Tuesday, February 14, 2012

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH INTERFAITH WEDDINGS: CO-OFFICIATE: PALMETTO BLUFF,SC

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:
JEWISH INTERFAITH WEDDINGS:
 CO-OFFICIATE:
PALMETTO BLUFF,SC
 
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 Derek  Eretz Zuta + Rabbah:
 
Shabbat  3/03/12 
 
(aka  Derech  Eretz, Derekh Eretz )
  
 
  
Shalom  my dear Chaverim, Talmidim, v' Rabbanim, friends, students and fellow rabbis: 
  
An oneg, joy-filled, Shabbat this coming weekend to all. It is called Shabbat Zachor, the Sabbath of Remembrance. Traditionally we are to remember Amalek's cruel invasion of the Israelites in the Wilderness, and God's command to the Hebrews to always consider them an enemy and to ''blot out their name.'' The Rabbis of the Talmud took a different approach. Amalek is considered our yetzer ha, our evil inclination, and we are to work on blotting out our ego and our will. When it comes to actual enemies, such as Haman, a descendant of Amalek, we blot out his name with noise makers and not violence.
  
We continue with our exploration into the Talmudic Tractates of Derek Eretz Zuta and Rabbah. (aka Derech Eretz Zuta, aka Derech Eretz Rabbah.  As was mentioned, zuta is Aramaic for 'small', and rabbah is 'large').
  
Remember that Derek Eretz is not about Jewish ritual. It is  about how we are to treat one another and what traits of character, middot, we  are to try to develop. The lessons are universal and ecumenical. The  development of character traits and Jewish spiritual renewal  transformation is called  Mussar.
  
For  those new to the class Baruch ha Ba! Welcome! You can access last  week's class at 
 
 
From  here you will find links to preceding classes in this series. So, together we continue:
  
 TALMUD  BAVLI
  
 TRACTATE 
  
 DEREk ERETZ  ZUTA
  
 (aka  Derech  Eretz)
  
Today we will start and complete Chapter 8 and also start Chapter 9. I would like to thank the over 1900 folks who receive this class and the many who encouraged me to publish a book. The first volume of four is now ready. ''The Path and Wisdom for Living at Peace with Others: A Modern Commentary on Talmud Tractates Derek Eretz Zuta and Rabbah,'' is now available at
 
 
 

CHAPTER VIII.

Chapters VIII is an exact repetition of what was stated in other places of Tractate Derek Eretz Zuta and the Talmudic publishers in the Renaissance period in Europe deleted it and it is lost to us today.
 
CHAPTER IX:
 
9:1: Rabbi Eliezer the Kapar said: Keep aloof from anger, for by being angry at others you will add to your transgression. Love your admonisher, for by doing so you, will add wisdom to your ability; and rather shun the one who honors you, that your wisdom be not lessened. Love the prayer-house, in order that you shall be rewarded daily; and the house of learning, in order that your children shall come to study. Love the poor, in order that your children shall not come to poverty. ''

Anger occurs in we humans for basically one of two reasons: either we want something and we cannot get it, or we had something and it was taken from us. This can be anything from a  toy for a toddler, or world peace for an adult.

Anger can be a good motivating force to begin us to calm down and then rationally figure out how to right a wrong. But when we are in a continual state of anger, living a life of being enemy-centered, this anger is an acid eating away at the container. And we are the container.

When we are angry, our thoughts and then our actions will come from this anger. We will commit acts that are not good for our souls or for others. We may get a few moments of feeling good by angry acts of revenge, but these are short lived and destructive. How many of us have lost sleep thinking of a clever retort we could have said to an insult, or some way of getting even?

An often quoted Talmudic statement provides: "When a person gets angry, it is as if he is worshipping an idol." The trouble is, however, that this passage does not exist. What  Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 105b does say is: "He who rips his clothing or throws something in his anger, it is as if he worships idols." The Talmud teaches us the not so subtle distinction between the person who gets angry and the person who loses himself in his anger; while it is never correct to lose control, controlled anger may have its place.

For most of us, the concept of ''control anger'' is an oxymoron. We may think we have the anger under control, but our yetzer ha ra will lie to us with rationalization. Except for the rare Tzaddik, holy righteous person, we are best off asking God to take our anger from us.

The Talmud Bavli in Tractate Nedarim tells us (22a), "The angry person is overcome by all forms of hell;...(22b) the angry person considers God unimportant...the angry person forgets wisdom and increases in stupidity." So-called ''controlled anger'' rarely if ever exisits
 

.

 There is nothing left afterwards for the angry person (Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 40b-41a). When a person gets angry, if he is wise he loses his wisdom ( Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 66b). An angry person's life isn't life (Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 113b). He tears himself and he tears his relationships down. The Sages teach us that God loves the person who doesn't get angry (Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 113b). Ecclesiastes 11:10 reads, "Remove anger from your heart," which the Talmud Bavli Tractate Ta'anit 4a  takes a step even further by saying,based on Ecclesiastes' verse, "A person must train himself to be gentle."

Remember also, if we allow anger to fester in our homes, the sages teach: ''Anger in a home is like rottenness in fruit. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 3) ''

When someone admonishes us, assuming they are doing to honestly reprove us, we have found ourselves at the moment a fantastic teacher to learn from. While it would be nice if we did a daily honest chesbon ha nefesh, a moral inventory, many times we forget to look at ourselves or rationalize by lying to ourselves. If someone is taking the same to show us our shortcomings, listen and love him for it.

Conversely those who always tell us how wonderful we are, are only feeding our egos and our yetzer ha ra. Don't take the good press seriously. We will have a tendency to sit on our laurels  and not increase our wisdom. Rabbi Hillel taught that one who doesn't increase his wisdom and spirituality, doesn't actually stay where he is, but decreases in his wisdom and spirituality. [Pirkei Avot 1:13].

True prayer, called Tephila in Hebrew, is self-judging. It is not 'dovening' at some break-neck speed in a rush to finish and leave the prayer-house. Thrice daily prayer also included meditation, when we sit quietly and listen to God's instructions to us. God, that still small voice in each of us, is always speaking to us. We have to learn to quiet ourselves and listen. Much more on prayer and mediation is in chapters 8 and 9 of "The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew,"The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal or https://www.createspace.com/1000243192.

When we judge ourselves and listen to God's will for us, the less likely we are to err and the more likely we are to succeed.

When we study, and our children see us study, the higher the chance that our children will learn and love to study as well. Its no coincidence that a generation of immigrant Jews who studied Torah and Talmud each day produced a generation of doctors and lawyers.

But more than this, the whole purpose of studying Torah, Talmud et .al., is to learn ahavath chesed, loving kindness, and derek eretz, proper behavior towards others. Children raised without this benefit are like children raised near water and not knowing how to swim. In fact a father's obligation  is to teach not only Torah to his children but an occupation and how to swim.(Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 29a)

While Jewish education, including the study of Talmud is certainly waning  in Jewish homes, it is now mandatory in South Korea. Yes, South Korea requires its students to learn Talmud. The Korean's definition of Talmud is quite different than Judaism's. Their version is a Korean translation of Rabbi Marvin Tokayer's compilation of stories from the TaNaK and the Talmud for the Japanese audience. To the Korean's these are children's tales, each teaching some wise or ethical lesson.

But still it is odd that South Korean school children can quote Rabbis Papa, Abaye and Rava, along with the law of "an egg hatched on a Holy Day,'' while most Jewish kids in the USA sadly can not.

The parent who teaches his son, it is as if he had taught his son, his son's son, and so on to the end of generations. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 36). Conversely when we do not teach our children, we are depriving our future generations, and doing true harm to Judaism.

Verse 9:1 and our class today ends with: "Love the poor, in order that your children shall not come to poverty." There are so many laws in the Torah and Talmud about taking care of the poor among us that we cannot cover them all in this book. The Talmud calls helping the poor, salt, a preservative for our own wealth.

Charity or caritas means selfless love. It would be wonderful if we all helped one another because of selflessness. The best translation of this in Hebrew is Ahavath Chesed, loving kindness.

Tsadakkah, defined as righteousness, is the Hebrew word for what is used as charity.

Everything we have is a loan from God...that we gained nothing without God's aid. Since all is a loan, those loans are called occasionally when we need to help others. In fact the Talmud teaches us that if two beggars each have one coin each, each beggars should give the other his coin.

When we spiritually understand that the money is just  a loan from God, and parting with some is not going to harm us, we loosen that tight fist we have hold on to our wallets.

When our hands relax and become open, we are able to receive more blessings from God. Its a spiritual truism.   

If we do not use some of our money for Tsadakkah it will be taken from us. The Talmud talks of Tsadakkah as being 'salt-preservative' for our wealth. By loving the poor, and helping them, we are helping our own children

The following is told in the Talmud of a father who did not help the poor as best as he could, and what became of his daughter:

Rabbi Nakdimon ben Guryon was one of the 3 richest men in Jerusalem and helped support the Jews their during the Roman  occupation of Vespasian .  Yet we learn he lost everything.  His daughter was found picking barley seeds from the dung of Arab's donkeys because R. Nakdimon reneged on her dowry of one million gold dinars as he became impecunious.  (Talmud Bavli Tractate Ketubot 66b)
 
She tells Rabbi Yochanan that charity is the salt, the preserver, of one's wealth.
 
She explained to a shocked R. Yochanan that her father, when he walked from the Temple to his house and back, would have his servants, lay silk carpets along the streets for him to walk on.
 
As an act of Tsadakkah, R. Nakdimon, would then have his servants give the carpets to the poor.
 
The Gemorah chides R. Nakdimon  for doing this act out of glorification and for his own ego, and further, while he was very generous, for a man of his wealth, he could have given much more.
 
R. Yochanan  ben Zakkai then burst into tears, and said, "Happy are you, Israel. As long as you perform the will of God, no nation or people can rule over you. But when you fail to perform the will of God, you are delivered into the hands of a humiliating nation; and not only the hands of a humiliating nation, but also into the hands of the beasts of the humiliating nation."
 
While it is a mitzvah, a commandment, to give Tsadakkah, it is still better to give altruistically, and with ahavath chesed. Even so, loving the poor, helps our children grow to have chesed, as well as it being a salt for their eventual inheritance.

 

We discuss these middot, character traits , of not being angry, study, prayer, taking care of the needy,  throughout the majority of chapters in  ''The  Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern  Jew'' ' (http://www.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/as well as in most chapters of ''A  Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud''  
  
What are your ideas about these character traits we are advised to pursue?  How has learning Talmud's Derek Eretz helped you in your interpersonal  relationships? How  has understanding the spiritual and ethical teachings of  Judaism helped you live a more joyous life? 
  
Next class, Baruch ha Shem, we will continue with Derek Eretz Zuta, Chapter Nine. Thank you for joining me.
 
For those who want a d'var Torah on Parasha Tetzaveh  from '''A  Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and  Talmud'' please click on  
 
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXdSw2iD8sgfOURsj0XOElFFk5SILlTnqiq7PDnJs2ZXf-lj2YnuxeI7CFnfbPcL8b89Bu7Klw6WVpNiejsZcPby-ZYvPfk3BmcnGynuWllrNBAgIlVS4nleCUnxh337ITo4LLE04QWu8/s1600/coverimage-720241.jpg
 
Shabbat Shalom:
 
 

Rabbi Arthur Segal_

 www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org_ (http://www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org/ ) 

Jewish Renewal_ 

www.jewishrenewal.info(http://www.jewishrenewal.info/ ) 

Jewish Spiritual Renewal

Jewish Spirituality

Eco Judaism

Hilton Head Island, SC,  Bluffton, SC, Savannah,  GA

 

If visiting SC's Low Country, contact us for a Shabbat meal, in our home by the sea, our beth yam.

 

Maker  of Shalom (Oseh Shalom) help make us deserving of Shalom beyond all human comprehension!!

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© 2012 Rabbi Arthur Segal Jewish Spiritual Renewal
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© 2012 Rabbi Arthur Segal Jewish Spiritual Renewal
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