Embedded Files
I created a video presentation and posted it on FB: https://www.facebook.com/avi.rabinowitz/videos/10157709077235892
..
Also:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/80847655150/posts/10165899906050151
luchos: shvuos:
In Gan Eden Adam was frightneded of God's voice, and we were frightened at Sinai, could stand only heairng 'anochi'.
VOice comes thrugh keruvim to MR, just as we begged MR to transmit the 10 commandments. My speculaiton: on shvuos night we can hear the anochi again, if we prepare 3 days hagbala, and 49 days sefira.
Speculaiton: since there is a parlell betwen the two luchos, so anochi is lo tirzach, so like zachor veshamor bedibut echod, so too they heard three sylables + 3 others, together: a-no-chi + lo tir-tzach , and this gave themt he uniderstanding that humans are tzelm elokim and so violating lo tirtzach is a violation of anochi.
...
According to Jewish tradition, the giving of the torah at Sinai transcended place and time: according to Tradition, some aspect of the giving of the Torah was felt also by all peoples of that time, and all Jewish souls of the future were present at Sinai (ie not our brain, our memory etc, but rather our soul) and so all Jews of today were there "in spirit".
Furthermore, according to the Jewish understanding of the holidays, the special energy created at the time of the original events cycles back in time annually - ie the energy of the exodus returns annually at pesach, the energy of the closeness of God's presence as manifested in the "cloud of glory" when the Jewish People were travelling through the desert, for 40 years re-manifests at succot annually, and the energy of the giving of the Torah at Sinai infuses shavuot every year, and we can tap into these energies, particularly on shavuot since we were all present at the event itself.
..
A newer reason why Shavuos not mentioned as zman matan torosenu in chumash: we were all at sinai and had a lavel of nevuah and so we have deep access to Torah beynd our conscions level, and so we can be mechadesh and it is torah misiani, and so the torah is consitnuing to be revealed, and this is why shavuos is not mentione din chumash re luchos, since the revelation didnt stop with the frozen-time of a few thousand years ago, and it is not the giving of the chumash which is shavuos because tha tis a written book and cant be added to.. so shavuos is about the continuing etxz chayim of revelation of torah misinai (wihtin halackinc etc guidleines of course)
..
The shavuot holiday re-living the giving of the Torah as a boost in our climb up the spiritual ladder, to return to where we started, Eden, but at a higher level: The Jewish mystics teach that God created us in order for us to experience the greatest possible joy - which is when our soul clings to its source, God, after a life of striving for this type of connection through following the path of the Torah, and in this sense we are 'back in Eden'.
But we arrive back there at a more developed level, as explained below.
.
Sinai was the first step, a high-level revelation where we heard God directly - God addressed not only all the Jewish People of that time but also of all future times (since all our souls were present). And then and later via Moses we received the deeper understandings and the specifics, which are all encoded in the Oral Torah (see further explanation in the other posts Why (Orthodox) Jews Don't "Believe In The Bible" and "Why two tablets"). And then when the Jewish People were together in the mishkan/Temple soon after, where God's presence rests inside everyone there, we all understood deeper levels of Torah not otherwise apparent in its words, all as preparation for actually living a life of following the Torah way, including of course attaching to the cyclically-recurring spiritual energy of the shabbat every week and the special recurrent energies of the holidays like Shavuot tonight, and developing a relationship with God as God requests from us - "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart ...(etc)" , leading eventually to the final step of 'return to Eden'.
And in such case we have 'earned' 'Eden' rather than simply being placed there. Adam & Eve started out there not through any effort of our own (which was why they were not satisfied staying in Eden and chose to accept the burden of life outside, with all its challenges), in contrast however, after a life of following the Torah we have climbed the ladder of spiritual growth and now are at the level which is 'Eden', but higher since we arrived there by our own spiritual effort.
And each holiday is a boost up the ladder.
Conclusion: May we be blessed this shavuot holiday to take advantage and attach to the very special recurring energy of the giving of the Torah, the great revelation at Mt Sinai, and to open ourselves up to connect to God via the relationship which the Torah way is meant to establish, and thereby climb the levels to be able to experience the great joy of 'cleaving unto God' for which we were created.
.....
Add to yomim tovim chumash talks for videoing and youtube: My talk at c shul Sunday morning ‘yeshiva’ re Shvuos: (R Avram couldn’t make it and delegated me to give it): I had given it informally the previous week, re lag ba’omer:
Topic is shvuos, giving of the Torah: idea is that we can get to G of Eden by attaching to the energy of Shvuos: In womb the Torah is taught and taken away, why? To give taste, longing for it, and to be able to distinguish the true from the false, recognize it form then. Same for G of Eden. What to long for? (we’ll see tha tit is the orah): why expelled? Bec not to eat of etz hachayim. What’s that? Torah ‘etz chayim hi….”. And kruvim at gates of eden, and on tip of aron where luchos are kept. “Lishmor et derech etz hachayim”, that isn’t “to prevent”, it is lishmor, like shomor for shabbos, keeping. Derech is the way, like derech hashem. We had a taste of eden, we want to return to the etz hacahyim, via the torah, which is the etz chayim in our plane of existence (as opposed ot the one we were in in Eden).
The giving of the luchos was a time of collective prophecy, we saw god on chair etc, but we saw sounds, so obviously the chair was not a chair, maybe it was a sound etc, and that’s how we saw that sound. We had prophecy, we were attached to etz hachayim, we were back in Eden. May we be zocheh on shvuos to attach to this energy and taste eden.
...
n Gan Eden Adam was frightneded of God's voice, and we were frightneed at Sinai, could stand only heairng 'anochi'.
VOice comes thrugh keruvim to MR, just as we begger MR to transmit the 10 commandments. My speculaiton: on shvuos night we can hear the anochi again, if we prepare 3 days hagbala, and 49 days sefira.
Speculaiton: since there is a parlell betwen the two luchos, so anochi is lo tirzach, so like zachor veshamor bedibut echod, so too they heard three sylables + 3 others, together: a-no-chi + lo tir-tzach , and this gave themt he uniderstanding
….…
Judaism is about crafting a relationship with God.
And one product of that rel’p was a closeness, and another was insight, and revelation about the creation of the universe, the nature of humanity, and the goal and meaning of life.
Also, special practices, such as circumcision of males, hospitality for strangers, and the God is acting in a seemingly unjust way.
And there was a special relationship between God and Abraham’s son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob, and so on, and all that transpired to Abraham and to his descendants was handed down the generations for hundreds of years until the time of Moses, when there was a revelation to all those assembled at Sinai after the exodus from Egypt.
Part of the revelation to Abraham and his descendants, and the revelation to those assembled at Sinai was recorded in the Bible. And part was not written but rather transmitted orally. And some was a deeper, almost ‘secret’ knowledge, the kabbalah, passed from master to disciple. Part of that stems from the mystical experiences of Abraham.
The Bible in its opening pages tells that there is a creator who carefully designed the universe and created humans by infusing matter with God’s spirit. Humans at their essence are spiritual entities, emanations of God (God’s breath, or a ’soul’), housed in material bodies. They are created ‘in the image of God’ and as opposed to almost all else in creation, they have free will to choose to do good or bad (rocks and stars cannot choose, plants and lower animals cannot meaningfully choose, and we don’t even hold higher animals all that morally responsible for their actions, we may punish them for behavioral training, but that is not the same as expecting them to understand the difference between right and wrong, as we expect from humans.) (SAo the essence of huiuman is Free Will, which is tzelem elokim.)
……
Jewish mystics have always been commenting on this, and providing the insights which Abraham experienced, and understood as the deeper meanings of what was eventually written in the Torah given to his descendants:
· En od milvado,
· shma..echad…
And because as in breishis, all humanity is God:
· pose’ach es yadecha,
· Ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha (= you feel their need as thiough I is yours) ;
· K K kadosh = God is omnipresent, there is only God, all are manifestations of God, so everything is holy.
As expressed in the words of a Jewish mystic some hundreds of years ago, the purpose of our existence was to receive the greatest possible joy. The most refined people understand that the greatest joy comes from the deepest relationships. And the deepest relationship a human can have is when they are relating from their deepest essence, their ‘soul’, and when there are no more any barriers to the source of that soul – God. So cleaving unto God is the closest possible relationship and gives the greatest joy. According to Judaism, one way to lower the barriers is to resist the ego, to feel as much as possible the needs of others, working together in society to help fulfil people’s needs. And by man and woman bonding together, especially when creating life, they can – if they develop themselves appropriately - reach very high levels of selflessness, and thus cleaving unto God, and experience a taste of the deep joy that an appropriately-developed soul will experience when it is free of the body.
The onset of the deep relationship of God with the Jewish people began with the liberation from bondage in Egypt. God wanted the Jews to connect as free people, and so first took the Jewish people out of slavery (as commemorated and re-enacted on Passover) and only then was there the revelation at Sinai (as commemorated and re-enacted on Shavuot).
Ramchal: God seeks a relationship with us, nt ;obedience;. We were created to experience the greatest pleasure, that which comes when are attached ot the source of all, and the Torah is the way to develop the coneciton to God which will result in this maximal attachment and therefore pleasure. To have a relationship, first one needs to be free, and choose it.
..
Our mission ‘monotheism’ on a deeper level:
(divine flow to us from Avram Avinu (help strangers) and M”R (anav). ?)
…
Echad mi yodeah: shma…echad; etc above.
…
Freedom: true relationship is only when both are free to chose it, Ramchal frames our task in terms of adeveloping a relationship with God;
…
Simcha is essential: vesamachtq bechagecha : veseamachta bechol hatov…al asher lo samachta… Simcha and gratitude
….………..
4 levels of the vort below: (this part was not said at Machlis 2017)
1. intellectual exercise: connecting the dibros of the two tablets;
2. about inner development, and living a good life: ego (kinah gaava taava take one out of the good life): if one follows these ten = 5, one will have a good life
3. spiritual: but in this life, and via chumash pshat: God is available for a conneciton, having such a conneciton makes a great difference in the level at which one lives one's life: it is possible because 'vayipach', 'tzelem' etc (ie even at the level of chumash pshat); "leshochni betocham", which is via keeping the Torah, the covenant between us.
4. spiritual, beyond this life, based on kabbalah, Ramchal, joy etc = purpose of creation. Dvekus during life leads to fullest joy in afterlife; the way to that is via keeping the Torah (which is the blueprint of the universe).(En od milvado, real joy in afterlife is conneciton , not physical-type pleasures).
.......
Said at Machlis 2019: parallel of the two columns 1-5 & 6-10 of the two luchos:
I related the conneciotn of each pair, including the one I came up with as a chidush, 5 & 10: parents are opposite of jealous, they WANT us to have MORE than they do! the will work HARD to let us have MORE than they have!.
So: Remember to honor them for this,and in order to get to loving like a parent, a great gift,l lower ego and want for the other what you would want for yourself, or at least, lo tachmod!
So the 10 commandments are about relating to all humans as the image of God and repository of H's "ruach". (And they were heard by all naitons.)
...
Why 2 kruvim not one? bec two luchos! (why at Gan Eden? not for the two trees since the whole point is that they were there "lishmor et derech etz hacahyim"). The last pasuk of the parsha on shabos (Shvuos started motsei shabbos R'eh) is re H' speaking to M"R via voice coming form betweeen the two kruvim, my vort: between ie in the connection between them, ie understanding how to see one set in terms of the other, ie relating to all humans as the image of God and repository of H's "ruach".
...
Vort said at Machlis
i. shvuos is 7 weeks of counting after pesach, which is exodus. Why were we taken out of egypt?
There is freedom from, and freedom to.
freedom from slavery of course.
But freedom in order to do or be WHAT?!
ii. H says in chumash a few times that took us from egypt to be our God, and to dwell inside us.
iii. Dwelling inside us is natural, because we are tzelem elokim, and vayipach...
What does torah have to do with this?
iv. Answer: mekubalim (ramchal etc) say purpose of existence/creaiton is joy, deykus, and torah is the way. we develop via keeping the torah, and H is 'shochen' within us, and we get to a state where after life is over we can transition to the pure dvekus ,
vi. Shvuos is about the aseres hadibros, and an essential aspect of torah and reaching dvekus, is the double-aspect of the two tablets.
vii. (re ego) Parallel of 5 & r of luchos, honor other & thus escape envy (coveting)
Conclusion: following this path reduces our ego and makes our essence shine through and devekus to God in this life and then transition to pure dvekus.
So we were taken out of mitzrayim (pesach) in order to get the torah/aseret hadibrot (shavuot), and "leshochni besocham' - but it is the torah which leads us to dvekus, ie "veshachanti betocham" , eg via the aseres hadibros, in which we can see that the way to dvekus is by lowering the ego
Postscript: Since torah leads to the greatest joy, the yom tov of getting the luchos is a time to be happy, vesamachta bechagecha, and to learn torah...
...
Combining with other vort:
Garden of Eden parallel to Har Sinai, Mishkan: in Garden is tree which is not fully physical, in center of Mishkan are luchos of har sinai which were not fully physical etc. Etz Hachayim, = torah = luchos. both have Kruvim etc.
We strive to get back to gan eden, this is after-life, ie after dvekus in correct way etc, so etz chayim will be ours then, via keeping the etz chayim, Torah, condensed into the luchos.,
...
Tanach study group
Shavuot brings us back to our presence at Sinai, and the special energy of the giving of the Ten Commandments.
But why were there two tablets?
Wouldn’t it be more convenient to write it on one?
Moses had to climb down the mountain with a tablet in each hand!?
And even if there was need for two separate sections, they could be written one under the other, or in two columns.
Tradition points out parallels between the commandments on the two tablets, and perhaps this also provides the reason for making them two separate tablets.
Had there been two columns one might have thought it was simply a formatting choice, but having Moses hold them side by side made it evident that:
a) there are two separate sections; and:
b) there is a relation between 1 & 6, 2 & 7, 3 & 8, 4 & 9, 5 & 10.
For example:
1 & 6: Their parallelity teaches us that to keep #1 (I am the Lord your God) you have to keep #6 (thou shalt not commit murder), since according to Genesis all humans are created in the image of God and their essence is God's spirit ('ruach'), so murdering a human is to violate a 'repository' of God's spirit.
This made it clear that to worship God, to get close to God, to be religious/spiritual etc, one has to treat people well, create a just society etc. The people at Sinai heard all this and knew it and heard from God directly (via Moshe Rabenu/Moses) that one cannot murder, steal, lie, envy etc, and so they understood the message of the parallelity - that these human-interaction laws are not homilies, and they are not natural principles or laws of the land, they are what God demands from us, and are the way to be holy.
2& 7: In many Biblical passages, rejecting God, going after other "gods" is compared to infidelity, and indeed Tradition teaches that God's spirit rests between a husband and wife who are together, and so the parallelity of these two commandments teaches us that just as God wants us to not follow other Gods, so too we are not to be disloyal to our spouse.
3 & 8: Theft & falsely using God's name: the Rabbis point out that the parallelity is an indication that when one steals, one will have to swear in court that one did not do so, using God's name to make the oath, and false testimony using God's name is a cardinal sin, #3, and so committing theft can bring one to the point where one must violate this cardinal commandment – for someone who wants to avoid violating #3, it would be better to avoid theft altogether.
4& 9: Shabbat and false witness: Keeping shabbat is considered by the Torah as being a witness to the fact that God created the universe, and so NOT keeping it is tantamount to bearing FALSE witness.
5 & 10: "Honor thy father and mother"& "do not covet" (lo tachmod/kabed ess): the last pair: their commonality or relationship is:
a) according to traditional teachings "jealousy takes you out of the world", and the Torah teaches that honoring parents gives long life, ie kibud av keeps you in the world; thus, observing ‘lo tachmod’ do not coveting (jealousy etc/kinah) gives long life, as does honoring one's parents ('kibud av va em').
b) Generally people can be jealous of what someone else has, which is why we are told ‘lo tachmod’/'thou shalt not covet'. However there is a supreme example of the lack of such jealousy/coveting, and that is parents towards their children. Indeed with parents it is quite the opposite, they not only are not jealous of their childrens' success and possessions they actually WANT their children to have more than they did, and will even work hard all their lives to ensure this is so! What we owe them in return is ‘honor thy parents'.
c) God wants only to give, for our benefit, and embodied this in parental love. And so "Honor thy parents" is in the divine column of the commandments (parents want to give to us as God wants to give to all existence.)
[ Note: the Torah presents these - several times - as "the ten utterances" not "the ten commandments"].
May we be blessed when we see the two tablets portrayed, to remember to "read between the columns" – in other words to understand that holiness, spirituality and closeness to God are attained by treating our fellow human being as the image of God, as an entity containing the divine spirit.
17 Comments
17 Comments
All Comments
Yishmael and Mashiach
Not sure what you mean by "bringing us back to our presence at Sinai." Do you mean this in a metaphorical sense that Jews living today can contemplate the awe of receiving the TORAH in much the same way as we try to experience the bitterness and tears during Passover of the Jewish slaves in Egypt by eating the bitter herbs?
Myles Wayne Raucher replied ·
9 Replies
Author
Hi, thanks to all of you for your interest and your questions.
According to Jewish tradition, the giving of the torah at Sinai transcended place and time: according to Tradition, some aspect of the giving of the Torah was felt also by all peoples of that time, and all Jewish souls of the future were present at Sinai - and so all Jews of today were there "in spirit".
Furthermore, according to the Jewish understanding of the holidays, the special energy created at the time of the original events cycles back in time annually - ie the energy of the exodus returns annually at pesach, the energy of the closeness of God's presence as manifested in the "cloud of glory" when the Jewish People were travelling through the desert, for 40 years re-manifests at succot annually, and the energy of the giving of the Torah at Sinai infuses shavuot every year, and we can tap into these energies, particularly on shavuot since we were all present at the event itself.
Avi Rabinowitz I have no recollection of being there at Sinai at the time of the giving of Torah. Do you?
I've asked a number of family members if they remember and they don't either. But then again I don't recall what I had for breakfast last week. … See More
Author
your soul was there, not your brain.
Avi Rabinowitz Good point. But if so many of us have no such recollection how do we know our souls were there?
What is the source of this dramatic assertion? Finally does the brain or facility of recollection or knowledge lie outside the soul in a manner that separates the two?
Apparently some have the facility to know that all souls were at Mt. Sinai. Was this a manifestation of post-Kabbalah mystical Judaism? Was this known prior to the advent of the mystical interpretations?
..
7 Replies
Myles Wayne Raucher soul time traveling with the help of a divine name
Ken Lee Can you elaborate?
Myles Wayne Raucher your soul can go back in time but you need to keep Shabbat and honor his name and be holy in time so a divine name can bring you back to your presence at the sinai
Myles Wayne Raucher it did happen to me
Myles Wayne Raucher no rabbi teaching or doctrine i was just observing a name then it did happen
Besides that Torah says be holy for i am holy so I suppose that was HaShem saying it
As far as I know only way to be holy is by welcoming Shabbat respect it honoring it and be holy on Shabbat or in time that's the way I see it
Ken Lee Don't know if I'm holy. The challenge appears that there is a short leap from being holy to being holier-than-thou.
Shavuot ten commandments
Yosef pesach dreams etc
Mida Kneged Midah
Pharaoh red sea etc
See Arzeo pc, "shonot" folder, two videos made recently for pesach, in English.
They were on FB? on GDrive also? I think maybe not.
Never made it to Youtube? I checked RR's channel, not on avirab scirelig?
.......
Don't need to upload them to the youtube playlist, just insert a link there to the GDrive video.
I should use the GSuite pages as my main source instead of youtube; my website can simply draw videos from Youtube or GDrive, I don't need to send people links to youtube but rather to GSuite.
.....
Adding in explanatory material:
on GSuite I can add all the explanatory info below re the shavuot video and don't have to edit the video:
on GDrive I can add these as comments instead of eidting.
on youtube I can edit videos directly, butmaybe then they add advertisemens?
Maybe I can add translations, ie text material in Hebrew & Russian, so that those who read it in their language and understand some English can then also watch the videos.
.................
Add notes to the 10 commandments video:
the first slide with ancient hebrew: note re paleo Hebrew and 'arami" etc
add re mechilta
add what differences I made from mechilta (see email to rafi shochat)
did I make a mistake, saying first tablet is not ben odom lamako because it has... shabbos? or did I say correctly 'bec it has kabed es'?
if edit, I can add slide of kruvim (I have on desktop?)
.............
the mechilta below, my contribution was:
inverting it to make it all about humanity rather than divine-centered, eg for the 2nd I say that whoever cheats on a spouse is like cheating on God, and whoever gives false witness on a human being it is like violating shabbos, ie false witness re God;
the parallel between the two aspects is based on us being tzelem elokim, etc;
based on us being tzelem, ruach etc: the part re ego-lowering to get close to God, ie the ben adam lechavero is the way to get close to the makom etc;
the last part re parents as the ones who are the opposite of lo tachmod.
...
מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל יתרו – מסכתא דבחדש יתרו פרשה ח
כיצד נתנו עשרת הדברות: ה' על לוח זה וה' על לוח זה. – כתיב "אנכי יי' אלהיך" וכנגדו "לא תרצח", מגיד הכתוב שכל מי ששופך דם, מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו ממעט בדמות המלך. משל למלך בשר ודם שנכנס למדינה והעמיד לו איקונות ועשה לו צלמים וטבעו לו מטבעות. לאחר זמן כפו לו איקונותיו שברו לו צלמיו ובטלו לו מטבעותיו ומיעטו בדמותו של מלך. כך כל מי שהוא שופך דמים, מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו ממעט בדמות המלך, שנאמר: "שופך דם האדם באדם דמו יישפך, כי בצלם אלהים עשה את האדם" (בראשית ט ו).1
– כתיב "לא יהיה לך" וכתיב כנגדו "לא תנאף", מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שעובד עבודה זרה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו מנאף אחר המקום … – כתיב לא תשא את שם ה' אלהיך לשוא וכנגדו כתיב לא תגנוב, מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שהוא גונב, לסוף בא לידי שבועת שוא … – כתיב זכור את יום השבת לקדשו וכנגדו כתיב לא תענה, מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שמחלל את השבת מעיד לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם, שלא ברא עולמו לששה ימים ולא נח בשביעי, וכל מי שמשמר את השבת מעיד לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם, שברא עולמו לששה ימים ונח בשביעי … – כתיב כבד את אביך ואת אמך וכנגדו כתיב לא תחמוד, מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שהוא חומד, סוף מוליד בן שהוא מקלל את אביו ואת אמו ומכבד למי שאינו אביו. לכך נתנו עשרת הדברות חמישה על לוח זה וחמישה על לוח זה, דברי ר' חנינא בן גמליאל.2
..
כ׳:י״ד https://www.sefaria.org.il/Mekhilta_d'Rabbi_Yishmael.20.14?lang=he
כיצד נתנו עשרת הדברות? ה' על לוח זה וה' על לוח זה. כתיב "אנכי ה' אלהיך" וכנגדו "לא תרצח", מגיד הכתוב שכל מי ששופך דם – מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו ממעט בדמות המלך; משל למלך בשר ודם שנכנס למדינה, והעמיד לו איקונות ועשה לו צלמים וטבעו לו מטבעות; לאחר זמן כפו לו איקונותיו, שברו לו צלמיו ובטלו לו מטבעותיו ומיעטו בדמותו של מלך; כך, כל מי שהוא שופך דמים – מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו ממעט בדמות המלך, שנ' (בראשית ט ו) "שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ – כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם". כתיב "לא יהיה לך" וכתיב כנגדו "לא תנאף", מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שעובד עבודה זרה – מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו מנאף אחר המקום, שנ' (יחזקאל טז לב) "האשה המנאפת תחת אשה תקח את זרים", וכתוב (הושע ג א) "ויאמר ה' אלי עוד לך אהב אשת אהובת רע ומנאפת וגו'". כתיב "לא תשא את שם ה' אלהיך לשוא" וכנגדו כתיב "לא תגנוב", מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שהוא גונב, לסוף בא לידי שבועת שוא, שנ' (ירמיה ז ט) "הגנוב רצוח ונאוף והשבע לשקר", וכתיב (הושע ד ב) "אלה וכחש ורצוח וגנוב ונאוף". כתיב "זכור את יום השבת לקדשו" וכנגדו כתיב "לא תענה...". מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שמחלל את השבת, מעיד לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם, שלא ברא עולמו לששה ימים ולא נח בשביעי; וכל מי שמשמר את השבת – מעיד לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם, שברא עולמו לששה ימים ונח בשביעי, שנ' (ישעיה מג יב) "ואתם עדי נאום ה' ואני אל". כתיב "כבד את אביך ואת אמך" וכנגדו כתיב "לא תחמוד", מגיד הכתוב שכל מי שהוא חומד, סוף מוליד בן שהוא מקלל את אביו ואת אמו, ומכבד למי שאינו אביו. לכך נתנו עשרת הדברות חמשה על לוח זה וחמשה על לוח זה, דברי ר' חנינא בן גמליאל, וחכמים אומרים: עשרה על לוח זה ועשרה על לוח זה, שנ' (דברים ה יט) "את הדברים האלה דבר ה' – ויכתבם על שני לוחות אבנים", ואומר (שיר השירים ד ה) "שני שדיך כשני עפרים תאומי צביה" ואו' (שיר השירים ה יד) "ידיו גלילי זהב ממולאים בתרשיש".
......
ego, luchos, veshachanti: 4 levels; and connection to other vort
for videoing and youtube: My talk at c shul Sunday morning ‘yeshiva’ re Shvuos:
I had given it informally the previous week, re lag ba’omer:Topic is shvuos, giving of the Torah: idea is that we can get to G of Eden by attaching to the energy of Shvuos: In womb the Torah is taught and taken away, why? To give taste, longing for it, and to be able to distinguish the true from the false, recognize it form then. Same for G of Eden. What to long for? (we’ll see tha tit is the orah): why expelled? Bec not to eat of etz hachayim. What’s that? Torah ‘etz chayim hi….”. And kruvim at gates of eden, and on tip of aron where luchos are kept. “Lishmor et derech etz hachayim”, that isn’t “to prevent”, it is lishmor, like shomor for shabbos, keeping. Derech is the way, like derech hashem. We had a taste of eden, we want to return to the etz hacahyim, via the torah, which is the etz chayim in our plane of existence (as opposed ot the one we were in in Eden).
The giving of the luchos was a time of collective prophecy, we saw god on chair etc, but we saw sounds, so obviously the chair was not a chair, maybe it was a sound etc, and that’s how we saw that sound. We had prophecy, we were attached to etz hachayim, we were back in Eden. May we be zocheh on shvuos to attach to this energy and taste eden.
……
2016:
parallel of gan eden and the encampment of b yisrael.
(Ramban makes parallel of encampment to situaiton at Har Sinai)
tree of life became torah , the luchot, = mishkan which is called in this parsha several times 'mishkan ha'edut'.
I thought I may have come up with tis but I see it also appears in https://www.alephbeta.org/course/lecture/terumah-angels-in-t
https://www.alephbeta.org/course/lecture/tetzaveh-2016-5776
http://www.tanach.org/shmot/vayak.txt
http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/parsha.64/19teruma.htm
https://moderntoraleadership.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/mishkan-and-midrash/
http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/alei/14-10eisenberg-ganeden.htm
http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/parsha.64/19teruma.htm
http://www.tanach.org/shmot/pkud/shiur1.htm
...
So the etz haddat is in the center of the graden and the luchot are in the center of the encampment.
And the leviim are arrayed about it to protect the people from touching it and dying, similar to kruvim protecting gan eden. Lahat cherev hamithapechet = fire which killed sons of Aharon etc.
Holiness can be dangerous, Kabbalistic truths can mislead. 'Anochi' heard at Sinai almost killed everyone; the luchot were shattered;
Tribes have separate individual roles, when all do as should it is good, other wise problems, if no leviim then people go to touch mishkan and die. And all naitons have their riles and their messengers/prophets, when all do as their role, it is good for all humanity.
In Gan Eden Adam was frightneded of God's voice, and we were frightneed at Sinai, could stand only heairng 'anochi'.
VOice comes thrugh keruvim to MR, just as we begger MR to transmit the 10 commandments. My speculaiton: on shvuos night we can hear the anochi again, if we prepare 3 days hagbala, and 49 days sefira.
Speculaiton: since there is a parlell betwen the two luchos, so anochi is lo tirzach, so like zachor veshamor bedibut echod, so too they heard three sylables + 3 others, together: a-no-chi + lo tir-tzach , and this gave themt he uniderstanding
….…
Judaism is about crafting a relationship with God.
And one product of that rel’p was a closeness, and another was insight, and revelation about the creation of the universe, the nature of humanity, and the goal and meaning of life.
Also, special practices, such as circumcision of males, hospitality for strangers, and the God is acting in a seemingly unjust way.
And there was a special relationship between God and Abraham’s son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob, and so on, and all that transpired to Abraham and to his descendants was handed down the generations for hundreds of years until the time of Moses, when there was a revelation to all those assembled at Sinai after the exodus from Egypt.
Part of the revelation to Abraham and his descendants, and the revelation to those assembled at Sinai was recorded in the Bible. And part was not written but rather transmitted orally. And some was a deeper, almost ‘secret’ knowledge, the kabbalah, passed from master to disciple. Part of that stems from the mystical experiences of Abraham.
The Bible in its opening pages tells that there is a creator who carefully designed the universe and created humans by infusing matter with God’s spirit. Humans at their essence are spiritual entities, emanations of God (God’s breath, or a ’soul’), housed in material bodies. They are created ‘in the image of God’ and as opposed to almost all else in creation, they have free will to choose to do good or bad (rocks and stars cannot choose, plants and lower animals cannot meaningfully choose, and we don’t even hold higher animals all that morally responsible for their actions, we may punish them for behavioral training, but that is not the same as expecting them to understand the difference between right and wrong, as we expect from humans.) (SAo the essence of huiuman is Free Will, which is tzelem elokim.)
……
Jewish mystics have always been commenting on this, and providing the insights which Abraham experienced, and understood as the deeper meanings of what was eventually written in the Torah given to his descendants:
· En od milvado,
· shma..echad…
And because as in breishis, all humanity is God:
· pose’ach es yadecha,
· Ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha (= you feel their need as thiough I is yours) ;
· K K kadosh = God is omnipresent, there is only God, all are manifestations of God, so everything is holy.
As expressed in the words of a Jewish mystic some hundreds of years ago, the purpose of our existence was to receive the greatest possible joy. The most refined people understand that the greatest joy comes from the deepest relationships. And the deepest relationship a human can have is when they are relating from their deepest essence, their ‘soul’, and when there are no more any barriers to the source of that soul – God. So cleaving unto God is the closest possible relationship and gives the greatest joy. According to Judaism, one way to lower the barriers is to resist the ego, to feel as much as possible the needs of others, working together in society to help fulfil people’s needs. And by man and woman bonding together, especially when creating life, they can – if they develop themselves appropriately - reach very high levels of selflessness, and thus cleaving unto God, and experience a taste of the deep joy that an appropriately-developed soul will experience when it is free of the body.
The onset of the deep relationship of God with the Jewish people began with the liberation from bondage in Egypt. God wanted the Jews to connect as free people, and so first took the Jewish people out of slavery (as commemorated and re-enacted on Passover) and only then was there the revelation at Sinai (as commemorated and re-enacted on Shavuot).
Ramchal: God seeks a relationship with us, nt ;obedience;. We were created to experience the greatest pleasure, that which comes when are attached ot the source of all, and the Torah is the way to develop the coneciton to God which will result in this maximal attachment and therefore pleasure. To have a relationship, first one needs to be free, and choose it.
..
Our mission ‘monotheism’ on a deeper level:
(divine flow to us from Avram Avinu (help strangers) and M”R (anav). ?)
…
Echad mi yodeah: shma…echad; etc above.
…
Freedom: true relationship is only when both are free to chose it, Ramchal frames our task in terms of adeveloping a relationship with God;
…
Simcha is essential: vesamachtq bechagecha : veseamachta bechol hatov…al asher lo samachta… Simcha and gratitude
….………..
4 levels of the vort below: (this part was not said at Machlis 2017)
1. intellectual exercise: connecting the dibros of the two tablets;
2. about inner development, and living a good life: ego (kinah gaava taava take one out of the good life): if one follows these ten = 5, one will have a good life
3. spiritual: but in this life, and via chumash pshat: God is available for a conneciton, having such a conneciton makes a great difference in the level at which one lives one's life: it is possible because 'vayipach', 'tzelem' etc (ie even at the level of chumash pshat); "leshochni betocham", which is via keeping the Torah, the covenant between us.
4. spiritual, beyond this life, based on kabbalah, Ramchal, joy etc = purpose of creation. Dvekus during life leads to fullest joy in afterlife; the way to that is via keeping the Torah (which is the blueprint of the universe).(En od milvado, real joy in afterlife is conneciton , not physical-type pleasures).
.......
Why two luchos? To visually promote the understanding of there being a parallel of the two columns ie 1-5 & 6-10 :
Said at Machlis 2019I related the conneciotn of each pair, including the one I came up with as a chidush, 5 & 10: parents are opposite of jealous, they WANT us to have MORE than they do! the will work HARD to let us have MORE than they have!.
So: Remember to honor them for this,and in order to get to loving like a parent, a great gift,l lower ego and want for the other what you would want for yourself, or at least, lo tachmod!
So the 10 commandments are about relating to all humans as the image of God and repository of H's "ruach". (And they were heard by all naitons.)
...
Why 2 kruvim not one? bec two luchos! (why at Gan Eden? not for the two trees since the whole point is that they were there "lishmor et derech etz hacahyim"). The last pasuk of the parsha on shabos (Shvuos started motsei shabbos R'eh) is re H' speaking to M"R via voice coming form betweeen the two kruvim, my vort: between ie in the connection between them, ie understanding how to see one set in terms of the other, ie relating to all humans as the image of God and repository of H's "ruach".
...
Vort said at Machlis
i. shvuos is 7 weeks of counting after pesach, which is exodus. Why were we taken out of egypt?
There is freedom from, and freedom to.
freedom from slavery of course.
But freedom in order to do or be WHAT?!
ii. H says in chumash a few times that took us from egypt to be our God, and to dwell inside us.
iii. Dwelling inside us is natural, because we are tzelem elokim, and vayipach...
What does torah have to do with this?
iv. Answer: mekubalim (ramchal etc) say purpose of existence/creaiton is joy, deykus, and torah is the way. we develop via keeping the torah, and H is 'shochen' within us, and we get to a state where after life is over we can transition to the pure dvekus ,
vi. Shvuos is about the aseres hadibros, and an essential aspect of torah and reaching dvekus, is the double-aspect of the two tablets.
vii. (re ego) Parallel of 5 & r of luchos, honor other & thus escape envy (coveting)
Conclusion: following this path reduces our ego and makes our essence shine through and devekus to God in this life and then transition to pure dvekus.
So we were taken out of mitzrayim (pesach) in order to get the torah/aseret hadibrot (shavuot), and "leshochni besocham' - but it is the torah which leads us to dvekus, ie "veshachanti betocham" , eg via the aseres hadibros, in which we can see that the way to dvekus is by lowering the ego
Postscript: Since torah leads to the greatest joy, the yom tov of getting the luchos is a time to be happy, vesamachta bechagecha, and to learn torah...
...
Combining with other vort:
Garden of Eden parallel to Har Sinai, Mishkan: in Garden is tree which is not fully physical, in center of Mishkan are luchos of har sinai which were not fully physical etc. Etz Hachayim, = torah = luchos. both have Kruvim etc.
We strive to get back to gan eden, this is after-life, ie after dvekus in correct way etc, so etz chayim will be ours then, via keeping the etz chayim, Torah, condensed into the luchos.,
...
FROM other email, previous years;
2016:
parallel of gan eden and the encampment of b yisrael.
(Ramban makes parallel of encampment to situaiton at Har Sinai)
tree of life became torah , the luchot, = mishkan which is called in this parsha several times 'mishkan ha'edut'.
I thought I may have come up with tis but I see it also appears in https://www.alephbeta.org/course/lecture/terumah-angels-in-t
https://www.alephbeta.org/course/lecture/tetzaveh-2016-5776
http://www.tanach.org/shmot/vayak.txt
http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/parsha.64/19teruma.htm
https://moderntoraleadership.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/mishkan-and-midrash/
http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/alei/14-10eisenberg-ganeden.htm
http://etzion.org.il/vbm/english/parsha.64/19teruma.htm
http://www.tanach.org/shmot/pkud/shiur1.htm
...
So the etz haddat is in the center of the graden and the luchot are in the center of the encampment.
And the leviim are arrayed about it to protect the people from touching it and dying, similar to kruvim protecting gan eden. Lahat cherev hamithapechet = fire which killed sons of Aharon etc.
Holiness can be dangerous, Kabbalistic truths can mislead. 'Anochi' heard at Sinai almost killed everyone; the luchot were shattered;
Tribes have separate individual roles, when all do as should it is good, other wise problems, if no leviim then people go to touch mishkan and die. And all naitons have their riles and their messengers/prophets, when all do as their role, it is good for all humanity.
In Gan Eden Adam was frightneded of God's voice, and we were frightneed at Sinai, could stand only heairng 'anochi'.
VOice comes thrugh keruvim to MR, just as we begger MR to transmit the 10 commandments. My speculaiton: on shvuos night we can hear the anochi again, if we prepare 3 days hagbala, and 49 days sefira.
Speculaiton: since there is a parlell betwen the two luchos, so anochi is lo tirzach, so like zachor veshamor bedibut echod, so too they heard three sylables + 3 others, together: a-no-chi + lo tir-tzach , and this gave themt he uniderstanding that humans are tzelm elokim and so violating lo tirtzach is a violation of anochi.
…
Report abuse