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Shades Of Belief
‘Today we have seen that Hashem can talk with man and yet live’ said the Jews to Moshe. Apparently up until then they did not fully believe Moshe?
Moshe would say ‘Hashem said to me…’, but the Jews were suspicious: can a human really talk with Hashem and not get destroyed by it?? They followed Moshe for lack of alternative, but didn’t really buy his story. Only at Sinai did they REALLY believe. Incredible!
In the beginning of his mission, Hashem told Moshe; ‘And the true sign that I have sent you will be after taking the Jews out of Egypt; you will serve Hashem on this very mountain [Har Sinai]’
Here its directly from the Jews’ mouths: until Har Sinai they indeed did not believe!
The takeaway: Faith is a tricky business. There are very many shades of faith, it’s not black or white. Faith can be a matter of expedience, a matter of conviction or a matter of will. There is always more to go…
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Living Har Sinai
‘Beware, take good care of yourselves that you never forget the things your own eyes have seen: don’t allow them to be forgotten all your life. Tell your children and grandchildren [about] the day that you stood before Hashem at Chorev (-Har Sinai) when Hashem commanded me, “Gather the people to hear My words…”‘
We are warned to never forget Sinai. Practically, what exactly is involved here; are we to speak about it at our Shabbos table, should we draw a mural on the wall depicting Har Sinai, or should we have a “Har Sinai stone” always on our desks?
My answer: Yes, all of the above.
The sefer ‘Hamaspik Le’ovdei Hashem’ posits that we are the result of our experiences. Our attitudes towards mitzvos, Gedolim, the Beis Hamikdash, tznius and the many other life-values depend largely on our experience with them. Well, can we dictate our experiences? Is it fair that we are so deeply influenced by experience, yet cannot create it??
We cannot directly experience everything we’d like to, but we can visualize it. We can vicariously live through them in our imagination. In fact, says this sefer, imagination is even stronger than hearing about another’s experience. It is almost seeing!
Imagination is amazingly powerful. Use it here: Live Maamad Har Sinai. Fantasize it and daydream. Create it in your mind. Use every tool at hand to make it tangible and actual.
So bring on the Har Sinai stone…
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When Is Praying Not Praying?
Moshe prayed Hashem again and again that he enter Eretz Yisroel. Hashem had said No, and No again. Moshe still persisted. Why?
The Medrash portrays two disobedient servants of the king. They annoyed the king, who sentenced them to receive no meat nor wine for a month.
One of them sneered; ‘Suit yourself. I don’t care for meat and wine. I won’t eat them for three years, if you please!’
The other fellow was clearly distressed; ‘Please’, he beseeched the king, ‘allow me at least some meat and wine!’.
Which of the two honored the king? Certainly the second chap. The first flouted the king’s punishment!
So too, Moshe showed that he cared about not going into Eretz Yisroel: it was meaningful to him, and he was therefore praying Hashem again and again to remove it. He was honoring Hashem!
Sometimes praying just means that you and Hashem have business with one another: you have a relationship and you matter. Its not all about receiving the goods. Sometimes the conversation itself it what is meaningful.
Go Daaven!
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Take A Sh’ma Twice A Day, Full Dosage
Sh’ma (including “kail melech ne’eman”\”Hashem e-lokeichem emes”) has 365 words, and is a segulah for our health. We are careful with Hashem’s 365 words, and He is careful with our 365 body parts.
Tosfos gives a parable; A man lived in Eretz Yisrael but had his fields in America. Every year he would fly in to care for his fields. Once, waiting for his flight in the airport, he chanced upon another fellow just coming off the plane. ‘Sholom aleichem Reb Yid! What brings you to Eretz Yisrael?’ he asked. ‘Well, you see, I live in America but my fields are here, so I must fly in to care for them’ answered the other. ‘Say, I have the same thing, only reversed!’, said the first, ‘Why don’t you stay in America and care for my fields there, and I’ll care for your fields here?!’
Well, that’s exactly what they did, and they lived happily ever after!
So too, our health is our concern, yet in Hashem’s hands. Sh’ma is His concern, but in our hands. Watch over His, and He will watch over yours.
Why do YOU say Sh’ma?
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Seeing All Sides
Moshe said ‘Hashem, you have begun to show (your servant) [me] your greatness and your strong hand; who in Heaven and earth can do like Your acts and mighty feats. Please, may I go over and see the good land, the Godly mountain and Levanon’.
What’s the connection?? Why should the fact that Moshe saw Hashem’s greatness be reason that he see the Land??
Some folks are great campaigners. Action is their element, and they accomplish an unbelievable whirlwind. But they do not produce many lasting results, rather they are much better at creating buzz: sound and noise. Others are the opposite: they work behind the scenes, producing solid and lasting results, but they are no fighters or leaders.
The old way of looking at things was that each celestial power was an entity unto itself. Each distinct elemental force was a God, a Being from where that power emanated, who controlled it. Their Good – ‘Osay shalom’, was not the Bad – ‘boray rah’ – it necessarily had to be two separate gods. Only Monotheism believed ‘Hashem is One’: there is but one Power. It is all Him. Hashem of War is also Hashem of Peace.
Moshe was pleading Hashem; I have begun by seeing Your strong hand, your wonderful and inspiring fight against our enemies. But You are not just Fight. You produce prosperity too; Let me see the good land You have provided Your people.
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Haftorah: ‘Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and see who created these!’
The Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei haTorah explains that there is an actual commandment to love and fear Hashem. Can love and fear be commanded? Can we just turn them on?!
He answers: contemplate nature, see its vastness, ponder the stars, the sun and the moon. You will be struck with the cognizance that no human nor power known to man is able to create this. You will know that there is a creator, with huge powers, wise and powerful. Instantly you will awaken within yourself a love and affinity for that Perfect Being, Hashem. Which will cause an awe of the awful immensity and force of Hashem.
The Navi was prescribing the path to love and fear Hashem.
P.s. This experience is metaphysical. Our senses are simply overcome by the immensity of the cosmos. It does not logically prove anything. Our senses are overcome by meth too, you know… However we may know G-d in our heads without experiencing Him. Here is a way of completing that recognition with visceral experience: expose oneself to be overcome by His handiwork.
There is a fundamental distinction between proof of something and recognizing it. One can recognize someone by the deodorant they wear yet they have no positive proof it was him. It COULD be someone else. Yet he has detected/experienced the person nonetheless. Do you recognize this?
When we look to the heavens and recognize Hashem’s handiwork, even if those marvelous works do not positively prove Hashem, they afford us to detect and experience Him.
Important principle.
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Proof Of Torah
“For ask of the early days that came before you, from when God created man upon the earth, and from one end of the heaven until the other: has such a great thing ever been, or even heard about? Have people ever heard Hashem speaking from a fire, as you have, and yet lived…?”
This is known as the Kuzari proof: No one else has ever claimed that Hashem spoke to an entire nation. Although it would make for a great story, it’s suicidal: for no one will believe it. For how could that monumental event happen, yet be completely unknown to anyone??
Moslems believe in Islam, Christians in JC. Were I born Moslem or Christian, I’d believe the same. So who says the Torah is true?
Here now, is one avenue showing the Torah’s validity. (It’s not absolute proof, rather it makes believing in the Torah reasonable.)
Four additional paths to belief;
B. Tradition. A direct, person to person tradition stretches back to Sinai that the Torah and its message are true.
C. Out of Sync. The Torah is too unlike the codes of its time, (-Hammurabi, etc.) its ideas are out of place. This points to it being original, not a forgery.
D. Who Dunnit? When we consider when the idea of the Torah, its lifestyle and laws could have been created out of whole cloth, we run into difficulty. In my mind, up until the geonim it cannot have occurred, yet historical sources tell that even way back in the times of the Talmud and Mishna the Jews were keeping the Torah. The early Tannaim were from the Knesses Hagedolah and heard actual prophets, so the chain holds pretty strong.
E. Bible codes. This is still controversial, but if true, the messages embedded in the codes reflect the supernatural source of the Torah.
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Why We Do Mitzvos
‘When your son asks [why do we do these mitzvos] tell him that [we are obligated to Hashem, for] we were slaves to Pharoh in Egypt and Hashem took us out and gave us the land He promised our fathers. He commanded us in these Mitzvos for our own benefit and gain.
And it is our great ZCHUS to do these Mitzvos for Hashem!’
What a wonderful attitude!
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Talk The Walk
The pasuk in Shma talks of teaching the truths of the Torah to your children and then talking of it in your home, journeys, waking and retiring. Why in this order – shouldn’t teaching others be last, subsequent to it being part of our lives?
One suggestion is that teaching others is a learning tool – the teacher gains more understanding of the topic too. Teaching is followed by more learning to the teacher.
The Sridei Esh expresses two thoughts: A. is that children will never learn unless they see the parents practice and live what they teach, therefore after teaching, ensure that you continue talking about it at all times, and B. is that parents need to leave off their kids and allow them their own path. Teach your kids and then clear out – get involved in your own learning.
We asked the kinderlach about the first thought of the Sridei Esh, what if the parent smokes and cannot stop. Is he not to try educating his kids? Is he to remain silent just because he too is lacking in this area?
The answer is No. He will be very effective. A child seeing that his dad is so addicted to nicotine that he needs to smoke even as he lectures his kid, will understand how dangerous addiction is. This will serve him as a deterrent. But someone who can easily stop doing what he lectures about yet does not, is obviously insincere. His words are useless.
So do keep talking. And if you at all can; please walk the talk…
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Freeloading
“V’eschannan!” – Rashi explains that although tzaddikim can ask for help on the basis of their merits, they prefer asking for a free gift.
Is that ethical??
It depends who you ask from! Asking from a stranger – who has no reason to help you – on the basis of pity, when you don’t really need it that badly; that’s unethical. But asking from a good person on the basis of their goodness is correct. It is uber-ethical; a nobler and a surer appeal.
If a parent asks their child for help on the basis of repayment for what they do for the child, the child feels that the relationship is not about love – the parent is keeping score. And the child may point out that the other children get the same favors, so why is he singled out and asked to help? Moreover, the help he has give already may have paid for the favors.
However a plea for help based on the goodness of the child’s heart is usually answered.
Therefore tzaddikim prefer to ask for a free gift rather than as something they have earned, because they are asking of Hashem, who awaits opportunity to benefit us. The plea for a free gift – out of the goodness of His heart, is the most powerful basis for a plea.
This is what we say in our tfilla – he brings redemption to their grandchildren ‘lmaan sh’mo b’ahava’ – for His own sake, in His Goodness and His Grace.
Appealing to a good G-d is on that basis; ‘You are so gracious. Please, do me a favor!’