Carrying Water

"Ben (the son of) Zoma said: Who is wise? He who learns from all people, as it is said: 'From all those who taught me I gained understanding' (Psalms 119:99). Who is strong? He who conquers his evil inclination, as it is said: 'Better is one slow to anger than a strong man, and one who rules over his spirit than a conqueror of a city' (Proverbs 16:32). Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot, as it is said: 'When you eat the toil of your hands you are fortunate and it is good for you' (Psalms 128:2). 'You are fortunate' -- in this world; 'and it is good for you' -- in the World to Come. Who is honored? He who honors others, as it is said: 'For those who honor Me will I honor, and those who scorn Me will be degraded' (I Samuel 2:30)."

Pirkei Avot 4:1
quoted from Torah.org
Jewish Macho
by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot may not be the sort of answer we'd like to hear when we consider our incomes, especially in a difficult economic climate. This is especially true based on an article I found at Mother Jones yesterday which states that the gap between the rich and the rest of us in the U.S. is the widest it's ever been in the history of our nation (complete with charts and graphs). While average incomes dropped (adjusting for inflation) from 1979 to 2009 for the majority of citizens, they actually skyrocketed for the top 1% of American earners.

I'm at an age where I have an increased interest in how or if I'm going to be able to retire someday (although everyone should start thinking in this direction from the moment they earn their first paycheck) and this is not happy news. But is there a difference between providing an adequate income and "financial security" (if such a thing exists) for my family and the ambition to "keep up with the Joneses", so to speak? In troubled times, should I, like many Americans or people in the west, continue the course to conspicuous consumption, faster cars, bigger boats, larger houses, and humongous debt?

I don't strive for these things personally, but with all the toys and goodies available on the market, it's hard not to be tempted and instead, to be "satisfied with my lot."

I read an article this morning published at Chabad of Mineola called Daily Judgment. I encourage you to click the link and read the entire write up (it's not long) but in part, the author, Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles says:

A young scholar came to Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov with a question. He had discovered a contradiction in the teachings of the sages, and wanted to hear how the chassidic master would resolve it. On the one hand, the Talmud states that a person’s parnassah (income and livelihood) for the entire year is determined on Rosh Hashanah. On the other hand, it also declares that “a person is judged each day” for his livelihood. Was this not a contradiction?

In order to address the young Talmud scholar's question, the Baal Shem Tov used a local water-carrier as an example (think of him sort of like Tevye "with a pole across his back and a pail of water tied at each end"). While the Baal Shem Tov upholds the ruling that a person's income for the year is set at Rosh Hashanah, he uses two separate conversations with the water-carrier to illustrate that his attitude about how he receives each day's work changes, "depending on the daily judgment." This is the water-carrier's judgment of how he perceives his life and his toil, not God's.

This works for us, too. It doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't try to get ahead, apply for better jobs, ask for a raise, and strive to provide a better living for our families, but there are many things about our lives and our work in our present situations that we can't always change. The water-carrier couldn't change how heavy the buckets of water were, how children teased him, or how he barely made ends meet at the end of each day, but he could change how he perceived his lot in life. So can we.

Last night I taught a class at my congregation based on my What Did Jesus Teach series. We're taking a look at the different lessons Jesus taught in the Book of Matthew and trying to see if any of them can be found or even alluded to in the Torah. We're using the list of commandments found in The Concise Book of Mitzvoth as compiled by the Chafetz Chayim, which has been determined to be the mitzvot that can be obeyed in the modern age, outside the land of Israel.

As part of the lesson, I mentioned that both the written and oral Torah are considered "the Torah" and that traditionally in Judaism, you cannot understand what the written portion is teaching without an understanding and study of the oral tradition. In other words, Talmud study, at least on some level, is a requirement for understanding written Torah. If studying the written Torah is necessary for understanding the teachings of Jesus, since this was his source material, it creates an additional dimension of learning to be more like Jesus for people who are called Christians.

That's a rather tough concept for my students to get. They seem pretty stuck on "man-made traditions" vs. the Word of God and see the former as fallible and the latter as absolute. Yet the Bible is a book that isn't so much read as it is interpreted. If we could read the Bible like a best selling novel, going through it one or two times would be enough for us to completely "get it" as far as God's intentions for our lives are concerned.

By posting a link to Rabbi Tilles's commentary on daily judgment, I'm hoping to illustrate that accessing the wisdom of the sages isn't in opposition to the Word of God, but instead, an illumination of what we can find if we only look. As I've said in the past, I don't think I could ever rely solely on Christian scholarly publications to define the limits of my understanding of what God is trying to teach. The Jewish people were the keepers of the Torah, the Shabbat, and the only worshipers of God when the ancient ancestors of modern-day Christians and Muslims were giving blood offerings to obscene pagan "gods". I tend to think they have the upper hand on understanding what it's like to try to puzzle through the lessons provided by the Creator.

Like the water-carrier, we are all looking for something, but it's how we choose to do the looking that defines what we'll discover.

Torah study at its highest level is the understanding of the application of the Torah's principles to real people and real life situations -- how do the Torah's eternal truths apply to the human condition. G-d's wisdom is eternal, yet no two people are precisely alike and relate to the Torah in precisely the same manner. Every one of us has his own perspective, his own life story, and his own unique personality. Each of us will see a slightly different message in the Torah, and will have his or her own fresh insight into its beauty and relevance.

Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

I sit before my only candle, but it's so little light to find my way
Now the story unfolds before my candle
Which is shorter every hour as it reaches for the day
But I feel just like a candle, in a way

Song for Adam
Jackson Browne

Walking

While it is important to assist in the welfare of others, developing one's own character is equally important. One must arrange individual priorities in order to accomplish this. As the sages put it, "Perfect yourself and afterwards, perfect others!" (Talmud Baba Batra 60b) Nothing is so incongruous to growth however, when the individual needs so much improvement him/herself and fails to take action. This should be one's focus first.
-from The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud
by Rabbi Aaron Parry

If I gave you time to change my mind
I'd find a way just to leave the past behind
-from Reason to Believe (1965)
by Tim Hardin (as sung by Rod Stewart)

I finished Rabbi Parry's book last night and immediately launched into Bart Erhman's Jesus, Interrupted, but Rabbi Parry's book had something to say about my current journey of faith (and it's momentary interruption) and perhaps how I'm going to proceed.

While I'm sure I'll never become a "Talmud expert", I still enjoyed Rabbi Parry's book and thought it a good vehicle for communicating a very complex topic to "idiots" like me. For several years, I've been receiving a daily "Daf" (folio) from Daf Yomi Digest, and while there are periods of time when I neglect my daily studies, I've recently returned to reserving a time each day for their review.

I can't really say I'm "studying" Talmud, since that would require a context provided by a proper Talmud instructor and class environment, but I can at least glean small bits of wisdom from the illuminating "Stories off the Daf" (and I even occasionally blog on a topic inspired by a Daf).

In comparing my readings of Jewish vs. Christian sources, I continue to find myself more drawn to Jewish writing for some reason. It seems to resonate with me on a more emotional or spiritual level, and while Rav Ami says not to "give over words of the Torah to an outsider", Maimonidies and the Meiri (Rabbi Menachem ben Solomon, 1249-1316) support the position that "the only restriction for a non-Jew is to learn Torah or Talmud as if doing so is a divine commandment", however accessing "the knowledge and wisdom therein is fair game."

The latter statements seem to go along with other Rabbinic opinions I've read in the past few months, so there is a provision for a non-Jew to continue a daily review of Torah and Talmud topics as long as he (me) does not do so saying that it's a commandment from God. That said, it really is impossible for a Christian to gain a deeper meaning into the teachings of the Jewish Messiah and his Jewish disciples without studying Torah. Since it also seems impossible to understand the Torah without reading Talmud, continual exposure to all of these sources is a requirement.

However, the Talmudic opinions of the sages aren't going to cover all of the areas where I'm obviously lacking, hence my checking Jesus, Interrupted out of my local library.

I'm more calm now about the discovery of just how many holes exist in the Swiss cheese of my understanding of the Bible, God, and faith than I was just a day or two ago. I'm discovering that it's not necessarily unusual to have this sort of revelation somewhere along the journey. While I've said in the past that a life of faith isn't always a life of ease, I truly wasn't prepared for the detours and rough conditions along the path I've chosen (or the one God has chosen for me, I still can't figure out which is which).

Although I feel very unequipped to continue my teaching duties at my congregation as they are outlined for the next several months, I nevertheless must try to do my best given my current understanding. I probably have no business trying to teach others about something I struggle so much with myself, and I hope and pray that His wisdom will fill in the gaps where I am woefully lacking. As the Talmudic quote I placed at the beginning of this blog post states, before rescuing someone else from drowning in the ocean, you must first learn how to swim yourself. So far, all I've got going for me is a bit of dog paddling.

With what is the road to faith paved? I can't say it's paved just with the pages from the Bible, because that's only part of the story. True, the very famous Psalm 119:105 says, "Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path", but that could mean both the Bible as a document and our "living Torah" the Jewish Messiah. I believe it also includes the wisdom and compassion of other people of faith as expressed both in their teachings and especially in their acts of lovingkindness.

All of the stones that pave the road are held together with an invisible, intangible cement which we call "spirituality". Intellect is not enough because it's far too easy to "think" our way out of the faith. While study, knowledge, and wisdom are vital elements in a life of faith, keeping it all in your head isn't the same as applying faith as a lived experience. That experience includes doing the Torah, so to speak, by using what you've learned and gained to help others in small and (if it be Hashem's will) great ways. But it also means cultivating a holy life, not just with your fellow human, but with God.

Yeshua's (Jesus's) two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:28-44) say that both are necessary, starting with loving God with everything that you are, and then, as a product of loving God, loving your neighbor as yourself. What Yeshua didn't say (but to which the Talmud alludes) is that, in order to have an effective love for your neighbor, the relationship with God is essential. Too many people go along hating or at least disliking themselves or feeling worthless or ineffectual in their lives. That's hardly a good model on which to base "loving your neighbor as yourself.".

At the risk of sounding sentimental, what we get out of a relationship with God is not just the experience of us loving Him but of Him loving us. "For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16) is just about the first Bible verse most Christians memorize and I think with very good reason. When we fail to apply it to our own flawed and damaged lives, it's also the first lesson many believers (including me) forget.

In pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, faith and particularly God's love, ends up taking a back seat and sometimes even gets kicked off the bus.

The road pointing to our goal can seem lonely and often I feel as I've always walked it alone. Sometimes the only way to feel the love of an intangible God is through what He's left here for me and for everyone. The Bible is imperfect because God's people are imperfect. Yes, God could have made a perfect Bible, but He also could have made perfect people. He chose not to do either of those things. When we complain that this Christian or that Jew isn't living up to the standards set by God, we are stating the obvious. Our imperfections are why we need Him. The Bible is the same thing. It's imperfect. That's why we need faith, perseverance, and a way to look through a "spiritual lens" to be able to keep walking on the road, even when our legs feel like lead weights, and even when all of the sign posts around say that the road leads to nowhere.

When the road is dark, the Word really does provide a "lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path". Even if you don't believe that, I'm going to proceed hopefully anyway. After every fall, there comes a time when you have to get up again. That's why we fell so much as children...so we could learn to pick ourselves up. What we don't always see, is that through faith, God is the One helping us to our feet, brushing us off, and pointing us in the right direction again.

Someone like you makes it easy to give
and never think about myself.

If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true...

Still I look to find a reason
to believe.

-from Reason to Believe (1965)
by Tim Hardin (as sung by Rod Stewart)

Good Shabbos

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark. But there's always a light showing us the way. We just have to look for a reason to believe.

Knowing the Path and Walking It

For Hillel, study was the essential prerequisite for knowing and fulfilling one's obligations, because virtue is not achieved through good intentions alone. Good intentions need be coupled with ongoing and vigorous intellectual effort...But central as Torah study is to Hillel, what one does not find in his aphorisms are teachings about God and about prayer.

In contrast to Hillel, one looks in vain in the New Testament for statements from Jesus advocating rigorous Bible study. It is not intellectural sophistication that Jesus seems to value most, but simple faith...
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Hillel: If Not Now, When?

Yes, I'm still reading Rabbi Telushkin's book and I will undoubtedly continue to blog on portions of this text long after I've finished reading it. Here, in the above quotes, we see Telushkin continuing to compare the lives and acts of Hillel and Jesus (Yeshua), this time pointing out a major difference.

In a nutshell, Telushkin characterizes Hillel as a man devoted to the deeply human and compassionate expressions of Judaism but who discovered and deepened those expressions, not through intense prayer, but through intense study.

This isn't to say that Hillel didn't value prayer, but from Telushkin's point of view, Hillel found faith and God primarily through Torah study while Yeshua advocated for a holy life devoted to prayer and good deeds.

Or did he?

What we know of both men is limited to the written record we have of both their lives. In terms of the life of Yeshua, we have a record that is inspired by God, so we have no reason to doubt anything about the Bible, but does it contain everything about Yeshua?

Probably not.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. -John 21:25

While John is speaking specifically of the post-resurrection activities of the Master, I think it's fair to say that we could apply this to Yeshua's life in general. We only know a certain amount, just like the knowledge of the life of Hillel is limited.

I offer the following as evidence that Yeshua did expect his followers to have a deep understanding of the scriptures, which would, of course, require a great deal of study:

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. -Luke 24:25-27

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. -Luke 24:44-47

The evidence, even during the earthly lifetime of Yeshua, that the Messiah had to die, be buried, and be resurrected was always in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. While we don't find his teachings pointing directly to the requirement to vigorously study Torah, these quotes from Yeshua indicate that Torah study was a necessity. He chided his disciples for failing to study sufficiently to be able to understand the events that were happening all around them concerning the Messiah.

Now lets's turn back to Hillel. The most famous quote attributed to Hillel, from which Rabbi Teluskin takes the title of his book is:

Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time. -Avot 2:4

When comparing this to Jesus though, Telushkin says:

There are no such statements (from Hillel) such as "Do not say, 'When I have free time, I will pray,' lest you never have free time," or even "One who does not believe in God cannot be fully a righteous person."

This is just a guess on my part, but perhaps both teachers were operating under certain assumptions, or at least assessed the needs of their students in different ways. Hillel may have drawn students for whom prayer and devotion to God was a given and therefore, his students didn't require a strong urging in this area. From Yeshua's point of view however, given the fact that most of his disciples were very poor, the opportunity to study at a Yeshiva would have been rare to non-existent. Peter and his companions were fishermen by trade. They had to earn a living. Torah study is very time consuming and usually such students came from wealthy families who would support them. In the case of Yeshua's students, perhaps the nature of their lives combined with limited access to a Yeshiva resulted in his emphasizing prayer over study.

However, this should be a condition that Hillel would have understood because he himself was a poor person, a day laborer who had emigrated from Babylonia to Jerusalem. It was only the kindness of his own teachers that enabled him to begin dedicated Torah study and ultimately go from being a poor common laborer to the foremost scholar and teacher of his day.

I don't come with the answers to these questions and seeming contradictions, but I do want to introduce a "wobble" in this apparent differences between the approach of Hillel and that of Yeshua. While each teacher seemed to emphasize a different path to righteousness, I don't believe that they neglected the values of the other.

The life of Hillel is a testament to compassion, mercy, and graciousness, especially to the poor and the disaffected. How like the teachings of Yeshua his actions were. At the same time, Yeshua had an expectation that his disciples would know the Law and the Prophets sufficently to be able to understand that, when Yeshua died, it was because the Messiah was supposed to die. Even today, you have to study and look for the specific portions of the scriptures that point this out. They aren't always obvious (they seem that way, because in the church, they are highlighted quite a bit...to an Orthodox Jew who studies the same scriptures though, not so much).

Both Hillel and Yeshua came from poor and working class families. Prior to his early 30s, Yeshua no doubt worked quietly in carpentry while, as we've said, prior to entering into formal studies, Hillel was a day laborer. They knew what it was like to do without and they also both had a vision that extended far beyond their stations in life.

We know that Yeshua's purpose and goal was sent from Heaven and from the Throne of God but in more humble ways, that can be said of all of us. Certainly this is also true of Hillel. We know that both of these men were (and are...God is not a God of the dead but of the living, and Yeshua is our High Priest in the Heavenly Court) different in many ways but perhaps, where it truly counted, they were also very much alike.

They both knew what their students needed and they knew how to guide them down the path of righteousness.

Neo, sooner or later you're going to realize just as I did that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Morpheus
The Matrix (1999)

Study after all, is no good unless you put it into action. Prayer, as the brother of the Master points out, is more effective when you act in order to be the answer to prayer (James 2:14-26).