Category Archives: Weekly

Thoughts about the parsha, written, spoken and/or video

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

 

© 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

© Copyright 2014 148west.com/O. Bergman

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Don’t Be Inferior

One of the biggest challenges we face in our quest to live Jewishly, is the feeling that we can’t measure up, that certain “levels” or accomplishments are just beyond us.

This is not a feeling that only a baal teshuvah might have. Many who are born and educated in even the most “religious” and/or spiritually dedicated homes feel inferior to someone who seems more gifted, privileged or just plain lucky. (”Mazeldik” is the technical term.) The feeling is real and too often is an impediment to becoming all the Jew you can be. What should you do to so that this feeling lifts you and doesn’t bury you?

First, ask a question that you should always ask any time you feel stuck in our Jewishness: Who says? Who says that just because I’ve bumped my head on the ceiling of my Jewishness that I can’t break through it? Asking this question requires two ingredients: chutzpah and ambition.

If you’re Jewish, you automatically have chutzpah. Ambition you may also have, but maybe not. And even if you do, you may not have exerted any of your ambition on growing as a Jew. If so, start now.

This question and this ambition show up in this week’s parsha. When everyone else was busy coming closer to Hashem by bringing the korban Pesach, a small group of Jews felt excluded. Heck! They were excluded. So they (respectfully) challenged Moshe Rabbeinu (Numbers 9:7). “OK, so there’s something seriously wrong with us. Does that mean we can’t move forward with the rest of our fellow Jews? Help us out!”

Their quest and question echoes that of Rachel Imeinu (our Matriarch). Hundreds of years earlier she was confronted by a very stark truth: her sister, Leah Imeinu, was privileged to build the Jewish people by bearing children to Yaakov Avinu (our Patriarch), but she, Rachel, was not. She was not to be denied though. It was her goal to be a builder of the Jewish people. What did she do? She prayed. And prayed. And she prayed some more and she prayed again and she continued to pray.

In order to equal her sister, to match her accomplishments, Rachel Imeinu was not only ambitious, but STUBBORN. She cried, she pleaded, she begged and screamed. And she remained barren, for years. Nothing. After trying for years and seeing no results whatsoever, normal human beings give up. But to build Judaism or Jewishness from the ground floor, you can’t be “normal,” you can’t accept spiritual defeat. (And you must realize, that your current level of Jewishness is the ground floor for your Jewishness yet to come.)

In what activity do we have to be the most stubborn? In tefilah, prayer. How stubborn? Reb Noson writes: “Even if you imagine that your words don’t help at all; even if you feel that you are a million light-years distant from your Jewish goal—after all, it’s years that you’ve been pleading with Hashem to achieve Jewish growth and nothing has happened—you must continue with ‘just because’ stubbornness.”

That’s right. You have to tell your inner-skeptic, “Yes, there is no good reason to continue praying for my goal, but I’m going to do it anyway.” Your success may be too small for you to measure, or may not satisfy you as much as you like. But keep at it, writes Reb Noson; you will ultimately be equal with your fellow Jews who are already tzaddikim.

© Copyright 2014 148west.com

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for Rosh Hashanah 5774

Some words as we get closer to the sunset of 5773, and the opening of 5774.

Once, at the beginning of the year, Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai (a Mishnaic sage who was a teacher of one of Rebbe Akiva’s teachers) had a dream. He saw that that year, his nephews were to lose 700 dinarim. (How much is that? Enough to buy more oxen and camels than you’ve ever dreamed of owning.) What did Rebbe Yochanan do? Throughout the year, he went to them more often than usual, asking them to contribute to various charities. They gave and they gave.

Near the end of the year, his nephews were hit with an unexpected tax bill. They came to Rebbe Yochanan for advice. “Don’t worry,” he said. “They won’t take more than 17 dinar.” They asked him how he was so certain. He told him about his dream. “Since you’ve given me 683 dinar, you won’t lose more than 17.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about the dream? We would have given you the whole thing!”

“No,” Rebbe Yochanan said. “It’s better that you give the charity for the sake of the mitzvah.”

I bless you with a prayer I say for myself. If, God forbid, you have to lose any money this year, may it be to worthy charities, and not to doctors/(self-)medications, lawsuits, traffic fines, late fees, penalties. May you give to the needy, not to the greedy—and for the right reasons.

I’m not big on predictions, astrological or otherwise. But I’ll go out on a limb here. Ready? Every reader of this blog will have his/her Jewishness tested this year! Hard to fathom, I know, but I guarantee it. Not to worry, though. I offer you a piece of ancient Jewish wisdom that is tried and true. If you follow it simply and straightforwardly, you’ll make it through the storm.

Don’t surrender! Maintain whatever practices and devotions (aka Torah study/mitzvah observance and prayer) that you have undertaken. Even if it looks as if they are not helping your Jewish progress; even if it seems that they are hindering it, ask yourself (in a Talmudic sing-song, if possible): “If I pray regularly and am going backwards, how likely is it that not-praying will help me go forward?”

The difference between tzaddikim and people like us? They don’t give up. Adjust, exhale, regroup and re-plan, but never, ever throw in the towel.

And what should we pray for? This is a “been asked almost forever” question. A Roshh Hashanah piyut (supplemental poem-prayer) answers in two short sentences:

Give me to understand what I should ask for /
Make me aware what I should request

If you make it to Uman, please look me up. I’m staying at the Ritz.

May you and yours be immediately written and sealed for good life and shalom. Amen.

© Copyright 2013 148west.com/O. Bergman

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Maybe It is My Fault?

In Tunis, the capitol of Tunisia, the chief rabbi, Rabbi Yehoshua Bassin, had police power granted him by the local authorities. One Tisha b’Av, a well-to-do Jew opened his store. Rabbi Yehoshua sent some people to the merchant with orders to close the store. The Jew refused.

The messengers returned, reporting the refusal. Rabbi Yehoshua sent them again and again the Jew refused. “That happened two thousand years ago. It has nothing to do with me.” The messengers came back, relaying the Jew’s rationale. Rabbi Bessin, “We’ll take our time with this one.”

Fast forward to the morning of Purim eve, some seven months later. Rabbi Yehoshua sends some of his “gendarmes” to the rich Jew with a summons to appear before him. In addition, they also have instructions to take him by force, should he refuse. Sure enough, when they arrive and tell him that he is to immediately go to the rabbi’s home, he refuses. “What?! It’s Purim eve. There’s so much to do and prepare. I don’t have time.” When he refused to go willingly, they handcuffed him (or however they did it in Tunis of old), and dragged him to Rabbi Bassin’s.

Rabbi Bassin told the merchant to wait outside his office. The unhappy merchant waited and waited. The longer he waited, the unhappier and more impatient he became. Finally, as the afternoon shadows become more pronounced, he can’t stand it any more. He jumps up and burst into Rabbi Yehoshua’s office. “Rabbi! You called me to your office. What do you want? It’s getting late. It’s almost Purim and I have much to prepare!”

The rabbi looked at him, “What are you in such a rush to prepare for? What’s the big to-do?”

The merchant was shocked. “What’s the big to-do? It’s Purim! The great miracle that God made for us through Mordechai and Esther, to save us from Haman!”

“That concerns you?” asked Rabbi Yehoshua. “That happened two thousand years ago, like Tisha b’Av. What has it got to do with you?” Rabbi Bassin continued. “Remember what King David says (Psalms 137:5), ‘If I forget you, Jerusalem, may yemini (literally, my right hand) be forgotten.’ If one forgets about the destruction of Jerusalem, he cannot properly recall the holiday of ish Yemini (Esther 2:5, a reference to Mordechai).”

The moral of the story (one of them, anyway) is that we cannot divorce any episode of Jewish history from our personal experience. One can’t be a “good time” Jew or a “fair-weather” Jew. The loss of the Beit HaMikdash (holy Temple), how, why and by whom it was destroyed, and the responsibility we bear for it has to be thought about it and taken to heart.

There’s a common mistake made by many, that Rebbe Nachman of Breslov’s teachings are always warm and fuzzy. The Rebbe zl is demanding as well. In Likutey Moharan (Part II, Lesson #67), Rebbe Nachman tells us that God is waiting with anticipation to return to us and build the Beit HaMikdash. Instead of getting in the way, we should assist in its building and pray for it. Then the Rebbe poses a suggestion:

Perhaps in your first incarnation you were the cause for its destruction. Even if not, perhaps now you are the one preventing its being rebuilt. That’s tantamount to causing its destruction.

Rough words, painful. Challenging. Are you part of the problem, or contributing to the solution? Let’s think about this honestly on Tisha b’Av (and other times during the year). Let’s accept responsibility for our past failures and start today to work on rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash. After all, it’s not just God’s home. It’s our home, too.

 

© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman/148West

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Chosen Person

We’re on the threshold of receiving the Torah, again. As we wrote earlier, one of the reasons we stay awake all Shavuot night to learn Torah, is to awaken our desire for living Torah, despite any obstacles we may face in life. And face obstacles we will.

Rebbe Nachman talks often of the desire to be a Jew, the desire to live Jewishly, the desire to actualize the desire to daven (pray) more/better, learn Torah more/better, be charitable and kind more/better, have stronger faith and love for God, etc. What’s the starting point for that desire? The starting point is to realize that not only are we Jews the Chosen People, but that you, in your Jewishness, are a Chosen Person. Without your having stood at Mount Sinai at the Revelation to receive the Torah, no Jew, not even Moshe Rabbeinu, would have the Torah.

You were chosen to be there and, like the rest of us, you accepted the invitation and the responsibility. And you’re going to fail. Not all the time, hopefully, but often enough to think about quitting or about moving the goalposts (i.e., lowering your standards of Judaism). But this misguided thinking is based on a lack of humility. Your failures—just like my failures and the other guy’s failures—should give you a clearer picture of what your currently capable of and where you need improvement. Your failures, and the humility they breed, should weaken neither your desire nor your resolve for Jewishness. On the contrary—they should strengthen them so much that your failures become stepping stones to Jewish success.

Have a beautiful yom tov. Don’t forget. Being happy that it’s yom tov is a mitzvah. Don’t get suckered into an argument or a funk because the cheesecake didn’t come out right or the rabbi’s class was too long.

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hekhsher Keilim 4:18

 

© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman/148West

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Stay Awake!

Why don’t we sleep on the night of Shavuot? Reb Noson of Breslov, Rebbe Nachman’s foremost disciple, gives an answer.

We already received the Torah at Sinai. So what are we receiving each year on Shavuot? A little more revelation of penimiyut, the innerness/essence of the Torah. The Torah’s panim, face, shines on us a little more, so that each of us can awaken from his sleep. We can wake and look more carefully and honestly at our lives, so that we can evaluate how our day to day life is contributing—or not—to a positive destiny.

When the Torah smiles and reveals to us more of her essence, we realize how many obstacles there are that keep us away from her. We realize that she alone is the one who can awaken us to our destined greatness. Receiving on Shavuot this new appreciation of the Torah’s greatness—and ours—is this year’s revelation.

Coming to realize how far we are from actualizing our potential greatness; coming to realize how impermanent things, false visions and values, and other tricks played on our minds keep us away from the Torah which can bring us to our God and our greatness; these realizations are the Torah we receive on Shavuot.

Staying awake Shavuot night is a reaction to these revelations. It is an antidote to the all too common human reaction of giving up and crawling under the blanket, quitting on the Torah when life gets too hard for us to reach the greatness we know deep within that we can achieve. Staying awake Shavuot night is a cry: I want to be a greater Jew! I can be a greater Jew! Even if I cannot achieve my Jewish goals as swiftly as I hoped, I will never ever stop hoping, and trying, to reach them.

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hekhsher Keilim 4:26

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Behar-Bechukotai

Dvar Torah for Parshat Behar-Bechukotai 5773

All Beginnings Are Difficult

 

Well now. 148West’s maiden dvar Torah. Very exciting, for me at least. After writing “a weekly column” for someone else, I’m doing it for someone else—me. The exciting part is, that no longer working as “an official spokesman” for Breslov Research Institute (blessed be its name) and, by extension, Breslov, I can write about topics that an organization wouldn’t. To have that freedom is exciting.

It’s also a big responsibility. Those who know me, or of me, expect that what I say is Breslov, or defines Breslov, or is the consensus of Breslover chassidim. That’s a definite maybe. I try, in my personal life, to behave (and speak, and think) in accord with what I learn in Rebbe Nachman’s works. (When I say “Rebbe Nachman’s works” I mean also those of Reb Noson, in particular Likutey Halakhot.) Of course, no two Breslovers understand the Rebbe’s teachings in the same way—which is exactly how he intended it, and exactly the way it oughta be.

As I wrote there, on 148West’s home page, I’m not here to preach. I’m here to teach, to share, to probe, maybe even to provide answers. The point is—and I firmly believe it’s the baseline of Rebbe Nachman’s mission—to help anyone and everyone Be. More. Jewish.

Which leads us in to our dvar Torah. Actualizing potential is the major theme of Likutey Moharan Lesson #66. Let’s take a look at a small section of the lesson (the start of §2):

The final outcome starts in thought. For example, when a person wants to do something, to build a bayit (house, home), let’s say, he must first think and consider what his bayit will look like. When he has a clear picture of what his bayit will look like, he can begin to build it. In this way, the ultimate product starts in the mind. And until the potential is actualized, the potential [bayit] is bound to the germ of the idea.

Part of what makes Likutey Moharan so powerful is the perspective it gives us for viewing life, on a grand, sweeping historical scale, on a personal, microscopic scale, and everything in between. For example, the bayit the Rebbe refers to is not just a physical structure, a yurt or an igloo. He means your ultimate bayit, the place you will reside for eternity.

Before we go on, let’s think about this vague word, “eternity.” The Steipler Rov, Reb Yaakov Yisrael Kanievesky obm (1899–1985), gave the following analogy to give us an idea of “how long is eternity.” Imagine, Planet Earth covered around and around by a pile of sand 10 miles high. Now, once every 10,000 years a bird flies in and takes away a grain of sand. How long will it take for the bird to remove all the sand? Eternity is longer than that. Back to our topic.

Did you ever think what your bayit will look like? One room for emunah (faith), one for tefilah (prayer), another for your kindness to orphans and one for your kindness to widows, to the poor. Rooms for the various areas of Torah you studied and others for Torah that you taught. And how well-lit will your bayit be? There’s an old Yiddish expression applied to a person who has passed on: May he have a lichtege Gan Eden, a bright Garden of Eden. You don’t want a small light bulb, do you?

So we need to spend time thinking about our future bayit. We’ve got to think about how we’re going to build it, and get started.

There’s another bayit that needs to be built. Although it doesn’t make sense to talk of God “actualizing His potential,” the world He created needs to actualize its potential. God created the world in order to “dwell” in it, which is one of the reasons we were commanded to make a Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the desert and build the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) in Jerusalem. As we consider building our individual bayit, actualizing our personal potential, we should try our best to see how that fits with building God’s bayit, actualizing the potential of other people as well.

Because sometimes, I can develop and grow a good deal if I focus on myself. On the other hand, if I open myself to giving my time to others, I won’t get as far. but others will make progress that they couldn’t have without me. Some might make more progress than I ever could have made. And some may end up helping so many, many more people than I could ever have dreamed possible.

Thinking I’m making this up? Adam, the first human being, was to have lived for a thousand years. He didn’t keep them all for himself. He gave away 70 years of his life to King David, who was to have been stillborn. But by giving away his time—years, decades of his life!—Adam triggered a events that led to one person’s living a life in which he built the Kingdom of Israel, laid the foundation for the first Beit HaMikdash, wrote Tehillim (Psalms) and began the royal line that will lead to the Mashiach, may he come swiftly and soon, in our lifetime. Amen.

Based on Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #66

 

agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!

© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman/148West

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