Serving Hashem B’Simcha

Query: What’s the difference between serving Hashem b’simcha and being samayach b’chelko?

As we said in Samayach B’Chelko, …the essential ingredient of our happiness is not what happens to us but rather what happens within us.

It’s all about whom and what we are, and we write our own ticket.  And if we write it in indelible ink, then our sense of joy will be such that even when we suffer pain in any of its manifestations, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, etc., we will not lose sight of the essential goodness of our lives.

Being samayach b’chelko speaks in terms of our happiness, our sense of joy, and the essential goodness of our lives.  We are center stage in the spotlight of Life’s travails, and we play our parts according to how we have internalized the lines we have written for ourselves.  It’s all about us and how we relate to what Hashem has bestowed on us.  And, at its root, it is essentially passive.

Being b’simcha in our Avodas Hashem, however, has a different focus.  It’s an active concept and it’s about doing as opposed to having or receiving.  And when the doing doesn't get done, the Torah reminds us that the consequences are dire, as in churban and golus....because you did not serve Hashem, your G-d, amid gladness and goodness of heart, when everything was abundant.

Serious stuff, this serving Hashem b'simcha business.  

We mentioned in EmunahSpeak: "Nishmas", that the Chovos Halevovos teaches us that the function of the mitzvos is to express gratitude to Hashem.  And that this mitzvah-driven expression of gratitude is, in turn, merely a subset of our whole purpose of being in this world.  One might be tempted to say that in the view of the Chovos Halevovos, the performance of mitzvos is (a futile attempt at) payback time for all that Hashem has bestowed upon us, and concerning which we have been bidden to be samayach b’chelko.

In a sense, we could say that being samayach b’chelko is a prerequisite for serving Hashem b’simcha, for how is it possible that that which we are doing for Hashem (mitzvos) can reflect the smile of our kavanah if that which He constantly does for us elicits nothing more on our part but the emptiness of indifference?

Serving Hashem b’simcha, means actively harnessing our happiness, our sense of joy, and the essential goodness of our lives that we spoke about above, in relation to being samayach b’chelko, and making it the leitmotif of our mitzvah observance. 

Nishmas

The soul of every living being shall bless Your Name, Hashem, our G-d, and the spirit of all flesh shall always glorify and exalt Your remembrance, our King, always.

So begins Nishmas Kol Chai. 

This is the prayer for gratitude, and an acknowledged segula for good health, parnossa, marriage, children, and success in all endeavors. 

And says Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, it’s recited on Shabbos and Yom Tov, at the end of the Pesukei D’zimrah, when the soul becomes aware of its place in the presence of G-d.  He tells us that this tefillah declares that every soul, every breath and every thought, conscious or unconscious, in all things that have life and feeling, joins with the chorus of all other creatures in one hymn of praise, glorifying G-d and paying tribute of obedience to the name and concept of G-d that dwells within the heart of man.

Accordingly, it would seem that Nishmas is the vehicle by which Klal Yisroel interfaces with the Niggun of Perek Shira, thereby adding its voice to the acoustical mosaic of Creation.   

The Chovos Halevovos teaches us that the function of the mitzvos is to express gratitude to Hashem and, as such, Nishmas reflects our core purpose for being in this world.  The praises of Nishmas proclaim the ultimate truth of our existence, and so when one recites Nishmas he is, in essence, affirming the foundation upon which this world has been erected. 

And virtually every word is a case study in the praise of Hashem and of being makir tov to Him:

Were our mouths as full of song as the sea, and our tongues as full of joyous song as its multitude of waves, and our lips as full of praise as the breadth of the heavens, and our eyes as brilliant as the sun and the moon, and our hands as outspread as eagles of the sky, and our feet as light as the deer – we still could not thank You sufficiently, Hashem, our G-d…

But we should try, exercise in futility though it may be.

And with the realization that our mouths, tongues, lips, eyes, hands, and feet can’t quite cut it, praise-wise, we marshal all innermost feelings and thoughts and sing praises to His Name by subsuming them into the words of Nishmas.

No, you don’t have to know the meaning of all the words as they roll off your tongue.  It suffices that you know what they mean in the aggregate, that you intend them to be your emissaries on High to specifically reflect your Hakoras HaTov for all of the minutiae of your existence, and that your intention be manifested with the deepest kavanah of which you are capable.  After all, doesn’t the Medrash learn Neshimos kol chai, which means that we should praise Hashem for every breath that enables us to remain alive rather than Nishmas kol chai?

One who intones Nishmas with the aforementioned appropriate kavanah has hit the high note in his relationship with Hashem for that given moment, and Hashem reciprocates by showering the Baal Nishmas with tokens of that relationship, as one who loves bestows gifts upon the object of that love.

A Burning Need

In EmunahSpeak: So Say Something Already!, we spoke of wants versus needs vis á vis tefillah in the context of having, as in Tatte, I have a need!  That’s enough in itself, we said over there because your need requires a response.  

And we ended with: your desires (wants) are another story.

But wants and needs can also be juxtaposed in relation to doing, as in those who want/wish to do or, more accurately, those who want/wish that something be done as opposed to those who need to do.

In Parshas Shemos, when Pharaoh’s daughter, Batya, saw Moshe in the basket floating upon the water, Rashi quotes the Medrash to say that Batya’s hand extended a great distance to retrieve Moshe from the water.  Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein tells us that we learn from this Rashi that it’s your job to put your hand out even if it doesn’t reach, and keep it there until it does because if you really need something, if you have a burning need to do (accomplish), your hand can stretch to make it happen.

If you merely want it, have a nice day.

Wanting is passive and, as such, it’s not wired for tachlis.  If it so happens that that which was wanted actually comes to be, the fruition of that want was not in response to it.  A need, by contrast, is proactive and, by virtue of its fiery nature, it can (and usually does) clear a path for itself.

Or put another way, the player that wants his team to win gives encouragement to his teammates and roots them on, whereas the player with the need to win puts the ball in the basket.

This dichotomy between a needs determination and a wants resignation impacts on practically everything we touch.  And for those, whose comprehension of this dichotomy allows them to taste its true significance, it’s a life changer that will reveal to them where they’re standing in this world.

Think not?

You want to do the right thing, as do we all, so every Elul you dutifully jot down all the areas in which you wish to improve in the coming year.  But do you find your present madreiga so insufferable that you need to do the right thing so that the possibility of second, third, and fourth best no longer exists for you?  If you did, you would be tenacious in pursuit of that goal and you wouldn’t compromise it for anything.  For the sake of that need you would go inside yourself to know how to satisfy it, and you wouldn’t stop until you achieved your purpose.

And who doesn’t want that there should be achdus amongst Yidden? But how many feel the need for it?  How many of us are driven by such a burning need for achdus that we are willing step out of our comfort zone to make it happen? And how many of us are so tortured by this need that we would be willing to compromise on anything that didn’t contravene Halacha?

And so it goes for almost any situation.  Most of us want to learn.  How many need to?  Do you want to help others or do you need to help others?  Would you like (want) to connect Hashem or do you need to connect to Hashem?

If you go through life merely wanting to do, nothing will ever get done.  But if, with a soul on fire, you take that journey needing to do, nothing will ever get in your way.

In light of this, Rabbi Wallerstein suggests that the reason Moshiach is not here is because we want Moshiach now as opposed to we need Moshiach now.  In its terminal passivity, the wanting of Moshiach in and of itself will do nothing to bring the Geula. If he comes, he comes.  If not, we’ll keep on wanting until he does, whereas the need for Moshiach will inevitably push Klal Yisroel in innumerable directions that will create the conditions to bring the Geula ever so closer, speedily in our days.

Nothing but Thoughts

Rabbi Shalom Arush tells us in the name of Rebbe Nachman that character traits are nothing but thoughts, with the prevailing thoughts delineating the essence of one’s mindset at any given time.

Here’s a baal gaiva.  He struts around like he’s the somebody that he imagines himself to be.  He looks down on those that he perceives to be beneath him in intelligence, learning, financial status, physical appearance, social status or anything else that he holds to be important.  His arrogance is manifested in his haughty demeanor, speech, tone, clothes, and all the rest of the expressions and trappings of his lifestyle.

For all of his pretense he is nothing more than an actor and a lousy one at that because nothing he does even remotely resembles extemporaneous action.  He is rigidly reading his lines; the lines that he has written for himself; the ones etched into his thoughts.  He thinks he’s better than yenem so he acts accordingly.  If his thoughts were saturated with humility it would be physically IMPOSSIBLE for him to conduct himself in an arrogant manner.  And so it is for every other midda, be it positive or negative. 

You are what you think.

Our thoughts also parallel our inclinations, with our good thoughts courtesy of the Yetzer Tov while the bad thoughts come to us by virtue of the other guy.  But it’s deeper than that because the two yetzers aren’t in the business of running a shuttle service for our thoughts.  The two inclinations are our thoughts, with one being our good thoughts, and the other the bad. 

This all leads to the rather sobering conclusion that at such a time when a person is harboring bad thoughts the Yetzer Hora has taken over his mind and is now in charge.  And as Rav Miller z”l, relates in the context of the Hakdama to the Chovos Halavovos, it’s an aveira to hold in our mind bad thoughts such as jealousy and resentment because we are being observed by Hashem at all times.  As soon as we have such thoughts we are commanded to remove them from our mind.

Chazal has described this sparring between the Yetzer Tov and Yetzer Hara as the War of the Inclinations.  It’s an ongoing struggle resembling a tug of war in which the good thoughts are striving to overcome the bad.

The somewhat less than good news is that the acquiring of good thoughts is not the product of a life spent on a hammock.  It’s work.  And not a day’s work either.  You’re in it for the duration because it is a situation of constant war in which you must perpetually marshal your good thoughts so as to overcome the thoughts that are south of desirable.

Rabbi Arush says that the upside of this lifetime struggle is that we don’t have to sit back in a defensive posture and let the evil thoughts that are from the dark side overwhelm us.  We have it on good authority from Chazal that one cannot hold onto two disparate thoughts at the same time, so all we have to do is to decide to put good thoughts into our heads, thereby pre-empting the dark side competition.

Very nice to be sure, but how exactly does one go about pushing the envelope on good thoughts, he asks?  And he answers:

New data!

Think of your mind as a computer (l’havdil) that works on the classic GIGO principle of garbage in garbage out.  Common sense dictates that you can’t get out any better than you put in.  

And that brings us to a typical baal Teshuva who comes to Torah Judaism with a shmutz kop because he has spent his formative years and, depending on age, some or many of his adult years immersed in negative unwholesome thoughts of all kinds.  If in a burst of new found religious fervor he would attempt a frontal assault on the evil thoughts that predominate in his mind he wouldn’t make a dent, his noble intentions notwithstanding.

The road from shmutz kop to a mind permeated with positive attitudes anchored in Torah hashkafa is paved with new data.  Tzubisilach, word by word, concept by concept, thoughts of Torah and emunah Pesach clean the mind from the remnants of the Street that have burrowed themselves within.

And by the rest of us it’s different?

To the extent that the thought driven output of what we are pleased to call our minds does not merit to be noted on our resume for Olam Haba, we have to input fresh data sufficient to dictate a positive entry because as we said above, we are what we think.  And what we think about is what has been given to us to think about because it all depends on what inhabits the precincts of our mind.

If what we think is good then so are we, because our character traits are nothing but our thoughts.

A One Trick Pony

Anyone old enough to be familiar with this expression either already is or will soon be exerting pressure on the (so called) Social Security Trust Fund.

Who among us hasn’t heard, at least once in his life, the expression (chant, mantra, demand) of we want Moshiach now?  On paper, at least, it’s beautiful, concise, and to the point because in four words we have the twelfth of the Rambam’s thirteen Ikkurim distilled to perfection, and nonetheless it tends to grate on many of us. 

Why so?

It could have something to do with the incessant repetition, ad nauseum.  Or perhaps it’s because in certain circles it seems to be the sole concern of those most animated by it, with no second or third concerns hanging out in the bullpen waiting to be summoned to round out the breadth and depth of one’s Yiddishkeit, with breadth and depth being defined as we want Moshiach now.

And then there’s emunah. 

It is such a yesod that the Rambam counts it as the very first mitzvah in his Sefer HaMitzvos.  The Ramban goes a step further and posits that emunah is bottom line, and that it’s the foundation of all of the mitzvos, and therefore can’t be counted as one of them.

And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a group that takes these two Rishonim at their word, and puts emunah at the epicenter of their understanding of Yiddishkeit.  And it just so happens that emunah also occupies most of the space between the circumference of that understanding and its epicenter.

And although they have a firm grasp on this foundation of foundations known as emunah, their articulation of it also tends to grate on us a little for the same reasons that were put forth as concerns Moshiach.

Yishuv Eretz Yisroel is also a very great mitzvah, and for a very large group it has become the central focus of their lives. 

Over thirty years ago, Rav Nachman Bulman z”l told a cousin of mine, who at the time was one of those who were living in Hadassah Hospital in Hevron, that from both a hashkafic/halachic point of view it was a risky proposition for Gush Emunim (the name at that time of the movement to settle Yehudah and the Shomron) to make settling the Land the exclusive focal point of their Yiddishkeit.  If they were ever, chas v’shalom, detached from the Land, he said, some would give up their Yiddishkeit altogether.  And this is exactly what happened to a number of them after Korban Gaza.  No longer being tethered to the Land that had been the center of their Jewish lives, religiously speaking they took a walk.

Query:  So what exactly are the rest of us riding?

The vast majority of us are not riding a one trick pony, because its defects and limitations are all too apparent.  But at least it’s a living, breathing expression of Yiddishkeit, even if it is too narrowly focused.  As we have already said, each trick represents a fundamental concept of Judaism.

But in our aversion to the tumult that is made concerning these inyonim (and a number of others also), in that the drums that beat for them perhaps beat a little too loudly, many of us tend to forget the centrality of these concepts.  We take a dive on these inyonim in toto, eliminating almost all references to them from polite discussion lest we be suspected of latent sympathies with the aforementioned partisans for emunah, Moshiach, and Yishuv Eretz Yisroel.

I recently heard the best shiur ever on Moshiach, and the maggid shiur began with a disclaimer that just because the subject of the shiur was Moshiach, the audience shouldn’t think that he (the speaker)was a member of a certain group.

Rabbi Dov Halperin: Waiting for Moshiach. 

So this is what we’ve come to.  In our stampede toward the exits away from the groupies extolling emunah, Moshiach, Yishuv Eretz Yisroel, and the like, all too many of us have eschewed a one trick pony only to settle instead for a no trick pony, devoid of much of the essence of Judaism.

The Two Tests

So who are you anyway?

How do you deal with wealth and how do you deal with adversity?  Many of us get a shot at both ends of the wealth/adversity continuum while for the rest it’s an either/or proposition not of our choosing.

The test of wealth is, in actuality, a reality check because it references what is as opposed to what was or what might be and it prompts two questions: where did it come from and, by the way, who’s in charge here?  The answer for either one suffices for the other because the two questions are essentially one.

So where did your wealth come from?

You made it you say?  How so?  What’s that, you’re a software engineer with an advanced degree from MIT?  And after you graduated you developed a plethora of killer applications that you licensed to the likes of IBM and Microsoft for millions of dollars?

So now that we know that it all came to you by your power and the strength of your hand, we can venture a pretty educated guess as to who is in charge of your world.  But how about the guy to your left?  How about you, sir?

So where did your wealth come from?

From the Ribbono Shel Olam?  And it was a Nes you say?  Exactly what kind of a Nes are you talking about?

You’re a software developer, and even though you developed and sold for millions what everyone said were killer applications, there were a number of other applications that were functionally competitive with yours, but the public always seemed to prefer your stuff and you can’t understand why?

Yeah, you already said it was a Nes, so there is no sense in asking who’s in charge of your world.

The test of adversity, aside from the obvious quantitative differences that distinguishes it from that of wealth, also inhabits a distinctly different qualitative plane because given the nature of the test, the trap of Kochi VeOtzem Yadi is not an option.

Unlike the test of wealth, where the choice is inherently between the emes that Hashem does it all and the sheker of the strength and the power of my hand, adversity presents only one choice, and the test, as such, is in how we deal with it.  Rather than look back and ask, where did this wealth come from, the focus is prospective, and the question to be asked is, when will it come, or better yet will it come? 

And as to adversity, who’s in charge morphs into is anyone in charge?

So at the end of the day, the two tests present us with two risks, each one unique unto itself. The test of adversity puts us at risk by pushing the envelope of our free will in the direction of denying the Creator, whereas the test of wealth, the purpose of which is to dazzle us with our own greatness, puts us at risk of ignoring Him.

Waiting for Godot

Barely a week ago, we said in EmunahSpeak: Perhaps They’re Better Than You, that as far as kiruv is concerned the Internet is a win win phenomenon with no apparent downside, which enables us to reach people that heretofore were totally inaccessible vis á vis kiruv in any form. 

In light of the ongoing Chillul Hashem that has made Beth Shemesh the poster boy for hate and intolerance, courtesy of both Israel’s Leftist controlled media and the Internet, by way of You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and the like, it appears that the Internet also has a downside vis á vis kiruv.  Thanks to the Internet, what used to be localized manifestations of Chillul Hashem, Mea Shearim style, have now become internationalized. 

Not relishing the idea of eating my words, I deleted them instead.  The words win win phenomenon with no apparent downside, have been safely consigned to a digital cemetery somewhere out in cyber space.

Halavai that the defusing of the tension in Beth Shemesh should prove to be as easy as the updating of the essay.

This brings us to Marcus Lehmann who, in the famous Hagaddah bearing his name, asks why this Golus has been so long.  He gives four reasons, among them greed, sensuality, and indolence.  Keep in mind that his Hagaddah was first published over one hundred years ago and he was referring to the German Jews of the late Nineteenth Century who were known for their yashrus, modesty, thrift and hard work. 

What would he say about us!?

But I digress, because greed, sensuality, and indolence were only reasons numbers two, three, and four.

Rabbi Lehmann writes that reason number one as to why this Golus of ours is shlepping out as long as it has is because of dissension, and he tells us that dissension comes in two flavors:

“There has been no lack of pious and holy men and women in the many centuries of the present Golus, but salvation could not appear because of the innumerable conflicts dividing the people.  Sects and parties have continuously disturbed the peace of the exile.  Sadducees, Boethusians, Minim, Karaites, Sabbateans, etc. have brought distress and confusion to the community of Jacob scattered throughout the world. 

“But there were squabbles that did not involve great matters of principle.  They very often arose over trifling affairs; and these conflicts turned into hate and enmity, which sometimes affected large segments of Jewry, but more frequently caused utter confusion within individual communities.

“Alas, the situation is no better today (late 19^th Century).

“It is not sufficient that we have enemies about us, we also cause enmities amongst ourselves and often make our lives bitter for really trivial reasons.  About two centuries ago the study of Talmud blossomed amongst German Jewry as perhaps never before.  The communities of Germany both large and small were distinguished for their upright piety.

“Then there arose an unholy dispute which was directed particularly against the great Rabbi Jonathan Eybeshutz.  The damage caused by this dispute, and the extent to which it contributed towards dissuading young people from studying the Torah and demoralizing the ranks of the G-d fearing cannot be adequately described.

“We do not wish to speak of the dissensions caused by the so-called Reform movement.  But it is most inexcusable that there is continuous conflict and dispute amongst the orthodox and faithful Israelites, for it lengthens the night of the Golus.”

Without mentioning the names of or pointing fingers at the participants in the Beth Shemesh reality show, suffice it to say that it falls well within Rabbi Lehmann’s admonition concerning continuous conflict and dispute, and that it is certainly most inexcusable.  To posit that he’s wrong about lengthening the night of the Golus would be more in the realm of wishful thinking than a credible critique of his conclusion.

If there ever was a squabble that did not involve great matters of principle, this was it.  The secular Jews aside, why is it that nearly all of the factions that comprise Religious Jewry in the State of Israel are either directly involved in the Beth Shemesh imbroglio or stand condemned by way of group libel?  Put another way: 

Why did Hashem let this happen to us?

I’m not privileged to be in the know in these kinds of things so the best I can do is guess, but as is well known, Hashem punishes on the basis of midda keneged midda (measure for measure).  

Meanwhile, there was another incident in which several Hesder boys quietly walked out of an Army performance in which female soldiers were singing.  Aside from some grumbling at the fringes and a flurry or two of calls and emails from Hesder affiliated Rabbis there wasn’t all that much done about it.

The soldiers who walked out on the singing performed a Kiddush Hashem for which they were disciplined and basically hung out to dry by the non-response of the religious public.  As we said above, there were no big protests to be carried by YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter to the far corners of the earth.

But maybe that’s what Hashem wanted.  Maybe He wanted to see how big a deal would be made on a matter of great principle.

He didn’t see anything, and so the Satan came to Beth Shemesh to churn up a massive chillul Hashem on a kleinikeit instead.

Even though we wait for Moshiach every day as per the 12^th of the Rambam’s ikkurim, Moshiach and Sinas Chinam can’t occupy the same space at the same time.  For as much as Moshiach will come any time soon, given our current achdus meltdown, we might as well be Waiting for Godot.*




* Google Waiting for Godot if you are clueless.

Cutting the Line

Reflections on the DIVINE Dialogue

Is there a heimishe bakery worthy of the name at which one doesn’t have to wait on line at 11 o’clock on a Friday morning?  And who, after having endured the enforced passivity of the de rigueur fifteen minute wait at the more popular venues hasn’t been told: we’re out of large challahs with seeds or some other response no less disappointing?

Our Tefillos tend to follow a similar pattern.

We do our best (with our best being a five star relative term) to knock out a tefillah that will garner a positive response, but regardless of its intrinsic quality, it’s first stop is at the back of the line where it will wait its turn to be heard.

We’re out of large challahs with seeds also doubles as a metaphor for the Heavenly responses to our tefillos that go south of what we requested, because as we said in EmunahSpeak: So Say Something Already!, We have the power to talk to Hashem like a person talks to his fellow because the real idea of prayer is communication.  And in the context of that dialogue, we attempt to push the buttons to which everything in the world is connected.  The good news is that no sincere prayer goes unanswered.  That’s heads.  Tales is that sometimes the answer is no. 

And this is how the process of tefillah works for the vast (with vast being an understatement) majority of us.  Every word we utter will be attended to and someone somewhere will be the better for it.  But as for us, we may come home from Hashem's bakery with a medium chalah with no seeds or perhaps no challah at all because there are no guarantees in the realm of tefillah.

But for those few who are on a rarified madreiga of trying to come close to Hashem, Rabbi Mordechai Aderet tells us that the Zohar HaKodesh puts forth four conditions that will put one’s tefillah on an express track.

A person must feel poor.  You can be the wealthiest person on earth but you must mentally and emotionally undress yourself from your wealth.  It’s crucial to think that everything belongs to Hashem.

And you must be a slave to Hashem in your heart.  Unlike most everyone else, your actions are no longer motivated by your welfare, but rather by what’s in it for Hashem.

You also have to be a chossid in that you love to learn Torah and keep the mitzvos.  And what does it mean to love to learn?  On Tisha B’av, the restrictions on your learning ache you more than your hunger. 

And if you should chas v’shalom be an Onain who is forbidden to perform mitzvos, your suffering from that prohibition is as acute as your suffering from the loss which caused you to become an onain in the first place.

And you must be ready to stand up for Hashem in any and all circumstances. 

You are attending a large fundraising dinner, and the speaker makes a somewhat disparaging remark about the Gadol Hador.  Do you continue eating or do you walk out in protest?
 
Many years ago, at a very big fundraising dinner for a major Jewish organization, the president of the organization made a negative comment about Rabbi Moshe Feinstein z”l.  Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l, rose from his seat, walked up to the speaker, who was standing at the microphone, and slapped him across the face in front of hundreds of people.

The Zohar HaKodesh promises that if you do these things, your tefillah is guaranteed to be accepted.  No ifs, buts or maybes, and no going to the back of the queue.

Those tefillos literally cut the line, go straight to the front, and receive a two thumbs up Heavenly equivalent of a large challah with seeds.

Yom HaDinless

As we said in EmunahSpeak: A Real Deal Teshuva-part two, In Elul you are what you want to be.  You are the sum total of all the aspirations and kavanas you have for growth in the ensuing year.  During the rest of the year, however, you are what you do on a daily basis…

What better time to go back and review the progress we have (hopefully) made on the tearful resolutions we accepted upon ourselves in Elul, in the run up to the Yom HaDin, then in the aftermath of January 1^st.  The rest of the country is recovering from its collective hangover awash in the tens of millions resolutions that were dead on arrival.

It’s bad enough that the same old same old has its fingerprints all over their new year.  It shouldn’t also be calcifying the good machshovas that we had in relation to our new year when we took on to improve ourselves in a myriad of ways each according to his capacity and temperament.  

But over and above our individual spiritual successes and failings, the calendar demands that at this time of the year we also make somewhat of a cheshbon as to what distinguishes our New Year from theirs.  More often than not, we tend to view it in terms of our resolution as to the future versus their dissolution in the present, but this is not a satisfying comparison because, after all, their new year is not a Yom HaDin, it’s a day of celebration.  And how else should goyim celebrate, if not to drink themselves into oblivion?

But as Rabbi Leib Kelemen tells us, there’s more to it than we pray and they drink.  A lot more.

He lets us know that way back when, during the hey day of the Roman Empire, the contrast between our way of kicking off the New Year and theirs was a bit more pronounced.   It seems that excessive drinking was a daily staple rather than a once a year exercise in exuberance, so something more was needed to create that proper yom tovdik atmosphere, le’havdil.

So they closed the courts for a week.

With the courts closed, the City of Rome was a hefker velt with neither law nor authority.  Any girl foolish enough to be found outside was fair game with no legal recourse.  And who’s to say that this closing of the courts of law was not a direct response to the Yom HaDin (our New Year), when the whole world, including Rome, was being judged?  It’s as if the Romans said:  We want no part of your Yom HaDin, or the judgment’s of your G-D.  And then they conveyed their contempt by closing the courts on their new year.

Don’t be fooled by the drinking.

It wasn’t the bottom line of what their new year was all about.  It only fueled it.

In light of what we have been taught concerning the origins of the new year celebration in the Western world, it all comes down to this:  The proper distinction between our New Year and theirs is not the juxtaposition of the Yom HaDin and the Yom HaHefker, but rather the Yom HaDin and the Yom HaDinless.

Love Your Fellow as Yourself

In EmunahSpeak: In The Crosshairs we ran a little overtime so we’ll do a one eighty here and make it short and hopefully sweet with a lick and a shmeck on a topic that will IY”H be revisited.

So what does love your fellow as yourself mean anyway?

Interpretations abound, and all too many of us settle for a chesed oriented definition as opposed to a literal one in which our fellow’s needs dictate our love for him.  According to this view, the more he needs the more we love him.  A very high madreiga of chesed to be sure, but it has nothing to do with the mitzvah of love you fellow as yourself.

When we quoted The Lubavitcher Rebbe z”l, in EmunahSpeak: Perhaps They’re Better Than You, we borrowed only what was needed for the topic at hand.  Now that we have flipped that page for a new one, we’ll borrow some more a little further along in the Rebbe’s talk.

The Rebbe z”l, said “that the mitzvah of love your fellow Jew applies (even) to a Jew across the world whom you have never seen.”  And he didn’t mean that we should feel obligated to send him a check if we should find out that he needed help because the Rebbe’s understanding of love your fellow as yourself wasn’t mortgaged to the touchy feely chesed interpretation that we spoke about above.

However much the Rebbe z”l, was wont to darshen in many other areas of Torah, vis á vis the mitzvah of love your fellow as yourself his approach was literally straight down Main Street.

“What kind of love,” He asked?  “Torah contains no idle words.  When it says ‘love your fellow as yourself,’ love means love.  Your fellow means not you, but him.  As yourself?  Just as much as you love yourself.”

We need neither the views of Rashi nor the rest of the meforshim to perform this mitzvah the way the Rebbe z”l, understood it.  Nor do we need the biggest head in the world.

We need the biggest heart.

In The Crosshairs

                                In the Belly of the Beast (part 2)

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST THAT MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR PATIENCE.

In EmunahSpeak: Perhaps They’re Better Than You, we raised some eyebrows by actually saying something positive about the Internet as we opened a window, ever so slightly, to a brave new world of kiruv that is being Internet driven.  We said there: As far as kiruv is concerned the Internet is a win win phenomenon with no apparent downside, which enables us to reach people that heretofore were totally inaccessible vis á vis kiruv in any form.

And so it is.

In March 2010 (rabbi) Eric Yoffie who is President of the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism, r”l) addressed the URJ Executive Committee.  The relevant parts are as follows:

I am optimistic about the future of our Movement…and right now, we need the Reform movement more than ever. Because the future does not lie with the chareidim and the fundamentalists of the Jewish world; and it certainly does not lie with Chabad, which may do some good things, but which sells itself to our members as cut-rate, minimalist Judaism. The future, I believe, lies with us. 

But what do we have to offer? Is there something distinctive about being Reform? 

We draw the boundaries of Reform so as to include rather than exclude, and we welcome gays, lesbians, the intermarried, non-Jewish spouses and all who bind their fate to that of the Jewish people.   

We see tikkun olam as an essential element of our Reform identity – in fact, as the jewel in the Reform crown.  (Note: What he means by Tikkun Olam is cleaning up trash in empty lots in Harlem and other such spiritual venues). 

When disaster struck in Haiti, Reform Jews provided relief at a level that no other movement could even dream of.

  

The great majority of North American Jews will not choose a Judaism that is halakhically-based; they will not choose a narrow, ritually-obsessed Judaism; they will not choose an ethically-limited Judaism; and they will certainly not choose a fundamentalist, ghetto Judaism. The great majority will choose the modern, liberal, Torah-inspired Judaism that is Reform.

(rabbi) Yoffie’s pearls of Jewish brotherly love were posted on the URJ web site under the title of The Future of Reform Judaism, r”l.  If this would have been twenty years ago (rabbi) Yoffie’s remarks would have been published in the URJ magazine, and that would have been the end of it.

Way back when, from the mid seventies through most of the eighties, I made attempts to question/challenge the outrage de jour that Reform was attempting to sell as Judaism.  These forays into what amounted to doomed prospects for attempted dialogue were usually in response to something I heard on the news or an article I had seen in one of their publications in a doctor’s waiting room, and more often than not they took the form of letters to the editor.

All I received for my efforts was the silence of the dead.  The flow of information from the outside world was tightly controlled, and nothing even remotely critical of their movement was given a forum.

And that’s how it had always been.  Depending on the decade, Reform had its tentacles into a million plus Jews at any given time, and there was no way to get at them.  They had erected their version of the Berlin Wall, and it was no less effective.

And then the Internet came to town.

Reform’s once impregnable fortress morphed into a target on its back, as the URJ’s circle the wagons strategy gave way to the Net’s subversive egalitarian ethos.  Rather than do the expected, and simply reject my criticism of (rabbi) Yoffie’s less than prophetic mean spirited imaginative meanderings, the URJ chose to post it to its website where it was viewed by thousands of its members.

My comments, in and of themselves, were nothing special.  That they were posted on the URJ website, however, was historic.  Moreover, the live links to a number of Torah websites which I had embedded in my comments were left intact, thereby exposing their people to some of the best Torah content on the web.

After thirty-five years of shadow boxing with the kefira that masquerades as Reform I finally got to land a punch in an Open Letter to (rabbi) Eric Yoffie that was hosted on the URJ website:

I am absolutely astonished by your ((rabbi) Yoffie’s) assertion:  And right now, we need the Reform movement more than ever. The future does not lie with the chareidim and the fundamentalists of the Jewish world; and it certainly does not lie with Chabad, which may do some good things, but which sells itself to our members as cut-rate, minimalist Judaism. The future, I believe, lies with us.

I do not like the pejorative term “fundamentalists” nor do I care much for the word chareidim. If you are referring to Torah observant Jewry, the relevant demographics would seem to demand that you back up your assertion with something in the way of facts.

Given a birth rate amongst Torah Jewry that is several times higher than what passes for a birth rate amongst the Reform (which is on the level of Spain), and a divorce rate that is a fraction of what is presently ravaging Reform, and almost universal full day Jewish education for at least nine years at the margins and thirteen plus at the core, and an aggressive, yet sensitive outreach that gathers momentum by the day, are we not tempted toward the opposite conclusion?

And what exactly are we to make of your admission in the President’s Report to the URJ Board of Trustees (June 2010)?  To whit:

We must begin the work of rebuilding our youth movement….We have seen the decline of our youth activities to dangerously low levels, and we are not now providing our kids with the staff and the resources that they desperately need. A related area of equal importance is the work initiated by the Commission on Lifelong Jewish Learning to help our synagogues promote teen engagement following Bar and Bat Mitzvah. We know that if current trends continue, approximately 80% of the children who have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah in our congregations will have no connection of any kind to their synagogue by the time they reach 12th grade. This is a disaster for our young people and for our congregations as well.

So if the Reform birth rate falls well below the point of sustainability not to mention the host of ravages that will take their toll on those who are born to the next generation, already diminished as it is, where then do you see the cause for optimism?

 Apparently from here:

The great majority of North American Jews will not choose a Judaism that is halakhically-based; they will not choose a narrow, ritually-obsessed Judaism; they will not choose an ethically-limited Judaism; and they will certainly not choose a fundamentalist, ghetto Judaism. The great majority will choose the modern, liberal, Torah-inspired Judaism that is Reform.

I once again protest the slash and burn pejorative references that paint Torah Judaism with broad strokes of negative innuendo. It’s simply not becoming of someone of your stature. While your imagery conjured up all the usual suspects including “ghetto Judaism,” which is de rigueur on the canard hit parade, ethically-limited Judaism is a new one to me. From out of whose hat exactly did you pull this rabbit?

Shakespeare’s perhaps?

Even so, you are essentially correct in saying that the great majority of North America’s Jews will not, at this juncture, choose to identify with Torah observant Jewry. Your mistake is in believing that they will come to Reform. The truth is that the mass of unaffiliated Jews will remain such, r”l and that both they and their descendants will continue to assimilate themselves into oblivion.  Not only will the unaffiliated Jewish masses not reverse Reform’s negative growth rate, their very existence is a massive accusation against Reform and what it symbolizes in their eyes.   

How so?

That the unaffiliated masses don’t want any part of Torah Jewry is perfectly understandable, given its perceived restrictions and such.  So why not Reform with its do your own thing culture? In what possible way could it inhibit their lifestyle?

The unaffiliated masses will never come to Reform because they don’t look upon it as authentically Jewish.  Keep in mind that we are talking about Jews who, aside from maybe putting in a cameo appearance on the High Holidays, have nothing to do with Judaism (as in zilch, zero, nada) the rest of the year. And yet, their dismal Jewish performance notwithstanding, they look upon Torah Jewry as the exclusive bearers of Jewish tradition.

Many, if not most of these Jews would rather openly break every law in the Torah than change those laws to redefine their behavior as permissible.  It could be by taking the hit rather than changing the law, they are vicariously keeping the Torah in their minds, even if only subconsciously. The masses are weak in their ability to do the things that the Torah requires of them and to resist doing that which the Torah forbids. The irony, of course, is that their collective greatness is rooted in their refusal to reduce Judaism to the level of their weakness.

Your vision of the future is terminally circumscribed by the present because the majority of those that ARE choosing to live Jewish lives have, for a number of years now, opted for that halakhically-based, ritually-obsessed, fundamentalist, oldie but goody from the ghetto.
Once again, however, on one point, you are more or less correct.  You said:  But what do we have to offer? Is there something distinctive about being Reform? My answer is “yes.”

Reform IS a unique product that has a market niche, but the market isn’t what you think it is. While Reform’s program, as articulated by you, is at full tilt in the direction of what is au courant on the Liberal Left, the Jewish community is no longer the liberal monolith that it has been longer than any one of us has been alive. For reasons of which all of us are aware, North American Jewry is beginning to reassess its undying loyalty to a Liberalism that the Radical Left (pardon the redundancy) destroyed some  forty years ago. This means that the trend line of the great mass of unaffiliated Jews, the same Jews that you would like to bring out of the bullpen to save Reform from its self-inflicted demographic nightmare, is headed (ever sooo slowly) in the opposite direction from the “philosophy” upon which you have staked Reform’s future. In the short term the effects will not be discernable. But long term it’s not good news for Reform.

And while it’s true that those who wish their environmentalism, feminism, egalitarianism, and all the other constituent isms of the liberal pantheon to be sprinkled with the fairy dust of Reform will continue to answer “present” at the Reform roll call, those who are seeking serious spirituality as opposed to having their secular ideology validated, will look elsewhere.

Reform has entered its Glasnost era. Those who truly seek to experience Shabbos, the Yomim Tovim, and anything else that is part and parcel of the “traditional Judaism” that you have dangled in front of their eyes in your push toward pseudo-tradition will not be satisfied with half a loaf, and Reform by definition is philosophically incapable of delivering the other half. It’s the nature of genies that once they’re out of their bottles it’s quite impossible to stuff them back in again. Quantitatively the losses may ultimately turn out to be surprisingly small but qualitatively they will be your best people.

You think not?

The following links are to some of the most popular speakers in the English speaking Torah world today. They have had a tremendous impact on both religious and unaffiliated Jewry in North America, South Africa, Great Britain, and Israel.  And each one comes from either a Reform, Conservative or totally assimilated background. Torah Judaism is enriched by their teachings, as it is by the many others who have made the Long March from your movement and from the others. And there are hundreds if not thousands more, who by virtue of the Jewish genie that you have let loose from the bottle of Reform, who will one day come to join them as teachers of Klal Yisroel.

http://www.simpletoremember.com/authors/a/rabbi-lawrence-kelemen/
http://www.simpletoremember.com/authors/a/rabbi-dovid-gottlieb/
http://www.simpletoremember.com/authors/a/rabbi-akiva-tatz/
http://www.simpletoremember.com/authors/a/jewish-inspiration/
http://www.simpletoremember.com/authors/a/crash-course-jewish-history-mp3s/

Keep in mind that every point being made here relates back to your contention that: The great majority of North American Jews will not choose a Judaism that is halakhically-based; they will not choose a narrow, ritually-obsessed Judaism; they will not choose an ethically-limited Judaism; and they will certainly not choose a fundamentalist, ghetto Judaism. The great majority will choose the modern, liberal, Torah-inspired Judaism that is Reform.” 

The entire future of your movement stands or falls on that premise.

The links above are but a tease that serves as an intro to the most important thing affecting the future of Reform that you didn’t mention in your piece: the Internet.

Unlike in previous generations where Traditional Judaism was out of sight and out of mind to anyone not living in close proximity to one of several urban areas in the United States, today it’s big, bold, and in your cyberspace face, right where the totality of your target audience hangs out.

The Torah’s Internet presence is absolutely overwhelming, and it is impossible for the mass of unaffiliated Jews not to trip over it in due time. I don’t know how many sites there are because there are new ones every week, and I simply can’t keep up, but we’re talking here in the triple digits and counting.

I took the trouble of going to every Reform website listed on the drop down menu located on the URJ website, and found nothing in the way of content. The only reform site that contains anything of interest to outsiders is the URJ/Reform blog, and even so it’s all chit chat. Some of it is fascinating to be sure, but it’s still just chit chat just the same.

Here are three links:

The first is Rabbi Zev Leff’s website. I chose this because he is an individual who is not connected to any organization, and all of the content on his site was produced by him alone. This one site probably has more content than URJ, all of its affiliated sites, and all of its member Temples combined.
http://www.rabbileff.net/

Next is the Orthodox Union, and I chose it because it is the Orthodox organizational equivalent of the URJ.
http://www.ou.org/

And the third is Aish.com which is the web presence of Aish HaTorah, the famous kiruv yeshiva.
http://www.aish.com/

My purpose is not to have you sample the content but to do an INVENTORY of it, and you should make it thorough by clicking on all the various topical tabs etc.  As I have already stated, these sites barely scratch the surface but they should still give you enough information from which you can extrapolate as to how well mined is the road to Reform’s supposed glorious future.

If you do your due diligence in searching out Torah Judaism’s presence on the web you will no longer credibly be able to say: The great majority of North American Jews will not choose a Judaism that is halakhically-based….

And then there is the imagery/symbolism of Judaism.

Guess who owns it and guess what the impact of that ownership is and will continue to be on that mass of unaffiliated Jews that Reform pines for.  I know that the Wall and some other things are a sore point of contention for Reform, but for the purposes of this post I’m not interested in the politics of it all. I’m simply stating an incontrovertible fact as to where the public’s eye is drawn vis á vis the imagery and symbolism of Judaism.

The irony of it all is that Reform is stuck with the same imagery/symbolism. It’s in your temples and all over the website. And what other choice do you have anyway? If not a shofar, menorah, lulav etc., then what?  A recycling bag, a pushka that says Hati on it, and two guys holding hands?

Below is a link to a representative image to which you have nothing to answer. The crowd is mostly made up of Sephardim and they are singing Ani Ma’amin at the Kosel as it was sung in Auschwitz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbCvrTy7HbI&feature=related

Let’s be honest now.

To whom do you think that uncommitted mass of unaffiliated Jews is going to emotionally respond? To those Jews who are singing the Ani Ma’amin or to the ones who ripped it out of the siddur?

The name of your original article is The Future of Reform Judaism, but the entire premise upon which you stake this future has a hole in it and it's taking water.  It would have been more accurate had it been entitled The Death Knell of Reform Judaism.

So much for (rabbi) Yoffie’s take on Reform’s future and my comments thereto.  This was not an isolated incident. It’s illustrative of an ongoing process made possible by the Internet which won’t end until this stain on the integrity of Klal Yisroel implodes, speedily in our days.

It is very important to understand that at the time, (rabbi) Eric Yoffie was president of a movement (URJ) that claims one and a half million members.  In addition, well over a thousand of those members click onto the URJ website every day, and it is to be presumed that these are the people with the most active interest in the doings of the URJ.

And yet….

Although thousands of (Reform) Jews read both (rabbi) Yoffie’s predictions as to their glorious future and the systematic shredding of those fantasies, only one person bestirred himself to come to their President’s defense, and even he didn't answer the bell for Round Two after his comments were rebutted.  These Jews may be ignorant of most things Jewish, but they are still capable of recognizing the truth when they hear it, and by their deaf and dumb reaction they made it quite clear that they weren't hearing it from (rabbi) Yoffie.

What can be said about a movement that allows its leader to be trashed on its own website with nary a response?

That it’s laser locked in the crosshairs, Boruch Hashem, with the door locked behind it and the clock ticking.

They know it's over.  They're just keeping up appearances.

Perhaps They’re Better Than You

In the Belly of the Beast

 “And then came Amalek…”

Our Sages tell us that Amalek is the paragon of evil.  While there has been no shortage of evil (as directed toward Klal Yisroel) these past few millennium, forensic evidence that ties any of it to Amalek doesn’t come easy.  Aside from a couple of guest appearances in the guise of Agag and Haman, Amalek seems to be the where’s Waldo of Tanach.

Generically, however, Amalek is unfortunately alive and well, r”l.

In the same way that Islam has been the means by which all of the middos inherent in the Torah’s description of a pere adom has been channeled into peoples from non-Arab stock such as the Iranians and the Pakistanis, the wickedness and kefira of Amalek has been morphed into various religions and political philosophies over the centuries up until our own day.  A plethora of movements and ideologies were let loose by the French Revolution, and Amalek’s fingerprints are all over them.

And then came the Internet.

In much the same way, as Rashi tells us, that the Ribbono Shel Olam incited the Dog (Amalek) to “bite” Yisroel in the midbar in response to its asking: Is Hashem in our midst or not?...the Ribbono Shel Olam has incited a digital Dog against our generation, a generation that doesn’t even know enough to ask whether Hashem is in our midst or not.  It’s the last generation before Moshiach and, as Chazal tell us, it’s a generation that, not coincidently, has the face of a dog.

What horror can we recount that hasn’t already been recited ad nauseum, to the point that a certain numbness has taken the place of what was once our collective innocence?  Breaches have replaced barriers, and we have long since run out of fingers to stick in the dike that used to separate us from that sea of iniquity that is the rest of the world.

In a previous time, a time conceptually removed from the present as far as night is from day, the brush strokes that delineated the exterior of a Torah Jew’s life were more often than not a reflection of an emunah peshuta that percolated within.  In the generation with the face of a dog, those externalities all too often mask an inner weakness born of hashkafas more representative of the street than of the yeshivas.  

“Remember what Amalek did to you, on the way, when you were leaving Egypt, that he happened upon you on the way, and he killed among you all the weaklings at your rear, when you were faint and exhausted, and he did not fear G-d.”  

                                                         

Do we not see this process repeating itself in front of our eyes? The Internet is spiritually killing among us all the weaklings at our rear as it culls the hashkafically faint and exhausted from the ranks of the Klal, and in this sense at least, the havoc it is wreaking more closely tracks the paradigm of Amalek than even the evil of atheistic Communism.

Spiritual killing fields notwithstanding, the Internet also has a flip side.

“There is a desolate land which is thus far underdeveloped spiritually.  There are Jews there who don’t even know that they lack anything.  You had the unearned privilege to be brought up with Torah and Mitzvos.  ‘How lucky we are, how good is our lot.’

“Be there a day, a week, a month, a year, ten years.  You won’t have nice clothes or a comfortable home.  The Jews in the place where you are going manage without them.  Why should you be better?

“Perhaps they’re better than you.”

So spoke the Lubavitcher Rebbe z”l, to his Chasidim as he exhorted them to get out of their comfort zone and seek out lost Jews, wherever they may be found.  The words perhaps they’re better than you caught my attention, and I believe that they hold the key to understanding the Internet’s impact on the totality of Jewish life.

Ironically, in contradistinction to Amalek, the Internet functions in much the same way as the Parah Adumah, l’havdil.  In addition to rendering impure those who by any yardstick were previously fine upright Torah Jews, it has the power to purify those who have spent their whole life wallowing in the filth of the goyishe velt.

The high profile warnings that have been voiced from one end of Torah Jewry to the other as to the well documented toxicity of the Internet has obfuscated the fact that the Internet is the best thing that ever happened to kiruv rechokim.  As far as kiruv is concerned the Internet is a win win phenomenon with no apparent downside, which enables us to reach people that heretofore were totally inaccessible vis á vis kiruv in any form.  A Jew living in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains fifty miles from the closest human being has access, by means of the Internet, to more shiurim than a Jew living in Lakewood or Monsey without an Internet connection.

In the same way that some Torah Jews who would never even think of paying a visit to Times Square or Greenwich Village seek out the forbidden by way of the Internet in the privacy of their home or office, assimilated Jews who would never be caught in public at a Gateway seminar or a Renaissance Weekend will, out of curiosity, click around the Torah sites on the Internet from the privacy of their home or office because they don’t feel threatened there.

We are, at present, at the very beginning of a kiruv revolution that will bring into the ranks of Torah Jewry previously unimaginable numbers of Jews who are immune to the predations of the Internet because they have been inoculated for the future by virtue of their past.  Their numbers will far exceed the losses suffered at the dark end of the Internet.  As the weak ones are tragically removed at one end they will be replaced by the strong on the other end.

And while the Internet's Klal Yisroel body count should eat you up inside, the sunny side of the Internet equation is also very much your business.  It’s not something to be contemplated with studied indifference.  After all, who’s to say whose blood is redder?

Perhaps they’re better than you.

Swordfish

As per Webster:

“n: a very large ocean fish used for food that has the upper jaw prolonged into a long swordlike beak.”

Anyone who doesn’t know that swordfish is the password is too frum to be reading this, G-d bless each and every one.

In EmunahSpeak: So Who are You Relying on… , we said:

“The avodah of bitochon is to train oneself to rely only on Hashem. 

“Not Hashem plus your accountant or your expertise.  Hashem knows if you have bitochon in Him or if you are relying on the doctor also or your own hishtadlus.  Hishtadlus doesn’t make you a partner with Hashem.  Think of it as the password to the game of life.  It's the equivalent of saying "swordfish" to gain admittance.  Once you have given the password Hashem takes care of 100% of the problem, not the 95% you supposedly left over for Him after you did your 5%.  That Hashem’s 100% might work out to be zilch, zero, and nada of what we have set our minds on in any given situation is of no consequence because bitochon is not results oriented and therefore makes no promises.  It defines how we think not what we get.”

And so it is.  The sum total of what we do in this world in inyonei gashmiyous, understood properly, amounts to no more than swordfish.  This is how the Chovos Halavovos learns in the Sha’ar HaBitochon.  R. Yisroel Elya Weintraub z”l, validated that understanding in a conversation with one of my sons in which he stated that the definition of bitochon means to RELY on Hashem.

It wasn’t until last night that the full import of what I had written blindsided me shortly after I posted my last piece.  It was an epiphany (Yiddish, for a game changing revelation) of sorts. 

I finally realized that swordfish is no less applicable to the realm of creative endeavor than it is to the mundane give and take of our daily existence.  And NO, I’m not talking about recognizing the Yad Hashem in creative inspiration as opposed to falling into the trap of kochi v’otzem yadi.  I learned that lesson the hard way about eight years ago when I finished what was to be my last screenplay.

Anyone who has ever been on a roll, be it in business, writing, Tosfos or in anything else where everything was going great with no speed bumps in sight knows the feeling.  I was so hot at the time; I thought that I could write anything.  And I even made the mistake of saying as much by uttering the five words that terminated my career as a screenwriter, if one can call making no money a career: “Hey, I can write anything.”  That’s all it took.

Baruch Dayan HaEmes.

My head shut down immediately as if on cue, and soon thereafter Hashem allowed me to trace my inspirational famine back to those five fateful words, but to no avail.  I did the best, most sincere teshuva I had ever done in my life, but I wasn’t about to be let off with a slap on the wrist.  Not only could I no longer write anything, but seven years later I had yet to write even a little something. 

No, it’s not about seeing through the mirage of kochi v’otzem yadi.  That would have been enough, given where I was holding way back when I thought that I was a writer, but after last night generalities no longer suffice.  We’re talking pratim here, and it’s Torah hashkafa that’s in the details, not the devil.

There is no muse, no inner voice, no well spring of creativity from which writers, composers, artists, and the like draw their inspiration.  And you can throw in doctors and such for good measure.  Every word, note, brush stroke, and diagnosis is spoon fed to those so endowed by Hashem. 

Query:  Endowed by Hashem to do what exactly?  If every jot and tittle is by way of Hashem then what separates the creative personality from the unwashed masses?

In much the same way that a given radio frequency can pull in a broadcast set to that frequency, creative people have been hard wired from the get go of their existence to process the creative flashes that Hashem is sending them.  It’s not that a writer has been given the ability to write.  He has rather been blessed with the genius to take Divine dictation because it’s all from Hashem, typos included.

There is nothing for us to do other then to say swordfish by taking pen in hand, powering up the computer, or anything else that will meet the threshold of proper hishtadlus. Hashem does the rest, which as we have said, is in actuality everything.