A Teacher

We can't strive for goals that are unachievable. On the other hand, "When will will my behaviour reach the levels of our forefathers?" I don't know about you but I'm not getting there.
How do we reconcile both seemingly contradicting feelings?
This was a question inspired by the curriculum of Sinai Scholars last night.
It is interesting because we really see this contradiction by sports and physical training. you can't set your goal too high but on the other hand you can't set it too low either. The answer is a teacher that helps you set realistic goals but pushes you farther than you ever thought you could go.

NIMBY

Many people have strong opinions on how to solve society's challenges. many people believe we have to help the homeless the disenfranchised and even the ex-convicts. But many people want the problem to be solved elsewhere, or NIMBY.

According to one poster on the urban dictionary website, NIMBY is: "Used to describe a person or an attitude, NIMBY is an abbreviation for Not In My Back Yard. A NIMBY might agree that a community or a neighborhood needs a half-way house for convicts transitioning back to society, but doesn't want it placed too close to his or her own home or in the neighborhood."

The Torah, however believes that to heal society’s ills, you cannot expect someone else, or the government, to solve problem elsewhere. Rather, you must roll up your sleeves, ‘get your hands dirty’, only then can you expect to create positive change.

This idea is crystallized in the law of the Torah that is perhaps the most uncomfortable to the modern ear, the law of the Jewish servant. At first glance people wonder how can the Torah, which is supposed to be the epitome of Divine morality, condone servitude? Upon close examination, however, this law contains deep ethical and moral lessons for us living in the modern world.   

The Jewish servant is someone who stole money and is unable to repay. Instead of incarcerating the thief, which does little to rehabilitate the criminal, as the U.S. department of justice writes on it’s website that “In a 15 State study, over two-thirds of released prisoners were rearrested within three years”, the Torah puts forth a system of rehabilitation.

The Torah mandates that the criminal serve for six years and repay the debt to the victim of his crimes. This service, however, should not be performed in some far away prison camp, rather the thief is sent to a home of an upstanding member of the community. That’s because the Torah expects that in the home of the “master” the thief will find, perhaps for the first time in his life, warmth and compassion. We expect the “host family” to treat the servant as a member of the extended family, giving him the dignity of being able to correct his mistake in a warm and loving environment.

Now, let’s think about the host family for a moment. Why would they choose to hire the six year servant, a contract that demands a great deal of the master? To quote Maimonides:

“A master is obligated to treat any Hebrew servant or maid servant as his equal with regard to food, drink, clothing and living quarters, as implied by Deuteronomy 15:16 "for it is good for him with you." The master should not eat bread made from fine flour while the servant eats bread from coarse flour. The master should not drink aged wine while the servant drinks fresh wine. The master should not sleep on cushions while the servant sleeps on straw. Nor should the master live in a walled city while the servant lives in a village, or the master live in a village while the servant lives in a walled city, as implied by Leviticus 25:41: "And he shall leave you." (meaning that when he leaves, he leaves from “you”, from being your equal. M.F.) On this basis, our Sages said: "Whoever purchases a Hebrew servant purchases a master for himself." A master must treat his servant with brotherly love, as implied by Leviticus 25:46: "And with regard to your brothers, the children of Israel".

So with all that said, why would anybody want to purchase a servant?

The answer is that the host family is hiring the six year servant because they want to perform a Mitzvah. They understand that he needs help in order to work his way back into society and they are offering to help. They believe in compassion and kindness. They understand that if you want help someone, it’s not enough to write a check. You must open up your home. You must invite him or her into your family.

Like the story my dear friend and study partner, Steve, told me. He was an officer in the NYPD serving in the Bronx in the seventies. One day he is called to a store where the employees have caught someone stealing. Steve approached the guy and asked why he stole. The guy said that he has three children at home and he needs the money to feed them. Steve went in to speak to Mr. Hecht the store owner. When Mr. Hecht heard what the fellow said, not only did he refuse to press charges but he offered the guy a job on the spot.

What’s most amazing about this story is that within three years the guy moved up from stocking the shelves to store manager.

This would not happen by Mr Hecht just wanting to help the lost soul. It happened because Mr. Hecht opened the door and did more then let him into his backyard, he let him into his life.

Israeli Politics

I don't get involved with Israeli politics too much, but this is something that I have been thinking about recently.
When it comes to a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians there is one major issue which is usually not mentioned which I think is very important from an Israeli point of view. That is who is their partner? He is a leader of an entity which hasn't held elections since 2005. Now, Israel does have deals with dictators but they in general have control over their territory which is not the case with the PA. So where does Abbas's support come from? It mainly comes from being propped up by western governments through their financial support and their training of police and security personnel. And here is where the lesson of Egypt and Hosni Mubarak enters. Should Israel rely on the assurance of the west for the continued support of the current PA government? What happens if there is a political or popular uprising, similar to what happened in Egypt? Will America drop Abbas like a hot potato? What is the argument for why Israel should risk that?

Helium Balloon

We recently bought Helium balloons, and these balloons were attached to a long, light stick or maybe straw. What this effectively accomplished was that the balloons did not float away even without tying them down.
Basically there are two opposite forces at work here; the weight of the stick which is heavier than the air and weighs down, and the weight of the helium which is lighter than the air and as a result causes it to rise. And in this case the weight of the stick is enough to way the balloon down but not enough to drag it down to the ground.
In this particular case there are probably a few different ways to raise the balloon;
1. One can push or bump the balloon up and it will rise a little on its own and then settle back down.
2. A wind can blow and lift the balloon up.
3. One can chop some weight of the stick and it will automatically rise.
And the Nimshal to a Neshoma in a Guf is self-understood.

Our generation's test

I have just finished watching the webcast My Life: Chassidus Applied, by R' Simon Jacobson. I think that A Groiser Yasher Koach is deserved. I am a subscriber to his Omer and Elul daily email program and though I have learned a lot I don't faithfully carry out the program (perhaps it is too much for me, everyday working on another level, I like to go slower).
After the initial feeling of enjoyment, I felt a little sad (I had always looked down upon the generation which had Torah and/or Chassidus in the early twentieth century and to a large extent discarded it for a passing fancy of Communism or Socialism and to an extent Zionism which are less than a pale comparison to Torah and Chassidus. I have had a very strong education of the values of Chassidus, Rebbe and Kabolas Ol and feel sad when I meet or read about people which either didn't have as strong an education as I did or didn't accept theirs or rejected theirs. After watching this webcast I began to feel that this is our generations true test and that it really is no different than the early twentieth century test. The medium and symptom, that became the alternative, was that which was popular then, but the cause was the sensing (incorrectly) that Torah/Chassidus didn't apply (because it didn't have the answers) in a time of upheaval (or nowadays, it might be said that it is too lofty).
I was wrong to look down on that generation.
I watched the webcast with much delight as I felt that it answered that generation's, as well as this one's, main issue, How is it (Torah/Chassidus) applicable to me?
On another note, I feel that the role R' Jacobson, as well as R' Manis Friedman, have taken is the role of Mashpia. I sense and have heard that many people, including myself, are not able to find a Mashpia and it feels to me that that is the role this webcast has taken on. I look forward to watching more videos with great interest. I sense though people will have specific questions that can not be answered for a general audience and people will feel a void and also eventually become a little frustrated when they see the path tantalizingly in front of them but then they are not able to actualize it (which I think is the greatest reason that the inspiration of our youth has been extinguished. We ourselves (not someone else) extinguished it when we felt that we are not attaining it and do not want to deal with the failure).
And this brought me to another thought (in general I do not like trying to find explanations for why something is the way that it is, I find them usually pointless and generally wrong and slanted to our preconceived biases on how we see the world. But with that disclaimer), I sense that the reason so many people do not have a mashpia is not the way I used to, and so many others, think because no one has time or other similar explanations, rather it is that we want to find someone who understands our derech or where we are in life and that is very hard to find when one is looking in middle of one's life as opposed to someone who has known you since you were younger.
So if so many people enjoy these webcasts how can there be enough time to answer everyone personally? I propose that if there are like minded individuals that understand Chassidus similar to R' Jacobson and have clarity of thought to how it pertains to everyone, a list can be drawn up (hopefully 20 to 40) and people will feel comfortable going to them for more personal direction being as their outlook on life is similar to their own.
I know that this is quite far from being actualized, which led me to another thought. (As a personal note, sometimes I would feel down (either because of the matzav Ruchnius of myself or the world) and this feeling usually ends up as questioning, is the whole thing worth it? The best answer was watching the Rebbe say the Haftorah from a fast day, Dirshu, specifically the words Ki lo Machshivosay machshivoseichem v'lo darcheichem d'ruchoi, n'um Hashem), I think that utilizing the Omer and Elul framework of R' Jacobson can empower people to find that direction. I think that it should be structured as courses more than classes and the courses should be by topic so that people can choose that which they are looking for. And the course should be structured with explanation on the topic but together a significant part should be actual text and not just a snippet but a whole maamar or something of that length, it should be a curriculum of maamorim with explanation in between to internalize and actualize it and not let it remain as luft verter.
I think some of the topics should be Kabolas Ol, Ahavas Hashem, Yiras Hashem, Shlichus, Hashgocah Pratis etc. And in the course on Kabolas Ol, for example, we can have mamorim from the Alter Rebbe (Tanya. L"T) and other maamorim e.g. Achrei Havaya from the F"R, I think in '96 or '97, interspersed with activities that are grouped by categories that people are looking for (and here is primarily where one could utilize the framework of the Omer) e.g. people who are looking for help in their marriage relationship, or relationship with parents or bosses or G-d or children or any of life's different situations and they could be elucidated as how they pertain to a specific sefirah. And these activities would be a vital component to how Chassidus is relevant. The other vital component would be the Chassidus text itself seeing as Osios Machkimos and a lot of questions will fall away automatically (like my doubts when listening to the Rebbe. (which can lead to a component of multimedia to the course like listening to a specific shtikel fabrengen or a specific nigun with the biur of how this nigun pertains to a particular struggle.))
I see such courses filling a part of the vital need of a mashpia.
But b'ikar, Yisron HaOr m'toch HaChoshech.