Tonight, Wednesday night, April 22, 2009, we count fourteen days, which is two weeks of the Omer.

Day Seven of Week 2 (14th day of the omer)
Malchut of Gevurah

Discipline, like love, must enhance personal dignity (see week one day seven). Discipline that breaks a person will backfire. Healthy discipline should bolster self-esteem and help elicit the best in a person; cultivating his sovereignty. And that does not compromise the discipline; on the contrary it fosters and enhances it. Does my discipline cripple the human spirit; does it weaken or strengthen me and others?

Exercise for the day: When disciplining your child or student foster his self-respect.
A Spiritual Guide to the Counting of the Omer
Forty-Nine Steps to Personal Refinement
Courtesy of Rabbi Simon Jacobson, www.MeaningfulLife.com

[By Simon Jacobson]

A case study in contrast.

Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg. Bernard L. Madoff.

Gavriel and Rivka brought light into people’s lives, and created a global Kiddush Hashem (sanctifying G-d’s name) when they were brutally butchered by agents of darkness simply for being Jewish. They personified the Jewish virtues of charity and kindness, illuminating everyone they could reach. In the wake of their murders, which touched a deep chord, a wave of good deeds reverberated around the world.

Bernard Madoff brought darkness into people’s lives, and created a global Chilul Hashem (desecrating G-d’s name) when he massacred the financial security – and trust – of many individuals and organizations, killing in one fell swoop various charities and damaging many others, and destroying the trust in the future of all investments. He personifies greed, selfishness and self-indulgence. In the wake of his contemptible behavior, in which he single-handedly eroded the confidence necessary to keep markets alive, people are left stunned and distraught. We are wondering how far this will unravel, how many others will be implicated, and above all, what will be the resulting consequences – how will this affect the future of the entire nature of investments, hedge funds and trust in money managers?

We could not have found a starker example epitomizing the two diametric extremes on the spectrum of human behavior: the heights of ultimate nobility and self-sacrifice in Mumbai, being killed in the service of others; the depths of ignobility and self-interest in New York, hurting others in the service of oneself, cheating his own people, friends and colleagues, exploiting the trust of holocaust survivors and confidantes.

What makes some people choose a life of serving others, and others a self-serving life? Exactly that: choice. We each have the power to choose which way to be.

And make no mistake about it: Each of us must choose between these two paths every moment of our lives. Either we will serve others or we will serve ourselves.

Not to minimize Madoff’s crimes, or to suggest that every self-serving person will become a Madoff, but his behavior is a symptom, not a cause, of social forces that orbit around selfish, material gain. And, whenever you are self-absorbed, thinking about yourself exclusively – “me and nothing else” – you are one step away from pulling off a scheme like Madoff did. Perhaps not on the scale of $50 billion – not everyone has that opportunity – but who’s counting?

And indeed, this choice has become only more amplified in our modern times. The comforts and freedoms of prosperity have allowed for a climate of self-indulgence. When Bernie Madoff’s grandparents were running for their lives together with the grandparents of those he cheated, there wasn’t much time to develop schemes, buy yachts, jet-set and run from Park Avenue to the south of France to the Hamptons to Palm Beach chasing a dollar and spending two. There were greedy people then too, those with power and wealth abusing the rest of the population, but for Jews at least, fighting for their lives, retirement accounts and hedge funds were the last thing they were concerned with. They gave their lives so that their children would grow up good Jews, virtuous individuals, who would carry on the baton passed on from generation to generation beginning with Abraham – to transform human society, to fight for social justice, to help the poor and the oppressed and to respect every person’s innate human dignity.

How did we go off course? And what transpired to create a climate that breeds a Bernie Madoff, and who knows how many more like him? One caught, but how many got away?

Should we feel bad for the funds and fund managers who trusted Madoff with other people’s money? Should we empathize with the wealthy individuals who trusted him with their life fortunes? Should we be saddened by the fact that some charities today invest altogether, instead of giving the money to the needy? Regardless of Madoff’s appalling crimes, are his investors innocent? After all, when they were making money on other people’s backs, they didn’t complain.

If materialism rules your life, than you are bound by its laws. And its cardinal law is this: Born by the almighty dollar; die by the almighty dollar. If money is the source of your power and security, than money will also be your source of destruction and disgrace. Because after all, money is transient, and anything transient can never provide the firm foundation of security.

How much money was made “legally” by money managers – who are protected by the fine-print disclaimers – with the same driving greed? How many charged percentages just to pass on their investors money to Madoff’s accounts?

And this scandal just refocuses attention to our current economic meltdown and global recession. What role did greed and personal gain play in creating today’s overall financial crisis? Selfish interests and short-term gains at the expense of the masses have been identified as the primary culprit. Who will pay for this selfishness? The perpetrators or the victims? A government bailout is nothing more than the burden of a few individuals being carried by American taxpayers. But what other choice do we now have?

Obscene bonuses at financial firms dominated December headlines in the last few years. Now, this December, we know that these actual cash bonuses were paid on the backs of false and illusory returns. The billions of dollars in bonuses have been exposed as essentially a rip-off of the masses who invested that money and saw nothing in return. Do these managers have to return the money they essentially stole from the investors?

Mr. Madoff did disgraceful things, but he is part and parcel, and a product of a climate of greed, where self-interest drives the markets, not their inherent value. And now, the chickens have come home to roost, and we are all left reeling.

But, using the terms of the financial sectors, every scandal has a potential to serve as a “market correction.” Firstly, by exposing the abuses of the system we recognize its inherent flaws. Secondly, it allows us to recognize how far we have fallen and wandered away from our calling, and gives us the opportunity to realign ourselves and our priorities.

This is the only redeeming factor in today’s economic meltdown: It has revealed how greed kills. First others; than yourself. How the love of money and power has vanquished the power of love. How beyond all our technological advances we are no supermen. Far from it. Humans are humans and left to their own devices will be controlled by their selfishness and consumed by their greed, to the point that they will, without hesitation nor compunction, hurt the innocent and even their own families.

And right in middle of the great global economic crisis – rooted in human greed – two servants of society (among many other innocent souls) are massacred in Mumbai – shining a glaring light, for a moment at least, demonstrating that we all have a choice: Here are the Holtzberg’s who dedicated their lives not their own needs and bank accounts, but to serve others.

If ever there were a spotlight on our inadequacies, here we have it. Why Gabi and Rivka had to suffer, we will never know. But in their deaths, as in their lives, they have taught us a critical lesson. The least we can do to honor them is to learn from them. Maybe the Holtzberg’s will give Mr. Madoff something to think about in prison.

What is their lesson?

The ultimate antidote to the greed and corruption inherent in self-indulgence is to become other-driven, instead of self-driven.

I once heard a Chassid explain why Jews shine brightly when they are spread around the world and stand alone amongst their neighbors. Yet, when they live together and build self-contained, insulated ghettos, they become petty, divisive and stoop to disgraceful behavior. He explained: It’s like manure. Gathered in one location it gives off an unbearable stench. Only when you spread it out in the fields does it fertilize the ground and make things grow.

Jews are natural leaders. A light unto nations. From the time of Abraham they have the quality of challenging the status quo and bringing positive change to their environments. When they become self-contained, focused on self-interest, instead of serving others, they can deteriorate, and ultimately turn on each other. Powerful people who do not serve society, left on their own, can and will turn into appalling creatures, as we have now witnessed with Mr. Madoff.

Our only immunity to such behavior is to become other-driven, instead of self-driven.

What can this teach us about the future of our economy?

We are at a crossroads. We now have seen capitalism at its worst, where greed has dominated and eliminated the fair play – which is held together by intense, objective regulation – necessary for a free market system to survive.

As the indulgences of capitalism are bringing down the house, and trust has been shattered, I would like to believe that we now stand at the rare threshold of a new paradigm shift: When the house burns down will we build the same house in its place, or will we be wise, learn from the past and build a new type of economy, one which fundamentally balances and integrates personal gain and virtue.

Listening to most people talk today, you hear the weak voice of a victim, saying that this turndown will soon be over, the markets will jump back into place – isn’t that what we have been taught: Wall Street always prevails over the long term; value always rises – and we’ll go on as if nothing happened.

Or will we learn from our experiences and actually create a new climate of true trust, based on giving and charity, and absolute zero tolerance for greed. Will we insist on new economic leaders, who do not make choices based on rewarding themselves?

Will we learn? Will we ever learn?

I guess some people will learn their lessons. Some who have been burned will choose to move away from and insulate themselves from Wall Street’s lions den, and just life an austere life, giving up hope that selfish people will ever change.

But what we want to see is nothing less than an economic revolution: Not just an awakening about the vices of money and materialism left untamed, that money can destroy, but by a new way of looking at our financial systems, of recognizing that money is a means to a higher end.

Over a century ago, Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world of his time and the great philanthropist, wrote in a memo:

“Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast. My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth.”

Carnegie later wrote an essay called “The Gospel of Wealth,” which strongly influenced the philanthropic philosophy of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet (the two wealthiest men in our times), who collectively are giving away over 50 billion dollars. Buffet alone made a noble pledge two years ago of over $37 billion at the time (what it amounts to today I do not know) – an unprecedented act of charity and one that will go down in history (see Givers and Takers).

In his essay, Carnegie lays out his approach to countering the greed inherent to wealth and selfish gain that is the incentive of capitalism:

“There remains, then, only one mode of using great fortunes; but in this we have the true antidote for the temporary unequal distribution of wealth, the reconciliation of the rich and the poor—a reign of harmony—another ideal, differing, indeed, from that of the Communist in requiring only the further evolution of existing conditions, not the total overthrow of our civilization. It is founded upon the present most intense individualism, and the race is projected to put it in practice by degree whenever it pleases. Under its sway we shall have an ideal state, in which the surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense the property of the many, because administered for the common good, and this wealth, passing through the hands of the few, can be made a much more potent force for the elevation of our race than if it had been distributed in small sums to the people themselves.

“This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.”

I submit, that with today’s global economic meltdown, we actually stand at the threshold of a new economic paradigm. And based in part on Carnegie’s formula we can create a blueprint how to implement this new paradigm.

In good economic times, with gains blinding us all, it would be quite difficult to suggest any new changes. But with the current breakdown, an opportunity opens up.

As we witness the carnage left by the abuse of money and self-interest, we are faced with three options: One option would be to just escape from this dirty world of finance. Another would be to wait it out and then go back tight into the fray right where we left off, until the next scandal breaks.

However there is a third option: To entirely remake our financial systems and introduce a new economy of the future; the final frontier of the history of money and wealth: To see the acquisition of wealth as a means for giving and fuel for spiritual growth.

Wealth, in short, will finally realize its true value: soul energy, elevating and transforming all of existence. One can say that the futuristic economy will be an elegant synthesis of a free economy choosing to behave in some way like a socialist one, with the key distinction being, that the collective sharing will come from within, self initiated rather than imposed. Recognizing the true nature of wealth will drive men to create systems that will honor and express the inner purpose of our wealth: creating a home for G-d. We will begin to see the acquisition of wealth as a means for spiritual growth, for understanding ourselves and G-d, for filling the world with Divine knowledge as the waters cover the sea (see Money and Spirituality).

Finance and economy is a place where self-interest can meet selflessness – but only when the driving engine is a higher cause. We are not asked to annihilate our individuality and unique personality. We are asked to direct it.

In this life we are always presented with two choices: either we will be driven by self-interest or by serving others.

The Holtzberg’s chose the path of others, and paid the price. Mr. Madoff chose the path of self, and also ultimately paid the price, but in his case, so did many others.

The greatest tribute to the Holtzberg’s would be to use their illuminating example of light to emulate their ways. To serve as leaders whose primary drive and focus is: Serving others. Illuminating and warming the world around them, and not just themselves.

The challenge is greatest when it comes to wealth: Will it feed our selfishness or will we see it for the gift it was meant to be: to help others and build a world of higher consciousness.

Will we learn our lessons from the current financial meltdown or will we hold on to old habits and routines?

As we enter Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, which will you choose: darkness or light?

By Simon Jacobson (http://meaningfullife.com)

Companies often advertise themselves as “in business for 89 years,” “brewing beer since 1874,” “loyally serving you for six decades.” By invoking generational continuity these businesses are trying to elicit confidence. We tend to trust something that has lasted for an extended time period. It means that the company is time tested, has weathered ups and downs while others failed and has the experience and know-how that you can depend upon. That’s why it has lasted so long.

Never mind that many of these companies have changed hands and are no longer owned or controlled by the founding family. Still, the mere mention of longevity engenders trust in the brand.

That’s why I always feel proud to emphasize that the traditions and ideas conveyed in this column go back thousands of years in an unbroken chain.

This year we celebrate the 3320thyear since the Torah was given at Sinai. Not 89 years, not 1874, not six decades. Three thousand three hundred and twenty years that we have been “in business.” And despite all the radical changes through the millennia and the extreme challenges – through genocides, expulsions, oppressions and every form of assault that brought the Jewish people to the brink of extinction – we stand tall today 3320 years later and live to tell about the events that transpired 3320 years ago.

Not just live to tell about it, but we have a book – actually the best-selling book of all time – that documents in detail a blueprint of how civilized people ought to live.

We study and pore over this book, just as our parents and grandparents did, just as their ancestors did day after day, year after year, century after century, millennium after millennium, all the way back to Moses and his people on that fateful day when they stood at Sinai receiving the Torah.

If this does not inspire awe what does?

It’s true that many people advocating Torah may be doing it an injustice and may be distorting its message. Many others study Torah and follow its guidelines mechanically and often lack soulfullness and personal integration. Some have used Torah in despicable ways.

But all this does not take away from the enduring power of a tradition that has made it through history and stands strong today, as the most influential document of all time – one that serves as the basis of modern democratic institutions and constitutions, advocating principles of virtue and generosity, honoring the equality of all people, the absolute dignity of every individual created in the “Divine Image,” caring for the less fortunate, living in peace with each other while maintaining our individual rights and offering a comprehensive system to spiritualize the material universe in which we live.

Yes indeed, we are “in business” for 3320 years and counting.

By Simon Jacobson (Meaningful Life Center)

A birthday is a time for celebration but also a time for reflection. What have I achieved in my years on this earth? Have I lived up to the mission which brought me here? A birthday begs us to ask the biggest question of all: Why was I born in the first place? What is the purpose of my life?

As people celebrate the 60th birthday of the modern state of Israel, it’s a most appropriate time to reflect on the nature and purpose of this complex land, and is it living up to its mission.

In truth, Israel is not 60 years old. It is more like 3745 years old – if you count from the time that Abraham first settled in the land. Or 3280 years old – from the time the Jewish people entered the Promised Land. This number is not just a matter of semantics; it had far reaching consequences. For example, if Israel is only 60 years old what right does it have to displace millions of Palestinians who have been living there far longer?

Regardless – Israel’s age is not the focus of this article – since Israel’s birthday is in the news, it’s hard to ignore the relevance of this week’s Torah portion, which defines in succinct and pointed terms the purpose of the Land of Israel.

Contrast always helps crystallize matters. Examining the wide range of opinions about Israel’s mission will help us appreciate, by contrast, this Torah portion’s glaring message to us on this matter.

From the time of modern Zionism’s birth in the 19th century, the meaning of the return to Israel and creation of a Jewish homeland was fraught with different interpretations and objectives. Some argued that the objective of the state was a political one. There were those that maintained that the return to the Jewish homeland is of religious nature, while others adamantly opposed the state as defiance of G-d. Other groups focused on the culture, language and economics of the state. From one extreme to the next, the meaning and purpose of Israel, was a matter of hot debate: Labor, socialist, revisionist, political, agrarian, synthetic, utopian, nationalist, cultural, religious – are among the different shapes Zionism took on. And anti-Zionism too comes in various colors.

To this day no consensus has ever been reached as to the purpose of the Land of Israel. No wonder Israel was never able to adopt a formal constitution (and instead has their “Eleven Basic Laws” as they’re called), because of a conflict over what constitutes fundamental law within Israeli society. Many religious Jews hold that the only real constitution for a Jewish state is the Torah and Jewish law (Halacha). They not only see no need for a modern secular constitution, but even see in such a document a threat to the supremacy of the Torah and the constitutional tradition associated with it that has developed over thousands of years to serve the Jewish people in their land and in the Diaspora. The secular majority wants the state to be strictly secular (as in the slogan “a state of chok (civil law), not a state of halacha”). With all  the attempts to achieve reconciliation, the issue remains deadlocked and the heart of the polarization, which has not allowed a formal constitution to be ratified.

In such a muddled quagmire how can we ever effectively reflect on the meaning of Israel’s birth, and what would constitute success? The answer, of course, depends on what we call success, which brings us back to the question: what is the identity and nature of Israel?

For instance, if Israel is strictly about a Jewish homeland, you can call it a huge success: Just 60 years ago its Jewish population was 800,000 (in 1914 it was 60,000), and today it is close to 6 million – the largest concentrated population of Jews on earth, for the very first time surpassing the United States in that status.

If Israel is about defense and a strong army, or about developing technologies and standard of living, it clearly is also a success.

As a center for Torah scholarship and thriving religion – Israel is also a shining triumph.

But if Israel is about spiritual vision, unity among Jews, leadership, soul, a moral standard, a light unto nations – then there is much to be desired (some would say far worse).

Enter this week’s Torah portion, Behar: When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land must be given a rest period, a Sabbath to G-d.

The question is asked: The next verse spells out that for six years plant your fields, prune your vineyards, and harvest your crops, but the seventh year is a Sabbath of Sabbaths for the land. It is G-d’s Sabbath. So why the need for the opening, redundant, statement that when you come to the land that I am giving you, the land must be given a rest period, a Sabbath to G-d? The order of events is that when you enter the land the six years of harvest precede the Sabbatical; why does the Torah state that “when you come to the land” immediately give it a “rest period?”

The significance of the Sabbatical year – this year happens to be one – is to remind us that earth belongs to G-d, not to man. It makes us aware of the purpose of our lives and our hard work (six years of planting, pruning and harvesting) – to transform and spiritualize the material universe, elevating it to a state of Sabbath holiness.

By opening with the mitzvah of the Sabbatical year the Torah is brilliantly emphasizing the mission and purpose of coming “to the land that I am giving you.” When you come to the land that I am giving you – never forget its purpose and raison d’etre: The land must be given a rest period, a Sabbath to G-d.

What happens when an entity sadly forgets its purpose or wanders off course? It cannot function properly, as it becomes displaced from its driving ethos. Think of a machine that is not following its engineer’s objectives.

When the purpose of the land is tragically forgotten displacement follows: “Exile comes to the world for not resting the earth (during the Sabbatical year)” (Avot 5:9). Conversely, when the Sabbatical purpose is remembered redemption comes to the world (this may explain the Talmud: at the end of the Sabbatical year Moshiach will come – Sanhedrin 97a).

Everything in this world has a soul. Health is dependent on the body and mechanics being aligned to their soul. How much more so when it comes to the Holy Land, the Promised Land – its optimal welfare and success is contingent on it living up to its soul (see The Death of Modern Zionism? ).

This week’s Torah portion reveals for us a profound secret – the secret why Israel has dominated the news not only for 60 years, but for the last four millennia. Disproportionate to its size the Promised Land carries unparalleled influence throughout history. From the beginning of time people, nations and religions have been fighting for control of the Holy Land. What is the mysterious power of this small piece of geography (the size of New Jersey)?

The answer is Israel’s holiness. Israel is the soul of the universe; its spiritual vortex. Its’ destiny will define the destiny of the entire globe.

So what is Israel’s secret weapon?

The Sabbatical Year.

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.
Usually, the vision person, standing at a 20,000 story level or higher, has a birds-eye view which is not capable and unable to see and run things on the ground level, which requires immersion into the nitty gritty details. And vice versa: The implementer needs to see things as they are below, and cannot remain on a pedestal.

Vision alone can remain abstract and unfulfilled without someone who knows how to implement and build accordingly. Building without vision is aimless.

You may be surprised to hear that the first model for balancing these two forces goes back 3320 years ago. The model for all structures – for all entities – both physical and spiritual, microcosm and macrocosm, is the holy Temple.

“Build me a sanctuary and I will rest among you.” The purpose of existence is to build a Divine home from and in our material universe. Building this home is thus a model for every form of building that we well ever devise – from our grandiose structures in our sprawling cities to our businesses and corporations, from our personal lives, homes and families to our social structures.

As such, the construction of the Sanctuary offers us contains many lessons in life. Which explains why the Torah – in these weekly chapters – elaborates about every detail of the Temple’s construct, and not once, but three times.

When we look closely at the Torah narrative we find a discrepancy in the order of the Temple’s assembly: When G-d first commands Moses (in the fist two chapters of Terumah and Tetzaveh) the order is first to build the vessels (the ark, the table, the menorah), and then the structure itself (the walls of tapestry and the beams). But later, in these week’s chapter, when Moses instructs the people to build the order is reversed: First the Mishkan – the structure – and only afterwards the vessels.

The Talmud relates a mysterious but fascinating dialogue between Moses and Bezalel, the Temple’s builder, about this order (Berochot 55a. Cited in Rashi at the opening of Pekudei):

When Moses told Bezalel to first construct the vessels and then the structure, Bezalel responded, “Moses, our Rabbi, the way of the world is that first one builds a home and afterwards he puts in the furnishings. But, you tell me to build the ark and vessels and then the Tabernacle. Where shall I put the vessels I make until the Tabernacle is finished? Perhaps G-d really said it to you in a different order, Tabernacle, ark, vessels?” Moses responded: “perhaps you were under G-d’s shadow (the meaning of the name “be-zal-el”) and knew what G-d intended.” Moses deferred to Bezalel.

Why then did Moses reverse the order and maintain that first the vessels should be constructed than the structure? Indeed, if Bezalel was right that the order should be first to build the structure and then the vessels, why did G-d in the first place command Moses precisely in the opposite order? Why confuse matters?

The answer is that both Moses and Bezalel were right. One spoke from the perspective of the visionary, the other from the viewpoint of the builder:

A visionary – the driving force that should stand behind every initiative – sees the end in mind; he always maintains focus in the mission and purpose of the entire operation. The ultimate purpose of the Temple lies in the vessels – the Divine service performed with the vessels. The structure is necessary to protect and surround the vessels within. Moses, man of G-d, was the visionary who saw right at the outset the end purpose – which is to create containers for the Divine.

The builder who implements the vision, on the other hand, must define the actual method and order of assembly. Bezalel, the builder and implementer, recognized the practical process, “the way of the world: first one builds a home, and afterwards one puts in the furnishings.”

Moses’ and Bezalel’s symbiotic relationship in constructing the Divine Temple carries vital lessons in our lives:

Ask yourself the question: Who controls your life: The details and daily mechanics or a higher vision and purpose? Who is the captain of your ship: is your body following your soul, or is your soul following your body? Does the hammer tell your hand what to do or the other way around?

It may seem strange, but due to life’s circumstances and the struggle for survival most of our lives are consumed with the means – working, commuting, shopping, preparing, with much less time and energy available for the end – the reason we invest all that effort: love, family, virtue, personal growth, making a mark on the universe. This of course, creates the inevitable, undesired and contradictory result: We can forget the destination as we get overwhelmed with the journey. Instead of your mission defining your activities and circumstances, the order is reversed.

On the other hand, sometimes we can get carried away with vision and illusions of grandeur, which – even if they aren’t illusions – often don’t come to realization due to their grandiosity. You may be afraid, or not know where, to begin, concerned that not every detail was covered or that there may be another way to go.

First and foremost we need the voice of Moses within: the vision. Then we need to balance that with the voice of Bezalel: the builder.

In our lives, each of us should have has both these personalities, forces and characters: First the visionary – that distinguishes between the means and the ends, and makes sure to emphasize and keep focused on the purpose of all the work we do in life. Never forget the purpose. Then there is the builder who understands the right order how to actualize the process.

Obviously, some of us excel at one more than the other. Nevertheless, we all carry both voices. And even more importantly, we are expected to be wise enough to consult and bring on board an objective expert that can help complement our own weaknesses.

Which is more important? Both: vision and execution. The idealism of a visionary can remain abstract and unrealized. The greatest vision will fail if it does not have a designer and builder that will execute and realize the vision. A builder on his own, without vision, can get distracted and carried away with the means, and forget the end. We need both: the end in mind and the order of priority.

This is the secret to success: Moses and Bezalel – a partnership that left us with a holy Temple, which served as a model for the Temples to be built later in Jerusalem, and the permanent Temple of the future.

And above all – provided us with a permanent model to create a home for our souls and for the Divine (“I will rest among you”).

How many partnerships can claim such success?

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.

The Talmud offers us a truism (Sukkah 52a): The greater the person the greater his Yetzer Hara (evil inclination). The more powerful the experience, the more powerful the challenge. The same is true collectively: When a great nation experienced the unprecedented Sinai revelation, the forces of resistance arose in direct proportion to the magnitude of the moment.

The stakes were high: Sinai transformed existence. Until that point in time matter and spirit were two distinct entities, with an impenetrable schism dividing them. At Sinai heaven wedded earth for, and it enabled us to fuse matter and energy forever after.

Indeed, the Talmud explains that Sinai “ceased the toxicity” which entered human consciousness after the eating of the Tree of Knowledge (Shabbos 146a). Before Adam and Eve ate from the tree, their beings and psyches seamlessly flowed from their spirits. No dichotomy existed between who they were and what they did. Like an innocent child, they were not self-conscious, because their self was not divorced from their souls. When they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, consciousness and self-consciousness was born. And with it entered the serpent’s “venom” – human reality became polluted with toxic self interest, which would devolve into the narcissistic s ource of all injustice and corruption. At Sinai, however, the spiritual smog lifted as the air was cleared.

But with every powerful experience comes an equally powerful resistance. Instead of humbly appreciating the moment, the people became self-satisfied and overconfident and proceeded to worship the Golden Calf, which allowed the toxicity to return (Zohar I 52b), replaying the first sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

Each of us in our lives will be faced with similar challenges:

Sinai characterizes the special moments in our lives. The Golden Calf epitomizes self-worship – and the worship of man-made objects – instead of the awe and humility in face of the Divine. If Sinai represents our purity and innocence, the golden idol is the moment when we lose our innocence.

At times we will experience a “Sinai” moment of truth. Simultaneously, we must be wary that the dark forces within our psyches will come beckoning. Sometimes they will manifest in a voice of cynicism or skepticism, sometimes in a voice of arrogance or self-indulgence, at other times in a voice of cockiness and smugness.

All great moments bring great challenges. When we experience an epiphany, a moment of inspiration, a magical moment, always know that with it will come an equally powerful potent counter voice that will challenge you. Often when we are blessed with a special blessing, we take for granted our gift and let our guard down.

And that moment will be your ultimate moment of truth; it will demonstrate the type of person you truly are. The noblest moments in a person’s life can be seen either in times of great loss or in times of great joy.

When the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, was miraculously released from Czarist prison, after his enemies had turned him in, you would think that he had every right to feel proud and self-righteous. Yet, not only did he not gloat – which obviously was to be expected – he went on to write his classic letter, citing Jacob: “I have been humbled by all the goodness you have done for me.” After Jacob returned to meet his brother Esau, with all the great blessings that he had experienced with building a beautiful family despite all the challenges of living in a hostile environment, Jacob declared his humility: “I have been humbled by all the goodness you have done for me.”

This is the majesty of great people. It is never about them personally. Even when their Divine cause emerges victorious, they experience profound humility.

Witness a person at his high point – at the epitome of joy – and you will see what he or she is made of. Does your success bring arrogance or humility?

Each of us will have Sinai revelations in our lives, a pollution-free beautiful moment. It may be falling in love, the birth of a child, a child’s wedding, a major breakthrough. At that moment you will have respite from the toxins of self-interest. But it will not be easy. For every positive voice there will be an equal cool voice tempering any enthusiasm. At that point the voice of the Golden Calf will come calling, knocking at your door. Every sin, every transgression, every human mistake has an element of the Golden Calf within it (Rashi this week’s portion 32:34).

And then you will have a choice: Will your grand experience cause you to worship yourself or will it humble you?

Will you use your power to abort the toxins of self-worship and self-interest that feed the fragmentation of our lives and of the universe? Or will you introduce the power of unity and integration?

What you do at that moment will define your life.

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.”

Active, indiscriminate aggression – “the ox”
Selfish behavior, in which a person serves his own needs, “trampling” on everything in his path – insensitive to the fact that he may be hurting others in the process. Like a beast in the wild, he moves about serving himself without regard of others’ boundaries and needs. Choices are driven primarily by his own emotional needs, including the tendency to blindly and indiscriminately follow his own wiles and desires.

Negligence; Passive aggression – “the pit”
In contrast to active aggression, abuse can also come in the form of passivity. A parent that remains silent while the other parent is hurting their child is an accomplice to the crime. Abuse doesn’t always mean that the abuser did an act; it can also manifest in the lack of action. Like the passive damage caused by the negligence of leaving a pit uncovered, allowing an innocent passerby.

Excessive indulgence – “the destroyer”
Abuse driven by personal pleasure. The other three forms of abuse, selfishness, passivity and anger, are not necessarily motivated by the abuser’s personal gratification.

Anger and other destructive forces – “the fire”
Anger, shame and other destructive forces in the psyche can drive a person to hurt others.

All four methods cause damage, yet each has its own particular characteristics, thus the need to enumerate them all. The first and third category (the ox and destroyer) are animated forces, while the fourth (fire) is inanimate. The second (pit) is stationary, as opposed to the other three which are moveable.

There are two opinions in the Talmud regarding the meaning of the term used for the third category of damage (maveh). Rav holds, that it means a person causing damage. According to Shmuel, it means a grazing animal (and the category of “Ox” includes strictly a trampling animal). According to this opinion, the “four principle categories” are only categories of damages done by a person’s possessions, i.e. faculties, not by a person himself. The abusive person himself – the source of all the destruction – deserves his own classification.

But according to both opinions, this third category is driven by self-gratification, and as such, it is called the “destroyer” being the worst form of abuse: The first opinion sees it as pleasure of the heart, pleasure that consumes the entire person, while the latter opinion narrows it down to pleasure of the “tooth,” a “biting” form of abuse which “obstructs speech,” i.e. impedes the Divine transmission (as explained by the Arizal in this week’s portion). In psychological terms, this relates to the delectable delights of the palate (Sefer Hasichos 5701 p. 64).

What are the consequences of these four root forms of abuse?

When an ox causes damage with its tooth or foot in public domain, its owner is not held responsible, since it is expected to graze and walk around, and people should therefore be careful about leaving their things about in a public domain. If, however, the ox roams into someone’s premises other than its owner’s and there causes damage, its owner is liable for the full value of the damage caused. In contrast, if an ox causes damage in the public or private domain by goring with its horn, its owner is liable for half the value of the damage done. Since we do not expect an ox to gore unprovoked, the owner cannot be held fully responsible no matter where it causes damage.

The psychological application of this law is profound: Certain standards that are acceptable in the pubic domain are destructive in the private domain. The environment in the marketplace is one of competition, negotiation and deal making. In a climate of self-interest and distrust, the business world expects and requires us to be at times tough, as we “graze” and establish our “turf.” In the material world we need to use our “animal” tools to protect our interests. Everyone follows these universal rules, and as long as they are moral and just (masa u’matan b’emunah), behaving this way cannot be considered damaging, even if someone may be hurt in the process of acceptable business practices.

This attitude is quite acceptable in the public domain. But in the private domain, this same aggressive attitude is damaging and destructive. Our homes should not be polluted by the mechanics of the workplace.

Even in the pubic domain there are also limits to aggression. “Grazing,” feeding off legitimate profits and treading on the grounds is acceptable. Using one’s “horns” to gore and hurt others, however, is not. Furthermore: Even the acceptable standards of “grazing” must be done with deep discretion. If it causes someone hurt or damage the law states that once is free of responsibility. But if the damage persists, then the perpetrator is classified a “muod,” an aggressive one, and he is held responsible for the damages.

Much more can and should be said on this topic. Hopefully, the ideas here – based on the teachings of the Zohar, the Arizal and Chassidus – can serve as a springboard to do amore comprehensive study on the different “parent” forms of abuse, and all their derivatives. So that we can develop better interventions to heal our ailing world.

The point of understanding these fundamentals of abuse is, obviously, to serve as preventive medicine, and not allow these toxic forces to seep into our lives. And even if they tragically do, to take the right measures to remedy the situation.
May we be blessed, very soon, to reach the day when these issues will no longer plague the human race. Instead, we will apply their relvance to the never-ending quest of spiritual development into the infinite and beyond.
~~~~~
mlc | Meaningful Life Center

By Simon Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center

What is more powerful: A strong touch or a soft one? A loud thud or a gentle song? A forceful shove or a delicate prod? Is love experienced more though aggression or through tenderness?

Touch. Music. Beauty. Love. Every experience that stirs the heart and soul is actually a bridge between the sensory and the supra-sensory: A loving look, a harmonious melody, wine on the palate, a fragrant flower, a mother’s touch – they all stimulate a sense. But just. Like a sliding skate on ice or a strumming string on a fiddle, the stimulated sense opens a door to a place that is far beyond any tangible and describable experience. The more subtle, the more powerful.

In one word: Sensuality – where the senses meet that which is beyond the senses. A loving caress is indeed tangible; yet, simultaneously intangible. A touch that just glances the surface, but ignites an eruption of feelings.

Yet, sensuality has a complex history. For all its allure, it is not always associated with purity and innocence. Some even see it as antithetical to the spiritual. In fact, modern dictionaries translate “sensual” as “lacking in moral or spiritual interests; worldly,” “relating to or consisting in the gratification of the senses or the indulgence of appetite.”

Let us revisit the roots of sensuality.

* * *

Why did the Sinai experience, in this week’s Torah portion, have to be so dramatic and pronounced? “Mount Sinai was all in smoke because of the Presence that had come down on it. G-d was in the fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a lime kiln. The entire mountain trembled violently. There was the sound of a ram’s horn, increasing in volume to a great degree. Moses spoke, and G-d replied with a Voice” (Exodus 19:16-19). It would seem that the profound spiritual event that was Sinai would be intimate and resonant, without needing to rely on a spectacular display of fireworks.

Indeed, the Midrash explains that the first tablets were broken due to the fact that they were accompanied with high-level fanfare. Thus the second tablets were given on Yom Kippur in silence. “Nothing is more beautiful,” the Midrash concludes, “than modesty.”

Yet, the purpose of Sinai was to permeate the sensory universe, and infuse our tangible existence with the Divine. Sinai was both a profoundly mystical experience and simultaneously an intense sensual experience – a multi-sensory event that stimulated all the human senses: thunder and lightning, the escalating shofar blast, smoke and trembling. While the senses were all engaged at Sinai, they also felt an intense awe of an experience beyond anything physical. Indeed, the people actually achieved a state of synesthesia: “All the people saw the sounds – they saw what is ordinarily heard, and they heard what is ordinarily seen” (20:15 and Mechilta on the verse). With all the dramatic sounds and sights – Sinai opened doors beyond the perceived senses, actually fusing them into one.

True and healthy sensuality was born.

How, then, did sensuality acquire its lewd reputation? Where did the pure and subtle nature of sensuality go awry?

Ahh, the answer to this question lies in the very nature of the sensory universe and how it clutches us in its hold. On our own, we tend to gravitate to the easier option of surface, superficial experiences. Without exerted effort sensory stimuli can seduce us to the point of completely overwhelming our beings. Witness the hypnotic power of television and film; the manipulative mechanics of packaging; how images, sounds, tastes, smells and touches are used to motivate and sell us products and services. If these senses carry superficial messages, their potent power can be used against us – assaulting our psyches, violating our inner space and distorting our perception of reality. Our senses can even become instruments of self destruction, leading to escapism, desensitization and addiction as our sensory immune system is lowered due to hyper-stimulation.

On the conscious level a deep rift can separate sense from spirit, no different than the ostensible divide between matter and energy. The Kabbalists explain, that due to Divine concealment (tzimtzum), we feel independent and separate from the inner forces that sustain us. The material senses can then “go off on their own,” divorced of their sublime connections. The soul of our senses, so to speak, can remain not only obscured, but completely hijacked, to the extent that the same sense of, say, unsubtle touch can so distract and overwhelm us, that it leads us away from realizing touch’s true potential. Instead of the sense being a catalyst that releases enormous power, it becomes a “candy” or “drug” that hold us tight in its tentacles of instant gratification; a “quick fix,” that always needs another one to follow. In place of our senses serving our intimate needs and opening up the softness of our spirits, selfish interests convert these same senses – like a sledge hammer being used to crack an egg – into tools of aggression. Imagine a mother forcefully yanking her child’s arm instead of delicately reaching for it. Instead of a gentle stroke, the same touch becomes a jolting punch.

Once in history the schism between sense and spirit was bridged. Sinai was this unprecedented event. 3320 years ago heaven and earth achieved fusion. Empowering us – till this day – to allow our own senses to reach the ethereal, and maintain the integration in our daily lives, in a sustainable and permanent fashion. At Sinai we received a blueprint for life (called the Torah) – like a life operators’ manual – which instructs us how to marry the Divine and the human.

Many people in our time connected to Hendrix’s lyric “ ‘scuse me while I kiss the sky.” Hendrix may have kissed the sky, but, tragically, did not return to tell about it. As did many of his contemporaries. Some returned, but did not offer us a workable system to merge the senses and transcendence.

Sinai teaches us just that. Want to find out how? Search out for a Torah class which focuses on the Torah’s relevance to our personal, emotional, psychological and spiritual lives.

* * *

What is a true touch?

What is a real kiss?

It is where heaven meets earth.

Where the sublime meets the secular.

Where our senses meet our spirits.

Where your body meets your soul.

~~~~~
mlc | Meaningful Life Center

By Simon Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center

Are you indecisive? Do you vacillate? Are there important decisions in your life that you are postponing – and with very good excuses which you may rationalize as “reasons”?

None of us are immune from inertia. As mere mortals we have our different fears and insecurities. Mood swings and circumstances don’t help. Often, life’s overbearing pressures simply wear us down, leaving us with little strength to break out of patterns and “make a move.” The silent, lethargic power of habit should never be underestimated.

And even when you finally make a “decision” to move, how often does that decision turn into an extended process that, years later, still awaits resolution? It’s one thing to be inspired; it’s quite another to maintain and implement the inspiration.

As we dig deeper into the psyche, this weakness exposes a more fundamental human flaw: Do we have unwavering identities, or are we products of the changing winds around us?

The only thing consistent about me, a friend jokes, is that I am inconsistent. Or as another poet put it, the only thing we knew for sure about Johnny was that his name was not Johnny.

And finally, this brings us, no doubt, to the biggest issue of all: Commitment. Are we able to remain committed – and when I say committed, I mean real, unconditional, commitment – to someone, to a cause, to ourselves, to anything? Is there anything that you are absolutely certain of? Or are we doomed to limited and conditional relationships, which change like the weather, or a bit less often?

Justified or not, human beings are creatures of change and instruments of habit. No matter how much we seem to try, our past haunts our future, and even when we resolve to chart a new course and establish a true commitment, the ever-changing human vacillator constantly shifts like a ticking clock.

That’s why we humans have created the pressures of deadlines and cut-off points, to force us to act and arrive at a resolution.

Now, you may be wondering: Who really cares if I don’t have a solid connection and absolute commitment in my life? Moreover, I am unconditionally committed to myself, to making money and satisfying my needs. Beyond that, what else is there?

Yet, there is a nagging voice inside each of us that doesn’t quite feel comfortable with that last statement. (Not to mention, that commitment to one’s need is hardly absolute; it changes in direct proportion to the immediate need).

First of all, there is love – the need to give and receive love. Is there anyone out there that actually feels that it’s quite alright if our mothers and fathers loved us conditionally? Is there a child on this earth that does not deserve to be nurtured and cared for, with no strings attached and no limits? And can we honestly say that when we are deprived of such absolute love, we will not be dramatically affected for the rest of our lives?

Every building must have a solid foundation to stand upon. How much more so the fragile human being, who is subject to the emotional forces of life (our own shifting emotions and those of others)? If our foundation totters, the entire structure is at risk.

Giving love, like receiving it, also demands an element of unwavering commitment. True love is not about taking, but about giving. A mother that stays awake all night with her child in pain does so not because the child cares for her and, therefore, it’s “worth the investment.” Love is unconditional, absolute and forever.

Then there is the matter of transcendence. We all, some more often than others, have ideals and dreams that we absolutely believe in. Even if some of don’t feel it, we identify with the concept – and the idea resonates with us. We also admire those non-conformists, who did not take no for an answer, and stayed with their dreams, and innovated – and changed the world in the process.

Where does such certainty come from? And can we all access it?

The answer is given to us in – what may seem to some, a surprising place – a Chassidic discourse, studied by many people during this time of year.

Fifty eight years ago today (the 10th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat 1950) my mentor’s mentor (Rebbe’s Rebbe) ascended on high. His name: Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, the sixth Chabad Rebbe. The last publication printed in his lifetime was a Chassidic discourse issued for study that very day. The discourse, titled Basi L’Gani, Come to my Garden (a verse in Song of Songs), consists of twenty chapters.

When Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak’s son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, assumed leadership of the movement, he began his first discourse with the same verse, and elucidated on the original discourse. Every year hence, on this day, Yud Shevat, the Rebbe would focus, in consecutive order, on another one of the twenty chapters of the discourse, in 1952 – chapter two, 1953 – chapter three, concluding with chapter twenty in 1970. Then he began the order again. Based on this cycle, this year, 2008 (5768), corresponds to the 18th chapter of Basi L’Gani.

What is the theme of chapter eighteen? You guessed it: Unwavering fortitude and commitment in face of the ever-changing human personality.

Esoteric in tone, this chapter, when deciphered, is as practical and relevant as any message you will ever hear.

Briefly, the chapter discusses two states of Divine energy. Sometimes we find that G-d has, so to speak, a “change of mind,” as when “G-d regretted that He had made man on earth, I will obliterate humanity” (Genesis 6:5-6), and then again, “G-d smelled the appeasing fragrance, and G-d said… ‘I will never again strike down all life as I have just done’” (8:21). Seemingly contradicting this is another verse: “the Eternal One of Israel will not lie nor change His mind, for He is not a man that He should change His mind” (Samuel I 15:29).

Explains the Rebbe: As the Divine manifests in the “image of man” and the structure of existence, there are changes corresponding to the shifting forces in existence. But the Essence of the Divine is beyond this structure. This level is unwavering and absolute, unaffected by any change.

The human soul too contains both these dimensions: Areas in life where one is affected by and undergoes constant changes. But then at the core of your soul, we have an unwavering power to overcome every challenge.

The soul accesses this absolute power through the battle against the adversarial forces of life. When we fight to live virtuous lives in a corrupt world, when we stand up for justice and morality, when we combat selfishness, our own or others, this battle evokes the deepest Divine, spiritual resources.

As demonstrated with the example of an actual war: When a leader is threatened and goes to battle, the drive of victory causes him to open up all his most precious treasures and resources, ones that have never before been seen, in order to overcome every challenge.

The challenges of life, thus, become catalysts that detonate the deepest resources within us and within the Divine. The greater the adversary, the more powerful are the forces of certainty we awaken and the more determined we are to succeed.

Complacency is the root of much uncertainty. By contrast, when we feel that our spiritual identity is threatened and we fear betraying our own highest aspirations, this stimulates new energies and will power, which access the unshakeable core of the soul rooted in the unwavering Essence of the Divine.

There is no greater gift than the gift of certainty: The absolute conviction of knowing that you are precious and indispensable; that you are on a mission championing a cause; that the place and time in which you find yourself is exactly where you belong; and that you have the power to make your unique mark on the universe.

So the secret to access inner strength and resolve is by looking at our own doubts and procrastination as an “enemy.” Define the enemy and then muster up all your inner strengths to go into battle. Your inner soul, fed by the indomitable Divine, will carry you.

May this be the only battles we ever fight.

By Simon Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center

Darkness. Water. Light.

The parallels between the openings of the first two books of Torah are just too glaring to ignore.

Genesis – the first book of Torah – begins: G-d created heaven and earth, and the earth was chaotic and void, with darkness on the face of existence. But the Divine spirit hovered over the water’s surface. G-d said, ‘let there be light, and there was light.’”

Exodus – Torah’s second book – begins with the bitter enslavement of the Jewish people who descended to Egypt. With unprecedented ferocity darkness engulfs them. The Egyptians impose upon the Jews harsh labor and severe persecution intended to crush their spirits and break their bodies.

Despite the continuing intensification of the darkness, to the point that Pharaoh orders the massacre of all Jewish newborn males (“every boy who is born must be cast into the Nile”), a Divine spirit is born and hovers over the water: When Moses was born his mother “saw that he was good” – the entire house filled with light (Sotah 12a. Rashi). After hiding him for three months from the Egyptians “she took a papyrus box, coated it with asphalt and pitch, placed the child in it and put it in the rushes near the bank of the Nile.”

The little child of light lay snugly in a basket hovering over the dark waters of the River Nile, idol of the Egyptians. Until Pharaoh’s daughter, of all people, draws him out of the water – thus naming him Moses (Moshe), because “I bore (mashe) him from the water.” This in turn set in motion all the events that would lead the luminescent Moses to bring light to the Jews in the Egyptian darkness, and ultimately redeem the people in full glory.

Both books of Genesis and Exodus describe the dark nature of existence and the power we have to face our challenges.

Existence by its very nature is a dark place. We begin our lives – as the Torah begins its first two books – experiencing the surface of existence, with its inner nature personality shrouded within. Finding our mission and direction in life does not come easily. Clarity must be earned. Everything real and true must be discovered. Accessing the goodness of man and the beauty of life requires sustained effort and commitment, without which human nature gravitates easily back to self-interest and all its inevitable vices. Even science today has come to the surprising recognition that “dark energy” and “dark matter” is the stuff that makes up the overwhelming majority of our universe (see It’s the Tzimtzum, Stupid).

But hovering above the dark waters is the spirit of G-d – the soul, crafted in the Divine Image. Each of us carries within a Moses-in-microcosm – a force of light floating above the waters. Waiting for us to set her free by fanning the pilot flame of the soul (“G-d’s flame is the soul of man”), allowing it to illuminate everything in its path.

The most powerful message you will ever hear and the greatest blessing you can ever receive is not that you will be immune to the threatening shadows of existence. Rather, that for every moment of gloom you carry within a more powerful force of light. With every disappointment and loss you receive a gift of radiance. Above every illness and tragedy hovers an indomitable spirit that can and will prevail.

As we begin a new solar year, with all the uncertainties that come with the future, we also begin a new book in the Torah, which offers us a wise and timeless lesson: Above all the dark waters of life hovers the Divine spirit, waiting. Waiting for us to ignite its flame and bring light into the world.

“Let there be light” is our mandate. The challenge presented to each on us is this: Will you be part of the darkness or will you be committed to bring light into the night?