May 16, 2004 Shvout 5764

Daily Thought

Comment: The Object Yanki Tauber The Personality Man turned away from G-d, searched for G-d, discovered truth, attained holiness. But Thing the physical world had no part in this; it was just scenery, a backdrop painted with patches of withheld light, against which G-d/man saga played You need to be honest with yourself: Are these feelings of Story: The Baal Shem Tov's Previous Live From the Chassidic Masters guilt and inadequacy based in Late one night, there was a knock on his door. On his threshold stood an old man with reality, or just a personality a long white beard and a countenance as radiant as the heavens issue? Does G-d really have it in for you, or is this just the Voices: What Jews Do Hannah B. Geshelin She looked me up and down as though I were a bug on a pin. Then she said the words pessimism of an anxious beast that still reverberate through my mind... inside?

Idea of the Week: The : An Anthology Compiled by Yanki Tauber If it is the latter, take a break 40 essays, stories, meditations and readings, each offering a glimpse into something from your self-derision and the Torah says about itself and its place in our lives nurture confidence in the Director of this universe. He Parshah: Bamidbar Numbers 1:1 - 4:20 carries you through every Numbers in the Book of Numbers: 4 camps, 12 tribes, 273 surplus first-born, 22,300 moment, but only as close as Levites, 603,550 Israelites -- each of whom count. Plus how to take apart G-d's home, your trust in Him will allow. transport it across the desert, and put it back together again

As for the personality issue

-- channel that in positive ways. One who learns from his fellow a single chapter, or a single law, or a single verse, or a People of such nature are single word, or even a single letter, he must treat him with respect generally apt to serious study, deep and creative thought and --Ethics of the Fathers 6:3 dogged persistence.

For the full .org experience, to subscribe to one of our inspiring emails, or for more information, visit www.chabad.org. Editor: Yanki Tauber, Illustrator: Sara Kranz

Chabad.org magazine is produced weekly by www.chabad.org, a subsidiary of the Chabad Lubavitch Media Center. The content in this magazine and on the Chabad.org website is produced and copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this magazine, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy: B"H Chabad.org The Object where you came, where you materialist, the spiritualist, and the are going, and before whom tzaddik. By Yanki Tauber you are destined to give a judgment and accounting. The third and last part of our Mishnah is First, there was only G-d. From where you came -- from t addressed to the materialist, who sees a putrid drop; where you are nothing higher -- indeed nothing other -- going -- to a place of dust, than the body and its needs, wants and Then, at a finite time-point within maggots and worms; and His timeless infinity, G-d created desires. It's all but useless to speak to before whom you are destined the materialist about his soul. So we talk man. to give a judgment and Commen to him about his body -- about the fact accounting -- before the that it's nothing more than a bag of flesh For thousands of years, there was only supreme King of Kings, the with a slimy beginning and a maggoty G-d and man. Man lived in "a world," but Holy One, blessed be He. end, and that there's a higher authority that was just scenery, a backdrop before which it will one day be taken to painted with "matter" -- patches of The Mishnah is task for all it did withheld light -- against which the G- known for its concise during its earthly d/man saga played. Man was evil and wording -- every extra life. righteous; he turned away from G-d, word or phrase is searched for G-d, found Him, interpreted by the discovered goodness and truth, attained The second and Talmud to enfold middle part of the spirituality and holiness. The physical many layers of world played no significant part in this Mishnah is meaning and addressed to the saga -- it was just there to provide the instruction. On the context. spiritual person. face of it, the above- To him, we need quoted Mishnah is not speak of the Then, one bright and stormy just using lengthy, lowliness of the morning, the world became real. repetitious wording to body; instead, we convey a single idea. extol the virtues of On the 6th of Sivan of the year the year Upon closer the soul: "Know 2,448 from creation, G-d descended examination, from where you upon Mount Sinai and instituted the however, the Mishnah came, where you "mitzvah," the divine commandment. An includes three are going, and act that unites three elements -- sentences, which can before whom you commanded by G-d, enacted by man, be interpreted as are destined to utilizing a physical object. three separate give a judgment messages: and accounting." After Sinai, the physical world is a We speak of the partner in the G-d/man saga: the leather 1) "Reflect upon three soul's life origins that becomes a pair of , the wool things and you will as "a very part of that becomes the strings for tzitzit, the not come to the hands of transgression." G-d above," of the "World to Come" to ink that becomes the letters in a Torah which it is propelled by the good deeds scroll, the wheat that becomes the 2) "Know from where you came, where of a virtuous life, and of the day it will matzah eaten on Passover eve, the you are going, and before whom you are merit to give "a judgment and copper that becomes the coin given to destined to give a judgment and accounting" before the Source from charity. These objects become "holy," accounting." which it came and to which it shall which means that they become return. connected to G-d, which means that 3) "From where you came -- from a they become something real. putrid drop; where you are going -- to a And then there is the tzaddik, the place of dust, maggots and worms; and perfectly righteous individual. To the The Tzaddik's Sin before whom you are destined to give a tzaddik we don't speak of the lowliness judgment and accounting -- before the of the body, for the tzaddik's body is refined and rarified, as holy, perhaps In the third chapter of Ethics of the supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He." even holier, than his soul. Nor do we Fathers, the mishnaic sage Akavia ben speak to the tzaddik about his soul -- the Mahalalel teaches: tzaddik doesn't care about his soul. He's The Lubavitcher explains that not interested in spiritual development. Reflect upon three things and Akavia ben Mahalalel is in fact speaking He's not interested in the World to you will not come to the hands to three different types of people: the Come. All he desires is to lose himself of transgression. Know from within the all-embracing reality of G-d,

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like a tiny candle-flame absorbed and So the tzaddik is admonished: "Reflect About the artist: Sarah Kranz has nullified within a great fire. upon three things." Remember that been illustrating magazines, Shabbat morning at Sinai when G-d webzines and books (including five Still, the tzaddik, too, can "come to the descended upon the mountain and children's books) since graduating hands of transgression." The tzaddik, decreed that the world shall henceforth from the Istituto Europeo di Design, too, can sin -- not in forgetting about G- be made real. Remember the day on Milan, in 1996. Her clients have d, but in forgetting about the world. The which G-d decreed that your purpose in included The Times and tzaddik may backslide to the pre-Sinai life is not to lose yourself within Him, but Money Marketing Magazine of London reality, when there were only two things to bring Him into the world and uplift the -- only G-d and man, and their quest for world to Him. . each other. By Yanki Tauber; based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

The Baal Shem Tov's Previous Life "'On the day of your Bar Mitzvah,' "'What I did,' replied the Safedian, 'I did continued Elijah, 'you did a great and for G-d alone. It is not for the knowledge From the Chassidic Masters wondrous deed, a deed which of any creature, man or angel.' reverberated through all the universes. "Many years ago," Rabbi The angels and "Elijah pleaded and cajoled, promising Israel Baal Shem Tov souls that dwell even greater spiritual gifts. But the man told his disciples, "in the on high all was steadfast in his refusal, and the holy city of Safed, there wondered: what prophet-angel departed empty-handed. lived a simple but G-d- has this man Story fearing Jew. Though not done that has flooded the "In my previous life," concluded the Baal blessed with a great mind or Shem Tov, "I was that man." with any exceptional talents, he heavens with served G-d with a whole heart this magnificent and a humble spirit. light, such as Editor's note: This Shavuot marks the has not been 244th yahrtzeit (anniversity of the seen for many passing) of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov "Late one night, there was a generations? (1698-1760), founder of Chassidism. knock on his door. On his But your deed For more on the Baal Shem Tov click threshold stood an old man was too radiant here. with a long white beard and a for us to behold. countenance as radiant as the heavens. 'I am Elijah the As rendered by Yanki Tauber Prophet,' said the visitor. 'I "'Tell me what it have come to open your mind was that you . and heart and teach you the deepest did,' said Elijah, secrets of creation.' 'and I will reveal to you things that only the greatest souls are privy to.'"

What Jews DO

By Hannah B. Geshelin Jewish population, where during my development class on cultures. She freshman year of 1963-64, I was the decided to join the committee only undergraduate female who researching the Jewish culture because The route of every Jew who

identified herself as Jewish. she had a ready-made resource to becomes observant is unique. interview - me. As a fourth-generation One of the turning points on my Among my roommates during my first American descendent of Reform Jews journey occurred at a large Iowa term was a junior taking a child who emigrated from Germany before

Voices university with a minuscule the U.S. Civil War, I didn't know much

Chabad.org Magazine | Shvous/Bamidbar 5764 3 B"H Chabad.org about Judaism, but I did my best to "Oh," I said confidently, "You mean Holocaust, which began in answer her questions. The relief that I kosher. I'm Reform, and we don't keep Mendelsohn's and my great-great- felt when she finished questioning me kosher." grandparent's home-land, Germany. I was short-lived, however. Every term turned to the title page of the book and after that, the child development "You don't keep kosher? But from saw that originally the book had been professor gave my name to the everything I've read, kosher is one of published in German in Berlin in 1928. committee studying Judaism. To meet the cornerstones of Judaism. Why don't this challenge, I would have to learn you keep it?" Maybe in 1928 German Jews could say something about my heritage. that eating with non-Jews would end I shrugged. "I don't know, we just don't." anti-Semitism. But they were about to The college library had two shelves of be proved disastrously wrong. Could I books on Judaism. I started at one end continue to eat in a non-Jewish fashion, of the upper shelf and began reading. Janet stopped and turned to face me, when the reasoning for permitting Jews They gave me basic information about hands on her hips. I can still picture her to eat non-kosher was based on a Jewish history, tradition and beliefs. standing there in the light of a street complete fallacy? With the help of the books I managed lamp, dressed the way she would for to get through the questions during the church in a navy suit, a small white hat and white gloves. She looked me up "If my church told me to do something, winter term. Then, in the spring of my I'd do it." Janet's words took one end of freshman year, I met Janet. and down as though I were a bug on a pin. Then she said words my Yiddishe that still reverberate neshama Janet was a Southern Baptist from a through my mind: "If my (Jewish soul) small town in Iowa. Like many students church told me to do and the book's at college, she came from a family for something, I'd do it." glaring fallacy whom church was a major focus. Her took the other beliefs guided her behavior in all end, and they aspects of her life. In the long silence that shook me until followed, I rolled the I had to sit words over and over down, right I was the first Jewish person she'd ever through my mind. And I met. She told me that she had chosen there on the wondered, why did the floor beside to write about the Jewish culture Reform movement say because she wanted to learn about the the library keeping kosher wasn't stacks. When origins of her faith. Could she come important? I decided to with me to synagogue? I stopped find out. shaking, I knew that until The town had a small Reform The next day I found, on I could find a congregation that met Friday evenings one of those shelves of good reason, in the parlor of one of the churches. I Jewish books, a history of a true reason, agreed to take her, and as we strolled the Reform movement. to not keep through the quiet streets she asked me Breaking bread with kosher, I had about my religious life. "Where do you others, said the book, is a no choice. I eat?" she asked suddenly. universal gesture of was a Jew, friendship and goodwill. and the Jews Mystified, I gave the name of the dorm Keeping kosher prevents kept kosher. It dining hall. Jews and non-Jews from was that breaking bread together; simple. "How do you manage?" she asked. thus it prevents casual communion between "us" and "them." My complete transformation from a When Jews stop keeping kosher and "What do you mean? I just eat." secular to a Torah observant Jew took eat non-kosher with their neighbors, many years and many more lessons in anti-Semitism will end and Jews will be faith. But my first big step began that With an edge to her voice she said, fully accepted into mainstream society. Shabbat night, when a Christian girl "How can you 'just eat?' We get ham, challenged me to stand up and act like pork or shellfish three or four nights a I thought of the Jewish history I'd been a Jew. week, and most of the rest of the time reading, of Moses Mendelsohn and the there's meat and milk at the same Emancipation; of my mother's family, meal." Originally published on the Ok Kosher which hadn't kept kosher in at least four website generations; and I thought of the

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The Torah: An Anthology

They call us the "People of the Book" roles of Torah, adapted from the The Ten Commandments series because of our legendary devotion to it. Lubavitcher Rebbe's talks by Yanki by Yanki Tauber When a child is born, we wish its Tauber parents, "May you merit to raise Meditations: him/her to Torah," and the first words The Third Knot Condensed from the Wisdom of the that a Jewish parent teaches his or her adapted from the Rebbe's talks by Lubavitcher Rebbe by child are: Torah tzivah lanu Moshe, Yanki Tauber morashah kehilat Yaakov ("The Torah that Moses commanded us is the Inner Engravings heritage of the congregation of Jacob"). Reasoning the Stone adapted from the Rebbe's talks by Jewish law states that we are obligated Stories: to pursue the study of Torah every Yanki Tauber spare moment of our day and night. A Cheder in Siberia The Mathematics of Marriage as told to Eliyahu Touger by Reb For thousands of years, the study of adapted from the Rebbe's talks by Mendel Futerfass Torah has been our life's occupation Yanki Tauber and our highest mark of achievement. Yes and No Original Ideas The Torah is our mandate as a people, adapted from the Rebbe's talks by by Yanki Tauber the marriage contract of our special Yanki Tauber relationship with G-d as His chosen Zaidy Pinchas' Torah "kingdom of priests and holy nation." How Do We Know that We Heard G-d But it is not only that: to the Jew, the at Sinai? by Chana Weissberg Torah is nothing less than the basis by Tzvi Freeman and objective of all existence. In the Echos words of the Midrash: "G-d made a The Torah-Science Debates by Jay Litvin condition with the work of creation: if by Professor Velvl Greene the people of Israel accept the Torah, you will exist; if not, you will revert to chaos and nothingness." "G-d looked Insights: The Problem into the Torah," says the Zohar, "and Is G-d Religious? by Tuvia Bolton created the world. The Jew looks into by the Torah, and sustains the world." The Survivor Where the Roads Meet For 40 days and nights Moses sat on by Andre Haijdu by Shmuel Marcus the summit of Mount Sinai, as G-d taught him the Torah; for the next 40 The Lady, the Tiger and Freedom of The Master of Song years, Moses taught it to the people of Choice Israel. Thus our sages have said: "a by Yanki Tauber by Yanki Tauber person does not attain the mind of his master until after 40 years [of study]." In the Desert The Cat We don't have 40 years to explain by Yanki Tauber Torah; we only have an anthology of 40 by Yanki Tauber essays, stories, meditations and readings, each offering a glimpse into The Breakthrough The Sinai Files something the Torah says about itself by Yanki Tauber and its place in our lives: by Tzvi Freeman Say It in Your Own Words Essays: by Yanki Tauber Readings: The Spark of all Truths What is the Torah? by Mattis Kantor Our Goodly Tents by Yanki Tauber From To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Reality and its Shadow HaLevi Donin by Yaakov Brawer Oxen and Cows by Yanki Tauber Law, Truth and Peace Three essays on three fundamental

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By Yanki Tauber reveals Himself upon the mountain and promised them a vision of the divine gives them the Torah. The kohanim reality and the empowerment to (priests) may approach closer than the incorporate its boundlessness and Man, as the most rest of the people, Aaron may approach eternity into their lives. sophisticated of that which closer than the kohanim, while Moses was created, must be central alone will be summoned by G-d to So from the day they left Egypt, the in [On the 1st of Sivan,] Moses ascend (ibid., verse 12) did not say anything at all to people of Israel literally counted the the Jewish people, since they days to the morning on which they were weary from the journey Sivan 4: The Jewish people are would gather to "serve G-d on this instructed to purify and sanctify mountain" and be granted the liberating themselves in preparation for the giving truth of truths. To this very day, we Talmud, Shabbat 86b of the Torah by suspending marital reenact their 49-day count with our own relations and immersing in a mikveh (v. "". On the first day of the month of Sivan in 14). the year 2448 from creation (1313 In light of this, the events -- or rather, BCE), six weeks after Exodus, the Sivan 5:Moses builds an altar at the the non-event -- of the 1st of Sivan is people of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai. foot of the mountain and seals the most difficult to understand. According Six days later, the entire nation stood at covenant between G-d and Israel. The to the Talmud's calculations, this was the foot of the mountain as G-d entire people proclaim, "All that G-d the day on which "Moses did not say revealed Himself to them and gave commands, we shall do and we shall anything at all to the Jewish people, them the Torah. Ever since, we hear (comprehend)." (Exodus 24:4-8) since they were weary from the celebrate the festival of Shavuot (Sivan journey." But human nature is such that 6-7) as "The Time of the Giving of Our the closer one comes to an anticipated Torah." Sivan 6:The Giving of the Torah. "When morning came, there was thunder and point in time, the stronger one's lightning, and a thick cloud upon the yearning and desire becomes. After six The 19th chapter of the book of Exodus mountain... The voice of the shofar weeks of anticipation and preparation describes this final week of preparation sounded, growing stronger and for the great day, would everything for the revelation at Sinai. Analyzing the stronger... G-d descended upon Mount come to a halt merely because the Torah's account, the Talmud (Shabbat Sinai ... and spoke the following words, Jewish people were weary from the 86b-8a) pieces together the following saying: "I am the L-rd your G-d, who journey? Is it possible that on the very chronicle of events for these six days, has taken you out of the land of day on which they arrived at Mount the 1st through the 6th of Sivan: Egypt..." (Exodus 1916-20:2). Sinai they did not do anything at all in preparation for their receiving of the Torah? Sivan 1: Moses did not say anything at Mysterious Blank all to the Jewish people, since they were weary from the journey. The Silencing of the Jewish Mind The revelation at Sinai was the culmination and fulfillment of the Sivan 2: At dawn, Moses ascends Exodus. Many months earlier, also at But let us take a closer look at what the Mount Sinai. He brings back the Sinai, when G-d first appeared to Torah tells us about the doings of the following message from G-d: "You have Moses in a burning bush and Jewish people on the 1st of Sivan: seen what I have done to Egypt, and commanded him to lead the Jewish how I bore you upon the wings of people out of Egypt, He had said: "This In the third month of the eagles and brought you to Myself. Now, is your sign that I have sent you: when Children of Israel's exodus if you will obey My voice and keep My you take this nation out of Egypt, you from the land of Egypt, on that covenant, you shall be My chosen will serve G-d on this mountain" (ibid., day, they arrived in the Sinai treasure from among all the nations, for 3:12) desert. They journeyed from all the earth is Mine. You shall be to Me Rephidim and came to the a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" From the moment that Moses brought Sinai desert, and camped in (Exodus 19:4-6). With these words, G-d the desert; and Israel camped expressed His desire that we become them word of the promised redemption, the people of Israel eagerly awaited the there, before the mountain. His chosen people. The day is (Exodus 19:1-2) accordingly marked in our calendar as revelation at Sinai. For Moses had Yom HaMeyuchas, "The Day of promised them more than an escape Designation." from Egypt and their hard labor in In his commentary on these verses, mortar and bricks; he had promised Rashi notes the grammatically them the ultimate freedom -- freedom unconventional use of the singular Sivan 3:G-d commands Moses to fence from their own mortality, freedom from vayichan ("and he camped" rather than in Mount Sinai, marking the boundaries the finiteness and mundanity of a vayachanu, "and they camped") in where everyone is to stand when G-d material-bound existence. He had speaking of the entire Jewish people.

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Rashi explains that the Torah wishes to This means that at Sinai, contrary to inform us that "They camped as a what is perhaps a common perception, This was a most wearying journey. It single man, with a single heart, unlike we were not granted a code of law or was not the physical journey from all other encampments, which were body of wisdom which had not been Rephidim which so drained them,3 but accompanied by dissent and dispute." previously known. What did happen the psychological and spiritual Indeed, we find many instances of was that we were the recipients of a transition from a six-week active quarreling and even rebellion in the revelation that completely transformed preparation to utter passivity. On this course of the Israel's journeys in the the nature of our relationship with the day, Moses did not say anything at all desert. Still, was it really as bad as Torah. to them, and his non-verbalization of that? Were all other encampments the order of the day was its strongest (there were 42 of them altogether, as Prior to Sinai, the human intellect was articulation: to transcend one's enumerated in the 33rd chapter of the tool with which to access the Torah. individual comprehension of Torah and Numbers) ridden with strife, and Sinai The divine wisdom had been put into make oneself an empty vessel to the only peaceful exception? words and ideas comprehensible to the receive what G-d would bestow. human mind, and the human mind But the dissent and dispute which labored to grasp and digest them -- to Return to Self characterized the Jewish camp need the extent that it was capable. Since not be understood only in the negative every mind is unique in both its Following the great non-event of Sivan sense. Our sages tell us that G-d strengths and its weaknesses, the 1st came five days of active preparation created man in such a way that "Just as scope and depth of each student's for Sinai. no two are alike in their features, no understanding differed. Obviously, no two are alike in mind and character" mind was capable of apprehending the Initially, the individuality of the human (Talmud, Berachot 58a). Each entirety of Torah, as the infinite wisdom mind is an impediment to receiving the individual's distinct mindset and of G-d could never be contained by the infinite essence of the divine wisdom. temperament leads him to apply the finite human mind. But after we open ourselves to receive same truths in his own unique way. So G-d's Torah, we must reactivate our differences of opinion do not But at Sinai, G-d gave us His Torah. All individual faculties in order to absorb necessarily stem from selfishness and of it. He chose to impart the whole of and assimilate what we have received. animosity; they can also arise out of a His wisdom to us, regardless of the Once again, differences will emerge. sincere search for the truth and the limits of our intellect. At this moment, Moses, Aaron, the priests and the desire to fully realize one's potential as Moses and the most simple Jew were common folk -- each will have their an individual. In fact, when not equal: equal in their inability to grasp boundaries clearly marked. For each corrupted by self-interest, dissent and the essence of G-d's wisdom with their must now take the very essence of differences of opinion can prove own intellect, and equal in that G-d had Torah, which they all received equally, positive and constructive. granted them this understanding as a and apply it to his own life with the tools gift -- that He inserted the infinity of His of his/her own cognition and Nevertheless, what was acceptable, wisdom into the simplest of Torah's experience. even desirable, in the other 41 verses in the mouth of the simplest of encampments, was intolerable at the Jews.1 Footnotes: encampment at Sinai. For an important part of our preparations to receive the To prepare for the divine giving of the 1. Thus the law states that one who reads a Torah was--and remains--the Torah at Sinai, the Jewish people had single verse of the Written Torah, even if he eradication of all differences in outlook to abnegate their individual intellects merely mouths the words without and understanding. and faculties. They had to make the understanding their meaning, recites the obligatory blessing on Torah study -- transition from active apprehension of "Blessed are G-d... Who gives the Torah" The reason for this is best understood Torah to passive reception of a gift from (Hilchot Talmud Torah (by Rabbi Schenur by examining the difference between Above. Zalman of ) 2:12-13, and sources cited pre and post-Sinaitic study of Torah. there). Also before Sinai, the Torah was So the 1st of Sivan, the day on which studied and observed by our ancestors: the Jews arrived at Sinai, was far from 2. Hence the supreme importance of reciting Shem, the son of Noah, headed an an uneventful day. On the contrary, it a blessing over the Torah before academy for Torah study together with was a day of intense preparation, approaching to study it (see previous note), thereby acknowledging that it is, first and his great-grandson, Eber, at which involving an unprecedented activity: to foremost, something that is given to us from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob studied; the establish a camp that was "as a single G-d. Thus our sages have said, "The Land three Patriarchs also established man with a single heart." To not only of Israel was destroyed only because they yeshivot of their own. And all through reach a consensus on a unified course did not first make a blessing on the Torah the Egyptian exile, the tribe of Levi of action ("as a single man"), but that (Talmud, Nedarim 81a) (who were not enslaved) occupied each should also surrender his or her themselves with the study of Torah individual approach, outlook and 3. In fact, the day that Jewish people arrived (see Talmud, Yoma 28b; Rashi on intuition to a singular egoless at Sinai was either a Sunday or a Monday (see Talmud, Shabbat 86b), shortly after the Genesis 26:5 and 46:28; Chizkuni on receptiveness ("a single heart") that is 24-hour rest of Shabbat. Exodus 5:4). the most important prerequisite to the divine granting of the Torah.2

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The Spark of All Truths

By Mattis Kantor You just close your eyes and signal with your hands for them not to disturb you. He created the world. There Such a document actually exists. must be a purpose. But you had the answer, didn't you? The Torah. How can they disturb you by asking you Man, as the most to tell it to them? sophisticated of that which It has been all over the world, amongst was created, must be central Jews who have not communicated for in this purpose. Yet you can't. You know that you have Seasons of The Soul centuries. the answer, but you can't (yet) explain it to anyone. You have to think about it. It makes sense to say, then, that Each is exactly the same as the other, You don't even know yourself how it somehow, somewhere, this purpose is, hundreds, thousands of miles away. answers the question. was, can be, communicated to man. It even describes the Jewish people at All you know is that you have the

that time as being disgruntled and answer, and if those people don't stop dissenting. bothering you, you'll forget it. If archaeologists today were to find a brilliant description, carved on a rock, of Two million dissenting people (they Forget it? Why? How? a grand battle fought between two counted 600,000 of draftable age) saw mighty kings and their great armies, the revelation on Mount Sinai. It is Because the answer is still too intense three and a half thousand years ago, described in the Torah. Yet there is no to be completely understood by the we would assume that such an event dissenting version. occurred. conscious mind. Only the one Torah. The description could have been the It is like a bolt of lightning-a bright and intense flash that can disappear if not fanciful dream of an opium smoker -- but how are we to know? given the proper attention.

"And [Moses] was there (on Mount If, however, historians had other clues, (Small wonder, then, that an idea is Sinai) with G-d forty days and forty or related information, that would symbolized by a flashing light bulb.) nights; bread he did not eat and water indicate that this battle did take place, he did not drink" (Exodus 34:28). the rock-carved description would take Yet in this small point, ray, or flash of on an air of validity. intellectual concept lies the answer to Very interesting. Have you ever tried it? the problem at hand -- that is certain. If there were a similar description, You can feel it. found many hundreds of miles away, it would become a historical fact. How it will answer the problem is not Imagine you are sitting with a few other yet consciously known, but what is Imagine, though, that there were people, attempting to solve a problem. certain, at this stage (in our intellectual hundreds--no, thousands--of families Each one thinking on his own. faculty to conceive) is that this is the who owned rock-carved descriptions, in answer. all parts of the world, each one Suddenly you have the answer. describing the battle in exactly the Given the undisturbed time to same way. contemplate this bright and flashing You jump up and exclaim, "I have it! I idea, we can relate it to the problem at have it!" And every family telling how their hand; the details begin to emerge, but parents told them in the name of their the brightness, and the sheer thrill and parents, etc., that this event happened "What is it? What is it?" everyone asks. delight, begins to dissipate. to their ancestors. "Sh! Sh!..." We are now using our intellectual This would certainly be the most valid faculty to comprehend, and it is a different intellectual experience. historical fact ascribed to that time. You brush them off. You push them out of your mind. You don't want to talk.

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First we conceive of the new idea, and this experience, with its inspirational then we understand what it was that we surge, would provide more than enough conceived -- how that bright conceptual energy for life. The absent-minded professor is well flash relates to this problem. We can known to all of us. He misses his train also relate it, with our comprehension, stop, forgets where he parked his car, It could take days of a continuous to another problem, and another and loses his coat, forgets to eat lunch, etc., trance for a human to accept this pure another, even though it may take etc. All because he is often so deeply flash of knowledge --but after it was opposing positions in different involved in thinking. over, this human could recall it as a problems. split-second-experience that had not drained him of either time or energy. He was so immersed in the solution of Many questions can be answered, a mathematical problem when he was many problems solved, and many taking his coat off that he forgot where And so it was with Moses. theories may evolve from one such he took it off and where he put it. A new conceptual flash. idea occurred to him half an hour Had we been there to ask him why he before he was due to go for lunch, and was on the mountain so long, he might It is only that the details of all this he didn't even realize that two hours well have replied, "Long? I was only up intellectual content were completely had passed while he was theorizing. there for a couple of seconds!" outshone by the brilliance of the initial concept. But they were there -- in a Yes, the absent- pure and intangible form. Everything, For forty days... he did minded professor is a including the specific word choices we not eat and... he did very familiar person to later use to articulate these details, is not drink. all of us because we included within, and dictated by, the see him in ourselves initial flash of illumination. so very often.

It is human nature This spark of all-truths that when we are is the essence of All knowledge, in all its details, be it struck by the lightning Torah. mathematics, philosophy, physics, of intellectual psychology, geology, or anatomy, conception, we can This Moses received comes from one perfectly pure and become so absorbed on Mount Sinai. He abstract, inconceivably intense and as to forget our then proceeded, by bright, inhumanly all-encompassing and surroundings. command of G-d, to self-complete spark of conceptual light. write the Torah--to The brilliance of convey what he had No human can reach this spark of all- conceptual inspiration grasped with his faculty truths on his or her own -- that is, it can also give us a of concept via the cannot be grasped by anyone's faculty new surge of physical particular words of the of intellectual conception. energy, even at a Five Books of Moses. time when we are most tired and If one idea, in one subject, related to a hungry. Not to mention that time, in If we were to have watched Moses as specific area in that field, can be, for us such instances, often passes he wrote the Torah, we might have humans, an intense and thrilling completely unnoticed. assumed that because the words were experience to the extent that we may flowing naturally, they were his own forget our surroundings, how is it Imagine, then, that a man was given to (personal) selection. In truth, however, possible for a human to accept in his conceive the most pure and he was speaking and writing (as we all size-six, -seven, or -eight head a single sophisticated concept--that one all- do) with words chosen and arranged as concept that holds in it all existing encompassing concept -- the spark of his faculty of concept dictated; but his (past, present, and future) knowledge? truths. conceptual faculty was totally dominated by the essence of Torah, so that the selections, although from It is humanly impossible. Surely this would be the experience of Moses' conceptual faculty, and thus experiences. It would be an abnegation having passed internally through him, But this was given to Moses as he of the physical, for the physical cannot were still dictated by G-d's concept, the stood at the top of Mount Sinai. receive it -- but if it were given to him, it essence of Torah--the spark of all would be the supreme inspiration. truths. ... Forty days and forty nights, bread he did not eat and water he did not drink. Time would not exist for the duration of that experience. Food and physical matters would never enter his mind. For

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If I were stranded on an island with When I am rescued by a ship twenty- This, of course, requires a great barely enough room to move about, five years after I was stranded, I know amount of skill and know-how -- and with a breadfruit tree and a spring of the author as one knows a personal more than a lifetime. fresh water, and nothing else except a friend -- his attitudes, his personality, spy-thriller to read, I would learn, after a and even his physical appearance... As all possible knowledge is embodied very short time, that I must spend my in this spark of all-truths, it must be time doing something lest I go mad. After all, this is all that I did, day in and possible--theoretically (if not practically day out, for twenty-five years. I used within the human lifetime)--to transcend I read the mystery-thriller once. I read it the details and descriptions of the book, from the words of the Torah to the again. even the word selections, to abstract essence of all knowledge, and from that (assuming I had the proper skill) and to vantage point to know and understand It isn't so interesting to read a mystery understand the author. everything. that you have seen solved, but I read it a third time for lack of anything else to So it is that although it is impossible do. now to practice some of the laws spelled out in the Five Books of In studying the Torah, we take the Moses--those regarding a Jewish king, On the fifth reading it occurs to me that words dictated by G-d thro ugh (to) the sacrifices, etc.--the very words are the author could have ended it in a Moses, and study their literal meaning, holy for the deep content that they more cheerful way. I later discover that then restudy and restudy, abstract and convey of the essence of Torah. his character portrayals are all understand, until we can reach and somewhat cynical. I reread and reread transcend to (or as close as humanly the book, and I become more and more possible to) the pure essence of Torah. From Chassidic Insights: A Guide for familiar with the personality of the Ultimately we can, through the Torah, the Entangled by Rabbi Mattis Kantor author through his writing. By his understand G-d, for He is the real descriptions, it sounds as if he is short author. and would have liked to have blue eyes...

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The Parshah in a Nutshell

Bamidbar Numbers 1:1 - 4:20 For the week of May 16-May 22, 2004

In the Sinai Desert, G-d says to conduct a census of the

twelve tribes of Israel. Moses counts 603,550 men of draftable age (20 to 60 years); the tribe of Levi, numbering 22,300 males age one month and older, is counted separately. The Levites are to serve in the Sanctuary, replacing the firstborn, whose number they approximated, who were disqualified when they participated in the worshipping of the Golden Calf. The 273 firstborn who lacked a Levite to replace them had to pay a five-shekel "ransom" to redeem themselves.

When the people broke camp, the three Levite clans dismantled and transported the Sanctuary, and reassembled it at the center of the next encampment. They then erected their own tents around it: the Kehatites, who carried the Sanctuary's vessels (the ark, menorah, etc.) in their specially designed coverings on their shoulders, camped to its south; the Gershonites, in charge of its tapestries and roof coverings, to its west; and the families of Merrari, who transported its wall panels and pillars, to its north. Before the Sanctuary's entranceway to its east were the tents of Moses, Aaron and Aaron's sons.

Beyond the Levite circle, the twelve tribes camped in four groups of three tribes each. To the east were Judah (pop. 74,600), Issachar (54,400) and Zebulun (57,400); to the south, Reuben (46,500), Simeon (59,300) and Gad (45,650); to the west, Ephraim (40,500), Menasseh (32,200) and Benjamin (35,400); and to the north, Dan

(62,700), Asher (41,500) and Naphtali (53,400). This formation was kept also while traveling. Each tribe had its own nassi (prince or leader), and its own flag with its tribal color and emblem.

Chabad.org Magazine | Shvous/Bamidbar 5764 11 B"H Chabad.org Week at a glance s u n d a y Iyar 25 | May 16 follower of the 2nd and 3rd , Rabbi DovBer and 40th day of Omer count Rabbi Menachem Mendel. He authored a number of On this Date: Toledo massacre (1355) Chassidic works, including Sh'tei HaMeorot and Chanah 1,200 Jews were massacred by a Christian and Moslem Ariel. mob attack on the Jewish section of Toledo, Spain, on Link: One on One this date in 1355. Six Day War (1967) Count "41 days to the Omer" tonight In spring of 1967, the Arab capitals paraded their arms ------and openly spoke of overrunning the Land of Israel and casting its inhabitants into the sea. The international m o n d a y Iyar 26 | May 17 media was almost unanimous in its feeling that the small 41st day of Omer count Jewish state, outflanked and outgunned by its enemies, On this Date: Yahtzeit of R. Saadia Gaon (942) stood little chance of survival. It seemed that, for the second time in a generation, the world was going to stand Iyar 26 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of by and allow the enemies of the Jewish people slaughter Rabbi Saadia Gaon (892?-942), author of Emunot V'deot, them in the millions. one of the earliest works of Jewish philosophy. ("Gaon" On Iyar 26 (June 5, 1967), Israel launched a preemptive was the title given to the leading Sages of Babylonia in strike on its southern and northern frontiers. In just six the post-Talmudic period). days, the Jewish army defeated five Arab armies on three fronts and liberated territories of its promised homeland Ramchal (1746) amounting to an area greater than its own size, including Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato (known by the acronym the old city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (see "Ramchal"), philosopher, kabbalist and ethitist, was born "Iyar 29" below). in Padua, Italy, in 1707. At a very early age, he began to The openly miraculous nature of Israel's victory spawned study under the tutelage of Rabbi Moshe a global awakening of Jewish soul, fueling the already Zacuto, one of the foremost Kabbalists of his generation. present and growing teshuvah movement of return to G-d While still in his twenties, he authored numerous works and Jewish traditions. The Lubavitcher Rebbe called it a of Torah scholarship, including Derech Hashem ("The moment of biblical proportions, an "opportunity the likes way of G-d"), a systematic exposition of the of which has not been granted for thousands of years." fundamentals of Judaism. In 1735, Luzzatto left his native Many thousands of Jews flocked to put on tefillin and Italy and, avoiding public life, set up shop as a gem cutter pray at the newly liberated Western Wall of the Temple in Amsterdam. His fame nevertheless caught up with him, Mount. and in 1740, (at the turn of the Jewish century 5500), he published his most famous work, Mesilat Yesharim Count "42 days to the Omer" tonight ("Path of the Just"). Like many other great men of his ------age, Luzzatto longed for the Holy Land, and in 1743 he settled in Acco. He was not to enjoy a long stay there, t u e s d a y Iyar 27 | May 18 however, and on Iyar 26, 5506 (1746), at the age of 39, he 42nd day of Omer count and his entire family died in a plague. According to most traditions, he was buried in Tiberias, next to the tomb of Count "43 days to the Omer" tonight Rabbi Akiva. ------and R. Eizik of Homel (1857) w e d n e s d a y Iyar 28 | May 19 Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Epstein (1770-1857), who served as 43rd day of Omer count the rabbi of the town of Homel in White Russia for 58 years, was a leading figure in the first three generations of Count "44 days to the Omer" tonight Chabad Chassidism. As a young man, he became ------attracted to the teachings of the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, and remained a devoted t h u r s d a y Iyar 29 | May 20

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44th day of Omer count say anything to them, because of their exhaustion from On this Date: Passing of Samuel (877 BCE) the journey." The prophet Samuel (931-877 BCE) was one of the most important figures in Jewish history; our sages describe Laws & Customs: Rosh Chodesh observances him as the equivalent of "Moses and Aaron combined." Today is Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") for the Samuel was the last of the Shoftim ("Judges") who led the month of Sivan, the third month of the Jewish Calendar. people of Israel in the four centuries between the passing Special portions are added to the daily prayers: Hallel of Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy, and the (Psalms 113-118) is recited -- in its "partial" form -- author of the biblical books of "Judges", "Samuel" and following the Shacharit morning prayer, and the Yaaleh "Ruth" V'yavo prayer is added to the Amidah and to Grace After Samuel was born in the year 2830 from creation (931 Meals; the additional Musaf prayer is said. Tachnun BCE) after his barren mother, Chanah (Hannah), prayed (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted. for a child at the Sanctuary at Shiloh and pledged, "O L- Many have the custom to mark Rosh Chodesh with a rd of hosts... If You will give Your maidservant a man festive meal and reduced work activity. The latter custom child, I shall dedicate him to G-d all the days of his life..." is prevalent amongst women, who have a special affinity (I Samuel 1:11). At age two, his mother brought him to with Rosh Chodesh -- the month being the feminine Shiloh in fulfillment of her vow, where he was raised by aspect of the Jewish Calendar. Eli the High Priest; shortly thereafter, Samuel had his first prophetic communication (described in I Samuel 3). In Light Shabbat Candles before sunset 890 BCE, Samuel succeeded Eli as leader of the Jewish people. Count "46 days to the Omer" tonight After ten years under Samuel's guidance, the people ------approached him with the request, "Appoint for us a king... like all the nations around us." Samuel disapproved of s h a b b a t their request, believing that the people of Israel should be Sivan 2 | May 22 subject only to G-d and not to any mortal king; but G-d 46th day of Omer count instructed him to do as the people ask. Samuel then Torah reading: Bamidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) Haftarah: anointed (879 BCE) Saul as the first king of Israel. When Hosea 2 Saul disobeyed G-d during the war on Amalek, Samuel On this Date: Chosen People (1313 BCE) proclaimed David the legitimate king in Saul's stead. Sivan 2 is marked on the Jewish calendar as Yom Shortly thereafter, Samuel passed away at age 54 in his HaMeyuchas ("Day of Distinction"); it was on this day birthplace, Ramah, in the hills of Judah. that G-d told Moses -- when Moses ascended Mount Sinai for the first time -- to tell the people of Israel: "You shall Jerusalem liberated (1967) be My chosen treasure from among all the nations, for all The Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were the earth is Mine. You shall be to Me a kingdom of liberated during the 1967 Six Day War (see close). The priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:4-6). day is marked in Israel as "Jerusalem Day." Laws & Customs: Ethics of the Fathers, ch. 6 Count "45 days to the Omer" tonight In preparation for the festival of Shavuot, we study one of ------the six chapters of the Talmud's Ethics of the Fathers ("Avot") on the afternoon of each of the six Shabbatot f r i d a y Sivan 1| May 21 between Passover and Shavuot; this week, being the Rosh Chodesh; 45th Omer Shabbat before Shavuot, we study Chapter 6. (In many On this Date: Encampment at Sinai (1313 BCE) communities -- and such is the Chabad custom -- the On the 1st of Sivan of the year 2448 from creation (1313 study cycle is repeated through the summer, until the BCE), six weeks after their exodus from Egypt, the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah.) Children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai in the Sinai Desert and camped at the foot of the mountain "as one Count "47 days to the Omer" tonight man, with one heart" in preparation for the receiving of the Torah from G-d. On this day, however "Moses did not

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