Who built the modern State of Yisrael

Recently, Minister Miri Regev has come yet again under a monthly dose of fire, this time over the assertive manner in which she protected PM Benjamin Netanyahu. As always, the critics could not resist the temptation of Making some semi-racist remarks about Miri Regev’s origins’ accompanied with the reminder that “The Left Founded the state.

Did it? Most of us, myself included, occasionally repeat this myth, and in our imagination we envision Socialist pioneers with a Russian accent and rolled up sleeves, who courageously left the conservative tradition behind and made their way to the deserted land to create all out of nothing. Is that the case indeed? Prior to checking that, we need to preface and say that the Zionist Left did much. It has established kibbutzim and agricultural communities, it created facts on the ground which created an interminable Jewish territoriality. Most of the "Homa Umigdal" (an improvised construction system during the British Mandate period) settlements, which were important for drawing borders were part of the Left. The Left created central institutions, prepared for the future state and turned Hebrew into an everyday language. Eliezer ben Yehudah was indeed the person who revived the language but it was the immigrants from the movements of the Left were the ones who took it seriously and insisted on the use of the language. The Left led the way to instating the ethos of labor and safeguard.

It raised awareness to the necessity of Jews working their ancestral land rather than using Arab workers. The Left was momentous in setting up the military wing of the Jews in Yisrael the Haganah and the Palmach which later became the IDF. One cannot underestimate the cardinal role of the Zionist Left movements.

However, and it is a big however, the Left was not alone. Along with it were many others. Its historical sin was that it decided to entirely exclude the others instead of sharing with them the honor that they deserved. The Left took control of the narrative, dictated what future generations will know or rather not know.

When I was at the age of zero and a bit, in elementary school, my friends and I wrote a song for the Choir: "In the beginning there was swamps and barren land/until our brothers arrived, they were the Bil"uyim/ they set up settlements/ and had no choice but to fight the Arabs."

This is what we absorbed from our studies. No one, no teacher, no parent, bothered to correct us that the bil"uyim were but a small and insignificant group of the first wave of immigration, sixty people, half of whom escaped back to Russia and those that remained ended up fighting among themselves, the way the assertive socialists do. Not a success story to say the least.

And oh, by the way, - another small detail: in 1980, prior to the first wave of mass immigration, there were already 27,000 Jews (mostly Sfaradim) in Eret Yisrael, later reffered to as "Hayeshuv Hayashan," descendants of the continuous Jewish presence in the land.

When did the first wave of immigration start? All together now - 1882. Wrong. The first waves started already in 1881. These included 2500 Yemenite Jews. But in 1882 the first fourteen Bilu"yim arrived and the Bolshevik educational system brainwashed us into believing that they were the forerunners. Until this very day, on the Labor party's web page, Bil"u is mentioned as those whose arrival in Eretz Yisrael symbolized the first wave of immigration.

Thirty four settlements were established during the first wave of immigration, out of them how many were created by Bil"u? Twenty? Ten? Shall we compromise on three? One - Gedera. And even that was due to the purchase of land for them by Rabbi Yechiel Pines of the Religious Zionism. No one hinted that almost all of those from the first wave of immigration and the old establishment were religious, observant Jews. What was stressed repeatedly was Bil"u Bil"u Bil"u, the acronym of Beit Yaakov Lechu Venelcha. Needless to mention that the verse from Isaiah (2;5) was never quoted in it entirety, "Beit Yaakov Lecho Venelcha B'or Hashem." ("Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord"). After all, Socialists are enlightened people, they do not discuss nonsense of those who are religious.

Out of curiosity, I decided to check and see how many of the towns in Yisrael were established by the Left.

The exit outside of the Walls in Jerusalem started already in the middle of the 19th century, so, it turns out, there was not much of the Left there. There were Ashkenazic as well as Sefardic Jews and the main donor was Moses Montefiori with the help of a fund bequeathed by the American Jewish philanthropist, Judah Toro. Both Toro and Montefiore were of Sefardic origins and devoid of any connection to socialism.

Ahuzat Bayit which after a year became Tel-Aviv was established in 1909 by Jews from Jaffa. Judging by their names, most were Ashkenazi without any defined political affiliation (and

why should there be Left or Right to found a settlement? What's the relevance?)

The neighborhoods which preceded Ahuzat Bayit which later included Mahaneh Yehudah, Neve Tzedek and others were established by immigrants from Yemen and North Africa. There is reason to believe that they were not socialists and did not drink from such mecchiato.

The first Jewish settlers in Haifa were Sefardic. Later the settlement widened during the first and second waves of immigration. Yoel Moshe Solomon the one who with his friends made the first experiment in Petah Tikvah "on a damp morning in the year of tarla"ch" (1878), was a rabbi. In the song bearing his name it is not even mentioned that he was one of the founders of the neighborhood of Mea Shearim.

Let us move southward - present day Ashdod was established after the founding of the State of Yisrael and its first residents were Moroccan Jews. Ashkelon, likewise, by the mere fact that it is situated far enough from the pure and unblemished center of the country, it was settled by immigrants from the East. The socialist government still had its delicate touch to the subject - through applying pressure and threats they forced out of the area those Arabs who did not flee in '48. Fortunately, nowadays, they have the time to oppose the commemoration of Gandi.

Rishon letzion was established in the 19th century by the committee of Yesod Hama'alah, founded by a Chabbad member' Zalman Levontin, on lands that were purchased by Baron Rothschild and Haim Amzaleg, who as his name suggests, was not an Ashkenazi. Rehovot, the city of science was established by the Religious Movement- "Menucha V'Nachalah."

Mazkeret Batya, Zichron Ya'akov, Rosh Pinah and many other settlements are the purchase of Baron Rothschild which were settled by different groups of "Hovevei Zion" (Lovers of Zion). Among them were traces of Bil"u and they had to face a reality in which one needs money and a patron in order to realize the Utopia in which one does not need money and a patron.

Herzliya was founded by the Jewish - American (and far from a socialist) "Kehilat Zion" and by Histadroot Benei Binyamin. Since it had Right wing inclinations, it was not sponsored by the Zionist Federation. What else is new.

Benei Binyamin founded, in the late 20's the city of Netanya which names after Natan Shtraus to whom the founders were forced to turn as there was no other monetary resource, so the mere naming of Netanya, testifies to its ‘inappropriate’ political source. An interesting story which is unrelated to Right-Left and testimonial : Natan Shtraus broke his leg while visiting Eretz Yisrael in 1912. As a result, he was forced to cancel his then planned trip from England to New York in a gigantic luxury ship, the first of its kind : the Titanic.

Holon was established through the unification of five neighborhoods, the first of which was founded by Moshe Green, an observant Jew from Jaffa who immediately set up a synagogue next to his hut. Bat-Yam was erected by a nucleus of observant and religious families, originally from Tel - Aviv.

Bnei Brak was formed by the Hareidi Movement of "Bayit Venachalah."

Ra'anana was formed in 1912 by American Jews. The first lands of Kfar Saba were also purchased by Rabbi Yechiel Pines, the very same one who had saved the butt of the last of the Bil"uyim. The first settlers of Kfar Saba in 1903 were religious and secular without any political affiliation, at least not anything that is related to the settlement of the land.

Nes Ziona was founded during the first wave of immigration by a Chabbad Hasid, Reuven Lerer, a member of "Hovevei Zion," since the German who sold it to him told him that it was near Jerusalem. Beit Shemesh, in its early years, a transit camp, where many of its residents were immigrants from middle eastern countries plus a few Romanians and Bulgarians. The same was the case with Kiryat Gat, a transit camp which became a city founded by immigrants from Morocco, and in which a baby girl was born in 1965 to a struggling family, an un-socialist girl, undoubtedly, by the name of Miriam Siboni, whom we know today as Minister Miri Regev.

O.K. so we strike out cities. But what about the defense forces that the Left established? The Palma"ch, and the Haganah and Yigal Alon and the "beautiful forelock?" Everything is correct and everything is very important, but the first Jewish force that fought and liberated an area from the Turks in Eeretz Yisrael was company 38 of the Hebrew Brigade (The Jewish Legion) under the command of – guess who? - Ze'ev Zabotinsky. G-d forbid that we should mention such a detail in the Bolshevik history lesson. Incidentally, Zabotinsky also published a book at that time which explains how to pronounce Hebrew correctly, in a

Sefardic pronunciation.

And let us stress yet again - the Left has done much, very much. We should, by all means, continue to tell it, praise it and sing it. Kol Hakavod. However, the moment it got hold of all power strongholds, it erased the others created an unbalanced political narrative, chewed and agenda ridden truth. And it is known already that half a truth is worse than lying.

In the story, education, the state as a whole, "those who do not sing with us" were pushed aside. There will be those who will say that this is the result of hostility and exclusion of members of the Old Settlement towards the secular socialists who had arrived from Russia with ideas that seemed crazy.

Perhaps, yet the Left's approach since it emerged from its egg during the French Revolution has always been: either you are with us or against us, no middle. And if you are not with us we shall fight you, banish you, embitter your life.

Dear Left, Miriam Siboni, the young girl from Kiryaqt Gat, who became the Minister of Culture and Sport, you should have welcomed with a standing ovation. Miri Regev was your chance to make the switch. But, as always, you responded by acting in an aloof manner and stupid arrogance. You were cheered by being petty over nonsense. You are still with the sensation that you are the state, that it was stolen from you, a sensation which you pass on to the next generation and that is why twenty years old Meretz and Labor voters believe that they have blue blood. So here is the news: Not only is the state is not yours - Yisrael never, at any stage was never your exclusive brand name. Talk about respecting the other? Start with that.

Almah

Almah means “a maiden,” or “an unmarried woman” in Hebrew. It appears in a few places in the Tanach. Two are of special interest to me. The is first mentioned in the Tanach in this week’s Parashah (Genesis 24). The other, in the Book of Isaiah (7, 14).

Had the discussion over the use of the term in Isaiah not surfaced in a past exchange that I had, the one in this week’s Parashah would have gone unnoticed by me and this essay not written. So, let me get right to it.

About twenty years ago, a fellow Jew, who embraced Yeshua (AKA Jesus) as his messiah, and I were debating the issue. When I asked him what convinced him to make that decision, he directed me to the said verse in Isaiah. Someone, sometime, somewhere, so it seemed, tried and evidently succeeded to mislead him by telling him that the verse in question is a prediction of the birth of Jesus whom we, Jews, rejected as our messiah. For those who are unfamiliar with that specific verse, here It is: “Therefor the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son’ and shall call his name Immanuel.”

It includes, so it seems, G-d, a virgin and a son, all the essential elements needed to persuade simple, uneducated and baffled Jews that it referred to Jesus.  Not so fast, I say. As a native Hebrew speaker, I hated to burst his bubble of belief in a comforting and rewarding way of life which shakes any form of personal responsibility off us. And what a better way to convince the gullible, naïve souls seeking redemption than to use a mistranslation of the Hebrew language, deliberate or otherwise, to please the perplexed?

The Hebrew word for virgin is betulah. If Isaiah had indeed intended to impress upon us that he was prophesying the immaculate conception, would he, a speaker of Hebrew, not used “betulah” instead of “almah?”

“But hey,” retorted my devout “Jew for Jesus” challenger, “were not all maidens, during Biblical era, expected to be virgins?” A valid argument, one would suggest.

It is on occasions such as this that I enlist the help of a publication called “Bible Concordance,” a verbal index to the Bible. It lists every word that appears in the Tanach and cites it. Since my challenger suggested that a Biblical maiden had to be a virgin, I looked up the references to a “maiden’ and the context in which they were used.  “Maiden” appears seven times in the Tanach.

 The first one appears in this Parashah (Genesis 24:43) where Eliezer, the servant of Avraham describes Rivkah, the future wife of Yitzchak, as a maiden, “See, I am standing beside this spring. If a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, “’Please let me drink a little water from your jar.’” In that same chapter, verse 17, Rivkah is described as a “Virgin,” betulah “that no man knew” (and we all know what “to know” means in the Biblical sense).

The question that is begging to be asked is, if indeed it was so clear that in Biblical times, almah was akin to betulah, why was there a need to reiterate it in the case of Rivkah? Evidently, it was not that obvious.

Another question that is begging to be asked is, how did the Hebrew almah become “virgin” in the English translation of Isaiah?

That has everything to do with the Greek translation of the Tanach, a translation, which as I have shown in the past, has caused us, Jews, and our Tanach much damage.

It all started in the third century B.C.E. with the Greek ruler, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the king of Ptolemic Egypt. An educated man, Ptolemy wished to augment his library in Alexandria and commissioned seventy-two (six from each of the twelve tribes) scholars to translate the Torah and later the rest of the Tanach into Greek. This translation came to be known as “The Septuagint” (Seventy in Latin). The main reason for producing the translation was for the benefit of the many Jews who were scattered throughout the Greek Empire and who were beginning to lose their Hebrew language. The translation also gave many non - Jews an opportunity to have a glimpse at the Hebrew Scriptures. Apparently, a noble cause but, as you will soon learn, dear readers, a great reason for alarm.

In Greek, the word Parthenos means BOTH “maiden” and “virgin.” Isn’t it natural, therefore, that to make their case for the immaculate conception, early Christianity conveniently chose the word virgin instead of the original Hebrew word for maiden?

Wishing my fellow Jews Shabbat Shalom, a meaningful Thanksgiving celebration to my fellow Americans and a weekend full of blessings to all.

“And for your husband shall your Desire be….”

The story of Creation as recounted in Bresheet continues to fascinate me. It is not only the details of the evolvement of our universe that intrigues me. That is but one facet of it.

What continues to enthrall me, though, is what happened to Man and Woman following the consumption of the Fruit of the Tree of “Knowledge.” I am particularly referring to the change in perceptions, comprehension, insights and what lesson G-d had wanted us, humans, to draw out of that experience.

In my essay of two weeks ago, I dwelt on the benefits of eating the forbidden fruit. I also mentioned that the main gain from that rebellious act of Adam and Eve was a moral one as they learned to distinguish between Good and Evil. The story in Genesis also tells us that as soon as they ate the fruit, Man and Woman were made aware of their bareness and rushed to cover themselves as they felt ashamed and that it was morally bad and inappropriate.

In many cultures, being naked or even semi naked is associated with lust, sex and sensuality. It has thus become a taboo in many societies. Some, however, as, for example the tribes I visited in Namibia where women walk bare breasted publicly, see nothing bad or evil in such practices. We, in most parts of the world, regard it as inappropriate and that is what is being taught to us from an early age.

So, why do so many of us believe that nudity is morally “Evil?” After all, had Man and Woman not walked shamelessly unclothed for a while before they discovered their nakedness? “Adam and his wife were both naked’ and they felt no shame.” Genesis 2:25.

And that is where the terms “Desire” and “Lust” enter the discussion.

Unfortunately, “lust” (ta’avah) and desire (tshukah) appear, both in the Hebrew and the English languages, as synonyms for each other. Though these two terms have some common denominator, I beg to differ. Lust (ta’av ah), in my view, is mostly associated with the physical, carnal and sexual realm. It is an urgent need that once satisfied, lies dormant until some stimuli, some catalyst awakens it again.

Desire (tshukah), however, is a fabric that is made up of various threads. It encompasses longing, love, ambition, an urge, an attraction for someone or something. Of course, it also includes the erotic, the sensual but not just that, as the term Lust resonates.

Herein, in my view, lies the lesson that G-d had wished Adam and Eve, especially Eve, to take on. It was she who first saw that “the fruit of the tree was good and lust (ta’avah) to the eyes.” (Genesis 3:6). It was lust, as the verse teaches us, that caused their downfall and eventual eviction from the Garden of Eden. G-d had known that lust would be the Achilles’s heel of mankind. He had also been aware that once Man and Woman discovered each other’s nakedness, lust will take over.

It is precisely this kind of a reality that G-d was trying to avoid. Knowing the effect Eve had on Adam, He informed her, “Your desire will be for your husband.” (Genesis 3:16). Since it was Eve who lured Adam into eating the forbidden fruit, G-d ordered her to desire her husband, to love him, support him, be there for him and lust him but NOT JUST lust him. He employs the word Tshukah to imply the unending union between Man and Woman, a union that is based on the Spiritual, Emotional and Intellectual spheres, not merely the carnal.

And that is the lesson of this episode, I believe. It is the differences rather than the similarities between Desire and Lust which morally set Good and Evil apart.

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 Ultimate Craftsman

The Machzor is the prayer book that is used during the High Holidays. As I was reading through it, on Yom Kippur, I was yet again, as I am every year, captivated by the way it was compiled, consisting of special prayers for the occasion as well as the various Torah readings.  The Machzor is an assembly of all that the praying persons need for the Holy Day. It is aimed at their convenience.

A close review of its content will reveal that the Machzor is also a treasure trove of not only meaningful prayers but a collection of literary pearls in the form Piyyutim, poems which add much value and meaning to this day of awe.

One such Piyyut that always captures my eyes and leaves me in amazement is the one depicting G-d as the ultimate artist, the fundamental craftsman.

The first stanza which likens G-d to a potter leans on the words of G-d through the prophet Jeremiah (18:6) “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” I particularly like this metaphor since, as someone who works with clay, I can deeply appreciate the process and identify with it. Romancing the clay, shaping it, reshaping it until it reaches the desired outcome is a skill that requires much vision and persistence. It echoes the act of the creation of man in Genesis which relates to Man being made of clay/ earth and created in G-d’s image. And who if not G-d would possess such dexterity?

The second one, compares G-d to a gifted stone mason. Through His manipulations, holding the stone or breaking it, He can bring it to its desired final shape.

The third stanza compares G-d to a sailor who proficiently negotiates the steering wheel of the ship guiding it to its destination. Another stanza compares G-d to a glazier – a skilled tradesman specializing in cutting, installing and removing glass. Another one yet, likens G-d to an embroiderer who folds and flattens the fabric as he wishes.

However, the final stanza where G-d is likened to a silversmith is my favourite one. I like this metaphor, particularly, as it brings to mind for me the parable of the Silversmith in the Book of Zachariah (13:9) where G-d equates himself to the Silversmith anxd Am Yisrael to his silver: “I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.”

I recall reading an account, once, about a woman who visited a silversmith’s workplace in order to learn the details of the process of refining silver. As he was holding the piece of silver over the fire, the silversmith explained to her that the silver needs to be held in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest for the impurities to burn away. That reminded the woman of G-d holding the Jewish People in such a hot spot in His effort to cleanse them.

The silversmith also explained to her that he must watch the furnace constantly in order to ensure that the silver is not destroyed. Again, the woman thought of G-d as the Silversmith who needs to put Am Yisrael into the furnace, closely watch each step with the intent of purifying them and bring them closer to him.

As she was about to leave, the woman wished to know how the silversmith knew when the refining was finished and the silver is pure.

“That’s rather simple,” he replied, “the process is finished when I see my image reflected in the silver.”

Yom Kippur is part of our purification process, the time when we shed our impurities, Personal and National and prepare ourselves to enter a better life, a clean future, a time where we hope that when G-d, the Ultimate Craftsman’ can look at us and see His Image.


Shabbat Shalom and a Happy Succot, fellow Jews and Am Yisrael.

The Affliction of the Soul

As we approach Yom Kippur, each year, the day seems to bear a more solemn and weighty substance, at least for me. As I grow older, the meaning and purpose of this monumental day for Jews, finally sinks in.

Why so?

On the lighter side, it is the only Jewish Holy Day where Jews do not eat (yes, I have known that, of course, but just realized it).That, we must admit to ourselves, sets it apart from all others. Anyone who is even slightly familiar with our Jewish traditions, knows that, on some Holy Days, we are commanded to rejoice, and food is always part of that joy. That is not the case on Yom Kippur.

On the more serious side, though, on this day, we are expected to atone and are charged with the duty to: “…afflict your souls … For on that day G-d shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD.” (Leviticus 16:29-30).

It is not only the consumption of food that we are required to desist from on this day, though.  Chazal, our wise elders, ruled that we assume upon ourselves other self-inflicted discomforts on Yom Kippur. These include the prohibition to wash, anoint our body with oil, wear leather shoes or engage in sexual activities.

Moreover, in Leviticus 23:29, the Torah even prescribes a punishment for those who do not adhere to engaging in what it refers to as the “affliction of the soul.” It states: “For whatever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among His People.”

One may ask and rightfully so, since all those forbidden pursuits seem to be associated with the physical or bodily realm, how come refraining from them is referred to as “affliction of the soul?”

In the world of Jewish/Hebrew wisdom, one can find different approaches to the dualism or unity between the Body and the Soul.

Genesis 2:7 establishes the dualism between the two with the soul being more eminent: “Then the Lord G-d formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life’ and the man became a living being.” What this verse is telling us is that without the soul, that spark of G-d, in us, our body is worthless. Ecclesiastes 12:7, likewise, echoes the superiority of the soul and its divine eternal essence as opposed to the body which is temporal and merely serves as the vessel for it: “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

Whereas the body attempts to indulge in its desires and wishes of the here and now, the soul which, according to those two versesת belongs to G-d, constantly strives, to free itself, rise and reconnect with its Creator. In this light, the body is viewed as the enemy of the soul and its constrictor.

Only when the body is tamed and subdued can our Divine spark unshackle itself from its earthly constraints and reach its contentment and self-actualization. This concept of controlling and subduing the body to the Spirit is common in many faiths and creeds.

Yom Kippur is a day when we celebrate the fabric of our Jewish core, its importance and its magnitude. It is a time when we are expected to grant those attributes of G-d within us the power and the authority to reset our inner compass.

Only through the prescribed physical depravations listed for Yom Kippur, can our Soul, our Spirit prevail and be free to rise above our immediate needs into higher dimensions. In that realm, it can peacefully reflect upon and evaluate our past actions and the actions of others, learn their respective lessons and open the door to a tomorrow which finds us better and more deserving of the Gift of Life.

Wishing everyone an easy fast and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Judaism and Personal Responsibility

"If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need have you for a tomorrow?" – Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

As we enter the Jewish New Year, I spend much time pondering the purpose of the High Holy Days and their significance in our Jewish Ethics. Reflection upon and taking personal responsibility for our deeds, conduct and mistakes is, in my view, mainly what these days are about.

The premise that underlines these available courses of action in our Jewish tradition rests in the human conditions. As humans, we are destined to err and make mistakes. At the same time, however, we are given the opportunity to address them, correct them and learn from our experiences in order to become more accomplished human beings and help make our world a better place.

Our Torah and Jewish literature give us the tools to make this happen. They guide us along this complex path where on the one hand, free choice is in the realm of G-d alone and where our actions are pre-destines while, on the other, humans are expected to know Good from Evil.

The Tanach, as we know, is the story of G-d and His interactions with humans and their choices between Right and Wrong. In numerous instances, it shows us that despite the omnipotence and omnipresence of G-d in our life, humans are given the ability to distinguish between the two and make the right decisions.

The first verse that points to that is in Genesis 1:26 “And G-d created man in His image.” The image that the verse refers to is not a physical one since we do not know what G-d looks like. Rather, the text hints to some attributes that humans share with G-d, one of which is the ability to distinguish between Good and Evil. This is further reinforced in Genesis 3:22 following the eating of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, where G-d states: “Verily, this human being is unique, that he has his own mind to choose between good and evil.”

Indeed, without free will there would be no purpose to life. That is what G-d decreed to us. Free will gives a meaning to our life. It affects those around us and the world we live in.

With Free Will comes Accountability for one’s deeds and assumption of Personal Responsibility. What cements these three is Emotional Intelligence and Maturity.

Emotional Intelligence and mature conduct is another attribute of G-d’s image which Jewish Literature and Jewish sages expect to find in us.

In Judaism, no one gets punished nor dies for our sins and transgressions. We each must come to terms with our actions and bear their consequences, good AND bad. No learning, no improvement would or ever could take place if someone else takes the blame and endures punishment for our misdeeds.

Hence the numerous repetitions throughout the Tanach of the importance of each Jew doing good and be the recipient of the rewards associated with it as opposed to the punishment that follows the election to do evil.

The solemn period AKA, the Ten Days of Awe, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, each year is, therefore, of great significance for Jews. It gives us a chance to repent, evaluate, improve and above all pave our path to G-d’s ultimate commandment to “Choose Life”:

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you Life and Death, blessings and curses. Now choose Life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

This commandment is cited, rightfully, justly and most appropriately so, in the Torah portion that precedes Rosh Hashanah. It is a great reminder for us, Jews, that we are given the chance to make that commandment a reality and ensure that in the words of Rabbe Nachman of Breslov, we each are “a better person tomorrow….than today.”

Wishing Jews, the world over, Shanah Tova, a year of good deeds and abstention from evil, a year of Choosing Life.