Month: March 2016 – ל׳ באדר א׳ תשע״ו

Striving for a Healthy Jewish Spirituality: Qabala, Sexuality, and Geula

By Harav Micha Lindenberg

An excerpt;

It is important to remember that the situation of the Jewish people has been far from normative for not just fifteen hundred or two thousand years, but rather two thousand five hundred years or more. If we understand the normative vision of the Tora to be the Jewish nation dwelling in its Land, with a Temple, with a central judicial authority, with proper Tora-mandated government with the Davidic line at its helm, with sages and prophets in the Land, with all laws of the Tora active and functioning, we must admit that this has not been the reality since the times of the first Temple. During the entire second Temple period, a majority of the nation did not dwell in its Land.  There were no longer any prophets walking the land.  The Temple stood, but many expressions of the Divine presence were absent, as our Sages tell us.  The Davidic line continued—in Babylon.  In a sense, one can view the entire second Temple period as a precursor for the two thousand years of exile that followed, especially in that the developments of the Oral Tradition carried out by the Men of the Great Assembly and the generations which ensued provided the basic structures and institutions which laid the foundations for the Judaism of the exile.

When the revolts against Roman rule failed, the striving for national self-determination and expression progressively withdrew from the national consciousness into deep-freeze and dream-stuff. What had once been more a matter of propriety, a “temporary measure”, became more and more entrenched; an attitude of existential passivity and withdrawal from the world of realpolitik morphed from a short-term mechanism of survival into a central feature of the Jewish mainstream outlook and approach to national affairs. Withdrawal from the physical-material reality, inexorably leading to an inability to act within that reality to further the goals of the Jewish people, became more and more entrenched in the Jewish psyche so as to become the dominant approach.

Continue reading here…

From Machon Shilo, here.

1899

A Message to Garcia

By Elbert Hubbard

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain & the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba- no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Some one said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.”

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, & in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- “Carry a message to Garcia!”

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.

No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, & sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.

Summon any one and make this request: “Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio”.

Will the clerk quietly say, “Yes, sir,” and go do the task?

On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:

Who was he?

Which encyclopedia?

Where is the encyclopedia?

Was I hired for that?

Don’t you mean Bismarck?

What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?

Is he dead?

Is there any hurry?

Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?

What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.

Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your “assistant” that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, “Never mind,” and go look it up yourself.

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting “the bounce” Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.

Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

“You see that bookkeeper,” said the foreman to me in a large factory.

“Yes, what about him?”

“Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for.”

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the “downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop” and the “homeless wanderer searching for honest employment,” & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away “help” that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.

It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, “Take it yourself.”

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.

I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off,” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.

THE END-

From here.

On Amassing Money

Rabbi Hershel Schachter

Some sociologists opined that money is an evil of society. The Chaon Ish (Yoreh Deah 72:2) pointed out that halacha does not share that perspective. Rather, even in an ideal Torah world we would use kesef (money) to fulfill mitzvos.

The halacha declares that in most instances shoveh kesef (a commodity which has value) can be used in place of kesef. For example, we get married by having the chosson hand a ring, i.e. shoveh kesef, to the kallah, as opposed to giving her kesef, and this constitutes a form of kidushei kesef. Nonetheless, one can only fulfill the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel by giving kesef to the Beis Hamikdash for the purpose of purchasing the korbanos tzibbur (Bechoros 51a).

A variety of opinions are presented in Shulchan Aruch (Choshem Mishpat 369) regarding the extent to which halacha recognizes dina demalchusa. The Shach (Yoreh Deah 165:8) points out that all agree that dina demalchusa determines what is considered kesef. Whatever currency the government of any given country establishes has the halachic status of kesef. When the second Beis Hamildash was built there was no Jewish government ruling over Eretz Yisroel. As such, the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel had to be fulfilled by giving a coin recognized as kesef by the ruling non-Jewish government. After several centuries when the Chashmonaim established a Jewish government in Eretz Yisroel and minted their own coins, “Jewish” coins replaced the “non-Jewish” coins for this mitzvah.

The Talmud (Pesachim 54b) speaks of the concept of “money” being part of G-d’s initial plan for creating the world, just as the Torah and the mitzvos preceded the creation of the world. The rabbis of the Talmud (Shabbos 33b) tell us that Yaakov Avinu improved the life of the citizens of Shechem by introducing a monetary system for them. Money is something positive. Without money we can not function.

Judaism, as opposed to certain other religions, has never preached that poverty is an ideal. The Rema (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 248) considers making a living something positive, comparable to a mitzvah. As such, one who lives in Eretz Yisroel is permitted to go to chutz la’aretz for the purpose of making a living. Even if one is making ends meet, but wants to go to chutz la’aretz to make a more comfortable living, the accepted opinion is that this too is permissible. However, we would not allow one who already makes a comfortable living to go to chutz la’aretz in order to become wealthy (see Moed Kattan 14a). There is no mitzvah to be poor, but there is also no mitzvah to be rich.

We all need food in order to survive, be healthy, and function. However, we should not love food. Many Americans suffer from obesity because they love food and overeat. Similarly, we all need money to live in this world. However, we should not develop a love for money. Koheles (5:9) teaches us that one who loves money will never be satisfied with the money he has. The Medrash (Koheles Rabbah 1:34) famously comments, “ein adam yotze min haolam vechatzi ta’avaso beyado”. When those who love money die, regardless of how much money they have amassed it will not be even half of what they desired.

The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 11a) tells us that R’ Yehuda Hanasi was extremely wealthy, which was necessary for his position as chief rabbi. But he did not love the money. In fact, he hardly took any pleasure from this world (Kesubos 104a).

The parsha tells us (Breishis 47:14) that Yosef amassed all of the cash from Egypt and Canaan by selling the grain that he stored. He understood that this was needed for the Egyptian government, and apparently saw this as part of the message of Pharoh’s dream. However, we do not get the impression that he became one who loved money.

The Medrash (Koheles Rabbah 5:8) distinguishes between two types of observant Jews: one who merely observes the mitzvos, and one who loves mitzvos. The one who observes, but does not love, mitzvos will be satisfied with keeping the mitzvos which come his way. But the one who loves mitzvos will always be on the lookout for additional miztvos. He will never be satisfied with the miztvos that he may have fulfilled already – “ohev mitzvos lo yisba mitzvos”.

Rather than love money, or love food, we should all develop a love for mitzvos.

Copyright © 2008 by The TorahWeb Foundation. All rights reserved.

From Torah Web, here.