Line, Crescent, Cross and Swastika

B-H

I ) + # The Four Representations of Civilizations

I don’t remember in which of Hoimar Von Ditfurth’s books I saw for the first time a picture of a virus under a microscope. I was either 10 or 15. I instantly knew – that thing did not assemble itself, the complexity of what I saw required ‘an assembler’. There is no other way about it.

It still took some time and study to establish my personal relationship with the Assembler and Creator. It took years until I found the path designated to approach Him and ultimately to accomplish complete Unity in Him.

But back then, for the first time in my life I saw a pattern, something undeniably too complex to exist without intent, design and supervision. A sign for those with open eyes and honesty to challenge their own ego in admission of this Higher Power.

Once the personal relationship was established, I had no need to continue seeing those signs. That is because now I was experiencing Him in my life. Yet, time and time again He gave me enjoyment of finding such revelations.

Once I began to learn the commentaries and Sefurim written by Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch I quickly developed a great love for every mark of his pen.

He exposed me to the essential idea that the Creator of the universe reveals himself in three methods. Besides the Torah and ‘nature’, He reveals Himself in human History as well. Any keen, intelligent, and sensitive mind can see His guiding actions in the development of mankind.

The earliest days and years of our history are known to us only through the revelation of Torah and our oral tradition recorded in the Medrish. As such, it should be treated as a part of the revelation given to the Jewish people and not as the third component of general revelation accessible to the rest of humanity. It must be stated that parts of the Sinaitic revelation were addressed to all children of Noah, all humans. Scientific research on nature and history is accessible to all humanity, if they seek the Truth.

In certain parts of humanity’s development, the Creator of Man can be easily, so to say, detected by anyone possessing any knowledge of history, culture, and religion. There are certain patterns which only stubborn individuals can deny as something random and “natural”.

We observe the patterns because patterns exist, and we are created with a mind able to see them.

My aim in composing this essay is to discuss these phenomena.

World Views

Humanity can be divided into four basic religious or cultural groups of people.

Each of these groups are represented by a graphic symbol defining the very core of their philosophies and approach to life, as individuals, as nations and as religions.

v  The First group is represented by a vertical line.

v  The Second group is represented by a curved and sloping line.

v  The Third group is represented by a vertical line that is interrupted by a second horizontal line.

v  The Fourth is represented by a cross with arms broken in a way that is showing movement. In some cultures, it takes the form of a swastika on the square plane, in other cultures it may be on the circle plane or a wheel. Some other places contain only three arms of sign representing turn around.

Our Mesorah, or more commonly referred to as Oral Tradition, describes additional details to the history described in the first chapters of Tanach, the first chapters of the Bible.

The history of the creation of Adam and Eve is known by nearly all mankind.

Some people deny the veracity of the Bible as a whole and like to describe it as a Mid-Eastern legend of nomadic tribes from the Sinai Peninsula.

Others take moral and spiritual inspiration from this story. As it was declared for the first time in the history of the nations, that all mankind comes from the same set of parents created by G-d. In contrast to the myths that told that humans came out from different body parts of gods or that they have evolved on different trees.

Yet there are those who are inspired by the moral lessons but deny the historic value of this story. The story of creation seems a little bit childish and naïve to them.

However, for those of us who understand the Holy Language and who learn the Torah, it is well-known that precisely this part of The Tanach contains the greatest levels of revelation and veracity. In the narrative of Genesis is prescribed the goal of humanity itself and a guide for every individual to choose his or her own goals in life.

First Man: Paragon of Humanity

Adam HaRishon – the first man, was created completely naked and morally pure in fact, his skin was translucent and had a transcending glow of illumination and was made of fingernail-like substance. He was of immense height and stature and had supernatural sight and insight. He was mature in mind yet innocent in spirit. Being devoid of shame and immorality (there was no right or wrong for him, only true and false) there was no reason to cover his skin.

Immediately when Adam sinned, he discovered that he was naked. Namely, he discovered that there is shame in his nakedness. He covered himself with fig leaves and upon leaving the Garden after the sin,  G-d gave him a set of clothes made out of animal skin. It is clear and obvious that the animalistic nature of Adam prevailed over the Angelic, spiritual makeup of his higher being. Thus, Adam was greatly demoted from his lofty position and his radiance and splendor much diminished.

Since then, man must cover his or her skin, as a proof of his failure and shame. The clothes made by G-d possessed potent characteristics of illumination and power. Generations later these clothes were used by individuals like Nimrod and Eisav. They used it as a ‘magical’ device of intimidation and as a tool to deceive people into worshiping and submitting to them.

It should be added that the word ‘skin’ (עור – pronounced OR)) and word ‘light’ (אור – pronounced OIR) in Holy Tongue are pronounced almost the same and only the spelling of the first letter is different. This is because of Adom’s physical/spiritual illumination was changed to an object of separation, distancing, and darkening of his relationship with creation and the Creator (thus we find disharmony between humans and animals, the labor needed to cultivate, the fear of the night, etc).

 

 

The Staff of Elokim

It is brought in Kabbalah that Adom was created naked and unclothed. However, he was holding in his hand a device, a staff. This staff appears later in the Biblical narrative when it comes into the possession of Moshe Rabeynu (Moses) and is called “Mateh Elokim” – the Staff of G-d.

It was a device created in the hand of the first man.

Just as man himself and all the physical and natural phenomenon surrounding him, this device was representing something from the higher spiritual reality.

The Staff was made out of the same material as the Luchois Habris – the Tablets of the Covenant. This material is called “Even Saphiri” – Stone of Saphiri. This stone was heavenly blue in color (sapphire) evoking the Heavenly Abode.

Furthermore, the word “saphiri” is associated with “Sefirot” (G-dly emanations and attributes), “Sefira” (counting of 50 days from Pesach to Shevuos), “Sapar” (telling; story), “Sefer” (book) and many other words which by association can give an idea of what this stone was about, namely a “telling” or representation of the Spiritual potential.

The Staff in Moshe’s Possession

To add another element to the puzzle, let’s examine the story of when Moishe, our Master and Teacher met G-d for the first-time, face to face.

He was holding a Mateh – a staff, in his hand at the time. This staff was the Matteh Elokim. How did this staff come to be in Moshe’s possession?

The Medrish says that Moshe ``plucked it '' out from his father-in-law Yisro’s garden. In turn, Yisro stole it from Egypt when he abdicated his post as advisor to Pharaoh. In turn, it was brought to Egypt by Yosef who got it from Yaakov and who acquired it from his forebears all the way to the time of Creation.

For a short while Yaakov was in possession of two objects given to Adam by his Creator, the Staff and the Beged Ha’Or – garments of hides, when he wore them to get the blessing from his father Yitzchok. However, there was one moment in his life when Yaakov was completely naked and the only thing that was left in his hand was the Mateh – the staff. It was when Eliphaz ben Eisav caught up to him at the River of Yarden while escaping from Eisav. He remained with nothing but his staff. Just as Adam, Yaakov the perfect one (Tam) had nothing but the staff. 

It should be noted, the fact that he wore the clothes for this short a time, affected his descendants in the most negative way.

We know that “masey avois simun lebunim” – the doings of the patriarchs are a preordination for their children. Namely, the Patriarchs’ actions and life events are like a genetical code that forms and shapes the history and character of the Jewish people. I will explain this particular event later.

The Staff in Egypt

When Moishe met Hashem, he was told to throw the staff on the ground and that it would turn into a snake in order to convince his brothers about the legitimacy of his mission. But first Moishe has to convince himself.

The staff becomes a snake, not just any snake, which of course Moishe would not be afraid of while talking to the Creator himself. He saw the snake that brought devastation and suffering on the first man and his descendants and this was something that Moishe was afraid of – even while talking to G-d.

Hashem tells Moishe to grab the snake, but not from the front rather from the tail end, in a way of trickery.

It immediately becomes a staff again from the tail to the head: the Snake becomes a vertical linear object in the hand of man.

When Moishe meets the Pharaoh, he shows him that a time will come when the snake will be grabbed and be made into a device going from down, up, from a lower to higher realm.

Pharaoh, his priests, his wives and children replied to Moishe that it will not be so fast and not so easy. They could make staff into snakes and that’s what they are planning to do throughout history.

Moishe’s Staff eats the snakes of Mitzrayim – the Egyptians. That is the end and goal of history.

The Straight Line

We are created as the Tzeilem Elokim. All parts of our body represent some element from the higher reality, the only reality which is actual. (On this point the Maharal explains that just a sketch of a tree is a far-removed representation of what a tree is, so we too are mere images of the Divine).

A Hand represents the action. Our actions are always good or bad – moral or immoral, desired by our Creator or causing Him anguish. When our actions are in accordance with the Will of our Creator, we are holding the staff in our hand. When we are insubordinate, the snake is chasing us. With the staff, miracles can be made, when the snake is chasing us our life is a horror and tragedy. For good or bad, our actions have a direct impact on heaven which in turn has a direct impact on earth.

This is the vertical line: the straight connector between heaven & earth: the staff.

The vertical line connecting lower and higher is represented in the Hebrew alphabet as letter Vav and the meaning of the prefix Vav is “and”.

Vav is the crucial element of the word Mitzvah – the meaning of the word Mitzvah is a link or connection. By following the Will of the Creator – the Mitzvos, one is connecting to the Creator Himself.

 

The Curved Line

The second group of humanity that is represented by curved; tilted line, are the nations of Islamic faith.

Islam is aware of the Creator and possesses high philosophical and moral standards. Let’s take a look at the entire history of Islam, though not through the prism of propaganda of the nations of Edom who see the Muslims as a competition to their own philosophy of ruling the planet in their own way.

When Islam arose, from the very beginning our masters called Rishonim saw it as an advance in human history and a step closer to the Geula. Those who understand that we as the Jewish people were obligated to be the Light for the nations and ultimately their spiritual leaders in moral teachings; they understood that Islam with its understanding of G-d, ideas of charity, and teaching of Seven commandments of Noah will make this task much easier. There are many statements from the Rishonim that express precisely this idea. Sefer Kizuri, Rambam, Ramban, Hovos Halvuvois from that period of history and later the Maharal from Prague and Rav Hirsch talk openly about this idea.

It must also be mentioned that the difference in treatment of the Jewish people and other religious minorities in Islamic countries was astoundingly different than in Christian realm. There were few hot spots in the history of Jewish Muslim relations, but Islamic civilization has never produced anything close to inquisition, pogroms and holocaust. There were no Muslim Torquemada, Chmielnicki or Hitler Y-Sh-m. Planet Earth unfortunately always saw some religious or ethnic tensions on the ground of economic exploitation, and it must be pointed out that in Islamic states, Jewish community was living a relatively good life considering minority status. Major persecutions or animosity directed against Jews is limited to few periods and local range.  We will mention two major periods and places where Islamic countries decided to be Judenrein - Almohads in northern Africa in 12^th century and the Saudi Arabian regime in modern times.

The curved line also starts from the bottom shutting up. It reaches almost the highest point but the path itself is not a straight and safe ladder connecting higher and lower realm as it was designed for Yaacov-Yisrael. Curiously, the Islamic sword also often has that curved shape unlike Christian weapons which we will talk about next. I see no further reason to explain why Islam is considered – what is called in Latin: Preparatio Judaicae, as it should be obvious to an intelligent and educated reader.

Curved line, therefore, represents legitimate attempts and even connection with the higher realm but it is not a direct or straight connection.

The Cross

The other big portion of humanity are considered by us as Bnai Eisav – the children of Eisav-Edom.

I wrote about the characteristics of the civilization of Edom-Eisav in many of my other essays and encouraged my readers to go to this material as it was and (Beezras Hachem) still will be a topic of essays to come.

The main idea expressed in those essays is that Chazal – our Sages of blessed memory, explain that Edom-Eisav represents brutal militaristic conquest and control of the world.

Control can be achieved by many means.

It can be achieved by propagandizing the minds of the world with content appealing to the animalistic desires of humans. The immense entertainment industry is doing precisely this work, delivering on a daily basis their values and ideas that are mostly conflicting with the moral principles expressed in Revelation or even simple logic.

The decline of family and marital values is not only self-destructive to individuals but destroys entire societies and nations.

Another tool of control is the loan and banking system in the form as it exists in our society.

I will never forget a conversation I had with my friend when I simply told him that he, like millions of Americans, doesn't own ‘his’ house – the bank owns it. And as millions of Americans learned at the time of the recession, banks can send you under the bridge or to the tent cities without mercy.

At the time when the control of minds and possessions of the inhabitants of the Edomite nations fails to work, the rulers don’t hesitate to use deadly force as they are using it to control other nations.

I expressed in my essays on American democracy, that there is a change in progress. However, it will still take a time to come to that era, when the Chazer becomes Kosher, as it is promised in the words of our prophets and masters.

Meanwhile the nations, culture, and religion of Edom-Eisav is a major obstacle to us on many levels.

Edom did everything in its power to deny our moral message as it usurped our task and right to be chosen to lead humanity in spiritual measures.

They persecuted us mercilessly and not only millions of our brothers were killed in periodic persecutions and sometimes almost total annihilation by sword – the very symbol of their civilization. The vertical line of connection is cut by a horizontal flattening force. A divide severing the direct connection. A Symbol with a dead Jew hanging on it.

Another aspect of this disruption is our own weakness when we falsely assume that by operating in the realm of their values we can survive or even accomplish something.

The Hours when Yaakov imitated Edom-Eisav by wearing his clothes, somehow imprinted in us the wrong idea, that by aping Edom we are being nobilitated.

The Wheel of Fortune.

The Swastika is one of the oldest graphic symbols related to spirituality and life philosophy.

It is known to the ancients in the Middle East, it has been used by Hindu civilizations since they exist. It was known to Greeks, Romans, and Mezzo Americans. It is still used by Chinese, Mongols, Siberian nations, Native Americans, and is known in various places in Africa. That’s a lot of places and a lot of time!

It represented most people in the world in the past and it still represents a big part of human society in the present day. The ‘swastika philosophy’ is still popular, but not the symbol itself.

The Swastika had become a shameful symbol only after WWII, for its association with the Nazi regime.

In all of those places, and in all of those cultures, it still has an almost universal and common meaning; as expressed in a Roman saying – “Fortune turns around.”

For example, The Greek Gammadion was equivalent to the one of the Sanskrit swastika and the meaning of both symbols was almost the same.

Fortuna, known to Greeks as Tyche was a deity of luck, good or bad luck while the Indian Swastika was a wish of good luck.

There are many relatively contemporary interpretations of this symbol, but historically it has another meaning.

It’s supposed to represent the idea that whatever is now down, will be up, whatever is left, will be right, and so on… There is no solid standard, there is no pattern, there is no right and wrong, and neither does right or wrong have an influence on up and down – our life situation. It is a random self-sustained mechanism without an ultimate source, without an outside influence other than itself. The wheels turn. Karma.

In this mindset there is no space for G-d, The ultimate Creator and (Manhig) of reality.

In this philosophy there may be space for gods - devices helping to achieve different goals but they operate within the circle of the swastika or the swastika is a part of this spiritual non-reality.

There is a place for prayer and even sacrifice but only to achieve our ends, not to subordinate our ends in accordance with Whom we own our existence to.

The ‘good’ is what is good for me and the ‘bad’ is what is bad for me. ‘Me’ is the ultimate center of the universe.

‘I’ can use different devices to change ‘my’ luck, but it has nothing to do with ‘my’ moral standards or actions.

Sometimes ‘I’ can adjust my behavior to something to which was told to ‘me’ as being moral, but only to use it as another device to adjust ‘my’ luck. G-d and morality serves ‘me’.

This is the kind of syncretic mindset common among formal monotheists. They still believe that there are self-turning powers independent from The Only One Above.

B’Ezras Hashem I will come back to the topic of “luck”, as it deserves an essay for itself.

Conclusion

Those are the four forms of civilization and their four graphic symbols representing the very essence of what they are.

As I said in the introduction to this essay, this observation is just a glimpse of the revelation of G-d in history.

G-d and Nimrod

                                                                                     B-H

Abraham, a man of flesh and blood is bargaining with the Creator of the Univerese in an attempt to save the cities Sdom, Amora, Adma and Seboim from destruction. Sodom and Gomora are the two that are most known from this account.

We Jews, know this conversation very well.

Those who attend any kind of services on Sundays or Saturdays, know this story as well. At this moment, we can talk about it without the risk of overexaggerating, that most of our fellow Americans know this story.

I would even take a risk and say that some self-declared atheists may know this story as well.

In the world, in philosophical literature (but not limited to) some of the events that are described in the Bible are considered to be fundamental in human history for developing ideas of justice. This particular conversation may be familiar to most of humanity.

We do not judge, or even worse, harm the majority on the account of deeds or beliefs of the minority. This is the moral teaching coming from this dialog.

But there is a part of this story that is not known to public.  I will describe a quiet different chat, which I imagine, took place before G-d came to our father Abraham.

Nimrod the First known also as Amraphel, was the emperor of Babylon, the first city and government organized in a way that later in history was described as Hegemony.

Nimrod the First was killed by Abraham in the battle of the four kings by supernatural means described in detail in the Midrash.

After the death of his father, Nimrod the Second approached G-d with a complaint against his enemies from the Valley of Shittim. Which is where Abraham came to rescue and save his nephew Lot, and in process killied the first Nimrod - Amraphel.

Nimrod the second called:                           

-          G-d?

-          Yes, my servant Nimrod.

-          Oh, you call me a servant now but you allowed my father to be eliminated by this enemy of social order Abraham?

-         Don’t you know? Lev Hamelech be yadaim Hashem. Your heart is in my hands so of course you are my servant like all the other Nimrods in the future – Cesar, Napoleon, Hitler. Those are the big ones but there are pages of the future filled with names of all small Nimrods. Anyhow we will not talk about what is to become of history now and why I allow them to act in the way they do. What is you Issue Nimrod?

-         G-d, did you hear about the evil perpetrated in the cities of the Valley of Shittim? The lack of hospitality, their laws against any immigration that would undermine the wellbeing of the citizens, and then cardinal sins against the first commandment in your Torah, that about marriage? I think they deserve to be eliminated from the rest of the healthy society for they may endanger the rest of us with their misdeeds, it is potentially danger her in Bavel and for my relatives in Canaan.

-         Yes, something came to me, but I can’t eliminate such a large population on the account of some bad individuals…How many bad people do you think live there in the five cities of Shittim Valley?

-         I don’t know but let me ask you G-d, if there would be 10 evildoers then would you consider eliminating them?

-         Nooo …can’t destroy human lives on account of 10 bad individuals. You talking about my creation and well… if I created them that means I love them and it would cause me tremendous suffering if I would have to harm them in any way.

-         What about 20 bad guys, would it be enough for You to act?

-         Of course not, I can’t do it.

-         What if 30 are evil?

-        Where is this going Nimrod? What are you trying to achieve? Of course, my Justice Love would not allow Me to harm the population on the account of 30.

-         What about 40, would you send angels of destruction then?

-         No.

-         45 G-d, 45 bad guys and You say it would not justify the elimination of those cities’ populations?

-         No, Nimrod! I said No!

-         Let me tell you G-d. I’m quite sure that there is at last 50 bad individuals in those cities, that makes 10 bad guys per city. I appeal to your Justice to destroy the lives of the inhabitants of those cities.

-         It will not happen Nimrod, the only condition is that all the members of those societies must be evil to be eliminated, otherwise My Attribute of Chesed will not allow to harm those people.

-         But G-d they are pagans, they don’t believe in You, is this not enough to destroy them and erase them from under the heaven?

-         Nimrod! Enough! They are mistaking perhaps with their intellect, while you and your father rebelled against me in action, and I still allowed you to exist. I myself will go and learn what are you crying about and then I will ask my friend Abraham what he thinks about whole thing. Then I will make my decisions.

I wonder, did I make this story up from scratch or some people already heard it before and are siding with Nimrod?

By Matys Weiser

Rebetzin

                                                                                              B-H

So, it happened. 
At the age of 97 Cheshanover alte rebetzin passed away.

I knew this day would come.  Thinking so many times, how will I get to New York for the levaya, as I am so often on the west coast. I Couldn’t imagine not to be there at the funeral which according to the Jewish law, must happen within a day of passing.

For me, a person that is away a big part of year, half of a day of driving from the closest airport with direct flights to NY, it may be a matter of concern – how will I do it. And there are those places where I go, which are almost day from the airport.

HBH decided to take her away when I’m just two hours away from the place of the levaya and I cannot attend it due to the Corona pandemic restrictions.

Now, at the hour of the levaya, I sat to write this. I could not attend the funeral of my own mother who passed away in Poland four years ago, now I can’t listen to the words of hespaidim about a person who was like a mother to my family in the crucial years after our immigration to United States.

Thinking, making Cheshbon haneifesh – soul account. I don’t know. I don’t know.

That’s how she was – a mother not only to her family but mother to yesoymim who she found on the path of her life. I know that our family was not only the case.

She was born in Sadovne, Mazowsze (Mazovia) district of Poland just few years after Poland regained its independence after 130 years under the control of foreign kingdoms. Mazowsze was under Russian control and Polish and Jewish populations developed their own culture, distinctive to other parts of the Polish land.

There is a reason why we have Poilishe and Galitziane Hassidim, as well as Russishe and Hungarians.

Cuisine is only one of many aspects of cultural differences.

Rebetzin was at the entry to her life, just 16, when the darkest years of human history approached.

Somehow her mother with, I hope I know it correctly, four children, managed to escape to the Russian side of occupied Poland. As most Polish citizens they were considered by Sovyetska vlast (Soviets) - enemies of the people – burjuy. As such they were send to Siberia and trough seven years there, they were dumped from one labor camp to another. Rebetzin’s mother didn’t survive, giving her life in Janbul – Kazakhstan.

After the war, four siblings came back to Poland – three sisters and one brother.

The three sisters became three rebetzins – Sadovne, Cheshanove and Aleksander – Boro Park.

Only one of three got married to a Galitziane family, not a common mix before the WWII.

How did she fit in to the Rubin-Helbershtam family? I can humbly attest from my few years close to the family – she was one of them – perhaps most important, most influential in the decades after the passing of her husband and the father of my rebe.

Now I have to say few words about Cheshanov itself, and I will try to be restrained in my words for two reasons – you never know what can be offensive to others; and I know, I can be if not controversial personality at least inconvenient for some so I will try my best.

Cheshanov comes from the straight line of descendants of Santzer dynasty. And it can be heard and felt there in many aspects. But probably even more that Santz – Nowy Sacz, it is the spirit of Shinov – Sieniawa, which is dominant in Hasidic life philosophy of Cheshanov, than any other influence.

It is not only because every third man or boy in the Shul is Yechezkiel Shraga for this name is used in the family for generations after the original Yechezkiel Shraga of Shinov.

He was a son of Santzer Rebe, probably the most influential among his other siblings, even he did not continue in the place of his father in Santz.

He took a post of the Rav and at this time in Galitzia it was also the post of the Rebe, in Shinov in 1855.

When the “whole town” came to listen to his Third Meal derusha – Torah Comentry at the end of Shabes, which in Hasidic custom is the moment when position of Rav takes effect; the new Shinover Rav opened the Chumash and red from the Parsha – Torah portion of the week.

In his later years in Shinov, he began to deliver customary sedua shides derusha but the way how he approached some Minhagim was symptomatic to his general approach to Hasidus.

This Derech – path, was expressed probably the best way by the Satmar Ruv Reb Yoel Taitelbaum – Derch Baal Shem Tov is lost, and we don’t understand it. This is what I heard from his Talmidim – students.

It was controversial a few decades ago, and even if at the time of the Shinover Ruv it was only a little taste of this approach, it should be self-understood, that it was not popular among other Hasidim.

It is not the place perhaps, but it must be mentioned that in the following centuries after the Ball Shem Tov, different Hasidic groups developed distinctive cultures, life philosophies and minchagim which are not necessarily rooted in the teachings of the first master of Hasidus. Some of them seemingly expressing philosophy in direct opposition to the original Hassidic teachings.

Cheshanov respects minhagim, recognize the power of the Hasidic movement, teach great thoughts of Hasidic masters from different streams of this philosophy, but – all of this with feet strongly standing on the ground, with a square head and skepticism famous among other Hassidim.

Cheshanover Rebetzin was a small postured person, especially among her sons and grandsons of six feet and more, but she was great in precisely this kind of approach to life and yidishkeit so characteristic for this place.

She was a champion of self-sufficiency; man has to work to support his family.

She was a hard-working woman, cooking the best kugels already from the beginning of the week, some of this food she delivered to lonely persons just hours before Shabes.

I have to mention the parve cholent. It was best parve cholent in the Universe, parve because in 1950ties, some Singers and other vegetarians use to come from Manhattan to visit family in Boro Park. Yes, those Singers – Yitschak Bashevis and Yisrael Yehoshua.

Rebetzin’s Shabes fish – you can smell the town of Belz in that fish – she told me that she learned the recipe from her mother in law, daughter of the Belzer rebbe.

But the most important mida - trait which I observed in the years as a neighbor, was yashrus -straightforwardness.

She used to say – “Good thing you should learn from the pastuch – a simpleton, the bad thing you should not learn from the rebe.”

She didn’t hesitate to call some of the rabbis – ‘’galuch”.

Well…not the most pleasing name or description of some leaders in our own fold. Mildly translated, galuch is the person making a living from spiritual services. But to really understand the word you should ask Yiddish speaking children.

I have a great privilege to befriend some of her grandchildren and of course consider her son as my personal Rav.

I understand how atypical person I am in the Hasidic world in general and in Cheshanov in particular.

But I don’t have to hide or play someone else, there is no inconvenient mold which I have to push in to.

Thanks to that yashrus which she implemented in to the following generations I feel at home.

She was the one who asked me almost quarter of century ago to come and open the door.

Rebetzin with her clear head and straight understanding of life and human characters was Cheshanover as rest of Cheshanov – she was just Cheshanov

Freedom of individual

I can’t believe that it’s been already year since I posted last time.

I wrote few essays since then and this is one of them. I titled it “Freedom of individual” as B-H I hope to write separate essay on topic of Personal Freedom – the Freedom achievable only by progressing control over our body and heart, guided by commandments of Torah.
Below some words about Freedom of Individual or citizen if you will.

A street of a European city, could be day, could be after dusk. Four or five story buildings, some trees on the edge of the sidewalk. Streets paved with cobblestones, sometimes smooth on the surface sometimes corrugated as they came straight from the riverbed.

And then the steps. First quiet but then louder and louder as the somebody walking on the sidewalk progresses quietly closer toward a rhythmic sound. He can’t turn back, he knows, this would put him in danger. Now we see the boots and then persons marching with weapons on their shoulders.

Then loud command – Ausweis bytte, Papiren.

Man and woman are showing ID’s, but it doesn’t end there.

One of the soldiers or policemen are sniffing trough the belongings of the person who a minute ago was walking minding his or her own business but now he/she is a suspect. For a petty crime, it can end with a jail sentence or even worse.

This is a common scene from many movies that I remember watching as a child depicting the Nazi occupation of Poland. This is how it was described to us, born a few decades after the war.

Millions of people were still around who remembered those years of the German fascist invasion.

When in December 1981 the Polish communist government instituted a State of War up on Polish the population, these scenes came to our lives as a generational Deja Vue.

There was no doubt in our mind that we had a Nazi like regime reincarnated and now dressed in the Polish uniforms, asking for our ID in our native language, just as original Nazis sniffing through our belongings.

After major riots in the cities, patrols were walking in groups no less the five, two police and three soldiers, in fear of their own population.

I will never forget the scene which I observed from the city bus on the way back from school.

The bus stopped to pick up some passengers, and in the tall grass separating the road from the sidewalk, a few boys, aged less than ten, were shooting from their sticks toward such patrol.

The whole bus, the whole street burst with laughter. But in less than minute it was in the air, people felt sorry for the young officers protecting the regime from the hate of the population. Kind of a hate – pity situation.

Seventeen days after the Nazis entered Poland from the west, the Red Army took the entire eastern Poland as it was agreed between Hitler’s and Stalin’s diplomats.

Lvov was a capital of eastern Galitzia and now become a Soviet city.

Under communist rule every citizen is supposes to work, not necessarily in the profession acquired or practiced in the past. Rabbis definitely didn’t have it easy under an atheist government, so they got a profession which was fitting them somehow or if they got some ‘protektzia’ then some easier job.

Rabbi Shlomo Helbershtam, son of Bobover rebbe and after the WWII Bobover rebbe himself, got that kind of easy profession – a factory guard. His job was to check workers ID as they were entering the factory as it is a practice in many large businesses until today.

Soon, the local population learned the soviet ways of life, stealing became a widespread practice, including stealing from the factories and places of work.

Reb Shloime was asked by his supervisors to check the belongings of some workers leaving the premises of the factory after work hours. The Bobover rebbe refused as he saw such behavior humiliating and inhumane.

He didn’t learn this idea from Voltaire or Kant, it was not a “humanism” where he was rooted in his ethics.

It was the Toira which he learned from his father and grandfather and all the way to the Moishe and Avruchom.

Freedom and personal dignity is a fundamental Jewish value, indispensable and equal for all G-ds creations. It is a first condition to even think about service of the Creator as a Jew and as a Goy.

We will not dwell in this place about chalachic ramifications of basic minimums given in historic environment. We are talking about the idea given first at the time of creation, and then again as an introduction to Atzeres Hadibres – The Ten Commandments.

The idea of personal freedom and human dignity was obvious for the Bobever rebbe, for some – this backward Jew from a small town in an even more backward Galitzia, Poland.

Not long ago, I was sitting by a table with bunch of my fellow Americans talking all the things Americans talk about. I still don’t know much about Baseball or Football, but I was always hoping that on the other hand, sharing ideas of American political and social system written in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution will do.

Then topics switched to security, and as I was quiet before for lack of knowledge about sports, now I was just stunned listening where we hold as a society.

For my fellow Americans it was fine when the police stop and frisk… as long as this is not one looking like one of us. It was ok to look in your pockets when you enter an office building, because who knows.

It was ok to take the belt off of your pants in the middle of airport, because…I don’t even know!

I was horrified that no one is even hinting how to build a society where no one is in need of ‘protection’.

No one analyzed why do we need this ‘protection’, everybody just knew from whom do we need it – from enemies of our freedom.

You don’t have a freedom when security government can listen to your conversations and look in to your correspondence.

Communists in Poland under the Martial law were at least informing us that your conversations are under surveillance. Here, the person who informed us about surveillance became a political refugee!

You don’t have freedom if the cops can look in your pockets!

You don’t have freedom if TSA can put you in situation where you don’t know what to hold, your falling pants or your suitcase that is soon to be checked.

You don’t have freedom if you deny the same privilege to people living in your or other countries.

And no! They don’t hate us for our freedom, they hate us because we normalize taking their freedom away.

I will even go further.

There is no freedom if we can’t protect the wellbeing of our citizens, and by wellbeing, I mean their health and sometimes lives.

We don’t have a freedom if we can’t educate our children to prepare them to be contributing members of society, there is no freedom if we cannot do it using our school taxes in the way we wish.

And no, no parent will send a kid to the school teaching anything against the wellbeing of the general society, be it a religious or secular school.

There is no freedom of an individual or a society, if work of the government is not reflecting wishes of “we the people”. Instead every politician on every level of government is only looking how to appease the donor class which by Darwinian nature, protects only their own interest.

No freedom there.

Instead I was sitting there with my fellow Americans listening to ideas of betterment of methods of security.

Only… what is there to protect and secure?

Yomim Toivim

“This month will be the beginning of the months for you”

PESACH

In the middle of the first month it was declared to us that we are independent people.

Released from bondage by other human beings we are now in the position to take the route of our own choice, to shape our own future.

SFIRAH and SHVIOS

The hints where to go were given, but to get the tool to complete freedom, it takes some work; some preparation. We got 50 days to climb the steps to be worthy of the treasure, we got the guidebook to freedom. Now we have freedom not from other human beings, but freedom from ourselves, our own earthly character.

Freedom engraved-written on the Tablets containing as the sages explain, all of the Toira.

Engraving and freedom spells the same way in Hebrew.

We said “Naaseh ve nishma” – “We will do, and we will listen”.

THREE WEEKS

This declaration and readiness from our side was unprecedented and still is unprecedented but the gloomy days and weeks of summer came, and we lost it, we messed up.

ROSH CHASHANA

The Awakening came later in the summer. We made a cheshboin haneifesh - the introspection and its culmination came after a month of preparation at the beginning of the civil year, on Rosh Choidesh Tishrei, when we accept once more the Sovereignty of the King.

YOM KIPPUR

We made a proper attempt to see ourselves in our full misery and after ten days in anguish we came to ask for forgiveness.

It was granted to us.

SUCCOS

Now we were ready to renew our bond to the Giver of life, so we showed our complete trust going out and living without physical protection for seven days.

By dwelling in flimsy structures without a real roof we declared to our Father in heaven and to humanity our confidence and conviction that He is the one who protect us from any harm, and we can’t be harmed unless He withdraw His protection. But we knew that it is ultimately in our own hands. Our deeds have a power to alternate this protection, i.e. we may, in our madness ruin the pledge of His shield.

SIMCHAS TOIRAH

At this moment of the calendar however, we are too high to fail and after the affliction and cure of Av, Elul and Tishrei we come back to the Source, and once more in the year we take the gift of Torah to dance with in excitement, to learn the steps of the ultimate dance of existence

CHANNUKACH

But first we must understand that it is not an easy task, that besides our own physical corruptive powers there are also outside influences. We must see it in clarity that to fulfill our individual and national task we must carefully separate ourselves from foreign persuasions.

We don’t withdraw from the general society to achieve this, quite the opposite, we declare to the public our confidence in our own values and the power of light invested in us. We declare the readiness to serve the rest of humanity sharing the guidelines to achieve a bond with the Creator, a bond that is uncorrupted by human imagination.

PURIM

If we achieve this level of understanding…another holiday is given to us, almost at the end of the year, a holiday closing the cycle and concluding the path we stepped on still as slaves.

This one is a true gift, it reveals all what was hidden till now. And the name of the Book that we are reading on this day is precisely such “Megilas Esther” - “Revelation of the Hidden”.

Of course, to get to the heights of this last Yom Tiv we must properly follow and prepare ourselves through all the days preceding Purim. Otherwise we will experience a superficial day of rigid commandments with a slight taste of fun.

What we will miss is the understanding of what the mask is really hiding, what is the true character of reality.

Mathematics, chemistry, biology and music are declaring unfathomable harmony in every aspect of the creation, a harmony impossible without the hidden hand of the Creator.

Theoretical physics are telling us that all three-dimensional surroundings exist against the very same laws that keep this world in existence; that what we see, and experience is nothing but a mask showing or declaring existence but behind the mask there is Truth. Hints of it is given to us in the form of this mask.

If you are not ready for them, you don’t have to go to Sifrey Kabula to understand, that this world is just a virtual reality serving one and only purpose – to find the way back to Eden.

From Alturas to San Francisco, or from San Francisco to Alturas?

                                                                                               B-H

In my previous essay I suggested to look for this writing as it is also inspired by the city of San Francisco.

I wrote this essay four years ago but for some unknown reason, I never had it published.

So …here it is:

California is not the state where I usually work. Nevertheless, I was quite happy to find myself in that state at a time when my fellow New Yorkers were experiencing a few weeks of snow blizzards, followed by ice storms.

Alturas is a town that has quite a distance from any other town and requires at least a two hours’ drive to or from its nearest neighbor. Due to the higher altitude, it can be quite cold over there. In Spanish, Alturas means ‘higher place.’

Interestingly, the main route, Route 59, in my home town of Monsey shares the name with this Californian, predominantly Bask and Native American settlement. But Route 59 in NY is quite flat and its altitude is not too high, geographically speaking. I guess something else puts Monsey on a higher plane.

The day after I left Alturas the town was shut down due to a tribal dispute that took the lives of four individuals.

A few days later I was at a business meeting in a store in downtown San Francisco.

While my customer perused my merchandise, I observed the street through the front glass window. Maybe 25 feet in front of my line of vision, there was a fellow seated on the sidewalk. With worn clothing and tired eyes, this unusually skinny Caucasian man in his mid twenties was sitting there without any support to his back. Somebody brought him some cookies to eat, but what he was doing there was simply watching. Watching a busy street of a big city. People were rushing in all directions, cars were passing by, trolleys were ringing their bells while making squeaky noises on the tracks that were barely visible upon the pavement of the street.

He was seated there and just watching.

That could have been me a little bit over thirty years ago. In a politically different reality but a visually similar tableau, people were walking, running, and chasing something that they will never manage to catch in their lifetimes.

In the brief hippie period of my life, I used to sit on the sidewalk or in the mall or at a train station and just watch. I studied people’s walks and tried to understand where all of them were going and where I myself should go.

Now, on that street in San Francisco, a few groups of hippies passed whose appearances were vastly familiar to me. They looked like relics of the sixties, with long hair, loose garish clothing, and badly in need of a shower. I was sadly reminded of my own hippie phase. For a while, I saw being a flower child as an alternative to the conformist society in which the individual didn’t really count and in which rules were forms of restriction.

There I sat in the San Francisco business district, a part of the soulless business world. Am I soulless? I would be, if not for those memories and whole new set of convictions.

Then I noticed someone on the street going from business to business, even stopping passersby on the sidewalk. In a plastic cup he had something that looked like a piece of worthless polished brass, but apparently, he thought he had some precious metal to sell. In his daydream, perhaps this man already counted the money he earned from his sale and imagined all it would buy him. But in reality, everyone else saw something very different in this object of his affection. While he saw treasure in his cup, they saw only a cupful of despair.

I looked at the man, but he couldn’t return my glance, for his eyes kept shifting in all directions. They could not stop and focus on anything for longer than a second. He was on drug hunger; his young but plowed-with-pain face showed everything. There was no human anymore inside of that human-looking shell, but just an animal chasing after something which would fill the emptiness that caused him to look for artificial happiness in the first place. But now, the very result of the chemical consciousness enhancements was this vacuum - a vacuum of humanness, a vacuum of self-consciousness, a vacuum of anything but the animalistic hunger. He was not chasing after a moment of happiness anymore; now he was only chasing after a moment of forgetfulness, in his desire to kill the pain.

I remember from the shiurim of Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt'l, when he often spoke about our Tzelem Elokim. He said that most people still maintain their Tzelem Elokim – their likeness to G-d - which gives them the potential to climb toward a higher spiritual experience and ultimately to higher spiritual existence. But it was clear from his statement that there are also some two-legged, vertical standing creatures that have lost it.

I didn’t understand it then, I didn’t ask, even though I could have submitted my question anonymously on a piece of paper, as it was customary to give to Rabbi Miller after his shiur. To this day, I still don’t know exactly what he meant.

Is it possible for a human being to lose it all? To lose his soul?

Rashi says clearly that what makes us different from other Nefesh Chai is our intellect and speech. But intellect and speech are only two of the tools to the greatest gift of our Creator – free choice. It is free choice which empowers our Tzelem Elokim. Intellect, along with our means of communication, is just the necessary apparatus without which choice would be impossible.

Are there any Bnai Adam – children of man - who lost the ability for free choice?

I would imagine that a person like the one I described a few lines above is such an individual; but can I say it with certainty?

No. I can’t.

Neither I, nor any other human being has the tools to evaluate the balance between chemical intoxication and the intoxication of our DNA, hormones, and other natural factors which our decisions are influenced by.

We don’t have the tools to measure someone else’s level of intellect to ascertain if it is high functioning enough to overpower the desires of the heart and make them submissive to the intellect, as Sefer HaTanya describes it. This battle between Saichel and Lev is our work of life.

Can we give this evaluation to ourselves? I think this is the first and most basic condition for any spiritual progress in our lives. We must find who we are, and where we are in our lives; which direction we should follow and which utensils we should use. But the most important necessity is our acknowledgment of the One above and our imploration to Him for guidance and help.

In Parshas Netzuvim we learn: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life… - Ivuchartu bachaim.” Many before have directed our attention to the fact that it doesn’t say – choose between life and death, but simply ‘choose life.’

It seems to me, that when we are choosing, when we are using our faculty of Bechira – free choice, the benefit can only be life. But when we follow our desires, when we succumb to our hearts, our bodily requests, we are not choosing at all! We just follow what our body tells us to do, engaging intellect only in the process of justification to see ourselves in a better light than just as thoughtless beasts!

Who are we in times like this? Are we the Tzelem Elokim when we put His gift of Bechira aside? Is our intellect serving the purpose of analyzing reality and following the will of our Creator, the purpose for which life was given to us in the first place? Is our speech used to express where intellectual process leads us, and do we use it to inspire and encourage our fellowmen to do the same – to make choices?

Self-evaluation is a fundamental condition to any effort in our life, any meaningful work.

And this is the only way to get to ‘higher places.’

Beirut

                                                                                                 B-H

A Few years ago, at one of our Bnai Abraham meetings, a newly returned Baal Tshuva attended. His name was Shimon.

Oh! I didn’t explain what Bnai Avraham is? Well, it is nothing, it was an attempt to create an environment where primarily gerim and also Baaley Tshuva can come and share experiences; like for example the integration with their FFB’s communities and all kind of other struggles.

Anyhow…

Shimon was ex member of the Israeli commando. He was sent by his government to kill some terrorists in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

With great pride, he told us the details of his actions including the fact that after the mission came to an end, he came to the conclusion that since he was one of the two out of twenty commandos who survived, that it was a suicide mission. It caused him to think about life … about the gift of life, about the Giver himself.

For almost an hour in some quiet home in Boro Park, the room was filled with smoke, the loud noise of machine guns, the smell of sweat and human blood. His English was good enough to describe his experience with details describing the death of his enemies and friends. But also, his miraculous survival.

It was painful to hear that he still took some amount of pride from the fact that he killed human beings, people who he didn’t know. Somebody’s husbands, fathers, uncles, brothers.

I was afraid to ask if there were any wives, mothers, sisters, aunts…children.

The action took place in an apartment building and everybody in the way got eliminated. Or as they call killing in the nice way.

I met Arieh not long ago. Arieh was someone whose experience was similar to that of Shimons. In his early fifties he lives in California for around thirty years. Although he was covered with thick layers of tattoos on his skin, I saw a precious Jewish soul yearning to connect with what was taken from him in his youth – the connection with his G-d.

Being on the sharp curve of his life he told me:

“I can’t take it off of my body but, I am telling you, when I get my stuff in order, I will go to the mikva. I will let my beard grow, and also my payos. I will not hide my connection to Hashem. I want everybody to see the kedusha. I will keep Shabes and eat only kosher and put tefilin every day. May Hashem help me…”

I wish him the koach - strength and providence to straighten his life up and fulfill his desire that he expressed while choking on tears. Seeing him like this was enough for me to appreciate the Yidishe Neshuma at work once more.

We shared some difficult life experiences and I asked him in a delicate way, how he got to where he is.

He was also a member of the commandos with a mission in Beirut.

They sent us to die – he told me – we were doing crazy things there…

“After that, I told myself I will not defend this f… country I will not let my children do it either. It was crazy…” hes said.

Exactly a week after my encounter with Arieh, I met the senior rabbi who visited President Reagan in his oval office a few days after blowing up an American military base in Beirut by Hezbollah militants.  Some two hundred young people who were told that they are going to defend their country had died there.

The rabbi, when mentioning Hezbollah used some words that we usually add when talking about our enemies, like those who caused many Jewish deaths, physical or spiritual forms of death.

I raised my head in wonder but kept my tongue behind my teeth, out of respect and due to the presence of other people I didn’t ask – Who sent those kids to Beirut? Isn’t it the capital of the other country? If our American fighters would defend Spokane for example, from North Korean invaders, would we call them terrorists? Why did we get involved? Is a war our Jewish business? Don’t we comprehend that this is the two sides of the same coin, with the picture of the straight sword on one side and a curved sword on the other? Eisav’s and Yishmael’s swords?

Shimon’s and Arieh’s government told them to go and kill. Kill the enemies before they kill you.

But they didn’t know those people!

The Jewish principal of self defense applies only when there is situation of life endangerment, but it can not be used as a practical application of Von Clausevitz doctrine!

The Talmud teaches clearly. When you hear the noise and find someone digging under you house you are allowed killing him in self-defense since you can suspect his worst intentions.

When you see someone digging – taking action, there is no time for negotiation, it is to late, your life is only what you have, and you should defend it even if the cost is the life of another human being. At that moment his life has no value since he intends to spill human blood. However, intentions alone can never serve as a justification to kill!

Before Yaacov met his brother Eisav, The Torah says that he was afraid, and he was in distress.

Rashi explains – He was afraid for his life and his family, but he was in distress that perhaps he will have to take a human life.

 What are we doing there… in Beirut… and other places…?