Monthly Archives: August 2014

Shabbat, Ours and Yours

(In memory of Chaim Barukh Yehudah ben Dovid Tzvi zl) 

Ours and Yours 

[Summary: The holy Zohar teaches that as a people, the Jews are protected on Shabbat by the holy Shekhinah aka “Sukkat Shalom.” This is in addition to the personal protection a Jew has via the neshamah yeteirah, additional Shabbat soul.]

When the Shabbat spirit settles in the world, all the negative energy and evil blamers leave. There’s no need to pray for protection; Shabbat spirit and the outspread wings of Sukkat Shalom shield Yisrael.

“Wait!” you say. “The Talmud says that one shouldn’t not travel solo on Tuesday or Friday nights! He must be on the alert for evil forces. So how can you tell me there is no need to pray for protection?”

On Tuesday nights it’s true, that danger lurks because the moon was cursed and wounded. {The moon was created on the fourth day of the week, which begins Tuesday night and ends Wednesday night.–OB} Its dimmed light give license and power to the dangerous and spiteful.

But Friday night, they retreat to the Sinkhole. When they get there, they won’t have any control. But, they aren’t beamed up—or down—to the Sinkhole. They walk, slowly. So if a Jew runs into them, he could get hurt. And some of them {apparently with excess arrogance-OB}, like to leave the Sinkhole and scare a lone Jew, even though they can’t hurt him. So if you’re alone on a Friday night—watch out! Pray to God to protect you!

Now, it looks as if the Sukkat Shalom protection is not foolproof. After all, those bad guys can frighten or damage someone. But there is a difference. Yisrael, the Jews, as a people are protected. Nothing to worry on that score. But as private individuals, we are protected not by the Sukkat Shalom, but by our personal neshamah yeteirah. Your neshamah yeteirah is strong enough to protect you, but it is fragile. You have to make sure to give the full respect it deserves. If not, God forbid, those evil thugs might chisel themselves underneath the neshamah yeteirah and cause a great deal of grief, you shouldn’t know from it—or them.

And no matter what, even if you don’t fully honor your private guard (neshamah yeteirah), Sukkat Shalom does offer a fair amount of protection.

Zohar 2:205a

 

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Sukkat Shalom

(In memory of Chaim Barukh Yehudah ben Dovid Tzvi zl)

Extra Protection

[Summary: The holy Zohar tells us that as Shabbat begins the sacred Shekhinah spreads her wings over the world and settles herself in the world. As a result, the “outside,” i.e., negative, forces are forced into hiding and can exercise no authority on the world. The world has an extra measure of protection on Shabbat; even the denizens of Hell get the day off. This is why the closing of the final Maariv blessing differs from its weekday version.]

The holy Zohar says:

 

Come! Expand your vision!

As the sun sets Friday afternoon, the Sukkat Shalom (canopy of peace) settles and expands into the world. Who is Sukkat Shalom? Shabbat, the Shekhinah. All the evil demons—subtle and fierce and in-between—and every carrier of impure energy, goes into hiding. The simple presence of Shabbat sanctity weakens them; they cannot stir themselves. The impure spirit flees from the sacred.

The world has then an extra measure of protection. There is no need to pray for it as we do on weekday: “Who protects His People, Yisrael, forever.” It’s a blessing made for the weekday because on weekdays the world needs protecting!

But not Shabbat! With the Sukkat Shalom spread over the world, guarding the world from all sides—even the Hell dwellers are safe and resting—all the worlds, upper and lower, are peaceful and tranquil.

So on Shabbat the blessing closes, “Who extends the Sukkat Shalom over us, over all His people Yisrael and over Jerusalem.” Why “Jerusalem”? Because Jerusalem is where the Shekhinah resides.

And we need to invite the Sukkat-Shekhinah who has spread her wings over us, to be with us and watch over us, as a mother does for her children. Then we will have no need to fear the Sitra Achra.

Zohar 1:48a

 

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Anchors Aweigh! Away? A Way?

While I was working on a project last night, I came across this short piece from Sichot HaRan (Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom) #121. I’ve taught it dozens of times and seen it even more than that, but it hit me with a new force. I literally felt as if the Rebbe zl  slapped me in the face. Here is the piece:

The Rebbe once lectured us to pray with concentration and energy. He emphasized that a person must exert himself to pray with all his strength. He said, “You put as much energy into your prayers as I did into pulling up the anchor.”

The Rebbe was once travelling by ship when an emergency arose. Everybody on board—crew and passengers—was pressed into service and forced to pull the rope with all his might to weigh anchor. “I went through the motions of pulling with all my strength, but really I wasn’t using any energy at all. I was actually pretending. I was being coerced, so I acted as if I was pulling with all my might. The is what your prayer ‘with energy and concentration’ is like.”

I had always taken away the obvious message: you’re not really putting in genuine effort; and obvious message #2: c’mon—you call that trying? But last night it hit me hard when I realized that the Rebbe zl was telling me why I wasn’t putting honest effort into my davening. I feel like I’m being coerced. On a subtle level, part of why I am in shul three times a day is that I have to be there.

Definitely some part of me wants to daven or I wouldn’t do it all. But since not all of my self is invested in davening, I don’t invest all of my energy into davening. I’m pretending to pull the rope to weigh anchor. I’m making all the appropriate gestures and noises that come along with it, but really I’m putting on a show. Sometimes it’s such a good show I fool even myself.

But as with anything in life that a person feels called to do, he’ll give it everything he’s got. Hearty davening!

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Don’t Say It! (Redux)

(In memory of Chaim Barukh Yehudah ben Dovid Tzvi zl) 

 

Summary: Sort of a scorecard to Gehenna. If you’ve ever read a book that describes a Holocaust concentration camp, this will sound familiar, albeit without the gory details, thank God. We will also find some guidelines about what to avoid doing—and thinking—at night.

[The scorecard]

Three ministers serve in Gehenna, under Dumah. They are Mashchit, Af and Cheimah (Destroyer, Anger and Fury). They oversee all the deputies. The deputies rush to and fro, punishing the wicked.

All the troops of thug-angels fill Gehenna with pandemonium. Their yells are heard in the sky. In Gehenna, the wicked scream, “Oy! Oy!” but no one pities them.

The verse has something to say about these three ministers and the deputies, the bands of thug-angels. “A racket sounds (kol) from the city; an uproar (kol) from the Beit HaMikdash/Temple! God’s thunder (kol) as he deals retribution to His foes” (Isaiah 66:6). Three kols, one each for the overseers who rule Gehenna during the weekdays.

Throughout the night, from the time of Maariv (the nighttime prayer), the wicked are punished for their deeds done in the dark, and for the fantasies and schemes they hatched in bed. “Oy! Those who hide their plans deep from God! Who do their work in the dark and say, ‘Who sees us? Who’s going to know it was us?’” (Isaiah 29:15). “Oy! Those who plan iniquity, designing evil while in their beds. At first light they rush to do it—because they can” (Michah 2:1).

Once they’ve started punishing, they continue into the day until every sin is accounted for. But it starts at nightfall. This is why the thug-angels are called Leilot (Nighters). As Rebbe Alexandrei commented on the verse (Song of Songs 3:8), “… because of the terror of Leilot”—from the terror of Gehenna.

This is why they established that the weeknight Maariv begin with the verse, “He [God] is compassionate. He atones crime and does not yashchit, destroy; He keeps His af, anger, securely in check and does not arouse all His cheimah, fury” (Tehillim 78:38). From the moment it becomes dark, the destroyers—Mashchit, Af and Cheimah—begin punishing the wicked. They are all referred to in this verse.

They established, but only for the weeknights, not for Shabbat. Because when Shabbat enters the world, Din, Judgment, exits. Th wicked in Gehenna have some rest. From the moment the day is sanctified, the thug-angels have no authority over them. Therefore, we don’t say the verse, “He is compassionate …”—it provokes the thug-angels.

It’s forbidden to say because it also insults the King. On Shabbat, He is the one Who protects the wicked. Not reciting “He is compassionate…” indicates that Din has exited the word and the destroyers may not destroy. An analogy: The officer who flogs the convicts is visited by the King, who has come to protect the convicts. If the flogger even threateningly picks up his whip, has he not insulted the King?

Shabbat is the king. He stands behind the wicked and protects them. Anyone who picks up the whip to frighten them insults the king. For the same reason, we don’t conclude Maariv’s last blessing with the weeknight ending, “The Protector of His people Yisrael.”

Zohar Chadash, Ruth 97a

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Have No Tunnel Fear

The entire world—all of life—is a very, very narrow bridge, Rebbe Nachman teaches (Likutey Moharan II, Lesson #48). And, he says, the main thing is to not get frightened.

A tunnel built by those who want to kill you is not a bridge. And apparently, those built by Hamas frighten many, many people. I would like to make a humble suggestion that may help remove, or at least ease, the fear for some us.

Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh (of inner.org fame) has what he calls, a “Divine space” meditation. Our bodies are, obviously, located in space. There are six directions: in front of us and behind us; right and left; above and below. Each direction relates to one of the six constant mitzvahs, i.e., the mitzvahs a person can do any time, any place.

The six mitzvahs are:

  1. To believe in God’s existence
  2. To believe that there is no god, power or force independent of God
  3. To believe in God’s Oneness and Uniqueness
  4. To love God
  5. To fear God
  6. To not stray after one’s heart or eyes

Rabbi Ginsburgh relates each mitzvah to a direction and to a pasuk (verse) of the Torah. For our purpose, we will relate just the two that are immediately relevant.

To believe in God’s existence is the first of the Ten Commandments, “I am the Lord your God (Exodus 20:2). Think of this mitzvah as being above you, “over your head,” as you sit, stand, walk or ride. I encourage people to think of this as being the Ultimate Iron Dome.

The second of the Ten Commandments—and what inspired this piece—is the mitzvah to believe that there is no god other than God Himself, “You will have no other gods before Me” (ibid. V.3). This mitzvah is “below,” it is the bedrock of our security. It is the ground we walk on.

Where we stand, where we stride, no force can touch us. We Jews have nothing to fear as long we are rock-certain that no one and nothing can do us harm, unless God wills it.

Don’t be afraid of tunnels or those that build them, who think they can hide their evil deeds from God. “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who protects His people Yisrael, forever.”

© Copyright 2014 148west.com/O. Bergman

 

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A Gift of Soul

(In memory of Chaim Barukh Yehudah ben Dovid Tzvi zl) 

The Secret of the Additional Soul

Summary: At the close of the Hashkiveinu blessing in the Shabbat Maariv, we invite the holy Shekhinah to be our guest (as it were). She responds by wrapping us in her protective embrace, and by gifting us with the neshamah yeteirah (Additional Soul). Finally, the zohar explains how Shabbat is the World to Come in miniature.

 

Says the holy Zohar:

Come! Expand your vision!

When Yisrael blesses and invites the Sukkah of Peace (aka the Shekhinah) to be their sacred guest—when they say “the One Who extends the Sukkah of Peace”—Supreme Holiness descends and spreads her wings over them, sheltering them as a mother shelters her child.

All the evil types withdraw from the world, leaving Yisrael under the holiness of their Master. That is when the Shekhinah gives her children new neshamot (souls). Why is it that only on Shabbat she gives new neshamot? All neshamot reside within the Shekhinah and through her that they come into the world. Since it is on Shabbat that she is present with her children, embracing them, it is then that she gives each one a new neshamah.

Rebbe Shimon said more:

That Shabbat is the World to Come in miniature is related to the Shekhinah gifting new neshamot to Yisrael. This definitely accords with the secret teachings. They parallel Shemitah (the sabbatical year) and Yovel (the Jubilee year, once every 50 years). [OB: Shemitah is Malkhut, the “daughter;” Yovel is Binah, the Mother.”]

Where does that additional neshamah come from? It come to the Shekhinah from the Masculine [Z’er Anpin] who took it from the World to Come, Binah. This addition is given to the Holy People.

That extra soul cheers them. So they forget their weekday concerns and all their suffering and troubles. This is the Shabbat tranquility of, “And it will come to pass on the day that God gives you rest from your sorrow and your anxiety, and from the difficult bondage which was forced upon you” (Isaiah 14:3).

Zohar 1:48a–b

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Tisha b’Av Reflection

“What has past is no longer, for our holy Temple has been burned to the ground. But now, as God  looks forward to returning to us, and to return and build our holy Temple, the right thing for us is to not prevent the rebuilding of the holy Temple, God forbid. Instead we should make effort to see that it is built.

“Therefore, one should be very careful to rise at midnight to mourn the holy Temple’s destruction. Because perhaps in his first incarnation he was the cause of the Temple’s destruction. And even if not, perhaps he is now preventing the building of the holy Temple.

“Therefore, one should be very careful to rise at midnight to mourn greatly the holy Temple’s destruction. For God has guaranteed that anyone who mourns for Zion … will be given mochin, mind.” Likutey Moharan II, Lesson #67

The holy Temple, aka the Beit HaMikdash, was not just a building. When Rebbe Nachman zl says that perhaps one—you, me—was the cause of destruction or is interfering with the rebuilding effort, it implies:

Ozer, maybe you caused all those Jews to suffer in Babylon, in the Crusades, the Inquisition, Russian pogroms, Holocaust and Intifada. And maybe all the Exile’s misery, poverty and anxiety, of millions and millions of Jewish men, women and children, too, can be laid at your feet. (There are too many wars, revolutions, purges, Reigns of Terror, etc. of the world-at-large to list, none of which would have happened had there been a Beit HaMikdash.)

That’s an unbelievably heavy burden to bear. If a preaching-type would tell me that, I would run away or commit suicide. Who wouldn’t be crushed by the guilt?

But Rebbe Nachman zl doesn’t say it outright. And while he’s letting us know just how enormous the tragedy is, he’s telling us to not be overwhelmed, but to be strong and courageous and to face the challenge, because we can set things right, we can get to the root of the problem.

Waking at midnight, or at least stopping what we’re doing, in the middle of the darkness of life to mourn the destruction of the holy Temple is not just to go, “Boo-hoo those nasty terrorists are killing us,” or to whine that we don’t learn enough Talmud or Zohar.

The reward for mourning the Temple’s destruction is mochin, mind. The Beit HaMikdash wasn’t a symbol. It was a source of life-thinking. Its absence means that the world does not think clearly. It means that the world–including us–considers certain attitudes, beliefs and behaviors satisfactory when really–as we look anywhere around us–they most certainly are not. We have to mourn that we have lost our minds, individually and collectively.

Building the Beit HaMikdash, building a new and better world, requires the belief that you can contribute to that process. It requires your being sensitive enough to care about Jewish suffering and the world’s pain. It requires willingness to accept responsibility for your share of the world’s mess, and genuine willingness to change your attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.

The more Jewishly we think, the more anger, jealousy, violence, etc. become unwanted and untenable. Calm, camaraderie, helping and the like take their place. If we mourn losing our mind, we will be worthy of rejoicing when we regain it. May we live to see the building of the Beit HaMikdash, swiftly and soon. Amen.

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