From Uman to Manhattan - Going from the Sefer to the City

Sorry for not being more active recently. As my readers know, I am soon joining the world of "Biglaw". You also know that I am leaving for Uman today.

B"H I have received many many names from Jews (and even a Ben Noach) all over the world in the comments of my previous post and by e-mail. IY"H, BL"N, I will have you all in mind when I say the Tikun Klali and give tzedaka by Rebbe Nachman's tziyon, and by the other kivrei Tzadikim as well. I will not be able to take any more names as I will be pretty much incommunicado till I get back next Sunday.

I just received word last last week that I will be starting my new job the day after I return from Uman. This is much earlier than I was expecting. It's amazing how things work out together like that. IY"H this Rosh Hashana process should prepare me for the battle ahead.

Over Shabbos, I saw a Toldos Yaakov Yosef on Parshas Vayelech which which referred to something he said in Parshas Shoftim. He spoke so so clearly about this change that I'm about to embark on. While the job is a huge bracha, it is also contains overwhelming challenges. And this piece, which I have captioned on the right side of this post, offers amazing guidance and something for me to think about as I leave my current "learning vacation" and embark on my commute to, and work-life in, New York City.

He speaks on the pasuk in Parshas Shoftim, Devarim 20:2, which says, "And it will be that when you come close to the war, the Kohain will approach and speak to the nation." (captioned on the right)

I'll adapt the paragraph from the Toldos on that pasuk (captioned) into English: "The Torah says 'And it will be that when you come close...' The Sifri and Rashi (which brings the Sifri) explain that 'come close' refers to when the Jewish people come close to going out from the border ("s'far") of our enemies. This refers to when a person comes close to going out from the sefer [The word for border, s'far, has the same shoresh as the word for Torah book, sefer], and into the city to do business. Immediately, it is a war with the yetzer hara which tries to seduce a person into הסתכלות נשים, speaking gossip, cynicism, and the like. Therefore, one may not trust in the fact that he has been involved in learning Torah until now by [erroneously] thinking that the yetzer hara will not bother him. Instead, [the verse continues] 'the Kohain will approach and speak to the nation.'"

Anyone who goes to work has many challenges if he wants to try and keep his mind in kedusha. It's tough even for a person who has learned much better and longer than I have. In my case, I will even have to walk through (or near) Times Square every day from the train to my office. Sometimes avoiding הסתכלות נשים and the rest of it is so hard that it is easy to think it it is just better to give up. The task is fearsome and the tendency is just to want to stop fighting it and become misgashem like the surrounding, superficial world.

With this Toldos in mind, I went to look at how the psukim continue (also captioned above after the text of the Toldos). What is the chizuk that the Kohain gives the person who's leaving his sefer to go off on the Long Island Rail Road and walk through Manhattan? What does such a person need to keep in mind during that process?

The psukim (Devarim 20:3-4) continue with the Kohain's message: "And he says to them, 'Hear Israel: You are approaching today to make war on your enemy [the yetzer hara]. Don't become weak-hearted. Don't be afraid, don't panic, and don't be terrified of them because Hashem your G-d is going in front of you to fight for you with your enemies to save you."

As the Gemara in Kiddushin 30b says, if Hashem would not help us, we would not be able to beat our yetzer hara on our own ("ואלמלא הקב"ה עוזרו אין יכול לו")!

This is such amazing chizuk. I made the psukim, the Rashi, and the text of the Toldos itself, into a card. (Click the image to enlarge and print if you wish.) IY"H, when I get back from Uman I want to laminate it so I can read it before I get on the train every day, at least at the beginning, to remind myself to always ask Hashem to help me fight the big battle for me.

IY"H, we should all be zoche to renew our battle against the yetzer hara throughout the day every day, and we should be zoche to win in that battle and win on the Yom Hadin this week.

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Please donate to my son's cheder by going to minivanraffle.org to buy a raffle ticket. The drawing for a new minivan, car, or $20,000 cash will be IY"H Chanukah time. $100 for 1 ticket. $360 for 5. Where the form says "Referred by," please write "Dixie Yid." Tizku l'mitzvos!

Attachment to Hashem and Attachment to Tzadikim: Two Sides of One Coin

I want to share how the Toldos Yaakov Yosef connects three out of four mitzovs in one pasuk in Parshas Eikev and how I think Rebbe Nachman connects the remaining mitzva. (The Toldos Yaakov Yosef is by Reb Yaakov Yosef of Polonya, one of the direct talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov.)

He quotes four amazing mitzvos in one short pasuk at the end of the fifth aliya (Devarim 10:20) of the parsha:

• אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ תִּירָא "The L-rd your G-d you shall fear,"
• אֹתוֹ תַעֲבֹד "Him, you shall serve"
• וּבוֹ תִדְבָּק "to Him you shall cling,"
• וּבִשְׁמוֹ תִּשָּׁבֵעַ "And in His name you shall swear."

Just to summarize one kav, one theme, in this long piece from the Toldos, he brings different ma'amarei Chazel which show how each of those mitzvos is teaching us different ways to connect to Hashem through the talmidei chachamim and tzadikim of the generation.

On the mitzva of yiras Hashem, being in awe and fear of Hashem, he quotes the famous drasha from Rebbi Akiva in Bava Kama 51b: "את ה' אלהיך תירא לרבות תלמידי חכמים," that the word "את" in the pasuk comes to include the mitzva to have not only awe and fear of Hashem, but also awe and fear of the talmidei chachamim.

He also quotes a gemara relating to the third mitzva in the pasuk, the mitzva to attach oneself to Hashem. He quotes the Gemara in Kesubos 111b, which says that when one attaches himself to a talmid chacham, it is as if he is attaching himself to the Divine presence. ("וכי אפשר לדבוקי בשכינה והכתיב (דברים ד) כי ה' אלהיך אש אוכלה אלא כל המשיא בתו לתלמיד חכם והעושה פרקמטיא לתלמידי חכמים והמהנה תלמידי חכמים מנכסיו מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו מדבק בשכינה."

He even connects this theme of connecting to Hashem through the tzadikim and the talmidei chachamim through the fourth mitzva in the pasuk, the mitzva to swear only in Hashem's name, and not to swear in any other god's name. He quotes the Rambam in Shorshei Hamitzvos (Mitzvas Asei 7) who says that if one swears in Moshe's name, and has in mind Moshe's Master, and the One who sent Moshe, then it is as if he swears in Hashem's name, but if he has in mind that Moshe is an essential power and he is swearing in Moshe's name directly, he transgresses the prohibition of shituf. ("נשבעת אומתנו בשם משה רבנו (מה נכבד שמו), כאילו אומר הנשבע "באלוקי משה", "במי ששלח את משה" .אבל כשאין הנשבע מכוון לכך ונשבע באחד הנבראים מתוך אמונה שיש לאותו הדבר אמתות בעצמו עד שישבע בו - הרי זה עבר ושיתף אחר עם שם שמים [ועל זה] בא בקבלה: 'כל המשתף שם שמים עם דבר אחר - נעקר מן העולם'.")

We see a common denominator then in three of the four mitzvos in this pasuk. The mitzvos of clinging to Hashem, swearing in Hashem's name, and the mitzva to fear Hashem are all fulfilled through various types of attachment to tzadikim and talmidei chachamim. It should go without saying that this does not imply some sort of vicarious closeness with Hashem such that our connection with tzadikim would somehow absolve us of the need to connect to Hashem ourselves. Rather, in Chassidus in general, attachment to tzadikim means attaching ourselves to them and listening and observing their teachings so that we can grow close to Hashem with their help.

But how does the second mitzva in the pasuk fit in? How does "אֹתוֹ תַעֲבֹד," which implies the avodah of tefilla (Sifrei, quoted by Rambam), davening, connect with the other three parts of the pasuk, which relate to various ways of connecting to the tzadikim and talmidei chachamim?

I thought that we can see the connection between attachment to tzadikim and tefilah in what Rebbe Nachman says in Likutei Moharan I:2. He says that before a person davens, he should specifically have in mind to connect himself to all of the true Tzadikim. He discussed the lead-up to the building of the Mishkan, and pointed out that everyone brought different gifts to Moshe for the building of the Mishkan (Shmos 39:33) but that only Moshe knew how to put all of the pieces together to build the Mishkan (Zohar Pikudei 238b). Similarly, every Jew has different strengths and may daven for a wide variety of things. But the tzadikim have the ability to put all of the Jewish people's tefilos together into into their proper places as one "koma sheleima," one perfect structure within which the Divine Presence can rest in this world.

With this teaching from Rebbe Nachman, which shows the importance of connecting to Tzadikim so that our tefilos will accomplish their potential, we can now understand what the mitzva of "אֹתוֹ תַעֲבֹד," serving/davening to Hashem, is doing in the context of the other three mitzvos in this pasuk, which cover the concepts of fear of, attachment to, and swearing by Hashem and the Tzadikim. All four share the fact that they all teach the importance of connecting to Hashem by attaching ourselves to the Tzadikim, who can teach and assist us in reaching our full potential.

May we merit to connect to the Master of the world and to His Tzadikim!

Picture courtesy of A Simple Jew. Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to subscribe in Google Reader.

Please donate to my son's cheder by going to minivanraffle.org to buy a raffle ticket. The drawing for a new minivan, car, or $20,000 cash will be IY"H Chanukah time. $100 for 1 ticket. $360 for 5. Where the form says "Referred by," please write "Dixie Yid." Tizku l'mitzvos!

He Guides Us Like Children - Learning to Make It On Our Own

The Toldos Yaakov Yosef has a teaching at the beginnig of Parshas Maasei that really reflects my experience over time from intially becoming religious until now.

He's addressing the question, "How could it be that all Jewish people experienced the highest levels of Nevuah, prophecy and relelation, immediately after Yetzias Mitzrayim when they will weren't terribly distinguishable from the Egyptians? How could they experience levels of prophecy as great as Yechezkel Hanavi even while awake, when the Torah later says that only Moshe Rebbeinu merited such a level?"

He essentially answers that Hashem, at the beginning of our nation's existance as sevants of G-d, temporarily just handed us a great spiritual level without any real work or attainment on our part. He just wanted us to understand what kind of level a human being who serves G-d is capable of attaining so that we would know what our goal should be for the future. We then had to work, step by step, slowly but surely, back up to that level through the 49 days of the sefirah, up to Har Sinai, where we, again received the full relevalation of Hashem because "pasku zuhamasan." However, again, this level was only temporary and we were left on our own to slowly and gradually re-attain those lofty levels that we were initially just handed "for free," to get us hooked, so to speak.

He compares it to how a father initally trains his child to walk by holding the child's hand and helping the child walk at first. But at a certain point, the father withdraws his help so that the child can learn to walk on his/her own. (I can relate to this as well since we're almost up to this with our youngest daughter who was born just over a year ago.) The child will fall a few times, but this is necessary so that they child will learn to attain that skill on her own.

I can certainly relate to this. When I was first becoming religious, I was able to make huge strides in my mitzvah observance with relatively little effort. At one point, for instance, I had just read The World of the Yeshiva and Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism, two books which weren't meant to be so positive towards Frumkeit. Reading more about the orthodox life though, made me realize that I would be terribly stunted in my growth if I didn't start keeping "shomer negiah" and "kol isha," i.e. abstaining from physical contact with women and not listening to women singing. So in a very short period of time, while still in high school, I gave those things up. It wasn't a total breeze, but compared to the improvements I try to engage in now, it was much easier.

I definitely feel like for those first couple of years, Hashem was holding my hand and just leading me along the path till I got to a point where I could stay basically religious on my own. However, after those early stages, I feel like he said to me, "My dearest Yid from Dixie, it is time for me to let go now. If you want to keep growing closer to me, you're going to have to do it on your own now." It's a sad transition, but it is obviously the whole purpose of why we are created; to attain closeness with G-d through our own efforts, sacrifices & hishtadlus.

May Hashem help us attain the highest levels even after He has let go of our hands and expexts us to do it on our own. And may He continue to give us little nudges in the right direction!

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of timbarcz)

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