There is no more tragic figure in the entire Torah than Moshe Rabbeinu (our ultimate teacher).
And there is no part of the story of his life in the Torah that is more confounding and more mysterious than the story, in this week’s portion Chukat, of his hitting the rock and consequently being denied entry into the Promised Land.
But what went wrong? The people (Bamidbar (Numbers) 20:1-13) arrive at the desert of Tzin and have no water, so they complain to Moshe, because that is what you do when you are Jews in the desert with no water. In fact, it’s exactly what they had done in the past; not long after the splitting of the Red Sea they arrive at Refidim and have no water (Shemot ( Exodus) 17:1-7), and complain to Moshe. And then as now, Moshe takes his staff and hits the rock and presto! Everybody’s happy.
So what went wrong? Why, this time, does G-d subsequently punish Moshe...
Beating Jealousy
Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretence of keeping it alive.
--Havelock Ellis
In this week’s Torah portion Korach, a member of Moses' tribe the Levites and other communal leaders challenge Moses’s leadership and the appointment of priesthood to Moses’ brother Aaron. Motivated by envy toward Moses and Aaron they argue for equality. We are all holy. How can there be a hierarchy in holiness within Israel?
They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?
Moses responded to Korach:
Now listen, you Levites! Isn't it enough for you that the G-d of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near Himself to do the work at the Lord's tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to...
I recently saw a T shirt that said: ‘It is better to give than to receive’
Then on the back of the T shirt it added: ‘So you give and I’ll receive! ’
We live in a culture that seems to carry this mantra almost as its raison d’être.
Many years ago, we spent three years in the States where our children had the chance to study in American yeshivot and develop close friendships with their American peers.
Our eldest daughter in particular had the chance to befriend some very special girls in her age group with whom she was able to keep connection years after we came back to Israel.
When she was a senior in High School here, she, along with all of her Israeli friends, were navigating their options for the year post-High School and debating their choices: Army?; National Service? ; Seminary studies and then army or National Service?
At the same time all her friends from the States were equally engaged...
From His-tory to Her-story
Is G-d male or female?
One day my son Ananiel and my two daughters, Leyadya and Ne'ema, burst into my study. They had obviously been fighting over something and were very upset. I could see that I was chosen to be the lucky arbitrator to resolve another case of sibling rivalry. They shouted at each other, "You go, you ask Daddy." "No, no! You go, you go." Finally Ananiel, who was age five at that time, took the challenge and said, "O.K., O.K. Daddy, isn't it true that G-d is a boy?" Ne'ema and Leyadya, ages eight and nine, had tears in their eyes. I could hear them silently pleading with me, "Please no, please no. Tell us it's not true. It's bad enough our brother is a boy. Surely, G-d is really a girl." I said to them, "G-d is not a boy and G-d is not a girl. G-d is beyond that. We may talk about...
They were a small group of men with a mission. The year was 1940, and Jews by the tens of thousands were being herded into the ghettos of Nazi-occupied Europe, and while the Nazi hierarchy was meeting to determine the 'final solution to the Jewish problem', this small group was preparing the groundwork for what they believed would be the influx of refugees who would need a home and a place to call their own.
It is hard to imagine the vision required for a group of Jews in 1940 to believe that there was a need to create new towns and villages in the barren lands that were years away from becoming the State of Israel, but these young men and women believed, against all odds, that they were on the threshold of the fulfillment of a two thousand year old dream, and that at long last, after so many years of wandering, the Jewish people were ready to...
Getting the Divine View on You
How to make worlds of a difference
And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches;
and the picture of the LORD shall he view (Numbers/BaMidbar 12:6-8)
Several years ago, I gave my kids Cheerios for breakfast. It said on the front of the Cheerios box that on the back of this box is a three-dimensional Cheerios bumblebee. So I looked at the back of the box and saw a distorted, blurry thing. Have you ever looked at a 3-D book without the goggles? You see a mishmash of misprinted, distorted images. There were no goggles inside the box of Cheerios,...
We all love getting those cute 3-minute videos during the day that give us a laugh or a smile. Recently, someone sent me a clip that really got me thinking. It’s a video of a fellow giving his (I assume) two sons a challenge: they have four minutes to call the number he has written down… using an old rotary phone.
Their comical and unsuccessful attempts to figure out how to use the phone were also instructive. At one point, realizing that turning the dial round was not actually accomplishing anything, one of them realizes they need to ‘turn the phone on’, so he lifts the receiver and puts it back down with a triumphant look! And through-out the video as they figure out how to use the rotary-dial, they continuously miss the detail that makes it all irrelevant: they keep putting the receiver back down….
It never ceases to amaze me how our children seem to be seeing the...
Prophecy 101:
Ego is a Non-Prophet Venture
This week we begin to read from the fourth of the five books of Moses. Although this book is referred to in English as the Book of Numbers, in Hebrew it is referred to as Bamidbar because of the opening verse; "And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness (Bamidbar) of Sinai ..."
The Midrash, Jewish Oral Tradition, derives a somewhat puzzling insight from the fact that G-d spoke to Moses in the wilderness :
Unless one makes himself hefker (open and ownerless) like a wilderness he cannot acquire wisdom and Torah. (Bamidbar Rabbah 1:7)
In other words, to be receptive to the revelatory word of G-d you must be like the wilderness completely open and ownerless – in a state of humility and surrender. Moses heard the word of G-d not only in the physical location of the wilderness but also because was he was in a “wilderness” state of mind.
Edging G-d Out
The creative experience...
Years ago, after a very difficult month in Lebanon, someone higher up decided our unit needed a break. Every unit maintains a daily ‘events log’ (Yoman Iruim) which logs all the events of the day for any given IDF Combat company. Every patrol, ambush, search and seize, and oversight mission gets logged, and when a unit accrues too many stressful events within a certain period of time, they are, if circumstances allow, pulled off the line for a little rest. So it made sense, given the events our unit had experienced in Lebanon that it was our turn.
After transferring the line to a reserve company, we found ourselves in Netanya, in a heavenly place called Beit Goldmintz, along the Netanya coast. One day I will get a chance to thank the Goldmintz family who must have donated this place, which was previously a small hotel. Our mouths fell open when we walked into the room we had been assigned:...
Making G-d's Will Ours
"Behold you have sinned against G-d. And you your sin will find you." ~~ Numbers 32:23
THE PROCESS OF 'I'-DENTIFYING
If G-d were the sun each of us would be a ray of His divine light. The goal of the spiritual disciplines of daily Torah (Bible) life - study, prayer, meditation, and the performance of mitzvas (religious duties; plural formitzvah), is to serve G-d and, thereby, become one with our true essence. Through these practices we experience our self an aspect and individualized expression of the Timeless Universal Self - G-d.
The 20th century Kabbalist Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan explains in his book Inner Space that in order to feel this powerful truth, we must learn to disengage our inner self from its outer trappings. In other words, we have to get in touch with our soul as distinct from our persona, thoughts and feelings.
The goal of disengaging the self from the outer trappings is to realize that you are not your thoughts, your emotions, your body, your money,...
