reads: "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good."

Note that we are asked to do God's will for our own good. If you are to believe in a Creator, it is reasonable to assume that you would believe in one who has set some guidelines within which He wishes you to conduct yourself and to live your life. It would be cruel for a Creator to expect you to figure out what He wishes you to do. The Judaic God is not cruel. He is a loving, forgiving Parent Who wants the best for us. "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever," says Psalm 136:1. There is a cute, but exceedingly wise, statement in the Talmud Bavli Tractate Eruvin 100b: "If the Torah had not been given, we would have learned tzni'ut (modesty) from a cat."

In the same Ethics (2:4) Rabban Gamaliel, the son of Rabbi Judah the Prince, used to say, "Do His will as if it was your will, that He may do your will as if it was His will. Make your will of no effect before His will, that He may make the will of others of no effect before your will."

In other words, God designed us with freedom of choice, with a yetzer ha ra and a yetzer ha tov (good inclination). We can put our will in alignment with God's.

Let's look at this idea with a real-world example. If it is your will to earn a large income and climb to the top of the corporate ladder, you might go about it with honesty, integrity and ethics guiding you through your career. Following this path, you will look at your role from a standpoint of how to best lead your company in providing goods or services to people who need or want it. You see your mission, and that of your company, as being of service to your fellow man. Your true rewards are the joy and peace that come with living by God's will rather than your own. Corporate profits and career growth are merely by-products, and you are free to enjoy these things because you know that they are well-deserved.

On the other hand, you might choose a different path, an easier path and one that you may think is expected of you. That is, you could adhere to the ruthlessly ambitious stereotype of the corporate executive, taking advantage of and destroying others' careers on your way up. You might cut corners with product quality or safety to increase profits so you can get that big bonus and the corner office.

In the first way, your will is secondary to God's will of doing justice, loving kindness, being humble, and being peaceful. Those who are not of God's will, but still doing their will, will have no effect on you.

Listening to your yetzer ha tov and ignoring your yetzer ha ra requires constant attention and perpetually feeding your head with Godly statements. The rabbis tell of one elder describing his own inner struggle. He said, "Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights with the good dog all the time." When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I feed the most."

A d'var Torah for Parasha Vayeishev :Shabbat 12/12/09, follows.

Shalom uvracha:

 
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 Vayeishev: Genesis 37:01-40:23

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

"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"

In this fascinating portion, filled with so many events, we read of Joseph's brothers' jealousy and their willingness to kill him (Gen. 37:20). We also read of Reuben's compromise with his brothers' plan to just throw Joseph into the empty pit, as he wished to return later to save his younger brother (Gen. 37:22). We also read of Judah's further compromise with his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery rather than kill him (Gen. 37:27). Judah tried to convince their father Jacob that Joseph was torn apart by wild beasts by bringing Jacob his son's wonderful woolen tunic covered in goat blood (Gen. 37:31).

Traditionally, Reuben and Judah are spoken of as heroes for orchestrating this compromise. And traditionally the brothers are considered to be acting as God's agents to get Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt to set into motion the events that would eventually send Jacob and his family into Egypt, causing the Hebrews to become slaves to Pharaoh. This would lead to our Exodus spearheaded by Moses and our receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai and our eventual conquering of the Promised Land.

Jews need to ask, as we are in the beginning of the third millennium, is compromise when life is at stake a good heroic attribute?

We are taught that the Torah was already known to our patriarchs, and that Jacob and his sons were already in Eretz Israel. Why did we need to leave our land, be made into slaves, be given the Torah which we already had, to return to a land in which we were already living?

We have seen all too clearly in our recent history that compromise, when lives are at stake, leads to eventual disaster. We do not need to be reminded of Chamberlain's well- received compromise of this century, or of the Missouri compromise of the last century. We do not read of Reuben or Judah arguing for Joseph's freedom. Reuben was the eldest of the brothers. He had the most to lose by Joseph being his father's favorite. If he argued for Joseph's release, could he not have lowered the tension and jealousy? If Judah jumped into the discussion, with two out of the ten brothers (Benjamin was not there) pleading for Joseph's mercy, would not have more bothers leaned toward acquittal? If only three more brothers were convinced, there would be no majority to convict.

As modern Jews who take pride in having the freedom of choice vis a`vis ritual mitzvoth, we have so much more time than our traditional co-religionists. What do we do with the time each day that we are not in shul dovening (praying), or reading labels looking for U's and Ks, or making sure we don't mix up the cutlery in our kitchens? Are we still resigned to walk like Jacob with a limp, as a bird with a broken wing flies, in never- ending circles? Or will we stand upright, uncompromised, like the recovered stronger Israel, who wrestled with the angel when he was Jacob. Will we perform the social action mitzvoth and live the ethics from which our modern Judaic creed did NOT release us?

Each month at Rosh Kodesh we look at the moon's phases and remember David's reign as our people's zenith, symbolized by the full moon. We traditionally pray for the scion of David to come and restore our people's glory. Each of us needs to be uncompromising in performing the mitzvoth of chesed (doing deeds of loving kindness to help others and make a difference in their lives) and continuing to do zaddakah (justice, sometimes translated as charity). We need to be uncompromising in making a stronger effort in our own country and around the globe to do tikun olam (repair of the world) as junior partners with God. We would then find that each of us is a part of that traditionally awaited savior from the Davidic line. And all of these parts of ours, acting as a whole, could really help make a difference in this world and would bring much joy and spirituality to our own lives.

Amos, in this Haftarah, says that God will forgive the Jews of the three cardinal sins of adultery, idolatry, and murder, but He will not forgive them for their greed and perversions of justice, which resulted in their ignoring the poor, the sick and the helpless.

Let us dedicate ourselves to helping keep the moon always full and help rescue the Josephs of this world who are ill, hungry, grieving, and homeless from their empty pit of despair. Let us help give hope to our matriarch Rachel who still "weeps for her children." Amen!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Chanukah:

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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Posted by Rabbi Arthur Segal at 3:00 PM