Kick the Habit

For us Jews the Torah is not merely one of many Creation Myths - perhaps a little more sophisticated, but nevertheless on a par with the Aboriginal or ancient Babylonian or Greek Creation Myths.

Nor is it the Authorized History of the birth and development of our illustrious nation, similar to those commissioned by great leaders the world over.

It isn't even a Book of Morals and Eternal Truths, demonstrating the great wisdom of our People which was similar, or perhaps even surpassed, that of Confucius, Aristotle or Plato.

True, the Torah deals with the origins of the Universe, with the history of Mankind and the Jewish People, and is a certainly a great book of morals.

But what makes it unique is that it is nothing less than a Revelation of G-d's Wisdom to human-kind.

So when the Torah tells us a bit of history, it's aim is not merely to inform us of an event that occurred thousands of years ago, but to guide us significantly in our own lives.

More specifically, when the Torah tells us about the journeys of Abraham, the first Jew, it is to guide us in our own life's journey.

With this we can understand, what appears on the surface to be, an anomaly.

When a person leaves one country for another, he will first leave his home, then his region, and finally his land (country) - in that order.

Yet, when it came to Abraham, it is written "go you forth, from your land, from your birthplace (region) and from your father's house".

This is the reverse of what we would expect. How is this possible?

It is however explained in Chassidic Philosophy that the Torah is here referring not so much to Abraham's physical journey, but to his spiritual journey - and hence to the journey of each of us.

The word Land (Eretz in Hebrew) refers to a persons' Desires (Ratzon) - indeed Land and Desire share the same root. (There is a deeper association between the two words, but this is not the place for elaborating).

Birthplace refers to a person's Habits.

Father's house refers to the Nature a person is born with.

And here the Torah is telling Abraham - and through him each and everyone of us - that we have the power:

a) to break out of our own Desires and Infatuations

b) to kick Habits formed over many years

and c) to even change the Nature with which we are born.

Unlike what often passes for post-modern intellectual discourse, the Torah does not believe that we are nothing more than a conglomerate of pre-programmed genes, hormones and DNA, that define our personalities and our essence.

The Torah believes that we are first and foremost a soul, which has within it a part of G-d. This is what defines us. This is what we are. We just happen to inhabit a body of genes, hormones and DNA which may influence us - but which, should we choose, ultimately have no power over us.

May we each discover within our selves the will, the wisdom and the strength to succeed in our life's journey.

Ride the Wave!

The highlight of Jewish sport this year was most certainly Israel's first gold medal at the Athens Olympics

We were all so proud of Gal, we were all so proud of Israel, and we were all so proud that an Israeli Jew won gold. But far more important than the gold medal, were the golden words that came out of his mouth.

"I felt all of Israel -- and the 11 slain Israelis from the 1972 Munich Olympics -- pumping my board for me. As if I was somewhere else, and the board was moving by itself in the final meters."

At the moment of victory - what does he think about? What is on his mind? He is not sailing alone but all of Israel is with him. In fact he is not sailing at all. He is being carried by a wave - and the wave is the destiny of Israel.

What a beautiful thought and something which applies to everyone of us. We are all riding on the wave of Jewish destiny.

But whereas Gal, in his moment of victory, sensed and expressed it - some of us need to be reminded of it - and this is what Rosh HaShana is all about.

Fish Story - Be for a Head

Last night we all observed the custom of dipping an apple in honey. And may Hashem truly grant everyone a good and sweet year.

However there is another, lesser known, custom: to place the head of a ram on the table - or, as in our home - the head of a fish. And before eating it - to say: "May it be Hashem's will that we be for a head and not for a tail."

Why do we say, for a head and not for a tail?

Why not say - let it be Hashem's will that we be a head and not a tail? What does for a head mean?

The Rebbetzen's grandfather, a very incisive man, explained that becoming a head is not what we are aiming for. What we really want is to be for a head. We want to be connected to a head, to something of deep significance and meaning.

On Rosh HaShana we ask Hashem to grant us not only life, but meaningful life; to bless us with being connected to a power higher than us. So that in being joined to this power we will surge forward in the manner of Gal Friedman.

Yechidus - An Audience with the Rebbe

When I first had a private audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe I was a young man of twenty-one years old and to tell the truth I was not very confident at all.

I expressed my sense of insecurity to the Rebbe. And the Rebbe told me to keep in mind the verse that says that G-d Who fills all worlds, and Who transcends all worlds, stands near every Jew, and observes every Jew, and in so doing gives the Jew His power - as long as he does good things.

And then the Rebbe, who had been looking down the whole time (the Rebbe never looked at a bochur in Yechidus) - the Rebbe looked up at me in a manner that I shall never forget - and with that look, and with those words, I was changed forever.

I was no longer little Benzion Milecki, but a person with the strength of G-d within him. I was connected to something far greater than my outer consciousness.

Waves

Anyone who knows even basic physics knows that the water in the waves doesn't actually move forward - all it does is bob up and down. It is the energy moving through the water that moves, not the water itself which only gives an appearance of movement.

What a fantastic metaphor for what a Jew should be - we need to allow ourselves to become vehicles for something much higher than we ourselves are. For appearance sake it seems that we are the one's who are doing all the moving and shaking - but in truth we know that there is a greater power behind us.

And the more we acknowledge it, the more it energises us, and the more it uplifts us.

We don't have to achieve anything on our own - we just have to allow our innate energy to carry us.

There is an unstoppable force for good going through the world.

We don't have to create it - it's there - and it has been there since the beginning of time. All we have to do is open ourselves up to it.

Do you know the true greatness of Moshe? He allowed Hashem to speak through him. 'The Divine Presence spoke through his throat; G-d's word was on his tongue."

But it doesn't have to be only Moshe. Every one of us has the ability to allow G-d to flow through him.

Kids in Israel

The Rebbetzen and I were in Israel lately and we met about twenty of our young South Headers who were studying in Yeshivas and Seminaries. Most of the kids didn't come from what would normally be called "frum" homes. And yet once they were in Israel, they found learning Torah and living a truly religious life so easy. It was as if they were always there.

And do you know why? - Because they were always there.

You, their parents, gave them as much as you knew, just as my parents gave me as much as they knew. But now the children know so much more, because in their veins and in yours there was a dormant energy just waiting to surface. And surface it did.

Danny Pearl

We often see this wave of energy in the most extreme of circumstances.

Take Daniel Pearl. On the surface he was a journalist first - a Jew second. He told his non-Jewish wife Marion that if he would ever develop an interest in spirituality, he would consult first with the tradition of his forebears. But it didn't and Judaism really had very little bearing on his life. He was a man of the world in every sense.

And yet before he died - he said, "My father is a Jew, my mother is a Jew, I am a Jew".

There are two books written about him - one by his Jewish parents, and one by his non-Jewish wife, Marion.

His parents believe that the above statement was made willingly as he stared death in the face.

His wife believes that he was coerced to say it.

But one thing they both agree on is the statement that he made after this one. Virtually his last statement.

"I had a grandfather and he built a city in Israel. It is called Bnei Brak. And there is a street named after him. Chaim Pearl Street."

No one could have coerced him to say that. They wouldn't have even knonwn about it.

So why did he volunteer it?

Because as he faced death, he wanted to be connected, he felt connected, to something bigger than him. His frum grandfather. And he wanted the whole world to know that. Because at that point, that was all that mattered.

And as Lord Woolf - Chief Justice of Great Britain said. Each and every one of us are faced with situations in our school lives, in our business lives, in our social lives, when it would be easier to hide the fact that we were Jewish. For the most part, he continued, I have passed these trials - and have been proud of myself for having done so. I don't know what I would have done in Danny's situation. But should the occasion ever arrive, I hope that the fact that he did will make it easier for me and for others to die with as much pride as he did.

Don't feel the energy?

But what happens if we don't feel that energy within us? Not everyone was as lucky as I to have been touched by the Rebbe. Not everyone is faced with the situation in which Daniel Pearl found himself. Not everyone is a Gal Fridman.

And even in my case - it has been many years since that private audience with the Rebbe. What can I do to energise myself today?

It's the Vision thing!

But there is a way - and it has everything to do with Rosh HaShana. You see, on Rosh HaShana G-d created the perfect man, the perfect woman and placed put them in the perfect place - in Gan Eden. And yet, no sooner had He done so, that He drove them out. The story of the Apple was a pretext - perhaps a way to sell computers - it was always G-d's plan that Adam and Eve get kicked out. They just never had a chance.

But if G-d was going to kick them out, why did he put them in there in the first place?

Because He wanted them to have a vision of what he could become, what she could be come, what the world could become.

Actors

Have you ever noticed the great actors and actresses of our times? Those who win the Logies, the Golden Globes, the Oscars?

They win these coveted prizes because in their acting they are able to portray accurately and faithfully the characters they represent. Indeed, the truly great actors speak of actually become their characters, at least for the duration of the filming.

And yet when you ask some of these people - America's Royal Family - about the really important issues of the day - whether politics, or ethical dilemmas - they often give trite answers lacking any depth whatsoever.

And you wonder - heh, in the film, he portrayed the President of the United States, and he did such a great job of acting the part; she played Queen Elizabeth I and won awards; he played a doctor in the midst of an ethical dilemma with all the angst and the pathos that the character required.

And yet in real life - they have nothing to say?

Worse - an award-winning famous actress, Wynona Ryder is caught shoplifting?

Are they for real? Is she for real? How does this come about?

The answer is that we are talking about very ordinary people - but when they act, they achieve levels of greatness, even grandeur that eludes them in their private lives.

In their acting, they give vent to elements of themselves, which under normal circumstances they themselves are unaware that they possess.

And then you understand what our rabbis mean when they say:

"Acharei hapeulos nimshochos halevovos"

That a person's heart is drawn after his actions - that if you act in a particular way, it is only a matter of time that you feel that way - as long as you keep on acting.

As they say - "Fake it until you make it!" Or as a wise lady once put it "Be real until you feel!"

Everyone of us needs to create a vision of what we would like to be.

We don't mean your career, we don't mean your house, we don't mean your social circle. These are merely what you have.

We are talking about you. Your values, your humanity, your conduct, and of course your Jewishness.

And we need to live that vision. We need to ask ourselves, "if I am this vision of myself, what would I be thinking, saying, doing right now?"

Not what would I do - but would that visionary me do. We need to step out of ourselves. To act bigger than we are at this moment.

For a person to say: "this is who I am and that's all there is to it" is so small, so petty.

What is this that you are afraid of leaving?

What is a person other than the sum-total of his experiences and perceptions?

Are your experiences so wide, are your perceptions so accurate, have you invested so much in where you are - that you don't want to give it up?

Or perhaps, just perhaps, the reason that you don't wish to leave the puny you - is because it's easier to simply stagnate?

As a wise man once said: Most people fail not because they have placed the bar too high, but because they have not placed it high enough!

Sometimes they are even happy to dream - and then to fall asleep.

Look at that assimilated Jew, Herzl. He was the last person who anyone would have assumed would have a Jewish vision.

But he did.

And not only did he have a vision - he acted on it.

He conducted himself as if there was already a Jewish State. He acted as a Head of State and visited kings, leaders, and powerful people - although at that stage, his vision was no more than a dream.

But as he said, "If you will it, it is no dream".

In contrast to this, today people are into abstract art, and promsicuous music - vulgar in the extreme - but of course it cannot be criticized because it is art.

Once upon a time artists and musicians were into painting ideal pictures, and composing heart-rending melodies - not expressing where they were, but where they would like to be.

Today art is about self-expression - and it shows. "Just let it all hang out," they say. And they do.

We need to move back to idealizing and acting out those idealizations.

The Chaim Pearl within Us

In truth however we are not really acting when we "do" Jewish. On the contrary, we are merely giving vent to our deepest emotions to our essence.

Each of us have a Chaim Pearl running through us. Each one of us are here today because at some time in our past there was a Jew for whom Judaism meant absolutely everything. For some it may have been a generation or two ago, for others, we may have to go back further. But we are all children of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebecca, of Jacob, Rachel and Leah.

Each one of us has enormous power going through our veins. On occasion there may be a lot of mud on the surface, sometimes rocks too. But don't let it fool you.

The mud is the pseudo-intelligentsia, the so called modern values, that thin veneer that they call western civilization which takes everything oh, all so coolly, but as we are seeing in so much of today's world, is bankrupt at its core.

So let us not be fooled with what's on the surface.

Let us rather touch that energy which is deep within us.

Let us ride the wave - that started at Gan Eden and which will prayerfully cause us to surge towards Moshiach this year.

May it be a year of Redemption for each and every one of you and all your families, for our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel and throughout the entire world, and may it be the year in which G-d's glory shines over all humanity.

You Don't Have to be Jewish to be Good

In parashas Lech Lecha we read about the first Jew, Abraham. However, before coming to grips with the meaning of being Jewish, it is worth comprehending the Torah's view of non-Jews.

In last week's parasha, Noah, a non-Jew is called a Tzaddik (righteous man) and perfect. Furthermore, at the end of the parasha of Bereishis it is stated, "And Noah found favour in G-d's eyes."

Clearly, being Jewish is not a prerequisite for either being good or close to G-d. Indeed all non-Jews are expected to observe the seven laws that G-d gave to Noah, and upon doing so in the belief that G-d has so commanded them, and monitors their observance, they too have a portion in the World to Come.

Indeed we were taught by Elijah the Prophet: "Every person, man or woman, freeman or slave, Jew or non-Jew - the Divine Spirit rests upon him according to his actions."

So while it is certainly true that G-d has given us as Jews a specific mission, and has a special relationship with us, we do not share the belief of other religions that only by doing as we do can all human beings be saved.

The corollary of this is that it is not necessary, or even desirable, for a non-Jew to convert to Judaism unless they are prepared to be fully committed to all of the extra obligations that G-d has placed upon the Jewish people. Why accept a responsibility that you are unable to commit to, spoiling what would otherwise have been a perfectly good relationship with G-d?

The attitude of Judaism towards non-Jews who act according to the Seven Noachide Principles is one of utmost respect. Conversion should therefore only be encouraged when there exists a deep yearning on the part of the convert to unite with G-d with mind, heart, soul and most importantly action in the special manner of His relationship with the Jewish People.

The fact that many Jews don't act in accordance with this is no reason to compound the problem with yet another person who will not act appropriately. Furthermore, when it comes to a born Jew, although he may not act in full accordance with the Divine Will, he comes from parents, grandparents or great grandparents who did. This meant that deep down in his spiritual psyche, his neshomo, he is in spiritual alignment and it is therefore just a matter of time until either he or his progeny get back to where they were originally. A person who has converted inappropriately doesn't have this special relationship, and by being rushed to conversion, is unlikely to develop it in the present or future either.