A Problem - A Conundrum

A Conundrum...

There are laws and rules regarding the use of all language(s) and how they are to be applied when they come into conflict with one another. Beyond that we Jews use what is claimed to be the language that created all of Creation - Hebrew, the Lashon HaKodesh; for it is said that HaShem brought the world into existence with the softest letter in the Hebrew Alef-Bet: Hey.

Now halakah tells us that when we pray - individually - we may pray in any language that we are fluent in using. With most of us that means the English language. For some of us who speak more that one language we might choose to use German, French, Tagalog or any language that we both read and speak. [therefore I cannot use Japanese as I do not read any of the written forms!]

But! And it is a big “but”... When we pray collectively, as a congregation of Jews, we are, halakaticlly, required to pray in Hebrew!

Now, notice, as an individual, praying in a minyan, we may use any language that we can read and speak (and write?). That means that if you were to go to a shul in a French-speaking part of Canada and picked up the siddur and found that it was printed in Hebrew and French; you have a problem [assuming for the discussion, that you do not know anything about the French language - except for those ‘naughty’ words that you learned in the school yard when you were 14 years old]. You can read the French letters - but you do not know or understand anything about the French language. What do you do? The answer, by Jewish law, is that you must use the Hebrew - even if you do not understand the words!

So let’s consider your situation now: you do know English (at least you got out of High School - so you are supposed to be able to construct a literate simple sentence) and you do not know French. What about Hebrew? This is were we find the conundrum - and this is the “grey area” in Judaism. We find that there are Jews who range from not knowing an Alef from a Tav to those who are completely fluent in both Biblical and Every-day Hebrew and hold advanced degrees in the many forms of the Hebrew language. For most Jews in America, we would probably find that they fall into an area closer to a basic reading skill - at best. And that would fulfill the Jewish law.

But does it?

The Baal Koreh - the one who reads from the Torah Scroll (without cantillation and vowel indications) - reads, or chants, the Torah Portion with as much comfort in his knowledge of the Hebrew as if it was his first language. Therefore... he is quit capable of reading/chanting with great speed. And this is even move evident when he reads the prayers that we read - at least - three times each week. It is sometimes referred to as “speed davening”. And this is another aspect to our conundrum.

The Code of Jewish Law stressed the importance of understanding the words that we pray. And, in fact, this the the basic reason that our Chazal (Scholars and Sages) left several of our prayers in the Vernacular - Aramaic. Because the people (of that time) understood and spoke Aramaic. And Chazal also understood that if we did not insist on using Hebrew, we would soon loose our connection and relationship with Torah. They were also knowledgeable enough to know that future generations would encounter environments like I mentioned about (you don’t know French so you cannot use the siddur printed in French) - but you can go anywhere in the world and the Hebrew will be the same! And as there are other reason from always using the Hebrew language - there is also reason to pray in Hebrew at-a-rate-of-speed-that-permits-comprehension!

Kavanah. It is important too that we allow time for Kavanah. To allow the “spirit” of the text to make itself known to us. After all, we read the same Torah year-after-year, but (hopefully) each year we glean something new and different. The Torah has not changed - we have. We have different knowledge. We have different needs and desires. We have different problems. And we gain different insights. IF WE ALLOW IT.

Reading from a prayer book does not mean that we are praying. You can read any book with either the intent to learn or to “finish” the assigned reading. And that applies to us in the classroom and in life - at the Minyan. We simply cannot “Twitter” the siddur or the Torah. We do not have “emotioncons” in Judaism. There is no shorthand method of connecting to HaShem.

But: Hey! You can read the siddur just to enjoy the Poetry and Prose used in the various translations. But that simply ain’t praying. For prayer must have intent. Prayer must have meaning. Even if you do not believe that there is a G-d... if you prayer ‘for-yourself’, it must - by definition - have meaning. As Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin says (in his To Pray As A Jew) “Kavanah in prayer is the very antithesis of the mechanical and perfunctory reading of words.”

There are different levels of kavanah, and we will not and need not go into that at this time. But the Jewish Code of Law also states that if you cannot reach the minimum level of kavanah, you are forbidden to attempt prayer! Yes. If you do not reach the first step, if you cannot meet the first challenge - then you are not praying! The Shulkan Arukh tells us, as it heaves a great sigh, that “...one should not pray in a place where, or at such a time when, there is interference with kavanah.” And that we understand as being outside ‘distractions’. And we all certainly encounter that all to often. Internal distractions need to be considered and dwelt with in different manner.

Your own mood, anger, sorrow, problems - even excessive joy - can distract you from reaching the first level of kavanah and keep you from prayer. You can, and should, arrive early enough to Minyan to leave “the world” outside the doors and settle yourself into a comfort zone to daven with meaning and intention.

But, again, the Prayer Leader, needs to assist the Minyan in maintaining the primary level of kavanah and assist each individual in moving upward to the next level of kavanah. Yet, here too the world outside intrudes, and we feel the need to ‘finish-the-service‘ and have our coffee and bagel or move on to the next day’s events.

Here we too heave a great sigh and confront our conundrum. I wish I had an answer. For you. For Kol Israel. For myself. Perhaps that Japanese sage was correct; “Study. Study. Study. Only Study can bring a miracle.”

Sigh...

Maimonides LCD

The Final Principles and the Last of the Mohicans

Maimonides wrote; “Lest a person says: ‘Since jealousy, lust and desire for honor are evil ways... I will separate myself completely from them an go to the other extreme’, to the point where he refuses to enjoy the pleasure of food by abstaining from eating meat and drink wine, where he refuses to marry a wife, or to live in a pleasant house or to wear nice clothing... this too is a evil way and it is forbidden to go that way.” And he continues to caution us to ‘take the middle road’ and not to be extreme in either way.

HOWever when he spoke of taking a middle road - he did not mean that we should consider his Thirteen Principles and to discuss them hearing the traditional point of view and the modern/liberal point of view! His principles were developed, in his knowledgable and considered mind, as the LCD - the Lowest Common Denominator. Here, for Maimonides, there is no middle road.

So moving forward we will now move to his Eighth Principle (in as much as we took the time in the STSG to discuss those between #3 & #7 - I hope you will catch up).

x

Khet 8

I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that we now have is that which was given to Moses.

While we may never know exactly how the Torah was “given” to Moses. We don’t really know if it was ‘handed’ to him; dictated to him; or transmitted via his iPhone. It certainly was not by Twittering... But on the other hand we are told when it was given to Moses. Therefore, if we examine various Sefer Torah scrolls from New Zealand to Poland to China and to Alaska from antiquity to contemporary, we will find only STaM* scribal errors.

*Sefer Torahs and Mezuzot

Persons, who claim that Moses wrote some of the Torah himself, are considered a nonbeliever and displays a perverted understanding of our Torah. That said (by our Chazal), those who claim that the entire Torah was written by man at different times and in different places and can even be explained by the (apparent) different writing styles and syntax, must certainly belong to that group who pervert the entire Torah. There is the argument that those men who wrote the Torah did so by the insight of and with the blessing of G-d himself. But any careful study of the Torah - in depth - will reveal a unity and a compactness of Divine thought that is without human intervention for the complexities are beyond our comprehension.

There is within this one (#8) Principle, enough to consider and delve into with gusto, to take us into a week of study.... a month... a “semester”... a year... or longer. When I lived in Japan, I was introduced to an “Eastern” concept that applies here: “Study, Study, Study... only Study can make a miracle.” If we study this one Principle, we will certainly experience a miracle - of what size we will only find at the end.

This blog is not, however, the vehicle to drive to that miracle. And we continue with the following Principles. We sing Yigdal; G-d will not replace nor change His Law - For all time, for anything else. Thus: I believe with perfect faith that the Torah will not be changed, and that there will never be another Torah given by G-d.

Neither He nor any man can or will ever change His Torah. It is and it represents permanence. Nothing -NOthing can, or will, be added, or subtracted to either oral or written Torah. This is the Ninth Principle.

The Tenth Principle (y Yad) states: I believe with perfect faith that G-d knows all of man’s deeds and thoughts. It is thus written [in Psalm 33:15]; “He has molded every heart together, He understands what each one does.”

Those who would say that He has abandoned the world and mankind are in error as it is simply man’s foolishness and misunderstanding of the Master of the Universe. Those who say that He is still in the world but is unable to help, to keep evil from happening, to save those who are hurt or ill - that He is impotent - are, likewise, foolish as any careful reading of Genesis will certainly explain.

In number Eleven, ay, we find this. I believe with perfect faith that G-d rewards those who keep His commandments, and punishes those who transgress His commandments. And we say: “Why do bad things happen to good people? or: “Why does evil seem to win-out?” But what kind of reward or punishment are we talking about? And when, or where, will we receive it? Some will say that you will receive your reward after a wait in purgatory - unless you deserve an immediate one-way ticket to “hell”. And others that your murders and your own suicide will win you an immediate reward of a certain number of virgins. But is this Principle applying only to individuals? Or does it include tribes and nations - or all of mankind? Is a life eternal, a life that death does not take, a reward &/or punishment in itself? It has been put forth that “heaven” and “hell” are in the same “place”... for example, the rabbis who lived a good life are now sitting around a table enjoying the eternal study of the Torah and companionship with those of like-mind. While in the same room Mr. A. Hitler is seated - forever seeing those Jews, that he so hated, living in eternal bliss.

by The Twelfth Principle says: I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah. No matter how long it takes, I will await his coming day. (please note that “his coming” is written in lower case. Did Maimonides think in that way? Hebrew, of course, does not have upper and lower case forms) We do write the “Messiah” in caps in English - probably more by convention that by implication. Who, indeed, is the question, will S/He be? How will we know? And what will be the war of Gog and Magog? Are we now involved in that war?

And, finally, gy the Thirteenth Principle states: I believe with perfect faith that the dead will be brought back to life when G-d wills it to happen. [Yigdal: G-d will bring the dead to life with His great love, May His glorious name be blessed for all time.] Selah!

Moses, our greatest of prophets, tells us that this is one of the foundations of Judaism. One who does not believe what Moses has said on this Principle, cannot be associated with Judaism - its tribal implications, its history, its traditions or its religion. We are further instructed that “Rain is for both the wicked and for the righteous, but the resurrection (of the dead) is only for the righteous.” The wicked are considered to be dead - even as they are alive and walking the earth. It would be absurd, therefore, to return their bodies to life. Of course, if you do not believe this, it is probably fairly certain that you will not be returned to life. Is there some kind of poetic justice there?

b’Shalom

Regarding Last Week...

13

Principles

Last week we took a look at Maimonides’ Second Principle and that seemed to raise quite a few related and un-related questions and concerns. Now, considering that this was the Shabbos beginning a new reading of the Torah at tysarb (Genesis), let me first add a bit of doggerel for your contemplation:

“The earth was made in six days, and finished on the seventh.

According to the contract, it should have been the eleventh.

But the carpenter got sick and the mason wouldn’t work;

so the only way to finish it was to fill it up with dirt.”

___Anonymous

And what has that to do with our discussion(s)? Well, it seems that our Khakham began to consider HaShem (the Creator of all) in reference to what we now know - or think we know - about the universe, its beginning, where it’s going and how it all came about. So the first thing that I need to state is that in this “class” or “discussion group”, I am presenting the Traditional Jewish concepts and beliefs. It is important to understand that I am not presenting another religious concept, a scientific theory, a questioner’s point-of-view, or a Jewish view that is not historically held or is not “mainstream”. Therefore if someone brings to the discussion ideas, concepts or beliefs that differ we can certainly discuss this; as long as we realize that this is coming from a different point of view and that which is “unorthodox” (with a small “o”) and does not reflect the opinions of sages and rabbis over, say, the past 3500 years. If we take the position that the Torah-Tanakh-Bible was written for a people where were ‘ignorant‘ of the wonderful knowledge that we now have and can “Twitter” and share on Skype and Facebook; but was written to explain to people who did not even know that there was anything beyond the desert in which they lived - let alone that fact that the earth was round and but a speck in our own solar system, not even considering the greater universe - then we must become bogged down in semantics and never get to the core issues.

For our Shabbos Torah Study Group to progress we must argue and discuss - but we need to have a foundation for our discussions. That foundation - right or wrong - is the faith, the belief, that the Torah was written for all time. The TRADITIONAL Jewish concept is that it was ‘dictated‘ by HaShem to Moses and that he (alone) wrote it down. On that base we can then consider other opinions and concepts. To start a discussion without any base at all is a futile endeavor and is certainly not the basis for this Group. As the facilitator and agent provocateur, I will always make the opening presentation on the basis of the Traditional Established Jewish Belief System. Then we can progress.

And with that said, we can progress to review some more of Maimonides’ Principles - beginning with the Third Principle, which states:

Gimmel

Yigdal

He does not have bodily form. His not a body.

He is beyond compare in His Holiness.

Maimonides

I believe with perfect faith that G-d does not have a body. Physical concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles His at all.

Does anyone have a comment to make regarding how Maimonides begins each of these Principles: “I believe with perfect faith...”. It seems that there are at least three of those five words which would trigger discussions. No?

If Moses saw G-d (at least His back)... and G-d has nor physical form... what DID Moses see?

For those who are familiar with the Hebrew language syntax, you will have noticed that He is spoken of sometimes in the masculine and sometimes in the feminine genders - what does that mean if He has no body?

“The hand of G-d...” “written with His finger...” “ beneath His feet...” What - why do we use these terms?

Dalet

Yigdal

He preceded all things that were created,

He is first, yet without beginning.

Maimonides

I believe with perfect faith that G-d is first and last.

“The eternal G-d is a refuge.” Meaning what?

_from the Guide to the Perplexed:

Everything, other than HaShem Himself, was created by G-d out of absolute nothingness. In the beginning, G-d alone existed. There was nothing else... He created everything that exists from absolute nothingness...

As children of G-d [The G-d of Avraham, G-d of Isaac, and G-d of Jacob], we should ask the ‘childish’ question: Who created G-d?

And for the last consideration for today: When did time begin? Was that ever “no time”? How can that be?

Second Principle

Maimonides

Principles of Jewish Faith

In our last session, we began to look at one of the clearest statements of Jewish belief - that being Rabenu Moshe Ben Maimon’s Thirteen Principles of Faith. [From his name we ‘get’ his “nom-de-Plume”: Maimonides - as we know him with affection.]

So, now for the New Year 5771, we will review the First Principle and continue. We will use as our reference material Aryeh Kaplan’s book, Maimonides’s Principles - The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith 1975.

We sing Yigdal:

• 1: Great is the Living G-d, and praised

He exists, yet His existence has not tim.

• 2: He is One, no unity is like His,

He is beyond compare in His holiness.

The First Two Principle say:

• I believe with perfect faith the G-d is the Creator and ruler of all thing. He alone has made, does make, and will make all things.
• I believe with perfect faith that G-d is One. There is no unity that is in any way like His. He alone is our G-d - He was, He is, and He will be.

Maimonides, in formulating these Principles, studied all of the extant Jewish literature in order to determine which Principles are - and have been always - taken as those with are uniquely accepted in Judaism. He attempted to distill, in the clearest possible language, Principles which we have continued to study and discuss for over the past eight centuries.

The Second Principle says, simply, He is One - He always has been One & He will forever be One. Or; as One He was before everything and will be after everything is gone. Wow. We can probably conceive of everything coming to an end for we know that death is (besides taxes) the only certainty in life; but can you conceive of there being something before anything (else)?

What else can we glean from this Second statement? He is One. 1. Singluar. This One G-d is the cause of and the Creator of... everything. There is the story of the scientist that appears before G-d and says that mankind does not need Him anymore; they can now create life too. G-d says; “Is that right? Show me.” The scientist stoops down to gather some elements for the earth and G-d interrupts him saying; “No, no, no... go make your own dirt!”

What else? He cannot be more than One because His One is Everything. So He is also not divisible, he is not a pair, a male or female, differing elements - He is One & He is All. After all we do declare: “Hear (Listen!) Israel, the L*rd is our G-d, the L*rd is One. Echad!

Ponder:

• IF He is One, how is it that He does manifest Himself in many ways?
• IF He is “simple” (simply One), how do you understand that and what He accomplishes?
• Does he exist in different times? What IS time to G-d? Is He outside of time? What is time? To us? To Him? Is it different? How? When?
• What do Christians think of when they consider G-d? Is He really Three?
• How - or in what way - did our ancestors, sages and prophets “see” G-d?

Your contribution is encouraged.

5771

This week

we complete the reading of our Torah

and

we begin again.

This week

we begin again our

Shabbos Torah Study Group

on Saturday (Sabbath) mornings

at 08:30 hrs.

This begins our Fifth Year.

Please join us

if you are in the Bermuda Dunes, CA area

if not-

Please read the blog and enter into a discussion.

This year

we will have blog discussions !

100 Blessings a DAY???

Morning Blessings...

...olvih jlm vnyhla yy hta jvrb

They are almost ‘footnotes’ that we find at the bottom of the pages in our sidduim. Those little paragraphs that are attributed to sages, poets, and the best know of all: Anonymous [perhaps better known by the Latin Name: A. Noni Mus]. However most of us either never read them or simply ‘skim’ over them, but they are there for a purpose. Or perhaps, for several purposes. One is to encourage us to contemplate what precedes it on the page. Another is to give ‘flesh’ the the sometimes abstract prayers. But if we look at them and give some thought to what is written there, we can certainly benefit from those few words.

Example: on pages 14 and 15 of our Shabbat Siddur we find the following commentary which would do us well to contemplate.

Thanksgiving will not Cease

In the time to come all other Temple sacrifices will cease, but the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving will not cease. All other prayers will cease, but the prayers of Thanksgiving will not cease. (Leviticus Rabbah 9:7)

Whenever your mind is free, make a conscious effort to concentrate on the good that the Almighty has bestowed upon you. (Bakhya)

We give thanks to You, O L-rd, because we are able to give thanks! (Anomymous)

At the beginning of the day, we gratefully acknowledge some of the many blessings which G-d lavishes upon us regularly - so regularly that we can easily overlook them. [What is constantly granted is too easily taken for granted!] Jewish tradition expects up to recite “one hundred blessings each day” [Talmud, Menakhot 43a]. From morning to night the mood of thankfulness is nurtured so that we may live each day filled with a sense of gratitude to the Source of all blessings.

Gratitude at its highest goes beyond “counting our blessings.” It involves sharing our blessings. A thankful sense of dependence upon G-d, leads to an awareness of our duty to His children.

These comments follow our “Morning Blessings” and gives us something to dwell upon. Those Blessings are something that we read, or hear & say our “Amen”, and then continue on with additional morning prayers. Certainly we need to continue with our Shaharit service... but we can also contemplate later during the day what that all means.

Let me ask you something here: we are to say 100 blessings each day! Some of you think that perhaps that is an impossible number of blessings to say. So: Here’s an example for you to consider-

You are driving along in you car, listening to the radio - no, it’s not Shabbos and it’s not Yom Tov - on the radio they are playing Yussi Bjorling singing something from an Italian opera written in the 19th century [CE]. It is, of course, sung to perfection. You are enjoying the music, the AC in your car and the scenery as you drive [there is no smog and little traffic]. Your “SO” is with you and just about everything is “swell”.

How many blessings can you count - just from that particular moment?

I’ll start you out and then you can contribute your blessings to the list:

1 You are enjoying the singing of an artist long dead by the blessing of a recording.

2 The recording is a blessing created by many people.

3 The composer who first wrote the music [heard it in his head] - long dead.

4 The musicians playing in the ‘background’ and sharing their talents

5 The conductor that has put this together with skill and emotion

6 The recording technicians

7 Those who engineered the electronic equipment

8 Those who built the electronic equipment

9 Those who built the studio that housed the equipment

10 Those who financed the venture

11 Those who took the “master” recording and made the commercial recordings so that they could be available to all

12 The studio of the radio station that is playing the recording

14 The engineers at the station

15 The ‘radio personality’ who chose the recording to be played

16 The people who support the radio station

17 The people who first ‘discovered’ radio technology

18 The people who built the antenna system

19 The manufactures of the metal for the antenna

20 The smelters who refined the ore to make the metals

21 The miners who dug the ore from the earth

22 The truckers who carried the ore from the mine

23 The railroad employees who transported the ore to the refinery

24 The people who laid the tracks and built the trestles, and dug the tunnels, and lugged the ties, drove the spikes, carried water to the laborers, cared for the injured laborers, and financed the railroad.

25 AND your “SO” that you can share all this with... and how many more blessings can you now think of that “made your day”? We have not begun to realize our manifold blessings have we?

Shabbat Shalom

Re’eh

R abbi Abraham Twerski puts for the proposition:

That the comment that we usually find when we discuss this Parshat [“See, I am placing before you this day a blessing and a curse.”] can, and should be, directly applied to our observance of kashrut. [along with other observances...]

He says that, according to halachah, if a person hires himself out for a day’s work and does not specify that he wished to have time off for prayer, that he must (only) say the abridged Amidah, since he may not take time off from his work for the full prayer. People who have committed themselves to work may not take time off for anything other than meals - unless it has ben stipulated otherwise.

What he is addressing is that every human has a commitment to do the Divine Will and that we are in essence servants hired out, if you will, to HaShem and thus we are obligated to do His bidding. Therefore we have no right to spend our time in any activity which is other than that which is of Divine decree.

In order to observe those decrees, if follows that we must have good health [both physical and mental] and that which enhances good health is - by logic - an obligation. We need time to eat, to sleep, to exercise, to rest and have some relaxation and diversions... as long as we are keeping our bodies and minds in optimum shape for the participation in the Divine service.

IF we were to indulge in worldly pleasures beyond those that are necessary for good health, we are ‘taking unauthorized leave, according to our “contract”, as Divine servants and so, obviously, this is prohibited. EVEN IF THE ACTIVITY is a ‘permitted’ activity, but; involves our over indulgence in (say) kosher ice cream. We have gone beyond that which is a nutritional requirement for our daily consumption. Even kosher food that is not necessary because our nutritional needs have been met become, in fact, non-kosher.

Mussar, for one, stresses this point and says that Divine service is not restricted to prayer, study of Torah and the performance of mitzvot. We need to see and acknowledge HaShem is all of our ways in life: in our business dealings, with discussions with friends, in our avoidance of Lashon Hora, in our family relationships, our eating and sleeping and in our recreation.

So Rabbi Twerski posits that as we read, “See, I am placing before you this day a blessing and a curse.” that we cannot find not grey areas - only black and white. That which is forbidden is: forbidden. If follows then, he says, that we have - only - two categories of behavior. That which is required and that which is forbidden.

Rabbi says that “permissibility” does not exist. I would say further; “I am entitled.” is not a permissible concept - let alone a verbalized comment. It goes way beyond social acceptability. It is obviously heresy, which makes it unsuitable in any aspect of human endeavor, being an insult to your fellow as well as a denial of G-d.

Shabbat Shalom.