Going, Going, GONE!

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An oft-heard philosophical question we have all asked at one time or another is: “What is the purpose of life?”

From hedonists to theologians, the answers vary widely.

The Jewish people however do not have to dig too deeply or search the vast oceans for a response. In fact, G-d Himself gave them the answer: The purpose of a Jew is to be a witness, not to a crime, but to a calling sublime: "You are My witnesses," says the L-rd.” (Isaiah 43: 10)

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No other religion has ever made the claim, as does the Torah, that more than one person heard G-d reveal Himself to them.  The Divine revelation to the Jewish people was not a one-man show. Approximately 3.6 million Jews stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and heard the voice of G-d. Witnesses all. No lawyer with that many unanimous witnesses, all in agreement as to what they beheld, would ever lose a case.

Now the question is: What is the one moral responsibility of any witness at any time? The answer: To tell the truth! 

And so, the Jewish people are tasked with telling the truth in every aspect of their lives.  As vessels who carry and deliver the holy words of Hashem’s Torah, they must not taint themselves with lies. And thus, the Torah instructs us, “Distance yourself from falsehood.” (Shemot 23:7)   

 Interestingly, in Hebrew, the letters which precede and follow letters in any given word are related. For example, the word for witness is eid which is spelled ayin, dalet. The letters in the Aleph Bet following the ayin and dalet respectively, pey and hey, spell the word peh: mouth. The Chosen People are here to speak about what  they witnessed at Sinai; for every Jewish soul, born and unborn, was  at Sinai, and that is why the truth rumbles in our souls just as the mountain rumbled the day G-d spoke to His  treasured nation. But falsehoods mute the calling of truth.  

Unfortunately, we live in a world which the Jewish sages call alma deshikra, a world of lies.  

Today, the dishonesty of the world seems to be worse than ever. In 2002, a study showed that the average person lies about two to three times in a 10-minute conversation. Current studies reveal we are lied to 10 to 200 times a day. 

Although more recent studies indicate that people do 

not lie as much as earlier thought, I think their results are a lie. With social media sites, our fast-moving world and our constant postings, it is certain we are whitewashing our lives for public consumption more than ever. 

Isn’t photo-shopping a picture a lie? Isn’t posting your wrong weight or age on a singles site not a lie? Isn’t pretending that you never saw the text someone sent you not a lie?  

We are what we do and if we lie, we are liars. The Torah tells us to distance ourselves from lies, and that includes dishonest people and matters, as well as our own untruths.  Not doing so is a disgrace of G-d, called chillul Hashem.  

When others see that a Jew behaves and speaks honestly, it serves as a positive testament to G-d. Therefore, being dishonest is not only a transgression of G-d’s will, but also undermines the reason a Jew was created. In other words, Mission NOT Accomplished.  

Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel said, "The world stands on three things:  on justice, on truth and  on  peace.” (Pirkei Avos 1: 17) Thus, when truth is a casualty in the game of life, the world itself hangs in the balance. 

According to Kabbalah, everything we do in the physical world has its impact in the spiritual realms. Every word we say affects the upper worlds. Every word is carried up and judged, as is every sigh.  

When we lie and use words in a harmful way here on earth, we destroy upper worlds. No word is lost. “He recounts to a person every word he spoke.” (Amos 4:13).   

Our Sages teach that G-d created the world with words. With falsehoods we take the very same tools G-d used to create and we destroy instead. Our job is to imitate G-d, and not to work in contrary motion to His Will or His Ways.  

Of course, there are times when we should lie, and our Sages outlined them: 

One circumstance when it is permitted to lie is to make peace or keep peace when there is absolutely no other way to achieve that goal. 

We may lie to avoid hurting a person. For example, we may say that the bride is beautiful even if this is not true.   

We may also lie when dealing with someone who is attempting to trick us. We may trick him in turn to protect ourselves.   

We may lie to save our lives. 

We may not expand on these liberties casually and we should consult a rabbi when we are uncertain if lying is permitted in a specific situation. 

“Tell them I’m not home,” or “the check is in the mail,” are not acceptable lies. 

“The L-rd G-d is truth” says the prophet Jeremiah (10:10) and the Torah is truth.  How then can we shine with the light of His image while we stand in the shadows of falsehood and lies?

The Jewish nation is to serve as a testament to the Divine.  Therefore, we should not bear false witness in any of our ways. For “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.” (Zechariah 3:13)

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I Can't Believe You Were Born

What are the odds of your being born?  Well, there are a few statistics that would shock you. Put it this way: if the odds against your birth were converted into dollars, Elon Musk would measure up poor compared to that pile of bills! Researchers have calculated the probability of your existence at  about 1 in 400 trillion. Due to the enormity of that number, scientists have concluded that the probability of your birth is nearly zero. (Con't below)

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Ah, but what if you were born a Jew? Math is not my strongest subject, so I’ll make the calculation simple. Seeing that the Jewish population comprises only point 19 percent (.19%) of the world population (not even one full percent), every Jewish person is a miracle, including you, a near mathematical impossibility. This is an even greater marvel in light of the unrelenting efforts of our enemies to wipe us off the face of the earth, from the times of Pharaoh to Hitler to Hamas and their cohorts. And yet, still, you were born because Jewish survival is miraculous. We are not bound by the laws of nature or probability.  

Why? Because we have a mission to accomplish, a job to do. 

No! Nature has no hold on us. 

As we read last week in Parashat Beshalach, the Jewish nation was trapped between the Egyptian army and the sea, which miraculously parted before them. The Rabbis teach that during Creation, G-d imposed a pre-condition on the sea; that when the time would come to liberate His people, the waters would defy nature and split. All of nature is equally beholden to accommodate G-d’s people if need be. However, when the time came to split, the Sea of Reeds resisted parting, arguing that the Israelites had sinned just as the Egyptians did, and were not worthy of being saved. 

The sea parted only when it saw the coffin containing Joseph’s bones. Joseph went against his natural desires and resisted the advances of the most beautiful woman in the world - Potiphar’s wife. Just as Joseph transcended his nature, the sea was compelled to transcend its nature too. 

This is a strong example of how the behavior of one Jew affects the fate of the entire Jewish people. All Israel are responsible for one another. Nature has no hold when the Jewish people do their job. As Mark Twain wrote: "All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains."  Perhaps Twain did not know that this is because we were tasked with a Divine assignment. 

 In this week’s Torah reading of Yitro, we learn the nature of that mission, one that makes the miracle of our unlikely birth make sense. 

For 116 years, the Jews were shackled slaves to Pharaoh, but upon liberation they would come to serve G-d as a free nation. Their mission: Keep the Torah and be a light to all mankind. 

“And now, if you hearken to Me and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a treasure out of all peoples, for Mine is the entire earth. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of princes and a holy nation….” (Shemot 19:5-6) 

Well, we certainly know one thing about treasures, the rarer they are, the more they are worth. The Jewish people are G-d’s precious few.  He selected us to bring the teachings of the Torah to all corners of the earth to which we are scattered until He calls us home again with the coming of Mashiach. Nothing makes us great except the mission He has assigned to us. 

In this parshah, we read about the giving of the Ten Commandments. From that point forward, mankind, human rights, morality and values were changed forevermore. Ethics were no longer relative, carved by man’s whims and passions but rather were carved into the heart and soul of every Jew. 

G-d gave mankind the Torah, an absolute law which transcended mankind’s ephemeral passions. G-d Himself commanded us what is right or wrong, holy or impure, sacred or profane.  Every Jew and convert, born and yet unborn, stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and entered into a covenant for all time. 

Though many try to muffle it, the word of G-d lives in His treasured people. Hence the joke about Jewish atheists. They may deny G-d, but they do it religiously. 

Every treasure however needs to be protected and buffed. And so, G-d took His people from the brick kilns of Egypt to heavenly heights by giving them the Torah in order to “polish” their souls so that they could shine as role models in every aspect of life for the entire world. 

Unfortunately, too many Jews forget our calling and hang up the phone when duty calls -- the duty of behaving like a Jew. They dismiss the Torah and its teaching as obsolete. They choose to ignore that Torah’s message:  "And I perform lovingkindness to thousands [of generations], to those who love Me and to those who keep My commandments (Shemot 20:6) 

The Torah tells us that the Jewish nation entered the desert of Sinai on “this day” as opposed to on “that day” when it actually happened. This teaches us that on “this day” meaning today and every day we have to receive and spread anew the teachings of the Torah.  Without the Torah, we will find ourselves in the “wilderness” of Sinai, New York, Miami or whatever spiritual desert we reside in. 

The Torah is compared to water. Without these living waters, we become parched in the vast wasteland of life and enslaved and mired in addictive sins and superficial trappings. 

They are called trappings for good reason, for they trap us when in truth we were born to be free. And there is no freedom without the law, the law of Hashem. 

Statistically speaking, you should not have been born, and certainly more so, not reading my article! But if you are, then G-d has come looking for you to remind you of the promise you made at Sinai: "Everything that Hashem has spoken we shall do!"      Shabbat Shalom

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Yesterday, All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away!

Throughout the plague of Covid-19, I often heard people saying, “I can’t wait for life to get back to normal!” 

This makes me chuckle because I recall with great clarity how many of those same complainers were dissatisfied when life was “normal.” I can’t help but feel sorry and worried for those whose future is obstructed by romanticized nostalgia of a past that never was.

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Firstly, the alleged “normalcy” of the past is problematic in and of itself, i.e., please define normal. Secondly, we are never going back to that world of imagined happiness. But that is nothing new. Humans tend to have the bad habit of glamorizing the past and looking at it through rose colored lenses.

 

In last week’s Torah portion (Bo), the Israelites were freed from slavery. Yet, it did not take long before their memories of slavery became blurred.  

 

The Egyptians had enslaved the children of Israel with back-breaking labor and embittered their lives: “The Children of Israel sighed from the labor, and they cried out, and their cry ascended to G-d....” (Shemot 2:23)

 

G-d freed them with a mighty hand and performed numerous miracles for them. And yet, despite all the great wonders they experienced, they were extremely distressed by every challenge they faced, so much so, that they lamented ever leaving Egypt.

 

They cried to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the desert? What is this that you have done to us - to take us out of Egypt?" (Shemot 14:11)

 

In contrast to the famous words, “Give me liberty or give me death,” the Israelites, once having obtained liberty, cried, “Give me slavery!”.

 

Servitude, after all, offers a sense of comfort. Indeed, our own habits and routines are a form of slavery. We feel safe because we know what tomorrow will look like: We went to sleep a slave; we will wake up a slave. The burden of having to challenge ourselves is muted.

 

Even after G-d split the Red Sea for the Israelites and smote the Egyptians, they were overwhelmed by the challenges of freedom.  They recalled Egypt with nostalgia putting a new spin on their former embittered lives: “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate bread to our fill!” (Shemot 16:3).

 

If we don’t fight the fear of change in our lives and abandon the comfort zone, we will always be crying to return to Egypt. We will resort to choosing evil because we are more afraid to live than to die. Most of the Israelites preferred to worship Egypt’s useless G-ds of stone and to be slaves to certainty rather than to serve the Almighty in freedom and uncertainty wherein each day demanded renewed faith.

 

G-d did not give the Israelites enough manna from heaven to stock up their freezers for six months. They had to collect it each day anew (except Shabbat). If they saved it for the next day, it rotted, produced worms and stank.

 

The fate of a Jew is uncertainty except for the certainty that G-d is always with us. Unlike the Nile which irrigated all of Egypt for millennia, its little neighbor Israel still must pray daily to Hashem for rain.

 

Some Jews refused to leave Egypt due to their lack of faith and fear of the unknown. G-d helps us through the challenges of life, but He requires our spiritual courage. Those Jews who left Egypt were constantly tested to enable them to grow spiritually.

 

The Midrash relates that the Red Sea did not automatically part when the Israelites reached the Red Sea. The Israelites stood at the banks of the sea and wailed in despair. Then, Nachshon ben Aminadav courageously entered the waters. Only when the waters reached his neck did the sea part.

 

Our Sages teach that not only did the Red Sea part, but all the waters of the world divided. For when the Jewish people serve G-d with faith, even nature itself will override its own natural behavior to accommodate them and help them. So why are you afraid? 

 

We have to stop sugar coating the bitter past. We have to see it for what it is and move on. We are commanded not to return to Egypt. G-d gave us the exit strategy: He split the sea before us and gave us the Book of Life, His Torah. So why are you looking backward? There is nothing left for you there! “…For the Lord said to you, ‘You shall not return that way anymore.’” 

 

Sometimes it is not nostalgia and self-deception that keep us miserably locked in the past, but negativity. Our hearts become poisoned with it so that even if we “leave Egypt,” Egypt does not t leave us.

 

When we bear grudges and foster hate, they keep us imprisoned and nourish unhealthy sentiments inside of us. And so the Torah wisely commands us, even after all the Egyptians did to us, “You shall not despise an Egyptian....”

 

Let it go. Move on! “Do not be afraid,” the Almighty assures us. “I will go before you and fight your battles.” So just have faith in G-d and more importantly, give Him a reason to be there for you.

 

And as far as all those wonderful times that are gone: loves lost and people gone, jobs and youth, and days of splendor in the grass – they are no more. Let them empower you but not immobilize you. As Winston Churchill said, “If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

 

"Don't be afraid! Stand firm and see the salvation of Hashem that He will perform for you today; for as you have seen Egypt today, you shall not see them ever again.”  (Shemot 14:13).

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Dead Weight

We live in such an egotistical, self-absorbed world that it is no wonder that it is falling apart. It’s fractured by the pull of each man for himself. From selfies to the social media platforms which broadcast them, the obsession with self is nothing less than suicidal.

 

We deem others along with their ambitions and successes as threats to our own survival, and as such, everyone feels like an enemy and no one like a friend.  And so, the world is unhinging from its axis (weather disasters, fires, Covid, and more) and is on quick course to an unprecedented global transformation of some nature. Egoists would love to know that we are at the center and impetus of it all.

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I recently heard a fable which I liked very much. But as a writer, I thought that I could do better (there’s full blown ego for you!) and so I here’s my version:

 

There was a special island whose inhabitants were not people, but rather, positive emotions: Love, Serenity, Forgiveness, Joy, Hope, Inspiration and a few others.  One day, Ego came to town to show off.

 

Shortly thereafter, a terrible storm was about to hit. The inhabitants of the island realized that they would have to escape to survive.

 

Love took a proactive role and made a boat to save everyone. All the emotions jumped on board. The boat was strong and ready to set sail. Suddenly, Love realized that Ego was missing. She quickly jumped out of the boat and went looking for him, only to find him in a bar crying over a drink.

 

“Quick!  Hurry up! We have to leave before the storm hits!” cried Love.   

 

Ego was adamant, “I’m not going. I should have been the first one to board the ship since I am a guest in this town.”

 

Love begged Ego to change his mind, but he was very stubborn. Love then tried a tactic to which Ego could relate.

 

“If you stay here, you will die.” said Love.  

 

Ego, wanting nothing more than to preserve himself, agreed. When he reached the boat, Ego once more revealed his ugly disposition and ordered everyone to get off the boat so that he could board first.

 

All the positive emotions were happy to oblige and jumped out. Then Ego proudly got in. But just as he did, the boat sunk and cracked destroying the only escape made by the hands of Love. The storm struck and everyone died. If only Ego had left his attitude ashore, they might all have survived. But the weight of his arrogance and attitude which he brought aboard wreaked destruction for all.

 

How often in our own lives do we let ego destroy our relationships, opportunities and important occasions? The Book of Proverbs warns us that, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (16:18)

 

In this week's Parshah, Bo, we read about Pharaoh’s persistent refusal to let the Israelites go. There are many egomaniacs in the Tanach:  Haman, Avimelech, Absalom, etc., and Pharaoh was among them. Pharaoh deemed himself a god. He believed then he created the Nile and that he created himself. He rejected the omnipotent G-d Who created the world with Ten Utterances. Thusly, with precise retribution, God delivered ten plagues to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. His punishment was like a ten-step program to break egocentricity. But unfortunately, not everyone is mended in “rehab.” Pharaoh was one such failure.

 

It is significant to note that G-d sent none other than Moses, the humblest man who ever lived, to liberate the Israelites. Moses was a reluctant leader who begged G-d to send someone else.

 

Furthermore, we also learn humility from the location upon which G-d gave the Torah -- Mount Sinai. G-d did not pick the highest mountain in the world to bestow the loftiest gift ever given to mankind.   He chose a humble mountain as the backdrop for the giving of His Torah, a Book that would render His people holy and transform them from Pharaoh’s slaves to servants of His will and masters of their passions.

 

But just as Pharaoh’s gigantic ego was sinful, so too is having a lack of sense of self. We have to be aware that the spirit of G-d lives inside us if we are to accomplish our missions in this world.  

 

How many of us are afraid to achieve our dreams and aspirations because we have fragile egos?  

 

“If I fail, I’ll look so bad. What will people think?”

 

But the Torah does not let us off the hook. We have to try. Where there is fear, there is no faith. Even though Moses had a speech impediment, he was the deliverer of the Divine word.

 

Even though King David was small in stature and a mere shepherd, it was he who took down Goliath.

 

Moses’ Egyptian adoptive mother reached for the basket that was well beyond her reach, but God extended her arm and she rescued none other than Moses.

 

A nation came to the shores of the Red Sea while the Egyptians pursued them from behind. Survival seemed impossible and death imminent. One man, Nachshon ben Aminadav, jumped into the waters and the sea parted.

 

You see, my friends, results are not in our hands, but God demands that we take action.  Miracles only transpire when man makes the first move. There is no instance in the Torah where things transpire differently.

 

Make your move. A kosher move. G-d is with you. We would never fear if we knew Who walked beside us. 

 

But there is a place where G-d does not walk. G-d does not dwell among arrogant people.  This makes perfect sense because two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. If you are full of yourself, there is no room for Him.

 

So, let's work on shaping our egos both our gigantic ones and our fragile ones (sometimes they are just about the same thing.) For an arrogant man knows not his place in this world and a meek one will never make his place.

 

When we serve God, we are empowered; we find our courage; we find our words; we find our rescue; we find our mission; we find our voice; we find our backbone; we find our feet; we find our true selves; And then most certainly, we find our blessed way.

 

May G-d be with you! Shabbat Shalom!

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