Shaarei Tzedek – Orthodox Judaism in Downtown Toronto

by Rabbi David Lapin, 2009 http://iawaken.org

Much has been said and written this year about the once-in-twenty-eight-year phenomenon of Birkat Hachama this Wednesday. There are many dimensions to it: halachik, philosophic, kabbalistic and astronomical. Birkat Hachama is recited on the day that the sun, at sunset, is positioned against the same constellations on a Tuesday evening as it was on the Tuesday evening on which it was created 5770 years ago. This is one of the few occasions in our calendar governed by solar rather than lunar cycles (the other being the day we start to recite “vetein tal umattar” in chutz la’aretz).

Our Calendar is unique among the nations and cultures of the world. It is the only calendar that synchronizes both the solar and the lunar cycles in one integrated calendar system. The movement of the moon governs our months and our year. The cycle of the sun governs our Sabbath as it does our leap year and the positioning of our chaggim in their appropriate seasons.

Synchronizing lunar and solar cycles in an integrated calendar is about more than timing and seasons. The Sun and the Moon, the two primary celestial luminaries, each represent different modes of being. The Sun is ever constant and never changing. It looks the same each day. Even an astronomical amateur knows with a fair measure of precision where to expect the sun to rise each morning and where it will set. Its cycle moves a little each day to the north or the south, but this is not perceptible to the average person on a daily basis.

The moon on the other hand is ever changing and never constant. Every night it looks noticeably different. The average person doesn’t really know where it will rise and set each night.

The moon governs our months, known in Hebrew as Chodesh, which means new. The sun governs our year, Shannah in Hebrew, which means recycleor repetition. We need both disciplines: We need to build “grooves”, seder, for ourselves by constant repetition. These grooves create habits that guarantee at least some measure of consistent behavior and even achievement. Our davening is a daily “groove”. So are our Yamim Tovim and Shabbat. However if all we do is function in grooves, those grooves become ruts, and we become stale and stagnant. In addition to our seder, our grooves, we also need newness, vitality, experimentation, and exploration. We need chidush. The moon represents this chidush, this newness and innovation. The sun with its constancy, predictability and stability represents our seder. We need both. The moon wanes and grows; the sun is unvarying.

In Torah learning and thought a similar principle applies: Chidush (innovation) is core to Torah learning. “Bechol Yom yiheyu be’einecha kechadashim” (Each day the words of the Torah should be as if they are new). Yet all Torah innovation needs to be constructed within unchanging frameworks of mesorah (authentic methodology). The term mishnah comes from the same root as shanah.

In finance and economics we have similar principles. We need the ever-changing, volatile, unpredictable equity markets as much as we need more stable markets for more predictable instruments like government bonds. When innovation is not tempered with stability, we experience the kinds of seismic shake-up that our financial markets have been experiencing now. If we punish innovation and swing the pendulum to cling to safety and security, we deny ourselves the exhilaration of adventure and discovery. If we encourage unrestrained risk, we will destroy what our parents have built. If we stop investing in anything that is not secure we will leave nothing for our children. We need to develop the fine art of innovating without being reckless, of treading cautiously without shutting off the joys of human brilliance.

The Jew lives this exciting paradox of stability and volatility. Like Jacob’s ladder our feet are meant to be planted firmly on earth, while with our minds and our souls we explore, innovate and visit the highest reaches of spiritual achievement. We create behavioral grooves to guarantee our safety and we innovate to expand our experience.

On Wednesday, as we bless G-d for His creation and sustaining of the sun, we will marvel at the universe’s predictability. At the same time of the year we will emphasize the mitzvah of Hachodesh hazeh lachem (this New Moon is for you) and celebrate our capacities for individual and national renewal.

Birkat Hachama

Erev Pesach 5769

by Rabbi David Lapin, http://iawaken.org

Much has been said and written this year about the once-in-twenty-eight-year phenomenon of Birkat Hachama this Wednesday. There are many dimensions to it: halachik, philosophic, kabbalistic and astronomical. Birkat Hachama is recited on the day that the sun, at sunset, is positioned against the same constellations on a Tuesday evening as it was on the Tuesday evening on which it was created 5770 years ago. This is one of the few occasions in our calendar governed by solar rather than lunar cycles (the other being the day we start to recite “vetein tal umattar” in chutz la’aretz).

Our Calendar is unique among the nations and cultures of the world. It is the only calendar that synchronizes both the solar and the lunar cycles in one integrated calendar system. The movement of the moon governs our months and our year. The cycle of the sun governs our Sabbath as it does our leap year and the positioning of our chaggim in their appropriate seasons.

Synchronizing lunar and solar cycles in an integrated calendar is about more than timing and seasons. The Sun and the Moon, the two primary celestial luminaries, each represent different modes of being. The Sun is ever constant and never changing. It looks the same each day. Even an astronomical amateur knows with a fair measure of precision where to expect the sun to rise each morning and where it will set. Its cycle moves a little each day to the north or the south, but this is not perceptible to the average person on a daily basis.

The moon on the other hand is ever changing and never constant. Every night it looks noticeably different. The average person doesn’t really know where it will rise and set each night.

The moon governs our months, known in Hebrew as Chodesh, which means new. The sun governs our year, Shannah in Hebrew, which means recycleor repetition. We need both disciplines: We need to build “grooves”, seder, for ourselves by constant repetition. These grooves create habits that guarantee at least some measure of consistent behavior and even achievement. Our davening is a daily “groove”. So are our Yamim Tovim and Shabbat. However if all we do is function in grooves, those grooves become ruts, and we become stale and stagnant. In addition to our seder, our grooves, we also need newness, vitality, experimentation, and exploration. We need chidush. The moon represents this chidush, this newness and innovation. The sun with its constancy, predictability and stability represents our seder. We need both. The moon wanes and grows; the sun is unvarying.

In Torah learning and thought a similar principle applies: Chidush (innovation) is core to Torah learning. “Bechol Yom yiheyu be’einecha kechadashim” (Each day the words of the Torah should be as if they are new). Yet all Torah innovation needs to be constructed within unchanging frameworks of mesorah (authentic methodology). The term mishnah comes from the same root as shanah.

In finance and economics we have similar principles. We need the ever-changing, volatile, unpredictable equity markets as much as we need more stable markets for more predictable instruments like government bonds. When innovation is not tempered with stability, we experience the kinds of seismic shake-up that our financial markets have been experiencing now. If we punish innovation and swing the pendulum to cling to safety and security, we deny ourselves the exhilaration of adventure and discovery. If we encourage unrestrained risk, we will destroy what our parents have built. If we stop investing in anything that is not secure we will leave nothing for our children. We need to develop the fine art of innovating without being reckless, of treading cautiously without shutting off the joys of human brilliance.

The Jew lives this exciting paradox of stability and volatility. Like Jacob’s ladder our feet are meant to be planted firmly on earth, while with our minds and our souls we explore, innovate and visit the highest reaches of spiritual achievement. We create behavioral grooves to guarantee our safety and we innovate to expand our experience.

On Wednesday, as we bless G-d for His creation and sustaining of the sun, we will marvel at the universe’s predictability. At the same time of the year we will emphasize the mitzvah of Hachodesh hazeh lachem (this New Moon is for you) and celebrate our capacities for individual and national renewal.

Copyright Rabbi David Lapin, iawaken.org

Should Women Read the Megilah?

Gaps between the roles and competencies of modern men and women have narrowed. There are not that many areas in which, as a generalization, one gender consistently outperforms the other. Still, there is a yin/yang kind of polarity between masculinity and femininity that we lose at our peril. Masculine and feminine polarity creates energy like the electricity created by the polarity of positive and negative. There can be comfort without polarity, but not energy. Masculine-feminine polarity generates the balance of universal energy, it underpins kedushah (sanctity), and it nourishes successful relationships.

This masculine-feminine polarity helps to explain aspects of women’s roles in public Avodah such as Tefilah Betzibbur, Keriat Hatorah and Mikrah Megilah (Public prayer, Torah reading and Megilah reading). These roles are often socially contentious and Halachikly complex.

The case of Mikrah Megilah is particularly interesting. Women are chayavot (obligated) to hear the Megilah but, according to the Shulchan Aruch (O.Ch: 689:2), are not able to read the Megilah on behalf of men. Why, at least in communities where this would not be considered inappropriate (Kavod Hatzibbur) or within the confines of a private home, should a man not fulfill his mitzvah if he heard the Megillah read by a woman?

Reading To or Reading For?

There is something quite unique about the mitzvah of Megillah-reading that is different from Torah-reading. In the case of Torah reading one is required to hear the Torah being read from a kosher scroll. In the case of Megillah, the mitzvah is to read the Megilah, not merely to hear it read. The Ba’al Korei (reader) in the case of Megilah, is not reading it to the community, he is reading it as their shaliach, on behalf of the community. He represents and stands in place of each person in the community. When he reads, it is as if each individual is reading from the scroll.
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Parshat Lech Lecha 5769

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 (http://iawaken.org)

Yesterday does not predict tomorrow

Timeless values rather than transient, political events are the subjects of these essays. But this week’s events in the United States are not transient and they are far more than political. They call for comment.

The US elections are the third event in eight years that permanently changed the course of global history. But there is something even more startling about those events than the changes they ushered in. In all three cases we saw the failure of yesterday to predict tomorrow.

The three events were 1) September 11th; 2) the current financial crisis; and 3) the Obama landslide victory.[1] In each case the instruments traditionally relied upon to predict future trends proved incapable of doing so. In each case the world, including its experts, was taken by surprise and shocked out of complacency.

The United States had a sophisticated intelligence system that was caught unaware in 2001. The world of finance was driven by complex models designed by brilliant minds using cutting edge technology, but it could not foresee the collapse of US credit markets. Even Alan Greenspan told Congress last month that he was in a state of “shocked disbelief.” Barack Obama’s victory was not a surprise (although not very long ago many considered it impossible and even in September McCain’s lead was considered within the margins of polling error), but its landslide dimensions were. None of the polls predicted anything like it.

Yesterday is over

The reason that none of these events were predicted is because the future is no longer a continuation of the past. No longer can one use yesterday’s tools, data and trends to predict tomorrow. Yesterday is over. One needs a deep understanding of today to predict tomorrow. As it Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) says: “A wise man is one who is roeh et hanolad – who can visualize that which has just been conceived.” Many of the factors that drove the course of history for decades and maybe centuries drive it no more. New factors have been born that drive it now. Mr. Obama seems to see those factors and uses them.

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Parshat Bereishit 5769

©Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 (http://www.iawaken.org)

The Wisdom of Trust

The creation of Adam and Chava on the sixth day, inaugurated a short period of intellectual and spiritual grandeur for man, a grandeur that lasted for no more than six hours.[1] Then it was shattered – not by Chava or Adam eating from the forbidden fruit of the Eitz Hada’at, but because their union was compromised by the poison of mistrust.

Adam and Chava were super-intelligent. They were “arumim” (Chakimim, wise, according to the Targum Yonattan). Their wisdom however was not vested in their individual beings but in the unit of their togetherness: “Vehayu Lebasar Echad” (and they will exist as a single being). “And they were, the two of them together, man and wife, wise.” (Bereishit 2:24-25)

It is Adam who first compromises the integrity of their partnership. After Hashem instructs them not to eat of the Eitz Hada’at, Adam of his own accord uses the principle of siyag (a legal “fence” designed to make transgression less likely), and tells Chava that not only is eating the fruit forbidden but touching it is forbidden too. The snake (nachash) slyly proves to Chava that no harm results from touching the fruit, leading her to question the authenticity of the entire instruction that her husband purportedly received from Hashem. “Perhaps,” she thinks to herself, “the entire instruction my Rebbi (this is the last time she refers to her husband as rebbi,) gave me, is a lie.” (Avot DeRabbi Nattan 1)

Had Adam trusted Chava at the outset; had he taken her into his confidence, told her precisely what the Divine prohibition was and then taught her the principles of siyag, Chava would never have been seduced by the nachash. Had Chava trusted in her husband, she would not have succumbed to the snake’s seduction. Insufficient trust shattered the purity of their union, diminished their wisdom, and opened the door to the snake.

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[via Rabbi David Lapin, http://iawaken.org]

On Rosh Hashanah we take a break from Selichot. Rosh Hashanah is not about begging for forgiveness. Begging for forgiveness focuses on the past whereas Rosh Hashanah focuses on the future. Rosh does not mean beginning; it means much more than that. Rosh Hashanah means the Head of the Year. The head is the seat of thought, of intellect, of purpose and of vision. Rosh Hashanah is the Head, the quality of whose thinking will determine the direction and quality of the entire year.

You create your whole year on Rosh Hashanah. You apply your mind (Rosh) to envisioning the future you really crave. In this process do not limit yourself. Think big. Do not limit yourself by your past, by your disappointments and by one of the tens of thousands of negative, critical messages your mind communicates to you every day of your life. Your future knows no limits except the limits you impose on it by the fear and timidness to envision boldly. Envision your future in detail, including color, feeling, smell and sound. Picture every detail of the future you want. Your family, spiritual heights, learning, finances, home, and every thing that goes with them. Feel what it would be like to live inside the painting you have created of your envisioned future. Whenever your mind is pulled back into the past, into negativity and thoughts of failure, gently bring it back to your beautiful picture of the future you are creating.

Only you can create the blueprint of your future, Hashem makes it happen but He doesn’t create it without your help. Too often we leave Hashem to create our futures and then we over-exert ourselves to try to make things happen. Try it the other way around: you create your own future, and leave Hashem to help you make it happen! Bederech She’Adam Rotzeh Leileich, molichim otto (“Hashem leads a person in the way he or she truly wants to go”). You have to want to go places for Hashem to lead you there. Determining the places you want to go this year, is your Avodah on Rosh Hashanah.

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Parshat Ki Teitzei 5768

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 (http://www.iawaken.org)

“The Power of Pride”

I was the second speaker of the day. I walked up to the podium with a knot in my stomach. I was following immediately after Ian Thomas, an inspiring wildlife guide turned public speaker. His topic is “The Power of the Pride,” showing how lions use pride as a tool of leadership. Ian enthralls his audience, and after he finished they were in no mood to listen to me.

The loud din eventually settled. In a quiet voice I asked the audience whether Ian had shown them how lions make each other proud and how they can make even baboons feel proud. They shook their heads quizzically. “You see,” I said, “The reason Ian didn’t show you that is because lions cannot make others feel proud. Only humans can. Making others feel good about themselves is a G-dly trait, it comes from the Divine within each of us. This is why we should not learn leadership from animals; we should learn leadership from G-d.” You could hear a pin drop.

Feeling and transmitting emotion

The same applies to many emotions. We are capable not only of feeling a wide range of emotions but also of transmitting those emotions to others. This is the role of art. Art does not convey information. Art conveys feelings. Looking at a landscape of a scene you could never have been at, still allows you to feel something of what the artist felt as he or she looked at that scene. A great work of fiction can give you the feel of a place in the world or a time in history at which you could not have been present. Music and drama do the same thing.

We transmit not only positive emotions. We can transmit negative emotions too. We can radiate negativity, sadness, and cynicism just as we can radiate happiness, optimism and joy. We can demotivate people and we can uplift them. We all know the effect of being around people who are draining with their negativity compared to being around people who radiate positive energy.

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Parshat Shoftim 5768

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 (http://iawaken.org)

Last evening I wrote a list of my incomplete tasks and projects. I wrote down everything I could think of that was awaiting decision, action, completion or abandonment. Stunned by the length of the list I understood why I was feeling so drained, overwhelmed, somewhat unfocused and generally miserable!

Unresolved issues and incomplete projects clutter the mind and block our energy. I am sure you have felt the liberation of un-cluttering a space, whether a desk, a computer filing system, a room in the house or a closet. There is an ease, a lightness and a clarity that comes with a clean-out. The clarity and lightness, and the high energy and focus that follow a mental clean-up is far greater even than the feeling after a physical clean-up.

Unfinished projects can be things as trivial as unreturned voicemails or as serious as unfinished masechtot (Talmudic Tractates), incomplete construction or business projects, and relationships that are unresolved.

Some incompletion is due to not having made a decision. Some of it is due to not having acted on a decision that has been made, and some is not having completed tasks that have been started. We’ll look at each of those categories:

No Decision

In an indecisive state we can fool ourselves into believing that two or more doors are open and we are not yet decided which to walk through. We are deluded into feeling we have the freedom of multiple options. The truth is we are paralyzed. We have no freedom at all. None of the options are open doors until we actually choose one of them. Not making a choice is disempowering and paralyzing.

It is helpful to perceive indecisiveness not as a decision pending, but as a decision made. Indecisiveness is a decision not to act at all! Recognizing that indecisiveness is in itself a decision, and accepting that it is a decision not to act, enables us to close the issue or it forces us into a different decision: a decision to act. Either way we break the paralysis and move on.

Imagine a person agonizing over whether or not to go on Aliyah. He believes that until he makes his decision his options are open and thast holds him back from deciding. However, if he accepts that his ambivalence is a decision for the status quo, he might confront the fact that for now he has made his decision: he is not going on Aliyah. This will either propel him into making a different choice, or still the turbulence of his agonizing dilemma.

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Parshat Matot 5768

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 – http://iawaken.org

Contaminating Flavors

Gourmet chefs know how flavors retained in the walls of their cooking utensils can contaminate dishes. Cultures such as the Japanese, with highly developed taste senses, will often keep their utensils for specific foods and wash them up separately. We too are sensitive to flavor, but as the Nation of Hashem, we are more concerned about the pollutant flavors of Issur and Tumah (two different forms of negative spiritual energy that can attach to food and utensils) than we are about culinary contamination. Hashem teaches Benei Yisrael in this week’s Parsha, how to cleanse the utensils of Midyan of those spiritual contaminants to make them fit for Jewish usage. These laws are the foundation of our laws of the kashrut of keilim (utensils):

Laws of Kashrut of Keilim

If a keili (utensil) contains non-kosher food, not only may we not eat that food, but we may also not use that utensil for hot kosher food if the non-kosher food it previously contained was hot. The reason is because flavor is absorbed in the sides of the keili, and ta’am ke’ikkar – flavor has the spiritual and halachik properties of the food itself.

There is a way to repair that keili and make it fit for kosher use. The parsha teaches us a second principle, keboll’oh kach polltoh – a keili will discharge the flavors it has absorbed if the same level of heat is applied to it as was used when it absorbed the non kosher food’s flavors initially. So a pot in which non-kosher was cooked (in liquid) will discharge those flavors if it is immersed in boiling water. This is called hag’allah.

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Parshat Pinchas 5768

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008

The Imperfection of Knowledge

Wisdom is mysterious and human knowledge is not absolute. There is a dimension of wisdom that eludes even the wisest of men. “Fifty pathways to wisdom were created in the Universe” says the Gemarra,[1] “and all were given to Moshe except one.” Human knowledge will always lack at least one dimension of understanding, and therein lies its mystery.

Wisdom is like an onion. Each time that new insights peels away another layer of ignorance or confusion, we find yet another layer of questions and mysteries. At its core, this “onion” of knowledge carries a secret, a secret known to no one but G-d Himself: the fiftieth gateway to wisdom.

This applies even when man must make halachik decisions or decide in a matter of justice between two litigants in a court of law. “Ki Hamishpat Leilokim hu”, says Moshe,[2] “for the decisions of Justice are ultimately in G-d’s domain.”

If this is so, how are we meant to make halachik decisions? Even if a judge, Poseik or Rav is inherently competent and qualified, how is he to decide on matters of justice if his knowledge is always incomplete, never absolute?

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