Shavuot is associated with Gevurah (strict justice, judgment, discipline, self-control, Yitzchak) in the counting of the yom tovim as we find it in The Ten S’firot in Sacred Time available from Aleph.  Blessings to you on this special day.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

And On Shavuot
excerpt from Yishmiru Daat
by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

And on Shavuot, the Sefirah of Binah is illuminated in 50 portals within the attribute of the Gevurah giving Torah – from the mouth of the Gevurah / Almighty we heard, (Eruvin 54b), b’Tzimtzum / with contraction of the divine light from the central point of perfection outwards onto stone tablets upon which were tzamzem / condensed ten commandments, (tanchuma vayakhel 7), and tzamtzem / condensed His Shechina / in-dwelling between the two staves of the ark.  And also the expression “atzeret,” (meaning both concluding feast, i.e. Shavuot and also he squeezed), points to the tzimtzum / contraction and the limiting of this yom tov to only one day – and two in the diaspora – (and there are hidden expansions [on this day] up to a full week’s worth, but you will have to look to find them).  And we who stood together, (Exodus 19:17, and cf. Yalkut Shimoni, B’reishit chapter 22 remez 101), at the foot of the mountain, like Yitzchak, our father, in his bindings, we with our cautions, (Shabbos 88:) and our souls flew out of our bodies with each and every utterance.  And they are united with the souls of King David may he rest in peace, and with the Baal Shem tov, his soul is in Eden, and with the ger tzedek of Vilna, may God avenge his murder, having publicly sanctified God’s name, whose souls were drawn back on Shavuot into the body of the King with the kiss of Hir mouth, May S/He be blessed.

(more…)

In his lecture on zman / time from the Yishmiru Daat dvd available from Aleph, Reb Zalman says:

“We don’t have the sense of noticing the tides of time anymore, because what has happened is that commodity time has been taken over….  The sense we once had that we were working so we could have ‘being time’ is gone.” 

Chaplain Gloria Krasno helps us to do the work needed for this season, to help us to focus on counting the Omer and the associated combinations of Sefirot.  Here’s her mediations for Malchut.  May she be blessed for her holy work.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

(more…)

Many thanks to Gloria Krasno!  Have a wonderful Lag BaOmer, y’all.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

(more…)

Here’s a translation of Reb Zalman’s writings on Lag BaOmer from his Sefer Yishmiru Da-at.  The original text in Hebrew and English plus some background are provided below.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

Lag BaOmer
excerpt from Yishmiru Daat
by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Lag baOmer – is Hod sheb’Hod / splendor of splendor (in the accounting of Sefirah).

(Genesis 32:25) “And he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was sprained, etc.,” which was [the thigh of] the left leg, Hod / splendor, (cf., Pardes Rimonim Shaar 17 ch. 1).

And the one who wrestled, i.e., Esau’s guardian angel, had not wanted Jacob, (who is Tiferet / majestic beauty, presence, mercy), to feel his own beauty (yafyo), and his attack was intended to diminish his esteem, as though he had no Hod / splendor whatsoever.  And one who is smitten like this may think that s/he has no chen  / grace, Hod  / splendor or yofi / beauty, but rather, s/he may think s/he is ugly.

However, when a perceived external reality appears to indicate some turn for the worse in one’s grace, one may nonetheless feel, at core, that one is in Hod sheb’Hod  / splendor of splendors; one may yet feel this at a time when one’s inside, innermost places cannot access a shemen sasson / oil of gladness meant to revitalize oneself when one loses one’s sense of chen / grace.  For this reason, we pray when we count the Omer on Lag BaOmer:  “May it be Your will… that in the merit of the Omer count that I have counted today, that there be corrected whatever blemish I have caused in the Sefirah Hod she-b’Hod,” i.e. those times when within one’s innermost places one feels a sense of ugliness.

(more…)

This week, Reb Zalman and Rabbi Debra Orenstein conducted a WebCast about Passover and ways to deepen Seder.  During the event, a listener asked Reb Zalman about the Birkat Hachamah / Blessing on the Sun, which occurs this year on erev Pesach, 14th of Nissan in the morning.  Here’s Reb Zalman’s response.  (Intro by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor)

“Oh how wonderful. 

“The last time this happened was 1981 and, we went up to the Empire State Building in New York City to watch the sunrise.  

“We had a service there and, we read the Torah right at the parapet on top of the building. 

“Then we released seventy balloons as a kind of sacrifice for the seventy nations of the Earth. 

“That was a time when we made a great deal of fuss about solar energy. 

“It is a ‘Saturn Return’ for the sun

[NOTE:  The ‘Saturn Return’ is an astrological phenomenon that roughly corresponds to the frequency of this blessing.  A year for Saturn is about 29 1/2 earth years.  The term is used to identify major stages in a person’s life, i.e. 0 to 28, 29 to 56, 57 to 84 and beyond.  As Saturn returns to the position it occupied at the time of each person’s birth, approximately every 29.5 years, a person crosses over a major threshold and into the next stage of life.  With the first ‘Saturn Return,’ a person leaves youth behind and enters adulthood; with the second return, maturity; and the third and sometimes final Return, a person enters old age.  Gabbai Seth]

“and it happens to be that every twenty-eight years, the sun is in the same place, (as the Rabbis have figured it), where it was at the time of creation. 

(more…)

In this article, originally published in “New Menorah,” Reb Zalman takes us from that moment in our Seders when we will eat the Afikoman, to the opening of the door for Elijah the prophet, and beyond.  Please consider these suggestions for your Pesach celebrations.  (Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor) 

When we read through the section of the Hagadah that deals with the Wise Child, the way the response is written implies that one is to give the Wise one all kinds of instructions in Halakhah because of hir having asked an excellent and intelligent question.  And one such Halakhah, singled out in the text is the laws of Afikoman.  Specifically, it states:  After having finished eating the Afikoman, one may not follow this with any dessert.  This seemingly trivial law must be taught to the one who is wise.

In the time of the Holy Temple, the afikoman rule meant that after having eaten the Paschal Lamb, one was not to refresh one’s palate with anything else; the taste of the Paschal Lamb was to linger. 

In our day, too, although we are no longer able to offer the sacrifice in animal form, the commentators say that we are to have the taste of the matzah, the Afikoman food of our time, linger with us for the rest of the night. The only other taste in which we can still partake at that point of the Seder is the wine in the cups that are to follow; and especially that of the cup of Elijah.

Now I want to talk about these two points in the Passover Seder, (afikoman; Elijah’s cup), and I want to first draw upon something we have learned from Reb Arthur Waskow.  Reb Arthur points out a way we can understand the image of the fringes at the corners, the tzitzit, which occur in many laws in the Torah.  There are subtle extensions as a mitzvah injects itself into the fabric of our lives and Reb Arthur has described this as the tzitzit.  So, I’d like to bring to mind this image, as we continue to look at the way that the  lingering taste of the mitzvah of the afikoman extends.

(more…)

Pesach is associated with the Sefirah of Chesed. The text is from The Ten Sefirot in Sacred Time, available from Aleph.  [NOTE:  Translation by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor.  Words in brackets [] added for explanation by Gabbai Seth.]

And on Pesach, it’s widely known that as we eat matzah we focus on haEMuNah / trust in God (Zohar II 183:) “michla dimhEMeNusa“ / “Food of faith,” (and michla d’asussa / “Food of remedy“).  Pesach is the holiday of Abraham our father, (peace be to him), she-he-EMiN / who trusted in God, and who went down to Egypt, which created for us the possibility of leaving Mitzrayim.  And, he was generous and charitable, and he put his attention to the freeing of captives.

And when you contemplate the arrangement of the Seder plate, you will discern in the three Matzahs, 1) Chochmah, 2) Binah and 3) Daat. 

[Chochmah:  Intuitive wisdom; right brain; conceptualization.
Binah: The ability to distinguish, differentiate; left brain; analysis.
Da-at:  Experiential knowledge; reality testing.] 

And six divisions in the plate as follows:
1) Z’roa / Shank bone in Chesed, [reminder of having been spared the killing of the first born],
2) Beitzah / Egg in Gevurah [recalling the churban, our punishment],
3) Maror / Bitter herbs in Tiferet [stirring compassion],
4) Karpas / Celery in Netzach [reminder of the labor],
5) Charoset / Pesach Mixture in Hod [mortar, mud, apple, sweetness],
6) Chazeret / Horseradish  in Yesod [slavery]-

All six together being ze’er anpin / short face, [term which means these six Sefiros].

7) And The plate itself, is the Nukva Malchut [final sefira which is a containing structure for the other six].

And the four cups are the four worlds corresponding to the letters of the revered name, [YHVH/Atzilut, Beriyah, Yetzirah, Assiyah]. 

And the seder begins with Kiddush in Atzilut [Keter, Chochmah] and with the telling in Beriyah [Binah, which, together with Chochmah, give birth to all the other qualities]. 

(more…)

[Intro by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor:]  In the traditional Haggadah, the Four Children are presented as One Wise, One Wicked, One Simple and One who Does Not Know How to Ask. 

Growing up, it didn’t really feel like four choices.  I knew which one I wanted. 

And I daresay, for those of us who did not feel we could attain to a “Wise child,” we may have sometimes felt discouraged and asked, “Why bother being Jewish?”

In Reb Zalman’s sefer, Yishmiru Da-at, he has given a text which can be substituted for the traditional one.  It presents a four-dimensional kind of enneagram which is both universal and useful for teaching children. 

The original Hebrew is at the end of this post for inclusion in your Passover Seders.  Here’s my translation:

The Torah speaks of Four Children, (to be sung to the same nusach used for reading of the Passover Haggadah): 

One a lamden / Sharp Student, one a chossid / high Emotional Quotient, one a tamim / Good One and one she-ayn lo shum s’fekut u’b’eyot / Without Doubts or Problems.

The Sharp Student, [what does s/he say?]: (Deut 6:20) “[What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws] which havaya our God has commanded you” and so you shall answer hir according to the capacity of hir sharpness of wit.

The High EQ one, [what does s/he say?]: (Exodus 12: 26) “[What is] this service to you?”  So you will make an effort to reign in hir longings,  for s/he also wants to be a part of the integrity and perfection that comes with meaningful rituals.  If you are loving, then s/he will understand devekut / cleaving, and s/he will get a taste of what it means to feel close to God.

The Good one, [what does s/he say?]:  (Exodus 13:14) “What is this?” and so you shall bear witness to hir from your own experience, that hashem yitbarach is assisting you with ‘a strong hand’, to take you out and to take hir out of Mitzrayim.

The One who is carefree, you will feed hir some maror / horse radish, so s/he will feel hir friends’ troubles and so that compassion will be instilled in hir heart.

(more…)

Purim is associated with the Sefirah of Netzach. The text is from The Ten Sefirot in Sacred Time, available from Aleph.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

On Purim, God helped us, but it wasn’t obvious this was so.  God was never mentioned in the Megillah, and the name “Esther” means “I shall be hidden”.  God secretly helped us in our rescue from persecution and slaughter.  All the miracles were done for us by netzach, i.e., means, arrangements and influence and rooted in a kind of selflessness as, (Esther 4:3) “lying in ashes donning sack cloths” and, (ibid, 4:16) “fast for me, etc,” so that their salvation would be for the sake of netzach, and would endure. 

The Arranger of all Arrangements, Blessed be S/He, hid Hirself, but was behind the arranging of Vashti, Carshena, Bigsan and Teresh, the king’s sporadic sleeping and then learning of Mordecai’s action, and Charbona, etc., etc.  And even though God is not mentioned in the Megillah, the entire quality of the story was one of “return to God”, prayer, and faith until a recommitting between us and Hir: (ibid, 9:27) “The Jews established and accepted,” and now, (Shabbos 88a) “they reestablished what they had previously accepted” in the days of Moses our teacher, exalted guest of Netzach.  And to this day, we still read the Megillah and we occupy ourselves with donations to the poor and with support of the needy, (Esther 9:19) and “sending of goodies one to another.”

(more…)

In Reb Zalman’s book, Yishmiru Daat, the following section is a continuation of the last post, For Purim.  Have a joyful holiday!  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor 

[The previous section spoke of replacing the mantra of self-doubt associated with the remembering of Amalek with the mantra, “We are God’s treasure.”]

“Blot out the memory of Amalek” (Deut 25:19).  How must we go about eradicating the memory of Amalek? By recognizing that we are no longer in the same position we were then.  Now we are in the presence of a loving God, receiving Hir grace and blessing. Keeping the positive reminders in our awareness creates a situation for us which helps us find strategies to fight residual effects of having Amalek, self-doubt, within us. The positive reminders better enable us to look at our enemies objectively, without having our visions clouded by the past traumas and residual introjections, by other enemies or situations, by historic conditions which had once convinced us of our worthlessness, conditions no longer with us in the present, (such as the effects we still feel from the time when the Nazis wanted to destroy our bodies or the time when the Inquisition wanted to destroy our souls).

(more…)