Off to Israel

We’re off to Israel later today. All being well, we’ll light the Chanukah candles in our hotel in Tel Aviv.

I Probably won’t have much internet access while I’m gone, so this may be my last post for a few weeks. But I’m sure I’ll much to write about when I get back.

We pray that G-d will watch over us and guide us through a safe and spiritually meaningful trip.

Difference Between Hellenism and Judaism

This one phrase really sums up what the Maccabees were fighting for. “To the Greeks, what is beautiful is holly. To the Jews what is holy is beautiful.”

The Greeks glorified the physical. The Jews appreciate the physical, but not in and of itself. We know that it all comes from G-d, and that is where our worship is directed.

Chanukah Musings

We’re right in the middle of the holiday of Chanukah. I just wanted to make a few brief thoughts about the holiday.

First, Chanukah is one of the most widely celebrated holidays among non-observant Jews. I find that ironic since it is not at all clear which side most of them would have been on had they lived in the time of the Maccabees. Would they have sided with those in favour of abandoning Judaism and assimilating into the wider Hellenist culture, or would they have been willing to give their lives by standing with Matathies, when he called “All those who are for G-d follow me”? Something to think about

Second, I wanted to point out another example of some terrible PR work by Israel. Israel has a knack for picking the worst possible symbols for things. The ministry of Tourism uses the man holding the huge bunch of grapes as their logo. Do you remember where this image comes from? It’s the tragedy of the spies; the event that lead to the establishment of Tisha B’Av, the most tragic day in Jewish History. Throughout history, just about every bad thing that has happened to the Jews happened on that day (the destruction of the first and second temple, the expulsion from England, The expulsion from Spain, The start of WWI – which lead to the Holocaust…).

The story of Chanukah is about the Maccabees fighting against Judaism being overrun by Hellenist culture. They gave their lives for the cause. Today, when we think of the name Maccabees, what do we think of? The most obvious is the “Jewish Olympics”. The Olympics is the most Greek of all things; let’s run around naked, show off our perfect bodies and glorify the physical. To take the most Greek of all events and name it after the Maccabees, who gave their lives to prevent Judaism from being overrun by Greek culture, is just about the biggest slap in the face you can think of. It’s like naming a Shul “Congregation I Eat Pork”.

Being in the high tech field, I do openly welcome modern culture, but I always know where it stands in relation to my Jewish roots. That’s what many of us need to keep in mind. There is no problem with participating in the modern world, but it should come after G-d, not before.

Parashat Vayeishev

I tried to talk my sister into coming to Shul yesterday by telling her that she would see the first act of “Joseph and the Amazing Techno-Colored Dreamcoat”. After figuring out what I meant, she decided against it.

Yesterday we read the first Parashat about Joseph, the story continues for the rest of the book of Genesis. I think most of us know the story, so I don’t want to talk about that. What I do want to talk about is a tiny section, which seems insignificant, but in reality, all of Jewish History is based on it.

Here’s the story. Josephs brothers head out to plot to kill Joseph. Jacob sends Joseph out to make peace with his brothers. When Joseph gets to where he thought his brothers would be, the following happens

Then a man found him, and behold, he was straying in the field, and the man asked him, saying, "What are you looking for?" And he said, "I am looking for my brothers. Tell me now, where are they pasturing?" And the man said, "They have traveled away from here, for I overheard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.' " [37:15-17]

Doesn’t sounds like much. But this man could have saw Joseph wandering in the field and thought to himself, “He’s just some kid playing in the field, not my business’. In fact that’s what most people today probably would have done. But if things had happened that way, Joseph would have never found his brothers, he would never have been sent to Egypt, and the upcoming famine would have wiped the Jews out. In other words, this unidentified man’s act of kindness is what allowed the Jewish nation to be born.

They say that the world stands on three things Torah, Service of G-d, and Acts of Kindness. This is what they are refereeing to.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 29th birthday (both on the English and Hebrew calendars).

I’d like to look back on the past year and then forward to the next.

One year ago, I was taking Hebrew-reading lessons. I had just recently started laying Tefilin and davening every morning. I had just run 10K for the first time. I was getting ready to go on a Caribbean cruise to renew my body. Today I am one of only two people who attend the morning minyon at my Shul (other than the Rabbi ad Cantor) who are not saying Kaddish. I can lead any of the weekday services and Shacharit for Shabbat. I have run 2 ½ marathons, and am getting ready for a trip to Israel to renew my soul.

It has been an amazing year in many ways, and I think that today, I’m much closer to the person I want to be than I was a year ago.

Of course, this has also been the most difficult year of my life. Our two miscarriages alone would be more than enough to take that title, but add everything that has happened with my brother and many other things that I’m not even going to list.

When faced with such a year, some people turn away from their faith. I turned towards G-d. The more that happened, the harder I prayed and the more I learned. I pray that all these things were given to me as a test of my faith, and I hope that I’ve passed the test. If that’s the case, I hope I can look forward to a year filled with joy.

Here is my prayer for the coming year. I pray for a safe and meaningful trip to Israel. I pray that our new home will be one filled with the “Pintele Yid’, and house full of Torah learning and a home that can help kindle the “Pintele Yid’ in our friends and family. I pray that this year will bring Mandy and I a healthy child so that we can share all of this with our new family.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach

We Bought a House

This seems to be a week full of news. First Israel, now a house.

I think I’ve written before about my dilemma about where to buy a house. Do we buy within walking distance of our Shul (which is no longer a very Jewish area), or do we buy in a Jewish area (even though that would mean we have to either walk to Shul, or switch to an Orthodox Shul – which we are not willing to do at this time). We decided on the latter.

We bought in a new community in the Bathurst and Highway #7 area of Thornhill. It’s a very Jewish area, with a lot of couples our age buying there. There is a small Orthodox Shul a short walk away (The Country Shul). They offer any educational programs, which I look forward to taking advantage of, and I may even go to Shabbat service there when Mandy is not able to come with. When Mandy comes with to Shul, we’ll have to rely on the Conservative position allowing you to drive to Shul on Shabbat.

They are building a whole Jewish Community Centre complex 10 minutes away (complete with several Jewish day schools) so it should be a very nice area to live in.

I really don’t like the Conservative position about driving to Shul… basically it allowed for the destruction of any cohesive Conservative Jewish Community. There is no longer any need to live around the Shul, so there is no need to have a spatially localized community. Of course, I think the logic behind the ruing is valid; you can make a strong case for limited driving being permitted on Shabbat (I’ll present that case another time) – almost as strong as the case that the Orthodox make to say it’s not permitted. So you would be breaking what is at most a modern Rabbinic prohibition, in order to be able to daven with an minion on Shabbat. Seems like a reasonable trade off.

Of course, right now this is a moot point, since we drive on Shabbat anyway. But if we ever decide to become more observant (which we very well may), it would have been nice to be able to walk to our Shul. I guess we could always move at that point.

We’re Going To Israel

It’s all set. Mandy and I are going to Israel.

We have a two-week trip planned. 8 night tour, 2 extra days on our own in Jerusalem and 3 days in Eilat. Info on our trip can be found at the ISRAM tour site.

We’re both really looking forward to the trip, especially Jerusalem. We’ll be in Jerusalem on one Shabbat and we plan to attend a service at the Wall. Our Hotel in Jerusalem is less than 1KM from the wall, so hopefully I’ll be bale to daven there every day.

Our parents (of course) are a little scared for us. I think my mother is not only worried about our safety, but she’s also worried that we’ll like it so much we’ll want to make Aliya. She may have good reason to worry about that one… but not for a few years at least.

Our flight leaves one night and gets to Israel the next evening. That means that Shacharit would have to be davened on the plane. The question is, with all the time zone changes we go through, when are the proper times to daven?

I haven’t found a good answer, but if I were to have to rule on the issue, here’s what I would say. You start by calculating the number of daylight hours you’ll get on the ride (this could be very short, depending on the speed of the pane and the route). You then daven Shacharit between dawn and 1/3 of daylight hours passing. This could mean that in some cases you would have to daven very quickly. I’ll let you know if I come across any other answers to this problem.

Parashat Vayishlach

It turns out that this weeks Torah portion is in fact my Bar Mitzvah portion. I just realized that today when reading over the text. My Maftir was about the Chiefs of Esau, and towards the end of the parashat, we start reading about the generations of Esau, it sounded familiar for I looked at the Hebrew of the Maftir, and I can still chant along with it.

The text relates the story of Jacob and his family after leaving Lavan. Jacob is given the name Israel by an angel (and later by G-d). Jacob meets Esau. Jacob’s daughter Dinah is raped y the locals who are then killed y Jacobs children. Jacob returns to his father’s house. We read of the death of Yitzchak. And then conclude with the generations of Esau (including Amalek and the King of Edom – Rome).

It is the story of the meeting of Jacob and Esau that I’ll talk about. When they meet, Jacob offers Esau a present (as a peace offering). Esau refuses saying I have more than I need. Jacob insists saying, I have all that I need, please take it. This language does not seem to be representative of either of them.

Esau is a man who loves physical wealth. You would not expect to hear him say that he has more than he needs, because he always wants to get more. Jacob, on the other hand, was a very rich man, but one who would have been perfectly happy being poor, since his focus was on G-d. Saying that he has all that he needs implies that if he had less, he would not have all that he needs. You would expect to hear Jacob say he has more than he needs, because material wealth is meaningless to him.

So why did Jacob say “I have as much” and Esau ay “I have more”? If you have the right outlook on life, you can never have more than you need. G-d gives each of us exactly what we need to carry out our unique mission. Jacob knew that the reason he had all his wealth is because he needs it to serve G-d in the way that G-d wants Jacob to serve him. If he had said that he has more then he needs, would be to deny this fact.

In fact we say a blessing to this effect every morning. We thank G-d for “providing me with my every need.” We’re saying that everything I have was provided by G-d because I need it. And everything I don’t have, I don’t need.

It takes a person like Esau who looks at possessions as a way to serve his own selfish purposes to say that he has more than he needs.

Of course, Esau ends up taking the gift.

Esau then says to Jacob “My brother, it’s good to have you back. Come with me to Har Sa'ir, where I live and we'll go into business together. With your brains and my brawn we'll dominate the whole Middle East." (not a direct quote) There is no question that if they had teamed up they would have been quite a force in human history. Imagine a people with the physical strength of the Romans and the spiritual and intellectual strength of the Jews.

But Jacob says “You go ahead of me, I’ll catch up later.” We know that Jacob never goes to Har Sa'ir to live with Esau.

Rabbi Spiro explains:

The great biblical commentator Rashi explains, quoting the Prophet Ovadiah, that they will meet again -- at the end of days. In effect, Jacob, representing the great intellectual, spiritual force in human history, is saying to Esau, the great physical force: "I give you permission to go on ahead and dominate human history physically. But at the end of days, when the 'lion lies down with the lamb,' then we'll get together. Then the Jews will be on top."

This doesn't mean in the end Jews are going to conquer the world and make a great empire. In the end, the whole world will come to recognize one God and live with one standard of morality in peace and brotherhood. The Jewish mission will be fulfilled then, but in the meantime, Esau is going to be on top.

Ultimately the struggle of history will be between Jewish ideas and the ideas of Esau and the culture that he's going to create in human history. That's the cosmic battle: good versus evil. This is a very powerful idea and the dominating pattern of Jewish history.”

Shabbat Shalom

The 4th Aliah of Parashat Vayeitzei

Last week’s Portion contains the birth of most of Jacob’s children, and of how Rachel was barren for many years, until G-d remembered her and she gave birth to Jacob’s favourite son Joseph.

Our Shul is holding a fundraiser to commission a new Torah scroll. Members can sponsor a letter, or word, or sentence. Or an Aliah or even a Parahat. If you do an Aliah or Parashat you get to pick which one to dedicate.

Mandy and I decided to dedicate an Aliah. After much study, we decided on the 4th Aliah of Parashat Vayeitzei (described above). The selection was very carefully made. We wanted one talking about the birth of children. This portion talks about the birth of many children and how, after not being able to have a child, G-d remembers Rachel and she conceives.

Mandy and I have had two miscarriages. This act of Tzedukah and the mitzvah of writing a torah scroll are dedicated to the two souls that never got to enter this world.

Every time I daven, at the end of the silent Amidah, I add a personal prayer, similar to the following. May the merit of these mitzvahs enhance our prayers for Mandy to conceive and carry through to completion, in health and safety for the mother and unborn child, and that the child be delivered into the world at appropriate time, complete in all its limbs and senses, so that we may raise it according to your will as revealed in your Holly Torah.

Logical vs. Illogical vs. Meta-Logical

You often hear people taking about all the laws of Judaism, and how many of them seem illogical. The prohibition against murder seems perfectly logical, but not being allowed to mix wool and linen seems illogical.

The term “illogical” is really not accurate here. There is nothing illogical about being told not to mix wool and linen (or any of the other laws), it’s just that we don’t understand the logic behind it. Not understanding the logic does not make something illogical; it makes it “meta-logical”.

We abide by the logical laws because we can see the reason for them. But why should be abide by the laws who’s logic escapes us?

Lets look at an example. Lets say you’re on your way home from work and you check your messages on your cell phone. There is a message from your husband/wife asking you to pick up a pizza on the way home. Do you do it? Probably. (The correct answer is “if you know what’s good for you”) Why, because it is a perfectly logical request. You and your family need to eat dinner, pizza is a good dinner so you pick it up.

Now what if the message on your cell phone was to drive 30 minutes out of your way down to the riverbank and fill a bag full of sand and bring that home. Would you carry out this illogical request? Depending on your relationship with your husband/wife, you probably would. The first request you carry out based on logic, the second you do out of love.

The same hold for G-d’s laws. The logical ones we do because we see how it’s good for us. The others we do out of love for G-d. We know that G-d loves us, and he would not tell us do to something if there wasn’t a reason; even if we don’t understand what the reason is.

But in fact, all of G-d’s laws (the seemingly logical and seemingly illogical ones) are meta-logical. Whether or not we think we understand the logic behind a law, how do we know if that’s the real reason?

Lets look back at our two examples. The pizza request seemed perfectly logical. But what if you get home and your wife gives the pizza to the neighbours and feeds you leftovers for dinner? You got the pizza because you though it was a logical request – you were going to have pizza for dinner. But it turns out that there was a different logic behind it. The request was, in fact, meta-logical.

The sand request seemed illogical. But when you get home and give the sand to your wife she gives it to your son who needs it for a science fair experiment. You carried out this seemingly illogical request out of love, but it turned out that there was a perfectly logical reason behind it – you just didn’t know what it was.

Presumably, all of Judaism’s meta-logical laws are in fact perfectly logical; it is just that we may not be able to fully understand the logic while in this world.

Lavan vs. Pharaoh

There is a line in the Passover Haggadah that compares Pharaoh to Lavan. It says that Lavan was worse, because Pharaoh only wanted to kill the first-born sons, and Lavan wanted to destroy everything. The only problem is that the Torah never records any instance of Lavan wanting to kill anyone (let alone everyone).

The commentators trace that statement back to this week’s portion. Jacob decides that it’s time to leave Lavan’s house and go back to the land that G-d promised to give him. He tells Lavan about his plans to leave, and Lavan hugs him and tells him he is family and shouldn’t go.

Most explanations of this passage reflect poorly on Lavan. Because of Jacob’s blessings, he is very prosperous while in Lavan’s house, and thus Lavan becomes very prosperous. Lavan knows that it’s all Jacob’s doings, so he doesn’t want him to go. Some commentaries even go so far as to say that the reason Lavan hugged Jacob was so that he could pick his pockets. This might not reflect well on Lavan, but it hardly seems like he was trying to ‘destroy everything�.

But what would have happened if Lavan had been more persuasive and convinced Jacob to stay? As I said last posting, Jacob’s family became a nation when they left Lavan’s house. So if Lavan had convinced them to stay, they would have never become a nation. This is why the Haggadah says Lavan wanted to destroy everything. He wanted to prevent Jacob from becoming a nation so he cold personally benefit from his blessings. He tried to do that by telling Jacob that they are family – that they are all one people. In other words, he tied to assimilate Jacob’s family into his own.

What the Haggadah is telling us, is that the threat of assimilation (Lavan) is greater then the threat of physical violence (Pharaoh). While physical violence can kill individuals (or many individuals), assimilation can wipe out an entire generation, and thus the entire nations.

We are all very conscious of the physical threat we face today in many parts of the world. Lets make sure we pay as much (or more) attention to the even bigger threat of assimilation

Shabbat Shalom.

Parahat Vayeitzei - Becoming a Nation

This week’s Torah reading is about Jacob while living in Lavan’s house. Taking Rachel and Leah as wives, and having most of his children. But what is really happening in this portion is the birth of the Jewish Nation.

The parashat starts with Jacob, after leaving his father’s house, putting a stone under his head and going to sleep by the side of the road. Jacob had just gotten a spiritual and physical blessing from Yitzchak. He has all the potential in the world, but he has nothing. The modern day equivalent would be a person graduating from Harvard Law, but has no job and lies down on a park bench with a news paper under his head and goes to sleep.

This is when he has his famous “Jacob’s Ladder” dream. He wakes up and realizes the place he is on is “the house of G-d’. He takes the rock he used as a pillow, turns it on it’s side, pours oil on it and makes it into a “matzavah”. In Modern Hebrew that means headstone, but in ancient Hebrew it meant “an altar”. This doesn’t sound like such a strange thing for Jacob to have done. However, in Deuteronomy 16:22, we are told not to make a matzavah, because G-d hates it.

Now we like to say that our forefathers kept the entire Torah before it was given. How literally they kept it is open to debate, but you’d think Jacob would be spiritually sensitive enough not to do something that G-d hates.

The commentators explain this by saying that at the time of Moses, G-d hated it, but in the time of Jacob he loved it. So what could have changed to make G-d hate something he once loved?

To understand this, we need to look at the concept of Jewish prayer. In Judaism, prayer is both communal and individual. Look at the Amidah, the central prayer in our liturgy. It is said (ideally) in a group of 10 or more, where each person prays to himself. What are they praying for? “Heal us”, “Forgive us”. They are praying for the entire Jewish people. So we have a group of people, each praying individually for the welfare of the community; the prefect synergy between community and self.

Because of this communal aspect, altars are supposed to be made up of many stones, representing the many members of the Nation of Israel. That explains why G-d hates single stoned alters now, but why would he have loved it in the time of Jacob? The answer is because until Jacob, there was no Nation of Israel. Judaism was a single person, first Abraham, the Yitzchak, now Jacob. So there is no problem with making an altar out of a single stone.

Just when does Israel become a nation? It has clearly happened by the middle of next week’s parashat (the term nation is used to describe Israel for the first time). But I would say that it actually happens this week, specifically when Jacob takes his family and leaves Lavan’s house. You have an independent, identifiable group of people with common beliefs and customs. That certainly sounds like a good definition of nationhood.

The Colour of Blue

I was listening to an MP3 file from Aish Audio, and they were talking about the blue fringes that are supposed to be on the Tzitzis (one of the 8 threads are supposed to be blue, the others white). A description was given as to just what colour of blue it was. The response is very mystical on many levels. What they said was “The blue of the Tzitzis is like the blue of the seas. The blue of the seas is like the blue of the sky. The blue of the sky is like the throne of G-d.”

The simple reading is that G-d has a blue throne… while that sounds like a nice tidbit of trivia, hardly earth shattering news. But we know that G-d takes no form, thus doesn’t really have a throne. So what’s this trying to say? I can see two meanings.

First, by drawing the connection between the Tzitzis and G-d we get a glimpse of the power of the mitzvah of Tzitzis. Wearing the blue fringe (or to a lesser extent the all while fringes we wear today) connects us with the throne of G-d. Simply by glancing down, we are able to be reminded of G-d presence and active role in our lives.

The second meaning draws from the comparison of the blue of the sea and sky to G-d’s throne. The sea and sky are magnificent shades of blue… but have you ever tried to capture that colour? Take a glass of sea, is it still blue? What about a glass full of sky? We know they are both blue, we can see and feel it, but when we try to put our hands on it, it’s no longer there. The same can be said for G-d’s presence. We know it’s there, we can even see it if we look at the big picture. But when we try to capture it, when we try to grasp it, it seems to slip between our fingers. But just like the sea and sky, even though we may not be able to put our hands on it, we never doubt its reality.