Shaarei Tzedek - Orthodox Judaism in Downtown Toronto

Spiritual Architecture

By Simon Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center

A manufacturing question: What do you create first – the package or the product? In today’s commercial world it often appears that wrappers are so vital that they are designed before thinking what they contain inside. As marketing cynics put it: Perception is more important than reality. On the other hand, despite the cliche, we do judge books by their covers. If an environment is not appealing and the package is weak, we won’t trust the product within.

In our personal lives the same question can be asked: What takes priority – the means or the ends? Say, you’re planning an event. Do you begin with creating a content program or do you first design the look and feel? Very often, function seems to follow form rather than the other way around.

More bluntly out: What drives your life – your body or your soul; your physical or your spiritual needs? Do you see yourself as a material creature, with some spiritual activities, or a spiritual one, recognizing that the matter is fuel for spirit?

Here’s where marketing, corporate structure, business administration and personal life all converge.

Conventional wisdom of business administration dictates states that a successful entity requires two equally vital forces: A visionary and a builder. The visionary ensures the entity always remains aligned toward its long term objectives. The builder implements the vision, directing the mechanics of the operation towards its intended goals.

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Parshat Vayakheil 5768
Shemot 35:1-4

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008

Gathering the people together in the opening of our Parsha, Moshe promises a summary statement of the essence of everything Hashem has commanded us: “These are the matters that Hashem has commanded us to do them”, he declares. What follows is only one area of halacha, Shabbat; and even that area he treats from the perspective of its negative mitzvoth: “Anyone who does melachah on Shabbat will die” Hardly a moment of inspirational upliftment! Then, (in 35:4) he repeats his intention to summarize the essence of the Torah “This is the one matter Hashem has commanded”. And there follows a rather dull list of technical construction details for the Mishkan! So much oratory promise! So little delivery on that promise!

Rabbi Yoseif Yitzchak Lifshitz in his outstanding work on Shabbat[1] talks about the pulse of meaningful conversation, the oscillation between communicating and silence. The moments of silence are crucial to hearing the other party and integrating the meaning of their words. Shabbat too is the moment of silence that allows us to hear G-d, reflect on His messages and receive His communication. Without that weekly day of silence, we fill our ears with the clutter of our own noise and deprive ourselves of the opportunities for Divine conversation.

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Parshas Vayakhel contains a verse describing the people who came forth in the construction of the Tabernacle:

“Every man whose heart inspired him (asher nesa’o leebo) came and everyone whose spirit motivated him brought the portion of Hashem for the work of the Tent of Meeting, for all its labor and for the sacred vestments.” [Shmos 35:21]

The Ramban notes that the Mishkan was an impressive structure. However, when Moshe Rabbeinu called forth the people to come participate in its construction, he was taking a big chance. The people were not trained architects or builders. Most of these people did not know the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver. However, the Ramban says that somehow the people found it within their nature to do what they were called upon to do.

The Ramban interprets the expression asher nesa’o leebo, literally as “whose heart lifted him up”. They had neither the training nor the skill but they had the inspiration and daring and initiative that it took to get the job done. That is all it took to accomplish what needed to be accomplished. More than skill, a person needs ambition.

This Ramban is teaching us that the greatest key to success is not necessarily the training. It is the ambition and initiative to do something.

The Mirer Mashgiach, Rav Yeruchem writes similarly: “If one looks at the great people in the world, if one looks at those who have made financial fortunes – most, if not all such people achieved their greatness thanks to their tremendous drive and initiative.” Rav Yeruchem further writes that the difference between the Rishonim [Medieval Jewish scholars] and us is not their IQ or intelligence. The difference is that they had a tremendous drive and sense of ambition to know all of Torah. That is what separates them from us!

That is the way it is in every endeavor in life. The people who have the guts and gumption to accomplish the lofty goals they set out for themselves are those who succeed.

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[via Rabbi Lazer Brody]

“The root of our ills is Jerusalem - the lack of our Holy Temple and the Divine Presence withing our midst. Rather than crying out to Hashem, we are tacitly agreeing to the dissection and ultimate surrender of Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish people.

My dear friends in London, Melborne, Toronto, Miami Beach, Los Angeles, and elsewhere - don’t think that Jerusalem is the Israel’s problem alone; it’s just as much your problem too. You are limbs that extend from the same heart that is known as Yerushalayim and Bet HaMikdash. When we here at the Beams are crying out for Jerusalem and Moshiach, it’s because our national cure depends on a healthy heart - Jerusalem and the full redemption of our people. With the Divine Presence within our midst, there is a limitless blessing of abundance for health, happiness, and everything we need.

Here is a moving film clip that shows pictures of the Westen Wall and the Temple Mount, with the beautiful background music of an Oriental Jewish rendition of Psalm 147, verses 12 and 13, where Jerusalem and Zion praise Hashem. Enjoy it. Please, do yourself a favor and pray for Yerushalayim.”

By Yosef Y. Jacobson (http://algemeiner.org)

The opening verses of this week’s Torah portion convey G-d’s instruction to Moses on how to count the Jewish people. When it is necessary to conduct a census, they are to be counted not in an ordinary manner, person by person. Rather, every member of the community should contribute a coin for charity, and then the coins should be counted.

What is the rational behind this instruction? Why the need to count the community in such a round-about fashion, rather than simply counting the people directly?

Two messages, we may suggest, are being conveyed here.

What Are You Worth?

First, the Torah is suggesting that you are counted not based on who you are but on what you give. Your genuine value and worth spring forth from the love and kindness you impart to an aching heart.

Sir Moses Montefiore, a 19th century Jewish international diplomat and philanthropist, was once asked how much he was worth. The wealthy man thought for a while and named a figure. The other replied, “That can’t be right. By my calculation you must be worth many times that amount.”

Moses Montefiore’s reply was this: “You didn’t ask me how much I own. You asked me how much I’m worth. So I calculated the amount I have given to charity this year and that is the figure I gave you. You see,” he said, “we are worth what we are willing to share with others.”

Evaluating a people

There seems to be a one more vital message presented here, one that would reverberate throughout our long and painful history.

To appreciate the value and greatness of a people, the Torah is suggesting, you must study not the number of its bodies, but the depth of its contributions. Numbers can be deceiving. Large groups of people have often barely left a trace. On the other hand, there were times when small groups, when committed heart and soul to their goals and missions, have left an enormous impact (positive or negative), totally disproportionate to their numbers.

To appreciate the significance of Jewish existence, the Bible is telling us, you must study not its numbers: Jews never constituted more than one percent of society. Rather, you must examine the impact this little monotheistic group has had on the world. Other nations, cultures and civilizations enjoyed far greater numbers, larger territories and mightier armies. But nobody has left an impression on the very fabric of civilization as the relatively few and hunted down descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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by Rabbi Simon Jacobson

Much has been said how pain and loss often serve as wake up calls, making us aware of deeper truths. How about joy and success – what do they tell us about the human condition? When you are riding high and celebrating success, do you feel arrogant and self-important? Posturing as if you deserve all your blessings and taking them for granted? Or do they make you humble and gracious?

One of the ultimate barometers of life’s destiny is measured gauged by the way we behave in times of plenty. But the challenge is great: The complacency and false sense of confidence bred by success can be our worst enemy.

* * *

One of the saddest and most dramatic episodes in history is recounted in this week’s Torah portion: The building of the Golden Calf.

While Moses was communing with G-d on Mt. Sinai, the people below became restless and demanded “make us a god to lead us.” They brought their gold and it was molded into the cast of a golden calf – an idol – which they in turn began to worship.

A tragic moment indeed. At the most momentous event in history, when the greatest mandate of civilization was given to the human race, under the very shadow of Sinai, a nation of priests were indulging themselves, eating, drinking, prostrating themselves and taking pleasure before a… god made of gold.

Volumes have been written about this travesty. How was it possible that a highly evolved nation – a “knowledgeable generation” who personally witnessed and experienced the greatest revelations ever to take place, a people who had but 39 days earlier heard the Divine commandment “thou shalt not have other gods” – should so blatantly betray G-d?!

This paradox of extremes contains a profound personal and psychological message, as relevant today as it was then.

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Parshat Ki Tisa, 5768

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008

“Every Man a Matchmaker”

This essay, like many others, reveals its link to the Parsha near the end. However, unlike most of the others, this essay is not the outcome of learning a section from the Parsha, nor is the link its main feature. Rather, the content of this essay emerges from a need I have to comment on Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s excellent JPost op-ed: “Every Man a Matchmaker.”[1] Rabbi Boteach shows the concern of a thinker, the call to action of a leader, and the cry from the heart of a father.

“Curing the singles scene,” he writes, “is one of the foremost priorities especially of the world Jewish community whose greatest challenge today is not intermarriage but lack of marriage.” He then exposes the harm inherent in each of the current methods available to young people today to meet each other. His solution: “.deputize all the earth’s inhabitants to become matchmakers. Every man and every woman must take it upon themselves to introduce the single people they know to each other.”

Matchmaking is a Divine art. It is true, as Rabbi Boteach says, that G-d played matchmaker to Adam and Eve, but He didn’t stop at that. Ever since the Creation, G-d spends His time miraculously connecting people: “the daughter of so-and-so to so-and-so; the wife of so-and-so to so-and-so; and the property of so-and-so to so-and-so.”[2]

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© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 (inner.org)

Nationhood

Judaism is not a religion. Unlike other religions, belonging to the Jewish People is not dependent on ones faith, it is dependant on ones birth: once Jewish always Jewish. Being Jewish is passed on genetically through the maternal line. However Judaism is not a race either because it is not purely hereditary; one can convert into Judaism. So what does being Jewish mean?

Judaism is a nationality. Jews are citizens of a nation. The Jewish nation is unique because although it has a country, its country is not what makes it a nation. In many ways the Torah is to us what a country is to other nations. The Jew is a citizen of the Torah. Let’s explore the manifestation of this idea in the parsha and then explore its meaning and implications.

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By Simon Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center

This week’s Torah reading is the basis of the most fundamental principles of civil law till this very day: Liability, damages, personal injury, criminal, labor relations and financial transactions.

Beyond the astounding insights in the laws of liability, lies another dimension of relevance within these laws: Their personal application.

Based on several verses in this week’s portion (Exodus 21-22), the Talmudic tractate Baba Kama, outlines “four prototypes of damages – the animal, the pit, the destroyer and the fire.”

On a basic level, surface level, these prototypes are the primary categories of torts, intentional or negligent acts which injure another person. But the soul of these categories defines four prototypes of psychological, emotional and spiritual abuse, each with many derivatives:

1. Active, indiscriminate aggression – “the ox.”
2. Negligence; Passive aggression – “the pit.”
3. Excessive indulgence – “the destroyer.”
4. Anger and other destructive forces – “the fire.”

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