December 4, 2008
Jacob's dream. Jacob's ladder. Images from our childhood Hebrew-school days, or a Chagall. Angels ascending. Angels descending. The scuffle of twelve stones battling to be his pillow. The bliss of their morphing into one. All of existence unified in purpose - to serve and envelope, comfort and praise the father of the Jewish people. Jacob's surprise at arriving here, at The Place - the central point of all creation - is attributed to kfitzas haderech, the miraculous folding of the earth, like an accordion, under the feet of the righteous lest he experience any delay in reaching his destination. The world bends, bows, kneels and submits to the core of Jewish existence. The soul of the Jewish people knows no subjugation to this-worldly endeavors, but rather just the opposite is true. There is no mother nature with which to contend. The physical laws of creation will gladly concede to the spiritual arrival of truth and oneness.
As the days of Chanukah approach, the smells and anxieties of an age-old war against the Jew resonates from its latest stop in Mumbai. The Greeks lay claim to one such stop as well. The darkness they brought upon the Jewish people can still be felt today, even well after their flame's estinguished - no shred of power, intellect, philosophy, prowess, beauty or importance can be attached to present day Greece. It is less than a shell of what it was. And yet, there once raged a mighty battle. Historians will know it was not so much mighty in number and noise, but mighty it surely was.
The Talmud tells of an encounter between Alexander the Great of Macedon, and Shimon the Righteous, the high-priest. Many years before the onslaught of Nazi-esque decrees and outright aggression, Alexander was entreated by the Kutim to raze the Jewish temple to the ground. Shimon HaTzaddik donned his priestly vestments, and came out of Jerusalem to greet the formidable army. Alexander immediately dismounted and prostrated himself, and among the gasps of his own men, explained that since his youth, the vision of this Righteous Jew went before him in battle. The season of miracles was beginning to take root. The Greeks eventually created every decree they could think of to divorce the Jewish people from spiritual connection: they defiled our daughters' purity (on the night of their wedding - by official decree), they banned any Torah learning or teaching, all doors must remain open lest one mitzvah be performed, they broke through the barriers of separation around the Temple (not a physical slight, a supremely spiritual slight), prohibited the daily offerings, and ultimately destroyed the Menorah and contaminated all its oil. Jews were even meant to parade their cattle through the streets having written on the horns, "we have no place in the God of Israel." Nothing truly spiritual could exist in Greece. Only Man, only nature. To them they were one and the same. There is no darkness darker than this.
Our story, the story of Jacob, tells a very different tale. We live above and beyond the parameters of nature. As God created its laws, He also created their suspension. When we merit, we rise above the world and raise it up as well. When we don't, we, more than any other nation or creation, will be swallowed whole by its wrath. The designs of people whose dreams and spiritual rewards are no more than hedonistic physical indulgences of deflowering and conquering are once again set on targeting the Jew. The Greeks, Romans, Third Reich and many more have and will continue to mobilize their entire machinery - every ounce of energy, every penny, every person - to rid the world of the one Jew, sitting in the safety and silence of his own home, learning Torah, doing Mitzvot, and testifying to the Oneness of existence and sublime perfection of a kind, vengeful, just, omniscient, omnipotent and perfect God. May we be the lights that push away the darkness. May we find amidst the destruction of goodness, the reservoir of oil within. And may we merit the flame and Divine intervention to take what little oil we have to heights unimagined by mother nature and mortal man.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Lynn
As the days of Chanukah approach, the smells and anxieties of an age-old war against the Jew resonates from its latest stop in Mumbai. The Greeks lay claim to one such stop as well. The darkness they brought upon the Jewish people can still be felt today, even well after their flame's estinguished - no shred of power, intellect, philosophy, prowess, beauty or importance can be attached to present day Greece. It is less than a shell of what it was. And yet, there once raged a mighty battle. Historians will know it was not so much mighty in number and noise, but mighty it surely was.
The Talmud tells of an encounter between Alexander the Great of Macedon, and Shimon the Righteous, the high-priest. Many years before the onslaught of Nazi-esque decrees and outright aggression, Alexander was entreated by the Kutim to raze the Jewish temple to the ground. Shimon HaTzaddik donned his priestly vestments, and came out of Jerusalem to greet the formidable army. Alexander immediately dismounted and prostrated himself, and among the gasps of his own men, explained that since his youth, the vision of this Righteous Jew went before him in battle. The season of miracles was beginning to take root. The Greeks eventually created every decree they could think of to divorce the Jewish people from spiritual connection: they defiled our daughters' purity (on the night of their wedding - by official decree), they banned any Torah learning or teaching, all doors must remain open lest one mitzvah be performed, they broke through the barriers of separation around the Temple (not a physical slight, a supremely spiritual slight), prohibited the daily offerings, and ultimately destroyed the Menorah and contaminated all its oil. Jews were even meant to parade their cattle through the streets having written on the horns, "we have no place in the God of Israel." Nothing truly spiritual could exist in Greece. Only Man, only nature. To them they were one and the same. There is no darkness darker than this.
Our story, the story of Jacob, tells a very different tale. We live above and beyond the parameters of nature. As God created its laws, He also created their suspension. When we merit, we rise above the world and raise it up as well. When we don't, we, more than any other nation or creation, will be swallowed whole by its wrath. The designs of people whose dreams and spiritual rewards are no more than hedonistic physical indulgences of deflowering and conquering are once again set on targeting the Jew. The Greeks, Romans, Third Reich and many more have and will continue to mobilize their entire machinery - every ounce of energy, every penny, every person - to rid the world of the one Jew, sitting in the safety and silence of his own home, learning Torah, doing Mitzvot, and testifying to the Oneness of existence and sublime perfection of a kind, vengeful, just, omniscient, omnipotent and perfect God. May we be the lights that push away the darkness. May we find amidst the destruction of goodness, the reservoir of oil within. And may we merit the flame and Divine intervention to take what little oil we have to heights unimagined by mother nature and mortal man.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Lynn
posted by Rabbi Lynn at
3:48 PM
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