admin July 8th, 2007
Genuine kindness occurs when our sole motivation is caring about the welfare of others.
Yossi ben Yochanon from Jerusalem said: “Let your home be open wide to the multitudes. Let the poor be like children of your home. And don’t overemphasize light conversation with your spouse.”
They said this about one’s own spouse, how much more so about the spouse of your friend.
Thus said the scholars: “One who overindulges in light conversation with his spouse brings evil upon himself, nullifies the words of Torah, and in the end will inherit Gehenom.”
This Mishnah focuses on the third of Shimon HaTzaddik’s pillars of the universe: acts of loving-kindness.
Let us consider: Wouldn’t the world be better off without kindness?
At first, this seems like a callous question. But imagine for a moment a world where all of your needs were fulfilled and you experienced no lack or emptiness. Picture a society where no one needed to depend on anyone else to provide for him; a community where everyone was completely self-sufficient and fulfilled. Where God instantly responded to your every act and choice with the exactly appropriate response. A perfect world.
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| Picture a society where everyone was completely self-sufficient and fulfilled. |
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This is much different than the world we know: a world where fundamental human needs go unmet without the active intervention of others. How inefficient! If God is perfect and all-powerful, why doesn’t He meet all of our needs Himself? Why did He create a seemingly flawed world where people suffer and struggle desperate for the aid and comfort of others?
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admin June 8th, 2007
To truly understand Torah, philosophical principles need to be translated into action.
Yossi Ben Yo’ezer from Tzreida and
Yossi Ben Yochanon from Jerusalem
received the tradition from them.
Yossi Ben Yo’ezer from Tzreida said:
“Let your home be a gathering place for scholars,
get dusty (wrestle) in the dust of their feet,
and drink in their words with thirst.”
This Mishnah continues to explain the foundations of the world, and focuses specifically on how to approach learning Torah. As stated earlier (1:2), Torah study is the fundamental tool for perfecting your relationship with yourself. Yossi Ben Yo’ezer offers practical advice on how to succeed in learning.
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admin May 8th, 2007
God could have created a bunch of puppets. He created humans instead.
Antigonos of Sokho received the tradition from Shimon HaTzaddik.
He used to say:
“Be not like servants who serve the master
on condition that they receive a reward.
Rather be like servants who serve the master
irrespective of any reward.
And let the fear of heaven be upon you.”
Each of the next three Mishnahs expounds on different aspects life’s fundamental triad, as discussed in the previous Mishnah: Torah, Avodah (service), and Chesed (kindness). Our Mishnah focuses on “Avodah” — the proper approach to serving God.
EARNING GOOD
God created human beings in order to give them good. Yet a “good” is only truly good if you earn it, and not if you are just accidentally associated with it. We see this clearly from our own daily experience. While there is a certain guilty pleasure in receiving more than we deserve, it also carries a tremendous destructiveness. Literature and the tabloids abound with stories of moneyed layabouts whose lives are destroyed by inherited wealth.
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admin April 8th, 2007
A chair needs three legs to stand. Our spiritual lives also have a 3-part balance.
Shimon HaTzaddik was from the remnants of the Great Assembly.
He used to say:
On three things the world stands.
On Torah,
On service [of God],
And on acts of human kindness.
THE WORLD IN BALANCE
Why should the world stand on three things rather than two or four or some other arbitrary number? We could easily list dozens of critical needs, obligations and aspects of life. Why does Shimon HaTzaddik stop at three, and why these three?
Our Mishnah is zeroing in on a fundamental truth about our place in the cosmos. We are not alone, and life is not ours alone. We live in a world where we are compelled to act, react and interact with others.
We have three primary relationships in life. We have to learn to live with ourself, with God, and with others.
Human beings interact with the world on three levels: thought, speech and action. Each of these three is the key to the three basic relationships: You act on yourself through thought or will. You interact with God through speech. And you relate to others through actions.
In our quest to perfect ourselves, we need to also lift others and lift our relationship with God. Success and balance in all three is required to truly grow in this world.
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admin March 8th, 2007
  Moses received Torah from Sinai and handed it down to Joshua; and Joshua to the Elders; and the Elders to the Prophets; and the Prophets handed it down to the members of the Great Assembly.
   They said three things: Be deliberate in judgement, stand up many students, and make a fence for the Torah.
‘MOSES RECEIVED THE TORAH AT SINAI’
The first step in understanding an idea and communicating it is to know its source. Demand to know: What is it based on? Who says that it’s true?
We live in an information age. We are bombarded by a constant flow of information, images, and ideas aimed at shaping how we see the world. Be a prepared listener. Know the agenda and position of the speaker, and you’ll understand how to listen to what he has to say.
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| The Torah concept of learning is not about the accumulation of information and factoids. |
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Our Mishnah opens by telling us the source and transmission of all Torah wisdom. The ethics, philosophy and moral standards are not the products of human minds. They are not merely the pithy sayings of wise men who preceded us. The Mishnah reminds us that the ultimate source for all decency and morality is God and it can’t exist in His absence. This Torah was received by Moses at Sinai, and handed down generation by generation — from Moses unto you.
But Moses didn’t just hear the Torah; he accepted it. He studied it, he experienced it, he adapted himself to it and grew to fulfill it. The Torah concept of learning is not about the accumulation of information and factoids. It is not about oohs and ahhs of elegant philosophical constructs. It’s about hearing an idea, making it part of yourself, and changing your very nature to match your understanding of Truth.
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