60 Days to a Jewish Summer (and Life)

There is an ancient Jewish tradition, dating back around 2000 years, it is quoted in the Talmud (Brachot 60b), “אמר אביי…כי נפיק אומר ברוך אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה וברא בו נקבים נקבים חללים חללים גלוי וידוע לפני כסא כבודך שאם יפתח אחד מהם או אם יסתם אחד מהם אי אפשר לעמוד לפניך – Abaye said, when a person leaves the restroom he should say, ‘God is the source of all blessing, He created man with wisdom, and built in him openings and cavities, it is clear before His holy throne that if one opened at the wrong time or closed at the wrong time a person could not live.’”

As we have discussed before, every action is a spiritual action, every action that we take can be something to connect us with God and our Jewish heritage. There is an ancient Jewish value that is being transmitted to us by this blessing that Abaye instructs us to say. It is a value that many people forget about and that many people neglect to incorporate as part of their Jewish outlook. This is the value of looking for the small miracles in life. The very fact that we exist and are alive and our bodies function properly is a miracle. Thanks God, we are surrounded by healthy people and it is easy to forget this…check out this quote from Dr. Kenneth M.Prager, M.D.,

“It was not until my second year of medical school that I first began to understand the appropriateness of this short prayer. Pathophysiology brought home to me the terrible consequences of even minor aberrations in the structure and function of the human body, At the very least, I began to no longer take for granted the normalcy of my trips to the bathroom. Instead, I started to realize how many things had to operate just right for these minor interruptions of my daily routine to run smoothly.”

Today’s Jewish mission is to use the bathroom and appreciate the small miracles in our lives.

Over the last 2 months we have been discussing the importance of fully experiencing Shabbat and the various aspects of properly experiencing it. We outlined that their are 4 general categories that encompass the experience and amazing gift that is Shabbat, Honoring Shabbat, Enjoying Shabbat, Remembering Shabbat and finally, Keeping Shabbat. The final category being the one that most people identify with and that most people have a hard time dealing with. The final category is the one most people identify with “restrictions” and while this is true on the surface, the act of ‘keeping Shabbat’ does require that a person abstain from doing various actions, on a deeper level these ‘restrictions’ are what make up the very essence and secret of Shabbat’s special power for the Jewish people and their Heritage.  Asher Ginsburg (Ahad Ha’am), the founder of Cultural Zionism said it best, “More than the people of Israel have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the people of Israel.” What was meant by this statement is that although keeping Shabbat may appear at face value to be a list of restrictions, it is in reality a much deeper and powerful thing which allows us to fully appreciate and enjoy the awesomeness of Shabbat. We don’t keep the restrictions, they keep us.

This mission is going to be a little different than the missions we have had in the past, because properly keeping Shabbat and internalize its amazing power can be a lifelong pursuit. Learning new things and understanding all the rules takes study, focus and thought. But we always need to start somewhere, so I am going to try and give a brief introduction and try to refer you to some resource to start and continue this journey.

The Torah tells us (Exodus 20:9), “וְיוֹם, הַשְּׁבִיעִי–שַׁבָּת, לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ:  לֹא-תַעֲשֶׂה כָל-מְלָאכָה – and the seventh day is a day when you should stop for God, do not do any melacha.” In order to understand what is meant here, we must have a proper definition of the word melacha, which is generally and incorrectly translated as ‘work’. The word melacha refers to a specific type of creative action, these actions are identical with the actions that they Jewish people accomplished in the construction and maintenance of the Tabernacle in the desert and are outlined for us in the Torah. This inherent link between Shabbat and the Tabernacle is very telling as to the special power of Shabbat to act as a connector between the Jewish people and God and to bring the Jewish people together as a united group. There are 39 categories of melacha that are outlined in the Torah and enumerated by our ancient sages, I will not list them here, but they are the basis for everything when it comes to keeping Shabbat. Based on these 39 broad categories their are many sub-categories that exist. I would reccomend getting a copy of the book The Sabbath: A Guide to Its Understanding and Observance, by Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld as a starting point. It is a great book and is very short (under 100 pages) but manages to pack a whole lot of important details into that small space. If anyone is interested in borrowing a copy, comment below or send me and email or Facebook message. For the more advanced reader I would recommend The 39 Melochos: An Elucidation of the 39 Melochos from Concept to Practical Application, by Rabbi Dovid Ribiat, it is a massive 4 volume set and is probably the most comprehensive and complete as well as well footnoted book on the subject that exist in English.

So, today’s Jewish mission is to try to start the journey or learning about and trying to keep Shabbat. This Shabbat and in the future, try your best not break the, so called, restrictions of Shabbat and try to learn as much as you can!

Have you ever heard the expression, “He’s such a menstch“? or in Hebrew, “Act like a ben-adam!”? What do these phrases really mean? The Yiddish word, menstch, literally means man and the Hebrew word, ben-adam, literally means “son of Adam” or “son of man”. What is meant when we use this expression? Well, you see, in the Torah we are told a story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They were conned by a snake into eating a fruit that they shouldn’t have, this is where the mis-conception happens, they weren’t punished for eating the fruit, as much as they were punished for how they reacted when confronted about it. Rather than taking responsibility for their actions and saying they were sorry, they passed the blame on to the next person (or snake as the case may be) and this really pisssssed God off.

Ever since then, human kind (the sons and daughter of Adam and Eve) have been trying to make up for that. One of the main driving purposes of our lives is to just fess up and take responsibility for our actions. So when we use the term, mentsch or ben-adam, we are reminding ourselves of what it means to be a person, what Adam and Eve should have done, to take responsibility for our actions. That is exactly where the English expression, “Be a man” comes from. It has nothing to do with sexism or manliness, it has to do with the crucial characteristic of Mankind which is taking responsibility for our actions. The characteristic that Adam and Eve neglected to bring out and the characteristic that we are responsible to work on.

Today’s Jewish mission is to “be a man” or be a member of mankind and exemplify this characteristic of mankind, based on the shortcoming of Adam and Eve, and take responsibility for your actions.

God says in Parashay Vayera (Genesis 18:19), “כִּי יְדַעְתִּיו, לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה אֶת-בָּנָיו וְאֶת-בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו, וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט – Because I know Abraham will command his children to follow in his way, and preserve the way of God, to be just and do the right thing.” Generally the word צְדָקָה – tzedakah is translated as charity, which people take to mean as something nice that we do that is above and beyond our normal responsibility. However, this isn’t the case. The word צְדָקָה comes from the root word צדק meaning ‘justice’. The true meaning of the word צְדָקָה is doing the right and just thing, the thing that is supposed to be done, not the above and beyond thing to do. So, when we talk about charity it isn’t something that is supposed to be done only if we have the means, time or ability, it is something that is a responsibility for all the “children of Abraham (all of us)”. It is our responsibility, our heritage, our legacy. Doing the right thing for the Jewish people is a matter of course.

So, what does that mean for us? It means no excuses. It means that just because you are a teenager and don’t have enough money to go the movies isn’t an excuse for not doing “charity”. This isn’t an optional thing we do if we are able, it is our Jewish responsibility to help other no matter what our situation is. In fact, our ancient Jewish sages teach us that even a person who receives charity, must give charity to the person who poorer than him.

But how? If you don’t have money to give then what should you do? This is another big misconception about charity. Money is not the only way to give charity. You have many other things that you can give and use to help people. Your skills, your time, your creativity and so much more. Money isn’t the only thing in the world. You could volunteer, try to raise money, or use your skills to help someone out.

Today’s Jewish mission is to raise some money for charity, or find another way to help and give charity the Jewish way, not by giving only when it is convenient and not by only giving money, but by giving of yourself.

The fifth of the Ten Commandments read (Exodus 20:11), “כַּבֵּד אֶת-אָבִיךָ, וְאֶת-אִמֶּךָ–לְמַעַן, יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ, עַל הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ – Honor your father and mother so that you should live a long and happy life”. We see throughout the Torah how valuable this instruction is. In fact, even those characters who are regarded as evil and bad still honored their parents. From Esau to Reuben, now matter how evil of a person or how great and amazing the person, they each honored their parents. But why is this so important? We have discussed before the importance of being in awe of God and realizing how awesome He is, this concept relates to our parents as well. Parents form a partnership with God to bring us into this world, together they actually create us and nurture us, so we have to be in awe of all 3 parties. My Rabbi always says, “Your parents are equal to God, you need to treat them like they are God!” why? Because they are partners with God in creation, they form and nurture us and take care of our needs when we are incapable. This applies even to a parent who only gave birth to us, or an adoptive parent who only raised us.

But how do we honor our parents? Our great sages have discussed this a lot, but one of the key things we can do to honor our parents is to show them that we want their love and care. To show them that we appreciate all they have done for us and that we, now, as self-sufficient creatures have internalized the messages that they taught us of nurturing and providing. One of the prime examples of this is making food. By cooking a meal and providing this food to them, we are showing them that we know what it means to be like them, and just as we have said before that it is crucial to emulate God, it is also crucial to emulate the objective values of a true parent, giving, nurturing and providing. This emulation is the best way to show them that we appreciate and get what they are doing.

By providing food, you are providing life, and honor and showing your parents that you get it.

Today’s Jewish mission is to prepare a meal for your parents. Something that will enjoy, but most of all something that will show them that you appreciate, honor and respect them and that you get how amazing it is that they partnered with God to create, nurture and provide for you.

We are told about Elisha the prophet (Kings II 3:15), “וְהָיָה כְּנַגֵּן הַמְנַגֵּן, וַתְּהִי עָלָיו יַד-יְהוָה – when the musicians played their music he felt the presence of God”. It is clear from this line that there is a very heavy spiritual power to music, in fact, we know that the Chassidic Masters over the last few hundred years have used the power of music to tap into the soul. Music is a very powerful tool in raising our spiritual awareness and bringing ourselves closer to God and our Jewish Heritage.

The Kabbalah teaches us that “music is the language of the spiritual world”. What does this mean? Why is music such a powerful spiritual tool? Well, as we have said before, God gave us the power of creation and he “uploaded” into us all of our creativity and power. Every expression of this creativity is an expression of God’s love for us and an expression of our creative abilities, which are a gift from and emulating God. Music is no exception, in fact it is a much higher level. Our mouths are a very special, the power of speech is what separates us from the animal world. However, when we speak, things can be taken one way or another, and we can use words to convey positive or negative messages. But when we sing a tune, or a niggun as it is known in Hebrew, there is no negative possibilities, only the pure essence of our soul.

So, today’s Jewish mission is to listen to some music, preferably something Jewish, and try and connect to God and your Spiritual Jewish Heritage through the music.

In parashat Va’era, after Abraham is recuperating from his circumcision, God comes to visit him and comfort him. Our ancient sages teach us that from this story we learn that it is a big deal to visit and help the sick. Why? Because, as we know, we are supposed to “love our neighbor as ourself” and obviously when we are sick, we need help.

But there is much more to this “big deal” than just doing something for someone who is in need. Helping the sick is a way of emulating God. As we saw in the above story, when Abraham was in need, God came to comfort him. We have discussed in the past the Jewish emphasis on being a giver and that God, being infinite, is the ultimate giver being that he cannot “take” from anyone. We have to strive to see opportunities when people are in need as opportunities for us to be givers and emulate God.

So, today’s Jewish mission is to be a giver and help someone who is sick. Here are some ideas:

• Visit a patient in the hospital/nursing home, or visit the homebound.
• Call a homebound senior before Shabbos.
• Bring food to a family with a new baby.
• Drive someone to a doctor’s appointment.
• Help a child, whose parent is hospitalized, with homework.
• Say psalms together or on behalf of the ill.
• Take someone’s car to be filled with gas.
• Bring gift certificates from places which deliver food, so a family can make its own food choices and not feel dependent on what others cook for them.
• Call when you are at the store, and say “I am here. What can I pick up for you?”
• Share your hobbies, such as baking, singing or writing.
• Smile.
• Listen.

The Torah tells us (Deuteronomy 16:19), “וְלֹא-תִקַּח שֹׁחַד–כִּי הַשֹּׁחַד יְעַוֵּר עֵינֵי חֲכָמִים, וִיסַלֵּף דִּבְרֵי צַדִּיקִם – Don’t take bribes, because they blind the wise person and mess up the words of the just.” The literal understanding of this line is pretty straightforward, don’t take a bribe, pretty simple. However our ancient wise men taught us an additional way to understand this line. Each and every one of us is considered a judge, and each and every second of our lives we are making judgments and decisions about what to do with ourselves and how to act. When we are judging these choices, we must be very careful not to take bribes, whether they be from other or from ourselves.

A person is always going to be blinded by his own wants and desires, he will naturally go toward what is more comfortable for himself. What the Torah is telling us is that we need to be careful when making judgement calls throughout our lives, careful not to be blinded by our own subjectivity, not to be blinded by the flashy things around us, but to realize that we cannot always be objective and adjust our perception based on that knowledge.

Today’s Jewish mission is to try to realize when we are being blinded by our own bias and adjust our sights accordingly.

Over the last few weeks, on Fridays, we have been discussing the various aspects of Shabbat and making it a real part of our lives. We have been talking, mainly, about how to enjoy and respect Shabbat in ways outside of what most people consider Shabbat Observance, but which are a very large part of the true Shabbat experience. This week, I want to talk about one aspect of Shabbat that many people don’t associate with Shabbat – Havdala. As we have said in the past, Shabbat has 4 categories to it, Honor, Enjoy, Remember and Keep, and one of the key ways of remembering Shabbat is by making a separation between it and the rest of the week. When you have something special, something that you enjoy very much, and something that is very valuable, it is important to make sure that you maintain that things specialness. One way of doing this is by making it clear where that thing ends and other things begin.

Shabbat is no different. Shabbat is a very special part of our lives and we need to cherish it, we also need to make a clear distinction between Shabbat and the rest of the week. This also leads us to a deeper insight about life in general, it is always important to be able to distinguish between things, between those things which are special and not, those things which are holy and not, etc.

So, today’s Jewish Mission is to gather your family and friends and after having an amazingly inspirational Shabbat, say goodbye and make a clear distinction between Shabbat and the rest of the week. For more details on making Havdala see the video below (I know, its a little cheesy…).

King Solomon tells us (Proverbs 27:21), “מַצְרֵף לַכֶּסֶף, וְכוּר לַזָּהָב; וְאִישׁ, לְפִי מַהֲלָלוֹ – the refining pot shows us what silver really is, the furnace shows us for gold, but a person’s true colors are shown by what they praise.” We can learn a lot about a person based upon what they feel is important. Does a person think that holy people are awesome and that wisdom and knowledge is awesome? Or does a person think that it is really cool to hurt others and make fun of people. Even if a person doesn’t make fun of people himself, thinking that behavior is a cool one says a lot about who they are. What we hold in high-regard speaks volumes to what our core values are and what type of people we are.

Many Jews say a special prayer on Shabbat, “ain ke’arkecha – There is nothing as valuable as you, God”. At face value this seems a little odd, why should we be telling God He is the most valuable thing in the world? Who are we to tell God He is awesome? It would be like going up to Kobe Bryant and saying, “You are an amazing basketball player!” Who are you to tell him that? But when we look at this in the context of what we learned above, it makes much more sense. We aren’t telling god that, objectively, He is the most valuable, rather we are telling him that we are putting him at the top of our priority list, that He is, subjectively, to us, the most valuable thing in the world. We are declaring that we are the type of person who puts God first in our lives.

Today’s Jewish mission is to figure out what things you praise, what things are valuable to you, figure out what that says about who you are and try and re-prioritize your life putting God and Judaism at the top.