To my daughter,

                                                                                                             B-H

And maybe more of bnos Yisroel.

You are getting married this week. It is big step in our life, as your parents, but for you it may be the most important one.

Not long ago you were born; not long ago I sang to you when you woke up and opened your beautiful blue eyes. Not long ago I tried to answer all your questions — for some of them you got your nickname, the Pooh.

Our choices didn’t make your life easy. On the contrary, you were exposed to difficulties unknown to your peers, difficulties that only the life of a family like ours can bring. We did everything to protect you and your siblings, to make it easier, to make things as smooth as possible. If we failed at any point, I can offer nothing more than an apology. We tried our best, to give the best of our love, the best of our will — to give you more than we got, more than our upbringing provided.

Raising children is always an experiment, but not an experiment on some strange subject in a laboratory environment, detached from real life. The “experiment” of raising children is done on the dearest of dearest, blood of our blood, life of our life. We are never sure what the results will be of our work, and we always think that somewhere, sometime we could do better.

The goal was clear from the beginning: to bring up this girl to become a woman who will devote her existence to the Giver of life. Somewhere on the way we found the right path to do this for us, as well as hopefully for our descendants. We discovered the Torah and we joined the holy klal Yisroel.

You were raised without extended family, in a strange land, sometimes not having any possibility of sharing your feelings with your parents in a common language. There was more hardship than this …

We were successful to teach you about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, about His Torah and unity with his chosen people. You are one of them, in many aspects you are better than the average Jew, you are not only “one who believes,” you are a tzadeikes and as one of our principle beliefs teach us, the greater the tzaddik the greater the yeitzer hara.

We brought you to this point in your life; most of the time it was not your choice.

Here are two steps in which a Jew takes responsibility for his relationship with the Creator. For a girl it is at age 12. For you it was a greater responsibility and decision than it was for most of your peers. Now you are approaching the moment in your life when, together with your husband, you will be fully in charge of you relationship to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

For years I was trying to make you understand that there is nothing more important than this, than your connection to the One who offered us our existence. Our awareness, the fact that we think, we feel, we laugh and we cry, we love, and we loathe what is wrong, has only one purpose, and it is to connect to the One who caused these feelings and the awareness of them to be.

Life without this connection is not a life worth living; life without Him in the center of our mind and feelings should not happen. I’m sure that your mother and I were successful in our parental tasks and now it is for you to continue in this way.

But, “continue” is not enough. Our Torah teaches us that up to this point, most of our spiritual achievements are credited to our parents and teachers. We set your bechirah point high, and now when you take the whole responsibility into your hands it is not enough just to maintain what we gave you. It is imperative, it is up to you to raise your bechirah point to new levels. This is an opportunity for you to open new horizons of spirituality that are impossible for us, your parents, due to the baggage we carry, the tail schlepping behind. Only with this opportunity will you contribute to what you have already achieved and you will be able to start new generations and, after 120, come to our Father in Heaven with gift of YOUR life.

Do not look for frumkeit. Do not look to appease the idol of religiosity always lurking and trying to settle in our hearts. Look not for what the others will say, but be brave always to do what is right at the time when it is right in the place where it is right.

Remember that performance of every single mitzvah, the prohibiting ones as well as the commanding ones, is serving the one purpose, connecting us to our Creator. When you do a mitzvah do it right, as Chazal teach. This way we bring happiness to our Creator by performing the mitzvah with intention, taking us to higher levels. When we do the same mitzvah while understanding the mitzvah’s depth, it gives us unbelievable happiness. But He really treasures the mitzvos that we perform simply out of love to Him. Every time we do the will of G-d, we express our love to Him, and even though we shouldn’t count on any reward for what we do for Him, He did promise such a reward to us.

Don’t forget, that most of our minhagim serve us and do not make us serve others. The minhagim of Klal Yisroel protect us from sin, keep us away from the grave danger of falling from the path of righteousness. Minhagim are not enemies of our happiness and freedom, just the opposite. Cleverly chosen and kept, they are guardians of holiness and the freedom and unity of our people. Keep them wisely. 

Together with your husband, chose a mentor for yourself, a rav who will advise you in all halachic issues as well as the many other matters of life. Chose the right one and you will have no doubts about what you do. 

And last, but not least, honor you parents. Yes it is sweet for them to have nachas from their children, but this is not the reason why you should do it. This mitzvah belongs to the category of bein adam l’Makom and as such should be considered strongly by you. By performing his mitzvah your children (they should come soon, be healthy, and grow to be servants of Hakadosh Baruch Hu) will honor you the same way.

Everything else in life is just background; it’s not the ikar. However this background should serve you in better serving the Creator. You should have a healthy and wealthy life with mutual understanding, love ,and devotion to each other. Hashem should keep you on a straight path so that you will be able to share your prosperity with the needy and increase the value of Torah in Yisroel.

Matys Weiser

Special thanks to my editor, Mrs Yocheved, for editing this letter on the day before marring her own child.

MAZEL TOV, MAZEL TOV!!!

Succos

                                                                                                             B-H

Rav Hirsch is not easy to read. His language is beautiful but sophisticated and can be enjoyed by everyone who appreciates the brilliance of putting the human mind into words. Rav Hirsch mastered this art like no one else. Like only few of the Jewish writers and rabbis, he was able to express the transcendent in way that could be understood. His writing is hard to read not only because of the sophistication of his language, but, I believe, rather due to our natural opposition to be corrected, to challenge our beliefs and feelings.

Above that, we are not interested in the transcendent; we find millions of ways to defend our mind and our conscience from the awareness of the One Above and what He requires of us.

We can tolerate the thought of some god in relation to our needs, but our relation to G-d and what He requires of us, that is harder.

This is true of humanity in general, but what about G-d’s chosen children – the children of Israel? Sadly to say but when comes to this we are no different from the rest of humanity. We may be on a much different level, but still … Our prophets and rabbis have warned us about this for more than three thousand years.

The Holocaust caused a tremendous teshuvah movement – Jews have returned to their heritage of Torah like almost never before. Thousands of people recognize the greatness of Torah and the necessity of serving our Creator. This movement has been going on already for more than sixty years and people from all walks of life and backgrounds are participating in this progress. Thousands of Jews have found new areas of their lives that can be improved by applying the teachings of the Torah and its broad explanation by the true leaders of our nation.

One hundred and fifty years ago we had this great writer and leader — Rav Hirsch — whose words ring true today as much as they did then, maybe even more today.

As large a teshuvah movement as we have, there are record numbers of our brothers who are detached from the Source of life, like never before in history.

Infected by the strange ideas and philosophies of the secular world, most of us have little or no awareness of our Jewish mission in the world and what is supposed to make us different from the other nations. For hundred of years there has been tremendous pressure for us to become just like the other nations of the world. In all of galus (exile), when external enemies as well as foes from within, attempted to get us to be like the gentiles, one by one or even in larger numbers, they failed due to spiritual strength of the previous Jewish generations. Then servants of the sitra achra (the other, evil, side) began to fulfill their most treacherous mission to make all the Jewish people just like the other nations and Jewish peoplehood just like other nationalisms of the world.

They are succeeding.

How much are they succeeding you may learn by reading fragments of Rav’s Hirsch’s writing about two opposite modes of existence, ours and theirs — dwelling in the succah or within solid borders and under the roof and being aware of the temporariness of this reality, or investing our strength in building destructible things; fighting spiritual battles or wasting our time, talents, and potential to build something never intended by The One Who chose us.

I’m still trying to understand what helped me to understand the temporal character life. Is my being ger what is decisive in this matter? The very word “ger” expresses temporariness and detachment from the “solid” ground, but is it enough?

We read in selichos just few days ago that the first ger tzedek was no one other than Avraham Avinu. Is it only because he was first to convert from paganism to belief in One G-d, or maybe also because he was first to realize that this world is only a battlefield where morality must prevail over injustice and humility must overcome pride? But after the victory day of our departure from this world we are going to our true home.

A number of descendants of Yisro, Moshe Rabeini’s (Moses’s) father-in-law, refused to live in solid buildings and cities for over 500 years. Why did their ancestor Rechab ask them to sacrifice so much and why did they comply? Was it a matter of simple recognition of evil lurking on the streets and in the houses of the city, or, again, was living in tents as the nomads did an expression of the awareness of life being transitory by this group of devoted geirim?

What drove thousands, if not millions, of Yidden to give up their lives al kiddush Hashem without hesitation? Was it only a strong attachment to their heritage or did they know that with this expression of ultimate love for their Creator they would be transferred to a higher reality?

What was feeling Garff Valentyn Potocki when he was burned on the stalk for changing his faith? Was the hate directed to his body, which sinned for many years, or rather was his higher soul’s desire to be released from its body so it could ascend to a higher, better world?

All of the selichos that we have been reading every morning for the past days made us more aware about the fact of us being “dwellers of clay structures.” The conclusion of these days of return was Yom HaKadosh¸Yom Kippur. Now we are entering days where we are again in a different mode, we have to learn about how temporary our life is and how dependent on our Creator our existence is.

To appreciate and get more from the coming days of Succos, I decided one more time to share with you a small explanation of what we are fighting for, written by Rav Hirsch. After you read this, please do yourself a favor and go back to the months of counting the Omer, where I posted more of the Rav’s elucidations of how to return to the path of faith in G-d and loyalty to Him — how we should understand our assignment in the cosmic struggle to bring mankind back to peace with its Creator.  

I know Rav Hirsch’s writings are not easy to read, but even if you have to read it again and again in order to comprehend, it is worthy to learn more about our people — people of G-d — and our national mission as it was prescribed for us in the Torah and Prophets.

Last Shabbos, Shabbos Shuvah, in my hometown of Monsey, a story was told in the middle of the customary Shabbos drashah (Shabbos sermon). Rav Chaim Shea Halberstam of Satmar brought down a known chassidic tale about the Rebbe Reb Shmelke from Nikolsburg. The story goes as follow:

The Rebbe was going through a financially very difficult period in his life, but he was known to give tzedakah — his share of money given to the poor— even giving from his own household items when he didn’t have money. One time, when he had already run out of money for a while and there was almost nothing at home to give out, came to him a person asking for help and describing his severely dire situation. The Rebbe looked around and the only valuable item he could find was his wife’s shterntichel (head cover decorated with some precious stones, which his Rebbetzin wore only on Shabbos and Yamim Tovim). The Rebbetzin was not home at that moment and with feeling of great compassion for his fellow Jew the Rebbe took the shterntichel and gave it to the needy person. The Yid departed with amazement and joy, for he saw at least some of his problems being solved. In the courtyard the Rebbetzin passed him as she returned home. She noticed excitement on the stranger’s face and as she entered her home she had already had a feeling of what had just happened.

“You gave him my shterntichel, right?” asked the Rebbetzin.

“Yes,” answered Reb Shmelke.

“Well,” said the Rebbetzin, “he will probably sell it for 10 talars and it was worth at least three hundred talars …”

“What!?” gasped the Rebbe with astonishment. “I didn’t know it was so valuable.”

Then he ran out, looking for the stranger and caught up to him few streets away.

“Reb Yid! Reb Yid!” he screamed. “What I just gave you is worth at least three hundred talars. Please don’t sell it for less!”

The story itself is beautiful as it teaches us about the moral heights of our teachers and ancestors, but no less beautiful was Rav Halberstam’s explanation.

We are passing a special time of opportunity to come back and connect to Hashem that which we don’t have at other periods of the year. We must not sell it short. We must take most of what is given to us.

This is what I wish for myself, my family, my friends and readers, and the gantze Klal Yisrael, the whole community of the Children of Israel.

Matys Weiser

Gog and Magog

by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch from “Collected Writings” V3 p121

Our dwelling in the "hut" should deliver us from the "deification" of all those forces that tend to ensnare our hearts and to alienate us from our trust in God and in His guidance. We are referring to the forces of nature and of human ingenuity, both of which have been elevated to god-like stature by the Jewish world. Both these elements are symbolically negated by the roof of our succah, which must be neither mechuber nor kli, neither still a part of nature imprinted with the stamp of human intelligence. The mechitzos — walls — those units that separate his personal domain of independent existence and creativity, may be fashioned by us as we please from the products of nature and human industry, The degree of sophistication evident in the construction of our dwelling places on earth may reflect our social position in its many nuances — from marble palaces to tiny huts that have only two complete walls and the beginning of third.

However these differences can have effect and meaning only in relationships between men, in the various circumstances of social living, in the mechitza that “defines the succah (domain) of each individual. But with regard to that element which shelters us all, which can bestow protection, happiness, permanence, and prosperity upon both palace and hovel, all of us, prince or pauper, arc equal.

This is what separates Judaism from the non-Jewish world. The non-Jewish world labors under the illusion that, in order to ensure his survival and prosperity on earth, man must obtain the help of nature and use his own intelligence to obtain dominion over nature through his skill and science. In the non-Jewish view, the supreme goal of both individual and society is to secure a prosperous existence on earth, to which all else, from the most material to the most spiritual, must be subordinated.

The non-Jewish individual and non-Jewish society do not consider their task to be accomplished until, through the use of nature and human ingenuity, they have built the elaborate structure of their existence and prosperity on earth and fortified it against all possible dangers. Those who labor under this delusion expect to derive not only their mechitzos, but also the succah itself, the element that covers and protects them, entirely from the powers of man and nature. They regard a sturdy rooftop for their life's structure as the ultimate all-important objective. They surround power with the halo of divine majesty and teach the weak to cower before the strong, the individual to bend the knee before the state, all this for the sake of expediency and survival and for the gratification of their selfish desires. This mentality seeks to build the protective covering for the lives of men and nations under the aegis and with the help of nature and human ingenuity. This notion has become the motivating ideal of men and nations and has demoralized them both.

Israel however, entrusts its survival and defense entirely to the hands of G-d. Israel employs the gift of nature and products of human ingenuity not for purpose of its protection but as a means to fulfill the Divinely ordained task of man on earth, Israel regards devotion to duty, obedience to God and the fulfillment of His will as the focal point of the lives of men and nations. The ideal of Judaism is to use the powers of nature and man only for building the mechitzos of the house of mankind dedicated to the loyal service of God. Israel secure under God's shelter, the roof of the succah, is ready to follow the Ark or the Covenant; His will and His Law; without apprehension or fear.

The theme of the great drama that we call world history is in reality the struggle between the "roof” and the "hut." The ideal represented by the hut is incompatible with the ideal symbolized by the roof. But the hut will prevail, and in the final act of world history we shall witness succah shel Leviyason, all mankind united beneath the shelter of God's grace. The history of nations begins with a tower that strives to reach up to heaven and ends beneath the roof of a hut. It is not mere coincidence that the political force which does battle against the hut, this goal of human salvation, is called "Gog and Magog." (gag – roof) is the antithesis of succah, and magog, according to its grammatical form, symbolizes the realization of the principle of gog and would then denote the political force that upholds the principle of gog. Magog in the form of a political entity, a "state," contradicts the ideological concept of succah (Just as oz —ayin, vov, zayin — power) relates to meoz (fortress) and/or meor — alef, vov, reish — (light bearer).

Teshuvah

                                                                                                             B-H

This essay has been bubbling, like a stew, in the heat of my brain for few weeks already but I couldn’t sit and write it out. It is simply too big to put it into a short essay. As my self-imposed deadline for writing something about teshuvah was fast approaching, I felt some resistance from within me, so I couldn’t do it. Today I understand that it was nothing more than my usual yetzer hara — evil inclination.

This morning, at my daily shiur (lecture with my chavrusa/learning partner) we came to the place where the Gemara is teaching its famous teaching — No tzaddik gamor can exist in the place of the baal teshuvah. Not even the perfectly righteous can be valued as highly as the one who is coming back to G-d.

If I wouldn’t believe in siyata d’Shamaya (guidance of Heaven), I would wonder why we came across this baraisa on the day before Erev Rosh HaShanah. But I do believe.

B’ezras Hashem I will come back to this topic again, but now let me share with you these few words that you can still use before Yom HaKadosh — the Day of Atonement, the week after Shabbos Shuvah.

The world was created for teshuvah, according to Chazal. aven’tHavHaveavesay III’ve said in many of my essays that the reason for Creation is our bechirah — free choice. It certainly is the ikur — the main point — to create mankind. What then do we do with Chazal’s statement that teshuvah is the reason for Creation? For many of you it is clear and understandable, but let me attempt to make it even simpler to help you grasp the idea.

There are two kinds of choices. One kind I would call choice of maintenance, or passive choice. This is the choice of a person who was born with a certain level of kedushah (holiness) as a result of his environment and inborn character, among other factors. In the span of his life he maintains this level, sometimes even with great effort as his yetzer pulls him to failure. Nevertheless, he wins his battle and leaves this world with the great accomplishment of maintaining what he got. This is the tzaddik gamor — a man of perfection.

On the other hand, there is the Jew born into a family that is remote from keeping the standards of the Torah, but who realizes the Torah’s value. With great effort, he climbs up, passing multiple shaarey teshuvah (gates of repentance, or steps of return) and he ends his life with great spiritual accomplishments. We call such person a “baal teshuvah” and his choices are active choices, as he must conquer areas of evil that are part of his upbringing and nature. There is no question that his effort has more value than the maintenance of holiness of the tzaddik gamor, at certain moments in his life he adds this quality of maintenance to the quality of return.

In the classic writings of Chazal there is, however, another category of people also called “baal teshuvah”: A person who failed in his Yiddishkeit (the way of Jewish life) but realized his mistakes and with great pain comes back to what he left before. Because he realizes his lowly position and yet has a great love of G-d, this man’s attachment to Him is even greater than it ever was before. Certainly his dveikus (connection to Hashem) is greater than that of the tzaddik gamor and perhaps even greater than the baal teshuvah. One of the maamar Chazal that even children who grew up in a Torah environment know, is the mushal of rope.

The rope of the mitzvah is hanging all the way from Heaven down to our earthly reality; this rope is connecting us with a higher reality, at the same time marking the distance from there. Sometimes however this mitzvah rope is broken, lo aleinu, and we lose this connection. It can be fixed, with the power of teshuvah (return) we can tie the rope again and reestablish our connection with Hashem. But we know what happened with the rope that had to be fixed by tying it together — it became shorter. And that’s precisely is what is happening with our spiritual distance from G-d. Not only the place where the rope is tied becomes the strongest part of the rope, but we are closer to G-d as result of the teshuvah.

Someone can make a simple calculation to break the rope and fix it as many time as possible. Smart, no? Not at all. There is no way to know if we will be able to jump so high to be able to reach the other end of the rope. There is no guarantee that teshuvah will happen and this is the secret of teshuvah — it bring us closer but we cannot, we must not, put ourselves in a position to lose the connection in order to make it better. The first man tried this and the result was tragic for all of us, but this is already a different story.

But there is fourth category as well. Someone who for various reasons or teritzim — excuses — chooses not to do ratzon Hashem — the will of Almighty — and has begun to walk the path of evil. Where can this path lead him ultimately? We saw this at the beginning of this past summer.

A person was born and raised as frum, a devoted Jew, and at some point in his life — probably in a slow process — began to shake off the yoke of Torah. Ultimately he became a chaye ruach, a wild beast who in the end killed a child. A boy whom we treasured so much in our Jewish society, a boy who as the Gemara describes supports the existence of the world with his learning — Torah learning is the very foundation of world. The formerly frum man killed, dismembered, and stuffed parts of the body in his refrigerator, perhaps in preparation for even more hideous act. I can’t even think further.

I will not go so far as to accuse of all demented individuals who might have such inclinations as this chaye ruach did, but this single example shows how far the path of destruction can go.

In the second part of the same summer, we heard about something that is almost the opposite of the first event.

Two streets from where I live, a man, a baal teshuvah, attempted to save the life of a young boy and in the process of jumping in to do that, he sacrificed his own life. For many years Reb Reichenberg z”l was walking the path of return to his heritage, the path of his forefathers, the path of the ultimate good of Torah.

His reward for this effort is incredible! I know many of you will think that I have gone mad at this moment. He lost his life. How can I call this a reward?

No, he gained life, and he won it in the best possible way!

There is a halachic principle expressed in the Talmud that if there are two people walking in the desert and one of them has an amount of water enough for only one of them to survive, he should drink it himself rather than share it with his companion. If he were to share the water, it could possibly bring death to both of them, since neither would have enough water to survive. This teaches us that value of our life is the highest principle, as only in this life can we exercise our bechiros — free choices. That’s the value of life as it is expressed by Chazal (Michtav MeEliyahu).

Halachically, it is our life that should be most important to us; that’s the law. But there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Law represents din (judgment) but since the world cannot be sustained only by the letter of the law, so we cannot limit ourselves only to this aspect. It would be enough for us if we would be able to be perfectly righteous but we are not. We cannot perform all the commandants of our Creator, and according to din we should therefore be annihilated.

Another Divine middah,  attribute, was necessary to add to the spiritual fabric of the creation, namely chessed or Heavenly love. According to the principle of justice, due to our constant failures, we deserve the punishment of being eradicated. However, with the attribute of chessed consequently allowing our mistakes and rebellion to be forgiven, our continued existence becomes possible.

It is necessary to say that even the quality of din, which this world was created with, originates in the quality of  chessed, but since we are touching deeper level of teachings of Torah that are not so familiar to me in a broader sense, I cannot explain more than this.

The word “chassid” , for the person who claims to be such, comes from the word “chessed.” As with everything else, we should emulate G-d.

A chassid is a person who at least from time to time acts above the letter of the law. Let’s say there is sign on the road indicating the presence of children playing. One driver on this road would slow down his car to exactly the speed as the sign says, exactly where it is posted. The chassid would slow down much before the sign, just by seeing the children or knowing that there is a playground. He would slow to a speed even lower than that which the sign instructs, just being aware that the nature of children is to run unexpectedly into the street, without watching. The law would serve him only to indicate a playground where children cannot be seen.

This is how chessed works in the area of service to G-d called bein Adam l’chaveiro — between man and his fellow man. In the area of service to G-d called bein Adam l’Makom — the submission of a person to the will of G-d, totally unrelated to his fellow man — this above example cannot be used.

The Orach Chaim in his sefer, Rishon L’Tzion, on page 103, teaches us a similar lesson. He says that yes there is such a principle to favor our life before the other people’s lives, but it is permissible to save the other’s life in an act of  chessed, even if it can cost us our own life.

The life of our brother, Reb Reichenberg, was taken precisely in a moment of such chessed!

There is another principle that comes from Chazal.

When Ishmael was almost dying in the desert, the malachim (angels) were asking Hashem to let him die, as in the future his descendents would bring harm to the children of Yitzchok on their way to galus (exile). The Midrash describes how Hashem asked the angels, “Who is he now, a tzaddik or rasha – righteous or evil?”

“He is a tzaddik,” answered the malachim.

“Then I must help him to survive,”’ said the Creator of life.

This teaches us that person is judged at the current stage of his life.

Reb Reichenberg ended his trial of life at a moment of highest devotion to the values of the Torah — attempting to save the life of his fellow Jew. It happens to be that as in the story from just few weeks before, this was also the life of child — a boy whose breath could have supported the existence of the world for little longer.

The way and the moment of petirah of our brother, Reb Reichenberg, was the most that we could wish for ourselves. The opportunity given to him to leave this world performing an ultimate act of chessed is his reward for years of spiritual effort and climbing to the heights of what a human, what a Yid, can do for his fellow man, and for the sanctification of the Name — a Kiddush Hashem.

Most of us will not be privileged with such an opportunity, and as we go through our lives we must look for other opportunities to sanctify His Name, to do the will of our Creator as expressed in the revelation of the Torah, and to perform acts of chessed.

At this time of the year, all of us Yidden have an opportunity to taste the flavor of what it is to be like the one of the baalei teshuvah. With the help of our machzor and the special atmosphere of these days of teshuvah, we can return from our evil ways, we can feel the chessed and rachamim, love and compassion, of our Father and King.

I wanted to thank for ideas contained in this essay to Rabbi Shechter and my Chavruso Reb Menachem and my Rav ( Hashem should bless them)  for clarifying certain issues necessary to write this essay.

Matys Weiser

Practical Implications of Quantum Physics

                                                                                                             B-H

I hope that with G-d’s help I have been able to explain in my previous essays on the Higgs boson the nothingness of the physical world in which we exist, in a short but clear way.

The fundamental question comes to mind, a question that may change our entire view of who we are: What is our goal in the life? What should we do to achieve this goal?

The question is as follows: Are we physical beings equipped with some spiritual, Divine element or our true self is taken from the Divine, and physicality — our bodies and all the creation around — serves some other purpose?

Is religion just a means to help us go through difficult moments of life or give some additional taste to the sweeter parts of it? Or is the service of the Creator fundamental and the only reason for our existence?

Does this absolute service make our life more difficult, perhaps sober or even sad because there are so many limitations? Will it bring peace to the relationship we have with our surroundings (not necessary with other human beings, as the spirit of Amalek is still thriving) and, most important, with the One who gave us our existence?

Too many questions? There are more.

Someone may ask, “Isn’t it the domain of theology and religion to answer these questions?” “Why do we need physics to understand this? Didn’t Chazal — our sages, of blessed memory — reveal this to us long ago?

Yes they did, but somehow for so many of us this awareness that Chazal gave us has not stayed in our consciousness long enough to keep our life elevated according to the guidance of the revelation. Somehow, at the shiur, the lecture, we understand about the fascinating teachings, that there was tzimtzum and nothingness was separated and that there are sefirot distancing us and at the same time connecting to Ein Sof — the Unknown. But this awareness doesn’t last; even after such lectures about the depths of our Torah, we soon forget all of these lofty thoughts when we get caught up in the mundane activities we do each day.

There is nothing wrong with doing mundane things. We were put here on this earth, in this physical realty, to do mundane activities but we were told to do them in certain way. We were also told not to do other things, most of the time without even explanation why we shouldn’t do them. We were also made aware that this temporary situation is only a means to test us, as the reason for our creation can only be executed in this physical world. Only by doing or restraining ourselves from doing can we make choices, and the ability to choose freely is the reason for which we were created. By choosing, we are show that we are created b’tzelem Elokim – in the likeness of G-d. Only He has real power of choice, but out of his love He decided to share it with us. He gave the power of choice to the lowest of the spiritual creatures. We are the lowest due to our physical makeup, but we have the greatest potential to became highest, to the extent of unification with the Unknown.

But how often are we aware of this fundamental truth?

How often do we realize that what we treasure so much, what we running after, what we spend our life looking for, what we sacrifice so much for, what we give up our principles for, is really nothing.

Nothing — because it exists only due to the extensive withdrawal of spirituality.

Nothing, because even if it shines and glows, attracting our senses, but is made from material matter, which is “nothing” in its essence, the final product that we are foolishly running after is also nothing.

It is almost like projection (almost, because the quantum effect is more than mere projection) of our consciousness. It is our true selves, the spiritual being — temporary residents of these clay structures called bodies — that are causing this physical universe to “exist.”

Do you feel it? Do we grasp the naked true about our existence in this universe?

This universe has no other reason to be, other than serving as the battlefield in our struggle with the yetzer hara  urges. It has no other reason than to give us opportunity to elevate our true self, win the battle, and became who we were intended to be, free of struggle and pain, united with our G-d, in reality closer to the Unknown, a reality often called by the name “Heaven.”

We are so tired of our leaders telling us again and again about the gashmiyus that we are running after. Once again we are dismayed to say that they don’t like how we enjoy life though some of them appear to get caught in the very materialism they so often condemn.

To achieve, to get to utilize some of the “gear” giving us moments of pleasure, we invest our time and emotions, and many times we compromise what we believe in. What counts at these moments is the sensation of temporary fulfillment, calm, or what the public calls “happiness.”

Other times we just kill time. We see almost nothing wrong with it. We engage in activities that don’t do anything good for us or are so far removed from the possibility to do any good for us.

On the other hand, there are lot of activities that the Torah and Chazal direct us to do, including those giving enjoyment, health, or pleasure to our bodies and to our mind. All of this is good, as long as we remember Who gave us the senses to serve Him with our enjoyment, and bodies to engage in His happy service.

The essence of all of this comes to one thing: enjoyment and pleasure happen in our physical body; more, they give health and strength to the body. However, these feelings originate in a nonmaterial reality where the brain is only a transmitter of those higher sensations. The direct profiteer of these sensations is the body and for our body we undertake these pleasant actions. On the higher plane, though, what is happening is that our bechirah — G-d-given free choice — is being used. Depending on whether we achieve the permitted or even advised pleasures, or forbidden pleasures by permitted or forbidden means, we realize the goal of our existence. It is our spiritual self — our real self, who can profit or lose as a result of these choices.

Ksime ve Chasime Tova a git un gebenched yur to all.

Matys Weiser

Higgs boson 3

                                                                                                             B-H

In last essay we concluded with expressions of doubt about the existence of the Higgs boson, but observation in the standard model of physics says that there must be a power or component of the atom giving mass to other subatomic particles.

Whatever this power or component is, I really don’t understand how it could possibly prove or disprove the existence of the Creator. It can tell us some more about how nothing became something or rather how nothing IS something, but not more than that. We Jews and following us adherents of Abrahamic religions, already know that the world was created from nothing. Our deepest teachings tell us more. They tells us that the universe is formed from nothing, it is nothing as we speak, and it always will be nothing.

The science of physics gives us some description of it.

The first level of nothing is the atom itself. It is empty inside. The electrons orbiting the nucleus are at such a distance from the nucleus that most of the atom is space — nothing — yet it appears to be something.

On the lower level, the level of the subatomic particles, the sub-particles are built out of pure energy which somehow gains mass. It may be nice to know how it happens, but this knowledge is otherwise insignificant. The fact is that immaterial — i.e. nothing — is becoming material — something.

Newly developed theories, called string theory or membrane theory, may teach us about deeper and deeper levels of nothingness that we and everything around us is built from – what we see as reality.

Here again we can use quantum mechanics theory. According to the most accepted interpretation of this theory, the atom exists only when we are conscious of it, when we try to measure it. What we call “something,” what we call “matter,” what we call “reality” exists only in our consciousness. In our mind.

But wait! Isn’t the brain built out of these very same atoms that are the product of random evolution of energy? Energy that formed atoms, which randomly joined together to form amino acids, and those amino acids joined together to form living cells, and then the cell randomly joined together to form organs, and then organs joined randomly together to sustain the brain — a random product of a long evolutionary chain of nothingness becoming an apparatus of self-awareness that is necessary for the existence of matter itself.

Oh man, anyone believing this must be a man of faith. No! Of unlimited faith.

Somehow, however, many of the people searching to understand the mechanisms of Creation declare themselves to be atheists. Like for example David Deutsh, British physicist born in Tel Aviv. He is himself an adherent of Everett’s multiverse theory, which is another one of the interpretations of quantum mechanics theory. Asked how matter can exist only as a result of activity of our minds, he simply called it a paradox.

Many times in my life I’ve told people that I don’t believe that atheism exists. Their nonexistence doesn’t have anything to do with our existence in general, as it is described above. I simply don’t think that they are nonbelievers. Thy use all kind of equilibristic logic figures to push the Creator away from their consciousness and conscience. I will not explain now why I think it happened to them, but the fact is that if a person doesn’t see order and design in this universe, he is still a believer. He has chosen to believe that G-d doesn’t exist. Well … he has free choice, guaranteed by G-d.

I chose to recognize that He gave me my existence and placed me and other like me in a three-dimensional reality where I can exercise my bechirah — free choice — a characteristic that in His infinite love, the Holy One blessed is His Name decided to share with me and other creatures like me. Middah – the attribute of freedom can be gained only here in the possibly lowest level of spiritual existence called “the universe.”

To construct an exercise field for our free choice, the Giver of existence withdrew, according to the words of Chazal (Sages), and constructed the universe from nothing.

I will emphasize it one more time: If the emptiness of the atom is not “nothing” enough, then mass-less particles of energy that form the atom are more “nothing” in its nothingness. But according to the words of Chazal, even the energy that serves as the building blocks of matter comes as an end product of many levels of withdrawing on the part of the Divine far away, to give a “space” for us and the universe but to be close enough to be involved in matters that are the crown of His creation — human beings — bnei adom.

In our universe, the Creator gave us seven categories of bechirah (choice), which by consciously choosing according to His will we recognize Him as our Maker and we can free ourselves from the bond of the materialistic, and ultimately matter itself.

To achieve this high goal, HaKadosh Baruch Hu chose spiritual leaders of humanity, who, by their humble example, model for the rest of mankind total devotion and submission to the will of the Creator. For this, the Jewish family was equipped with the Torah and 613 commandments, as well as with spiritual attributes and talents. These attributes and talents are supposed to serve for one and only one reason — serving as mankind’s priests — i.e. spiritual leaders — to bring the light of recognition of the Creator back to humanity. The details of this work and its applications and implications are described in the vast ocean of the writings of our Sages of blessed memory.

Look back for conclusion of my essays on Higgs boson on coming Sunday, before Scientist from CERN will tell us that "standard model" felled apart :).

Matys Weiser

Higgs boson 2

                                                                                                             B-H

I hope that last week I was able to roughly explain not only the history of the discovery of the atom, but also its basic structure. I’m aware that all this knowledge cannot be comprehensively described in a short essay, so if you are interested in this science of matter, I encourage you to do further research on this topic. Meanwhile, as promised, I will continue to explain the significance of the search for the Higgs boson.

Within the last hundred or so years we learned about the atom and it subatomic components. We accepted the so-called “standard model” of the particle as the description of the building blocks of the universe and experiments confirmed the existence of these subatomic particles. All of them with one exception — the Higgs boson.

That standard model does not explain that which is postulated by the Big Bang theory, that equal amounts of antimatter where electrons are loaded positively and the nucleus negatively. Statistically there is supposed to be the same amount of antimatter as matter (what everything and everyone is made from) in the universe. But the reaction of the matter and antimatter would leave nothing but energy. The question is how the energy that precedes the formation of matter, and is the “material” that matter is built from, reacts “peacefully” as the cosmic fusion became matter. Soon after the subatomic particles of energy form the atom, they should collide with the particles of antimatter that are located just next to them and annihilate each other, becoming … subatomic particles of energy.

It doesn’t happen. Miraculously, the matter and antimatter are separated and, thank G-d, antimatter doesn’t exist anywhere next to us, in our corner of galaxy. This is not the case with one of the major components of atoms of antimatter, a positively loaded electron called positron. Positron is produced commercially and is used widely in, for example, PET scanners. In other words, it exists in actuality, not only in theory.

The other issue the standard model, as we understand it today, does not explain is the postulated existence of so-called “dark matter” — matter that is invisible to our instruments and that is keeping galaxies together from within, by the force of its strong gravity.

Before I explain where the Higgs boson fits in here, I want to explain that the atom has mass. The attribute of mass causes the atoms to form solid matter, which is then manifested in four forms: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, or as it was described in ancient times: earth, water, air, and fire. Some of the atom’s sub-particle components have measurable mass as well.

However, here comes the big surprise: These components themselves are particles of pure energy, and the questions that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is supposed to address are: What gives these particles of energy their mass? What is giving mass to the atom? What cause matter and everything in which matter is manifested to exist?

To be clear, we are not talking here about Aristotelian “first cause,” but only about the physical reasons for matter to perform as it does.

So what does the Higgs boson have to do with atoms and matter? In 1964, leading physicists, among them Peter Higgs, postulated the existence of the power that gives the atom its mass. Regardless of the fact that several of the scientists were working toward this independently at the same time, the energy or power was called the “Higgs mechanism” or “Higgs field” (though they are not the same thing).

In the following years of Higgs’s discovery, there were further discoveries of other subatomic particles, as described briefly above. The scientists postulated the existence of a separate sub-particle and called it the “Higgs boson.” The Higgs boson is supposed to be a particle that slows down, catches or causes somehow in a different way, the other particles to have mass, thereby giving mass to atoms, and matter in general.

I hope what I wrote above is clear enough so that you can understand the importance of finding the Higgs boson. Some people even claim that it can somehow prove the existence or nonexistence of the Creator. They call this particle “G-d’s particle.” Using that term is confusing and is used to give by the media to make the hunt for Higgs boson dramatic to the general public.

In one of my opening posts I wrote that if there is a question about existence it is our existence. In this and my following essays, I will explain a lit bit more about what I meant by my words.

Soon after the first experiments in CERN’s laboratory, some of the scientists expressed the opinion that perhaps the Higgs boson doesn’t exist at all. This is not something new. Stephen Hawking, a famous physicist, bet $100 on the nonexistence of the Higgs boson. I’m not sure if he expressed disbelief in the particle itself or also in the Higgs field or Higgs mechanism. Without a doubt, in the standard model there must be 'something' that gives matter its mass. It’s postulated that this 'something' is the Higgs boson, also called “G-d’s particle.” Recently, especially after the first experiments by LHC, some of the authorities who believed previously in the existence of the Higgs boson have said that perhaps the boson itself doesn’t exist and maybe there is more than one particle causing other subatomic particles to gain mass as they join together to form the atom. Check back here next few days for more on this.

Matys Weiser

Higgs Boson 1

                                                                                                             B-H

Two weeks ago, the whole world held its breath. Humanity awaited in astonishment for the outcome. No, we are not talking about Hurricane Irene, which was destroying the East Coast. We are talking India, the country where a quarter of the world population lives. In one of their biggest cities, Mumbai, they hosted the Lepton-Photon 2011 conference of leading physicists, including those working on the CERN project in Switzerland, working in the field of particle physics.

Just a month before, the same scientists convened in the European city of Grenoble to discuss similar issues. But now they have double the amount of data coming from the CERN laboratory and its LHC (Large Hadron Collider), the most expensive and perhaps the biggest machine build by humanity.

Of course I was being sarcastic in saying that all of humanity was waiting for some news coming from the conference. Unfortunately, most of humanity is busy hunting for food and entertainment and don’t even know about this big machine and round tunnel that is located under the Alps. However a number of readers have some understanding of what we are waiting for. It is necessary, however, to articulate that this understanding cannot come from sketchy articles in daily newspapers or popular magazines. For a while the popular media were frightening people with stories of antimatter being produced that would be capable of destroying the universe, or at least part of it. That’s simply foolish.

To understand the major aspects of what those scientists are convening about requires more than following popular media.

To make long story short, in 1905 Albert Einstein was experimenting with Polon (a chemical element discovered not long before by Marie Curie Sklodowska) on the surface of water and he made mathematical calculations proving the century-old atomic theory of John Dalton’s. Einstein proved the existence of an atom — from the Greek word “atomos – indivisible.” The atom was the smallest particle according to his and his contemporaries’ understanding; atoms were the building block of matter and the universe.

Only six years later it was discovered by New Zealand–born, British chemist and physicist Ernest Rutherford that the atom is built out of electrically negative electrons orbiting a positively loaded nucleus. Six more years and the same Rutherford, who by the way was the son of a farmer, was the first to experiment with atomic fusion and discovered that the nucleus is a combination of a positively loaded proton and electrically neutral neutrons.

We have to mention the name of one of the great scientists in theoretical physics of that century, and perhaps ever, the Danish Niles Bohr. In 1913, Bohr confirmed Rutherford’s discovery that the electron is orbiting the nucleus, but his greatest breakthrough was that of Quantum Theory or Quantum Mechanics — a mathematically proven description of the atom as a particle that exists only when we measure it, i.e. it depends on the conscious observer. I’m simplifying the whole theory here, and for sure I will not go to the various interpretations of this theory. I will limit myself to the most accepted Copenhagen Interpretation of it, which I will explain later, im yirtzeh Hashem.

For the next half century, mankind was busy determining how to use the new discoveries to annihilate their fellow human beings. But along the way, the structure and nature of the atom was understood more and more.

In 1964, two scientists, Gellman and Zweig, independently proposed the existence of quarks — the building components of the proton and neutron, which had recently been renamed hadrons.

Since then, the atom was divided even further and today we recognize whole families of subatomic particles. The picture below will give some idea of what are we talking about.

The picture was taken from here:http://profmattstrassler.com/ and this is right place if you like to learn more about particles.

Along with the discoveries of the structure of the atom, we also came to understand most of the mechanisms ruling within the atom and, on a higher level, matter itself.

Among the recognized subparticles of the atom there are gluons, which are responsible for atom’s quarks sticking together against the other laws of physics. Quarks are building blocks of positively charged protons and all the elements besides the hydrogen are built from more than one proton. Gluon creates a strong nuclear force to hold them together. It belongs to the family of subparticles called “bosons,” which are cousins of fermions. Fermions are the subparticles that can be described as the building material of the atom, while the bosons are the particles giving the atom its feature or keeping everything together. If the fermions and bosons are cousins, then the Higgs boson is closer to the family of gluons.

We want to describe what the function is of the Higgs boson within the atom and if it exists at all; we will spend some time on it. But before we do this, first you should know that all of the particles described above and on the picture have been proven to exist. This isn’t the case with the Higgs boson and that’s what we are waiting to hear from the final statement of the scientists gathered in Mumbai. It is also important to say that the Higgs boson is perhaps the most important part of the atom, because it gives the atom its mass —without it our senses wouldn’t experience the matter as the solid entity it is — possible to touch, be walked on, or being building blocks of who we are, or rather the vessels for who we really are. More to come.

Matys Weiser

Elul – Hashem’s Trap for His People

                                                                                                             B-H

Traveling in time is something many people dream of. Can it really be done? Is it possible? What is the nature of time?

We are all placed in a three-dimensional reality, where each of the three dimensions cross each other in a central point. The Maharal from Prague describes this in a different language. He talks about six directions rather than three dimensions. The central point in his thinking is an additional and separate reality — the most important seventh measurement from where our world and our perception of it starts.

Our world is located in this seventh point, with each one of us the center of our own universe. Naturally, the number seven became special in this vision of the reality, the number seven became a holy number.

According to Chazal, just as physical reality is creation, time is a creation. Just as the physical world has outer reality, so does time. In higher reality, time does not exist. It was given to us as one of the elements that are necessary in order for us to exercise our freedom of choice, our bechirah.

We can travel in the physical world in all directions, being limited only by the laws of physics. With time, the story is entirely different. There are three components of time defined by man — past, present, and future. We can travel back in time with our mind, but not with our body. We can travel to the future with our body, as the present is always moving in that direction, but our mind is much more limited in traveling to the future. Presence — we are always there.

As our presence moves on, forward, we frequently come to the same point of time, as it was described by the great chachamim. Our movement in time resembles a spiral or coil, where we come to the same places of time, called by different names in the Jewish calendar. In other words, the nature of time is circular, not straight, coming again and again to the same stations on the “road.”

This past week the “train” of our presence approached the part of the road known to us as Chodesh Elul — the month of Elul. Elul is a month of preparation for the great day of Teriah, of shofar-blowing, on the first days of Tishrei and then on Yom Hakippurim — the Day of Atonement.

On these days, even the fish in Hudson River shake in awe of the Creator, and every Jew  prepares for the days of great cheshbon hanefesh, where our sins will be counted, even if we don’t like for them to be counted. How our next year turns out, what awaits us in this part of time between this Rosh HaShanah and the next one, will be result of these calculations.

But didn’t we say than time is just one of the creations, and if it is then certainly the Creator of it is above all of it? Doesn’t He know already, billions of Rosh HaShanahs (if there would be so many) before, what will we do and how we will ask for atonement for our sins? Indeed, He knows and yet it is entirely our free will to do His will or, chas v’chalila, not to do it. It is our own cheshbon hanefesh that causes us to ask for forgiveness and promise to ourselves and our Creator that next year we will be better.

What then is Hashem counting? Nothing. He has it all calculated for us. The part of the road called “Elul” and the stations of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur were created for us like everything else, and not for Him.

Last week we were reading three psukim of Torah where all the “cards” were placed on the “table.” We were told what is expected from us, what is good for us, and which direction we should chose.

“Now, O Yisroel, what does Hashem, your G-d, ask of you? Only to fear Hashem.”

See Him, be aware of Him, have Him in your conscience and be in awe of Him always. Be aware of Him whatever you do and wherever you are, in all you activities, at all times “go in all His ways, and love Him with all your heart and all your soul.” Whatever and wherever you do anything do it “observing His commandments and decrees for your benefit.” “Your benefit, not Mine,” says Hashem. “You harm yourself or your fellow Jews by not observing what I told you. You are proving your own stupidity by disobedience and it bring no essential harm to Me; what I am telling you is only for your own benefit.” He is above Heaven and Heaven of Heavens, continues the pasuk. It is we who are in the center of this creation and all of this was created only for us from His Love. How can we forget this? How can we?

Well we do. And that’s why we need the remainders. To pull us out of the rut of ruach hashtus — the spirit of stupidity. To give us another opportunity to come back to a higher awareness of our Creator. This what Elul does for us, as well as the other special times.

For those who don’t know, my main profession is guiding people in special places. A tour guide. Places special for their history or beauty.

A few weeks ago, among the other phone calls I got, was one to remember.

The person asked me if I still had open time this summer. I answered that I had time in Chodesh Elul. The person yelled at me: “You want me to go for vacation in Elul??? No way!”

I started to explain that going with me those few days might be excellent preparation for achieving a higher awareness of Hashem, but the person on the line only mumbled something and hung up the phone. I was puzzled for only a few seconds.

I know what “vacation” means for many of our people. As I said once to a group of young men in my opening speech on one such tour: “Leave the Boro Park, Flatbush, Monsey shtick where it came from. Please don’t forget who are you and Who you are serving.” Unfortunately, so many people go out on vacation, or into life, and leave their personal Shulchan Aruch on the bookshelf at home, or at least some parts of it.

There is chassidishe maaseh — a chassidic tale that the Rebbe, perhaps the Baal Shem Tov himself, told his chassidim (followers) so that they should learn from the smugglers.

How can a pious person learn from the smuggler?

The story goes like this:

A smuggler wanted to smuggle diamonds through the granitz, the border. He hired a  balagala (wagon driver) and filled his wagon with the hay. Somewhere in the middle of the pile of hay he placed the small sack filled with his contraband. From the very beginning of the trip toward the border he was consumed with hesitation, almost panic.

What will happen with me if the border officers will find my smuggling? They will put me in jail, and maybe torture me — or even worse …

His heart was beating like crazy; he was sweating and shaking, trying hard as he could to make his anxiety unnoticeable to anybody.

The balagala knew about the smuggler’s business, but he seemed to be not worried at all … for a while at least. He calculated that since he was not the owner of the contraband, he would have nothing to be concerned about. But the closer they drove to the granitz, even his heart began to beat faster and faster.

What if the authorities will consider me a shuteff (partner) in this shady business? In fact, since I know about what’s going on, maybe I’m indeed a partner and they will have all legal rights to put me into jail or even torture me …

Such thoughts continued to cross his mind and he had to hold himself together as they got closer and closer.

But what about the horses pulling the wagon? The horses didn’t hesitate; they were not frightened about the issue of contraband and jail and possible torture. The horses pulled with their heads down and eyes protected from viewing what was to the sides.

We learn from the smuggler, tells the story, to be concerned all the time — all year long — about what we might be doing wrong. Balagalas worry only before they get to the granitz — the border, but horses crossing the border without even noticing that anything is wrong.

Fools! The same Creator is here and there! The same Creator is watching me and you in Kislev and Elul! The same Creator is asking me and you to have Him in our conscience always and everywhere and in whatever we do.

If we can stay in touch with this in Elul, we can do it in this one month, then we can do it in the rest of the year as well. Let’s try to keep it up!

Matys Weiser

Jewish Musician

                                                                                                             B-H

One thing I will most surely not do in this essay is to speak about Jewish music.

That would be a separate subject, in and of its own right, and, with Hashem’s help, I will post on this subject another time.

However, I will ask: Is there any difference between a Jewish and not-Jewish musician?

Of course when I say Jewish, I’m not speaking of Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Paul Stanley, David Lee Roth, Geddy Lee, or Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

All of them were born Jewish, but their contribution to what is considered real Jewish music is sort of like second cousins twice removed. They contributed to the history of the world’s music, and as much as world music influences Jewish music, that’s about the level of their contribution to it. Most of them didn’t or don’t live the path of life of their ancestors, which make them Jews but not necessarily Jewish.

I would like to speak about musicians who sing at Orthodox Jewish weddings or who sell their CDs in Jewish bookstores.

There is no question in my mind that since Jewish music was always influenced by outside music, and vice versa. As I said this is not the topic here. The matter of what genre do we listen to, is taste and nothing else.

However there is another question: How are our musicians influenced by the secular world’s performers?

We all know that today’s entertainment figures have become the new aristocracy of the world. They and other performers are role models to the new generation. This has been the case for the past few generations.

The root of this phenomenon, however, goes back to the general history of Euro-American civilization. Somewhere within last couple of hundred years, this civilization burned out on accepting their authority figures. There is no priest, statesman, or sage whom the public will rely on his knowledge and wisdom. Even those words — knowledge and wisdom — have somehow become disliked, not “cool.”

The media are constantly bombarding us with completely worthless and irrelevant information about stars and idols. We can learn all the gory and personal details about their lives, from almost every source of information. The media feeds us with information about the performers, with or without these “stars” permission.

We just said “idols”? Hasn’t this word long ago acquired a new meaning? Many times, those new “idols” feel themselves like they are some new kind of god. They become cult-like or even kind of quasi-religious. They behave in a way that some tyrants of old would be ashamed of. The rules of common folk don’t apply to them, yet common folk ape at them thoughtlessly and with great enthusiasm.

Some of them are even talented musicians, but many wouldn’t be on the top of the list without constant scandals, wired outlooks, and wired performances. Everything for the show. Everything.

So … when I see a Jewish singer or musician performing in the manner of Michael Jackson or Mick Jagger, it makes me nauseous. If he thinks that so long as he doesn’t touch himself below the belt line, it’s alright — it isn’t.

Or maybe he will sing in the manner of some young boys’ band — nice and glamorous. It is still an ugly imitation of and manner of performance strange to the Jewish spirit.

A Jew aware of his Creator and Giver of all talents and capabilities understands the fact that he has nice voice and capacity to use it, but only for the pleasure of his fellow brothers. It is a gift from Heaven and nothing else. It is a gift, and as a gift it should be treated as such, with gratitude and humility.

I am expressing my private opinion and nothing more than that. I am not saying that a performance by a Jew should be cheerless or sad. Music has the amazing power to make almost everybody happy. And yes, it makes us move our bodies and that’s beautiful. It especially makes the music player’s or singer’s whole body and soul move. That’s how HaKadosh Baruch Hu created us and that’s how His holy servants enjoyed the gift of music — they were worshiping their Creator with it! It simply doesn’t have to be accompanied by strange Star-shtick.

Even among the greatest non-Jewish performers there are those who use their talent in the humble ways of whatever they value.

David Gilmour, Joe Satriani, Neal Morse, even Bono and countless of others realized that their ability to create doesn’t make them more than talented people. They are people who don’t have to suck glory from their fans and even then exist with severe depression. This, unfortunately, is the case for some performers. At least some of the very talented musicians among the nations don’t act this way. They can enjoy and make others enjoy their music without buffoonery and glamour and shtick so characteristic for the majority of the performers.

I purposely didn’t use any of the Jewish musicians as examples. It would be unnecessary and plain wrong. Whoever reads this essay can make his own cheshbon hanefesh (account of conscience), whether he is a singer, musician, or just plain listener.

Matys Weiser

Evil - Part 2

                                                                                                             B-H

More than twenty years ago, I read the essays of Emmanuel Levinas, collected in a volume titled in my native language as “Difficult Freedom.” I do not remember most of what I read then, but I love this expression – “difficult freedom” whether it is freedom of choice, which, to distinguish it from freedom coming from submitting our lives to G-d’s Torah, I call “liberty,” or whether it is this submission that comes with great effort of taking control of our physicality. To make it easer to understand: liberty = freedom of choice. Freedom = state which we live free of slavery to the transgression of the Torah’s commandments.

Whoever decides to live a life of Torah knows what struggles we go through during our lives. It is even more difficult that every time we climb to another level of righteousness, around the corner new challenges await us — challenges more complex than previous ones. It is difficult.

But even more difficult is this awareness that it is in our human hands to create Evil, to do something against will of our Creator. Most of us don’t think on a daily basis that Evil is something that is against the very character of the Giver of life. Still, all of humanity has some definitions of good and evil.

Most of us are not aware that the only evil is that created by us, humans.

What about such thing like “acts of G-d,” some may ask me at this moment?

Do not tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes kill masses of people? Doesn’t fire or floods take the lives of innocent people? Who should be “blamed,” man or G-d?

First of all, we don’t know the reality behind what we see. Our ability to comprehend and understand what happens is limited by the physical character of our world. We cannot ascend higher and see our inner dimensions while being out of them. We cannot see all of the consequences of our actions, as most of us are not even aware that these actions are only in the lowest part of our three-dimensional reality. Even here on the earth, above our actions (Maaseh) are worlds of word (Dibur) and thought (Machshuva). Then there are higher realms that we can just touch with our intellect; these realms we call “spirituality.” Above spirituality is infinity.

When we pull the thread hanging somewhere from our shirt, we sometimes don’t know that we just ripped off the collar of the shirt. We just see the single thread, which we think doesn’t belong hanging from the shirt. One thread pulled out of our shirt can ruin the piece of fabric. So it is the case with the fabric of Creation. We don’t know what our actions or lack of actions are causing in other end of the world. We have no idea what damage it cause in higher spiritual spheres. G-d, in His infinite love, does not cause anything that is Evil, as Evil is something that doesn’t exist in Him, in His realm. It is we who create Evil; it is we who bring the harm and pain to ourselves and others like us. It costs us our liberty/bechirah and our freedom to have this possibility to cause — directly and indirectly — pain, suffering, violence, war, cruelty, and death. This is difficult.

It is even more difficult when we are somehow having a higher awareness of the temporality of this world. It is difficult, because if what people call reality is not real, pain and suffering is real. But so is happiness and love.

Last week we concluded the period of what we call the Three Weeks. If you still remember, my dear reader, I started this two-part essay with a question about the nature of this period. Why there is more Evil happening to the chosen people of G-d than during the rest of the year?

The answer is described in last week’s essay. It is not more Evil coming from our Creator, chas v’shulem, but as a result of our collective sin of meraglim (spies) and cheit ha’eigel (the Golden Calf). ‘Space’ for more Evil became part of the fabric of the Creation; we are more exposed to the Evil. This was a cosmic adjustment in the very nature of the time, in which we became more vulnerable.

One sin happened on the 17th of Tammuz and other sin we did on the 9th of Av, according to our tradition. There are three weeks in between these days. Until the Geula — the final Redemption — this is a time, a part of our reality, when our Father in Heaven turn His Face away yet a little bit more. It is we who fill up this “additional void” with Evil, simply by not following His Will. We are vulnerable to ourselves and others like us. This is also cost of our freedom.

Last week we also passed the shloishim — thirty days — since our child was taken away from us, since Leiby z”l was taken from his parents and grandparents.

Can we understand what happened on that night month ago? No. We can not comprehend the fact that human being could be able to do such horrible thing. We cannot accept that someone raised with the values that make most of us better human beings, rejected these values and chose to do almost ultimate Evil. Evil where the pain will linger in the hearts of the family and community, perhaps till Moshiach will come. Like the stories we read in Megillas Eichah last Tuesday about mothers cooking their children to eat them, in the besieged Holy City. This pain is too great. It is the pain of our liberty.

But last Shabbos we read the Haftorah, a chapter of Yeshayahu Hanuvi – prophet Isaiah called Nachmu.

There is hope, there is the shearis Yisruel — the remaining holy people — who stay strong, like these seven thousand men whom Hashem is informing Eliyahu Hanuvi about.

There are people like Leiby’s father who, like his ancestor Avraham, gave his son back to the Giver of existence, knowing that there is more than we see. There are people like his grandfather, Reb Yitzchok, who walked out of Leiby’s house with his head up, like the greatest of his ancestors, taking what Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives without questioning, with perfect faith.

I have the great privilege to be a friend of this man, Reb Yitzchok. We use to sit next to each other for seven years in the same beis medrash. I never told Reb Yitzchok how important a role he played in my life.

I was a stranger from different country and from a hostile nation and I came and sat down next to him. While others often hesitated to have even eye contact with me, it was Reb Yitzchok, with his love of his fellow Jew, who opened the door of friendship for me — this neophyte. This is how Reb Yitzchok is. Thanks to this man — and others like him — there is hope that the Geula (Redemtion) is closer. He is someone who, with his family, gives example of emunah to all of us because he chose to fill the void given to him with Good.

Matys Weiser