Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A thought on Parshas Shmos

"...va'yimararu es chai'yaihem..."
"...and they embittered their life..." (1:14)

The Torah recounts the ways in which the Egyptians enslaved and oppressed our people. All of us who read the Pesach Haggada each year know of the horrors which the Jewish nation has faced, and continues to face in every generation. It is our history and such is meant to be our destiny until the much-awaited Times to Come.

The Torah, in our verse above, might have said, "va'yimararu osam" - the Egyptians embittered them. What is added by the word "chai'yaihem" - embittered their life?

The Recanati reminds us. We are not alone in this world. Whatever happens, whatever happens to us, and whatever happens because of us, is not in isolation. It is happening because of our relationship with HaShem.

World events, cosmic events, personal or interpersonal or societal events, are all occurring within a Divinely based context. When the Jewish nation suffers and is afflicted, this is a blow to us but it is also an event which impacts the higher sense of what we know as the Sacred. Of course HaShem is not injured, or wounded or impacted in any of the corporeal ways in which we experience pain and distress. Yet, there is an assertion which runs throughout our masora through the teachings of our prophets that HaShem "knows" of our suffering. Last week I noted the concept Imo anochi b'tzara - which is Dovid HaMelech's expression of this (Tehillim 91:15.) This week, the Recanati cites another verse (Yeshaya 63:9) "b'kol tzarasam lo tzar" - in all of their suffering He suffers. This verse concept also emphasizes that aspect of the relationship between the Jews and HaShem.

This is the meaning of our verse's wording. It is true that we were embittered in Egypt. The reference to embittering "their life" is an allusion to HaShem, for He is the source of life, and the tragic state of His people also embittered that Divine source of life. By oppressing the Jewish people, there was a diminution of that mortal sense of the Sacred. That put awareness of His majesty in shadow, which is bitter indeed. We were made bitter, and that is what made our Life Source bitter. The Egyptians embittered our Life.

You may have noted that I wrote earlier that HaShem is so intricately associated with our nation that, whatever happens to us, whatever happens because of us, is happening within our relationship with the Divine. Let's look at that latter notion. Whatever happens because of us impacts that sense of the Sacred. When Jews offend, deceive, abuse, cheat or distort justice, we bring a bad name upon ourselves. That is, tragically, not where it ends, however. When we stain the image of the Jewish people, rather than point the accusing finger and cry out that the world is against us, we must take the Recanati's perspective. We need to look beyond all that and see the concurrent higher reality. We have tarnished r'l Kavod Shomayim. That is what Chillul HaShem is. We have stained the Life.

All of our trouble becomes His "trouble." Like rebellious children, we leave the pieces for Him to pick up. Isn't it time that we gave our Father some nachas?Next time there is a naughty wreck, remember the Recanati.

Good Shabbos. D Fox

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A thought on Parshas Vayechi

"...Yosef..alei ayin...""...Yosef is beyond the eye..." (49:22)

One understanding of Yakov's vision of Yosef here is that he blessed him with the capacity to be impervious to "the eye." In very simplified terms, this means that Yosef and his descendants would always be beneath the caring "eyes" of HaShem (see for example Tehillim 33:18) and not affected by the envious or malevolent eyes of other people.

The Recanati uses this to further our understanding of a profound and difficult concept. The Torah and our prophets seem to speak freely about Heavenly qualities as if they had a physical form. Anthropomorphisms (arguably one of the more sophisticated terms used by many yeshiva educated scholars) are those phrases or words which seem to depict Divine qualities as if they had something like a physical or mortal form. Thus, we may read about the eyes, the ears, the hands, the fingers of HaShem, and we know that these are useful metaphors for understanding concepts which are definitely spiritual and metaphysical, not corporeal or mortal.

However, the Recanati offers to change our thinking about this. It is not that the use of an expression such as "the hand of G-d" is a metaphor. Rather, it is the human hand, the human eye, and ear, and other features which are the metaphors for a higher reality. We think that our hands, for example, are hands, and that is why we assume that "hand of G-d" is a metaphor which utilizes our real concept of real hands, as if a force Above can be compared to the forces which we have in our hands.

Not so, asserts the Recanati. The real "hand" is a Divine reality. It is a Divinely willed force which is utilized in bringing HaShem's will to earthly manifestation. Our hand is a metaphor. It is a tangible imitation of a Higher reality. It is a "metaform" (there I go again assuming that I have coined another word). We can use our hand, our eye, our human features to try approximating what Higher forces and realities exist Above. As we grasp more about Higher forces, Higher reality, we see that our own bodies are a metaphor for that fuller reality.

Just as our bodies have both features which serve an obvious function, and other features about which we know little, or about which we can only conjecture in that they are hidden deep with the body, so too are there two forms of Divine processes. There are acts and forces which we think we can understand and fathom, and there are hidden and mysterious forces descending from Above about which we understand little, or may be unaware of.

Each person is given the challenge to focus and direct his purest energies into identifying his or her "parts" and utilizing them exclusively for pure and Divinely willed purposes. If a person succeeds in purifying a part of himself, then that limb or organ or feature becomes a this-worldly "throne" for that corresponding force Above. The dedication of one's hand, for example, for sacred acts can result in that person's hand activating the connection between this world and the Higher realm which involves the manifestation of that "hand energy" which conducts its form of Divine will. That person has succeeded in making his hand an active replica or metaphor in reflecting a form of the greater reality Above.

With this clarification, adds the Recanati, we can better grasp the well known adage of Chazal that "Ha'Avos hen hen HaMerkava" - the Patriarchs were the Chariot: our holy forefathers were able to dedicate their entire selves to becoming conduits for manifesting Divine will throughout the world. By being pure in action, thought, speech and interaction, they facilitated a clearer sense of the Divine Presence through myriad worldly representations of Divine will.

An eye for an Eye. Good Shabbos. D Fox

Thursday, December 13, 2007

A thought on Parshas Vayigash

"...Anochi ered imcha...gam aloh...""...and I will do down there with you...and ascend..." (46:4)

It may seem "obvious" to us that this verse means what it says: HaShem assured Yakov that He would accompany him down to Egypt during our first national exile. After all, we are familiar with the concept of golus HaShechina - the Divine Presence goes into exile when our nation does. We are all familiar with the concept of immo Anochi ba'tzara - I am with you during hardship - and our verse simply means that HaShem goes with us and returns with us wherever our sojourn may be. Simple enough.

"Obviously", however, nothing that magnificent and majestic can be so simple, nor should it seem so easy to understand. The Shechina is not a substance or entity which can travel, nor does the Shechina "need" to travel. HaShem is Omnipresent, incorporating all and encompassing everywhere in a manner which is metaphysical and transcends even the best metaphor. Moreover, the standard statements in Chazal regarding those lofty concepts about golus HaShechina do not even cite our verse, which would seem like an "obvious" source upon which to anchor the notion of a migrating Presence.

The Recanati offers a better perspective for us. He produces a verse (Zecharia 4:2) which says, "V'hinei menoras zahav kula v'gula al rosha" - "and there was an image of a pure golden light with a gula over it." The Recanati then cites a midrash (VaYikra Rabba 32:8) -
"gula" means "gola" (exile). Above the image of light is a symbol that the Divine light also contains an "exile" component, as it is written (Yeshaya 43:14) - l'manchem Shilachti Bavela - for your sakes I have sent Myself down to exile.

There is an eternal Divine Presence yet within that Presence is a facet "fit for exile." What are the theodyamics (I believe I just coined that term) of this? The Recanati explains further:
Early on in the Torah, during the days of creation, we read (1:4) va'yavdel Elokim bein ha'or u'bein ha'choshech - HaShem separated between the light and the dark. Taking light and separating it from dark is not the most complicated activity in life. We do it all the time. So, it is "obvious" that what took place in the early moments of creation was not that simple.

The Recanati sees here an allusion to the light which we have talked about in earlier parshios this year. With light as a metaphor for the endless power which emanates from Above, HaShem separated light into light-light and dark-light. This separation represents the seeming accessibility of that sense of the sacred with which we seek to encounter HaShem in our deeds and minds and feelings, and the more faint sense of the Beyond which we struggle with in the dark of exile. We can understand darkness as being the absence of light, but we can better understand that darkness is a different view of light. When it is dark outside, the light is still there but we cannot see it. When we are in exile, the light is still there but it is experienced in a darker manner. This is the "separating" at creation. This is the gula hovering above the golden menora in Zecharia's vision. And that is what HaShem assured Yakov. Rather than a foreboding sense that the descent into exile would bring a darkening over the spirit, HaShem assured Yakov that there is a form of light called darkness. That is the light which is accessible during golus.

That light form would go down into exile with us, but gam aloh - it will also ascend with us. The return from exile will not herald a permanent diminution of the sense of Presence, for the Presence never changed. The light will once again be perceived and experienced as light. The gula over the menorah will become the geula.

Good Shabbos. D Fox

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

A thought on Parshas Miketz

"...v'Yosef hu ha'shalit al ha'aretz...""...and Yosef was the ruler over the land..." (42:6)

The Torah has described how Yosef HaTzadik rose to power in Egypt. This verse relates how he was in charge of providing food to all who sought assistance, but it prefaces with yet another reference to his being the ruler of the land. It is not clear what is being added here.

It is clear to the Recanati, however. He notes the wording of the verse. "Yosef was the ruler over the land." Generally, we think about a person ruling over other people. The verse says that he ruled "over the land." Now, we could argue that this is just a colloquialism, with "land" being the populace rather than the terrain. Still, says the Recanati, the Torah selects words for a reason. He offers a reason.

You may have noted that I referred to Yosef as "the righteous", or as Yosef HaTzadik. Where did that term come from? In profound Kabbalistic thought, Yosef takes on the role of Yesod, which reflects the Divine influence known by the same name, Yesod or Foundation. Yesod is that emanation which we attribute to the Above of permanence and durability. It is the presence which does not waver and can remain constant so that the rest of the entire universe and eternity can operate, building on that secure yesod foundation.

Yosef represented the mortal epitome of the yesod quality. He did not waver when faced with threat, challenge, temptation, isolation, poverty, humiliation, slavery or grandeur. He also grew and evolved as a result of his resolve and decision to endure. This is even seen within his name Yosef which means to add on and to increase. He grew with each test that he passed.

Yosef remained Yosef because he ruled over himself. He did not allow himself to give up his inner identity, as we see time and again in our parshios. In Mishlei (10:25) we read, "When the storm passes, a wicked person is no more, but a righteous person is the foundation of the world - v'tzadik yesod olam." Many of us have heard that expression, v'tzadik yesod olam, but not all of us knew its origin until now. It is a verse, but it is also a reference, says the Recanati, to Yosef. Yosef is called Yosef HaTzadik because he serves in this world as the yesod olam, the foundational presence from among humanity. A yesod olam is, according to that verse, a tzadik. Hence, Yosef as the yesod is Yosef HaTzadik.

Ruling over the self in those ways is a way of bringing into this lower world a trace of that Higher attribute called Yesod. One who succeeds in ruling over himself in this manner becomes a source to bring bracha to the rest of the world. In that way, Yosef was indeed the one who was ha'shalit al ha'aretz, the one who ruled over the land, or lower world. His role was not limited to being a leader of nations. It was being responsible for establishing a yesod presence on the earth which could inspire others to resonate with that quality of Yesod so that people could grow spiritually, adding on and increasing their sense of closeness to HaShem.

We can all grow by learning to rule over the inner domain. Good Shabbos. D Fox