RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:SHEMOT:JEWISH SPIRITUALITY:Fix yourself ,then fix others

JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:SHABBAT 1/09/10:A PATH OF TRANSFORMATION

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Shalom my dear Chaverim, Talmudim v Rabbanim:

Thank you to so many who have sent me their first column of their chesbon ha nefesh, a complete list of our fears. Today , in the below, we will discuss fears a bit more and how they came about, what untoward actions we do because of them, and the beginnings on how to rid ourselves from these fears. Happy 2010!

If you are new to the class, welcome, baruch ha ba, and you can access last week's class at this link. Each class has a link linking us back all the way to the first class of this third course for Shamash, Hebrew College's online class service. Rabbi Arthur Segal: RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:Vayechi:JEWISH SPIRITUALITY; scepter is Judah's or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2009/12/rabbi-arthur-segalvayechijewish_6655.html .

Allow me to start with some wise words from our Chazal, our sages of blessed memory: ''Fix yourself up first, and then fix up others.'' Talmud Bavli Tractate Bava Kama 107b .

Let me please continue, not with some Talmud, or Torah, or TaNaK , but with a quote from Marianne Williamson a neo- Kabbalist:

''Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Our fears separate us from the Divine and each other. Our chesbon ha nefesh, and the work we do with it, will end this separation. We live happy, joyous and free. The Ba'al Shem Tov says the power of "simcha" - joy and happiness --is so great that it can breach this separation daily.

In Psalm 121:5 King David says, "Ha Shem tzilcha " - "God is your protective shade." Our sages explain that "Ha Shem tzilcha" can also be translated as, "God is your shadow."

A shadow copies exactly the way we move. [ Remember Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr, both z'l, performing "Me and My Shadow''?] God relates to us like a shadow. When a person is happy and thinks positively, they cause happiness in the Divine spark within all of us. Joy, goodness and blessings flow from our hearts to our minds. Being positive and happy causes positive and happy results. Being fearful and living a life of actions based on our fears, gives us horrid results. Fears distorts us from seeing the truth and most of our fears come from falsehood. Fearlessness leads to happiness. Seeing the world with joy and no fears, brings us spiritually connected to the Divine as well as spiritually connected to one another.

Fears bring us to acts of self-humiliation. Being fearless because we trust in God, allows us to live life with love and dignity. When we fear and when we worry, we worship the world. Everyone who sent in their fear lists, listed '' fear of not having money.'' When we are attached to this fear and others, we literally fall to our knees, crawling before our fears, and our lives become self limiting.

When we truly learn to have experience with and trust in God, we stand tall. We loose this separation as nothing is between us and the Divine, or between us and the love of another human. The Berditchiver Rov ((1740-1810), taught that: A person who serves Ha Shem out of fear, has only himself in mind. He fears someone greater than himself. However a person who serves Ha Shem out of love, forgets himself entirely. (Fun Di Chassidish Otzros Parshas Reeh p461)

It is this forgetting ourselves entirely, getting out of the bondage of self, letting our ego go, that truly gets us spiritually awakened. But we need to be careful of self delusion. (We learn how to meditate and determine if our thoughts and our plans, are from our yetzer ha ra, or our yetzer tov, in Chapter Nine). Now this is heavy, hang in here with me please. With a life still with fear, with anyone we love,with anything we 'love,'' we have fear. What is this fear when we love someone or something? We have the fear of loosing it or him/her!

So many of our fears can be lumped into the ''fear of separation''...of loss. We have a job, so we have a fear of loosing the job. We have friends, or a spouse or kids or parents, and we have fears of loosing them. We have some money, and we fear loosing it. We have life and yet we fear dying. If we think we ''have'' God, we have fears of God abandoning us.

Look at our list of fears and we will know what we love. If we worry over our jobs, money, house, cars, or life style, we love the material world and we see this material world as the well spring of all that is good. If we worry over the comments or behaviors of others, then it is social acceptance that we worship. And we have made other humans into our gods. We try to manipulate then, with social graces, charm, cocktail banter, parties, to gain acceptance.

As we will learn from some more of Chapter Four in (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=8AE92E4A50E857C81D077980D6F35613.qscstrfrnt04?productId=1&categoryId=1

when we have true love, belief, faith, trust and experience with the Divine spark in each of us, all earthly fears vanish.

More from Chapter Four of :

(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=8AE92E4A50E857C81D077980D6F35613.qscstrfrnt04?productId=1&categoryId=1

Now, you are ready for the next step in conquering your fears. In the second column, next to each fear, write down the reason for this fear. Think about from where it might have come. Did somebody teach it to you? Is it the result of a traumatic experience? Skip no fear. Skip no reason. If while doing this you recall another fear, add it to the first column and continue.

Next, in the third column, write down the behaviors that you believe each fear causes. For example, if you have a fear of being without money you might horde your cash, avoid making charitable donations, or perhaps you shoplift, or pad your expense account. Do not be ashamed, we're not going to turn you in! This chesbon is about getting back to God and Spirituality. If you were already there, you would not need to do this chesbon gadol. Again, be rigorously honest.

Lastly, look again at what you have written in the first three columns. For each of your fears, ask yourself this question: "If I trusted in, had faith in, and believed in God, could I let go of these fears and the behaviors stemming from them?" Write your answer, yes or no, for each fear in the fourth column.

"And the Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day." (Ex. 13:21).

"There were seven clouds, four on the four sides of them, one above them, one beneath them, one before them to prepare the road before them, raising the depressions and lowering the elevations to make for them a plain, as it says: 'Every valley should be lifted up and every hill and mountain shall be made low and the rugged shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.'" (Isaiah 40:4).

The sages teach that these verses tell us that God will always raise valleys and flatten mountains during times of trouble, and that belief in God gives us a life free of fears.

So this week, please do the above 3 columns and feel free to send them to me.

God willing we will continue with our Chesbon ha Nefesh and Chapter Four from: (001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc;jsessionid=8AE92E4A50E857C81D077980D6F35613.qscstrfrnt04?productId=1&categoryId=1

A short d'var Torah follows below for the Shabbat of January 9, 2010. It is the beginning of the second book of the Chumash,i.e. the book of Exodus, Shemoth (names) in Hebrew.

Many Blessings,

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

Exodus

Parasha Shemoth: Exodus 1:01-6:01

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"(002) A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud - Rabbi Arthur Segal or http://www.shop.jewishspiritualrenewal.net/product.sc?productId=2&categoryId=1

The Name Game"

In the first lines of this Parasha, the names of Jacob's sons who came with him to Egypt are listed. Curiously, the names of his grandchildren, who were listed in Genesis (46:08), are not mentioned here. Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno of Rome, writing circa 500 C.E., says that this is because Jacob's sons were able to follow in their father's path, but the succeeding generations would have a difficult time resisting the corruption of Egyptian life.

While the second of the Five Books of Moses is called Exodus in Latin and English, it is called Shemoth (Names) in Hebrew because of the listing of Jacob's sons.

Jacob's grandchildren's generation succumbed to the pleasures of Egypt and the parasha does not name them. The Midrash speaks of the Tribe of Levi as being the only tribe to remember the covenant of Abraham, to teach the laws of the Patriarchs, as well as keep their Hebrew names and not assimilate. The Midrash also says it was the Tribe of Judah who alone established schools to keep our traditions alive during our time in Egypt.

In this Torah portion (Ex. 3:11) and Sephardic Haftarah (Jer. 1:6), we see both Moses and Jeremiah state to God that they are not suited for the tasks that God is asking them to do. We all shy away at times from challenging tasks that we know are proper to do. Although they are typically not on as grand a scale of being a great leader or a prophet, our obligations are important nevertheless.

Like Levi, we have an obligation to teach our children our traditions. As modern Jews, we may not feel we are obligated to observe (shomar) the Torah, but we are obligated to remember (zachor) the Torah. Here is a short test for you and your children to take and see how well we are doing in the task to teach our traditions.

A1. Name Jesus' Mother: _________________________________

A2. Name Jesus' Father: __________________________________

B1. Name Moses' Mother: ________________________________

B2. Name Moses' Father: _________________________________

A3. Name the three parts of the Trinity:

______________________________________________________

B3. Name the three Jewish Pilgrimage Festivals:

______________________________________________________

A4. Name any 5 of Jesus' 12 disciples:

______________________________________________________

B4. Name any 5 of our 12 tribes:

______________________________________________________

A5. On what mount did Jesus preach? ________________________

B5. On what mount did Moses die? __________________________

A6. What did Jesus do on the Sea of Galilee? ___________________

______________________________________________________

B6. What did Joshua do on the Jordan River? ___________________

______________________________________________________

A7. Name the three wise men:

______________________________________________________

B7. Name Abraham's three wives:

______________________________________________________

If you or your kids scored more A answers correct than B answers, perhaps it is time for more Jewish study. Take an active role in your children's Jewish education and your own. Consider attending adult education classes. Read the weekly Torah portion at home. Support your synagogue's religious school. Perhaps it is time in your life for Jewish Spiritual Renewal. www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org Try not to be like Moses or Jeremiah and shy away from your obligations as a parent or as an individual Jewish person.

The debate over patrilineal versus matrilineal descent continues. The true answer to "who is a Jew?" is "he or she who will have Jewish grandchildren."

If you want a cute way to teach your little kids Torah, here is a GodPod on parasha Shemoth.

Shemot | G-DCAST. This was sent to us by our fellow chaverah and talmidah, Sharon from Lawrenceville, NJ.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Arthur Segal

www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

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