performance of action-oriented mitzvot

 In the beginning, as the Midrash teaches,1 G‑d “created worlds and destroyed them.” The Kabbalah explains that this refers to spiritual worlds, Supernal Sefirot (“emanations”), that first existed in one state of being and then in another. The Sefirot in the former state of being — called the World of Tohu (lit., “Chaos”) — underwent a “breaking of the vessels.” The World of Tikkun (lit., “Order”) was then built.

The Sefirot comprise orot (“lights”) and kelim (“vessels”) that contain these lights. The crisis in the World of Tohu occurred because the orot were so intense that the kelim were incapable of containing them. As a result of this breakage, sparks of holiness descended within the kelipot. These sparks are to be found in the Worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah in general, but particularly within the physicality of our world. It is the task of the Jew to sift this materiality by using it properly, in order to extract and refine these sparks, thereby elevating them to their original source in the World of Tohu. This elevation in turn elicits a mighty downflow of Divine energy from Tohu, and from even higher than that level.

(Certain Divine Names, whose respective Kabbalistic meanings are signified by Hebrew letter-combinations, are related to this process of beirurim, the extraction and refinement of the sparks of holiness. Thus the Name known as Ba’n (ב״ן) is the source of the fallen holy sparks; the Name Ma’h (מ״ה) is the power that extracts and elevates them; while the Name Sa’g (ס״ג) is the original source of the World of Tohu. When the extraction and elevation of the sparks deriving from the Name Ba’n is accomplished through the Name Ma’h, a lofty degree of Divine illumination is drawn down from the Name Sa’g, and is vested within the “capacious vessels” of the World of Tikkun.)

This extraction is for the most part accomplished through the performance of action-oriented mitzvot involving physical objects which derive their life-force from kelipat nogah, and which house the sparks of Tohu. Performing a mitzvah with such objects disencumbers the hidden sparks of their corporeal husk and elevates them.

Kuntres Acharon, beginning of Essay 4

If we close our eyes

 You're telling all those lies

About the good things that we can have
If we close our eyes

Do what you want to do
And go where you're going to
Think for yourself
'Cause I won't be there with you

(G. Harrison)

torah and prayer

 We thus see that in one sense Torah without proper intent is superior to prayer without proper intent, for such Torah study creates angels in the World of Yetzirah, while prayer without proper intent is repulsed. On the other hand, when the lack of proper intent in Torah study is such that it prevents it from ascending, as in the case of studying for the sake of self-aggrandizement, then this is lower than prayer without proper intent.

For one proper prayer, or even a compilation of different prayers that add up to one prayer with proper intent, elevates all the other prayers of that year. With regard to Torah study, by contrast, even if one later studies with proper intent, this does not elevate his previous study; actual repentance is required. Until such time one’s Torah study is in exile within the kelipah which spawned his ulterior motive.

Nevertheless, since all Jews will eventually repent, for7 “No one of them will be rejected,” our Sages advise that8 “one should always study Torah and perform mitzvot even when they are not done for their own sake” — and, indeed, even if they involve an ulterior motive — for eventually he will achieve the state of lishmah, when he repents. This is explained by the Alter Rebbe at the end of ch. 39 of Tanya.

Kuntres Acharon, beginning of Essay 3

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Torah for self is lower than prayer without cavanagh. What about Torah that's just for intellectual thrill? 

 Moreinu Horav Moshe Dov Ber Rivkin zt”l 5652/1891 — 5736/1976 

At Yeshiva Torah Vodaath from 1928 — 1976 Horav Moshe Dov Ber Rivkin was born to R’ Ben Tzion and Esther Rivkin on 21 Kislev 1891, in Zintsi, Ukraine. R’ Ben Tzion was the Rav of the town and, was considered an expert in Shas Bavli, Yerushalmi, Shulchan Aruch and sifrei Kabbalah. Many gedolim corresponded with him in halachah issues. From a very young age, Rav Moshe Dov Ber was known to be an illui. He began learning gemara at age 5. Rav Rivkin was a chassid of Chabad and most particularly, he was a beloved chasid of the “Rashab” (1860-1920). In his early years, he learned in Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch, and he later followed the Rashab to Rostov where he learned with him privately and was one of the very few people that the rebbe wanted to have with him in the weeks before his petirah. During these last days, the Rebbe Rashab talked to the young Rav Rivkin in Torah and their discussions became the basis for Rav Rivkin’s first sefer, Ashkavta D’Rebbi. While yet unmarried, Rav Rivkin was invited to become Rosh Yeshiva in Tomchei Temimim. He soon married Nacha Heber of Kalisch, later a noted mechaneches, and immigrated to Eretz Yisrael where he was a founder of Yeshiva Toras Emes and developed a close connection with such luminaries as Horav Avraham Yitzchak Kook zt”l and Horav Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld zt”l. He was invited to join the faculty of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in 1928. During his time at Torah Vodaath, he gave smicha to many hundreds of talmidim. He had close personal relationships with the gedolim of the age including R’ Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, R Yaakov Kaminetzky, zt”l, Rav Yitzchak Hutner, zt”l, Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik zt”l and others. Through his years, Rav Rivkin published extensively in Torah journals and also collected a selection of his chidushim in his sefer, Teferes Tzion. Rav Rivkin not only taught Torah in the bais medrash, he was also role model to his talmidim in how to use Torah as a guide for life. When he was seen shopping for shabbos, it was a lesson in itself. Rav Rivkin’s devotion to his talmidim was unparalleled and was returned in force. Rav Rivkin’s talmidim were bound to him with such love and commitment that when he was hospitalized in his last weeks, they stayed in shifts near his hospital bed day and night. Doctors were amazed at the attachment the talmidim felt for their Rebbi, recompense for his dedication to them throughout his life. Rav Rivkin, zt”l was niftar on 18 MarCheshvon 1976.

Harav Moshe Dov Ber Rivkin (torahvodaath.org)

Remind you of anyone?

We have been hearing this month about death cults. That’s when a group destroys life allegedly for the sake of some imagined after-life.  I’m not saying there isn’t an after-life, but must it be one that works in opposition to the life we are living now?

Does this not describe the yeshivist world? There life is lived for the afterlife, for mysterious prizes that are earned through one activity – Brisker lomdus on the Gemara. Nothing else matters.

Have you heard that phrase uttered before? I have seen it in articles about dead rabbis. The articles are called literally “Nothing Else Mattered”. What matters is Torah study, by which they mean Gemara study, by which they mean abstract argument on a handful of chapters of the Gemara – not the aggadata, not the halacha (both of which are guides for living) but rather abstractions about Talmudic principles that underlie the halachot. It’s a kind of game of chess.

For this you drop everything. You don’t get career training even though the Gemara says “teach your son a trade.” For this, you delay marriage until your mid-twenties even though the Gemara says to marry at sixteen. For this you ignore people even though the Tanach and the Gemara say to do chesed and to be a light unto the nations. For this you turn away from all secular studies, mocking them, even though the great Talmudic scholar Maimonides says to find God in the study of nature. For this you deprive yourself of sleep, eat whatever junk appears before you, and pretend that your body doesn’t exist even though the Torah tell us “Guard your health very much.” None of that is Brisker lomdus, and nothing else matters, right? Your life doesn’t matter. You are told to turn your life into Brisker lomdus by which you earn some kind of equivalent of 70 virgins in the afterlife.

But even madmen must bow to reality a bit. So at some point you do marry if only because the females, who don’t study Gemara, don’t know what to do with themselves. So we give them babies that will be told that nothing else matters but Brisker lomdus. We indoctrinate them to give up their lives for Brisker lomdus. We are so proud when they do that.

Does all this remind you of anyone? It is said that only Jews can draw down the divine flow, and the world is influenced by what we do. Could a death cult like Hamas exist in prior generations that didn’t have such a warped view of Torah, that didn’t turn themselves into a death cult that destroys life for the sake of some imagined afterlife?

But do such wild people really have the self-discipline to engage in sacrificial action? Or is the thrill of destroying life their real motive? Murder gives an ego rush. One usurps a divine privilege by taking life. It’s a perverse thrill.

So they really aren't interested in the real after-life. Their conception of it is entirely worldly. They are interested in the ego rush of today.

Likewise, our version of that. What fun it is to mock the world. What fun it is to hate everyone. What a rush you get when you deem yourself smart enough to sum up all of life with one sentence – study Torah! And the weirdos that engage in this aren’t exactly pleasant to be around. They are crude, insensitive, undisciplined men and women. Does that remind you of anyone?

 

Have you ever met a celebrity and found they were much kinder or ruder than you expected?

Have you ever met a celebrity and found they were much kinder or ruder than you expected?

I walked past Jerry Reed, the actor and country-western singer, at a Stuckey’s off U.S. I-30 in Arkadelphia, Ark., in the spring of 1979. He was on a payphone just outside the men’s room. As I opened the bathroom door, he looked toward me and, in mid-conversation, smiled and waved in my direction as if we had known each other for years. At first, I wasn’t sure who he was, and I went into the bathroom with a thought he was perhaps an old family friend or a forgotten acquaintance from somewhere: “This is someone I know. Come on, Pete. Who is he?”

Within a few seconds, I knew. Of course. Jerry Reed was near the height of his fame, two years removed from the release of the blockbuster movie Smokey and the Bandit. He also had several cross-over hit singles to his credit. Superstar that he was, he smiled and waved again as I walked past for the second time, and I stood among candy racks and souvenirs until his phone conversation was complete.

“Pardon me, sir,” I said as a twenty-year-old college sophomore. “Are you Jerry Reed?”

I will never forget.

“I sure am, partner,” he said. “Tell me what your name is.”

He asked if I were in school, what my major was, what I planned to do for a living, and so on. We talked for a handful of minutes, and he seemed in no hurry at all, as if he were as pleased by the moment as I. Theretofore, I had seen and admired several of his appearances on Johnny Carson. He always seemed pleasant and down-to-earth, like an old family friend, and I was delighted to learn I had not been fooled.

wish i had a rabbi like that

 

What can an elite baseball pitcher learn from a pitching coach?

He wasn’t an elite pitcher yet, but Nolan Ryan credits California Angels pitching coach Tom Morgan with playing a major role in turning around his career.

Ryan struggled in his early years with the New York Mets. He’s said he basically was told to “throw as hard as I could for as long as I could” by Mets coaches and left alone. He failed to improve as his 10–14, 3.97 ERA stats in his last season in 1971 with the team showed. Ryan was so frustrated that he told his wife Ruth after that season that he was considering quitting baseball if he wasn’t traded. So luckily he was.

In his first Spring Training with the Angels in 1972, Angels pitching coach Tom Morgan immediately recognized Ryan’s tremendous potential and started working with him on his erratic mechanics. Ryan’s more consistent delivery helped him improve that season to a 19–16 record with a 2.28 ERA, and go on to a Hall of Fame career with many all-time records including strikeouts and no-hitters.

As Ryan described to the LA Times while attending Morgan’s funeral in 1987:

“I remained pretty erratic (in 1972), but that was still the turning point of my career. Those mechanics gave me the basis on which to build. If it wasn’t for the interest Tom took in me and all that time he spent with me, I don’t know where I’d be.”

“It’s hard to put a value on what Tom meant to me. But he was more than just a pitching coach. He was a good friend to me as well.”