There is a fascinating teaching in the Talmud: By bringing joy to a bride and a groom, which Jeremiah described in five voices, we merit the wisdom of Torah which was also transmitted via five voices. 

But this does not seem to make sense. What is the connection between the two? Also, what are these voices, or sounds? And why five?

Is it possible that an idea introduced to our world only in 1995 was being intimated in the Talmud 1700 years earlier?

Gary Chapman is a renowned marriage therapist. After many years of counseling it was obvious to him that couples were missing each other when one would say, &ldquo;I feel like he/she doesn&rsquo;t love me.&rdquo; And the other would say, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what else to do. I try to show her that I love her.&rdquo; He heard this pattern over and over again. He noticed that the trust, passion, excitement in so many relationships has eroded, because deep down there was a lack of love. So, he went through 12 years of notes that he had made when counseling couples and asked the question: When someone said, I feel like my spouse doesn&rsquo;t love me, what did they want?&nbsp; What were they complaining about? Their answers fell into 5 categories. He called them the 5 love languages; five ways that people speak and understand emotional love.

Is it not, then, fascinating, that the Torah described a marriage as consisting of &ldquo;five voices.&rdquo; A voice represents a &ldquo;language,&rdquo;&nbsp;a form of communication. A good marriage is comprised of all five voices. 

The Torah is also given in &ldquo;five voices.&rdquo;&nbsp;The giving of the Torah was a marriage&mdash;between the Creator and creation. How do we marry G-d? How is it possible for two completely separate worlds to meet? This is where the kolos come in, the &ldquo;sounds&rdquo;, the &ldquo;voices&rdquo;; the only way to reach out across infinity to truly connect with another, to initiate any relationship, is through the extraordinary gift of communication. The kol, then refers to communication. And, just as in a marriage, there are &ldquo;five love languages,&rdquo;&nbsp;five voices that make up the body of Judaism.

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shavuos

love

five love languages

Words of Affirmation; Spending Quality Time; Giving Gifts;Acts of Service; Physical Touch

Shavuos Essay 

The Five Love Languages of Judaism

The Bet on David and Goliath 

An archaeologist was digging in the Negev Desert in Israel and came upon a casket containing a mummy. After examining it, he called the curator of a prestigious natural history museum.

"I've just discovered a 3,000-year-old mummy of a man who died of heart failure!" the excited scientist exclaimed.

The curator replied, "Bring him in. We'll check it out."

A week later, the amazed curator called the archaeologist. "You were right about the mummy's age and cause of death. How in the world did you know?"

"Easy. There was a piece of paper in his hand that said, '1 million Shekel on Goliath'."

The Story of the Codex

Secured in the lower level of the famed Shrine of the Book at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum sits the Aleppo Codex. Its story is thrilling and mysterious, mirroring the story of the people who authored the Codex, the oldest, most complete, most accurate text of the Hebrew Bible, preserved in its entirety in important Jewish communities in the Near East: Tiberias, Jerusalem, Egypt, and in the city of Aleppo, Syria.

As we celebrate this holiday of Shavuos when we were given the Torah, it is worth recalling this story.

Some call it the Aleppo Codex, some call it the Crown of Aleppo. Its Hebrew name is כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא‎ (Keter Aram Tzova), the "Crown of Aleppo."

What is its uniqueness? This manuscript of the Hebrew Bible—the Tanach—was written around the year 930 by the scribe Shlomo ben Buya and was annotated (with the vowels—nekudos—and cantillations—trup—of the entire Tanach) by Aharon ben Asher. Aharon was considered the greatest expert on biblical texts and devoted his entire life to researching the most accurate version of the Tanach. How is each word spelled? What is its exact pronunciation? What is the musical note with which it is read in shul? How exactly is it written in the Torah Scroll? Although all Torah scrolls were copied from a previous one since there was no printing at the time, all were copied by hand, and over millennia, a mistake here or there creeps in. Aharon ben Asher spent a lifetime discovering the most authoritative text—and it was this Codex that he edited, time and time and time again until he perfected it.

Despite its name, the Keter (the Aleppo Codex) was not written in Aleppo, but in the northern Israeli city of Tiberias. Soon thereafter, the Keter would travel to Jerusalem and quickly become the authoritative text of the Bible for Jews and non-Jews alike.

Now, if you know your history, you know that eleventh-century Jerusalem was no place for a nice Jewish boy or a Jewish Bible. When Jerusalem was ransacked by the Christian Crusaders, the Keter was saved and ransomed from the Crusaders by Jews of Egypt.

In Fustat, Egypt, the Keter came into the possession of the most famous Jew of the day and perhaps of all times – Rabbi Moses Maimonides, the Rambam (1135-1204).

Before his passing in 1204, Maimonides, upon whose contributions to Jewish law, philosophy, and exegesis we still rely, referred to the Keter as the authoritative text of the Bible.

<big>רמב"ם הלכות ספר תורה פרק ח הלכה ד: וספר שסמכנו עליו בדברים אלו הוא הספר הידוע במצרים שהוא כולל ארבעה ועשרים ספרים שהיה בירושלים מכמה שנים להגיה ממנו הספרים, ועליו היו הכל סומכין, לפי שהגיהו בן אשר ודקדק בו שנים הרבה והגיהו פעמים רבות כמו שהעתיקוּ, ועליו סמכתי בספר התורה שכתבתי כהלכתו.</big>

And the book that we relied upon in these matters is the well-known book in Egypt, which contains twenty-four books, which was in Jerusalem some years ago, to revise the books from it, and everyone relied on it since it was revised by Aharon ben Asher, and he worked meticulously on it for many years and revised it many times, as they copied, and I have relied on it in the Torah Scroll that I wrote according to the Halakha.

Here Maimonides is telling us of a complete manuscript of the Bible (twenty-four books), which was revised by Aharon ben Asher over and over again for many years. Maimonides prefers this manuscript to all the other Torah Scrolls and manuscripts, and he decrees as Halacha that Torah scrolls should be written according to this manuscript. Because of the great authority of Maimonides, within a few generations, all Jewish communities accepted his ruling, and all the Torah scrolls of all the Jewish ethnic groups are written according to his instructions, which are based on the codex revised by Aharon ben Asher.

Now, you must understand the significance of this. Maimonides transcribed in his code of law the accurate way the Torah scroll must be transcribed—and it was all from this Codex that fell into his hands and which he trusted more than any other scroll.

As to how the Keter arrived from Egypt to Syria, we are not sure. We know that Rabbi Dovid ben Yehoshua, a direct descendant of Maimonides, traveled through Israel in 1375, going to live in Damascus and eventually Aleppo, a historically strong and rich Jewish community. Some speculated he might have brought it to Syria.

There the Keter sat, in the old Aleppo Synagogue, for over five hundred years, in a chest with two locks, like a nuclear briefcase, not to be opened except in the presence of the bearers of the keys. Two leaders of the community had the keys, but the pact was that nobody would open it not in the presence of the other.

The Riots

The Keter slumbered for centuries – a sacred text under the protectorate of the Aleppo community – right up until November 30, 1947, the morning after the UN General Assembly voted in favor of the establishment of a Jewish State.

That morning a mob attacked the Jewish quarter in Aleppo, setting fire to the synagogues, the start of a riot that would go on for days. The attack, a part of an anti-Jewish wave of unrest across the Middle East and North Africa, resulted in some 75 Jews murdered and several hundred wounded. Following the attack, the Jewish community went into a steep decline. The wealthy Jews escaped the day after the pogrom and many more fled in small groups in subsequent months. Their property was forfeited and on December 22 the Syrian Government enacted a law forbidding Jews from selling their property. Within a few years after the pogroms, most Jews left Aleppo, a large majority of them relocating to Israel. By 1959, about 2,000 Jews remained in Aleppo. As of 2012, no Jews live in Aleppo.

What about the Crown stored away in the synagogue that was attacked? At first, people thought that it had been completely destroyed. Later, however, it turned out that most of the manuscript had been saved. The synagogue sexton, Asher Baghdadi, and his son ran back into the smoldering synagogue to gather the pages of the Crown!

From that day on, the writing was on the wall for the Aleppo Community. For ten years, the Keter went from hiding place to hiding place. It traveled from hand to hand, hiding it from the Syrian authorities. Eventually, in 1958 the Codex was wrapped in cheesecloth and smuggled out by a dairyman to the fledgling new State of Israel. It arrived in Jerusalem and was delivered to the President of Israel, Yitzchak Ben Zvi.

The Missing Pages

The Aleppo Codex originally had 487 pages. Yet, as it reached Israel, it had only 294 parchment pages, written on both sides. Examinations revealed that many pages were missing because of the damage to the Codex during the 1947 pogrom. Mainly the first part of the manuscript was damaged, the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses), of which only the last eleven pages remained. Almost all the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) had been lost, except the final chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy, which were preserved.

Many efforts were made to locate the missing pages of the Aleppo Codex. Despite years of research, and all of types of mysterious and criminal stories circulating, we do not know what happened to the missing pages. Were they burned or destroyed? Were they, perhaps, hidden somewhere? Were they stolen? Did Jewish families from Aleppo take them?

The efforts to ascertain the truth met with many disappointments. Nevertheless, there were two successes: an entire page of the Aleppo Codex from the book of Chronicles reached New York and was preserved by a family from the city of Aleppo. Eventually, that page was given to the National Library in Jerusalem and added to the Aleppo Codex. Then another clue was discovered: a fragment of a page from the Book of Exodus had been preserved in the United States in the wallet of a man from Aleppo, who used it as a kind of lucky charm. This piece of parchment has not yet reached Jerusalem, but a photograph of it has been published.

Today one can see the Codex—whatever parts they found—in the Israel Museum. Its silent pages tell an incredible story, the story not only of a manuscript but of a people holding on to its Torah for the last 3,333 years.

The Soul of a People

In my mind, this narrative captures the story of our people. The book has been the soul of the people, and the people have been the soul of the book. &nbsp;

Just like the Crown of Aleppo, we too traveled from country to country, yet we held on to our Torah, and it held on to us. As a result, we retained our identity if sometimes only in fragments, ultimately returning—like the Codex—to our eternal homeland.

Just like the Crown of Aleppo, they said about us too that we are no more; that we have been destroyed. But in some inexplicable way, 3333 years after Sinai we are still going strong.

The Jewish people are under attack again. Three millennia later, our foes still crave genocide for the Jews, and the world blames the Jews…

We must stand united and strong and always remember that as long as we hold on to the book, eternity belongs to us.

(My thanks to Rabbi Nir Gurevitch, Spiritual leader, Surfers Paradise, Australia, for his assistance with this essay).

Secured in the lower level of the famed Shrine of the Book at Jerusalem&rsquo;s Israel Museum sits the Aleppo Codex. Its story is thrilling and mysterious, mirroring the story of the people who authored the Codex, the oldest, most complete, most accurate text of the Hebrew Bible, preserved in its entirety in important Jewish communities in the Near East: Tiberias, Jerusalem, Egypt, and in the city of Aleppo in Syria. As we celebrate this holiday when we were given the Torah, it is worth recalling this story.

The Keter (the Aleppo Codex) slumbered for centuries &ndash; a sacred text under the protectorate of the Aleppo community &ndash; right up until November 30, 1947, the morning after the UN General Assembly voted in favor of the establishment of a Jewish State. That morning a mob attacked the Jewish quarter in Aleppo, setting fire to the synagogues, the start of a riot that would go on for days.&nbsp;

At first, people thought that it had been completely destroyed. Later, however, it turned out that most of the manuscript had been saved. The synagogue sexton, Asher Baghdadi, and his son ran back into the smoldering synagogue to gather the pages of the Crown. Eventually, in 1958 the codex was wrapped in cheesecloth and smuggled out by a dairyman to the fledgling new State of Israel. It arrived in Jerusalem and was delivered to the President of Israel, Yitzchak Ben Zvi.

The incredible story of this Codex mirrors the story of our people.

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aleppo codex

The Incredible Loss & Recovery of the Most Authoritative Tanach Manuscript

The Crown of Aleppo

A Doctor’s Advice

A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor's office. Following her husband’s checkup, the doctor called the wife into his office to speak with her privately. He said, "Your husband is suffering from a very severe stress disorder. If you don't do the following, your husband will surely deteriorate and die." 
 
“Each morning," instructed the doctor, "fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant at all times. For lunch make him a nutritious meal. For dinner prepare an especially nice meal for him. Have the dinner waiting for him on the table, hot, as he arrives home from work. Don't burden him with chores. Don't discuss your problems with him; it will only make his stress worse. No nagging is allowed. You must also compliment him at least five-six times a day, telling him how brilliant and talented he is. And most importantly, never disagree with him.” 
 
"If you can do this for the next 10 months to a year," the doctor said, "I think your husband will regain his health completely." 
 
On the way home, the husband asked his wife, "What did the doctor say?" 
 
"He said you're going to die," she replied.

The Proposal 

There is an enigmatic Talmudic passage explaining a peculiar phrase in the Torah reading of shvauos, from the portion&nbsp;of Yisro: "They (the Jewish people) stood in the bottom of the (Sinai) mountain <a name="_ednref1" title=""></a>[1]."

What is the meaning of the words "in the bottom of the mountain"? The Talmud explains <a name="_ednref2" title=""></a>[2] that the Jews were actually standing inside the mountain. "G-d enveloped them with the mountain as though it was an upturned vat, and He said to them: 'If you accept the Torah, fine; if not, this will be your burial place.'"

The event at Sinai is viewed as the marriage ceremony between G-d and the Jewish people <a name="_ednref3" title=""></a>[3]. Imagine a groom, who on the day of his wedding, placed his bride under an elevator and declared: "If you marry me, great; if not, the elevator will come down on your head." How enduring can such a relationship be? Couldn't G-d have found a more "romantic" way to convince the "bride" to marry Him?

What is even more puzzling is the fact that according to the biblical narrative <a name="_ednref4" title=""></a>[4], the Jewish people had already expressed their willingness to accept the Torah before this event. Why was it necessary for G-d to coerce them into something they had already agreed upon <a name="_ednref5" title=""></a>[5]?

Let us present the explanation offered by one of the greatest spiritual masters of all time, the Baal Shem Tov <a name="_ednref6" title=""></a>[6].

Numb Days 

There are days when we are emotionally in touch with our inner idealism, spirituality and G-dliness. At such times we are inspired to live deeply and to love deeply.

But then come the days when we feel estranged from our souls. We are emotionally numb, experiencing ourselves merely as self-centered and materialistic creatures seeking to satiate nothing more than our momentary cravings. We are simply not in the mood for our higher, refined aspirations. G-d does not appeal to us. At such times of spiritual alienation, we often succumb to mundane and selfish behavior. Since we feel disconnected, we act as though we are indeed disconnected.

This is a mistake. By G-d forcing the Jewish people to enter into the relationship—even though they had already agreed—He demonstrated to them the truth that their relationship was not based on the fact that they were consciously passionate about it. Instead, the relationship was inherent and essential to their very chemistry <a name="_ednref7" title=""></a>[7]. Man is an innately sacred and Divine creature. "Even when you are not in the mood of me," G-d was intimating, "our relationship is as strong as ever. You can act on it."

Yet you may still think, "Fine, I will behave, but let's face it, the relationship is not happening. It is all but dead."

So G-d says “no.” By placing the mountain on their heads at the moment of Revelation, during the profoundest moment of intimacy between G-d and his people, G-d was saying that a relationship inspired by the knowledge that this is the truth, though you may not feel it, is a genuine and authentic relationship. It is a real union. Though there is no passion, when you behave in a moral and sacred fashion knowing that this is who you really are, it is a true bond.

I don’t feel like spending time with my children right now. I do not feel like going to the wedding. I do it anyway. But I feel it is lifeless and devoid of meaning. So the Torah says: Not at all. It is real, authentic and valuable. What I feel or don’t is never the barometer of whether it is right or wrong.

Never confuse your moods with your values. I may not be in the mood of something, for 1000 different reasons. That does not diminish in the slightest my inner connection to it: it remains my value, my innate desire and commitment.

Rocky Moments

In the Jewish tradition, the marriage of each man and woman reflects the cosmic marriage between G-d and His people <a name="_ednref8" title=""></a>[8]. There are the days when we feel truly grateful for our spouses and experience deep love towards them. At such times we crave to give of ourselves to our spouses and make their lives happier.

But at other times we become cold and apathetic. We just want to do "our own thing" and simply are not in the mood of the relationship. Sometimes, a marriage goes through tough seasons.

In the majority of cases, it would be a sad error to act upon those feelings of detachment. For the Kabbalah teaches <a name="_ednref9" title=""></a>[9] that a wife and husband are essentially "two halves of a single soul." At their core, they are one. Thus, when a couple enters into marriage, it needs to recall what G-d reminded us on the day of His marriage: Whether we are in the mood of each other or not, we are married and we are one.

Such a commitment could save many marriages when they encounter rocky times. After all, it saved the marriage between G-d and the Jews.

<a name="_edn1" title=""></a>[1]Exodus 19:17.

<a name="_edn2" title=""></a>[2]Shabbos 88a.

<a name="_edn3" title=""></a>[3]See, for example, Mishnah Taanis 26b; Shemos Rabah end of section 15.

<a name="_edn4" title=""></a>[4]Exodus 24:7.

<a name="_edn5" title=""></a>[5]This question is raised among many of the Talmudic commentators. See Tosfos, Eitz Yosef, Pnei Yehoshua, Shabbos Shel Mi and BenYehoyada to Talmud Shabbos ibid. Midrash Tanchumah Noach section 3. Daas Zekeinim Mibbalei Hatosafos on Exodus 19:17. Maharal Tiferes Yisroel ch. 32, Gur Aryeh on Exodus ibid. and Or Chodash p. 45. Sources noted in Pardas Yosef to Exodus ibid.

<a name="_edn6" title=""></a>[6]1698-1760. This idea was transcribed by his famed disciple, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Pulnah (Ben Poras Yosef Parshas Vayeishev. Cf. Nesiv Metzvosecah Nesiv HaTorah 1:28). For alternative explanations see referenced noted in previous footnote as well as in Torah Or Megilas Esther p. 96c; 118c.

<a name="_edn7" title=""></a>[7]Cf. Tanya chapters 14, 18-19, 25, 28, 41, 44.

<a name="_edn8" title=""></a>[8]See commentaries to Song of Songs. Maimonides' Laws of Teshuvah ch. 10.

<a name="_edn9" title=""></a>[9]Zohar Vayikra p. 7b.

Not in the Mood of Your Spouse? - Sometimes the Deepest Romance Can Emerge When You Have a Mountain Over Your Head

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sinai

marriage

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Never Confuse Moods with Values

Essay Shavuos/Yisro

The Mountain Over Your Head

He was one of the most brilliant men of the Tanach, and one of its most tragic personalities. In his prime time he was considered the greatest Jew of his era, yet he ended up killing himself.

The Talmud tells us: Three things did Achitofel command his children before his passing: 1. Do not enter into quarrels. 2. Do not rebel against the sovereignty of David. 3. If the weather is clear on the holiday of Shavuot, plant wheat.

If these are his dying words surely they must contain his greatest and most profound insights gleaned from a lifetime rich in experience. What is the significance of these three ideas that warrant the fact that they are his last charge to his children? What is their underlying unifying theme? How do these three statements sum up his life?

Also, what does he mean, &ldquo;If the weather on Shavous is clear, plant wheat?&rdquo; Was this simple agricultural advice? If yes, what does it mean? And why did he decide to say it now moments before his death?

In a letter on the eve of Shavauos 1949, the Lubavitcher Rebbe offered a brilliant and extraordinary explanation.

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dovid

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Before His Suicide, The Wisest Jew of His Era Offered Three Life-Altering Messages

Shavuos Essay

The Shrewdest Jew's Last Will and Testament

A Can of Beans

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">Three guys are alone on a desert island: an engineer, a biologist and an economist. They are starving and don't have a thing to eat, but somehow they find a can of beans on the shore.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">The engineer says: "Let's hit the can with a rock until it opens."</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">The biologist has another idea: "No. We should wait for a while. Erosion will do the job."</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">Finally, the economist says: "Let's assume that we have a can opener".</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">The Desert 
&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">What was the significance of the fact that Torah was given in a wilderness, in a barren and infertile desert, not in a civilized terrain, nor on soil conducive to human living and nature’s blessing. Why did G-d communicate His blueprint for life and enter into an eternal covenant with the Jewish people in the aridity and desolateness of a desert?</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">In a past essay, we discussed three explanations.&nbsp;1. The Torah was given on soil not owned by any particular people or community, to signify that the Torah belongs to every single Jewish soul. 2. The giving of the Torah in the wilderness represents the idea that Torah is not a product of a particular culture and genre. It enriches all cultures, but transcends them. 3. The function of Torah is to confront and refine the “barren wilderness” within the human psyche and the world.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">Today we will explore a fourth and deeper dimension, articulated by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in a pre-Shavous address, 1972. It is a message that may be&nbsp;particularly relevant to the modern Jew.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">Feel-Good Religion</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">One of the errors that a Jew living in the modern era is likely to make is that Judaism makes no existentially profound demands on its believers. Judaism is a feel-good religion, and its objective is to make one feel comfortable about ones self. For many religious leaders and teachers today, the primary objective is to present a version of Judaism that will fit nicely in to the mind-set and living patterns of their constituents and will reassure them that they are wonderful people. Many rabbis are committed above all to teach a Judaism that will not shake up our comfort-zones.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">In many ways this has become the hallmark of the American version of Judaism – designed to conform to the paradigms of modernity. “In the image of the modern, American Jew, have we created Judaism.”</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">“My goal is to study and practice a Judaism that does not interfere with my conveniences,” a man once told me. “I have my lifestyle, philosophy, schedule, habits, and social patterns; as long as Judaism can fit into this, I will make room for it and enjoy it too.”</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">But if we communicate a Judaism just to make people feel good, why do we really need it? Why not just figure out what works best for our lives and pursue that? Therapy, yoga, exercise, suburban living, meditation, nutrition, sports, the arts, music, etc. If Judaism is merely here to nurture my pre-defined identity and satisfy my ingrained appetites, why bother with it all together?</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">And can the feel-good Judaism inspire a future? Can such a type of Judaism take root in the hearts of the youth? Can it appeal to the idealistic dimension of the human soul, searching to touch the Divine?</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">A Tale of Two Images</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">But suppose that Judaism was real -- it was the authentic blueprint for life from the living G-d -- then the question should not be, “How do I find a Judaism that does not disturb me too much,” but rather – what does Judaism really say about my calling? What does Judaism believe about life, death and everything in between? What does Torah have to say about the most important question and dilemmas facing the human mind and heart? The question must be not&nbsp;how I can mold Judaism in my image, but how I can mold myself in the image of Torah? How can I revisit my image and recreate myself based on the visage of man articulated in Judaism?</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">If Torah is true, I must have the courage to take a hard, deep look at my preconceived notions, thoughts and behavior patterns, ready to discover truth that may challenge me.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">This is why Torah was given in the barren desert, in uncivilized wilderness, where it had no predefined culture to contend with and to be compared with. Only in the physical and artistic silence of the desert can we open ourselves to a radical search for truth. Only in a desert, can we walk into something with our whole being, ready to find anything.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">If Torah would have been given in a city or amidst a beautifully natural terrain, it would have, by definition, conformed to the culture prevailing in those particular areas. In the great river lowlands where civilization began (the Tigris-Euphrates rivers and the Nile), the eye is captivated by the shifting scenes of nature; in cities, the eye is overtaken by the works of man -- art and architecture. In such environments, the Israelites would only be able to absorb a religion that would fit into their psyches, patterns, and sensibilities, like all the Pagan religions of the time. The Jews could never attune themselves to the word of a G-d who transcends nature.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">Sinai challenged the Jewish people to revisit all of existence from its deepest genesis; to reexamine life and history from its very nucleus; to see the world not from the human perspective, but from the perspective of G-d who cannot be confined in human modalities. A revolution of this magnitude cannot take place in a populated environment, not even in an environment where life blossoms and nature flourishes. Only in the emptiness and desolateness of the wilderness is the ego subordinate to the search for truth. Only in the silence of the desert, can a person bid farewell to all of his or her paradigms and allow his soul to absorb radical transcendence.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">A Rash People</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">This explains a deeply enigmatic episode which occurred at Sinai.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">The Bible relates that when Moses presented the covenant before the Israelites, they responded, "We will do and we will listen" (Exodus 24:7). This expression has always been a source of wonderment and surprise to rabbis and a refutation of the anti-Semitic portrayal of Jews as calculating and self-protective. "We will do and we will listen" implies a commitment to observe the covenant even before the Jews heard its details and understood its ramifications.</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">The Talmud (Shabbas 88b) tells a story about a Sadducee who once saw one of the great Talmudic sages, Rava, so engrossed in learning that he did not attend a wound in his own hand. The Sadducee exclaimed, "You rash people! You put your mouths ahead of your ears [by saying "we will do and we will listen"], and you still persist in your recklessness. First, you should have heard out [the covenant details]. If it is within your capacity, then accept it. If not, you should have rejected it”!</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">His argument was logical. Imagine somebody offers you to invest a large sum&nbsp;of money in a developing company. To respond, “Sure, here is the money, and then afterward I will listen to the details,” is ridiculous. If you do not know what the company is all about, why subject your money to possible loss? And yet, in this case, the Jews declared that they were ready embrace a life-altering covenant, even before they heard all the details and knew what Judaism was all about! Why? How?</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">Rava answered the Sadducee with these words: "We walked [into it] with our whole being.”</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">What Rava meant was this: By definition, a relationship with G-d cannot be created on our terms; it must be on His terms. If there is something called Truth, if there is something called Reality, we cannot define it; it must define us. We cannot accept it on condition that it suits our senses and expectations. On the contrary, we must realign our condition to it. Once the Jewish people knew that G-d was communicating with them, they did not want to fit religion into their imagination; they had no pre conditions for a relationship with truth. It was in the desert that the Jews can declare, “We will do and we will listen.”</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">This process must occur each year anew. To receive Torah, we must have the courage to walk into a desert; we must strip ourselves from any pre-defined self-identity. We need to be ready to hear the sound beneath the sounds we are accustomed to. Torah is not merely a cute and endearing document filled with rituals, to satisfy nostalgia or tradition. Torah demands that we open ourselves up with our whole being and declare, “We shall do and we shall listen!”</div>

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;(This essay is based on a talk delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, on Shabbas Parshas Bamidbar, 29 Iyar, 5732, May 13, 1972.)</div>

Entering into the Wilderness - The Feel-Good Judaism of the Modern Jew

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The Feel-Good Judaism of the Modern Jew

Entering into the Wilderness

The Nightingale

The story is told<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')">[1]</a> of a king who once decided to reward a peasant who had done him a great service. "Shall I give him a sack of gold? A bag of pearls?" thought the king. "But these mean virtually nothing to me. I want, for once, to truly give something -- something that I will miss, a gift that constitutes a sacrifice for me."

Now this king had a nightingale who sang the sweetest songs a human ear had ever heard. He treasured the nightingale over all else, and literally found life unbearable without it. So he summoned the peasant to his palace and gave him the bird . "This," said the king, "is in appreciation for your loyalty and devotion." "Thank you, Your Majesty," said the peasant, and took the royal gift to his humble home.

A while later, the king was passing through the peasant's village and commanded his coachman to halt at the peasant's door. "How are you enjoying my gift?" he inquired of his beloved subject.

"The truth to tell, Your Majesty," said the peasant, "the bird's meat was quite tough -- all but inedible, in fact. But I cooked it with lots of potatoes, and it gave the stew an interesting flavor."

Is This Freedom?

Why does Judaism prohibit me from doing whatever I want? people often ask. Why can't we just be free, liberated, and individualistic? Why are there so many laws, instructions and rituals in Judaism that govern every aspect of one's life, from the way we eat to the way we marry?&nbsp; Would it not have been nice if the opening of the Tem Commandments would have read like this: "I am the Lord your G-d who has taken you out of Egypt in order to set you free. Now, young women and men, listen ye to my words! You can do whatever you want, wherever you want, however you want, with whomever you want, as long as you don't hurt another person. I honor your individual rights to choose your own lifestyle and behavior, without anybody governing your decisions. Conform not to any standard; just live it up!"

But, as you know, G-d chose another script for the Ten Commandments. They were not written by Woody Allen, Alan Ginsburg, or Aldous Huxley. At Sinai G-d gave the Jewish people a Torah – filled with directives, instructions and restrictions. I am in the airport, my flight is delayed, and I am the only one who can’t enjoy a hot dog and fries in McDonald. As the sun rises, I am the only one who has to stand up in front of the entire plane and put on tefilin to the dismay of the flight attendants who will now testify that they have spent 11 hours with a UFO. Shabbos arrives and I am the only one who does not go to the golf course…

Is this why we left the house of bondage in Egypt – to become slaves to the Almighty?

And yet the Sages saw it otherwise. “There is no free man, save for he who occupies himself with the study of Torah” (Ethics of the Fathers, 6:2.) Really?! If anything, it is exactly the other way around: as long as you don’t learn Torah, you are free to engage in so many activities, the options are open. Once you embrace Torah, there goes your freedom Charlie… Torah mixes into everything… A life that is faithful to the precepts of the Torah is indeed greatly “constricted” and “confined.”

Why – people often ask me -- limit myself in any way? Why not give free rein to my thoughts, feelings and inclinations, and let them lead me where they may? Why automatically exclude certain pursuits and experiences from the possible paths my life might take?

Democracy and Laser Technology

Among the great technological achievements of the last half-century is the development of the “laser beam.”

Briefly: The nature of light is such that it scatters as it moves away from its source, thereby lessening its intensity and effect. The laser overcomes this limitation by concentrating its energy in a straight line, so that it retains its potency even at great distance from its point of origin; thus its utility -- as a source of light, heat, or other uses -- can be exploited in ways previously unimaginable.

A laser beam is narrowly confined so that the light does not spread to the sides. It is thus completely focused in one direction only, maintaining its strength even at great distances from its source. In fact, the laser beam can even make a hole through a metal barrier several inches thick at a distance of several miles.

The photons in a laser beam all move in the same direction, so they can be precisely focused. This focus concentrates enormous energies on a tiny spot, allowing mere light to vaporize even steel.

Lasers are now used in numerous technologies, from dental drills to CD drives to household tools. Lasers are also widely used in surgery. Laser technology has allowed surgeons to develop many new techniques to reduce injury to tissues and shorten the healing time for incisions. With the laser beams, surgeons silently and smoothly penetrate deep into the body and perform various procedures to bring healing to people.

It is not a coincidence that during the same decades when the concept of “freedom at all costs” has overtaken our society – Divine providence allowed science to develop laser technology, because it is through this technology that we can gain insight into the true function of Torah and Mitzvos, and the objective of Jewish law. Torah is the spiritual “laser technology” of the world.

Scattering the Energy

On the face of it, the Jewish code of behavior is a limiting factor, something that detracts from the great variety of possibilities that life has to offer. In truth, however, the very opposite is the case. As the example of the laser beam demonstrates, it is precisely the “limitations” imposed on a force that extend and amplify its potentials and enable its optimal realization.

A life without parameters is a life that quickly dissipates in the cosmic heterogeneity in which we exist, draining it of all power and impact. When we follow our instincts, habits, cravings and appetites without any restrictions – our inner momentum, focus and depth are weakened. When we allow ourselves the freedom to go in every direction, when there are no boundaries or imitations and we are free to do everything and anything -- our light scatters all over the place and we never realize our ultimate power and potential. Our energies are squandered, our richness is compromised, our creativity silenced, and our brightness dulled.

Conversely, when we “restrict” the light, and do now allow it to flow anywhere and everywhere – we fine-tune our inner creativity, we cultivate our power, we become the most powerful people we can become, we access all of our momentum and we can vaporize even steel…&nbsp;

It is like the chords of a violin which must be tied down to allow the music to play. Torah and Halacha do not come to tie us down, but rather to allow our music to soar.

The Baal Shem Tov teaches, that Halacha is the acronym of “Hareoo L’Hashem Kal Haaretz,” let the whole earth sing to G-d.” What for one person is meat-and-potatos is for another person a nightingale capable of producing of the most beautiful music in the world<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2')">[2]</a>.

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')">[1]</a> Rendition by Rabbi Yanki Tauber: http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/133024/jewish/The-King-the-Peasant-and-the-Nightingale.htm

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2')">[2]</a> This essay is based on a talk delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shabbos Chanukah 5730 (1969), said in honor of the “Pegisha”-Shabbaton, a weekend for secular students, which took place that Shabbos in Crown Heights. My thanks to Professor Yermeyahoo Branever and Rabbi Yanki Tauber for their renditions of this talk (<a href="http://www.meaningfullife.com/torah/ethics/6/Concentrated_Light.php">http://www.meaningfullife.com/torah/ethics/6/Concentrated_Light.php</a>) from which I culled a few paragraphs.

What&#39;s With All These Laws? - Laser Technology of the World

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Laser Technology of the World

Essay Shavuos

What's With All These Laws?

Always Late

Sarah was always late to work no matter how much she tried to be on time, or how many times her boss scolded her. She just could not wake up on time. Her boss said she would fire her if it did not stop. Sarah decided to seek the advice of her doctor. He prescribed her some medication and told her to take one pill before going to sleep, so she can fall asleep immediately and rise early.&nbsp;She did just that and she woke up before dawn and headed into work feeling well-rested. Sarah told her boss about the doctor’s prescription and how well it worked.

Her boss said, “That is great, Sarah, but where were you yesterday?”

Choosing the World &amp; the Jews 

It is a strange Midrash, found in this week’s Torah portion, Bo. At the surface, it seems baffling, but upon deeper reflection, it contains an extraordinary meditation on how we live our lives and manage our time.

The Jewish calendar has twelve lunar months. The first day of each month is known as Rosh Chodesh (the head of the month); the first day of the year (the first day of the first month of the year) is known as Rosh Hashanah (the head of the year.)

Says the Midrash:<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn1" name="_ftnref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')">[1]</a>

שמות רבה טו, יא: דָּבָר אַחֵר, הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם. הֲדָא הוּא דִּכְתִיב&nbsp;(תהלים לג, יב) אַשְׁרֵי הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר ה' אֱלֹהָיו, מִשֶּׁבָּחַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּעוֹלָמוֹ, קָבַע בּוֹ רָאשֵׁי חֳדָשִׁים וְשָׁנִים, וּכְשֶׁבָּחַר בְּיַעֲקֹב וּבָנָיו קָבַע בּוֹ רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים שֶׁל גְּאֻלָּה.

When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of years.’ When G-d chose Jacob and his children, the Jewish people, He established the ‘head of the month of redemption’ (the first day of the month of Nissan, the month of the Exodus).

What does this Midrash mean? What does it mean “when G-d chose His world?” Why does the Midrash not say, “when G-d created His world?”

And what does choosing a world have to do with the establishment of the head of a month and the heads of a year? And what does the Midrash mean when it says that “when G-d chose Jacob and his children, He established the Head of the month of redemption?”

Delineating time into months and years is based on the astronomical lunar and solar orbits. The moon completes its orbit after one month. The sun completes its orbit after a year. What does any of this have to do with G-d “choosing His world,” or “choosing Jacob and his children?”

An Address to High School Girls

On January 16, 1964 (2 Shevat, 5724), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) addressed a group of teenage girls, the graduating class of a New York Jewish girls’ high school, Beth&nbsp;Rivkah.<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn2" name="_ftnref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2')">[2]</a> He offered them a most marvelous insight into this Midrash. This profound perspective can teach us volumes about how to view a one-liner in Midrash, and how to speak to the hearts of teenage girls.

(This coming Shabbos, 10 Shevat,&nbsp;marks the 74th anniversary of the passing of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Scnheerson (1880-1950), who passed away on Shabbos morning, Parshas Bo, 10 Shevat, 5710, January 28, 1950. On the same day, one year later, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbem succeeded his father-in-law as the leader of Chabad-Lubavitch. The following insight is characteristic of the profundity and richness of the Rebbe's&nbsp; Torah insights and perspectives.)&nbsp;

Three Types of Time

Aristotle said that time was the greatest teacher who killed all his students. There is no “teacher” like time. What we learn through time and aging is unparalleled by any class or teacher. The experience of life is the greatest teacher. The saying goes: When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience ends up with the money; the man with the money ends up with an experience.

And yet the clock stops for nobody. “Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings,” John Updike said. You may be sleeping, sipping a coffee, surfing the web, or getting angry at your boss or your spouse, the clock is ticking away. How do we deal with the merciless reality of time?

There are three ways, suggests the Midrash. There are three experiences of time: depressing time, meaningful time, and redemptive time. You choose in which time-zone you will breathe.

Depressing Time

For some, time is just an endless flow, a shapeless blob, a random stream that never ceases. A day comes and a day goes, and then another day comes and goes. Each day is the same as the day before, and they all add up to nothing.

Sometimes you watch people who allow their days and years to pass without goals. Every day is an invitation to squander yet another 24 hours until it too will bite the dust. If the boredom gets to you, you find ways to escape and dull the void.

This is an empty time: time devoid of any theme. Time as it is on its own, without human initiative and creativity. Shapeless and formless. One set of 24 hours is indistinguishable from another set of 24 hours.

Productive Time

Comes the Midrash and says, “When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of years.’” For the world to become a chosen place, a desirable habitat, a place worth living in, a place that G-d not only created but chose, we must grant the endless flow of time the dignity of purpose. Every day ought to have a productive objective, every month—a meaningful goal, every year—a dynamic rhythm. The world G-d chose and desired was one in which humanity learns to confer meaning on time, to utilize it for constructive and beneficial endeavors. A meaningful life is a life in which every day is filled with meaningful choices and experiences, utilized to promote goodness, righteousness,&nbsp;and justice.

This is what it means to choose your world and choose your life, to appreciate that G-d chose this world. There is meaning and purpose in each moment. You can view life as random and valueless, or you can see life as a gift, and view time as priceless, something I ought to cultivate in the fullest way.&nbsp;I choose to invest all my energy, creativity, and passion into each moment; and for me, each day is an invitation to deeper growth and awareness.

So “When G-d chose His world, He established ‘heads of months’ and ‘heads of years.’” For time to be utilized purposefully, every month must have a “head,” which gives the month its tone and direction. Every year must have a “head,” Rosh Hashanah, the time to put into focus the year that passed and the year ahead. For time to be used productively, it must be delineated. I&nbsp;must take note of sunrise and sunset, of a new month and a new year. Each presents me with a specific energy,&nbsp;calling, and opportunity.

Redemptive Time

You can live a productive life, mark your days with worthy objectives. Your life has rhythm. You have a morning, a night, a lunch break, a weekend, and a vacation.

But you are still confined within the realm of a mortal, finite and frail universe. As one wise man&nbsp;said, Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. Or: Time is a storm in which we are all lost; time is free, but it’s priceless; you can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.

Within the restricted structure of our bodies, life span, and circumstances, we can use our time productively.&nbsp;Yet, we can’t free ourselves from the prison of mortality. Even when I work hard and use my time well, it is still cruel to me. It ages me. At any moment something can happen which will shake up and destroy my entire structure and rhythm.

Here is where the Midrash opens us up to another dimension of time, and this is where the Jewish story is introduced into history. “When G-d chose Jacob and his children He established the head of the month of Redemption.” G-d gave us the ability to liberate and redeem ourselves from the natural, mortal, and finite reality. He allowed us to align our posture with Divine infinity; not just to be productive with our time, but to confer upon each moment transcendence, to grant it the resonance of eternity, to liberate it and ourselves from the shackles of mortality.

You can be productive with your time. You can use it to shovel the snow, mow the lawn, fix the garage, read a good book, shop in Costco, enhance your computer speed, sell a building, cook a gourmet meal, and help society. This is worthwhile. But you are capable of more: You can make each moment Divine, elevating it to the realm of the sacred, where each moment, hour, day, week, month, and year become infused with G-dliness and are thus transformed into eternity. You can allow your time to become a conduit for the timeless.

"When G-d chose Jacob and his children He established the head of the month of Redemption.” This is the month of Nissan, the month when we were set free of Egyptian bondage and were empowered to free ourselves from every form of bondage. Torah and Mitzvos make our time not only productive but Divine.

When you align your time rhythm with the Divine, realizing that every moment of time is an opportunity to connect with the infinite light vibrating through your body and the cosmos; when you use your time to study G-d’s Torah, to connect to G-d, to perform a mitzvah, and to live in the Divine consciousness of oneness, your time is not only productive, but it is redemptive, uninhibited by the shackles of nature finitude. You redeem and transform your time—by aligning it with the divine blueprint for life.

The Choice

When the sun rises, and I declare “Shema Yisroel” to align my posture with Divine oneness—the moment of sunrise is now etched in eternity. When the sun of Friday is about to set and I kindle the Shabbos lights, it is a moment transformed into transcendent peacefulness. When I take a moment to do a favor for another person, for tuning into the love of the universe, for studying Torah or praying, I elevate the moment into transcendence.

In the words of the Tanya (ch. 25), "In the higher reality, this union (between the soul and G-d when we perform a mitzvah) is eternal, for G-d and His will transcend time... Only here below is the union within the limits of time."&nbsp;

Each of us can choose in which “time zone” we will live. Do I live in a “depressing time,” letting my days and nights pass without meaning? Do I elevate my days into worthwhile experiences? Or, in my ultimate calling, do I turn each day into a redemptive experience, into a conduit for infinity?

How We Study Science and Physics

The Rebbe said one more thing to these girls about their academic studies. Some of us study the sciences and see them merely as interesting data, raw facts. However, much of humanity has come to appreciate that when we study biology, physics, history, or math it must be with a productive and meaningful purpose—to make the world a better place, to enhance life on our planet, and to promote justice and compassion.

Yet, our ultimate calling is to see all of our studies, all branches of wisdom, as an instrument to transform our world and our lives into an abode for the Divine infinite reality, to infuse all aspects of our lives with true and timeless meaning, with everlasting love and holiness, by revealing that ultimately, we are all one, and everything is part of that oneness.

__________________________

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref1" name="_ftn1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')">[1]</a> Shemos Rabba 15:11. 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref2" name="_ftn2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2')">[2]</a> The talk is published in Likutei Sichos vol. 4 p. 1263-1267. (The Rebbe bases his explanation on Or Hatorah Parshas Bo p. 264. This Sicha is an extraordinary example of how to “translate” a maamar into relevant language. The maamar in Or Hatorah is abstract and the Rebbe applied it in the most practical and relevant way.)

It is a strange Midrash. When G-d chose His world, He established &lsquo;heads of months&rsquo; and &lsquo;heads of years.&rsquo; When G-d chose Jacob and his children, the Jewish people, He established the &lsquo;head of the month of redemption&rsquo; (the first day of the month of Nissan, the month of the Exodus).

What does this Midrash mean? What does it mean &ldquo;when G-d chose his world?&rdquo; Why does the Midrash not say, &ldquo;when G-d created His world?&rdquo; And what does choosing a world have to do with the establishment of the head of a month and the heads of a year? And what does the Midrash mean when it says that &ldquo;when G-d chose Jacob and his children, He established the Head of the month of redemption?&rdquo;

On January 16, 1964 (2 Shevat, 5724), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) addressed a group of teenage girls, the graduating class of a NY Jewish girls&rsquo; high school, Beis Rivkah. He offered them a most marvelous insight into this Midrash. This profound perspective can teach us volumes about how to view a one-liner in Midrash, and how to speak to the hearts of teenage girls.

We are introduced to three forms of time: Depressing time, productive time, and redemptive time. Our calling in life is to turn depressing time into productive time and productive time into sacred time.

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beth rivkah

Is Time a Storm in Which We Are All Lost?

Essay Parshas Bo

Depressing Time, Productive Time, and Redemptive Time

Interruption of Shivah
A teaching in the&nbsp;Mishna&nbsp;defines the duties of a Jew who is in mourning at the outset of a festival. “Regalim mafsikim,”&nbsp;state the sages, “festivals interrupt&nbsp;shivah,” the seven-day period of mourning following the death and burial of a close relative (Moed Katan&nbsp;3:5).
In one of the most brilliant psychological responses to death, mourners, in the Jewish tradition, are supposed to step out of normal life when they have suffered the loss of a loved one. They don’t pretend to be brave and go on as if nothing had happened. They take time to grieve; their normal pattern of behavior is disrupted as a way of recognizing that a profound change has occurred in their life. Thus the custom is that they stay home during&nbsp;shivah, and people come to be with them, to share in their grief. Jewish law recognized that life will never be the same again, and the dramatic transition requires time off.
But the Mishna is saying that if one of the major Jewish festivals (Shavuos, Passover, or Sukkos) begins while you are in the&nbsp;shivah&nbsp;period you are supposed to put aside&nbsp;shivah&nbsp;and join with the community in celebrating the festival. So for example, if someone lost a loved one on Sunday and buried them on Monday, Shivah would only go till Saturday night, when Shavuos begins. The mourner takes part in a Shavuos celebration, attends a Passover seder, goes out to eat in the Sukkah, etc.
Why? At first glance this law seems insensitive. Seeing how sensitive Jewish law is to someone who suffered a loss, requiring them to stay home for seven days, why suddenly in this case do we display such brute insensitivity? How can we be expected to put aside our grief and go to a celebration? How can&nbsp;halacha&nbsp;command us to suppress natural human emotions for the sake of going through the motions of a ritual?
The Talmud, the commentary on the&nbsp;Mishna, explains the reason for this ruling: “aseh d’rabim”&nbsp;– a positive&nbsp;mitzvah&nbsp;incumbent on the community, overrides “aseh d’yachid”&nbsp;– a positive&nbsp;mitzvahincumbent&nbsp;on the individual” (Talmud&nbsp;Moed Katan&nbsp;14b). Celebration of the festivals is a mitzvah of the entire community; mourning is a mitzvah on the individual who suffered the loss. The communal time of joy overrides the individual’s time of grief. &nbsp;
But this does not seem to answer the question. After all, if someone lost a loved one, how do we ask of them to transcend their individual state of mourning because of the communal state of joy? Let the community celebrate, but let the individual mourn!&nbsp;&nbsp;
If I Am Only For Myself…
Each and every Jew can experience himself or herself in one of two ways, and they are both equally true. We are individuals. Each of us has our own “pekel,” our own baggage, our own unique story and narrative. I got my issues, you got yours; I got my life, you got yours. You fend for yourself, I fend for myself. In the words of Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”
Together with this, we are each also an indispensable part of “klal Yisroel,” of the community of Israel. We are not only individuals; we are also an integral part of “keneset Yisroel,” the collective soul of the Jewish people. Like limbs in a body, each limb has its own individual character and chemistry, but it is also a part of a single organism we call the human body.
The difference between these two components is critical. The individual life can die. But, in the words of the Talmud, “tzebor lo mas,” the community does not die (Talmud Horayos 6a). The collective body we call “the Jewish people” never dies, it only changes hands. The very same “body” of “klal Yisroel” that existed 3000 years ago still exists today. Moses was a Jew and you are a Jew. Rabbi Akiva was a Jew and you are a Jew. The Ball Shem Tov was a Jew and you are a Jew. An individual can die; a nation does not die (unless the entire nation is obliterated.) Again in the words of Hilel: “But if I am only for myself, what am I?”
The tyrants and Anti-Semites in history could sadly wipe put individual Jews, but never the Jewish people. “Tzebor lo mas.” The community of Israel never dies.
Eternity
Now we will understand the explanation of the Talmud, that shivah gets interrupted for a holiday because the mitzvah of the community takes precedent over the mitzvah of the individual. This is not saying that the individual who suffered a loss must forget about his or her own pain because the community is celebrating. That would be unfair. Rather the Talmud is telling us something deeper.
When the community of Israel is experiencing a celebration, a festival, marking a watershed moment in the history of our people—that celebration of the “tzebur,” of the collective body of the Jewish people, includes also the person who passed away, because that aspect of us which is part of the community of Israel never ever dies. The “Jew” in the Jew cannot die, because it lives on in the collective body of the Jewish nation.
When the mourner interrupts his shivah to celebrate the holiday of Passover, Shavuos or Sukkos, he is not diverting his heart from his or her beloved one; rather he is given the ability to connect to the central defining moments defining Jewish history and eternity, and it is in that drama that his loved one still lives on. In the collective life of the Jewish people, and in our collective celebrations of Jewish faith and history, our loved ones continue to live.
A Lost Child
This may be of the reasons we recite Yizkor on each of the three holidays. During Yizkor, we don’t only remember our loved ones who passed on; we also ensure that a part of them never dies, by insuring that the collective organism of Am Yisroel—the people of Israel—survives and thrives.
A moving story is told by the Yiddish writer Shalom Asch, about an elderly Jewish couple in Russia forced by the government to house a soldier in their home. They move out of their bedroom, and the young man, all gruffness and glares, moves in with his pack, rifle and bedroll. It's Friday night, and the couple prepares to sit down for Shabbat dinner. The soldier takes his place at the table. Only now is it apparent just how young he is. He sits and stares with wide eyes as the old woman kindles the Shabbas candles. And he listens as the old man chants the Kiddush and Hamotzie. He quickly devours the hunk of challah placed before him, and speaking for the first time, he asks for more. His face is a picture of bewilderment. Something about this scene -- the candles, the chant, the taste of the challah, captures him. It touches him in some mysterious way.
He rises from his seat at the table, and beckons the old man to follow him, back into the bedroom. He pulls his heavy pack from the floor onto the bed, and begins to pull things out. Uniforms, equipment, ammunition. Until finally, at the very bottom, he pulls out a small velvet bag, tied with a drawstring. "Can you tell me, perhaps, what this is?" he asks the old man, with eyes suddenly gentle and imploring.
The old man, takes the bag in trembling fingers and opens the string. Inside is a child's tallis, a tiny set of tefillin, and small book of Hebrew prayers.
"Where did you get this?" he asks the soldier.
"I have always had it...I don't remember when..."
The old man opens the prayer book, and reads the inscription, his eyes filling with tears:
“To our son, Yossel, taken from us as a boy, should you ever see your Bar Mitzvah, know that your mama and tata always love you.”
You see, this boy was one of the cantonists. On August 26, 1827, Tsar Nicholas published the Recruitment Decree calling for conscription of Jewish boys between the ages of twelve and twenty-five into the Russian army. These boys were known as Cantonists; derived from the term 'Canton' referring to the 'districts' they were sent, and the 'barracks' in which they were kept. Conscripts under the age of eighteen were assigned to live in preparatory institutions until they were old enough to formally join the army. The twenty-five years of service required that these recruits be counted from age eighteen, even if they had already spent many years in military institutions before reaching that age.
Nicholas strengthened the Cantonist system and used it to single out Jewish children for persecution, their baptism being of a high priority to him. No other group or minority in Russia was expected to serve at such a young age, nor were other groups of recruits tormented in the same way. Nicholas wrote in a confidential memorandum, "The chief benefit to be derived from the drafting of the Jews is the certainty that it will move them most effectively to change their religion."
During the reign of Nicholas I, approximately seventy thousand Jews, some fifty thousand who were children, were taken by force from their homes and families and inducted into the Russian army. The boys, raised in the traditional world of the Shtetle, were pressured via every possible means, including torture, to accept baptism. Many resisted and some managed to maintain their Jewish identity. The magnitude of their struggle is difficult to conceive.
This thirty-year period from 1827 till 1856 saw the Jewish community in an unrelieved state of panic. Parents lived in perpetual fear that their children would be the next to fill the Tsar's quota. A child could be snatched from any place at any time. Every moment might be the last together; when a child left for cheder (school) in the morning, parents did not know if they would ever see him again. When they retired at night after singing him to sleep, they never knew whether they would have to struggle with the chappers (kidnapper, chap is the Yiddish term for grab) during the night in a last ditch effort to hold onto their son.
These kids were beaten and lashed, often with whips fashioned from their own confiscated tefillin (phylacteries.) In their malnourished states, the open wounds on their chests and backs would turn septic and many boys, who had heroically resisted renouncing their Judaism for months, would either perish or cave in and consent to the show of baptism. As kosher food was unavailable, they were faced with the choice of either abandoning Jewish dietary laws or starvation. To avoid this horrific fate, some parents actually had their sons' limbs amputated in the forests at the hands of local blacksmiths, and their sons—no longer able bodied—would avoid conscription. Other children committed suicide rather than convert.
All cantonists were institutionally underfed, and encouraged to steal food from the local population, in emulation of the Spartan character building. (On one occasion in 1856 a Jewish cantonist Khodulevich managed to steal the Tsar's watch during military games at Uman. Not only was he not punished, but he was given a reward of 25 rubles for his display of prowess.)
This boy in our story was one of those cantonists.
Let Them Live&nbsp;
At Yizkor, our mama and tata, our zeide and babe, our great grandparents for many generations, whisper to us how deeply they love us and believe in us. No matter how many years have passed, the bond is eternal and timeless.
And when we embrace and continue their story, we ensure that every single Jew who ever walked the face of this earth is still, in some very real way, alive.

It seems like an insensitive law: If one of the major Jewish festivals begins while you are in the&nbsp;shivah&nbsp;period, you are supposed to put aside&nbsp;shivah&nbsp;and join with the community in celebrating the festival. But how can we be expected to put aside our grief and go to a celebration? How can&nbsp;halacha&nbsp;command us to suppress natural human emotions for the sake of going through the motions of a ritual?
There are two dimensions existing in every Jew, one that dies, and one that can never die. On Yizkor, we connect to that part of our loved ones which never dies. On yizkor, we ensure that every Jew who ever walked the face of the earth, remains alive in some very real way.

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mourning

death

shiva

yom tov

shivah

Is It Not Insensitive to Interrupt Shivah for a Holiday?

A Community Never Dies

$100 from G-d

A&nbsp;little boy wanted $100 so badly that he prayed for two weeks, but nothing happened. He decided to write a letter to the Lord requesting the $100. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to "Lord, USA," they decided to send it to the President at the time, Donald Trump. &nbsp;

The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5 bill. Mr. Trump thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. &nbsp;

The little boy was delighted with the $5 and sat down to write a thank-you note to the Lord, which read: &nbsp;

"Dear Lord, &nbsp;

"Thank you very much for sending me the money. It's just a pity you had to send it through Washington, D.C. and, as usual, those guys deducted $95."&nbsp;

In the Womb&nbsp;

In a passage demonstrating a keen sensitivity to the subconscious of a human being, the Talmud describes the experience of the embryo while in the uterus<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')">[1]</a>: &nbsp;

"A lamp is lit above the child's head, by which it can see from one end of the world to the other end; there are&nbsp;no days during which a person experiences more bliss than those days in his mother's womb. They [G-d and the angels] teach the unborn child the entire Torah, but as soon as the child is to emerge into the air of the world, an angel comes and strikes it on&nbsp;its mouth, causing it to forget the entire Torah." &nbsp;

But what's the point? Is it not futile to teach an embryo the entire Torah if it is made to forget it shortly thereafter? &nbsp;

Several answers are given to this question. As we approach the festival&nbsp;of&nbsp;Shavuos, commemorating the giving of the Torah 3,335&nbsp;years ago, I wish to present one of the answers, culled from the writings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of&nbsp;Liadi<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2')">[2]</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Inner Melody&nbsp;

It is extremely difficult to remain spiritually and emotionally inspired while living in this world. G-d may give us life, but He does not always grant us the ready-made inspiration required for living a meaningful and elevated lifestyle. We need to stimulate and motivate ourselves through our own efforts.

But how?&nbsp;Life is&nbsp;often stressful and burdensome. Also, our physical and animalistic cravings and temptations are so powerful that they almost completely eclipse our sensitivity to spirituality.&nbsp;

This is the accomplishment of G-d infusing each unborn child with the entire Torah before he is born, though he later forgets it all. This nine-month implantation of G-dliness&nbsp;and holiness in the brain of the child creates a condition in which the spiritual message of the Torah forever remains the most familiar information to the soul. &nbsp;

Affluence, power, good food, nice clothing, and physical temptations may excite us. Debt, responsibility, laziness, and numbness may bog us down. Yet despite all of these sensations being a real part of our lives, the voice of our inner spirituality -- the voice of Torah within us -- has a deeper, though often inaudible, resonance within us.  &nbsp;

It's like a melody that you once knew and have since forgotten. When it is sung to you again, you don't have to memorize it anew, because the song was always a part of you, stored in the memory of your brain.  &nbsp;

The melody of spirituality and Torah has been on the lips of our souls since time immemorial. Although in the process of growing up, we may have forgotten the tune, none of us have to learn it anew. We need only to&nbsp;pay heed to the silent vibrations stored within us since our days in the womb.&nbsp;

So although upon birth we were made to consciously forget, the truth remains etched in our unconscious psyches. When we discover a truth in our lives – when we are educated&nbsp;and taught wisdom – the truth resonates, because we already have it inside ourselves; it was just concealed beneath the conscious layers of existence.

The function of a true Torah teacher is never to teach people a new truth, but to help them access the truth ingrained already deeply within them. A good teacher is one who helps us cut away the weeds and uncover the flowers within.

Or as the Italian sculptor, Michelangelo once said: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

Draw Me&nbsp;

This is the deeper meaning in King Solomon's presentation of the bride saying to her groom, "Draw me, we will run after&nbsp;You, the King has brought me into His chambers<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref3')">[3]</a>." The grammar in the verse seems amiss: If the King already brought me into the chambers in the past, why is there a need to "draw me" close to Him in the present?

But King Solomon is addressing two different times in our lives, the time of pre-birth innocence vs. the time of adulthood disillusionment. We turn to G-d in our days of adulthood and say, 'Draw me, we will run after&nbsp;You,' which means that if G-d draws us in a little bit, we will run after Him.

The reason is that since 'the King has brought me (us) into His chambers' during the nine months in the womb, long before we developed&nbsp;our cynicism, we already have experienced the purity of G-dliness<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref4')">[4]</a>.&nbsp;

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')">[1]</a> Niddah&nbsp;30b. &nbsp;

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2')">[2]</a> 1745-1812. The following teaching is in&nbsp;Likkutei&nbsp;Torah&nbsp;Shelach&nbsp;43a. Cf.&nbsp;Likkutei&nbsp;Torah&nbsp;Shir&nbsp;HaShirim&nbsp;8d. &nbsp;

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn3')">[3]</a> Song of Songs 1:4.&nbsp;

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn4')">[4]</a> Likkutei&nbsp;Torah&nbsp;Shelach&nbsp;ibid.&nbsp;

The Angel in the Marble - Looking for Inspiration? Go to the Mirror

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soul

torah in the womb

melody

Looking for Inspiration? Go to the Mirror

The Angel in the Marble

The Desert

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">This week's Torah portion, named "Bamidbar," which means "in the desert," is always read preceding the holiday of Shavuos, when we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Sinai, more than 3,300 years ago, in the year 1313 BCE. <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn1" name="_ednref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1');" title="">[1]</a></div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">One reason for reading this portion as a preparation for Shavuos is because the Torah was given "bamidbar," in a desert. It was at Mt. Sinai in the Sinai desert where the newly liberated Hebrew&nbsp;slaves were molded into a nation and given the blueprint for repairing the world. But that only carries the question over: Of all places, why indeed was Torah given in a wilderness?</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">What is more, our sages describe Sinai as the marriage between G-d and His <a name="_ednref2"></a>people;<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn2" name="_ednref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2');" title="">[2]</a> whoever heard of getting married in a barren desert? The Torah should have been given in a splendid environment, perhaps in the Hilton or the Waldorf-Astoria, not in a desolate wilderness! 
 
Let us introduce one more question: Why was it necessary for the Jewish people to wander 40 years in this desert before entering the Promised Land? Was 210 years in Egypt, including more than 80 years of hard labor, not enough? Why liberate them from Egypt only to put them through another 40&nbsp;years in the <a name="_ednref3"></a>wilderness? <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn3" name="_ednref3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref3');" title="">[3]</a> 
 
There are many explanations&nbsp;for the unique relationship between Torah and the desert. Here are three.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Absolute Sublimity</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">1) Had the Torah been given in a civilized city or community, people might have defined it as a product of a particular culture, milieu, and environment. Sophisticated academics would explain to us the particular "genre" of Torah, as if it were an outdated, modern, or post-modern, piece of literature, an epic or lyric, a work of history, law, tragedy, or philosophy. They would enlighten us as to whether Torah belonged to the time of the Athenians, the Hellenistic age, the Greco-Roman period, the Byzantine age, or another&nbsp;period of civilization. Torah would be labeled, classified, and qualified. It would be "put into perspective." 
 
But Torah cannot be put into a particular cultural or artistic perspective. Torah is not culture, literature, art, history, law, or fiction. Torah embodies the eternal truths about existence, life, and destiny that speak in every language, in every culture,&nbsp;in every age, and to every soul. The Torah cannot be reduced to a particular time frame or reference point. It benefits all the arts but never competes with them.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel (himself a scion of the great Chasidic masters) put it <a name="_ednref4"></a>thus: <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn4" name="_ednref4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref4');" title="">[4]</a>&nbsp;"Why does the Bible surpass everything created by man? Why is there no work worthy of comparison with it? Why is there no substitute for the Bible, no parallel to the history it has engendered? Why must all who seek the living G-d turn to its pages? 
 
"Set the Bible beside any of the truly great books produced by the genius of man and see how they are diminished in stature. The Bible shows no concern with literary form, with verbal beauty, yet its absolute sublimity rings through all its pages. Its lines are so monumental and at the same time so simple that whoever tries to compete with them produces either a commentary or a caricature. It is a work we do not know how to assess. Other books you can estimate, you can measure, compare; the Bible you can only extol. Its insights surpass our standards. There is nothing greater. In three thousand years it has not aged a day. It is a book that cannot die. Oblivion shuns its pages." 
 
"Absolute sublimity." Such a work must be&nbsp;taught and transmitted in a desert. A desert is not associated with any particular culture or form of living. A desert is barren, raw, and plain. A desert is not sophisticated; it is <a name="_ednref5"></a>real and simple. <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn5" name="_ednref5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref5');" title="">[5]</a></div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Ownerless</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">2) Had the Torah been given in a particular city or community, its inhabitants would have claimed copyrights on it. Had the Torah been given in Boro Park, Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Lakewood,&nbsp;or Monsey, these communities would claim "ownership" of the Torah. "We know how to interpret Torah, how to assess it, how to appreciate it. It belongs to us." The same would hold true if&nbsp;the Torah was given in&nbsp;Teneck or the Upper West Side. 
 
The desert, on the other hand, is ownerless. Nobody wants the desert. It belongs to nobody. Torah, too, is ownerless. It belongs to every Jewish soul on earth. Nobody holds any "rights" to the Torah. It&nbsp;is the living, vibrant conversation of G-d with every living <a name="_ednref6"></a>Jew. <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn6" name="_ednref6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref6');" title="">[6]</a>&nbsp;No group, denomination, or community "owns" it more than anyone else. (Of course, those privileged to study Torah and adhere to its&nbsp;integrity and formula ought to teach and inspire; but nobody owns it.)&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Life in the Fast Lane</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">3) Had the Torah been given in a civilized and splendid terrain, we might have believed that its objective was to guide&nbsp;the beautiful life and the splendid heart. 
 
But that is not Torah. 
 
Torah does not tell us that life is easy and that faith is bliss. On the contrary, we were placed in a personal and global wilderness, and life is a battle. And it is precisely this battle that G-d intended us to face, day in and day out. Do not be disturbed or demoralized, the Torah teaches, by your traumas, challenges, inconsistencies, and weaknesses. Do not be shaken when you do not live up to your highest aspirations, and often do not actualize or maintain your inspiration. Do not be discouraged; because the Torah was given precisely to help us pave a road in the barren desert of the human psyche, to create a highway&nbsp;in the jungle of history and in the personal jungle of our anxiety-ridden brains. 
 
Had the Torah been given in a beautiful city, then all we would have is a guide on how to live in beauty, in ecstasy. But Torah came to teach us how to confront our wilderness and to transform a desert into a paradise. 
 
That is how the spiritual masters explained the reason for the Torah being given on a mountain.&nbsp;Why a mountain, and not flat land? 
 
A mountain is essentially elevated earth. That is the profound message of Torah: With earth, gravel, dirt and mud, you must battle. That is intrinsic to the human condition and the reality of our world. Yet you must remember that your mission is to elevate the earth, to&nbsp;introduce holiness and G-dliness into a mundane and soiled world.<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn7" name="_ednref7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref7');" title="">[7]</a></div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">G-d did not desire holy people doing holy things; he wanted people who think they are unholy doing holy things; to disentangle themselves from the voices that tell them they are anything but whole and one, derivatives of infinite oneness.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn8" name="_ednref8" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref8');" title="">[8]</a> He desired that earthly human beings become mountains of moral dignity and divine grace.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
(Please make a small and secure contribution to help us continue our work. <a href="https://secure.theyeshiva.net/Donate" target="_blank">Click here.</a>)

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref1" name="_edn1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1');" title="">[1]</a>&nbsp;Rambam Hilchos Tefilah 13:2. Tur and Schulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 428:4 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref2" name="_edn2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2');" title="">[2]</a>&nbsp;Mishnah Taanis 26b. Midrashim and commentaries on the Song of Songs. Cf. Rambam Hilchos Teshuvah chapter 10 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref3" name="_edn3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn3');" title="">[3]</a>&nbsp;The Bible records that the wandering 40 years was a punishment for the sin of the spies who persuaded the people to reject their mission of entering the land of Israel. But certainly, G-d could have punished them in different ways. Why did He choose this particular consequence? 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref4" name="_edn4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn4');" title="">[4]</a>&nbsp;G-d In Search Of Man pp. 240-242 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref5" name="_edn5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn5');" title="">[5]</a>&nbsp;A similar idea is expressed in Midrash Rabah Bamidbar 19:26 and Midrash Tanchumah Chukas 21 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref6" name="_edn6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn6');" title="">[6]</a>&nbsp;Yalkut Shemoni to Yesro Remez 275 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref7" name="_edn7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn7');" title="">[7]</a>&nbsp;Sefer Hamaamarim 5655 p. 188 
<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref8" name="_edn8" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn8');" title="">[8]</a>&nbsp;See Tanya chapters 27; 36

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</div>

Who Owns Judaism? - Why the Desert Was the Most Suitable Space for Torah

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desert

torah

wilderness

mt. sinai

Why Give the Torah in a Desert, Not in Five-Star Resort?

Essay Bamidbar/Shavuos

Who Owns Judaism?

David and Rus in the World of the Brisker Rav and Kabbalah - Shavuos -- Lecture at Mayan Yisroel

David and Rus in the World of the Brisker Rav & Kabbalah

Shavuos -- Lecture at Mayan Yisroel

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