"A person has to know what his function is"

Every individual has a definite function within the people, just as every limb or organ has its function in the body, and one of the chief problems a person has to solve for himself is to know what his function is.

There is the story of the Tzadik who said to a rich, if somewhat stingy, disciple of his entourage:

"You're in great danger."

"Why? asked the disciple.

"Because," said the Tzadik, "every army is composed of many units regiments, platoons, and so forth and if a person takes upon himself to move from one unit to another, he is liable to be punished as a deserter.

And you, who were supposed to belong to the brigade of philanthropists and givers of charity, have deserted to the brigade of Torah scholars."

In many respects a person may be convinced of doing the right thing, but it may not be the right thing for him.

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From The Long Shorter Way, p. 9, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

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"The passage from one level to another demands a leap, an abandoning of solid ground"

"When a person passes from one level to another, there is an increased danger of falling.

He is no longer secure in the previous level, and can easily fall before he gains a hold in the next level.

This is true, of course, for every change in condition or of level of existence.

For instance, when entering the water to swim, there is a moment when one has to lose balance, disconnect from the secure contact with the ground and be neither walking nor floating.

Transition thus always involves imbalance and danger; it is in passing that one may collapse and lose all.

Thus, too, if someone who is learning some skill -- either manual or intellectual -- is put into a situation where there is a real difference of approach to the subject, it seems fairly necessary to advise the person to forget all that he had learned previously, because it would only serve to confuse him.

He cannot progress to a higher level of performance without forgetting, letting go of what he already knows.

So that those people, for example, who are intrinsically unable to forget are also those who find it hard to progress.

The passage from one level to another demands a sort of leap, an abandoning of all that was solid ground.

It is a basic feature of human progress, resting on the principle that the interval between points or fields comprises a mode of nothingness, and one cannot proceed from one point to another without losing one's previous balance, even if only for the briefest moment."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From The Sustaining Utterance, p. 13, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

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"Daily study of a page of Talmud based on the insights of Rabbi Steinsaltz"

In August 1923, at the First International Congress of the Agudath Israel World Movement in Vienna, Rabbi Meir Shapiro proposed uniting the Jewish people worldwide through the daily study of a page of Talmud.

The "Daf Yomi" (a page a day) tradition continues today as thousands study the designated page of the day. With 2,711 pages in the Talmud, each Daf Yomi study cycle takes about seven and a half years.

You can receive an email each day containing a brief essay on the page of the day based on the insights of Rabbi Steinsaltz drawn from his Hebrew Talmud commentary.

Click here to subscribe:

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/optin.jsp?v=001AAPQafplpnK49PS2TkbTtpVrkAaTxkIQ

As a sample, here is the essay from yesterday:

Kiddushin 20a-b October 28, 2008

Although the common perception today is that slavery is inhumane, the situation of an eved ivri (Jewish slave) is more similar to a long-term contract, in that the slave must be treated with great respect.

The Gemara understands from the passage “ki tov lo imakh” - that some slaves choose to remain beyond their assigned years because they find their situation to be a good one (see Shemot 21:16) - that the master is obligated to ensure that the slave join him in eating and drinking.

The master cannot eat fine bread and feed his eved ivri poor bread.

He cannot drink aged wine and have his eved ivri drink poorer quality wine;

He cannot sleep on cushions and have his eved ivri sleeping on straw.

The passage concludes with the expression “kol ha-koneh eved, koneh adon le-atzmo” - anyone who purchases a slave has bought a master for himself. The Me'iri writes that these obligations on the master should be seen as recommendations - as good deeds.

They are not monetary obligations that the master owes to his eved ivri, so the eved ivri could not, for example, take his master to court and sue him demanding a higher standard of living.

Furthermore, the Me'iri argues that even today, when we no longer have the concept of slavery, this attitude should inform contemporary relationships with workers, who should be housed, clothed and fed in a manner similar to that of the master.

This is certainly true according to the opinion of Tosafot (15a) who bring a prooftext to this rule from the passage “ke-sahir ketoshav ya'avod imakh” (Vayikra 25:40) - that an eved ivri should be treated like a hired servant.

The Talmud Yerushalmi writes that Rabbi Yohanan treated all who worked for him this way - even his non-Jewish slaves.

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"What is life? What is it all for?"

“The book of Ecclesiastes is a key to a more inward-directed Judaism, posing as it does the great question:

What is life?

What is it all for?

These are the basic questions of every thinking person.

And in the course of the book, all the substantial, rational, and usual solutions to this question are demolished, again and again.

What is the purpose of life?

Certainly not any one of the possibilities that Ecclesiastes raises, telling us of his own experience and eventual despair.

The essential conclusion of the book, in terms of the answer to the fundamental question, is:

There is no way of finding the purpose of life within the framework of physical life itself.

And if we pursue this line of thought we reach a conclusion:

If there is a purpose to life, it has to be beyond life.”

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From "Ecclesiastes," p.151-152 in On Being Free by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

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"To be willful, a person must be aware"

“If an unlettered person purposely commits a sin or neglects to perform a mitzvah, his sin is considered unintentional and minor, for it lacks the basic elements of complete willfulness:

Rebellion, denial of a supreme Master, a conscious turning away from God's will.

This person does not truly understand the meaning of holiness and views God and His mitzvot as unclear concepts.

He is thus considered to be acting unwittingly, like a child who breaks an expensive item whose value he cannot appreciate.

Even when such a person acts knowingly, his knowledge does not extend to a full understanding.

To be willful, a person must be aware.

When his consciousness is on a low-level, when he does not adequately understand the meaning of sin and mitzvot, he cannot be judged on the same scale as someone who does know and comprehend.”

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From Understanding the Tanya, p. 89-90, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

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"An expression of God's infinite power"

“A greater mystery than reality is the concealment of reality.

As has been said:

The glory of God is perhaps the fact that among the rest of Creation there can also be an unbeliever, who denies God even though he lives by the mercy of God and reveals God with every breath of his nostrils or twitch of his finger.

That such a creature should have the capacity to deny the existence of God is an expression of God's infinite power.”

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From "Concealment as Part of Creation" p. 51, in the The Sustaining Utterance by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

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"One cannot wipe out the effect of what one has learned"

“Every day we learn something new, absorb additional information and knowledge.

But it is not a simple adding of something to a storehouse.

It is a complex process of integration.

Knowledge influences the knower; the knower changes with what he learns.

True, one may also forget what was known, but the impression made by the knowledge cannot be effaced.

One can forget everything that one has learned, but one cannot wipe out the effect it had on the personality.

Which, incidentally, explains why it is forbidden to put to shame a scholar who has lost his ability to remember.

It is assumed that what he once knew remains as a subtle, ineradicable influence.”

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

From "The Paradox of World and God" in The Sustaining Utterance, p. 84, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

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