Let My People Know

Monday, January 11, 2010

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Sunday, January 10, 2010

PLEASE READ IN ORDER TO CONTINUE RECEIVING "LET MY PEOPLE KNOW"

Hello,

I just transferred the "Let My People Know" blog over to a new, more efficient server. As a result of this transfer, you need to re-subscribe to "Let My People Know" in order to continue receiving your daily teaching from the words of Rabbi Steinsaltz.

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3) Important: Check your email for a "subscription confirmation" notice and click on the link inside the email.

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"We are unintentionally, but continuously, brainwashed into thinking that the spiritual is not very real"

"Our assumption that existence is primarily physical, and that reality is that which is tangible, is not self-evident, natural, or inborn.

This sort of thinking (a spiritual phenomenon in itself) is based on cultural maxims that are taught to us.

From a very young age, we are taught that dreams, ideas, and thoughts are not real, and that what we say, think, and dream do not count.

In turn, we transmit to our children—not always in words—the notion that 'reality' is that which can be seen and touched.

Our children get the message continuously, in both subtle and not so subtle ways: 'If it does not exist in matter, it does not matter.'

In our culture, if a small child breaks a cup, we scold him.

If he cuts his finger, we are worried.

But if a child speaks of his dreams and imaginations, we dismiss them as unimportant, and even more—as unreal.

In this way, we are unintentionally, but continuously, brainwashed into thinking that the spiritual is not very real, and therefore we discount it in many ways.

This education has many evolutionary advantages, mostly to cats, cattle, or apes, who have to rely on their senses and not on their thoughts (if they have any).

Whether it is helpful in the long run for human beings is quite doubtful.

When we ignore or discount the intangible, we are misleading ourselves.

If spirituality were only pondering about angels, we could ignore it, claiming that angels are of no interest to us.

As things are, we cannot ignore or rid ourselves of the spiritual aspect of our life, so long as we are conscious."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Simple Words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Friday, January 8, 2010

"The mitzvot have no purpose, material or spiritual, beyond the single aim of attachment to God"

"The practical mitzvot are not a device for attaining spirituality, love of God, and other spiritual aims.

In fact, the mitzvot have no purpose, material or spiritual, beyond the single aim of attachment to God.

And God is neither material nor spiritual but equally distant from both matter and spirit.

The question of whether a person believes in God or denies Him is not of any greater 'concern' to God than whether a person smokes on Shabbat.

Furthermore, as far as genuine attachment to God is concerned, it is the body that holds the greater potential for such attachment, because, among other things, the vast majority of the mitzvot are physical deeds.

The prevalent assumption that the spiritual is better suited to achieve attachment to God stems from the failure to distinguish between attachment and a feeling of attachment.

The two are not synonymous; indeed, they can be far apart and at times even opposites.

Attachment is an objective truth: a person is one with God, and it makes no difference whether the person experiences an uplifting of the spirit at that time or not.

If the criterion is how one feels, if one's feelings determine what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong, then this is not attachment to God but attachment to oneself!"

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Opening the Tanya by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Thursday, January 7, 2010

"Joy is not an express mitzvah but is the greatest of mitzvot"

"A cardinal principal in the service of God is that it must be done with joy.

It is said in the name of many Hasidic masters that there is something that is not listed in the Torah as a sin yet is worse than any sin and something that is technically not a mitzvah yet is greater than all mitzvot.

Nowhere does the Torah expressly forbid sadness and depression, yet this is the most virulent of sins, for it stifles the heart and mind, closing them to the service of God.

Joy is not an express mitzvah but is the greatest of mitzvot, for it opens a person's heart and mind, enabling him to perform all the mitzvot and to make a mitzvah of everything."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Opening the Tanya by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

"The joys of Paradise are endless and everlasting"

"Just as the awareness of wrong becomes increasingly deep in Hell, the understanding and enjoyment of good grow constantly stronger in Paradise.

Unlike Hell, which is a limited, finite stage, because it has to correct and amend what happened in a finite span of life, the joys of Paradise are endless and everlasting.

To use a physical metaphor, the absolute zero of temperature is defined and closed.

But there is no upper limit to higher and higher temperatures.

The freed, cleansed soul is now able to have a touch of Godhead, which is the absolute infinity that contains the wholeness of everything.

While being connected and confined by the body and by the shadows of the world, the soul can hardly grasp it.

But in another stage of existence, when these boundaries are no longer there, the soul can keep ascending for eternity."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Simple Words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

"The performance of a commandment completes the wheel of creation"

"Although the patriarchs intuitively observed the entire Torah even before it was given, once it has been given, we must follow its directives rather than our intuitions, because the Torah has become the pattern of the rectified world.

It is the key, the map, in which reality appears as it should be, in which God Himself appears, without the constriction and the distortion of the created world.

As a rough analogy, a lock is built in such a pattern.

It contains a row of teeth that are out of alignment, that are purposely 'distorted,' as it were.

The key that opens the lock has a configuration that fits with teeth in the lock, making it possible to open the lock.

To a person who does not have the key, the door remains closed.

To a person who does have the key, the door is open.

The existence of this world is closed, and we cannot see the divine beyond it.

There is no direct connection between one level and the next leading directly to God.

But the commandments create a direct link between the created and its Creator, with a direct connection to the highest point, with no distortion.

In this sense, the performance of a commandment completes the wheel of creation."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Learning from the Tanya by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Monday, January 4, 2010

"Our world may be said to be filled with noise"

"A person involved in Torah and mitzvot in a sense organizes the world, transforming the chaotic universe into order.

By way of illustration, when randomly scattered metal filings are magnetized, they take on a specific, meaningful arrangement.

Our world may be said to be filled with noise.

A person involved in Torah and mitzvot collects snippets of information from that uproar and combines them so that he receives meaningful communication from God.

Thus, this noise, which normally doesn't allow us to hear anything, is given shape and transformed into an instrument that transfers meaning."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Understanding the Tanya by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Sunday, January 3, 2010

"The Jewish attitude is that life in all its aspects, in its totality, must somehow or other be bound up with holiness"

"Seen as separate and unrelated commandments, each as an individual obligation and burden, the mitzvot seem to be a vast and even an absurd assortment of petty details which are, if not downright intimidating, then at least troublesome.

What we call details, however, are only parts of greater units which in turn combine in various ways into a single entity.

It is as though in exam ining the leaves and flowers of a tree, one were to be overwhelmed by the abundance, the variety, and the complexity of detail.

But when one realizes that it is all part of the same single growth, all part of the same branching out into manifold forms of the one tree, then the details would cease to be dis turbing and would be accepted as intrinsic to the wondrousness of the whole.

A basic idea underlying Jewish life is that there are no special frameworks for holiness.

A man's relation to God is not set apart on a higher plane, not relegated to some special corner of time and place with all the rest of life taking place some where else.

The Jewish attitude is that life in all its aspects, in its totality, must somehow or other be bound up with holiness."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Friday, January 1, 2010

"We have to get rid of our preconceived and learned structures and images, which blur our real belief"

"Belief in God can be naïve and childish, or sophisticated and elaborate.

The images we have of God may be nonsensical, or well constructed philosophically.

Yet the essence of this belief, when stripped of verbiage and frills, is simply: existence makes some sense.

Sometimes, one may think—probably mistakenly—that one knows exactly what that sense is, while others may just ponder it.

In any case, there is a firm belief—which precedes any kind of thought, rational and irrational—that there is some sense in things.

What we experience, through our senses or inwardly are only disjointed pieces.

The fact that we somehow connect these particles of information stems from our a priori faith that there is a connection—because it precedes reason.

Accepting this assumption is the first, most fundamental 'leap of faith'; not an experience, but a belief.

Of course, people would not call this 'religious belief,' nor see it as a point of faith.

Nevertheless, when analyzed properly, it becomes—for those people who are afraid of the word—frightfully close to believing in God.

This belief is like our belief in the existence of the world: it is the foundation of our relation to everything; indeed, on some levels, it is perhaps even more fundamental.

This deep, native belief can be found when we 'undo' our childhood training and eliminate everything we were taught about belief as children.

Then we must answer the question 'What is God?' not on a philosophical level that claims objective definitions, but as an attempt at least to understand 'What is God for me?'

To do this, we have to get rid of our preconceived and learned structures and images, which blur our real belief. We must delve very deeply into ourselves, into our most primal thinking, indeed—to begin at the beginning."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Simple Words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Thursday, December 31, 2009

"We are the sum total of nature, containing the macrocosm in our own microcosm"

"When God created man, God said (Genesis 1:26), 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'

Traditionally, it is understood that God was speaking to the angels.

If so, the plan was not very successful; we are not like angels.

According to another interpretation, God was speaking to the whole of creation, to all of nature.

In that case, 'Let us make man in our image' means, 'Let each of you contribute something.'

The fox and the dove, the tiger and the sheep, the spider and the bee each contributed a small part—as did the angels and the devils.

We humans contain all the parts.

Some of us are foxier than others, or more sheepish than others, but altogether, we contain all the traits found in nature.

In that way, we are the sum total of nature, containing the macrocosm in our own microcosm.

Somehow, we have to learn from all our partners, and perhaps pray that the extra part—that "Divine spark" contributed by God—will help us make the right choices."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Simple Words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

"Judaism does not see sexuality only as an instrument for the propagation of the human race"

"In Judaism, sex is never looked on as something wrong or shameful.

It is, on the contrary, considered to be a high level of action potentially capable of bringing out the noblest attributes, not only in the realm of individual feeling, but also in the realm of holiness.

And it is nevertheless precisely because of this potential that strict restraints are called for.

Indeed, the whole order of relations among the various worlds may be conceived in images of intimate engagement, a kind of sexual contact between one world and another, between one level of being and another.

That is why sexual relations themselves have an enormous influence on the soul.

All this, besides their primary power—to create a new human being—makes it clear why it is necessary to be extremely respectful to and solicitous about all that concerns the use of the power of sex.

In principle, Judaism does not see sexuality only as an instrument for the propagation of the human race, a means of being fruitful and multiplying."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

"If anything is clear, it is that a rigid, unchanging way is wrong"

"What the Jewish sages recommend is not only a middle way, it is a rejection of extremes in terms of a clear knowledge of how to keep everything, including the extreme, in its proper place.

Consequently, in general, there are no preconceptions about what is the correct conduct for all situations, since the correctness of a way of being is itself only measurable in terms of a specific set of circumstances that may or may not recur.

There is therefore no possibility of fixing a single standard of behavior.

If anything is clear, it is that a rigid, unchanging way is wrong.

Furthermore, this principle of movement, of constant change, is the principle manifested by the soul itself in its life on earth.

To be sure, a person needs a special teacher or a great deal of guidance in order to be able always to find the right measure; usually choosing the correct way grows out of the soul's continual oscillation from one extreme to another.

This pendulum swing of experience brings about a certain synthesis somewhere in the middle — although too often it is an artificial middle, merely halfway between good and evil and neither one nor the other."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Monday, December 28, 2009

"A Jew will choose to die rather than cut off his soul from Klal Yisrael"

"What role does each individual Jew who lives an 'ordinary' life play in the chosen collective that is Klal Yisrael?

Just as all the mitzvot and all the spiritual and moral imperatives are imposed upon every individual Jew without exception, so too is the potential for greatness the heritage of every Jew.

Not only is it an attribute of the Jewish collective, but it is engraved on the being, on the soul of every single Jew.

The deepest understanding of this characteristic of each Jewish neshomah (soul) is found in the Torat HaKabbalah, the mystical aspect of Torah instruction, as it is expounded upon and interpreted through the teachings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, founder of Chabad, who is reverently known as the Alter Rebbe.

In the Alter Rebbe's approach, the greatness of the Jewish people and their uniqueness begins with, and is composed of, the hidden strength in every Jew, no matter how low he has sunk, and no matter how sinful he be.

It is this hidden strength that makes even such a Jew ready to give up his life: to die when forced to choose between renouncing his Jewishness or losing his life.

This power to withstand the ultimate test of human endurance, to give one's life so as not to compromise the collective Jewish holiness, is the manifestation of the uniqueness of the nation as a collective, and the Jew as an individual.

This capacity is not confined to the great and the wise among our people; it is shared by every Jew, great and small, learned or illiterate, even by a Jew who has throughout his lifetime turned his back on all of the Torah imperatives and led a life virtually devoid of mitzvot.

A Jew, given the option of choosing the publicly denying of God and renouncing his Jewishness, or death, will choose to die rather than cut off his neshomah from Klal Yisrael."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From The Strife of the Spirit by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Sunday, December 27, 2009

"Every child has his own true name"

"It is said that when parents give their child a name, thinking that they know exactly why they are doing so, the truth is that they don't know why they are choosing it.

And if they make a mistake and give a wrong name, the child will afterward change it because the name is not his correct one.

This attempt to define who one is spills over into the identity of every soul, which also has an appropriate name, a specific formula.

It is so for every star in the sky, too, each one with its name: 'He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names . . .' (Psalm 147:4).

***

Every child has his own true name, which the parents try to hit upon when the child is born.

But if they fail, then the child will keep on searching and changing his name until the true name is discovered.

Incidentally, it is written in some books that every person has two names—the name of the sanctified self and the name of the outer shell — and that the name of the outer shell should not be known by any man, it being the name of one's other side, the unholy aspect of personality."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

In The Sustaining Utterance by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Friday, December 25, 2009

"The rabbinic sayings comparing Shabbat to the world to come are more than mere figures of speech"

"The Jewish Sabbath is unique.

Indeed, a comparison with the Christian and Muslim imitations of it—not to mention the modern secular 'weekend'—only underlines this uniqueness.

Shabbat is not simply a day when one refrains from work, nor is it merely the day when it is customary to attend public prayer.

It is a day when one enters a completely different sphere.

The rabbinic sayings comparing Shabbat to the world to come are more than mere figures of speech.

Basically, Shabbat means putting aside creative activity in order to concern oneself completely with personal reflection and matters of the spirit, free of struggle and tension.

The key element in Shabbat observance is a kind of passivity: refraining from 'work.'

Yet, over a period of three thousand years, the Jewish people have developed a tradition that transforms what might otherwise be a day of mere inactivity into one of joy and inner peace, 'a day of rest and holiness,' in the words of the liturgy."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Teshuvah by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Thursday, December 24, 2009

"The mitzvah creates its own reward"

"The reward for a mitzvah is not something independent, predicated only slightly on the mitzvah.

Rather, 'the mitzvah creates its own reward.'

In contrast to the widely accepted view of reward and punishment as 'carrot and stick, 'reward and punishment are actually themselves the mitzvah and sin.

The mitzvah and sin are not deeds that stand alone, which God then repays with reward and punishment based on a predetermined system of rules.

Rather, each deed creates the framework that is its reward or punishment.

They are a part of the deed, a continuation of the act, an extension of a person's relationship with it."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Understanding the Tanya by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

"An angel sees God but cannot perform the slightest mitzvah"

"Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev is reputed to have said that one strand of tzitzit (fringe) on a prayer shawl in paradise would cause it to go up in flames.

Although the divine light is revealed in paradise, the incomparably greater revelation of divinity within that tzitzit would utterly consume it.

That being the case, why is it that a person can put on tzitzit and not be charred into ash?

The answer is that he is not in paradise but rather in a framework that conceals God's grace—a framework of body and soul.

That combination makes it possible for him to achieve things that the pure soul alone could not do—for, were the soul to touch upon them, it would cease to exist.

However, this combination of body and soul must be kept in balance.

To sustain his connection with the divine, a person must have some degree of imperviousness and denseness.

On the other hand, he must stay sufficiently mindful to avoid becoming overly dense.

Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter of Gur (founder of Gur Hasidism and author of Chiddushei Harim) comments on the verse 'You ignored the Rock Who bore you, and you forgot God Who formed you' (Deuteronomy 32:18) that God created man with the power to ignore the sufferings and desires of this world and turn his mind to serving God.

But instead man uses that ability to forget 'God Who formed you.'

The ability to engage in holy endeavors— Torah and mitzvot—is itself the ability to be completely opaque to any holiness.

An angel sees God but cannot perform the slightest mitzvah; man, who cannot see God, is capable of performing the mitzvot.

This is the essence of a human being.

His power to choose—his ability either to cleave to God or to deny His existence—creates the human psyche."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Understanding the Tanya by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

"Old age eases the final blow of death"

"In a way, old age, when the body becomes less dominant, is, for many of us, a preparation for the dissociation of body and soul.

Therefore, for some people, old age may be a time of great tranquility and serenity, as the body and its wishes and desires become weaker, and the soul can shine undisturbed.

For others, whose conscious mind was always, and wholly, defined by their body, it is a period full of anguish, since their desires remain with them, although they can no longer be satisfied.

Teleologically speaking, however, old age eases the final blow of death."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Simple Words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Monday, December 21, 2009

"The convert to Judaism deserves special consideration and a special relationship"

"In the Midrash, there is a parable:

A shepherd has a large flock of sheep.

A deer enters the fold.

The shepherd tells his herdsmen to treat the deer with special care.

The herdsmen ask why, with such a large flock, the shepherd should concern himself with this one deer.

The shepherd tells them, 'My sheep have only this fold, while this deer has the whole world to choose from. Yet he chose my flock, and it is therefore fitting that I should give him special care.'

This attitude sums up the many mitzvot that require us to welcome the proselyte into our midst, someone who has the choice of belonging elsewhere and who, nevertheless, chooses to enter the Jewish framework.

The convert deserves special consideration and a special relationship.

The Book of Ruth is a beautiful portrayal of a true proselyte, unique in the Scriptures in that she is described as being wholly pure.

The description of Ruth's homecoming to her real, inner being is a spiritual odyssey:

We see her shed the trappings of her former existence, the connection with her family and origins.

We see her undeterred by the difficulties of her new life.

We see her fidelity to her commitment even when she is faced with the indifference of the local people.

Finally, we see all these pale into insignificance in relation to Ruth's inner soul.

We see that same ancient kernel of sanctity, that same spark that had burned unseen for generations, finds its rightful place within the people of Israel."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From On Being Free by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Sunday, December 20, 2009

"Evil is not defeated by being nice to it"

The "On Faith" website recently asked the following question:

Q: Is there such a thing as a 'just war'? In his Nobel speech, was President Obama right to speak in these theological terms about war? He also stated that 'no holy war can ever be a just war.' Do you agree or disagree?

Rabbi Steinsaltz responded:

"A holy war can be a just war -- as any war can be, or it may be dirty and unjust. Whether or not a war is just has nothing to do with its holiness, or otherwise.

Defining a just war is surely a more complicated and far more debatable problem.

In practical and political terms, no state has ever practiced giving the other cheek or Ahimsa (in the way that Gandhi defined it).

But even in moral terms, as a Jew I do not believe that non-resistance to evil, or lack of self defense, is morally superior.

Evil is not defeated by being nice to it.

War may be just and moral when it is fought against evil (as in World War II) or as a means of self defense.

These are general statements; in real life, as states are basically amoral entities, there is always a question about their motivations.

Rule and power, and in many cases money, may be the hidden reasons for a "just war."

In many cases, as is true altogether about the world, completely straightforward answers are hard to give.

Very often there is a mixture of real high morality and some very utilitarian elements.

While it is never easy to uncover a nation's main reasons for going to war - and what the national fringe benefits may be - still, there are just wars in which soldiers can participate proudly."

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