The Eighth Day

 

                                                                 “And it came to pass on the eight day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel…”

This week’s Parashah (Torah portion) is called “Shmini” (The Eight), Leviticus 9:1 through 11:47. It addresses various topics. Among them, it relates the tragedy that befell Aharon’s two sons.

 The issue I wish to address in this article is the one concerning the consecration of the Mishkan (God’s dwelling place).

The seven days in which Moshe performed all the necessary tasks preparing for the consecration of the Mishkan are over. On the eighth day, he summons Aharon and his two sons to, officially, pass on to them the scepter of priesthood.

I want to share with you, dear readers, a different perspective on this subject, one that the titular name evoked in me.

Years ago, I saw a French movie called “The Eighth Day.” It unfolds the story of a professional man, named Harry who becomes a workaholic. The money he earns affords him the pursuit of many materialistic gratifications. Harry drives a nice car. He buys a spacious and beautiful house full of precious items. Unfortunately, it is devoid of warmth or inviolability. It is just a house, not a home.  His family nucleus begins to disintegrate. His wife leaves him taking their two daughters and he becomes a recluse and very unhappy.

It is at one of his most difficult moments that Harry meets and befriends Georges, a young down syndrome man. Georges becomes his spiritual director. He guides Harry through a healing process. He helps him slow down and teaches him the importance of appreciating the natural world around us. Eventually, Harry reunites with his family and they live happily ever after.

Unfortunately, as is the case with most down syndrome victims, Georges dies at a young age. As the angels are carrying his soul to heaven, the narrator recounts the story of the creation in Genesis day by day. “And on the Sabbath, G-d rested,” he tells us, “looked at his world and thought ‘what is missing in my world?’ So,” the narrator concludes, “on the eight day, He created Georges.”

The eighth day, mentioned in this Parashah, derives its name, “Shmini,” from the very first verse which states: “And it came to pass on the eight day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel…” On this day, The Mishkan is consecrated.

Unlike the narrative presented in the movie that I mentioned above, on the Seventh Day of creation, when G-d rested, he had already known what was missing in His world. He had already known what had to occur on the Eight Day. For six days He had been working on creating a world for us, humans, a perfect dwelling place, a world to satisfy our physical needs and existence. G-d, in his wisdom, did not want us to end up like Harry in the story above. He knew that the physical universe He had created was just a house. It needed to become a Home, a place that would include a spiritual dimension, righteousness and morality, a place where we, its dwellers, would be blessed with an appreciation for the gifts of life bestowed upon us by Him.

What was, therefore, needed to be formed on “The Eight Day” was a dwelling place for G-d, among us. It would have been the missing piece, the one that would make His creation complete.

 Naturally, some may argue that G-d, the omnipotent, could have, himself, created “the Eight Day” merely by speaking, just as he had done on the previous six days. Why, then, didn’t He?

In order to answer this question, let me take you back to the Book of Shemot (Exodus), more specifically Chapter 25 verse 8, where G-d tells Moses, “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” The task of building a dwelling place for G-d, not only amidst them but in them, in their heart, is upon Am Yisrael. ( I refer you to an article I wrote on the subject last year: https://wingnsonawildflight.blogspot.com/2020/02/terumah-building-tabernacle-within-us.html)
Only then would the world be the Home that G-d had intended it to become for us and through us, for humanity.

"The Eight Day" in G-d’s plan, therefore, is the day on which the Tabernacle, which Bezalel, who was blessed with the wisdom of the heart designed and which Am Yisrael together contributed to and jointly built. It is the day in which the spiritual universe, which G-d had planned for us to built for ourselves, bonded and merged into one with the physical world that He had set up in Genesis.

 It is our duty to ensure that the Eighth Day and what it stands for remains an inseparable part of the rest of the week. We need to preserve it as G-d had intended it to be, not just a “house” but a “home,” as well. It is the only means to heal and restore that which has become, in the words of the late Lord Rabbi Sacks, “a fractured world.”

Shavua tov

Shavuot - An Ode to G-d

This article was written by Tal Gilad in Hebrew and translated into English by Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks.

Disclaimer: the essay below represents the point of view of the writer only. It is not intended to offend anyone or aimed at entering debates over one’s religious beliefs or scientific point of view. He solely expresses his thoughts. Nothing more. Thank you.

Shavuot, the Holy Day on which the Torah was given to Am Yisrael, is here.

True, every religious belief or faith needs to be respected. I trust, however, that over one issue there is no dispute, Judaism is the source for the other widely practiced faiths – Christianity and Islam. At school they taught us that the uniqueness of Judaism is that it is the first monotheistic faith. They also explained to us the difference between the belief in one god and that in many gods. I feel that this is missing the core of the issue.

It was also said about Akhenaten that he was a monotheist since he believed that the sun is the only god. New studies raise the possibility that he was merely “substituting” the previous sun god without rescinding the others, or that he only diminished their significance. It not that crucial. The bottom line is that it is no big deal to believe in one god instead of a few. OK, one works alone, the other delegates, what difference does it make?

The wisdom and distinctiveness of Judaism, especially its earlier debut is that Judaism is a giant leap in the  perception of G-d, not only is He One and Only, He has no shape, He is all-powerful and infinite and the G-d of all of us. I stress, of ALL. He chose Am Yisrael, but He is also the G-d of all nations, including the enemies of Yisrael. Whether they choose to believe in him or nor, is their preference.

This stems from the understanding that one god cannot be restricted. The moment he is your god only, he becomes something terribly forceful. In other words, if you build a tower which reaches the heavens or if you train at the gym long enough or bring in the air force, you will be stronger than him.

If he has a shape, he is limited. If there is something that preceded him, as was the case with the Greek gods, he is limited.

Hence, one cannot utter His name, since the moment you give Him one, you limit Him to words and letters. He must, therefore, be omnipotent, He is everything, omnipresent and invariably everywhere, our G-d in Heaven and Earth.

Incidentally, it does not matter whether the world has been existing for 13 billion years or six thousand years. Both are numbers that enable us to quantify a concept that we cannot grasp since it is perpetual. Just as one says “god” to introduce a word to something self-explanatory, a notion which cannot be articulated, so one names a number in order to clench on to something. Just as the decree that north is up, and south is down. Why? Just because. I have swerved a bit. That is a different subject altogether, but in fact, still related.

With all due respect and sincerely, I am not belittling or lessening the significance and stature of Christianity and Islam.  On the contrary, they spread the belief in one god and thus contributed their share in raising the whole of mankind to a higher spiritual level. But the basic perceptions about the essence of G-d originate in Judaism. The rest are a product of the original and thy do not deny it. It is not a problem to construct a wagon. The problem is to invent the wheel since it forces one to exit the thinking mode to which they were used. The inventor is also the one who understands their invention and knows all the stages that led  them to that understanding, as opposed to someone who received it ready-made and applies to it all that they know and are familiar with in their world. Jesus was a Jew and probably never considered himself a god. His followers, however, conceived the idea of the holy trinity, partly in order to make their faith more accessible and more concrete. Therefore, observant Jews do not enter a church. In their eyes, the holy trinity is a form of idolatry. After all, how can one divide that which is infinite, formless, and baffling into three? Which three?

One can, of course, find numerous hints and aspects of “accessibility” in our writings starting  the creation of the world where G-d, allegedly, says something or rests on the seventh day since he was tired, through “let us create a man in our image” and more, there was a need for visualization. But the <<basic>> notion in Judaism is that “G-d is One,” stressing the principle that there cannot be more than one that is endless and everything. Nothing could be more than endless and all. This is the central principle in Judaism and if one does not accept it, one does not understand its essence. After all, it is inconceivable that Moshe would come down from Mount Sinai and say, “OK, the golden calf is also a god,” merely to keep everyone happy and quiet.

“We shall do, and we shall hear,” which Am Yisrael took upon itself upon receiving the Torah, is also derived from this sentiment. After all, that “all” cannot give anything bad, impossible. He will not negate the universe and everything He created, just like as in the “know it all” question, “can G-d create a stone that He cannot lift?” Funny. Can the heavyweight lifting world champion raise and hold in the air the chair that he is sitting on? No. The contradiction is not in the answer but in the question.

The Ten Commandments are ten basic principles for living in the company of human beings, that which distinguishes between humans and animals. Their essence is Empathy. The wise Hillel summarized it “do not do unto others that which is hateful to you, the rest is commentary, go and learn.” Empathy is civilization, give and take, karma, flow of energy, call it whatever you wish. Has G-d given them directly to Moshe in a wrathful baritone voice? What difference does it make?

The funny thing is that in the desperate efforts to find a meaning to that which has none, researchers raised the hypothesis that there was no need for the world to be created, it has always existed (even Aristo claims that), which means that they believe that there is something primordial which has no creator, is infinite, has no shape and no size, that everything in it is conducted with a fixed and balanced amount of energy which cannot be subtracted by one tiny bit or else all will be chaotic.

In simple words, it is not G-d, but G-d. I reached the conclusion that just as the various religious leaders, astral physicists reach a certain point where they themselves do not understand their theories and move on to esoteric terms. And if one questions them, they define that person as ignorant and mindless.

So, here is another unique aspect of Judaism. We shall do and we shall hear. We accept our inability to understand. It is always great to learn and widen one’s horizons and it is not a shame to accept that there are issues which are beyond our understanding. This, also, has wisdom and spiritual eminence.

"Terumah" – Building a Tabernacle Within Us

One of the topics of this week’s Parashah, Terumah, addresses the construction of the Tabernacle, Mishkan, the transportable house of worship which G-d orders Moses to instruct the Yisraelites to build for him: “have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8). The Parashah discusses the subject at length, rather exhaustively and with much details.

“It was a modest affair,” states Rabbi Sacks when reviewing the issue of the Tabernacle in his excellent book, “The Home We Build Together.” According to him, and rightly so, “it had, or so it seems, no lasting significance….. So why is the story of the Tabernacle told at such length?” he asks.

Sacks believes that “the {Tabernacle} narrative is deliberately constructed in such a way as to create a set of linguistic parallels between the Yisraelites’ construction of the Tabernacle and G-d’s creation of the universe.” According to Sacks, in “commanding Moses to get the people to make the Tabernacle, G-d was in effect saying: To turn a group; of individuals into a conventional nation, they must build something together.” The kind of Nation that the children of Yisrael were destined to become “is created through the act of creation itself,” Sacks adds.

The Tabernacle which “was built out of difference and diversity” and which was built out of the differential contributions where each was valued equally…….was a visible emblem of community,“ Sacks goes on to say. “It represented…, in social terms integration without assimilation.” The Tabernacle, therefore, is the symbol of society,” Sacks explains. Once we recognize that, we understand the parallelism between the story of creation and the construction of the Tabernacle and its “immense implication: Just as God creates the natural world, so we are called on to create the social universe.”

As always, I am, again, in awe of Sacks’s brilliant interpretation of this Parashah.  I believe, however, that there is another angle that it can be looked at. It stems from the Hebrew choice of words in G-d’s directive to Moses regarding the construction of the Tabernacle, which, unfortunately, is mistranslated..

The Hebrew word, “B’tocham,” that the text uses, means “in them” and not “among them” as the English translation states. That difference sheds another light on what I reckon G-d intended.

My understanding of G-d’s command to Moses is that it is not only the material portable structure that He was referring to. I believe that G-d also meant a spiritual Tabernacle, one that will create a permanent dwelling place for Him not only in their camp but also in their heart, in their soul. G-d wants to dwell “in them,” not only among them. He wishes to be part of their essence.

As significant a step as it was towards helping them become a nation, the Yisraelites did not need only a social universe.  They need to remember that G-d did not intend for them to be a nation just like any other. They are G-d’s chosen People. Without internalizing that notion, without understanding it, their social universe, on its own, would not last long. Without G-d ‘s dwelling in them and not merely among them, as a constant reminder of the Covenant entered at Mount Sinai, they would never accomplish the role that they were called to fulfill.

I would venture, therefore, to add another dimension to Rabbi’s Sacks’s drawing the parallel between G-d’s creation of the natural universe and the social universe symbolized by the construction of the Tabernacle. In my view, the Tabernacle also represents the creation of our Jewish spiritual universe, the one that cements the natural and the social ones into a cohesive unshakable, indestructible and powerful force.

Shavua tov.

The Tree of Life and the Tree of Mind

“The tree of Life was amid the garden and the Tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9)

Last week we read ‘Parashat Bresheet,’ the first Torah portion of the Book of Bresheet (AKA “Genesis”). The Parasha recounts the two stories of Creation. The first narrates the creation of the universe, the second details the creation of Man and Woman and the account of the Garden of Eden, which G-d charged them with the duty to protect.

Some of you may raise their eyebrows in wonder upon reading the title of this essay. Yes, we have all heard about the Tree of Life but what is the Tree of Mind?

This question brings me back to a subject that I have dwelt on in the past, a painful subject I might add and the source of some serious concern to me. I am referring to the translation or rather the mistranslation of the Tanach first to Greek and later to other languages.

The mistranslation of the account of the name of the tree of “knowledge,” in the Garden of Eden is a case in point.

Those who read, speak and understand Hebrew will surely agree with me that the Hebrew refers to the Tree of Mind (Da’at) rather than Knowledge (Yeda). Da’at (Mind) is a very wide concept. The Cambridge Dictionary defines “mind” as “the part of a person that makes it possible for him or her to think, feel emotions and understand things.”  Mind, therefore, encompasses wisdom, understanding AND knowledge.

The forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate did not provide them with knowledge only. It gave them the understanding, the ability to acquire Moral Knowledge, to process, internalize and use it. To reduce the Tree of Mind or minimize its qualities to mere “knowledge” is, in my view, a gross injustice to G-d, to its role and to humans.

To explain my point, I enlist the help of the wise Maimonides. In part 1 of Chapter 1 of his “Guide for the Perplexed,” Maimonides distinguishes between physical appearance and the essence of humans, Tzelem. When the Torah describes Man as having been created B’Tzelem Elohim,” Rambam refers to it as “sechel” (intellect), man’s rational and analytical faculties. That was part of Man’s genetic code from the outset.

               “On account of this gift of intellect, man was addressed by G-d, and received                  His commandments, as it is said : ‘And the Lord commanded Adam’                              (Genesis 2:16) – for no commandments are given to the brute creation or to                    those who are devoid of understanding.” 

In other words, Man was created with the potential to learn, understand and assimilate knowledge.

Evidently, there was a missing element in the process, for as the story unfolds, we learn that Man and Woman were not fulfilling the task that they were entrusted with. What was missing is the component that would help translate Man’s inherent gift from G-d into a useful and productive learning curve.

That was the role of fruit of The Tree of Mind.

Only AFTER they ate from the Tree were Adam and Eve able to distinguish between Good and Evil, as we learn from the Parashah. The snake, the “most shrewd creature of all,” who was aware of it revealed that to Eve : “For G-d knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like G-d, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5).

Knowledge (Yeda) deprived of the galvanizing effect of wisdom and understanding is akin to giving someone a fishing rod without teaching them how to fish or a car without teaching them how to drive. The fruit of the Tree of Mind was the missing link, the trigger that connected the two realms, knowledge and comprehension, and jump started our learning process.

Rambam further suggests that Adam and Eve were right for eating from the Tree of Mind even at the threat of death. That spark of Tselem in which Man was created dictated that it is better to be mortal yet knowledgeable and aware of his surrounding rather than forever be stuck in a fool’s paradise without any wisdom’ understanding and knowledge. G-d, who created us in His image knew that we will have the desire and the curiosity to learn more.

May we continue to learn, grow and apply the moral lessons which the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Mind was meant to help us acquire albeit at, what some consider, a very dear price.

The Importance of Terumah

Terumah, in Hebrew, means “contribution.” It is the name of this week’s Parashah (Torah portion).

Too often the word is translated to mean “donation.” That is NOT what the Torah meant and that is not what our sages intended it to be perceived as when they named this week’s Parashah after it.

Furthermore, according to Zohar, Vol. II, p. 147a, the term means “lifting up.”

What is the significance of these different definitions to one small word, the reader might ask.

The answer lies in the subject of this week’s Parashah. It provides the details surrounding the construction of Beit Hamikdash (the Tabernacle), G-d’s dwelling place among His People. “Then Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8).

Just as He created and defined the universe through a set of very strict laws, so does G-d provide a very well-crafted and carefully demarcated set of principles and patterns that include materials and exact measurements for the blueprint that will eventually materialize into His House. His instructions are very clear and for a reason.

This House will be built with the wisdom of the heart. That combined balance between mental and emotional intelligence is what will be the corner stone of Beit Hamikdash. Its construction and eventual structure will reflect the true nature of G-d. Though G-d can create a universe and a dwelling House among His People, both with set boundaries, He himself is limitless.

In other words, as we, Jews, know, G-d’s presence cannot be either confined to or openly manifest itself in our physical world. The intention, the nature and the purpose of the House G-d wishes the Yisraelits to build for Him can be found in Deuteronomy 12:22: “Then there shall be a place which the Lord, your G-d shall choose to cause His name to dwell there.” The name will be the essence of that House, we are told.

Some may stop and ask, why does G-d put forth so much detail when He describes what some may consider a very elaborate and complicated plan? The Yisraelites would surely have other issues to address when they come to Eretz Yisrael. They will have to run an orderly society. They will have to establish a proper judicial system, they will have to have a strong army, fight enemies (as their name Yisrael suggests) and many other matters. Surely, G-d could have built that House merely by speaking. After all, did He not create a whole universe purely by His exclamations?

And that is where the Terumah, contribution, comes into the picture.

G-d does not merely wish to have a House among the Yisraelites, a House that will bear His name. G-d wishes each and everyone of them to be part of this grand master plan. He asks every single member of their People to contribute, each in their own way, towards it. That way they will not be merely spectators, they will become part of it. They will help create it. Creators cannot separate themselves from their creation. This way, G-d wishes to ensure that He will not only dwell in His House but also in them, in their hearts and in their essence

That is why, I believe, the Zohar, as mentioned above, defines, Terumah also as “lifting up.” When G-d dwells in each and everyone of us, our soul is enriched by invisible wings which lift us and enables us to soar to blessed and blissful spheres which, in many cases, our daily burden bars us from reaching. It brings us closer and closer to what G-d has destined us to become “a Goy Kadosh,” “A Holy Nation.”

Shabbat Shalom

In the beginning....

As we start reading the Torah over, I cannot cease, yet again, to marvel at its wisdom. Some believe it was written by G-d, the ultimate composer. Others believe it was written under Divine Inspiration. Whatever the source, its cup of wisdom certainly “runneth over.”

Whenever I read the first chapter of Beresheet (Genesis) which recounts the story of creation, I am enthralled by the recurring sensation that whoever wrote it several thousand years ago, must have had some understanding of science and the laws of nature.

I am not a scientist, I do not profess to be one. I am, however, intrigued.
As a lay person, I can only eandevour to address this complex issue of creation, a topic which, admittedly, has fascinated me for years and lead me to form the impressions which I have had about its narrator.

At the outset of the Book, the author states: בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ"“ )In the Beginning G-d created the Heaven and Earth) which, as Rashi explains does not merely mean “ in the beginning” but rather “In the beginning of” the process where G-d set to create the world. In fact in that verse, we are told that three very important pillars of our existence were formed, Time, Space and Matter.

 Then we are told that “"וְהָאָרֶץ, הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ  (the Earth was Tohoo Vavoho) indicating that it was chaotic before G-d put it in order. As I stated, I am not a scientist, far from that, but nowadays, we know of studies by physicists which confirm that the expansion of the early universe at the time of the big bang, was highly chaotic. The first chapter in Bresheet unfolds to us the sequence of events that shaped our world as we know it today.

“Let there be light,” is the first act of creation. Every child knows that the sun is the source of light yet the sun, the moon and the heavenly bodies were created only later. There goes the theory that the entity that composed this recount was ignorant of the laws of science. I can partially agree with it. In our time and age, we are still discovering facts about our universe. Just as the understanding that the earth was round came at a later stage, so perhaps did the awareness that the sun is the source of Light came later to the people of the Tanach. When the “the big Light” and the “small Light” were created, according to Bresheet, they were for the sole purpose of distinguishing between the day and night and to determine the special and Holy Days, months and years.” לְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים, וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים

The composer of the chapter of creation, however, was, like modern humans, aware that Light was energy, the source of all living in our universe. And that indicates that some understanding of the laws of nature did exist already then.

Next is the act of separation between “הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מִתַּחַת לָרָקִיעַ, וּבֵין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מֵעַל לָרָקִיעַ “ the upper water and the lower water,” Heaven and Earth, or as Bersheet calls it
  שמים,  ארץ  וימים “dry land,  seas and sky. The Hebrew word for sky is Shamayim. It means, “there is water there.” I can only envisage the Biblical people staring at the sky, seeing that it is blue just like the sea water next to them and concluding that the blue up above, up there, is the same blue of the water near them.

Following that, came the creation of the plants and trees. Surely, we all know that without the process of photosynthesis in which plants are an important factor and which produces oxygen,  no life could ever exist on our planet. The composer of the first chapter of Bresheet must have also known that.

Another scientific fact that is well known to modern day scholars is that life originated in the sea. The author of the first chapter of Bresheet seems to have known that too. The creation of tetrapods: the four-limbed vertebrates, had to be preceded by the creation of the various creatures of the sea.

Finally, comes the creation the animals, the reptiles and all living creatures that can survive on land, culminating with the highest forms of living, Man and Woman.

“וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ, בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ And G-d created Man in His image, tells us the author of this fascinating first chapter of Bresheet. We all know that the reference is not to a physical image but rather that hidden spark of G-d that each one of us holds.

May that spark shine through and ignite our world with Light, Love and every blessing.

Shavua tov!