Monday, January 10, 2005
Parsha - Chabad - Rain, a River, Fire and Ice
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
On the eve of their entry into the Holy Land, Moses described to the Children of Israel the nature of their new homeland in the following way:
For the land which you are entering to inherit is not like the land of Egypt from which you are coming... it is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water of the rain of the heavens (Deuteronomy 11:10).
Our Sages explain that this distinguishes the Land of Israel from "the land from which you are coming" since "The land of Egypt does not drink rainwater; rather, the Nile rises and waters it" (Rashi, Genesis 47:10).
Rain represents the reciprocal relationship between heaven and earth. Chassidic teaching cites the Torah's description (Genesis 2:6) of the first rainfall: "A vapor rises from the earth" to the heavens, and the heavens return it as rain which "quenches the face of the land." This, explain the Chassidic masters, represents the spiritual truth that "an arousal from below evokes an arousal from above"--that G-d responds to the efforts of man, reciprocating our prayers, yearnings and deeds with nurture from Above.
But rain alone does not suffice to make the land flourish and give fruit. The soil must be plowed--broken up and softened--before it can receive the seed and absorb the rain. Spiritually, this means that it is not enough to send up "vapors" of lofty feelings and virtuous works; one must first "plow" his ego, crush the clods of coarseness and arrogance in his personality, to make his life receptive to the flow of divine nurture from Above.
In the "Land of Israel" one plows and is nourished by rain. But in "Egypt" things were different. Egypt was nourished not by descending rain but by the overflow of the Nile, which would periodically flood the land. Nor was it necessary to plow its soil: the floodwaters of the Nile would leave behind a layer of extremely fertile silt which required no breaking up prior to planting.
The spiritual Egyptian is one who does not recognize the Heavenly source of the blessings of life. He believes that all is generated from below--that everything he has and has achieved is of his own making. Nor does he see the need for any "plowing" of his personality--he is fine as he is, clods and all.
Perverted Rain
When rain does falls in Egypt, it falls as hail--hail that is ice without and fire within. Thus the Torah describes the seventh of the "ten plagues" to visit the Egyptians:
And G-d rained hail upon the land of Egypt. And there was hail, and fire burning within the hail... (Exodus 9:23-24)
We often speak of "warm" and "cold" personalities. A "warm" person is a passionate, loving, outgoing individual, always ready to extend a hand and a smile to a fellow. A "cold" person is reserved, self-centered, indifferent to the fate of others. But the cold individual is also aflame--fired with self-love, ablaze with egotistical passions. Indeed, it is his excess of inner heat that is the cause of his icy exterior.
When rain falls in Egypt, it falls as a hail of ice-enclosed fire. In this unplowed land, where the heavenly source of its water is unseen and unrecognized, the nurture that descends from Above is perverted as a source of increased love of self and greater alienation between man and his fellow.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
On the eve of their entry into the Holy Land, Moses described to the Children of Israel the nature of their new homeland in the following way:
For the land which you are entering to inherit is not like the land of Egypt from which you are coming... it is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water of the rain of the heavens (Deuteronomy 11:10).
Our Sages explain that this distinguishes the Land of Israel from "the land from which you are coming" since "The land of Egypt does not drink rainwater; rather, the Nile rises and waters it" (Rashi, Genesis 47:10).
Rain represents the reciprocal relationship between heaven and earth. Chassidic teaching cites the Torah's description (Genesis 2:6) of the first rainfall: "A vapor rises from the earth" to the heavens, and the heavens return it as rain which "quenches the face of the land." This, explain the Chassidic masters, represents the spiritual truth that "an arousal from below evokes an arousal from above"--that G-d responds to the efforts of man, reciprocating our prayers, yearnings and deeds with nurture from Above.
But rain alone does not suffice to make the land flourish and give fruit. The soil must be plowed--broken up and softened--before it can receive the seed and absorb the rain. Spiritually, this means that it is not enough to send up "vapors" of lofty feelings and virtuous works; one must first "plow" his ego, crush the clods of coarseness and arrogance in his personality, to make his life receptive to the flow of divine nurture from Above.
In the "Land of Israel" one plows and is nourished by rain. But in "Egypt" things were different. Egypt was nourished not by descending rain but by the overflow of the Nile, which would periodically flood the land. Nor was it necessary to plow its soil: the floodwaters of the Nile would leave behind a layer of extremely fertile silt which required no breaking up prior to planting.
The spiritual Egyptian is one who does not recognize the Heavenly source of the blessings of life. He believes that all is generated from below--that everything he has and has achieved is of his own making. Nor does he see the need for any "plowing" of his personality--he is fine as he is, clods and all.
Perverted Rain
When rain does falls in Egypt, it falls as hail--hail that is ice without and fire within. Thus the Torah describes the seventh of the "ten plagues" to visit the Egyptians:
And G-d rained hail upon the land of Egypt. And there was hail, and fire burning within the hail... (Exodus 9:23-24)
We often speak of "warm" and "cold" personalities. A "warm" person is a passionate, loving, outgoing individual, always ready to extend a hand and a smile to a fellow. A "cold" person is reserved, self-centered, indifferent to the fate of others. But the cold individual is also aflame--fired with self-love, ablaze with egotistical passions. Indeed, it is his excess of inner heat that is the cause of his icy exterior.
When rain falls in Egypt, it falls as a hail of ice-enclosed fire. In this unplowed land, where the heavenly source of its water is unseen and unrecognized, the nurture that descends from Above is perverted as a source of increased love of self and greater alienation between man and his fellow.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
My Rebbe the Rebel by Tzvi Freeman
Note from me. I absolutly love, adore, and respect Tzvi Freeman!
No one rises above the earth by tugging at his own hairs. A prisoner cannot free himself from his prison. He needs first to bond with one who is already free.
And so, at an early age, I was looking for someone who could guide me -- a mentor, a guru. But who will be your guide when you beat your own path?
My path has always been like those of the deer in the forest -- skipping over, squeezing and breaking through, steering far from the clear highways that everyone else travels.
On my fifteenth birthday I dropped out of high school. The year before I had been on the honor roll, and this year I was the grade ten president -- but now I had no interest in following the established order.
When my parents made it clear that room and board were contingent upon my completing high school, I found a tutorial college that allowed me to take my exams that spring. And so, I found myself two years ahead of the game. Free -- in my father's words -- to associate with the fringe members of our society.
These were the early 70s in Vancouver -- Canada's San Francisco. I gave classical guitar lessons and organized the "Anarchist Discussion Group" of the Vancouver Free University. I learned Tai Chi, Yoga, became a strict vegetarian, and attended countless "Encounter Groups." I hitch-hiked around Canada, the U.S., Israel, Europe and the U.K. I found souls travelling and dabbling on every kind of path I never had imagined.
I returned with a broader mind, but still a craving, empty soul. None of what I found was for me. When you search, it doesn't matter where you look, the last thing youll find is your own self.
I decided it was important to be able to do something well, and for me that would be music. I approached a well-known composer who lived in Vancouver for private lessons. She agreed, but after a few sessions, commanded one of her graduate students to take me by the hand and register me at the music college of the University of British Columbia. This was not the place I wanted to be, but I decided I would learn something. At the same time I began seriously practicing meditation, teaching Yoga, and became fascinated with Lao Tse.
Nevertheless, my soul's stomach was as empty as ever. Perhaps, I wondered, what I need is to go off and hide in a Zen monastery for a few years. The conflict of spirituality and sensuality, the metaphysical and the material career was ripping me apart. There was no real direction, only confusion. I remember praying with all my heart -- not for any answers, not for any revelation -- only that I should be able to talk heart to heart with my G-d, because life in such a complicated, convoluted world makes it very hard to talk sincerely with your G-d.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When a fish finds the ocean, it must dive in. When I first heard a talk of Chassidic mysticism, it didn't matter that I had no comprehension of most of what was being said. Rain comes as a stranger to a land parched for generations by drought, but the earth remembers. What to my mind was foreign, to my guts was home.
That first splash of native waters came from a travelling student of the Rebbe. I recall how he explained to me that our purpose was to perceive the G-dliness within every created thing. From between his words I perceived there was much more. At least a few thousand years of collective wisdom and beauty.
I wanted to know who taught this stuff. I wanted it explained to me. They told me there was a Rebbe in New York. "The Lubavitcher Rebbe."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Rebbe" means a teacher. It is a term also used to refer to a master of the mystical path of Chassidic Judaism, as taught by the Baal Shem Tov.
"Lubavitch" is a town in Belorussia, a neighborhood in Brooklyn and an international association.
Lubavitch, the town, was the seat of a line of Chassidic masters, rabbis who followed in the practical/mystical path of the Baal Shem Tov, as his teachings were elaborated by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. At the outset of World War II, Lubavitch moved to Brooklyn.
"The Rebbe" is the title by which Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson has come to be known by Jewry worldwide. He was the person most responsible for the miraculous revival of traditional Judaism after its near burial with the holocaust.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born in 1902 to Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson and the kabalistic and legalist, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, chief rabbi of Dniprepetrovsk in the Ukraine. He studied at home, because the teacher at the Jewish school complained he had nothing to teach him.
In his teen years, his father gave him permission to study science, mathematics and languages -- but with the warning, "G-d forbid any of this should take away from your sixteen hours a day of Torah study."
Young Menachem passed the government matriculation exams six months later. He also acquired a working knowledge of English, Italian, French, Gruzian and Latin at this time.
From the years 1932 to 1940, the Rebbe studied the sciences and humanities at the University of Berlin and at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In 1941, he fled Nazi-occupied France for the U.S.A. For a short time he was employed as an engineer with the U.S. Navy. His work was labeled as "classified."
When the previous rebbe of Lubavitch passed away in 1950, the surviving remnants of Lubavitchers around the world turned immediately to his son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Although he hid himself by dressing in modern clothes and avoiding any sort of prestige, they knew him as a great scholar and leader.
The Chassidim begged that he take the leadership. He refused, repeatedly. He claimed he knew himself too well to imagine he might be fit for the job.
When a delegation of elder Chassidim came with a petition accepting Rabbi Schneerson as their Rebbe, he placed his head in his hands and began to cry. "Please, leave me alone," he begged. "This has nothing to do with me."
It was only after one complete year of such episodes the Rebbe finally accepted the position. Even then it was with a condition: "I will help," the Rebbe announced, "But each of you must carry out your own mission. Don't expect to hang on to the fringes of my prayer shawl."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My first reaction was inspiration. I had to find out more about this man. After that, friends, relatives and acquaintances began to cool me off. They told me this was idol worship. They told me I was surrendering my power of thought and independence.
My intellect had to concur. Where was all my background in anarchist philosophy? After all, these were the reasons I had failed to follow any other guru or mentor more than a few steps. I did not want my mind taken away. I wanted my own path. I did not want to be swallowed alive by a larger ego.
That conflict continued for many years. There are some things you know inside, but the ego and all your rationalization refuses to allow that inner knowledge to take charge.
Nevertheless, today I find myself a chassid of the Rebbe and still my own self. The Rebbe just never matched the ego-consuming demagogue I had so much feared.
For one thing, the trappings were always conspicuously absent. No majestic, flowing robes. No magnificent estate. No private jet. A modest home in good taste and a bare-bones office. Nothing on the outside to distinguish him from any of his Chassidim.
He didn't need the big show. There was no ego involved. The Rebbe was a master of simplicity, at being nothing and just allowing the essential G-dliness of the soul to shine through. And so he was able to guide others without consuming them.
For many years, the Rebbe granted private audiences three nights a week. Aside from Lubavitcher Chassidim, there was just about every kind of person you could imagine -- Jewish activists, businessmen, scientists, politicians, journalists -- awaiting their turn at two o'clock in the morning. The Rebbe talked warmly with each one, providing guidance and advice when solicited, blessings whether solicited or not.
The audiences began at eight in the evening and generally finished in the early morning. There were exceptions. One night it wasn't until 10:30 the next morning that the Rebbe finally broke for morning prayers. The following night was booked for more audiences. The Rebbe's personal secretary asked the Rebbe if he could put off that night and get some rest. But the Rebbe replied that he couldn't put off people who had been waiting so long.
The Rebbe kept a full day as usual. That night, the audiences went until 11 the next morning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for my rebellious spirit, in the Rebbe I found the ultimate rebel. I could even say, you don't submit to the Rebbe -- you rebel with him. It's a long tradition of the rebbes of Lubavitch to defy the monster the world feigns to be, to follow an inner vision, rather than the superficial perception of the flesh eyes. It is no surprise that every one of the Rebbes predecessors spent time in czarist or communist prison. The Rebbe himself was forced into hiding before leaving Russia.
The Rebbe was an orthodox rebel, a traditional radical. In the sixties, the rest of the Jewish Establishment looked on in disdain at what was happening to their youth and cried, "Student unrest! Hippies and Freaks! This is certainly a deranged and lost generation."
The Rebbe declared, "Finally the iceberg of America is beginning to melt! Finally, its young people realize they do not have to conform! They have smashed the idols of their parents -- they need now only be led back to the living waters of their great-grandparents."
The Rebbe told his Chassidim to go out and bring Jewish youth in touch with their roots. He was ridiculed for it for years. Only after the strategy began to work did those who had mocked him jump on the band wagon as well.
He was always a maverick, not consulting with others on his strategies and campaigns, often ridiculed for what they considered outrageous decisions.
"I am used to their tactics already," the Rebbe shot back. "When I was a young boy, being the oldest son of the rabbi of a city in Russia, I was often taken for questioning by the authorities. They ridiculed me and showered me with abuse. I did not respond to any of their tactics. So too I will not respond to these."
The Rebbe took this radical attitude into his way of running things as well. Lubavitch became an organization where action came from the bottom up. Rarely, very rarely, did the Rebbe demand something specific be done. There were always suggestions. Chassidim were expected to take the initiative and do what they thought would work. Several times the Rebbe thwarted plans to create a rigid hierarchy of decision making within Lubavitch. Each person must find his mentor, and each mentor his mentor.
There were never any followers of the Rebbe -- followers couldn't keep up. The Rebbe had only leaders. Those who rebelled with him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simchat Torah is a festive Jewish holiday. Every year at this time, the Rebbes place of worship, 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY, packs in thousands of Chassidim and all sorts of Jews celebrating with the Torah scrolls throughout the night, singing and dancing.
On Simchat Torah, 1977, amidst the festivities, the Rebbe turned pale. Suddenly, he turned from his place, walked through the entire hall, up the stairs, into his office and locked the door behind him. Only his wife was able to persuade him to unlock the door.
It became apparent that the Rebbe had suffered a heart attack. Typically, he had not wanted to disturb the festive mood.
The best doctors were immediately called. They had to come to the Rebbe, because the Rebbe refused to leave his office.
When the Rebbe asked what the people were doing in the synagogue downstairs, he was told they were crying and praying. He made a request: "Tell them the more they sing and dance, the better I will feel."
The Chassidim danced and sang through the night like they never had before.
The Rebbe spent several weeks in his office under the doctors care. It was noted that the healthiest activity for the Rebbes heart was to study. The harshest activity was to read the letters that came to him. Many of the letters were from people in distress asking for blessing and advice. The Rebbes heart would pulsate erratically in empathy for their sorrows.
When the doctors attempted to stop the delivery of letters to the Rebbe, the Rebbe intervened.
"You are trying to take away my livelihood," he protested.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is all futile, I tell you. As long as you stand on the outside, how can I describe to you the relationship of a chassid with his Rebbe? There is a profound inner bond, dense with emotions all beyond words.
Study his teachings. Yes, youll say, the Rebbes body is interred over five years now - but the bond is with his spirit and his spirit lives on even here in our world stronger than ever. By living with his teachings perhaps you could taste of that bond.
And then we may discuss what I have failed to put into words.
A well-known author came for a private audience with the Rebbe. After he left the Rebbes office, he turned to the Chassidim, and accused them, "You are thieves! You are stealing from the entire world! You have taken the Rebbe and made him exclusively your own, as though he were a Rebbe just for you Lubavitch Chassidim --
"But the Rebbe is the Rebbe of the entire world!"
Let us liberate him, you and I.
No one rises above the earth by tugging at his own hairs. A prisoner cannot free himself from his prison. He needs first to bond with one who is already free.
And so, at an early age, I was looking for someone who could guide me -- a mentor, a guru. But who will be your guide when you beat your own path?
My path has always been like those of the deer in the forest -- skipping over, squeezing and breaking through, steering far from the clear highways that everyone else travels.
On my fifteenth birthday I dropped out of high school. The year before I had been on the honor roll, and this year I was the grade ten president -- but now I had no interest in following the established order.
When my parents made it clear that room and board were contingent upon my completing high school, I found a tutorial college that allowed me to take my exams that spring. And so, I found myself two years ahead of the game. Free -- in my father's words -- to associate with the fringe members of our society.
These were the early 70s in Vancouver -- Canada's San Francisco. I gave classical guitar lessons and organized the "Anarchist Discussion Group" of the Vancouver Free University. I learned Tai Chi, Yoga, became a strict vegetarian, and attended countless "Encounter Groups." I hitch-hiked around Canada, the U.S., Israel, Europe and the U.K. I found souls travelling and dabbling on every kind of path I never had imagined.
I returned with a broader mind, but still a craving, empty soul. None of what I found was for me. When you search, it doesn't matter where you look, the last thing youll find is your own self.
I decided it was important to be able to do something well, and for me that would be music. I approached a well-known composer who lived in Vancouver for private lessons. She agreed, but after a few sessions, commanded one of her graduate students to take me by the hand and register me at the music college of the University of British Columbia. This was not the place I wanted to be, but I decided I would learn something. At the same time I began seriously practicing meditation, teaching Yoga, and became fascinated with Lao Tse.
Nevertheless, my soul's stomach was as empty as ever. Perhaps, I wondered, what I need is to go off and hide in a Zen monastery for a few years. The conflict of spirituality and sensuality, the metaphysical and the material career was ripping me apart. There was no real direction, only confusion. I remember praying with all my heart -- not for any answers, not for any revelation -- only that I should be able to talk heart to heart with my G-d, because life in such a complicated, convoluted world makes it very hard to talk sincerely with your G-d.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When a fish finds the ocean, it must dive in. When I first heard a talk of Chassidic mysticism, it didn't matter that I had no comprehension of most of what was being said. Rain comes as a stranger to a land parched for generations by drought, but the earth remembers. What to my mind was foreign, to my guts was home.
That first splash of native waters came from a travelling student of the Rebbe. I recall how he explained to me that our purpose was to perceive the G-dliness within every created thing. From between his words I perceived there was much more. At least a few thousand years of collective wisdom and beauty.
I wanted to know who taught this stuff. I wanted it explained to me. They told me there was a Rebbe in New York. "The Lubavitcher Rebbe."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Rebbe" means a teacher. It is a term also used to refer to a master of the mystical path of Chassidic Judaism, as taught by the Baal Shem Tov.
"Lubavitch" is a town in Belorussia, a neighborhood in Brooklyn and an international association.
Lubavitch, the town, was the seat of a line of Chassidic masters, rabbis who followed in the practical/mystical path of the Baal Shem Tov, as his teachings were elaborated by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. At the outset of World War II, Lubavitch moved to Brooklyn.
"The Rebbe" is the title by which Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson has come to be known by Jewry worldwide. He was the person most responsible for the miraculous revival of traditional Judaism after its near burial with the holocaust.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born in 1902 to Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson and the kabalistic and legalist, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, chief rabbi of Dniprepetrovsk in the Ukraine. He studied at home, because the teacher at the Jewish school complained he had nothing to teach him.
In his teen years, his father gave him permission to study science, mathematics and languages -- but with the warning, "G-d forbid any of this should take away from your sixteen hours a day of Torah study."
Young Menachem passed the government matriculation exams six months later. He also acquired a working knowledge of English, Italian, French, Gruzian and Latin at this time.
From the years 1932 to 1940, the Rebbe studied the sciences and humanities at the University of Berlin and at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In 1941, he fled Nazi-occupied France for the U.S.A. For a short time he was employed as an engineer with the U.S. Navy. His work was labeled as "classified."
When the previous rebbe of Lubavitch passed away in 1950, the surviving remnants of Lubavitchers around the world turned immediately to his son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Although he hid himself by dressing in modern clothes and avoiding any sort of prestige, they knew him as a great scholar and leader.
The Chassidim begged that he take the leadership. He refused, repeatedly. He claimed he knew himself too well to imagine he might be fit for the job.
When a delegation of elder Chassidim came with a petition accepting Rabbi Schneerson as their Rebbe, he placed his head in his hands and began to cry. "Please, leave me alone," he begged. "This has nothing to do with me."
It was only after one complete year of such episodes the Rebbe finally accepted the position. Even then it was with a condition: "I will help," the Rebbe announced, "But each of you must carry out your own mission. Don't expect to hang on to the fringes of my prayer shawl."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My first reaction was inspiration. I had to find out more about this man. After that, friends, relatives and acquaintances began to cool me off. They told me this was idol worship. They told me I was surrendering my power of thought and independence.
My intellect had to concur. Where was all my background in anarchist philosophy? After all, these were the reasons I had failed to follow any other guru or mentor more than a few steps. I did not want my mind taken away. I wanted my own path. I did not want to be swallowed alive by a larger ego.
That conflict continued for many years. There are some things you know inside, but the ego and all your rationalization refuses to allow that inner knowledge to take charge.
Nevertheless, today I find myself a chassid of the Rebbe and still my own self. The Rebbe just never matched the ego-consuming demagogue I had so much feared.
For one thing, the trappings were always conspicuously absent. No majestic, flowing robes. No magnificent estate. No private jet. A modest home in good taste and a bare-bones office. Nothing on the outside to distinguish him from any of his Chassidim.
He didn't need the big show. There was no ego involved. The Rebbe was a master of simplicity, at being nothing and just allowing the essential G-dliness of the soul to shine through. And so he was able to guide others without consuming them.
For many years, the Rebbe granted private audiences three nights a week. Aside from Lubavitcher Chassidim, there was just about every kind of person you could imagine -- Jewish activists, businessmen, scientists, politicians, journalists -- awaiting their turn at two o'clock in the morning. The Rebbe talked warmly with each one, providing guidance and advice when solicited, blessings whether solicited or not.
The audiences began at eight in the evening and generally finished in the early morning. There were exceptions. One night it wasn't until 10:30 the next morning that the Rebbe finally broke for morning prayers. The following night was booked for more audiences. The Rebbe's personal secretary asked the Rebbe if he could put off that night and get some rest. But the Rebbe replied that he couldn't put off people who had been waiting so long.
The Rebbe kept a full day as usual. That night, the audiences went until 11 the next morning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for my rebellious spirit, in the Rebbe I found the ultimate rebel. I could even say, you don't submit to the Rebbe -- you rebel with him. It's a long tradition of the rebbes of Lubavitch to defy the monster the world feigns to be, to follow an inner vision, rather than the superficial perception of the flesh eyes. It is no surprise that every one of the Rebbes predecessors spent time in czarist or communist prison. The Rebbe himself was forced into hiding before leaving Russia.
The Rebbe was an orthodox rebel, a traditional radical. In the sixties, the rest of the Jewish Establishment looked on in disdain at what was happening to their youth and cried, "Student unrest! Hippies and Freaks! This is certainly a deranged and lost generation."
The Rebbe declared, "Finally the iceberg of America is beginning to melt! Finally, its young people realize they do not have to conform! They have smashed the idols of their parents -- they need now only be led back to the living waters of their great-grandparents."
The Rebbe told his Chassidim to go out and bring Jewish youth in touch with their roots. He was ridiculed for it for years. Only after the strategy began to work did those who had mocked him jump on the band wagon as well.
He was always a maverick, not consulting with others on his strategies and campaigns, often ridiculed for what they considered outrageous decisions.
"I am used to their tactics already," the Rebbe shot back. "When I was a young boy, being the oldest son of the rabbi of a city in Russia, I was often taken for questioning by the authorities. They ridiculed me and showered me with abuse. I did not respond to any of their tactics. So too I will not respond to these."
The Rebbe took this radical attitude into his way of running things as well. Lubavitch became an organization where action came from the bottom up. Rarely, very rarely, did the Rebbe demand something specific be done. There were always suggestions. Chassidim were expected to take the initiative and do what they thought would work. Several times the Rebbe thwarted plans to create a rigid hierarchy of decision making within Lubavitch. Each person must find his mentor, and each mentor his mentor.
There were never any followers of the Rebbe -- followers couldn't keep up. The Rebbe had only leaders. Those who rebelled with him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simchat Torah is a festive Jewish holiday. Every year at this time, the Rebbes place of worship, 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY, packs in thousands of Chassidim and all sorts of Jews celebrating with the Torah scrolls throughout the night, singing and dancing.
On Simchat Torah, 1977, amidst the festivities, the Rebbe turned pale. Suddenly, he turned from his place, walked through the entire hall, up the stairs, into his office and locked the door behind him. Only his wife was able to persuade him to unlock the door.
It became apparent that the Rebbe had suffered a heart attack. Typically, he had not wanted to disturb the festive mood.
The best doctors were immediately called. They had to come to the Rebbe, because the Rebbe refused to leave his office.
When the Rebbe asked what the people were doing in the synagogue downstairs, he was told they were crying and praying. He made a request: "Tell them the more they sing and dance, the better I will feel."
The Chassidim danced and sang through the night like they never had before.
The Rebbe spent several weeks in his office under the doctors care. It was noted that the healthiest activity for the Rebbes heart was to study. The harshest activity was to read the letters that came to him. Many of the letters were from people in distress asking for blessing and advice. The Rebbes heart would pulsate erratically in empathy for their sorrows.
When the doctors attempted to stop the delivery of letters to the Rebbe, the Rebbe intervened.
"You are trying to take away my livelihood," he protested.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is all futile, I tell you. As long as you stand on the outside, how can I describe to you the relationship of a chassid with his Rebbe? There is a profound inner bond, dense with emotions all beyond words.
Study his teachings. Yes, youll say, the Rebbes body is interred over five years now - but the bond is with his spirit and his spirit lives on even here in our world stronger than ever. By living with his teachings perhaps you could taste of that bond.
And then we may discuss what I have failed to put into words.
A well-known author came for a private audience with the Rebbe. After he left the Rebbes office, he turned to the Chassidim, and accused them, "You are thieves! You are stealing from the entire world! You have taken the Rebbe and made him exclusively your own, as though he were a Rebbe just for you Lubavitch Chassidim --
"But the Rebbe is the Rebbe of the entire world!"
Let us liberate him, you and I.
Parshah Vaeira teaching by the Rebbe
Last week's Parshah concluded with the epochal exchange between Moses and G-d over the mystery of human suffering. Moses protested, "My G-d, why have You done evil to this people?"; and G-d replied: "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land."
This week's reading, the Parshah of Vaeira ("And I made Myself seen"), opens with a new communication from G-d to Moses, in which G-d says:
"I am G-d (Y-H-V-H). I made Myself seen to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, by the name of El Sha-dai, but by My name, Y-H-V-H, I did not make Myself known to them."
G-d then goes on to reiterate His promise to the Patriarchs to give the Land of Canaan to their descendents, evoking the "four expressions of redemption -- "I will bring you out, I will save you, I will redeem you, I will take you" -- which chronicle the various stages of the redemption, culminating in Israel's election as G-d's chosen people at Mount Sinai.
The commentaries see this divine communication as the continuation of the exchange between G-d and Moses at the end of the previous Parshah. G-d's mention of His relationship with the Patriarchs -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- is interpreted as a rebuke to Moses:
G-d said to Moses: I regret the loss of those who have passed away and are no longer found. Many times I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; they did not question My ways, nor did they say to me, "What is Your name?" You, on the other hand, asked from the start, "What is Your name?" and now you are saying to Me, "You have not saved Your people!" (Talmud, Sanhedrin 111a).
You questioned My ways; unlike Abraham, to whom I said, "Isaac shall be considered your seed" and then I said to him, "Raise him up to Me as an offering" -- and still, he did not question Me (Rashi)
G-d also says: "By My name, Y-H-V-H, I did not make Myself known to them." This is understood by the commentaries as G-d saying to Moses: "I did not reveal My quintessential truth," represented by the divine name Y-H-V-H, to the Patriarchs; they knew Me only by the name El Sha-dai which represents a more limited manifestation of My being. They accepted that they could never comprehend My infinite, unknowable essence. You, on the other hand, to whom I have revealed My truth, question My ways (Rashi; Nachmanides).
This is how the opening verses of Vaeira are interpreted by the Midrash, Talmud and the biblical commentaries. The Chassidic masters delve deeper into these verses, and find there more than a rebuke to Moses: in G-d's words they also see an answer (of sorts) to Moses' question, and also a justification of his outcry.
The Pendulum of Life
All life, say the Kabbalists, is characterized by a to-and-fro movement called ratzo v'shov (running forth and drawing back) or mati v'lo mati (reaching and retreating). The heart contracts and expands; the lungs exhale and inhale; the body sleeps, extinguishing its more elevated faculties (cohesive thought, sight, hearing, etc.), in order to rejuvenate its energies; the mind meditates, emptying itself of prior conceptions in order to receive fresh insight; the earth enters night and winter, enduring periods of darkness and hibernation in order to attain a new dawn or spring.
The same is also true of the flow of vitality from G-d to His creation: this flow also pulsates, running forth and drawing back, reaching and retreating. And the more elevated the bestowal is, the more intense is the withdrawal to precede it. Thus, times of extraordinary illumination from Above are always preceded by periods of profound spiritual darkness.
Thus Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains G-d's words to Moses regarding the difference in the quality of His relationship with the Patriarchs and His newly unveiled revelation of the divine name Y-H-V-H.
To the Patriarchs -- G-d is saying to Moses -- I revealed Myself only as El Sha-dai, relating to them only via the constraints and limitations that define My investment within the created reality. But to you and your generation I shall reveal, for the very first time, "My name Y-H-V-H," the name that connotes "My quintessential truth." For the purpose of the Exodus (as G-d said to Moses at the burning bush) is the revelation at Mount Sinai and the communication of My Torah, which is the very embodiment of My wisdom and will.
You ask why My people must suffer so terribly in their exile. You ask why is My face hidden, why I have seemingly withdrawn My providence over their lives. But this seeming withdrawal is an integral part of the tremendous revelation to come, which shall herald a new, unprecedented intimacy between man and G-d.
Indeed, adds the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the revelation of the Exodus and the concealment that preceded it are two faces of the same reality. In order for the people of Israel to relate to the quintessential truth of G-d revealed at Sinai, they first had to unearth their own quintessential truth -- which could manifest itself only in the nadir of their Egyptian galut.
"Truth" is that which is consistent and unchanging, the core reality of a thing that remains unaffected by all external circumstances. The quintessential truth of the Jewish soul is its loyalty and attachment to G-d; but loyalty and attachment to G-d under conditions of spiritual enlightenment and material prosperity cannot, in themselves, attest to this truth. There is no indication that the relationship would endure under less ideal conditions. But when the Jewish soul perseveres in its loyalty and attachment to G-d in the darkest hour of galut, it manifests the truth of its bond with G-d, demonstrating that this loyalty and attachment is, in fact, the unalterable core of its being.
"I am Y-H-V-H," said G-d to Moses. I am in the process of revealing My quintessential self to you. But the only part of you that can apprehend this revelation is your own quintessential self. And your own quintessential self rises to the surface of your souls only under the terrible conditions of galut.
Mind and Heart
The difference between Moses and the Patriarchs is also explained by the Chassidic masters as deriving from the different places they occupy within the total "body" of Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are identified with the attributes of "love," "awe" and "harmony" (chessed, gevurah and tiferet), while Moses represents the attribute of "wisdom" (chochmah). Otherwise stated, the Patriarchs are the heart of the Jewish people, while Moses is the mind of Israel.
Often, a person who calmly accepts the painful realities of life is described as "taking it philosophically," while one who agonizes over his own or others' troubles is seen as "being emotional." Behind these categorizations is the notion that, in purely rational terms, the cause, or even need, for human suffering can be explained. On the other hand -- goes this line of thinking -- a person with a sensitive heart will not accept any rationalization of evil, however undeniable its logic.
The truth, says the Lubavitcher Rebbe, is the very opposite. Indeed, the difference between one who cannot reconcile himself to the existence of evil and suffering in G-d's world and the one who can accept it is the difference between mind and heart; but it is the mind-driven person who incessantly questions and challenges the way things are, whereas it is the one with "heart" who can find it in himself to accept the most terrible of incomprehensibilities.
It is true that logical explanations for evil and suffering have been presented by a succession of philosophers and theologians. For example, it is proposed that suffering refines the human being, teaching him compassion and sensitivity. It has also been explained that there is no greater satisfaction than the overcoming of adversity and no greater pleasure than the conquest of pain. The philosophical mind can also appreciate that a persons finest and most potent abilities are unleashed only under conditions of challenge and trial. Finally, there can be no denying the axiom that without a truly free choice between good and evil, nothing we do could possibly be of any significance.
These explanations are all valid, in their way; indeed, we have presented one such "explanation" in the first part of this article. But when they are approached from a purely rational standpoint, the mind of the believer will not be satisfied by any of them. Because after all is said and done, after each of these explanations is examined and the questions that can be asked on them are posed and resolved, there remains one final question: Why must it be this way?
All these explanations -- the mind will inevitably argue -- are predicated upon our understanding of human and universal nature. But You, G-d, are the creator of nature and logic; You could have made the nature of things to be other than what they are. You could have made significant what logic dictates is of no significance. You could have created a reality in which there is gain without pain, in which the best in man could be realized without the threat and challenge of evil, in which the highest peaks of life could be scaled without the momentum of its lowest descents.
This perfectly logical question has no logical answer. Thus, the mind of the believer will never accept the "necessity" for evil and pain.
The heart also perceives the pain -- indeed, it senses it more deeply than the aloofly objective mind. But while the mind categorizes reality into compatible and non-compatible suppositions, the heart tolerates contradiction. Can you "prove" to a mother that her child is undeserving of her love? It's not that she is blind to his deficiencies and transgressions -- it's simply that they are irrelevant to her love. Outrage and devotion, judgment and acceptance, pain and pleasure -- a heart that loves has room for them all, simultaneously, in its warm embrace.
This, says the Rebbe, is the deeper significance of G-d's evocation of the unquestioning faith of the Patriarchs in His words to Moses. Moses, G-d is saying, you are the mind of My people -- the mind that is the instrument for apprehending My truth and, with it, illuminating the world. You will even comprehend "higher" aspects of My truth than did the Patriarches. But as a "mind," you question My creation of evil and suffering, and can find no rationally satisfying answer. Yet you, too, are a child of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You, too, have inherited from them the Jewish heart the intrinsic bond with your G-d that cannot be shaken by the most terrible of contradictions.
Seeing is Believing
Therein also lies the significance of the word vaeira -- "and I made Myself seen" -- with which G-d describes His relationship with the Patriarchs, and which give our Parshah its name in the Torah.
There are many ways that a person may come to believe in a certain truth. He may hear of it from a reliable source, it may be proven to him logically, or he may see it himself. Yet there is an essential difference between the perception of sight and all other senses. The other senses are refutable -- they merely prove something to the person; subsequent developments can undermine the initial conviction. But sight is absolute. The thing perceived may be denied by the entire world, it may be utterly illogical, but the person who has seen it knows it is true. He saw it.
Faith can exist on many levels -- faith comparable to the conviction in something that is heard, for example, or faith as powerful as a logical fact. But the most powerful faith is faith on the level of sight. Faith as sight is absolute; the most blatant rational contradictions cannot shake it. The Patriachs, the "heart of Israel", saw G-d. That is why their faith in Him was not shaken by even the most agonizing "contradictions"
This also explains a puzzling passage in Rashi's commentary on our Parshah's opening verse. On the words "I made Myself seen," Rashi comments: "To the fathers." But the verse itself says, "I had made Myself to be seen to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...", and every schoolchild knows that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the three fathers of the Jewish nation. What is Rashi telling us?
The Jewish people are suffering, and G-d's promises seem to only make things worse. To Moses' anguished words, G-d replies "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never lost faith, they saw Me." Yet Moses and his people are obviously not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- that's why they reacted the way they did. So what is G-d telling them?
So Rashi explains: G-d's response to Moses is that He "made Himself seen" to the fathers. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the progenitors of the Jewish people in every sense of the word. Just as a child inherits the physical and psychological characteristics of his parents, in the same way, each and every Jew inherits the qualities of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Their every trait, experience, and achievement are stamped in our spiritual genes.
Because our fathers' faith in G-d was as absolute and unequivocal as sight, the potential for such faith exists within each and every one of us. No matter what our more external senses perceive, we can delve into our own selves for the inherent ability to see G-d: to sense His commitment to us even in the "darkest" of times.
This week's reading, the Parshah of Vaeira ("And I made Myself seen"), opens with a new communication from G-d to Moses, in which G-d says:
"I am G-d (Y-H-V-H). I made Myself seen to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, by the name of El Sha-dai, but by My name, Y-H-V-H, I did not make Myself known to them."
G-d then goes on to reiterate His promise to the Patriarchs to give the Land of Canaan to their descendents, evoking the "four expressions of redemption -- "I will bring you out, I will save you, I will redeem you, I will take you" -- which chronicle the various stages of the redemption, culminating in Israel's election as G-d's chosen people at Mount Sinai.
The commentaries see this divine communication as the continuation of the exchange between G-d and Moses at the end of the previous Parshah. G-d's mention of His relationship with the Patriarchs -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- is interpreted as a rebuke to Moses:
G-d said to Moses: I regret the loss of those who have passed away and are no longer found. Many times I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; they did not question My ways, nor did they say to me, "What is Your name?" You, on the other hand, asked from the start, "What is Your name?" and now you are saying to Me, "You have not saved Your people!" (Talmud, Sanhedrin 111a).
You questioned My ways; unlike Abraham, to whom I said, "Isaac shall be considered your seed" and then I said to him, "Raise him up to Me as an offering" -- and still, he did not question Me (Rashi)
G-d also says: "By My name, Y-H-V-H, I did not make Myself known to them." This is understood by the commentaries as G-d saying to Moses: "I did not reveal My quintessential truth," represented by the divine name Y-H-V-H, to the Patriarchs; they knew Me only by the name El Sha-dai which represents a more limited manifestation of My being. They accepted that they could never comprehend My infinite, unknowable essence. You, on the other hand, to whom I have revealed My truth, question My ways (Rashi; Nachmanides).
This is how the opening verses of Vaeira are interpreted by the Midrash, Talmud and the biblical commentaries. The Chassidic masters delve deeper into these verses, and find there more than a rebuke to Moses: in G-d's words they also see an answer (of sorts) to Moses' question, and also a justification of his outcry.
The Pendulum of Life
All life, say the Kabbalists, is characterized by a to-and-fro movement called ratzo v'shov (running forth and drawing back) or mati v'lo mati (reaching and retreating). The heart contracts and expands; the lungs exhale and inhale; the body sleeps, extinguishing its more elevated faculties (cohesive thought, sight, hearing, etc.), in order to rejuvenate its energies; the mind meditates, emptying itself of prior conceptions in order to receive fresh insight; the earth enters night and winter, enduring periods of darkness and hibernation in order to attain a new dawn or spring.
The same is also true of the flow of vitality from G-d to His creation: this flow also pulsates, running forth and drawing back, reaching and retreating. And the more elevated the bestowal is, the more intense is the withdrawal to precede it. Thus, times of extraordinary illumination from Above are always preceded by periods of profound spiritual darkness.
Thus Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains G-d's words to Moses regarding the difference in the quality of His relationship with the Patriarchs and His newly unveiled revelation of the divine name Y-H-V-H.
To the Patriarchs -- G-d is saying to Moses -- I revealed Myself only as El Sha-dai, relating to them only via the constraints and limitations that define My investment within the created reality. But to you and your generation I shall reveal, for the very first time, "My name Y-H-V-H," the name that connotes "My quintessential truth." For the purpose of the Exodus (as G-d said to Moses at the burning bush) is the revelation at Mount Sinai and the communication of My Torah, which is the very embodiment of My wisdom and will.
You ask why My people must suffer so terribly in their exile. You ask why is My face hidden, why I have seemingly withdrawn My providence over their lives. But this seeming withdrawal is an integral part of the tremendous revelation to come, which shall herald a new, unprecedented intimacy between man and G-d.
Indeed, adds the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the revelation of the Exodus and the concealment that preceded it are two faces of the same reality. In order for the people of Israel to relate to the quintessential truth of G-d revealed at Sinai, they first had to unearth their own quintessential truth -- which could manifest itself only in the nadir of their Egyptian galut.
"Truth" is that which is consistent and unchanging, the core reality of a thing that remains unaffected by all external circumstances. The quintessential truth of the Jewish soul is its loyalty and attachment to G-d; but loyalty and attachment to G-d under conditions of spiritual enlightenment and material prosperity cannot, in themselves, attest to this truth. There is no indication that the relationship would endure under less ideal conditions. But when the Jewish soul perseveres in its loyalty and attachment to G-d in the darkest hour of galut, it manifests the truth of its bond with G-d, demonstrating that this loyalty and attachment is, in fact, the unalterable core of its being.
"I am Y-H-V-H," said G-d to Moses. I am in the process of revealing My quintessential self to you. But the only part of you that can apprehend this revelation is your own quintessential self. And your own quintessential self rises to the surface of your souls only under the terrible conditions of galut.
Mind and Heart
The difference between Moses and the Patriarchs is also explained by the Chassidic masters as deriving from the different places they occupy within the total "body" of Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are identified with the attributes of "love," "awe" and "harmony" (chessed, gevurah and tiferet), while Moses represents the attribute of "wisdom" (chochmah). Otherwise stated, the Patriarchs are the heart of the Jewish people, while Moses is the mind of Israel.
Often, a person who calmly accepts the painful realities of life is described as "taking it philosophically," while one who agonizes over his own or others' troubles is seen as "being emotional." Behind these categorizations is the notion that, in purely rational terms, the cause, or even need, for human suffering can be explained. On the other hand -- goes this line of thinking -- a person with a sensitive heart will not accept any rationalization of evil, however undeniable its logic.
The truth, says the Lubavitcher Rebbe, is the very opposite. Indeed, the difference between one who cannot reconcile himself to the existence of evil and suffering in G-d's world and the one who can accept it is the difference between mind and heart; but it is the mind-driven person who incessantly questions and challenges the way things are, whereas it is the one with "heart" who can find it in himself to accept the most terrible of incomprehensibilities.
It is true that logical explanations for evil and suffering have been presented by a succession of philosophers and theologians. For example, it is proposed that suffering refines the human being, teaching him compassion and sensitivity. It has also been explained that there is no greater satisfaction than the overcoming of adversity and no greater pleasure than the conquest of pain. The philosophical mind can also appreciate that a persons finest and most potent abilities are unleashed only under conditions of challenge and trial. Finally, there can be no denying the axiom that without a truly free choice between good and evil, nothing we do could possibly be of any significance.
These explanations are all valid, in their way; indeed, we have presented one such "explanation" in the first part of this article. But when they are approached from a purely rational standpoint, the mind of the believer will not be satisfied by any of them. Because after all is said and done, after each of these explanations is examined and the questions that can be asked on them are posed and resolved, there remains one final question: Why must it be this way?
All these explanations -- the mind will inevitably argue -- are predicated upon our understanding of human and universal nature. But You, G-d, are the creator of nature and logic; You could have made the nature of things to be other than what they are. You could have made significant what logic dictates is of no significance. You could have created a reality in which there is gain without pain, in which the best in man could be realized without the threat and challenge of evil, in which the highest peaks of life could be scaled without the momentum of its lowest descents.
This perfectly logical question has no logical answer. Thus, the mind of the believer will never accept the "necessity" for evil and pain.
The heart also perceives the pain -- indeed, it senses it more deeply than the aloofly objective mind. But while the mind categorizes reality into compatible and non-compatible suppositions, the heart tolerates contradiction. Can you "prove" to a mother that her child is undeserving of her love? It's not that she is blind to his deficiencies and transgressions -- it's simply that they are irrelevant to her love. Outrage and devotion, judgment and acceptance, pain and pleasure -- a heart that loves has room for them all, simultaneously, in its warm embrace.
This, says the Rebbe, is the deeper significance of G-d's evocation of the unquestioning faith of the Patriarchs in His words to Moses. Moses, G-d is saying, you are the mind of My people -- the mind that is the instrument for apprehending My truth and, with it, illuminating the world. You will even comprehend "higher" aspects of My truth than did the Patriarches. But as a "mind," you question My creation of evil and suffering, and can find no rationally satisfying answer. Yet you, too, are a child of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You, too, have inherited from them the Jewish heart the intrinsic bond with your G-d that cannot be shaken by the most terrible of contradictions.
Seeing is Believing
Therein also lies the significance of the word vaeira -- "and I made Myself seen" -- with which G-d describes His relationship with the Patriarchs, and which give our Parshah its name in the Torah.
There are many ways that a person may come to believe in a certain truth. He may hear of it from a reliable source, it may be proven to him logically, or he may see it himself. Yet there is an essential difference between the perception of sight and all other senses. The other senses are refutable -- they merely prove something to the person; subsequent developments can undermine the initial conviction. But sight is absolute. The thing perceived may be denied by the entire world, it may be utterly illogical, but the person who has seen it knows it is true. He saw it.
Faith can exist on many levels -- faith comparable to the conviction in something that is heard, for example, or faith as powerful as a logical fact. But the most powerful faith is faith on the level of sight. Faith as sight is absolute; the most blatant rational contradictions cannot shake it. The Patriachs, the "heart of Israel", saw G-d. That is why their faith in Him was not shaken by even the most agonizing "contradictions"
This also explains a puzzling passage in Rashi's commentary on our Parshah's opening verse. On the words "I made Myself seen," Rashi comments: "To the fathers." But the verse itself says, "I had made Myself to be seen to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...", and every schoolchild knows that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the three fathers of the Jewish nation. What is Rashi telling us?
The Jewish people are suffering, and G-d's promises seem to only make things worse. To Moses' anguished words, G-d replies "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never lost faith, they saw Me." Yet Moses and his people are obviously not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- that's why they reacted the way they did. So what is G-d telling them?
So Rashi explains: G-d's response to Moses is that He "made Himself seen" to the fathers. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the progenitors of the Jewish people in every sense of the word. Just as a child inherits the physical and psychological characteristics of his parents, in the same way, each and every Jew inherits the qualities of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Their every trait, experience, and achievement are stamped in our spiritual genes.
Because our fathers' faith in G-d was as absolute and unequivocal as sight, the potential for such faith exists within each and every one of us. No matter what our more external senses perceive, we can delve into our own selves for the inherent ability to see G-d: to sense His commitment to us even in the "darkest" of times.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Mission - the Key
"...Each such act brings closer the day when our world will finally and completely shed the husk of coarseness that is the source of all ignorance and strife, bringing on a new dawn of universal peace and perfection."
Moshiach's Donkey
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson; adapted by Yanki Tauber
This is exactly what I have been saying is the Key.
Moshiach's Donkey
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson; adapted by Yanki Tauber
This is exactly what I have been saying is the Key.
Moshiach's Donkey | Chabad.org > Parsha > Shemot
Moshiach's Donkey
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
And Moses took his wife and children, set them upon the donkey, and returned to the land of EgyptExodus 4:20
The prophet Zechariah describes Moshiach as "a pauper, riding on a donkey." The simple meaning of the verse is that Moshiach -- whom the Midrash describes as "greater than Abraham, higher than Moses, and loftier than the supernal angels" (Yalkut Shimoni after Isaiah 52:13) -- is the epitome of self-effacement. Indeed, humility is the hallmark of the righteous: they recognize that their tremendous talents and achievements, and the power vested in them as leaders, are not theirs but their Creator's. They live not to realize and fulfill themselves, but to serve the divine purpose of creation.
On a deeper level, Moshiach's donkey represents the essence of the messianic process: a process that began with the beginning of time and which constitutes the very soul of history. In the beginning, the Torah tells us, when G-d created the heavens and the earth, when the universe was still empty, unformed, and shrouded in darkness, the spirit of G-d hovered above the emerging existence. Says the Midrash: "'The spirit of G-d hovered' -- this is the spirit of Moshiach." For Moshiach represents the divine spirit of creation -- the vision of the perfected world that is G-d's purpose in creating it and populating it with willful, thinking and achieving beings.
Moshiach's donkey has a long, prestigious history. Time and again it makes its appearance through the generations, surfacing at key junctures of the messianic process. Each time we see it fulfilling the same function, but in a slightly different manner -- reflecting the changes our world undergoes as it develops toward its ultimate state of perfection.
Abraham, Moses, and Moshiach
Moshiach's donkey first appears in the year 2084 from creation (1677 bce), as Abraham heads for the "Binding of Isaac", his tenth and greatest reiteration of his faith in G-d. "Abraham rose early in the morning and readied his donkey," the Torah relates (Genesis 22:3), and loaded it with supplies for the Binding (the wood, the fire, and the knife) for the three-day trek from Hebron to Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
Seven generations later, Moses was also dispatched on a mission by G-d: to take the Jewish people out of Egypt and bring them to Mount Sinai, where I shall communicate to them their mission in life as My chosen people. So "Moses took his wife and children, set them upon the donkey, and set out for Egypt." The donkey, stresses the Torah -- the very same donkey, our sages explain, that served Abraham and that will bear Moshiach.
Abraham, Moses and Moshiach -- three who employ this erstwhile donkey in their fulfillment of G-d's will. But the extent to which the donkey is involved in their mission differs. With Abraham, it carries his supplies; with Moses, his wife and children; while Moshiach is described as himself riding the donkey.
The Rescinded Decree
Conventional wisdom has it that the spiritual is greater than the physical, the ethereal more lofty than the material. Nevertheless, our sages have taught that G-d created the entirety of existence, including the most lofty spiritual worlds, because "He desired a dwelling in the lower world." Our physical existence is the objective of everything He created, the environment within which His purpose in creation is to be realized.
G-d desired that we refine and elevate the material existence; that the physical reality, whose concreteness and self-centeredness obscure our inner vision and distort our true priorities, be redirected as a positive force in our lives; that we bring to light the goodness and perfection inherent in all of His creation, including -- and especially -- the lowliest of His works, the material world.
The Hebrew word for donkey is chamor from the word chomer, material. Moshiach's donkey is the material beast harnessed, the physical directed to higher and loftier ends.
But humanity's mission of elevating the material entails a long and involved process, an historic effort in which each generation builds upon the attainments of its predecessors. For the physical and the spiritual are worlds apart; indeed, the very nature of G-d's creation is such that a vast gulf divides the two, making them natural antagonists. By nature, almost by definition, a person devoted to spiritual pursuits shuns the material, while material life coarsens a person's soul and dulls his or her spiritual sensitivity. Only when G-d descended on Mount Sinai was the wall between spirit and matter breached. The divine reality revealed itself within the earthly reality; the Torah was given to man, enabling him to sanctify the mundane, to express the all-pervading truth of G-d within, and via, the material world.
The Midrash uses the following parable to explain the significance of the event:
Once there was a king who decreed: "The people of Rome are forbidden to journey to Syria, and the people of Syria are forbidden to journey to Rome." Likewise, when G-d created the world He decreed: "The heavens are G-d's, and the earth is given to man" (Psalms 115:16). But when He wished to give the Torah to Israel, He rescinded His original decree, and declared: "The lower realms may ascend to the higher realms, and the higher realms may descend to the lower realms. And I, Myself, will begin" -- as it is written, "And G-d descended on Mount Sinai," and then it says, "And to Moses He said: 'Go up to G-d'."This explains the difference in the extent to which Abraham and Moses involved the material donkey in their respective missions. Abraham, the first Jew, began the process of sublimating the material, of realizing its potential to express the goodness and perfection of the Creator. But Abraham lived before the revelation at Sinai, before G-d rescinded the decree that had divided the world between higher and lower, between matter and spirit. In his day, the original order instituted at creation still held sway: the physical and the spiritual were two separate, incompatible worlds. The most Abraham could do was to harness the physical to serve the spiritual, to use the donkey to carry the accessories of his divine service. The physical remained as coarse as ever and could not directly be involved in his spiritual life; nevertheless, Abraham took the first step in wresting the material from its inherent self-absorption by utilizing it, albeit peripherally, to assist in his service of G-d.
Moses, on the other hand, was embarking on the mission that was to culminate in his receiving the Torah, the medium by which G-d empowered man to dissolve the dichotomy between the higher and lower domains. The Torah instructs and enables us to sanctify even the most mundane aspects of our lives, to integrate our material selves and environment in our spiritual goals. So Moses used the donkey to carry his wife and children. A person's wife and children are an extension of his own self -- in the words of our sages, "a person's wife is like his own body" (Talmud, Berachot 24a) and "a child is a limb of his father" (ibid., Eruvin 70b). Beginning with Moses, the material began to play a central and intimate role in our life's work.
But Moses marks only the beginning of Torahs effect on the physical world. Ever since, whenever a person uses a material resource to perform a mitzvah -- e.g. giving money to charity, using the energy his body extracts from his food to fuel his fervor in prayer -- he "refines" these physical objects, divesting them of their mundanity and selfishness. With each such act, the physical world becomes that much holier, that much more in harmony with its essence and function. Each such act brings closer the day when our world will finally and completely shed the husk of coarseness that is the source of all ignorance and strife, bringing on a new dawn of universal peace and perfection.
So Moshiach, who represents the ultimate fulfillment of Torah, himself rides the donkey of the material. For he heralds a world in which the material is no longer the lower or secondary element, but an utterly refined resource, no less central and significant a force for good than the most spiritual creation.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
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Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
And Moses took his wife and children, set them upon the donkey, and returned to the land of EgyptExodus 4:20
The prophet Zechariah describes Moshiach as "a pauper, riding on a donkey." The simple meaning of the verse is that Moshiach -- whom the Midrash describes as "greater than Abraham, higher than Moses, and loftier than the supernal angels" (Yalkut Shimoni after Isaiah 52:13) -- is the epitome of self-effacement. Indeed, humility is the hallmark of the righteous: they recognize that their tremendous talents and achievements, and the power vested in them as leaders, are not theirs but their Creator's. They live not to realize and fulfill themselves, but to serve the divine purpose of creation.
On a deeper level, Moshiach's donkey represents the essence of the messianic process: a process that began with the beginning of time and which constitutes the very soul of history. In the beginning, the Torah tells us, when G-d created the heavens and the earth, when the universe was still empty, unformed, and shrouded in darkness, the spirit of G-d hovered above the emerging existence. Says the Midrash: "'The spirit of G-d hovered' -- this is the spirit of Moshiach." For Moshiach represents the divine spirit of creation -- the vision of the perfected world that is G-d's purpose in creating it and populating it with willful, thinking and achieving beings.
Moshiach's donkey has a long, prestigious history. Time and again it makes its appearance through the generations, surfacing at key junctures of the messianic process. Each time we see it fulfilling the same function, but in a slightly different manner -- reflecting the changes our world undergoes as it develops toward its ultimate state of perfection.
Abraham, Moses, and Moshiach
Moshiach's donkey first appears in the year 2084 from creation (1677 bce), as Abraham heads for the "Binding of Isaac", his tenth and greatest reiteration of his faith in G-d. "Abraham rose early in the morning and readied his donkey," the Torah relates (Genesis 22:3), and loaded it with supplies for the Binding (the wood, the fire, and the knife) for the three-day trek from Hebron to Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
Seven generations later, Moses was also dispatched on a mission by G-d: to take the Jewish people out of Egypt and bring them to Mount Sinai, where I shall communicate to them their mission in life as My chosen people. So "Moses took his wife and children, set them upon the donkey, and set out for Egypt." The donkey, stresses the Torah -- the very same donkey, our sages explain, that served Abraham and that will bear Moshiach.
Abraham, Moses and Moshiach -- three who employ this erstwhile donkey in their fulfillment of G-d's will. But the extent to which the donkey is involved in their mission differs. With Abraham, it carries his supplies; with Moses, his wife and children; while Moshiach is described as himself riding the donkey.
The Rescinded Decree
Conventional wisdom has it that the spiritual is greater than the physical, the ethereal more lofty than the material. Nevertheless, our sages have taught that G-d created the entirety of existence, including the most lofty spiritual worlds, because "He desired a dwelling in the lower world." Our physical existence is the objective of everything He created, the environment within which His purpose in creation is to be realized.
G-d desired that we refine and elevate the material existence; that the physical reality, whose concreteness and self-centeredness obscure our inner vision and distort our true priorities, be redirected as a positive force in our lives; that we bring to light the goodness and perfection inherent in all of His creation, including -- and especially -- the lowliest of His works, the material world.
The Hebrew word for donkey is chamor from the word chomer, material. Moshiach's donkey is the material beast harnessed, the physical directed to higher and loftier ends.
But humanity's mission of elevating the material entails a long and involved process, an historic effort in which each generation builds upon the attainments of its predecessors. For the physical and the spiritual are worlds apart; indeed, the very nature of G-d's creation is such that a vast gulf divides the two, making them natural antagonists. By nature, almost by definition, a person devoted to spiritual pursuits shuns the material, while material life coarsens a person's soul and dulls his or her spiritual sensitivity. Only when G-d descended on Mount Sinai was the wall between spirit and matter breached. The divine reality revealed itself within the earthly reality; the Torah was given to man, enabling him to sanctify the mundane, to express the all-pervading truth of G-d within, and via, the material world.
The Midrash uses the following parable to explain the significance of the event:
Once there was a king who decreed: "The people of Rome are forbidden to journey to Syria, and the people of Syria are forbidden to journey to Rome." Likewise, when G-d created the world He decreed: "The heavens are G-d's, and the earth is given to man" (Psalms 115:16). But when He wished to give the Torah to Israel, He rescinded His original decree, and declared: "The lower realms may ascend to the higher realms, and the higher realms may descend to the lower realms. And I, Myself, will begin" -- as it is written, "And G-d descended on Mount Sinai," and then it says, "And to Moses He said: 'Go up to G-d'."This explains the difference in the extent to which Abraham and Moses involved the material donkey in their respective missions. Abraham, the first Jew, began the process of sublimating the material, of realizing its potential to express the goodness and perfection of the Creator. But Abraham lived before the revelation at Sinai, before G-d rescinded the decree that had divided the world between higher and lower, between matter and spirit. In his day, the original order instituted at creation still held sway: the physical and the spiritual were two separate, incompatible worlds. The most Abraham could do was to harness the physical to serve the spiritual, to use the donkey to carry the accessories of his divine service. The physical remained as coarse as ever and could not directly be involved in his spiritual life; nevertheless, Abraham took the first step in wresting the material from its inherent self-absorption by utilizing it, albeit peripherally, to assist in his service of G-d.
Moses, on the other hand, was embarking on the mission that was to culminate in his receiving the Torah, the medium by which G-d empowered man to dissolve the dichotomy between the higher and lower domains. The Torah instructs and enables us to sanctify even the most mundane aspects of our lives, to integrate our material selves and environment in our spiritual goals. So Moses used the donkey to carry his wife and children. A person's wife and children are an extension of his own self -- in the words of our sages, "a person's wife is like his own body" (Talmud, Berachot 24a) and "a child is a limb of his father" (ibid., Eruvin 70b). Beginning with Moses, the material began to play a central and intimate role in our life's work.
But Moses marks only the beginning of Torahs effect on the physical world. Ever since, whenever a person uses a material resource to perform a mitzvah -- e.g. giving money to charity, using the energy his body extracts from his food to fuel his fervor in prayer -- he "refines" these physical objects, divesting them of their mundanity and selfishness. With each such act, the physical world becomes that much holier, that much more in harmony with its essence and function. Each such act brings closer the day when our world will finally and completely shed the husk of coarseness that is the source of all ignorance and strife, bringing on a new dawn of universal peace and perfection.
So Moshiach, who represents the ultimate fulfillment of Torah, himself rides the donkey of the material. For he heralds a world in which the material is no longer the lower or secondary element, but an utterly refined resource, no less central and significant a force for good than the most spiritual creation.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
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Experience
I am not here to ride out the experience. I am here to change it. The horn has sounded, it's time to step up to the plate and be counted.
The Numerology of Redemption | Chabad.org > Parsha > Shemot
The Numerology of Redemption
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
And Moses said to G-d: "Who am I, that I might go to Pharaoh, and that I might take the children of Israel out of Egypt? ... Please, my Lord, send by the hand of he whom You will send."
Exodus 3:4-4:13
"Send by the hand of he whom You will send" -- by the hand of Moshiach, who is destined to be revealed.
Midrash Lekach Tov on Exodus 4:13
Our sages state that "the first redeemer, he is the final redeemer." This is not to say that Moses, who delivered the Jewish people from their first exile, and Moshiach, who will bring about the final redemption, are the same person. Moses was from the tribe of Levi, while Moshiach is identified as a descendent of King David, from the tribe of Judah. Rather, it means that the redemption achieved by Moses is the source for the redemption by Moshiach.
The purpose of the Exodus, as G-d told Moses when He revealed Himself to him in the burning bush, was that "when you take this nation out of Egypt, you will serve G-d at this mountain" -- that the Jewish people should receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. The final redemption represents the full and ultimate implementation of the Torah, G-d's "blueprint for creation," in the world. Thus, "the first redeemer, he is the final redeemer" -- Moses' Torah is the essence of Moshiach's perfect world.
Yet when Moses begged that G-d send Moshiach and make the Exodus the first and final redemption, G-d did not accept his plea. First the Jewish people must be taken out of Egypt and given the Torah -- a task that only Moses can achieve. Then they can embark on their mission to "perfect the world as the kingdom of G-d" via the Torah, until its ultimate realization through Moshiach.
Two Shades of One
The relationship between Moses and Moshiach is reflected in the numerical value of their names. (In the Holy Tongue each letter is also a number, so that a word is also a string of numbers; the sum of these numbers is the word's numerical value, or gematria. The gematria of a word represents a deeper stratum of significance than its linguistic meaning, so the fact that two different words have the same numerical value indicates that they are variant expressions of the same truth.) The numerical value of "Mosheh" (Moses) is 345, and that of "Moshiach," 358. So the difference between Moses and Moshiach is represented by the number 13; otherwise stated, Moses + 13 = Moshiach.
Thirteen is the numerical value of echad, a word that is the keystone of the Jewish faith. Every morning and evening of his life, the Jew recites the verse Shema Yisrael, Ado-nai Elo-hei-nu, Ado-nai echad -- "Hear O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is echad." The Jewish people are called "an echad nation on earth" because they reveal the echad of G-d in the world. And the era of Moshiach is described as "the day that G-d will be echad, and His name echad."
Echad means "one." The Shema proclaims the oneness and unity of G-d, which the people of Israel are charged to reveal in the world, and which will be fully manifest in the era of Moshiach. But is echad the ideal word to express the divine unity? Like its English equivalent, the word does not preclude the existence of other objects (as in the sequence "one, two, three..."), nor does it preclude its object being composed of parts (we speak of "one nation," "one forest," "one person" and "one tree," despite the fact that each of these consists of many units or components). It would seem that the term yachid, which means "singular" and "only one," more clearly expresses the "perfect simplicity" of G-d (which Maimonides atates to be the most fundamental principle of the Jewish faith) and the axiom that "there is none else beside Him" (Deuteronomy 4:35).
Chassidic teaching explains that, on the contrary, echad represents a deeper unity than yachid. Yachid is a oneness that cannot tolerate plurality -- if another being or element is introduced into the equation, the yachid is no longer yachid. Echad, on the other hand, represents the fusion of diverse elements into an harmonious whole. The oneness of echad is not undermined by plurality; indeed, it employs plurality as the ingredients of unity.
As one Chassidic thinker once put it, G-d did not have to create a world to be yachid. He was singularly and exclusively one before the world was created, and remains so after the fact. It was to express His echad-ness that He created the world, created man, granted him freedom of choice, and commanded him the Torah. He created existences that, at least in their own perception, are distinct of Him, and gave them the tools to bring their lives into utter harmony with His will. When a diverse and plural world chooses, by its own initiative, to unite with Him, the divine oneness assumes a new, deeper expression -- G-d is echad.
The Limits of Revelation
Moses plus echad equals Moshiach.
Moses revealed the divine wisdom and will to man. But this was a revelation, a burst of light from Above. It was not something the world understood or agreed with, but something imposed upon it by the force of a higher truth. It was a display of the divine yachid, of the exclusive, all-obliterating reality of G-d.
Moses wanted that G-d should send Moshiach to take the Jewish people out of Egypt -- that the Exodus should lead to the inculcation of the divine echad in the world. But an echad-oneness, by definition, must come from below, when a diverse world chooses, by its own initiative, to merge into an integral whole. Moses could provide the key, the formula -- but the process had to unfold in the course of the thirty-three centuries in which the world absorbed the divine truth and implemented the divine will.
In the words of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi: "The era of Moshiach ... is the culmination and fulfillment of the creation of our world -- it is to this end that it was created... In the future [world of Moshiach], the light of G-d will be revealed without any obscuring garment, as it is written: 'No longer shall your Master be shrouded; your eyes shall behold your Master'...
"A semblance of this was already experienced on earth at the time that the Torah was given, as it is written: 'You have been shown to know that the L-rd He is G-d, there is none else beside Him' ... [But] then their existence was literally nullified by the revelation, as our sages have said, 'With each utterance [the people of Israel heard from G-d at Mount Sinai], their souls flew from their bodies...' Yet in the end of days the body and the world will be refined, and will be able to receive the revelation of the divine light ... via the Torah."
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
The content on this page is produced by Chabad.org, and is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
And Moses said to G-d: "Who am I, that I might go to Pharaoh, and that I might take the children of Israel out of Egypt? ... Please, my Lord, send by the hand of he whom You will send."
Exodus 3:4-4:13
"Send by the hand of he whom You will send" -- by the hand of Moshiach, who is destined to be revealed.
Midrash Lekach Tov on Exodus 4:13
Our sages state that "the first redeemer, he is the final redeemer." This is not to say that Moses, who delivered the Jewish people from their first exile, and Moshiach, who will bring about the final redemption, are the same person. Moses was from the tribe of Levi, while Moshiach is identified as a descendent of King David, from the tribe of Judah. Rather, it means that the redemption achieved by Moses is the source for the redemption by Moshiach.
The purpose of the Exodus, as G-d told Moses when He revealed Himself to him in the burning bush, was that "when you take this nation out of Egypt, you will serve G-d at this mountain" -- that the Jewish people should receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. The final redemption represents the full and ultimate implementation of the Torah, G-d's "blueprint for creation," in the world. Thus, "the first redeemer, he is the final redeemer" -- Moses' Torah is the essence of Moshiach's perfect world.
Yet when Moses begged that G-d send Moshiach and make the Exodus the first and final redemption, G-d did not accept his plea. First the Jewish people must be taken out of Egypt and given the Torah -- a task that only Moses can achieve. Then they can embark on their mission to "perfect the world as the kingdom of G-d" via the Torah, until its ultimate realization through Moshiach.
Two Shades of One
The relationship between Moses and Moshiach is reflected in the numerical value of their names. (In the Holy Tongue each letter is also a number, so that a word is also a string of numbers; the sum of these numbers is the word's numerical value, or gematria. The gematria of a word represents a deeper stratum of significance than its linguistic meaning, so the fact that two different words have the same numerical value indicates that they are variant expressions of the same truth.) The numerical value of "Mosheh" (Moses) is 345, and that of "Moshiach," 358. So the difference between Moses and Moshiach is represented by the number 13; otherwise stated, Moses + 13 = Moshiach.
Thirteen is the numerical value of echad, a word that is the keystone of the Jewish faith. Every morning and evening of his life, the Jew recites the verse Shema Yisrael, Ado-nai Elo-hei-nu, Ado-nai echad -- "Hear O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is echad." The Jewish people are called "an echad nation on earth" because they reveal the echad of G-d in the world. And the era of Moshiach is described as "the day that G-d will be echad, and His name echad."
Echad means "one." The Shema proclaims the oneness and unity of G-d, which the people of Israel are charged to reveal in the world, and which will be fully manifest in the era of Moshiach. But is echad the ideal word to express the divine unity? Like its English equivalent, the word does not preclude the existence of other objects (as in the sequence "one, two, three..."), nor does it preclude its object being composed of parts (we speak of "one nation," "one forest," "one person" and "one tree," despite the fact that each of these consists of many units or components). It would seem that the term yachid, which means "singular" and "only one," more clearly expresses the "perfect simplicity" of G-d (which Maimonides atates to be the most fundamental principle of the Jewish faith) and the axiom that "there is none else beside Him" (Deuteronomy 4:35).
Chassidic teaching explains that, on the contrary, echad represents a deeper unity than yachid. Yachid is a oneness that cannot tolerate plurality -- if another being or element is introduced into the equation, the yachid is no longer yachid. Echad, on the other hand, represents the fusion of diverse elements into an harmonious whole. The oneness of echad is not undermined by plurality; indeed, it employs plurality as the ingredients of unity.
As one Chassidic thinker once put it, G-d did not have to create a world to be yachid. He was singularly and exclusively one before the world was created, and remains so after the fact. It was to express His echad-ness that He created the world, created man, granted him freedom of choice, and commanded him the Torah. He created existences that, at least in their own perception, are distinct of Him, and gave them the tools to bring their lives into utter harmony with His will. When a diverse and plural world chooses, by its own initiative, to unite with Him, the divine oneness assumes a new, deeper expression -- G-d is echad.
The Limits of Revelation
Moses plus echad equals Moshiach.
Moses revealed the divine wisdom and will to man. But this was a revelation, a burst of light from Above. It was not something the world understood or agreed with, but something imposed upon it by the force of a higher truth. It was a display of the divine yachid, of the exclusive, all-obliterating reality of G-d.
Moses wanted that G-d should send Moshiach to take the Jewish people out of Egypt -- that the Exodus should lead to the inculcation of the divine echad in the world. But an echad-oneness, by definition, must come from below, when a diverse world chooses, by its own initiative, to merge into an integral whole. Moses could provide the key, the formula -- but the process had to unfold in the course of the thirty-three centuries in which the world absorbed the divine truth and implemented the divine will.
In the words of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi: "The era of Moshiach ... is the culmination and fulfillment of the creation of our world -- it is to this end that it was created... In the future [world of Moshiach], the light of G-d will be revealed without any obscuring garment, as it is written: 'No longer shall your Master be shrouded; your eyes shall behold your Master'...
"A semblance of this was already experienced on earth at the time that the Torah was given, as it is written: 'You have been shown to know that the L-rd He is G-d, there is none else beside Him' ... [But] then their existence was literally nullified by the revelation, as our sages have said, 'With each utterance [the people of Israel heard from G-d at Mount Sinai], their souls flew from their bodies...' Yet in the end of days the body and the world will be refined, and will be able to receive the revelation of the divine light ... via the Torah."
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
The content on this page is produced by Chabad.org, and is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy.
I Am | Chabad.org > Parsha > Shemot
From the Chassidic Masters
I Am
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
I Am who I Am
Exodus 3:14
I Am with you in your present distress, and I shall be with you in future exiles and persecutions
Rashi on verse
When G-d appeared to Moses in the burning bush and charged him with the mission to take the people of Israel out of Egypt, Moses said to the Almighty:
"Behold, I will come to the children of Israel and say to them, The G-d of your fathers has sent me to you, and they will say, 'What is his name?' What shall I say to them?"
G-d replied to Moses: "I Am who I Am... Tell the children of Israel, I Am (Eh-he-yeh) has sent me to you."
An Anonymous G-d?
To name something is to describe and define it. So G-d, who is infinite and undefinable, cannot be named. Thus G-d has no name, only names -- descriptions of the various behavior patterns that can be ascribed to His influence on our lives. In the words of the Midrash, "G-d said to Moses: You want to know My name? I am called by My deeds. I might be called E-l Sha-dai, or Tzevakot, or Elokim, or Ha-Va-Ya-H. When I judge My creatures, I am called Elokim. When I wage war on the wicked, I am called Tzevakot. When I tolerate the sins of man, I am called E-l Sha-dai. When I have compassion on My world, I am called Ha-Va-Ya-H..."
Therein lies the deeper significance of the question that Moses anticipated from the children of Israel. What is His name? they were sure to ask. What type of behavior are we seeing on the part of G-d in these times? You say that G-d has seen the suffering of His people in Egypt, has heard their cries, and knows their pain, and has therefore sent you to redeem us. Where was He until now? Where was He for the eighty-six years that we are languishing under the slave-drivers whip, that babies are being torn from their mothers arms and cast into the Nile, that Pharaoh is bathing in the blood of Jewish children? What name is He now assuming, after eighty-six years in which He has apparently been nameless and aloof from our lives?
G-dly, But Not Holy
As explained above, each of the divine names describes another of the attributes by which G-d has chosen to relate to His creation: Elokim describes G-d's assumption of the attribute of Justice, Ha-Va-Ya-H His assumption of Compassion, and so on. Eh-he-yeh ("I am"), the name by which G-d here identifies Himself to Moses, connotes G-d's assumption of Being and Existence.
This is why there is some question amongst the Halachic authorities as to whether the name Eh-he-yeh should be counted among the seven holy names of G-d. Torah law forbids erasing or defacing G-d's name, for the very ink and paper (or other medium) assume a holiness by virtue of its representation of something that relates to the divine. While there are many names and adjectives that describe G-d's many-faceted involvement with His creation, there are seven primary divine names to which the strictest provisions of this law apply. Yet despite the fact that many Kabbalists consider Eh-he-yeh to be the loftiest of divine names, it is not included in certain versions of the seven-name list as it appears in the Talmud and the Halachic works; indeed, the final Halachic conclusion is that it is not one of the seven holy names.1
The reason for this paradox is best understood by understanding the meaning of the term "holiness". What makes something holy? Holy (kadosh in the Hebrew) means transcendent and apart. G-d is holy, for He transcends our earthly reality; Shabbat is a holy day, for it is a day of withdrawal from the mundanity of the everyday; a Torah scroll or a pair of tefillin are holy because these are objects that have visibly transcended their material state to serve a G-dly end.
The same applies to the seven holy divine names: each describes a divine activity that goes beyond the mundane norm, a divine intervention in reality -- G-d as ruler, G-d as judge, G-d as provider, G-d as savior, etc. On the other hand, Eh-he-yeh ("I am") is G-d as being -- G-d as the essence of reality.2 So Eh-he-yeh is beyond holiness. If holiness is a feature of G-d's transcendence, the beingness of G-d transcends holiness itself, describing a dimension of divine reality that pervades every existence even as it transcends it, and thus relates equally to them all, holy and mundane alike.
[Nevertheless, Eh-he-yeh is a name -- that is, an assumed behavior pattern -- of G-d's. The very phenomenon of "existence" is part and parcel of G-d's creation, and G-d certainly cannot defined by something He created. Utimately, G-d can be described as a "being" or "existence" only in the sense that we speak of Him as a provider or ruler: these are mere names, describing not His essence but a certain perception He allows us to have of Him by affecting our reality in a certain manner.]
The Answer
This was G-d's answer to the people's outcry, "What is His name?!"
Tell the children of Israel, said G-d to Moses, that My name is Eh-he-yeh. Where was I all these years? With you. I am being, I am existence, I am reality. I am in the groan of a beaten slave, in the wail of a bereaved mother, in the spilled blood of a murdered child. Certain things must be, no matter how painful and incomprehensible to your human selves, in order that great things, infinitely great and blissful things, should be. But I do not orchestrate these things from some distant heaven, holy and removed from your existential pain. I am there with you, suffering with you, praying for redemption together with you.
If you cannot see Me, it is not for My ethereality; it is because I am so real.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
FOOTNOTES
1. See Talmud, Shavuot 35, and Dikdukei Sofrim, ibid.; Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Fundamentals of Torah, 6:2; ibid., Venice 1524 and Venice 1540 editions; Kessef Mishneh commentary on Mishneh Torah, ibid.; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 276:9.
2. Guide to the Perplexed, part I, ch. 62; Ralbag and Abarbanel on Exodus 3; Ikarim 2:27; et al. See also Gevurot Hashem, end of chapter. 25.
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I Am
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
I Am who I Am
Exodus 3:14
I Am with you in your present distress, and I shall be with you in future exiles and persecutions
Rashi on verse
When G-d appeared to Moses in the burning bush and charged him with the mission to take the people of Israel out of Egypt, Moses said to the Almighty:
"Behold, I will come to the children of Israel and say to them, The G-d of your fathers has sent me to you, and they will say, 'What is his name?' What shall I say to them?"
G-d replied to Moses: "I Am who I Am... Tell the children of Israel, I Am (Eh-he-yeh) has sent me to you."
An Anonymous G-d?
To name something is to describe and define it. So G-d, who is infinite and undefinable, cannot be named. Thus G-d has no name, only names -- descriptions of the various behavior patterns that can be ascribed to His influence on our lives. In the words of the Midrash, "G-d said to Moses: You want to know My name? I am called by My deeds. I might be called E-l Sha-dai, or Tzevakot, or Elokim, or Ha-Va-Ya-H. When I judge My creatures, I am called Elokim. When I wage war on the wicked, I am called Tzevakot. When I tolerate the sins of man, I am called E-l Sha-dai. When I have compassion on My world, I am called Ha-Va-Ya-H..."
Therein lies the deeper significance of the question that Moses anticipated from the children of Israel. What is His name? they were sure to ask. What type of behavior are we seeing on the part of G-d in these times? You say that G-d has seen the suffering of His people in Egypt, has heard their cries, and knows their pain, and has therefore sent you to redeem us. Where was He until now? Where was He for the eighty-six years that we are languishing under the slave-drivers whip, that babies are being torn from their mothers arms and cast into the Nile, that Pharaoh is bathing in the blood of Jewish children? What name is He now assuming, after eighty-six years in which He has apparently been nameless and aloof from our lives?
G-dly, But Not Holy
As explained above, each of the divine names describes another of the attributes by which G-d has chosen to relate to His creation: Elokim describes G-d's assumption of the attribute of Justice, Ha-Va-Ya-H His assumption of Compassion, and so on. Eh-he-yeh ("I am"), the name by which G-d here identifies Himself to Moses, connotes G-d's assumption of Being and Existence.
This is why there is some question amongst the Halachic authorities as to whether the name Eh-he-yeh should be counted among the seven holy names of G-d. Torah law forbids erasing or defacing G-d's name, for the very ink and paper (or other medium) assume a holiness by virtue of its representation of something that relates to the divine. While there are many names and adjectives that describe G-d's many-faceted involvement with His creation, there are seven primary divine names to which the strictest provisions of this law apply. Yet despite the fact that many Kabbalists consider Eh-he-yeh to be the loftiest of divine names, it is not included in certain versions of the seven-name list as it appears in the Talmud and the Halachic works; indeed, the final Halachic conclusion is that it is not one of the seven holy names.1
The reason for this paradox is best understood by understanding the meaning of the term "holiness". What makes something holy? Holy (kadosh in the Hebrew) means transcendent and apart. G-d is holy, for He transcends our earthly reality; Shabbat is a holy day, for it is a day of withdrawal from the mundanity of the everyday; a Torah scroll or a pair of tefillin are holy because these are objects that have visibly transcended their material state to serve a G-dly end.
The same applies to the seven holy divine names: each describes a divine activity that goes beyond the mundane norm, a divine intervention in reality -- G-d as ruler, G-d as judge, G-d as provider, G-d as savior, etc. On the other hand, Eh-he-yeh ("I am") is G-d as being -- G-d as the essence of reality.2 So Eh-he-yeh is beyond holiness. If holiness is a feature of G-d's transcendence, the beingness of G-d transcends holiness itself, describing a dimension of divine reality that pervades every existence even as it transcends it, and thus relates equally to them all, holy and mundane alike.
[Nevertheless, Eh-he-yeh is a name -- that is, an assumed behavior pattern -- of G-d's. The very phenomenon of "existence" is part and parcel of G-d's creation, and G-d certainly cannot defined by something He created. Utimately, G-d can be described as a "being" or "existence" only in the sense that we speak of Him as a provider or ruler: these are mere names, describing not His essence but a certain perception He allows us to have of Him by affecting our reality in a certain manner.]
The Answer
This was G-d's answer to the people's outcry, "What is His name?!"
Tell the children of Israel, said G-d to Moses, that My name is Eh-he-yeh. Where was I all these years? With you. I am being, I am existence, I am reality. I am in the groan of a beaten slave, in the wail of a bereaved mother, in the spilled blood of a murdered child. Certain things must be, no matter how painful and incomprehensible to your human selves, in order that great things, infinitely great and blissful things, should be. But I do not orchestrate these things from some distant heaven, holy and removed from your existential pain. I am there with you, suffering with you, praying for redemption together with you.
If you cannot see Me, it is not for My ethereality; it is because I am so real.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
FOOTNOTES
1. See Talmud, Shavuot 35, and Dikdukei Sofrim, ibid.; Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Fundamentals of Torah, 6:2; ibid., Venice 1524 and Venice 1540 editions; Kessef Mishneh commentary on Mishneh Torah, ibid.; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 276:9.
2. Guide to the Perplexed, part I, ch. 62; Ralbag and Abarbanel on Exodus 3; Ikarim 2:27; et al. See also Gevurot Hashem, end of chapter. 25.
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Happy New Years in MUME :) AKA How I do the New Year ;)
Gruenthar narrates 'Happy New Year, GMT+4'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Frappi narrates '<---- GMT+8'
Farnham narrates 'happy new year eastern us:)
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Zemp narrates 'HAPPY NEW YEAR EAST COAST USA!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ONE MORE HOUR FOR ME)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Wilderon narrates '3 hrs till that'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Gruenthar narrates 'Happy New Year eastern U.S. (and everyone else in GMT+5)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Avi narrates 'happy new year folks'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham sings 'should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to....something'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Vaire the Weaver calls the fabric of time to a halt and speaks:
Happy New Year US East Coast!
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Celta narrates 'Happy New Year to mumers, early, late, or right now. Farewell!'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Sorilea narrates 'so, which geeks here spent NYE on MUME ?'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham narrates 'riase'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Sorilea narrates 'you poor sod'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham narrates '*sniff*'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham narrates 'but at least im drinking:)'
(snicker!)
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Fayt narrates 'happy new years central time zone'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Zemp narrates 'HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM KANSAS!!!!!!!!!!'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Ringfac narrates 'happy new year :)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Thurston narrates 'woot'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Elsarion narrates 'Still have an hour here... lol'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Ringfac narrates '4 hours here'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Thurston narrates '4hrs?'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Tookien narrates 'U in Hawaii Ringfac ?'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Thurston narrates 'wow'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Ringfac narrates 'nods :)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>
Vaire the Weaver calls the fabric of time to a halt and speaks:
Happy New Year US Mid-West
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>narr Happy New Year!!! USA Mountain Time :)
Ok.
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>
Roato narrates 'thanks :P'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>
Leetah narrates 'yay, um happy new year and stuff and crap'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Frappi narrates '<---- GMT+8'
Farnham narrates 'happy new year eastern us:)
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Zemp narrates 'HAPPY NEW YEAR EAST COAST USA!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ONE MORE HOUR FOR ME)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Wilderon narrates '3 hrs till that'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Gruenthar narrates 'Happy New Year eastern U.S. (and everyone else in GMT+5)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Avi narrates 'happy new year folks'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham sings 'should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to....something'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Vaire the Weaver calls the fabric of time to a halt and speaks:
Happy New Year US East Coast!
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Celta narrates 'Happy New Year to mumers, early, late, or right now. Farewell!'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Sorilea narrates 'so, which geeks here spent NYE on MUME ?'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham narrates 'riase'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Sorilea narrates 'you poor sod'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham narrates '*sniff*'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Farnham narrates 'but at least im drinking:)'
(snicker!)
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Fayt narrates 'happy new years central time zone'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Zemp narrates 'HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM KANSAS!!!!!!!!!!'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Ringfac narrates 'happy new year :)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Thurston narrates 'woot'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Elsarion narrates 'Still have an hour here... lol'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Ringfac narrates '4 hours here'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Thurston narrates '4hrs?'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Tookien narrates 'U in Hawaii Ringfac ?'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Thurston narrates 'wow'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55]>
Ringfac narrates 'nods :)'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>
Vaire the Weaver calls the fabric of time to a halt and speaks:
Happy New Year US Mid-West
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>narr Happy New Year!!! USA Mountain Time :)
Ok.
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>
Roato narrates 'thanks :P'
! CW iMc 15055[150:55] Move:Tired>
Leetah narrates 'yay, um happy new year and stuff and crap'
