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Nissan 23, 5768, 4/28/2008
"There is Something Going on, Mr. Jones"
Because of the holiday break, we missed a few things, so today, let’s take a look at Sefirat HaOmer. We are already in the second week of our counting. Like all of the other commandments, Sefirat HaOmer is loaded with Kabbalistic significance. Without the Kabbalah, we would not know what we were doing when we put on tefillin, wave the lulav, or blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Yes, there are simple explanations, but someone who only familiarizes himself with pashat, or simple understandings, resembles a swimmer who is afraid to put on a mask and stick his face in the water. If you tell him there is a whole beautiful, marine world below the surface, teeming with all forms of life, he won’t believe you because he has never experienced this deeper, inner world for himself. To see it, you have to open your eyes.
When it comes to Sefirat HaOmer, look in your prayer books. At least in the major league prayer books in Israel, you will see adjacent to each day of the counting, two mystical words like Hesed of Hesed, Tiferet of Gevorah, or Hod of Tiferet. These words are from the Kabbalistic world of the Sefirot. Each day of the counting, we are called upon to rectify another sefirah, or channel of spiritual blessing. This is an integral part of the process of inner purification that we are to undergo as we approach the holiday of Shavuot. We are not only to mention the day, but also to undertake the detailed, laborious toil of perfecting our character traits and the channels of celestial blessing that are directly parallel to them, just as a marionette puppet is connected to the hand above, or just like the keys of a piano are connected to the chords inside the piano’s lid.
Our words and actions strike Heavenly chords above.
Each time a key is hit, a different sound is produced. So too, each time we improve a character trait, a channel of blessing is cleansed in the spiritual worlds above, releasing a flow of blessing to our world below. If this inner process is just some Kabbalistic mumbo jumbo that doesn’t exist, as some unfortunate souls have the arrogance to claim, then why is it written in every prayer book, at least in Israel, the following recitation:
“May it be Thy will before You, our L-rd, our G-d, G-d of our Forefathers, that in the merit of Sefirat HaOmer which I counted today, that all the damage I have done to the sefirah of (such and such day) will be rectified, and I will be purified and sanctified by the holiness of the upper world, and through this, a great flow of blessing will go forth to all of the spiritual and physical worlds, and will rectify our physical and emotional drives, our intellectual spirits, and our Divine souls from all of their pollutions and blemishes, and leave us sanctified with Your exalted holiness, Amen, Sela.”
Obviously, as the recent Pulitzer Prize recipient, Bob Dylan, used to sing: “Something is going on Mr. Jones, and you don’t know what it is.”
While we are on this subject, we should mention that the great Torah scholar, halachic authority, revered Kabbalist, eyes of the generation, former Chief Rabbi, HaRav Mordechai Eliahu, shlita, is recovering from a heart attack and subsequent six-hour surgery this past Shabbat night. Today, hundreds, including leading Rabbis and Kabbalists, gathered at the tomb of the holy Kabbalist, the Chida, in Jerusalem, to pray for mercy and a speedy healing for the eighty-year-old Torah Sage, HaRav Mordechai Tzemach ben Mazal Tov. In the merit of our holy Forefathers and the Sages and Tzaddikim of all generations, may all of our prayers be answered, that he and all of the sick people of Israel be granted a complete and speedy recovery. Amen.
Prayers at the tomb of the Chida
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Nissan 22, 5768, 4/27/2008
Eating Matzah is Suicide!
So writes Dr. Michaels, a Jewish gastroenterologist from Vienna, in an article I saw over the holiday. He asserts that people can die from eating too much matzah on Passover, since the dry wafer can cause severe constipation. Eating matzah is suicide!
"Each Passover holiday, hospital emergency rooms are filled with Jews needing enemas to get their bowels moving. This is especially dangerous for the elderly,” he asserts. Because of the risk involved, the physician, who declares himself to be a “Thinking Man’s Jew,” maintains that Jews should not eat matzah on Passover, since putting one’s life in danger is a violation of the Torah. He even quotes the Rambam to prove his point: “It is a leading principle in medicine that if there is constipation, or if the bowels move with difficulty, grave disorders result” (Rambam, Laws of Daot, 4:13). In addition to the danger of eating matzah on Passover, the Viennese physician also maintains that putting on tefillin is also life-threatening, since the arm straps of the tefillin can restrict the flow of circulation, causing heart attacks and other coronary problems. Restricts blood circulation
Dr. Michael’s colleague, Dr. Issac Shilo, a fellow practitioner of “The Movement of Thinking Man’s Judaism,” points out that no where does the word tefillin appear in the Torah. “The word in the Torah is ‘totafot,’ which is apparently a form of tutty fruity that is to be pasted on the skin like an emblem,” he writes. “The business of the little black boxes and the straps is the hocus pocus invention of the so-called sages of the so-called Oral Torah which has as much authenticity as a Dell horoscope magazine.” Therefore, he concludes, Jews should not put on tefillin.
Vienna based Dr. Michaels also maintains that praying in a synagogue is suicide since many people are killed in traffic accidents on their way to the shul. “If people want to pray, that’s their business,” he says, “But let them pray at home.”
He was in a rush to get to shul
Dr. Shilo concurs, pointing out that synagogues are also not mentioned in the Torah. “If God fills the universe, how can be miniaturized to fit into a synagogue?” he asks. “This concept is the foundation of idol worship.”
The article concludes by reporting that the “Enlightened Movement of Thinking Man’s Judaism” has come out against the commandment of procreation, the very first mitzvah in the Torah, proclaiming that childbirth is suicide. Dr. Michaels explains that in addition to the risks to the mother, every child who is born will eventually die. “The principle of saving life overrides the commandment to be fruitful and multiply,” he says. “It is a proven fact that life leads to death, so we are warning Jews against bringing children into the world so they won’t violate the commandment against suicide.”
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Nissan 20, 5768, 4/25/2008
Confused Florida Jew
Dear Tzvi, I read your blog regularly on Arutz7, from my laptop or my work computer from sunny Florida. I merited studying in Israel for a year, many moons ago, but I ended up back here in the States. Now ironically, my son is moving to Eretz Yisrael. I crave to be back there. I relate so much to the inspiring words and pictures from your blog, and feel like a fish, slowly suffocating in the oppressive atmosphere of this gut wrenching galus! I feel it - I mean I REALLY feel it. Every time I leave my house and even when I am sitting in it! Something just doesn’t feel right. I remember so fondly my days in Eretz. Although sometimes frustrating, they were fulfilling, just being there, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Eilat, wherever, I just felt, well, at home. I don’t wish to maarich bemilim so I will get the point. I worry SO much about how I will make a living there. The reason being that every time I tell a fellow yid (and I am talking about "frum" Jews here!) in Florida that I wish to make Aliyah, I am greeted with the same old response, as if like a broken record, as follows: "What do you want to do that for?", "How will you make money there", "How will you support your family?" AND "I know SO many people who went on Aliyah and just couldn’t make it and came back home" etc etc, ad naseum! But Tzvi, these words affect me, in a negative way, regardless of all the words I read and Torah sources I study to prove conclusively that a Jew has an OBLIGATION to live in Eretz Yisrael, I still have this worry in the pit of my stomach. I am not wealthy. Indeed I struggle to make a good living here in Florida, BUT I am comfortable, with my wife and new born boy (he is 12 days old today!) and I do make enough money to support them. I worry how I would do the same in Israel. I tell myself not to worry, to be strong and have emuna and bitachon in Hashem, but then I read some other article in the BBC or one of your talkbackers condemning the "evil Jewish state," or talking about the lunacy of Olmert and Israel’s loony left, leading to a path of destruction. I wonder if it is responsible to leave the relative calm of Florida, when at any moment the government of Israel might give away, Jerusalem, the Golan, perhaps even my new home in Israel if I ever could afford one. As you can ascertain, I am confused and pressured, but a voice inside me years to make the move. Can you offer me any words of advice or chizuk that might help me in my quandary? Is there anything I can do to make things easier, can you assure or reassure me? I’m not sure what I need, perhaps just a kick in the pants. I hope you can offer some words of wisdom. Best wishes meantime, and Moed TOV! Confused Florida Jew
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Hollywood to the Holy Land
by Tzvi Fishman
Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Creativity and Culture
Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, Tzvi Fishman was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook.
His other books include: The Kuzari For Young Readers and Tuvia in the Promised Land. His most recent book, Secret of the Brit, can be found at JewishSexuality.com, along with an abbreviated online version. |
