Click here to read original Hebrew text.

The Israelites had recently destroyed the two Amorite kingdoms of Sichon and Og and were coming to the Land. The Torah says,

(‘ויגר מואב מפני העם מאד כי רב הוא ויקץ מפני בני ישראל, (במדבר כ”ב ג  / And the king of Moab felt like he had become an alien in his own land as Israel advanced and, he was stressed and felt that the end of his culture and traditions was imminent because Israel, that nation which had recently received the Torah, was nearby (Numbers 22:3). They had some new and powerful energy they were bringing with them.

The word used to describe how he felt, ויגר, is typically translated as “he became terrified“, but in terms of its root, it is also connected to the feeling of an outsider. One who experiences himself as an outsider is apt to feel paranoid or disoriented. One feels excluded from an inner circle. This is the feeling that Balak may have had.

כי רב הוא  / For they were numerous. Another interpretation is that their energy was powerful, that Israel was on its way and its culture and traditions were so great that those of Balak would be overrun. Balak was afraid of being invaded on many levels and he was concerned that he would feel as a marginalized non-Jew might feel in a Jewish land.

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B‘H

The following is a transcript of a conversation between Reb Zalman and Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson, (editor-in-chief of the The Algemeiner Journal), which occurred on November 24, 2007  (15 Kislev, 5768). (Edited by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

Reb Zalman:

“Here’s the story: There was such a remarkable article by Hillel Zeitlin, ‘Vos is Chabad’ / ‘What’s Chabad about’? You could see from there how he, in his day, was talking about the ruchnius / spirit of Chabad.

“I miss this, nowadays, — when I encounter [with them] — in the Shlichim / Chabad emissaries. Every once in a while, some of the young Shlichim come by here and chap a shmues / grab a conversation with me. Officially, the excuse is [that] they want to see what s’forim / books I have or to talk with me about what it was like in those old days. But what they really want is – to find a sympathetic ear through which they might express conflicts and doubts. They also want to find out how to make their davvenen / prayer more real.

I found, when I was in Australia, that they’re all managers. They’re sort of franchise people where they are. There is very little that is happening in hisbonenus / contemplation and ruchnius / spirituality. They have a very low ceiling. That’s what I’m concerned about, that’s what I wanted to shmues / discuss with you.

“Have you been able to reach your brother or not?”

Rabbi YY Jacobson:

“I couldn’t, I tried.”

Reb Zalman:

“Nish geferlich / it’s not so bad; you’ll give over to him.”

Rabbi YY Jacobson:

“I’m sorry, I wanted him to be in on the conversation.”

Reb Zalman:

“So what’s happening? (You’re close by to 770 in New York; you see what’s going on.)

For instance, I was in Melbourne and I asked [if they would show me around] and, they did. And there’s a yeshiva / school for boys and a kollel / school for men. I came to the beis medrash / house of study of the kollel and I asked who is the mashpia / the one who provides spiritual direction for the students. They said they don’t have a mashpia. So vaksen yunge leit / raising the boys missing something essential for the yoshvei ohel / serious students.

“When you look at the way the Alter Rebbe / Reb Schneur Zalman of Liadi was writing about such things in the letters, about yoshvei ohel and what they have to do with their davvenen, etc. — I didn’t have the sense that any of that was happening there.”

Rabbi YY Jacobson:

“The way I see it, there’s two elements. First of all, I don’t feel that Chabad has, at the moment, that many individuals who have the ability to take chassidus / esoteric teachings, to take the maamorim / esoteric discourses and to apply  them in contemporary terms [so] that the 21st century teenager, or young man, or woman, can really get excited about it. They learn chassidus in the yeshivah, they learn the kontreisim / shorter articles, the maamorim / longer pieces, etc., but if you ask most eighteen or nineteen year olds, ‘Are you excited about such and such maamar?’, they say, ‘What’s there to be excited about? It doesn’t talk to me.’ I don’t think, on their own, they could find anything enthusiastic, inspiring or, certainly, overwhelming to actually spend time every day and davven with it or think about it. That’s number one.

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Thirty years ago, Reb Zalman, while in the holy Land, composed this piece for Shabbos M’vorchim Tammuz. He weaves together themes for the month into a powerful prayer for repairing the world. Here are the themes:

• Soon will be Rosh Chodesh Tammuz and on the seventeenth day we begin the three weeks of mourning remembering the destruction of the holy Temple.
• In parashat Shelach lecha we read about the men who spy out the Land and whose report makes the people want to return to Egypt.
• The mnemonic used to remember the divine name permutation for Tammuz: (Esther 5:13) “This is worthless to me,” spelling HVHY, the reverse of YHVH.
  • Here’s the scene: Haman leaves the palace and passes Mordechai sitting there. Mordechai‘s presence disturbs Haman to such an extent that he cannot enjoy his successes.
• The month’s sign of the zodiac and its traditions:
  • Sign: Cancer the crab
  • Middah: Yesod
  • Element: Water
  • Theme: Housewife and Family
  • Letter: Chet
  • Sense: Hearing

When we bless the Rosh Chodesh, we pray for something better to come. If we can make the dramatic move from catastrophes of the churban, the spies’ report and Haman to a vision of redemption, then more modest moves such as individual petitions may feel more doable as well.

Spending time in the imaginal realm helps to increase the feeling of God’s presence and strengthens a God-field in this plane. The individual  enriches himself through thinking about and meditating on the metaphors, the symbols, the images embedded in this time in the calendar.

We want to be able to move in positive directions away from catastrophe and toward redemption.

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The Torah says that the Levites:

“Shall wash their garments and make themselves pure” (Numbers 8:7).

What’s this washing of garments about?

The Nefesh / life-energy dresses itself in garments of thought, speech and action.

Washing the garment of thought happens when I can count to ten before responding to someone who’s made me angry. When I equilibrate, I give myself a chance to use better judgment. If I respond with a knee-jerk reaction then I am likely to do something which will go against what I’m trying to accomplish. I will be more effective if I can put something out which the other will be able to receive and process. And deeper: Therapy for remnants of abuse; healing of pathological cognitions.

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I am sad to leave this wonderful retreat. It was a fantastic time filled with riches. Thanks to Reb Zalman, Eve, Reb Marcia, Hazzan Jack and the staff of Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center for making it so special.

At the closing circle, I was surprised and delighted when Reb Zalman mentioned the work I’ve been doing at this website, JewishRenewalHasidus.org / JRHasidus.org. Here you will find some of Reb Zalman’s most precious teachings along with translations of Hebrew writings never before made available in English.

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Many blessings to all and stay in touch!

B’Shalom,
Gabbai Seth Fishman, (rebzgabbai@verizon.net)

Click here for Hebrew text.

Shavuot‘s Sefirah is Gevurah. Gevurah is understood as God’s mode of punishing the wicked and judging humanity in general. It is the foundation of stringency, absolute adherence to the letter of the law, and strict meting out of justice. It is Yitzchak‘s time and the day of giving Torah, (Eruvin 54), “From the mouth of the Gevurah” we heard when the mountain was picked up and held over our heads.

On Shavuot, the Sefirah of Binah shines in its fifty gates within the attribute of Gevurah. An attempt to access Binah‘s light is humbling because she encompasses every combination from Chesed Sheb’Chesed down through Malchut Sheb’Malchud along with one that is beyond these.

So receiving Torah from Gevurah is somewhat like a Hebrew school teacher who hits you on the back of the hand when you did something wrong; not like Pesach where you had chesed chinam, freely bestowed love. You are like a Kindergarten child and God is stripping down the Torah to make it accessible to the small portion of which you may be capable.

We learned that on Shavuot the entire Torah was given, but we also learned that the light of Binah delivered by Gevurah was condensed into ten Commandments, so everybody can relate: 1) Anochi, deal with this, God, a presence. 2) You shall not have other gods, just stick with Hashem, don’t be swayed or distracted. 3) Don’t take the name in vain, what’s in a name(?), but okay. 4) Keep the Shabbos, makes good sense. 5) Honor your mom and dad, really(?), well, if you say so, will do our best. 6) Don’t murder, ok. 7) Don’t commit adultery, Check.  8) Don’t steal, Yes, feels wrong. 9) Don’t bear false witness, 10) Don’t covet, we have done this; we will do our best. That’s the way it is given, condensed into the ten and, the Shechinah was also condensed.  She usually flies all around creation but for an instant on Shavuot she is focused between the two staves of the ark, and gives revelations to us.

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Make a count of the sons of, etc. (Numbers 4:2).

On the level of basic meaning, the text is talking about doing a census but the Hebrew used to express this, נשא את ראש also means to raise up the mind. What can we say about raising the head, raising the mind?

Raising the mind means that the intellect is ready to follow the neshamah‘s / the soul’s lead, i.e.,the neshamah is on a deeper level than the intellect, behind it, underneath it. The intellect becomes a kind of garment with which the soul dresses herself.

For this to happen, the intellect needs to be stretched and broadened a bit because in its natural state, it will want to stay independent from the soul’s prioritizations. How to do this? שאו שערים ראשיכם / You need to wake up the imagination, and the imagination will expand the mind. If you want to raise your mind, then you want to use your imagination to stretch out and broaden your intellect so that it can become a garment for your soul. Your soul is united with the spirit of the universe and that latter becomes known through expanded imagination. There’s a connection between the neshamah and the Creator.

The Creator sends light to us on a continual basis. That light is hard to capture. It’s ephemeral. It passes by and the intellect can’t grab hold of epiphanies, they don’t make their way into consciousness. In general the souls’ epiphanies don’t make it all the way into consciousness and awareness.

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Here is a link to the Hebrew text.

“You shall not take from him interest or increase, and you shall fear your God, and let your brother live with you. (Lev 25:36)“

(Psalms 91:16) “With the length of days I will satisfy him and I will show him my salvation.”

Whether we are a lender or a borrower, as time passes, the loan participant feels differently about the passing of time depending on the role: If we’re the borrower, we want time to slow down because we are reluctant for the payment date to come.  On the other side, if we are the lender, then we want time to speed up to get that extra money.  Therefore, “You shall not take from him interest or increase,” because if you can remove this from your time-baggage then you will be able to better live with a sense of satisfaction.

(Leviticus ibid) “And the ones you are close with are with you,” you are not alone in dealing with a feeling of time-pressure. And you are not alone in wanting to feel satisfied with the passing of time, to feel an alignment between your desire to live a long life, your enjoyment of living and the goal of “With the length of days I will satisfy him,” that their years will be satisfying ones.

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If one with whom you are close has become destitute and is now under your control in a hierarchical way  – עמך –  then you, too, must have fallen when he did.  (Leviticus 25:39)

How could it have happened that one with whom you were close has lost dignity, felt desperate, powerless, without resources and is now under your control?

The answer is that something got in the way of the rich person’s feeling like helping.  He didn’t take action.  He could have done something to prevent this from happening.  Had he stepped in with generosity, then the one with whom he is close wouldn’t have plunged to the depths.

And therefore you have fallen.  And therefore, you don’t have a right to put him to work doing something for which he is not suited.

Here is a link to the Hebrew text:

When we count the Omer starting with Chesed of Chesed and ending with Malchut of Malchut, then Lag B’Omer, the thirty-third day, is Hod Sheb’Hod. Hod represents “beauty“, “a sense of perfection“, “balance“, “symmetry” and “aesthetic“. For an entire week this is our theme and, as we go through the days of the week we arrive at Hod sheb’Hod on the fifth day of our Hod-focused work. It is that part of the work in which we are remembering that we need to be sensitive to the level of “affect” in the way that we present the Hod on which we are working. Hod is to be presented in a way that is respectful of its non-verbal impact on the receiver, of how it is felt, and of the sense of beauty one feels when it is handed over. So Hod Sheb’Hod is “the beauty of the beauty”.

In Genesis 32:26, after the angel wrestles with Jacob and Jacob prevails, the angel injures Jacob’s left leg, (when the Sefirot are mapped to the parts of the body, Netzach and Hod are associated with the right and left legs respectively), and his left leg is dislocated from its socket. Here is the interpretation on a symbolic level (cf Pardes Rimmonim Shaar 17:1):

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