The writings and speeches of Rabbi Chaim Friedlander have been published under the name Sifsei Chaim (the lips of Chaim). The weeks drasha is based on the first essay in the Passover section of Sifsei Chaim. The second Torah we read told us of the first mitzva commanded to the Israelites. Hashem tells Moshe to consecrate the new moon of the month of Nissan and to establish a lunar calendar. (As we see later this lunar calendar is to be modified by inserting leap months to keep it in sync with the solar calendar). Once month have been established the commandments for the Passover observance follow. On the 10th of the month take a sheep, on the 14th slaughter it etc. The great commentator Rashi in his very first comment on the Torah asks why this commandment wasn't the beginning of the Torah. Others have questions Rashis question. Did Rashi seriously question why we have the book of Genesis and the first part of Exodus? Rabbi Friedlander explains that the commandment to make a calendar was the act of creating a new world. Up until that time the world was dominated by Hashems unwavering will. The plan was in motion and it didn't deviate. When Hashem told the Israelites to make a calendar he was placing them and the world in a new position. Henceforth Hashem was going to react to their actions. They would be given commandments and their obedience or lack thereof would determine His reaction. This was an entirely new world. A Jewish world that resembles the moon with change not constancy. The moon waxes and wanes as do the Jewish people in their observance. Hahsems presence is felt commensurately to the conduct of His children. Rashi says we live in Jewish / Lunar world. Every 30 days we bless the new moon and recognize the role we play in the universe. The Torah is not a history book it is the Book of the Jews. Why not start it from when the Jewish world was created.
Opposite the moon is the Sun. Unwavering consistency. That is the world of the gentiles. Hashem doesn't change the world because of their actions. To be sure is they will be punished or rewarded for their actions but that doesn't mean that Hashem changes the word due to their actions. That was the first creation. Every 28 years the sun and earth return to the same positions they occupied vis a vis each other when the world was created. We bless the sun and recognize that Hahsem has placed us in a world with a solar nature.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Parshas Key Seesaw - Parah
This drasha should be sponsored by Chic fil -A. The two Torahs that were read this shabbos make up a tale of two cows.
The first is the golden calf. The golden calf was made when pieces of gold were thrown into the furnace. Out came the calf. When Moshe returns he grinds up the calf throws the dust into water and has the people drink the water. Those that had participated in the golden calf perished (Yoma 66b).
The second is the red heifer. When a Jew is in the presence of a corpse he becomes defiled and may not enter the Temple. To purify the defiled person a red heifer is slaughtered and burnt. Its ashes are mixed with mayim chayim spring water and sprinkled upon the defiled person. The defiled person is purified and may resume a full spiritual life.
Both of these cows are difficult to understand. The red heifer is even the classic 'chok' or inscrutable law. Lets examine the golden calf first. Everybody struggles to understand why the Israelites built the calf. Just three months from the exodus, a mere forty days from the ten commandments and they proclaim "these are your Gods Israel which took you out of Egypt"? The most popular approach to this issue contends that the people were not rejecting Hashem for an idol. With Moshe now presumed gone they were looking for a tangible representation of Hashem in their midst. In the Book of Ezekiel we read of Ezekiel's vision of Hashem borne on a chariot. The chariot is made up of four beings a man , an ox, an eagle, a lion. If the people were looking for an earthly representative of Hashem with the man Moshe gone they turned to the next vehicle of Hashem the ox. Their mistake was that they thought it was in their power to establish the manner in which they interfaced with Hashem. Rabbi Meir Shalom Cohen of Petach Tikva , Israel in his work Meshech Haparsha views this as gaavah haughtiness. Their punishment was to have the calf ground into dust and consumed.
The red heifer is used when a person has come into contact with death. Rabbi Cohen quoting kabbalistic sources approaches this homiletically. Death is what comes from a mitzva preformed without joy. Mitzvos are performed without joy when we strive to understand them and our intellect becomes the gatekeeper of our mitzva performance. When we only do that which makes sense, we don't really do any mitzvos with joy. The joy in a mitzva can only come from the awareness that we are connecting to Hashem thereby drawing life from the performance of the mitzva. This is true whether or not we understand the mitzva. When the cow representing our haughtiness is burnt and its ashes are mixed with mayim chayim living water we are rejuvenated. On Friday night after we sing Lecha Dodi we make a large circle and dance around the shul. Some people don't like to dance. 'Dancing is a Rabbi Friedman shtick' or 'I just came to daven'. The reason I want the shul to dance is because I want the shul to be known as a place of joy. Our children may grow up and say they don't like our shul or Judaism for a variety of reasons but don't let them say there was no joy in that congregation. If we do not perform our mitzvos with joy they are dead mitzvos and our children will not repeat them.
The holiday of Purim is devoted to this idea. The day of joy when we drink ad dlow yada until we don't know. Not that we are unconscious or lose our minds but rather we drink until we don't know we just feel. We don't think about the mitzva we just feel the joy in it. This Purim I had an exceptionally joyous experience. On Purim morning I placed $7200.00 cash into envelopes marked with the names of needy persons in our community and Israel. Our small congregation had give that sum for matanos laevyonim gifts to the poor. This year the congregation gave more that double the average of past years. No one was coerced or even solicited. Everyone who gave, gave with joy. As I walked out of shul to my car to begin the deliveries I held the envelopes up to Hashem. "look at what your children have done" I proclaimed. Then I thanked Hashem for allowing me to be the messenger for this mitzva.
I hope we will be able to grind down our golden calf and mix the ashes in living water. Then we will preform mitzvos with joy. We will be joyous because we have connected to Hashem the source of life.
The first is the golden calf. The golden calf was made when pieces of gold were thrown into the furnace. Out came the calf. When Moshe returns he grinds up the calf throws the dust into water and has the people drink the water. Those that had participated in the golden calf perished (Yoma 66b).
The second is the red heifer. When a Jew is in the presence of a corpse he becomes defiled and may not enter the Temple. To purify the defiled person a red heifer is slaughtered and burnt. Its ashes are mixed with mayim chayim spring water and sprinkled upon the defiled person. The defiled person is purified and may resume a full spiritual life.
Both of these cows are difficult to understand. The red heifer is even the classic 'chok' or inscrutable law. Lets examine the golden calf first. Everybody struggles to understand why the Israelites built the calf. Just three months from the exodus, a mere forty days from the ten commandments and they proclaim "these are your Gods Israel which took you out of Egypt"? The most popular approach to this issue contends that the people were not rejecting Hashem for an idol. With Moshe now presumed gone they were looking for a tangible representation of Hashem in their midst. In the Book of Ezekiel we read of Ezekiel's vision of Hashem borne on a chariot. The chariot is made up of four beings a man , an ox, an eagle, a lion. If the people were looking for an earthly representative of Hashem with the man Moshe gone they turned to the next vehicle of Hashem the ox. Their mistake was that they thought it was in their power to establish the manner in which they interfaced with Hashem. Rabbi Meir Shalom Cohen of Petach Tikva , Israel in his work Meshech Haparsha views this as gaavah haughtiness. Their punishment was to have the calf ground into dust and consumed.
The red heifer is used when a person has come into contact with death. Rabbi Cohen quoting kabbalistic sources approaches this homiletically. Death is what comes from a mitzva preformed without joy. Mitzvos are performed without joy when we strive to understand them and our intellect becomes the gatekeeper of our mitzva performance. When we only do that which makes sense, we don't really do any mitzvos with joy. The joy in a mitzva can only come from the awareness that we are connecting to Hashem thereby drawing life from the performance of the mitzva. This is true whether or not we understand the mitzva. When the cow representing our haughtiness is burnt and its ashes are mixed with mayim chayim living water we are rejuvenated. On Friday night after we sing Lecha Dodi we make a large circle and dance around the shul. Some people don't like to dance. 'Dancing is a Rabbi Friedman shtick' or 'I just came to daven'. The reason I want the shul to dance is because I want the shul to be known as a place of joy. Our children may grow up and say they don't like our shul or Judaism for a variety of reasons but don't let them say there was no joy in that congregation. If we do not perform our mitzvos with joy they are dead mitzvos and our children will not repeat them.
The holiday of Purim is devoted to this idea. The day of joy when we drink ad dlow yada until we don't know. Not that we are unconscious or lose our minds but rather we drink until we don't know we just feel. We don't think about the mitzva we just feel the joy in it. This Purim I had an exceptionally joyous experience. On Purim morning I placed $7200.00 cash into envelopes marked with the names of needy persons in our community and Israel. Our small congregation had give that sum for matanos laevyonim gifts to the poor. This year the congregation gave more that double the average of past years. No one was coerced or even solicited. Everyone who gave, gave with joy. As I walked out of shul to my car to begin the deliveries I held the envelopes up to Hashem. "look at what your children have done" I proclaimed. Then I thanked Hashem for allowing me to be the messenger for this mitzva.
I hope we will be able to grind down our golden calf and mix the ashes in living water. Then we will preform mitzvos with joy. We will be joyous because we have connected to Hashem the source of life.
Parshas Tetzaveh - Zachor
Cong. Ariel celebrated the Bar Mitzva of Jonah Adler. We were honored to hear Rabbi Yitzchok Adler of Cong. Beth david in W. Hartford Conn. address his nephew. I did not speak.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Parshas Terumah
The past weeks the Parsha told us how to build a mishkan a dwelling for Hashem. The famous drasha or elucidation of the phrase "build for Me a dwelling and I will dwell in them" teaches that when we build the mishkan with sincerity Hashem dwells in us. I feel that we all want to build such a mishkan the question is how? One way would be to look at the directions in the Parsha but that might be a bit too esoteric for most. Another way would be to look at someone who had built a mishkan. One such person that we could look at is Rabbi Noach Weinberg zt"l founder of Aish haTorah and a pioneer in the world of kiruv or Torah outreach.
With his passing a few weeks ago numerous articles and eulogies have appeared in the Jewish media in general and of course at aish.com. In the Mishpacha magazine tribute to Rav. Noach his students shared lessons that they learned from thie rebbe. Rabbi Alon Tolwin of Detroit said something that made a big impact on me. Rabbi Weinberg once told Rabbi Tolwin that if after doing a mitzva you don't have more energy that you did before the mitzva something was missing in your kavana intent when preforming the mitzva. I found that very striking. Personally after performing some mitzvos I am uplifted but after other I feel drained. I have observed many in our own community take on mitzvos, come to classes or services, do acts of loving kindness and find that they become burdensom. Rav Noach seems to be telling us we are doing it for the wrong reason.
What then is the right reason. The 2nd verse in Parshas Terumah says vyikchu li take for me an offering. Rashi quotes the rabbinic dictum "li - for my names sake". If we are doing it for Hashem we will be energized. Mitzvos for any other reason ultimately the mitzvos become exhausting.
On Thursday nights Jeff Cohen an Atlanta in Monsey New York spends time packing shabbos care packages for needy families. he says that the maariv evening minyan that the workers pray after working is very energetic. After an exhausting evening of doing mitzvos the workers feel energized. According to rabbi Weinberg this would show you that they are doing it for Hashem.
So when we want to build ourselves in to a mishkan but we feel a little tried we need only look to powerful examples of people like Rabbi Weinberg. Rabbi Weinberg was a man of boundless energy and he told us where it all came from.
With his passing a few weeks ago numerous articles and eulogies have appeared in the Jewish media in general and of course at aish.com. In the Mishpacha magazine tribute to Rav. Noach his students shared lessons that they learned from thie rebbe. Rabbi Alon Tolwin of Detroit said something that made a big impact on me. Rabbi Weinberg once told Rabbi Tolwin that if after doing a mitzva you don't have more energy that you did before the mitzva something was missing in your kavana intent when preforming the mitzva. I found that very striking. Personally after performing some mitzvos I am uplifted but after other I feel drained. I have observed many in our own community take on mitzvos, come to classes or services, do acts of loving kindness and find that they become burdensom. Rav Noach seems to be telling us we are doing it for the wrong reason.
What then is the right reason. The 2nd verse in Parshas Terumah says vyikchu li take for me an offering. Rashi quotes the rabbinic dictum "li - for my names sake". If we are doing it for Hashem we will be energized. Mitzvos for any other reason ultimately the mitzvos become exhausting.
On Thursday nights Jeff Cohen an Atlanta in Monsey New York spends time packing shabbos care packages for needy families. he says that the maariv evening minyan that the workers pray after working is very energetic. After an exhausting evening of doing mitzvos the workers feel energized. According to rabbi Weinberg this would show you that they are doing it for Hashem.
So when we want to build ourselves in to a mishkan but we feel a little tried we need only look to powerful examples of people like Rabbi Weinberg. Rabbi Weinberg was a man of boundless energy and he told us where it all came from.
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