Beyond the Honeymoon Pursuing a relationship is exciting. The heart races, adrenaline flows, and you are invested and present in every detail. You plan an extraordinary trip, you shop for gifts, and you experience tremendous excitement. Then, time passes, and you realize that maintaining a relationship requires an additional set of skills that perhaps you underestimated. A relationship requires consistency; it must be nourished with small, ordinary acts of kindness on an ongoing basis. When the pressures of life build up, you must still check in and connect on a daily basis. Just as human love requires both passion and consistency, so too our relationship with G-d requires both occasional inspiration as well as daily devotion.” In last week's Torah portion, we read about the commandment to build a Mishkan, a tabernacle, a home for G-d in the desert. The people were enthused like a young couple in love. Overjoyed to participate, excited to donate, and exhilarated by the awesome experience of G-d desiring a relationship with them. Indeed, immediately at the beginning of the Parsha, the Torah emphasizes the inspiration and the excitement: The Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering. (25:1-2) In contrast to the inspiration and generosity we read about in last week’s portion, this week’s portion highlights the other critical component of a relationship. The consistent connection even on ordinary days. This week’s portion introduces the service of the priests and highlights again and again the word “Tamid“, which means “always”, and emphasizes consistency: And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall take to you pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually. In the Tent of Meeting, outside the dividing curtain that is in front of the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall set it up before the Lord from evening to morning; [it shall be] an everlasting statute for their generations, from the children of Israel. (27:20-21) The combination of the portions, the novel excitement and the consistent application, allow for a deep relationship to flourish and grow.
Blog - Torah Insights
Beyond the Honeymoon - תצוה
Is it an Act of Giving or Receiving? - תרומה
Is it an Act of Giving or Receiving?
What is the greatest gift that we can receive? It is the ability to give.
To give is to reflect the creator.
Creation, by definition, is an act of receiving; we receive our very existence from our creator.
To the extent that we receive, we are creations; to the extent that we share with others, we experience the Divine.
This realization alters the usual hierarchy between giver and recipient. On the surface, the giver is giving; upon deeper reflection, by being vulnerable and being open to accepting, the recipient is giving the giver the opportunity to give, to escape the trappings of creation and partner with the creator.
In the opening statement of this week’s Torah portion, G-d tells Moses to speak to the Jewish people and ask them to give, to donate, materials for the construction of the temple. Yet, when we look at the verse, we discover that instead of G-d saying “they shall give”, the verse states, not once but twice, “(let them) take”, “(you shall take)”:
The Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering.
Are the Jewish people giving or taking?
The great commentator and kabbalist, Rabbi Mose Alshich, explains that indeed, the act of giving is indeed an act of “taking”-receiving.
For the greatest gift we can receive from G-d, is Him telling us that he needs something from us. That our existence and our choices matter to him.
As Rabbi Manis Friedman explained when he visited Greenwich a few weeks ago: “A person would much rather be needed than be loved”. When you tell me you love me, you are telling me something about yourself, something about your preferences that may or may not resonate with me. When you tell me I am needed, you are telling me about myself. You are telling me that I matter.
What Is Your Big Idea? - משפטים
What Is Your Big Idea? In order to succeed, you need to have a vision, a big idea, that animates you. You want to make the world a better place. You want a masters degree. You want to start a business. The problem with big ideas, however, is that they can be abstract. Big ideas will not succeed, unless one is willing to take on the many specific, often menial tasks and actions, over a long period of time. To be successful, one must ask: “What does “getting a master’s degree” actually look like on a Tuesday afternoon?” “What does “starting a business” look like in the next fifteen minutes? The problem with the specific tasks, however, is that the passion evaporates. It is relatively easy to be inspired by a big idea, it is much harder to maintain that inspiration when engaged in a specific action at a specific moment, because this moment does not seem to be able to capture the intensity of the big idea, the big vision. To succeed we need to harness the passion of the big idea, even while engaged in the detail. We must focus our attention on how this detail is part of a bigger picture. I am not calling a client, I am creating a business. I am not shopping for groceries, I am creating a shabbat meal where I will experience connection with my family and with G-d. This pattern explains the Torah's description of the story of the giving of the Torah at SInai. At first, in last week’s portion we read the story of the revelation, the general description of the story, and the ten commandments. Following the ten commandments we read, in this week’s portion, how to bring the vision of the Torah into the specifics of daily life, in the specifics of civil law, regulating the daily interactions between people. At the end of our portion, the Torah returns to describe the story of the preparation and the experience of Sinai. Because the Torah is teaching us not to lose the vision in the details. To remember that the purpose of the specific laws and regulations is to experience the greater vision, the covenant with G-d. The pattern of leading a successful life is connecting to a big idea, implementing it in daily specific tasks and habits, and then once again experiencing the big idea.
G-d’s Bio - יתרו
G-d’s Bio If you were asked to manage G-d’s personal brand and to write His bio, what would you write? Presumably, you would talk about the infinite, undefined, all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe. Yet, when G-d introduces himself to the Jewish people at Sinai as he presents the Ten Commandments, G-d says something else entirely: I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 20:2) Indeed, the commentaries ask why G-d introduces himself as the one who “took you out of the land of Egypt”, and not as the creator of heaven and earth, which seems to be a better description of the awesome power of G-d. One answer is that G-d chose to speak to the people about the Exodus from Egypt, which they themselves experienced, rather than the creation, which they did not witness firsthand. The opening statement of the Ten Commandments offers Judaism's definition of G-d. Judaism teaches that G-d is not, as ancient philosophers described, merely infinite, transcendent, and abstract. G-d, as described in the Torah, is also very much imminent, present within reality, and concerned about life on earth; a G-d who cares, who feels the pain of the oppressed, and who is emotionally invested in creation. While creation of the universe expresses the infinite power of G-d, the story of the Exodus represents G-d’s connection to man. While creation tells of the awesome glory of the creator, G-d saving the Jewish people from the oppression of Egypt tells us of a personal, moral G-d, who is interested in a personal relationship with humanity that lives by moral principles. While the story of creation tells us about the greatness of G-d, the story of the Exodus tells us that G-d is interested in our behavior, because he wants a relationship with us.