Soulwise Chanukah 5773Highrespg6
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HIGH HOLIDAYS B”H Chabad of Lehigh Valley FALL 2013 / HIGH HOLIDAYS 5774 Read the exclusive Shais Taub on HIGH BEING A HOLIDAY GUIDE COMPLICATED JEW Georgia Atkin on Mouth-watering recipe from THE KEEPING DEVORAH’S OF THE BEES RECIPE CORNER Dear Friend: A story is told of the Baal Shem Tov, the DEDICATED TO founder of the Chassidic movement. He once ascended THE LOVE AND to Heaven and met with Moshiach. He asked him, INSPIRATION “When are you coming, my master?” Moshiach then OF THE replied, “When your wellsprings spread to the outside.” LUBAVITCHER The nature of a spring is to ow outward. REBBE OB”M People do not have to dig or draw up water from a spring; it simply ows out, even to a distance, and anyone who wants can come and drink. This exchange took place between the Baal Shem Tov and the soul of Moshiach on Rosh Hashanah, 5507, 1746. The Holiday of Rosh Hashanah marks the Jewish New Year and is a time of renewal for the world. The unique magazine you hold in your hands will help feed your Jewish mind and heart. May this year be a sweet year of blessing for you and your family, and let us pray that by igniting our soul, by inspiring our minds, the world around us will follow. And soon we will all be blessed with the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days. Wishing you a sweet New Year, Sincerely, Rabbi Yaacov Halperin Chabad of the Lehigh Valley P.S. Are you looking for inspiring services this year? Join Chabad for a unique and wonderful High Holiday experience. Our warm and user-friendly services participate! For more information, please visit us at www.chabadlehighvalley.com. WEEKLY CLASSES Torah Studies: A Weekly Journey into the Soul of Torah Wednesdays at 7:30 pm *$36/12 week series (textbook included) Adult Hebrew School, Sundays, 9:30 am *FREE PRODUCED FOR: Chabad of Lehigh Valley All classes are located at chadad EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Rabbi Yaacov Halperin CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Debbi Witchel Call: 610-351-6511 - Email: [email protected] DESIGNER: Nikki O’Gorman CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: George Atkin, Yosef Y. Jacobson, Angela Goldstein, Shais Taub, Tzvi Freeman, Emily Levenson, Sara Bressler JOIN US FOR ROSH HASHANAH THANKS TO: Binah Magazine & Chabad.org WEBSITE: www.chabadlehighvalley.com Holiday Dinner: Wednesday, Sept. 4, 8:00 pm $20 per person - RSVP required This Wellsprings Magazine is published by Call: 610-351-6511 - Email: [email protected] Chabad of the Lehigh Valley. 4457 Crackersport Road- Allentown, PA 18104 and is sent to our Members and Friends infrequently throughout the year. Issue #37 High Holidays 5774 YouYou never never know know where where you’llyou’ll bebe when anan emergency emergency strikes… strikes… butbut youyou know a St.St. Luke’s Luke’s emergency emergency roomroom isis alwaysalways nearby. InIn an an emergency, emergency, call call 9-1-1 9-1-1 oror gogo toto the closestclosest emergency emergency room.room. iÌÜÊUÊ iÌ i iÊUÊ >`>iÊUÊ >ÃÌÊUÊ* «ÃLÕÀ}ÊUÊ+Õ>iÀÌÜ iÌÜÊUÊ iÌ i iÊUÊ >`>iÊUÊ >ÃÌÊUÊ* «ÃLÕÀ}ÊUÊ+Õ>iÀÌÜ ÜÜÜ°ÃÕ °À}ÊUÊ£nÈÈ-/1 - ÜÜÜ°ÃÕ °À}ÊUÊ£nÈÈ-/1 - BY SHAIS TAUB I am a complicated Jew and if you’re wondering whether or not you qualify as a “complicated” Jew, you are too. While studying for his PhD in psychology, my father and his classmates learned how to administer personality tests by taking the tests themselves. One Monday morning, the students waited in the classroom for the professor to arrive with the results of the personality test they had taken the previous Friday. One of the students groaned, “I was so nervous all weekend to nd out the results of my personality test that I almost drove my car into a tree.” At that moment, the professor walked in. It was clear that he had overheard the student’s comment. He looked at the nervous student and said, “You don’t need to wait for any results.” So, if you have to ponder whether or not you simple, everything gets set straight again. shown up out of the blue, and you ask them, are a complicated Jew, you have your answer Everything becomes clear. “Why did you come to shul today?” What do right there. What is it about Yom Kippur that makes it you suppose they’ll say? “Well, that’s an so uncomplicated? interesting question.” ey’ll probably have A simple Jew doesn’t ponder such things, not some interesting answer, some fascinating story about why they were suddenly inspired to come to “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE TODAY? WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE?” shul. But you won’t hear an interesting story about why someone showed up to that he’s unintelligent. Oh sure, some simple Kabbalisticly on Yom Kippur, the fth level shul on Yom Kippur. Jews are unintelligent, but then again, some of your soul, or the fth degree of your What’s the dierence between the Yom are quite bright, even brilliant. "Simple" has individual spirituality, is revealed. In short, Kippur reason for suddenly showing up in nothing to do with intellectual prowess. there are ve levels of the soul; 1) the energy shul and the rest-of-the-year reason for ere are simple Jews who are of holy behaviors, 2) the energy of holy suddenly showing up in shul? e dierence astrophysicists. Simple Jews can be very emotions, 3) the energy of holy intellect, 4) is that the rest of the year, I feel like I need to smart, but no matter how smart they are, if the energy of faith and 5) the essence that explain my Jewishness. On Yom Kippur, you ask a simple Jew a simple question like transcends all these. what’s there to explain? “Are you Jewish?” they’ll give you a simple answer. A complicated Jew, on the other at’s why we pray three times a day on a at’s what it’s like to be a simple Jew. hand, gives you a complicated answer. He normal day in order to gain access to levels has to qualify it with all sorts of disclaimers. one, two, and three. On Shabbat and So, how does this clean up the past and send e answer to, “Are you Jewish?” becomes holidays, we add a fourth prayer and we can us fresh and clean into a new year? “It depends what you mean by Jewish.” e feel level four. Only on Yom Kippur we simple Jew understands that “Are you have ve prayers in a single day, which means On Yom Kippur, when we all become simple Jewish?” is a yes-or-no question and there’s that we get in touch with that fth level, the Jews, then everything else ceases to matter. no commentary needed. essence of the soul that just is. We refrain Oh, sure, if you want to be complicated you from eating and drinking, from working, and can point out all sorts of contradictions in is clarity can make complicated Jews from all mundane pursuits, getting away my life. You can show me how I haven’t nervous and we dismiss it as from doing so that we can just start "being". exactly been acting like a Jew all year. e “black-and-white thinking,” “extreme,” Hence, the angelic pure white robes, the arguments and the logic are all well and good “one-dimensional,” or “shallow.” As kittel, that many are accustomed to wear. It’s for another time. We’ll analyze that stu later complicated Jews, we revel in our reminiscent of simple burial shrouds, and x whatever we need to x. But at this sophistication allowing us to explore the reminding us that no matter what kind of moment, the contradictions are irrelevant. ambiguities of every issue. However, does complicated clothes we wear in this lifetime, All that matters is the simple truth. I am a analysis really equal smart? we all go to the grave as equals. Or like they Jew. Everything else I’ve done to contradict say, at the end of the game, both the king and myself all year suddenly disappears. As we analyze this statement, being a simple the pawn get Jew doesn’t necessarily make you put unintelligent, so too being an analytically, away in over-thinking Jew doesn’t automatically the “WHY AM I HERE? WHY ARE YOU HERE” make you clever. ere’s a dierence between same intelligence and thought. For instance, think wooden of driving directions to the airport. Are you box. thinking them now? Great. Were you thinking them ten minutes ago? Probably I always appreciate what’s happening on Yom Ah, to be a simple Jew, to have clarity even if not. Did you know directions to the airport Kippur when I talk to a “one-day-a-year” for a moment. is Yom Kippur, when ten minutes ago? Probably yes. ere is a Jew. Try it. Stand outside your synagogue on your own Jewishness needs no justication, dierence between knowing and thinking. Yom Kippur and speak to the man or woman try to remember what that feels like. Even Just like you can know something and not be who you’ve never seen before and ask him or when you get your complicated brain back thinking about it, so too, you can know a lot her, “What are you doing here today? What the next day, hang on to that clarity of who of things and not be a big thinker. brought you here?” You’ll get a funny look, you are.