The sixth mitzvah that Rambam enumerates is the mitzvah of attaching ourselves to our Torah scholars.
The source of this mitzvah is found in the passage “For you shall observe this entire set of mitzvos that I command you to perform, to love HaShem, to walk in all His ways and to attach yourself to Him.”
Behold! The Torah has set her expectation that we attach ourselves to HaShem! The Midrash asks ‘How can one attach themselves to G.D, is it not impossible?’ The Midrash explains that this mitzvah is accomplished when one attaches themselves to Torah scholars. This Midrash is the basis of Rambam’s enumerating this as mitzvah six.
The obvious question is that the Torah says to attach yourself to HaShem not to Torah scholars. Does the Midrash mean to imply that Torah scholars are some sort of representation of HaShem? Furthermore, how does a Torah scholar fulfill this mitzvah? Are we to suggest that this mitzvah is just for laymen but scholars are exempt?
To answer this question let us examine how Rambam introduces this mitzvah.
“The nature of Man is that his opinions and actions are formed and guided by the people surrounding him. Therefore a person must be careful with whom he associates. One should associate with wise people so as to learn from their ways and distance himself from evil people so as not to learn from their ways. Similarly, if one lives in a region where the people conduct themselves in inappropriate ways move away to a different region. If there is nowhere to go or he is not capable to move due to sickness then he should live by himself rather than mix with the local population.”
Following this introduction Rambam writes; “There is mitzvah in the Torah which instructs us to attach ourselves to Torah scholars and their students in order to learn from their ways. This is intent of the Torah’s passage ‘and in Him you shall cleave’. Therefore one should marry the daughter of a Torah scholar, marry off his daughter to a Torah scholar, do business with a Torah scholar and connect in as many ways possible to Torah scholars…”
From the context presented by Rambam it is clear that the mitzvah of attaching ourselves to HaShem is not some type of religious transcendental meditation by which we connect to the spiritual. Rather the Torah is instructing us to grow and develop our worldly life in a manner that matches G.D’s expectations of us. In other words, HaShem gave us this mitzvah to further our personal character development and to live moral and ethical lives.
That said, we need to ask why does the Torah not instruct us explicitly to attach ourselves to Torah scholars, why associate Himself in the attachment?
The answer is clear. HaShem is the arbiter of appropriate and inappropriate behavior. The maker of the world claims the ultimate Authority of what is right and wrong, good and evil. Therefore, the ideal way to best develop our personal character traits would be to live with G.D and learn from His ways. However, one might find that arrangement quite impossible. The next best arrangement is to attach ourselves to people who learn the Torah of G.D. This is predicated on the notion that Torah is nothing less than the expressed Will of G.D. That being a given, it naturally follows that the greater the scholar and more learned he is in G.D’s Torah the closer his behavior and way of conduct will be in sync with G.D’s.
With this we can appreciate why Rambam writes “to attach ourselves to Torah scholars and their students” note, that he includes the students of the scholars along with the scholars. The reason for this is that the function of the attachment is to learn their ways; the behavior of such students will be similar to their masters.
Let us go back to the question raised earlier; what is a Torah scholar supposed to do? How does he fulfill this mitzvah? I uncovered the answer to this question by personal experience.
I have been blessed to associate myself with several young budding Torah scholars all of whom are half my age and much less than half my years of experience. Nevertheless, the more I interact with them the more dimensions of personal development I discover. Every person has their unique qualities and insights. A person who is studying Torah is, by definition (at least that is the way it was designed), working on his own uniqueness by assimilating the Torah’s values into his persona. No matter how great a scholar may be there is always more greatness to be learned from others. Therefore, when Rambam identifies the mitzvah as attaching oneself to Torah scholars he is talking to Torah scholars as well as everybody else.
(It is noteworthy the distinction between the general concept of religion and Judaism as it is manifest in this mitzvah. Other religions are created by Man to define God; to make God more understandable and more humanlike. The Torah on the other hand, was created by G.D to define Man; to elevate Man to the level of Godliness that lies latent in him.)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Mitzvah 5; To Serve HaShem
The Rambam writes “The fifth mitzvah is to serve HaShem as the Torah states ‘serve HaShem with all your heart’ the type of service that is done by the heart is prayer.”
Behold, the organ of the body that is instructed to perform the mitzvah of prayer is the heart! On one level this makes perfect sense since prayer without intention is meaningless. However, we know that prayer without speaking is not prayer at all. If one were to think all his prayers without ever uttering a word he would not have fulfilled his mitzvah of prayer. How then do we associate the heart as the organ that performs the mitzvah?
Let us look at other mitzvos such as the mitzvah of eating matzo on Pesach, or sitting in the Succah on Succot or blowing shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Every one of these mitzvos is performed by the physical body of the person. We also know that every mitzvah should be performed with the expressed intention of doing it for the sake of HaShem. We can therefore say that there are two parts to the mitzvah; one part is the performance of the mitzvah, the second is the intention of the mitzvah. The first is done by the body and the second is done by the heart.
With prayer the reverse is true. The mitzvah is to be performed by the heart; to serve HaShem with the heart. The mechanism which the heart will use to execute this mitzvah is the mouth. The actual articulation of prayer is the heart carrying out its responsibility by using the mouth.
What needs to be developed is appreciating the nature of serving. How does one serve G.D? Furthermore, if the responsibility of the heart is to serve G.D, why do we fill our prayers with so many requests? Do we serve our boss by making requests and asking for favors for ourselves?
To address this question properly we must get the translation of ‘la-avod’, which means to serve. The root of the word is ‘eved’ which means servant. The connection is obvious; the servant is the one who serves the master.
Let us now find the meaning of serving with your heart. Throughout the Torah the heart is recognized as the organ of understanding and insight. One clear example of this when the Torah states the following mitzvah “You shall know today that HaShem is the Sovereign and bring it to your heart”. The Torah is instructing us to take what we already know on the surface and incorporate it into our very psyche, into our core consciousness. That consciousness is housed in the heart.
This would seem to indicate that when the Torah instructs us to serve HaShem with our heart, the Torah is summoning the heart, the home of our consciousness, to serve HaShem. How is that done?
The way my heart serves HaShem is by incorporating the notion that I am but a servant of HaShem into my core consciousness. The very knowing, on that inner level, that I am HaShem’s servant is the way the heart serves HaShem. When the heart does its job in the service of HaShem this is what occurs the result is this awareness.
Now let us look at the prayer that our Sages composed and see if we can uncover this principle. While there are many parts of our liturgy, the central prayer is the Amidah. This unique prayer is the only prayer that must be recited in a meditative mode in standing position. Our Sages teach us that when one recites the Amidah, the Shechinah (the Presence of G.D) stands directly in front of him. Therefore one must stand with full awareness that he is currently addressing the Shechinah.
The Amidah is composed of three parts. The first part serves as an introduction in which we recite the praises of HaShem. The last part serves as a conclusion in which we express our acknowledgement and gratitude for all the HaShem is to us and all the He bestows upon us. The middle part which is the main body of the Amidah consists of 13 requests that we make of HaShem. Some are personal requests and some are national requests.
Through contemplating and reciting the praises of HaShem in the first part as well as acknowledging the goodness we receive from HaShem in the third part we will certainly gain the consciousness that we are but servants of HaShem. The question is how do we achieve this consciousness through the 13 requests?
When you ask a favor from someone it is implicit in your request that you recognize that the person you are addressing has the wherewithal to provide you with that request. You would not ask a high school student to please lend you $100,000 for a business endeavor. Yet you would ask him to help you with moving your furniture.
The function of articulating these 13 requests is to impress upon ourselves how it is HaShem Who can provide us with these needs. The requests take the lessons of our praise and thanks to a practical level. I recognize that I am the servants of HaShem and I therefore ask HaShem to please help me that I maintain my job and that my deal goes through as hoped for and that my toe infection goes away and that Israel won’t suffer any terrorist attacks and that HaShem will rebuild Jerusalem and establish the throne of David in its appropriate place and so on. We review these requests constantly to remind ourselves that our every need can be addressed by HaShem – by nobody else.
There is no greater exercise Man can do to instill in himself the notion that I am but a servant of HaShem.
Behold, the organ of the body that is instructed to perform the mitzvah of prayer is the heart! On one level this makes perfect sense since prayer without intention is meaningless. However, we know that prayer without speaking is not prayer at all. If one were to think all his prayers without ever uttering a word he would not have fulfilled his mitzvah of prayer. How then do we associate the heart as the organ that performs the mitzvah?
Let us look at other mitzvos such as the mitzvah of eating matzo on Pesach, or sitting in the Succah on Succot or blowing shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Every one of these mitzvos is performed by the physical body of the person. We also know that every mitzvah should be performed with the expressed intention of doing it for the sake of HaShem. We can therefore say that there are two parts to the mitzvah; one part is the performance of the mitzvah, the second is the intention of the mitzvah. The first is done by the body and the second is done by the heart.
With prayer the reverse is true. The mitzvah is to be performed by the heart; to serve HaShem with the heart. The mechanism which the heart will use to execute this mitzvah is the mouth. The actual articulation of prayer is the heart carrying out its responsibility by using the mouth.
What needs to be developed is appreciating the nature of serving. How does one serve G.D? Furthermore, if the responsibility of the heart is to serve G.D, why do we fill our prayers with so many requests? Do we serve our boss by making requests and asking for favors for ourselves?
To address this question properly we must get the translation of ‘la-avod’, which means to serve. The root of the word is ‘eved’ which means servant. The connection is obvious; the servant is the one who serves the master.
Let us now find the meaning of serving with your heart. Throughout the Torah the heart is recognized as the organ of understanding and insight. One clear example of this when the Torah states the following mitzvah “You shall know today that HaShem is the Sovereign and bring it to your heart”. The Torah is instructing us to take what we already know on the surface and incorporate it into our very psyche, into our core consciousness. That consciousness is housed in the heart.
This would seem to indicate that when the Torah instructs us to serve HaShem with our heart, the Torah is summoning the heart, the home of our consciousness, to serve HaShem. How is that done?
The way my heart serves HaShem is by incorporating the notion that I am but a servant of HaShem into my core consciousness. The very knowing, on that inner level, that I am HaShem’s servant is the way the heart serves HaShem. When the heart does its job in the service of HaShem this is what occurs the result is this awareness.
Now let us look at the prayer that our Sages composed and see if we can uncover this principle. While there are many parts of our liturgy, the central prayer is the Amidah. This unique prayer is the only prayer that must be recited in a meditative mode in standing position. Our Sages teach us that when one recites the Amidah, the Shechinah (the Presence of G.D) stands directly in front of him. Therefore one must stand with full awareness that he is currently addressing the Shechinah.
The Amidah is composed of three parts. The first part serves as an introduction in which we recite the praises of HaShem. The last part serves as a conclusion in which we express our acknowledgement and gratitude for all the HaShem is to us and all the He bestows upon us. The middle part which is the main body of the Amidah consists of 13 requests that we make of HaShem. Some are personal requests and some are national requests.
Through contemplating and reciting the praises of HaShem in the first part as well as acknowledging the goodness we receive from HaShem in the third part we will certainly gain the consciousness that we are but servants of HaShem. The question is how do we achieve this consciousness through the 13 requests?
When you ask a favor from someone it is implicit in your request that you recognize that the person you are addressing has the wherewithal to provide you with that request. You would not ask a high school student to please lend you $100,000 for a business endeavor. Yet you would ask him to help you with moving your furniture.
The function of articulating these 13 requests is to impress upon ourselves how it is HaShem Who can provide us with these needs. The requests take the lessons of our praise and thanks to a practical level. I recognize that I am the servants of HaShem and I therefore ask HaShem to please help me that I maintain my job and that my deal goes through as hoped for and that my toe infection goes away and that Israel won’t suffer any terrorist attacks and that HaShem will rebuild Jerusalem and establish the throne of David in its appropriate place and so on. We review these requests constantly to remind ourselves that our every need can be addressed by HaShem – by nobody else.
There is no greater exercise Man can do to instill in himself the notion that I am but a servant of HaShem.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Mitzvah 4; To Fear HaShem
The fourth mitzvah (following the enumeration of Rambam) is the mitzvah “To fear HaShem”. The Torah states in Devarim 6:13 “Es HaShem Elohecho tirah” which translates “HaShem your G.D shall you fear…”
To properly understand the mitzvah it is critical to have a clear definition of tirah. The root of tirah is yirah which carries two connotations. One connotation is fear, and the other is to be awed.
These are two distinct emotions that are inspired from different points. Let us address these two connotations before we delve in the nature of the mitzvah.
Classical fear is the fear that one experiences when encountering a dangerous person, animal or situation. We will call this danger-generated fear. This fear is inspired by the imminent danger or some other negative consequence that we anticipate. Fear is a wonderful gift that HaShem blessed us with. Fear motivates us to make good choices that are for our best welfare. Without fear we would be so much more vulnerable. We protect ourselves from opposing forces because of the fear that we sense.
When we apply this connotation to the fourth mitzvah, the mitzvah takes on the understanding that we should fear G.D because the consequence of confronting G.D can be costly if we are not careful. This fear is referred to as “fear of the punishment”. With such a fear, one adequately fulfills the mitzvah of fearing HaShem.
The second connotation, to be awed, is an awe-generated fear. When one confronts a person, situation or event that is much bigger or greater than him he is overwhelmed with an emotion that we might call fear or perhaps awe. The greater the person, situation or event is the smaller the person will feel and the greater the sense of awe will be. We have all experienced this sense of awe when looking over a mountain range when you can see 40 miles to the left and 40 miles to the right. You are struck with an incredible sense of smallness – you are standing in awe of the greatness that you are beholding. This emotion is experienced when meeting a great person or a great event. Some people are in awe when attending a presidential inauguration for the same reason.
When we apply this connotation to our mitzvah, the mitzvah takes on the understanding that we be in awe of HaShem because of the greatness of HaShem. The awe-generated fear is the optimal way of fulfilling the mitzvah of “Es HaShem Elohecho tirah” because it takes a person to a much higher level of fear/awe.
Now that we have identified the definition of the mitzvah, let us try to get our hands around this mitzvah in terms of practical ways of achieving this mitzvah.
The difficulty in fulfilling this mitzvah is that fear is experienced only when there is an acute awareness of the person or situation that is being feared. For example, before 9/11/2001 America was not afraid of terrorism whatsoever. If there was an alert that people should stay away from lower Manhattan on that morning most people if not every person would have ignored it. It would have been meaningless. Because nobody was aware that terrorism is possible on American soil. Today, however, if the police announce that there is suspected terrorist threat on one building downtown you can be sure that very few people will be near that building. What changed? The level of awareness that there really is a threat.
Keeping that in mind our greatest struggle in this mitzvah is making ourselves aware of HaShem’s Existence as well as HaShem’s Greatness. The more we can bring ourselves to recognize His Existence and His Greatness the closer we will come to fulfilling this mitzvah in its optimal way.
Let us attempt to make this awareness a reality within ourselves. Before doing that it is important that we understand the difficulty we confront and then perhaps we can dislodge that difficulty thereby opening the way to achieving awareness.
The difficulty we confront in arousing within ourselves an awareness of HaShem’s Greatness is due to the abstract nature of HaShem’s Existence. As we live our life in the physical world we do not touch, see, hear HaShem or any other form of physical perception of Him. Therefore the only form of perception by which to perceive HaShem is intellectual, which is essentially abstract. The difficulty with bringing an intellectual awareness to the level of the emotion is that all our senses are telling us that there is nothing here. While your intellect tells that there must be a G.D that knows all that you do, all that you say and all that you think, your experiential physical perceptions tell you that this is not true. How can there be a being that is so involved in my life and I do not see anybody? There is effectively a conflict between the intellect and the physical. How does one overcome this hurdle?
The first step is to find a parallel in our physical world that reflects the intellectual. Then we need to focus on that parallel and contemplate it well until we are able to take the energy generated from the physical parallel and carry it over to the intellectual.
What is the intellectual awareness that we have of HaShem’s Greatness? We know that HaShem created the universe and all that it contains including the physical forces such as gravity, magnetism and so on. This creation also includes space, time, light and darkness and so on. We also know that creation implies that HaShem used nothing to create this universe. The only source of energy that HaShem used to create everything was Him! (HaShem did not have a pack of energy that He used because there was nothing other than Him, no packs of energy either.) Now, that of course is a bit paradoxical, namely, if there was nothing other than Him how can He create everything from Him. If He is everything than everything already existed before He created it. And if it only came into existence after His existence from what did He create it? The analogy that we can find in our physical world that we experience is that of the dreamer and the dream. Within the dream everything exists just like in real life. However, outside the dream, namely from the dreamers perspective the dream is just a dream it does not exist. (I would refer you to our blog, the post titled Mitzvah 2 where I elaborate on the relationship between Sleepy Joe and his dream characters Mike and Ike.)
If you are still with me at this point let’s attempt to move take it to the next level. Let us now contemplate how I am actually non-existent because I am essentially the dream of HaShem. Although within my world, which is all a dream of HaShem, I exist as does my family and possessions and accomplishments and difficulties and pleasures, nevertheless, in objective reality I do not exist. I am nothing more than the dream. The only thing that truly exists is the dreamer Himself. The more I am able to relate to this notion the closer I come to absolute awe.
We mentioned before that awe is inspired when one recognizes his smallness relative to what is inspiring him. It therefore follows that the closer I get to the recognition that I am naught but a dream and HaShem is the dreamer, the closer I approach absolute awe; I approach the line of recognition of absolute smallness.
This explains the meaning of the Talmud’s statement about Moshe. The Talmud states that although it is difficult for most people to achieve the Awe of HaShem for Moshe is was quite easy. The reason that Moshe awed HaShem with no difficulty was because he talked with HaShem on a daily basis. To Moshe the existence of HaShem and consequently the non-existence of himself was so elementary that he was in a constant state of awe.
And so in summation; the way to achieve the mitzvah of fearing HaShem is first of all focusing on the consequence of disobeying HaShem’s Will and the reward for obeying His Will. That simple fear is already an accomplishment of this mitzvah. In addition to this approach one should certainly contemplate that sheer smallness of Man relative to HaShem and be inspired that in spite of this infinite disparity between Man and his Creator, the Creator maintains an ongoing system of support for Man.
How awesome!
To properly understand the mitzvah it is critical to have a clear definition of tirah. The root of tirah is yirah which carries two connotations. One connotation is fear, and the other is to be awed.
These are two distinct emotions that are inspired from different points. Let us address these two connotations before we delve in the nature of the mitzvah.
Classical fear is the fear that one experiences when encountering a dangerous person, animal or situation. We will call this danger-generated fear. This fear is inspired by the imminent danger or some other negative consequence that we anticipate. Fear is a wonderful gift that HaShem blessed us with. Fear motivates us to make good choices that are for our best welfare. Without fear we would be so much more vulnerable. We protect ourselves from opposing forces because of the fear that we sense.
When we apply this connotation to the fourth mitzvah, the mitzvah takes on the understanding that we should fear G.D because the consequence of confronting G.D can be costly if we are not careful. This fear is referred to as “fear of the punishment”. With such a fear, one adequately fulfills the mitzvah of fearing HaShem.
The second connotation, to be awed, is an awe-generated fear. When one confronts a person, situation or event that is much bigger or greater than him he is overwhelmed with an emotion that we might call fear or perhaps awe. The greater the person, situation or event is the smaller the person will feel and the greater the sense of awe will be. We have all experienced this sense of awe when looking over a mountain range when you can see 40 miles to the left and 40 miles to the right. You are struck with an incredible sense of smallness – you are standing in awe of the greatness that you are beholding. This emotion is experienced when meeting a great person or a great event. Some people are in awe when attending a presidential inauguration for the same reason.
When we apply this connotation to our mitzvah, the mitzvah takes on the understanding that we be in awe of HaShem because of the greatness of HaShem. The awe-generated fear is the optimal way of fulfilling the mitzvah of “Es HaShem Elohecho tirah” because it takes a person to a much higher level of fear/awe.
Now that we have identified the definition of the mitzvah, let us try to get our hands around this mitzvah in terms of practical ways of achieving this mitzvah.
The difficulty in fulfilling this mitzvah is that fear is experienced only when there is an acute awareness of the person or situation that is being feared. For example, before 9/11/2001 America was not afraid of terrorism whatsoever. If there was an alert that people should stay away from lower Manhattan on that morning most people if not every person would have ignored it. It would have been meaningless. Because nobody was aware that terrorism is possible on American soil. Today, however, if the police announce that there is suspected terrorist threat on one building downtown you can be sure that very few people will be near that building. What changed? The level of awareness that there really is a threat.
Keeping that in mind our greatest struggle in this mitzvah is making ourselves aware of HaShem’s Existence as well as HaShem’s Greatness. The more we can bring ourselves to recognize His Existence and His Greatness the closer we will come to fulfilling this mitzvah in its optimal way.
Let us attempt to make this awareness a reality within ourselves. Before doing that it is important that we understand the difficulty we confront and then perhaps we can dislodge that difficulty thereby opening the way to achieving awareness.
The difficulty we confront in arousing within ourselves an awareness of HaShem’s Greatness is due to the abstract nature of HaShem’s Existence. As we live our life in the physical world we do not touch, see, hear HaShem or any other form of physical perception of Him. Therefore the only form of perception by which to perceive HaShem is intellectual, which is essentially abstract. The difficulty with bringing an intellectual awareness to the level of the emotion is that all our senses are telling us that there is nothing here. While your intellect tells that there must be a G.D that knows all that you do, all that you say and all that you think, your experiential physical perceptions tell you that this is not true. How can there be a being that is so involved in my life and I do not see anybody? There is effectively a conflict between the intellect and the physical. How does one overcome this hurdle?
The first step is to find a parallel in our physical world that reflects the intellectual. Then we need to focus on that parallel and contemplate it well until we are able to take the energy generated from the physical parallel and carry it over to the intellectual.
What is the intellectual awareness that we have of HaShem’s Greatness? We know that HaShem created the universe and all that it contains including the physical forces such as gravity, magnetism and so on. This creation also includes space, time, light and darkness and so on. We also know that creation implies that HaShem used nothing to create this universe. The only source of energy that HaShem used to create everything was Him! (HaShem did not have a pack of energy that He used because there was nothing other than Him, no packs of energy either.) Now, that of course is a bit paradoxical, namely, if there was nothing other than Him how can He create everything from Him. If He is everything than everything already existed before He created it. And if it only came into existence after His existence from what did He create it? The analogy that we can find in our physical world that we experience is that of the dreamer and the dream. Within the dream everything exists just like in real life. However, outside the dream, namely from the dreamers perspective the dream is just a dream it does not exist. (I would refer you to our blog, the post titled Mitzvah 2 where I elaborate on the relationship between Sleepy Joe and his dream characters Mike and Ike.)
If you are still with me at this point let’s attempt to move take it to the next level. Let us now contemplate how I am actually non-existent because I am essentially the dream of HaShem. Although within my world, which is all a dream of HaShem, I exist as does my family and possessions and accomplishments and difficulties and pleasures, nevertheless, in objective reality I do not exist. I am nothing more than the dream. The only thing that truly exists is the dreamer Himself. The more I am able to relate to this notion the closer I come to absolute awe.
We mentioned before that awe is inspired when one recognizes his smallness relative to what is inspiring him. It therefore follows that the closer I get to the recognition that I am naught but a dream and HaShem is the dreamer, the closer I approach absolute awe; I approach the line of recognition of absolute smallness.
This explains the meaning of the Talmud’s statement about Moshe. The Talmud states that although it is difficult for most people to achieve the Awe of HaShem for Moshe is was quite easy. The reason that Moshe awed HaShem with no difficulty was because he talked with HaShem on a daily basis. To Moshe the existence of HaShem and consequently the non-existence of himself was so elementary that he was in a constant state of awe.
And so in summation; the way to achieve the mitzvah of fearing HaShem is first of all focusing on the consequence of disobeying HaShem’s Will and the reward for obeying His Will. That simple fear is already an accomplishment of this mitzvah. In addition to this approach one should certainly contemplate that sheer smallness of Man relative to HaShem and be inspired that in spite of this infinite disparity between Man and his Creator, the Creator maintains an ongoing system of support for Man.
How awesome!
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