Thoughts on Masechet Chagigah

It might seem odd that I, raised evangelical and ordained in a liturgical Christian church, now find myself with daf yomi as one my principal and most meaningful spiritual practices - but that is where I find myself. Every now and then, I even find the Bat Kol whispering words of healing - tikkun - to my soul. There were many such moments in Chagigah - including the famous story of the four who went to Pardes, with one losing his life, another his sanity, another his faith, and only one emerging with all three intact - a story I first heard over three decades ago in college and which, along with the story of R Meir, R Beruriah, and her reading of the last verse of Tehillim 104, has influenced me profoundly - I have mentioned it many times in Christian settings! But perhaps the most healing moment learning it over the past few weeks was coming across this follow-up to that story - pointing to R Yochanan embodying the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy from Shemot 34 and the Thirteen Supernal Attributes of Mercy from Micah 7 (expounded beautifully in the first perek of Tomer Devorah) in ways we should all emulate: אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: גְּבוּרְתָּא לְמִיקְלֵי רַבֵּיהּ? חַד הֲוָה בֵּינַנָא וְלָא מָצֵינַן לְאַצּוֹלֵיהּ? אִינְקְטֵיהּ בְּיָד, מַאן מַרְמֵי לֵיהּ מִן. אָמַר: מָתַי אָמוּת, וַאֲכַבֶּה עָשָׁן מִקִּבְרוֹ. כִּי נָח נַפְשֵׁיהּ דְּרַבִּי יוֹחָנָן פְּסַק קוּטְרָא מִקִּבְרֵיהּ דְּאַחֵר. פְּתַח עֲלֵיהּ הַהוּא סַפְדָנָא: אֲפִילּוּ שׁוֹמֵר הַפֶּתַח לֹא עָמַד לְפָנֶיךָ, רַבֵּינוּ!

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Was this a mighty deed on Rabbi Meir’s part, to burn his teacher? Was this the only remedy available? Can it be that there was one Sage among us who left the path and we cannot save him? If we hold him by the hand, who will remove him from our protection; who? Rabbi Yoḥanan continued and said: When I die I will have the smoke extinguished from his grave, as a sign that he has been released from the sentence of Gehenna and brought to the World-to-Come. Indeed, when Rabbi Yoḥanan passed away, the smoke ceased to rise up from the grave of Aḥer. A certain eulogizer began his eulogy of Rabbi Yoḥanan with the following: Even the guard at the entrance could not stand before you, our rabbi. The guard at the entrance to Gehenna could not prevent Rabbi Yoḥanan from arranging the release of Aḥer.

On the correct translation of Yonah as “Pigeon”: a Purim d’var Torah

Yom Hakippurim is the “day that is like Purim”, according to the Zohar, so I want to talk about the book of Yonah – or, as I would argue it should be translated, the book of Pigeon. This book is read as the Haftarah at Mincha on the day that is Purim – that is, Yom Kippur.

Yonah has several memorable animals in it. Who can forget the fish that swallows Yonah and serves as his home for three days, until it spits him out on land? Less well known is the fact that the fish switches from male to female and back to male during this episode. There are also the cattle and sheep of Nineveh who wear sackcloth and fast. Finally, Yonah is comforted by a bush that grows up and gives him shade as he hopes, desperately and futilely, to see Nineveh destroyed, only to have it cut down by a worm.

Adding the Pigeon Prophet into the mix can teach us several things.

First, just as pigeons fly away when startled, so the prophet Pigeon flies away when startled by an assignment from G!d he does not want to fulfill. G!d still catches up with him, and he must do it, but only after an initial flight in the opposite direction. This can teach us that, even if we are flighty like pigeons, we can make teshuvah and fulfill G!d’s assignments that we initially balk at.

Second, I think most of us would agree that pigeons are annoying. They do unkind things to our windshields, they startle us when they fly away suddenly, they make noise when we want silence. And they mock indoor cats! But just as the prophet Pigeon was used by G!d to bring about teshuvah of a great city, so G!d can use us, even if we are sometimes annoying ourselves.

Finally, Ben Franklin said that “the early bird gets the worm” – but in Pigeon, it’s the early worm that gets the bird, by cutting down the bush that gave him shade as he seethed in resentment over the Ninevites making teshuvah while avoiding the destruction he felt they deserved. If we focus on loving others and helping others make teshuvah (even, yes, as we fight evil and never forget Amalek), then we will have the capacity to be the early birds who get the worms. If we do not, then the early worms will get us!

Chag Purim Sameach!

Passing Over - a Prayer for Pesach

I need to go to the desert, Lord - I need to go to the desert!

I/we don't know how I/we will serve until I/we get there, Lord!

But I'm stuck in the narrow places and Pharaoh won't let me go! And I can't leave the people behind but I need to take my leave and get to the desert.

I want the Promised Land but I can't even picture it now - I just want to get to that desert.

All the world is a narrow bridge. All the world is an EGYPT bridge.

(Bridge connections - why I love Hebrew.)

I need to leave the safety of the bridge for the desert or Miriam's well. Miriam's swell well.

(And where will I fish for gefilte fish? And can I get sweet Manischewitz or kosher for Pesach Dr Pepper in the desert?)

I have to set up the Mishkan and the twelve tribes around it - the twelve parts of me in four directions - not just the Rachel son parts but the Leah parts and the Zilpah and Bilhah parts - and even the Dinah part - what section of the camp does SHE get???

A Prayer for Purim

Riboinoi shel Oilom,

Maker of Masks, Wearer of Masks, Beholder of masks,

You are Hidden yet wear many Masks and bear many Names to reveal Yourself to us.

Blessed are You for putting on the Masks so we can approach You.

 

I need to wear masks of my own at times.

I need to remove my masks at other times.

Please give me the discernment to know:

·                   When to wear a mask

·                   When to take off the mask

·                   Which mask to wear

 

Thank You for Your guidance.

Thank You for coming out of hiding when we say “Ayeh/Where” – for “Ayeh” ha-seh l’olah – the question “Ayeh?” is the lamb of ascent.

May we know You with ever more sheer Masks speedily, in our own days.

Amen.

Thoughts about the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy

 Two thoughts about the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Exodus/Shemot 34:6-7) - I want to write more about them, but I will share the basic thoughts here:

1. Whenever the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy are chanted as part of the High Holiday liturgy, in Selichot, on fast days, etc., they are chanted three times. Three times thirteen equals thirty-nine. There are thirty-nine melachot, or categories of work, prohibited to be done on Shabbat - and the reason they are prohibited is that they are the tasks done to build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. The commandment to observe/remember Shabbat contains the commandment "Six days shall you labor" - so the commandment to rest from performing the tasks to build the Mishkan includes the implicit commandment to do so the rest of the week - which can be seen metaphorically as a commandment to work to build a place for G!d's presence on earth within and among us. Since the thirty-nine tasks equal three times thirteen, this can be seen as a commandment to build a metaphorical place for the presence of G!d emulating G!d's Thirteen Attributes of Mercy as the essential nature of those tasks (and we should emulate G!d because we are created in the image (Genesis/Bereshit 1:27) and likeness (Genesis/Bereshit 5:10 of G!d.

2. Rebbe Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, in Kedushas Levi on Ki Tisa 14, quoting the Maggid of Mezritch, teaches that the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy correspond to the Thirteen Hermeneutical Principles contained in the Baraita of Rabbi Yishmael, each Attritute having a corresponding Hermeneutical Principle. (More info about these here: https://jewishencyclopedia.com/.../12937-rules-of-r....) These Hermeneutical Principles are recited at the end of the first section of Shacharit each morning. As regular readers know, I have wrestled with the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac (Genesis/Bereshit 22), for many years - and intriguingly, the Akedah is traditionally recited in the first section of Shacharit, not that long before the recitation of this Baraita. I think that perhaps reading this very disturbing text of Abraham almost murdering his son, which can be seen as resulting in trauma for Isaac, in the context of Hermeneutical Principles that correspond to the Attributes of Mercy, teaches us to have a "hermeneutic of G!d's mercy" when approaching traumatic texts such as this. (And "mercy" is such a weak translation of the incredibly rich "Rachmanim" - derived from "rechem," meaning "womb" - "rachmonus" - to use the Yiddish pronunciation means compassion - but a very deep compassion, the English word for which doesn't really exist.)

Shavua Tov - have a great week!

"Where" is the lamb for the ascent?

Longtime regular readers of my posts will know that I have been wrestling with the Akedah, the binding of Isaac (Bereshit/Genesis 22), for over three decades. One local rabbi gives me a trigger warning whenever it comes up in daf yomi or other contexts - and invited me to give a class on the various interpretations on the Shabbat when it was read as part of the Torah reading.

Tonight, I learned a new reading, in the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, in a wonderful three-part class taught by Rabbanit Goldie Guy which concluded tonight. Here is the teaching, from Likutey Moharan:

ליקוטי מוהר"ן, תנינא י״ב:א׳:ט״ז

וְזֶהוּ בְּחִינוֹת עוֹלָה, בְּחִינַת (בראשית כב): ו"אַיֵּה" הַשֶּׂה לְעוֹלָה. שֶׁבְּחִינַת "אַיֵּה" הִיא בְּחִינוֹת שֶׂה לְעוֹלָה, לְתַקֵּן וּלְכַפֵּר הִרְהוּר הַלֵּב, שֶׁבָּא מִמְּקוֹמוֹת הַמְטֻנָּפִים כַּנַּ"ל. כִּי עַל־יְדֵי בְּחִינוֹת "אַיֵּה" נִתְתַּקֵּן וְעוֹלֶה מִשָּׁם כַּנַּ"ל.

Likutei Moharan, Part II 12:1:16

This is also the concept of the olah (burnt-offering), as in “but ayeh (where) is the lamb for the olah?” (Genesis 22:7). [Asking] “Ayeh?” is itself the concept of the lamb for the olah to rectify and atone for those thoughts in the heart that stem from the “filthy places.” For it is through the concept of Ayeh that a person is rectified and oleh (ascends) from there, as mentioned above.

Essentially, this is part of a teaching about how the glory of G!d fills the earth - yet at the same time is absent or concealed some of the time (I'm oversimplifying here), but when we feel the absence and ask "Where is G!d's glory?" - that is when it begins to revealed and we begin to make teshuvah - to return to G!d and relationship with G!d.

So rather than being "Where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?" (the pshat, or literal meaning of the text)- it becomes "'WHERE' [the question] is the lamb for the ascent" (an allegorical reading)- olah, burnt-offering, is the word for ascent (perhaps the burnt-offering is called this because the smoke ascends to G!d). The very question - the very search and desire for G!d - is what allows and begins the ascent.

I have long read Isaac going away separately from his father Abraham at the end of the Akedah through a trauma lens, that he was so traumatized by nearly being murdered by his father that he had to separate from him. And I still believe that reading is valid. But this introduces the idea that in the experience, even in the midst of the trauma, Isaac has the desire to seek G!d and sets out, separate from his father, to find G!d. The midrash suggests he goes to learn in a yeshiva. And at the very least, this perhaps explains the relationship he develops with G!d such that the text later describes him going out into the field for meditation and praying for his wife to be able to have children.

This is a new concept that I look forward to thinking about for some time to come.

Possible reason for the Ramak's choice of the title Tomer Devorah - Megillah 14a

Tomer Devorah by the Ramak is one of my favorite Jewish texts - it takes the Thirteen Supernal Attributes of Mercy from Micah 7:18-20 (different from the Thirteen Attributes taken from Shemot, although I have one siddur that has them superimposed over one another in the text of Tashlich, the practice of which is inspired by a phrase in these verses from Micah) and gives instruction on how we as humans can emulate these attributes of mercy that G!d possesses. That's the first chapter - the rest of the short work describes how to apply this through the ten sfirot, even toward the end giving a schedule of which sfirot are most active at a particular time of day.

But one thing that has puzzled me since discovering the work a couple of years ago is the title, Tomer Devorah, "Palm-Tree of Devorah", which is not referenced in the work - indeed, the only tree of any kind mentioned is the tree of klippot - hardly a tree one would compare with the tomer Devorah!

But I may have discovered the reason in today's daf.

מָה תָּמָר זֶה אֵין לוֹ אֶלָּא לֵב אֶחָד — אַף יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁבְּאוֹתוֹ הַדּוֹר לֹא הָיָה לָהֶם אֶלָּא לֵב אֶחָד לַאֲבִיהֶן שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם.

"Alternatively, the verse means: Just as a palm tree has only one heart, as a palm tree does not send out separate branches, but rather has only one main trunk, so too, the Jewish people in that generation had only one heart, directed to their Father in Heaven." (Megillah 14a)

Perhaps the Ramak is exhorting us, through his work Tomer Devorah, to have only one heart, directed to G!d, manifested in living out the 13 Supernal Attributes of Mercy.