I will be on the radio again tonight at 7:30pm for 12 minutes to give over a quick Torah teaching. Tune into http://www.israelnationalnews.com
12:30pm EST, 9:30pm WST
Please log onto http://www.radiofreenachlaot.com and tune into a live show with yours’ truly as guest, from 3-5pm, Holy Land Time, EST- 8-10AM, WST- 5-7AM. Let me know what you think….Blessings
From the time Lisa Siegel was a little girl, she had terrible nausea, mental fog that came and went, and tightness and cramping in her muscles so severe that it would wake her in the night. She was 47 before she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but she remembers a childhood dominated by hospitalizations, doctors and pain. Nothing worked — not Advil, not Tylenol, not the other medications her doctors kept prescribing.
In her 20s, Siegel tried cannabis. “Immediately my muscles relaxed and that nauseous feeling disappeared,” she said. As she began to smoke marijuana regularly, “the spasms started going away and these bizarre symptoms that came and went—they just started to go away.”
But Siegel, now 60 and living in Deptford, N.J., traded one problem for another. “I’m blessed enough to find something that helped me, but on the other hand, it turned me into a criminal.”
The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act will change that. The bill, which passed on January 10 by wide margins in both the House and the Senate, makes New Jersey the 14th state to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Governor Jon Corzine signed the legislation on January 19, on his last day in office. The law is expected to take effect in six months.
A similar bill is under consideration in Harrisburg by Pennsylvania lawmakers. The Jewish Social Policy Action Network, a small Philadelphia-based group, was one of the first organizations invited to testify at Pennsylvania House committee hearings. The group is committed to“progressive principles drawn from Jewish teachings,” according to its mission statement.
“Jewish teachings tell us that we should alleviate pain and suffering in other human beings,” said JSPAN’s president, Brian Gralnick. “We thought it was consistent with Jewish traditions, teachings and values — speaking up on issues where others may be afraid or hesitant to.”
In fact, in the Jewish world, JSPAN is far from alone. Medical marijuana enjoys wide support across the spectrum of politics and observance.
In November, Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a rosh yeshiva, or dean, at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and professor of Jewish medical ethics at the college, told the Yeshiva University student newspaper, The Observer, that Jewish law permits the use of medical marijuana in certain circumstances. Another prominent Orthodox rabbi, Sholom Kamenetsky of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, provided “halachic overview” to a paper posted on the Website jlaw.com that concluded that “there probably are select cases in which [Judaism] would permit the distribution of medical marijuana.”
Mainstream Reform Jewish groups are also supportive. In 2003, the Union for Reform Judaism passed a resolution in support of medical marijuana. The URJ-affiliated group Women of Reform Judaism has even published a “Medical Marijuana as Mitzvah” study guide.
Medical studies of marijuana have focused primarily on its analgesic, or pain-relieving, properties, its ability to suppress nausea and vomiting, and its properties as an appetite stimulant. “It’s useful for pain, and it’s particularly useful for pain in people who have nausea or have some sort of wasting illness, like AIDS, or patients with cancer, because it stimulates the appetite,” says Dr. Howard Fields, professor of neurology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. “It does have medical value, no question about it, and I think doctors should be free to prescribe it.”
Researchers have also seen marijuana relieve some symptoms of neurologic disorders like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Some studies have also found that marijuana relieves the eye pressure that is the main symptom of glaucoma.
In Israel, medical marijuana has been legal since 1999. But in November a Knesset panel asked the Ministry of Health to assemble more comprehensive regulations for its production and distribution. Under Israeli law, patients with certain medical conditions can apply to receive free marijuana from the government.
Halachic questions about medical marijuana usually hinge on the Jewish prohibition against self-harm, as well as on the commentator Rashbam’s instructions in the Talmud to avoid any medication “unless there is no alternative available.” In states where medical marijuana is illegal, there is also the principle of dina d’malkhuta dina, or “the law of the land is the law”: Jews living in the Diaspora must be good citizens of the country in which they live.
Still, most Jewish thinkers on the issue have concluded that all these concerns are trumped by the Jewish imperative toward compassion and the sanctity of life — which, they say, includes quality of life.
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“Judaism, because of its monotheistic faith, does not like to have you subject to anything else,” Rabbi Tendler said. “Addiction [is] like you taking another God unto yourself.” On the other hand, Jews have a “God-obligated duty to heal anyone who is ill. You tell me there are people who are suffering pain, I have to do something to help them.
“Any evaluation of our literature would say relieving their pain would take precedence,” Tendler said. “Therefore, if indeed marijuana is the only solution to their problem, to relieve them of their pain, then it certainly would be permitted.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn, executive director of the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, a left-leaning policy and advocacy organization that calls for a more public-health, less criminal justice-centered approach to drug policy, agreed. “We as Jews must see that (sick people) have safe access to what’s bringing them comfort and relief,” Kahn said. “For the sake of mercy and compassion — important Jewish concepts — this is a Jewish issue.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137032.html
Chanukah: The great light when we see each other again
By Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach on December 21, 1992 – כ”ו כסלו תשנ”ג
You can be the richest man in the world, you can have everything between heaven and earth, you can be in the same room with the one thing you have been looking for, but if there is no light to show you where it is, then you do not have it. Chanukah is the holiday of the inside light, the hidden light, the light which is burning amidst the deepest darkness. On Chanukah we celebrate the light which gave the Maccabees the strength in the darkest period to believe that they can drive out the Greeks in the Holy Land.
You see, my best friends, when we are born, G-d gives us everything, every day G-d gives us everything; only sometimes we turn off the light by our mistakes. Sometines we blow out our own candles, so on Chanukah HaShem gives us back the light we need the most.
Chanukah is the holiday when the Talmud says,“Chanukah is a man and his house,” meaning that the whole family has to come together. Because between husband and wife, parents and children, you can stand next to each other for a thousand years and be as far away as two million eternities. Chanukah is the great light when we see each other again. According to the Kabbalistic tradition it is deeper than Yom Kippur. It is the holy of holiest, but not in the temple, in my own house. We kindle the light by the door to tell the people – the outside people – who have not yet found their own house, who have not yet found their own soul, who have not yet found even their own friend. And we share our light with them.
All the hatred in the world is only because people don’t see each other. Chanukah is the holiday that we are closest to the Messiah and, gevalt, do we need the world to see us one time! And gevalt, do we need all the Jews one time to see the holiness of being Jewish! Let it be this year. Amen.
Chanukah: Taking care of our children, Taking care of the little candles
November 20, 1988 – י”א כסלו תשמ”ט
A lot of people always pray for children. There is a very simple way- buy yourself a baby carriage. Enroll your child in yeshiva, buy a Chumash for your baby, buy a Gemara. And you know something- G-d doesn’t let you down.
A person came to the holy Reb Dovid Dinover and said, “Rebbe, bless me with children”. He says, “I’ll tell you the truth- my chossid, the heilige Reb Feivish Tosher, he is an expert on blessing with children. Why don’t you go and ask him to come to you for lunch, and he’ll take care of you.” The heilige Tosher comes in, and begins running around in the house like crazy. So this Yiddele says to him, “holy Rebbe, what are you looking for?” The Rebbe says, “I’m looking for a baby carriage.” He says, Rebbe, “I have no children.” The Rebbe says, “do you know I only eat in a house that has children?” The Yiddele says, “Rebbe, what am I going to do now?” He says, “I’ll tell you something, I’ll come back next year.”
First he promises he’ll eat, then he promises himself never to eat in a house that has no children. So he’s forcing G-d to give this Yiddele children. I want you to know, on Yom Kippur we are not forcing G-d. We are standing before G-d, asking Him- give me long life, give me parnossa, a living- maybe we’ll have a good year, hopefully.
But the last night of Chanukah- Zot Chanukah- Zot means clear. I know I’ll have a good year, do you know why? Because I’m looking at my little candles, at my children. I’m saying to G-d, You’d better take care of me because my children need me. You’d better give me long life, because I’ve got to take care of those candles. So a father and mother are standing before G-d saying, listen G-d, I have You in my hands. I’m taking care of my children- that means You’d better take care of me.
If you want to have a good year, take that little candle, that holy drop of oil G-d sends into your house, and seal it with the seal of the High Priest. Make your children so holy and so beautiful- so, so beautiful. Chanukah is mehadrin min hamehadrin, most, most beautiful.
You know, it’s not enough to be frum, it’s not enough to be a servant of G-d. It has to be beautiful. Reb Nachman says, whatever is in this world, is in Heaven the same way. Nobody can stand sad people, ugly people. You just have patience, but you’re not loving them. You can’t blow your mind that you want to be in their presence. It’s the same way for G-d. Ugliness is very hard for G-d to stomach. On Chanukah we’re beautiful again.
Do you know why we are beautiful? Because we are taking care of our children, taking care of the little candles, taking care of that holy oil which G-d gave us. So I bless you, friends- Take care of your baby carriages, take care of your children, take care of your houses. And let it be the best year of your life.
Chanukah: Seeing in the shining lights only the beauty of people.
Sometimes, I ask myself, after the destruction of the Holy Temple nearly two thousand years ago we still cannot stop thinking about it. How come? How come? Who ever heard of mourning for a house destroyed so long ago? But, let me tell you. Imagine that I loved this girl very much, and then we had a fight, but before we separated we agreed that once a year for eight days, that we would be as close as we once were. Can I then ever forget her? I want you to know that our Holy Rabbis teach us that on Chanuka we are once again in Jerusalem and not here in Poughkeepsie. We are not ordinary people on Chanuka, but we are all High Priests and we are kindling the lights in the Holy Temple.
Kindling the Chanuka lights is a lesson in Jewish history. Knowing the past is vital, but living it and re-living it is the obligation of the Jew. History is important, but merely knowing facts is pagan, an aspect of Greek culture. A Jew survives in the present because he also experiences his past. And what is it about Chanuka that we celebrate? Not the amazing feat that seventy priests defeated a highly trained army of Greek soldiers. Do not think that Judah the Maccabbee, or his father Matisyahu, the High Priest studied military strategy. I can assure you that they never held a weapon in their hands before they fought the Greeks. A priest in the Temple does not train with weapons. The priests are the pillar of peace and forgiveness. Our Holy Rabbis taught us that Aaron, the first High Priest, loved peace and always pursued it. The Maccabees fought to restore the glory of G-d, but today we celebrate the miracle of the lights.
Each day that the candles burned was a great miracle. G-d promised the Maccabees that the lights rekindled by them would burn forever. Each day that the candles burned was a great miracle. G-d promised the Maccabees that the lights rekindled by them would burn forever. Each day we add one more light. We must teach our children to remember the holy ancient lights, but also to add new lights, new ways.
Modernity is not alien to religion, it enhances it.
The young people of today are not unlike the young people in the days of the Maccabees. They too have strayed from their holy tradition. We need someone like Judah Maccabee to show us how beautiful it is to be a Jew. Young people must understand that G-d needs each of them to make a special contribution to our religion, that only they are capable of making. Every day we are supposed to add new lights. G-d wants even the most alienated person to be a shining light. On Chanuka we see in the shining lights only the beauty of people.
You know what I consider the worst possible meeting that a person can attend– a parents and teachers meeting, where teachers tell parents how bad their children are. Basically, parents see only good in their children, but unfortunately sometimes they let the bad things teachers tell them about their children affect them. A so-called rebellious child must be viewed like seeing Miss America in the mud– she is still beautiful but all she needs is to be washed off. Yes, sometimes our children do not behave well and so require a little bit of fixing and that must not detract from the fact that they are still basically good. If we can transmit to our children how our grandparents blessed the Chanuka candles, then and only then can we guarantee that our grandchildren will also offer holy blessings over the candles and continue to serve as shining lights.
Chanukah: Giving us the Strength to Perform the Greatest Miracles
By Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach on December 21, 1983 – ט”ו טבת תשמ”ד
Every month we are fixing a certain aspect of our lives. The fixing of this month, Kislev, is sleeping. Inasmuch as light disturbs your sleep, if it is too dark, you are afraid to sleep.
Hanukah is the holiday of the hidden light, the light which shines into the deepest darkness. What is utter darkness to the soul? To think that I am utterly alone. Hanukah is the holiday that even if all the vessels of the holy temple are defiled, the holiest miracles are happening to us every second – miracles from another world, from the world of deepest holiness where defilement doesn’t reach.
What is it to be alone in the world? To think that there to nobody in the world who can perform miracles for me. Hanukah is the Initiation of the holy temple: G-d’s temple, Israel temple. Husband and wife temple. Parents and children temple.
You can do anything in the world outside your house. For sleeping, you need a house. Nothing brings parents and children closer, than when parents put their children to sleep. Why do children need their parents to put them to sleep? Because they need to know that there is someone watching who can and will perform miracles for them – someone whose love comes from a world of utmost purity and undefilement.
Every year, Hanukah the festival of miracles, the festival of rebuilding the house, the festival of Aaron the High Priest, fixes all our relationships, teaches us to love each other, and especially our family, with the utmost undefiled love. Yom Kippur we become one with G-d again — Hanukah we become one with our children again. Yom Kippur I promise G-d I’ll do right again. Hanukah I promise my children and G-d and the whole world: I’ll perform the greatest miracles for you.
Please, please let it be clear to you that Hanukah is the greatest holiday, that on Hanukah G-d gives us strength so that you and I – the Macabees of today – can perform the greatest miracles.
Chanukah: Light reaching the darkest corners of our hearts
By Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach on December 21, 1973 – כ”ו כסלו תשל”ד
Everybody knows that Hanukkah is really the end of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Simchas Torah. That means that the High Holidays are all beautiful, but the highest point of them all is on Hanukkah.
On Rosh Hashanah, I am in awe before the King of kings. On Yom Kippur, I stand before G-d again and measure myself. Inside I am saying to myself, “I did such and such good deeds and such and such not so good deeds.” But on Hanukkah I stop thinking this way altogether because the deepest question is not how many evil deeds and how many good deeds I have done.
The deepest question is “What do I have inside of me?” When the whole story is over, what remains inside of me? How do I feel? Am I closer than I ever was with G-d? Am I in touch with the inside of my soul? Is there any light left in my heart? Where am I?
If after all these questions, I discover that there is still light left inside of me, then I owe it to the world. I must be the one to help bring the Mashiach. I must be the one to open the doors for G-d’s Light to shine into the world.
However, if after all these questions, I am still left in the dark; If after all these holidays, the world around me is still in the dark, then I must ask myself, “What good was it all?”
On Yom Kippur, G-d forgives us for our mistakes. On Simchas Torah we dance them all off. But that still does not answer the question, “When does G-d fix our hearts? When does G-d take all the hatred and pain from our hearts? When are we healed? When does G-d give us back the holiness of once again being able to see that Light in others and being able to bless them in our own hearts? When do we recognize the light in ourselves and in all of those beautiful people around us?” The answer my beautiful friends, is on Hanukkah.
Hanukkah is the time of the Macabees, descendents of Aaron the High Priest. Aaron’s specialty was making peace between people. How can someone make peace between people? Aaron HaCohen had the level of holiness of actually being able to cleanse a person’s heart of all hatred and pain. It was only after that cleansing that they could see the light in others and make peace with the entire world around them. This is a very special blessing he gave to us.
Face it. If each time I make a mistake, I feel more bitterness towards others, its only because I feel bitterness towards myself. And with every bit of this bitterness, I become further and further away from my Neshama, and from my own heart. On Yom Kippur, it may be that G-d fixes my soul. But its on Hanukkah that the Great Light shines into my heart. And so when I stand before a mirror, I see a beautiful person instead of a Shmendrik.
So on Hanukkah, my beautiful friends, the lights are burning, even into the darkest hours of the night. And while that light flickers, we are praying, “Master of the World, if it is my mistakes that have kept me in darkness, let this Hanukkah Light shine into all areas of my darkness. Let this Hanukkah Light keep me from ever hating people. Let this Hanukkah Light give me so much holiness that all the darkness of the world can not take away my love for myself and all the beautiful people.”
And so I want to bless you and bless myself that this Hanukkah should fix us and its Light should reach the darkest corners of our hearts. And we should all be blessed to realize that when we do kindle a candle, it is G-d’s Light we have brought into the world.
Chanukah: Kindle one more candle to shine into the world, until all the streets of the world are full of light
By Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach on December 21, 1973 – כ”ו כסלו תשל”ד
Teaching and Giving Over.
There is such a thing as teaching, and there is such a thing as giving over. Giving something over to someone is much deeper than teaching. The Torah says Moses received the Torah on Mt. Sinai, and he came down, but it does not say he taught the Torah to Joshua. It says ‘u’m’sora’ , gave it over to Joshua. This is the deepest depths there is. Sometimes one meets someone one can study with for ten years, they can teach you for ten years and they don’t give anything over to you. Sometimes you meet someone, and maybe they don’t teach you so much but they give something over to you.
Reb Mendele Vorker, the silent Rebbe, was a rebbe for 40 years, and in those 40 years he only spoke eight times. Even those times, on a teaching level he didn’t say anything. At one time he was sitting with his Chassidim for fourteen hours and at the end he said, HaShem Echad”. “G-d is One” and then he said, “Happy is the one who knows that ‘G-d is one’ means G-d is One”. On a teaching level he didn’t say anything, but when he said “Hashem Echad”. “G-d is One”, he gave it over. We need someone to give over Yiddishkeit to us. We need someone to give over to us, not to teach us that there is one G-d.’
The Torah says ‘Jacob, Yisrael, loved Yosef more than all his children. Naturally today, on the low level we are, if a father loves his son, he says to him, “Man” – Oh no, he would never say man, that would be too far out. He says, “Son, I want to do something special for you – buy you a trip to Bermuda!” But what does it mean Jacob loved Yosef more? Listen what Rashi says, All the things which Yaakov learned at the Yeshiva of Shem and Aver he gave over to Yosef. You see, he taught all his children the same information, but to Yosef he gave it over.
The Bais Yaakov says the most unbelievable thing. Sometimes the holy prophets knew everything clearly, and sometimes they knew everything, but it wasn’t clear. The Midrash says “Yaakov loved Yosef more than all his children” and it also says G-d says to Israel “I love you”. This is my humble explanation. What did Yaakov give over to Yosef? He gave over to him that he should know that G-d says I love you. Knowing that G-d loves you is something you can not get via teaching. It has to be given over to you. So the thing is like this, Yaakov didn’t have clear prophecy, because he was not to know that Yosef was to be a slave. But Yaakov knew that Yosef needed something special, because he was the first Jew in exile.
Chanuka is the one holiday which has no tractates in the Gemora. Every other holiday has a long tractate, even Purim, which is a minor holiday. Chanuka has only about a page and a half in the Gemara. Chanuka is a holiday of giving over. It says in the Krias Shma that you should teach your children when you sit in your house and when you go on your way. Teaching is ‘at home’ and giving over is ‘on your way’ because there is no time for teaching on the way, only time for giving over. Chanuka is teaching and giving over become one, because on Chanuka I have to put lights at the door of my house so that the light the house (teaching) shines into the street (giving over).
When you teach someone you are not sure his light will increase, but when you give over to someone you know his light will grow. That is why each night of Chanuka we kindle one more candle to shine into the world, until all the streets of the world are full of light.
Chanukah: All the Doors and the Windows of our Hearts are Open to Each Other
By Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach on December 21, 1993 – ז’ טבת תשנ”ד
People wonder sometimes how after two thousand years Yerushalayim is still the center of our hearts and the Beis Hamikdash is still our address. The answer is very simple: because on Chanuka, wherever we are it is Yerushalayim; our house is the Holy Temple and every Jew is the High Priest.
Why don’t we confess our mistakes on Chanuka? The answer is that on Yom Kippur, only the High Priest walks into the Holy of the Holiest. On Chanuka when we light the candles every Jew is the Holy of the Holiest. On Yom Kippur only the High Priest walks into the Holy of the Holiest but when I see what the Greeks do to my children, how they destroy the holiness of their fires, how they defile the soul of their souls, then I have no other way but to take my wife and my children into the Holy of Holiest.
And everybody knows that in the Holy of Holiest you don’t talk about mistakes. You don’t say bad things – even about yourself. You don’t even say bad things about the world. You just want G-d’s light to reach the four corners of the world. So, our holy rabbis tell us that Chanuka is the light of the Messiah; the deepest, deepest, most hidden light in the world… a light that reaches the most hidden place in our hearts.
We kindle the lights by the door or window of the house because on . G-d’s Oneness, the Oneness of all of Israel and the Oneness of all the world is revealed to us in the most glorious way. While we look at the Chanuka candles, I bless us to be together with all the people we love as the light of Chanuka is shining into our eyes.
Originally Published in Kehilat Jacob News
Transcribed from a session in Moshav Mevo Modiin, 5753.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118635.html
Wow. I have 45 hours to finish moving out of my apartment, pack, take care of last minute things in Yerushalayim, before I get on the plane to California. So, I’m having my morning coffee and scanning the news. Today’s Times has some critical, riveting articles that I think are must reads. Please do so.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/opinion/04rich.html?_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/opinion/04friedman.html
http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/we-dont-surrender-until-we-have-to/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/world/europe/03edelman.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574443353532223162.html
Today, I have almost completed packing up all my stuff for storage. I’m moving out of my apartment in Tekoa, after 3 and 3/4 years here. It’s the longest I’ve lived in one place for over 20 years. On Tuesday morning, I fly off to California for I pray will be 5-6 months, well paid gainful employment. The vision is to return with enough to move forward to Yerushalayim and begin creating my own Spiritual Center.
I never thought I would leave the Holy Land at all, let alone an extended time period. I have also, never been closer to finally having my own ‘movie’ happening. People with talents and strengths that I lack are begining to pop up with a desire to help make things happen. For this I am so gratefull.
Two nights ago, I got lost going through every scrap of people that I accumulated since childhood and that somehow stayed with me. I could write books about it all. Suffice it to say that it is a mind-blowing thing to have such access to a picture some 50 years long. It will take much to review that which survived the paper-recycling recepticle.
I will be bringing alot of Torah papers and every fone number and name jotted down to organize while I’m there.
It’s 2 am, I’m beat. I’m crashing. And remember:
http://www.rebshlomo.org for the REAL scoop on Sukot. And while I’m at it,
SHABBAT SHALOM and CHAG SAMEACH!
Dearest Friends,
I have been struggling with how to address this awesome day, at this awesome time in history. I started with a rambling discourse that would be more suitable for a book. And then I received an email that brings it all into the perspective of the personal. So I post this awesome email (anonymously) and my response. I pray that it be usefull for one and all.
Shalom Reb Moish,
My guess is that you don’t expect to hear what I’m about to say here and now, and that’s alright. I didn’t expect myself to write this email up until several days ago. But now that I’m typing it there’s nothing more important for me then to make sure that you take this email seriously and don’t dismiss it as “one of those weird outputs” or as “orthodox Jewish holiday spam” or as one of the notorious “*****’s best of crap” emails. I’m 100% committed to what I’m saying here; I’m 100% serious about the need to write and send emails like
this one and I’m writing this text because I’m convinced that it’s the right thing to do. It is my modest hope to serve as a role model so that perhaps more people will take time and courage to say out loud what they never thought possible to express in tones, words and letters.
For now let this one email be an unusual guest in your mailbox. Consider it an unexpected sign; a pouring out of the soul of somebody who can’t agree with apathy and who’s had enough of the prevalent indifference of our time.
See, I transgressed my highest ideals, I sinned, I committed iniquity towards my fellow men by doing the following: I have judged rigorously upon everyone I met. In my heart I compared myself with others for the
sole purpose to find a weakness in them and by assumption that a person is only as noble as his weakest trait, to elevate myself over my fellow man and thus to feel better, higher, stronger. With that I have denied every person I met the right to have any flaw. I assumed to be the measure for all people, I subconsciously assumed to be perfect. I stopped to look for the positive traits of people, I stopped to just appreciate people the way they are, I did not judge people by their actions anymore, but I proactively looked for their faults and when I found them I exploited them for my personal psychological purposes. I committed the horrible transgression of
self-assured pride when I stripped down my fellow brothers and sisters to their core, and there was not one core that I have not found faulty, except of course my own. For me I had excuses, but for other people I had criticism and sometimes even worse. I assumed that because of my talents and potential I was indeed naturally better / higher / stronger then others. Because I’m so clearly aware of myself I saw in others only their limits and biases, and that is equal to gazing upon their nakedness.
In my lofty heights I subconsciously despised everybody without even being aware of it. For no reason but self-satisfaction and pride have I baselessly hated everybody whoever by virtue or coincidence crossed my way or remained in my life for a little while. I am guilty of baseless hatred and I’m sorry for it.
Behold, I regret, and am embarrassed for my deeds. I promise never to repeat these acts again. I have gained nothing from judgments over others. Through judgment I have not grown in any respect; I have not created a positive difference in my life but have instead damaged the whole world a little bit by not seeing the beautiful sites of people. By reducing people to their most apparent negative attributes I have predispositioned my responses to people to be reactions to those attributes. If, for example, I would behold a person choosing between several alternatives, I would hold it guilty of being dependent on other people’s opinions where I could and would have chosen sovereignly. My negative opinion about that person would from then on be fixed and would not change unless proven wrong several times. I would spurn that person for not being independent enough while I would assume that I can’t be subject to his / her “error” and am thus better/ higher / stronger.
I’m asking for forgiveness with sincere heart and outpoured soul. I repent from my sins and I want to be a better person and a better Jew. Please accept my apology and excuse my misdeeds. With Yom Kippur only
hours away, let’s rule off old sinful behavior and with the help of God begin a new year filled with pursuit of righteousness and personal growth.
All the Best,
Holy Brother,
The only question I have is why you are directing this email to me. I have not perceived nor personally experienced these tranrgessions. At least not directed personally towards me. And if there have been such judgments towards me, they did not reach a place inside that I have felt nor had a conscious impact upon me.
I do know of what you speak as my own transgressions in the past. I have worked dilligently to overcome them as I continue to do so. it’s a lifelong project. I have been forced by Heaven to abandon such judgments and expectations, as HaShem has involved me in so many of the life’s crises that afllict all to many in these times.
I have learned that our hardness towards others reflects a hardness to ourselves, usually because this was imposed upon us in the home we come from. And as I have learned to have compassion for and forgive those closest to me I have learned to have compassion for and forgive myself. With this comes acceptance of others failings and weaknesses.
You will experience though, a continuation of these on a feeling level. The job is not to put them into practice and working on that you will find the way to remove them from your heart. The idea is not to identify with the feelings. Just see them as conditioned feelings and let go of them as you as you become aware of them. You recognize there existence, acknowledge them, but do not identify with them as an authentic expression of your soul. In time you will see them lessened and you will find your natural love and compassion and mercy flowing though you. And then the big pay off. You will see HaShem directing you through all this. You will see that you had all this negativity as a gift venue to emerge as a higher being, more united with your soul.
I applaud and commend you and bless you to see that you are already on your way to redemption. And I further bless you to embrace this reality of being ‘on your way.’ Let it gladden you and give your heart and strength to continue with clarity and fortitude, encouragement and confidence.
May you have an easyt fast, awesome davening. Remember, Reb Shlomo says, “How do we know if our prayers were accepted on Yom Kippur? How much are we b’simcha at its conclusion?” I bless you to be b’simcha raba at the Yom Kippurs conclusion. Thank you for honoring me with this pouring out of your heart. it is a lesson to us all.
G’Mar Chatima Tova, Shana Tova U’Metuka, and Hatzlacha B’Chol Ha’inyanim.
With love, Moish
There is so much that can be learned just learning about Yom Kippur. I beg one and all to read, study, be touched, moved and exalted through going through the teachings of my Holy Master, Rebbe Reb Shlomo Carlebach. Just log onto http://www.rebshlomo.org.
It’s all there. I’ll post some short, quick teachings on Sunday. Shabbat Shalom, Moish
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