Aspaqlaria

Keeping Torah and Values in Focus

Category: Mussar

Thank You Hashem 0

Gratitude / Shemoneh Esrei

Tefillah Meanings: For All That You Do

We already saw the Gra explained that we receive from Hashem in four ways. And that this also feels to me like a key part of the requests that are the heart of Shemoneh Esrei…

And so, it should be unsurprising that in Modim we thank and face our need to be dependent on Hashem for four things.

Thank You Hashem 1

Gratitude / Shemoneh Esrei

Tefillah Meanings: Thank G-d!

Of all the paths to Torah that the shevatim developed, when it came time to rebuild the Jewish People and our nature ever since, is Juda-ism — a religion in which hoda’ah is fundamental. …

And so Modim is not “only” an expression of thanks to our Creator, it is also the Jew’s central means of connecting to Him.

Emile Levy Abraham lavant les pieds aux trois anges 0

Anavah

Practicing Tzimtzum

Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik zt”l describes two mitzvos as emulating Tzimtzum: … The physical emulation of Tzimtzum is the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orechim… The Middah of Anavah is an internal emulation of Tzimtzum…. We need to emulate Tzimtzum. Not just to constrict ourselves, but to make room within ourselves for the other. We need to constrict our attention to the “atzmi”, the “self” in the limited sense inhabiting this body, to grow an “I” (as Rav Shimon Shkop puts it), that is a network of relationship to other people, to Hashem, and to the world around us. To make a place where we can connect…

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1- Bereishis / Birkhas haMazon / Chessed

Tefillah Meanings: Everything

A wealthy person is one who realized they have enough, exactly what Hashem deems they need to accomplish what they’re supposed to in life.

But to have everything is to be in a position where one can give to others.

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Dei`os

Ohr haTzafun: Chillul HaSheim and the Tzelem Elokim

The Alter of Slabodka has a very different take. (Ohr haTzafun, Bamidbar #3, “דקות תביעות התורה”)

A person is betzelem Elokim, in the “image” of the Divine. This image is Hashem’s name in this world.

When they do something inappropriate, that image is tarnished. The action removes G-dliness from the world by removing some of the fidelity of His Image and thus some of observability of His Presence in it

Chilul hasheim refers to this tarnishing as a desecration of the image and thus His name.

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Mussar

Or haTzafun on Eternity (and the Conservation of Matter)

One of the central themes Ohr haTzafun is that “Hashem founded the world with wisdom” (Mishlei 3:19) And also, “the world is built of lovingkindness.” (Tehillim 89:3)… In particular, the human soul, but also our bodies, and the universe as a whole.
Hashem is beyond time. And thus, so is His Wisdom.
The sin of eating from the Eitz haDaas only caused us to lose sight of our inherent eternal nature. Both of the soul and the body. And mitzvos restore our ability to experience it.

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Holidays / Tefillah / Teshuvah

Tefillah Meanings: And We Corrupted

A central facet of Judaism is that we are all interconnected. That my existence gets value from my ability to be of benefit to others. But that interconnectedness isn’t an unmitigated positive. It can be abused. We can use it to hurt others. Or to corrupt them.

Perhaps this is why Chazal associated הִרְשַֽׁעְנוּ – making others evil – with the connecting -וְ. Rather than being arbitrary, it was the natural sin to confess when the word “and” comes to mind.

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Teshuvah / Yom Tov

Tefillah Meanings: Aspects of Compassion

A shortened version of that list of Middos. It is based (sometimes loosely) on Rabbenu Tam’s explanation of the 13 Middos (RH 17b). The division into four is motivated by the trop and how Hashem used the connective vavs (meaning “and”). It is particularly interesting because as we’ve seen before, four is associated with the ways we experience Hashem’s gifts. But here, it also fits the trop and the use of connective vavs.

Set 1: Before the Sin, After the Sin

4

Bitachon

6 Days and 12 Days

There is a general sense that there is something much more muted in our response to the miraculous quick turn-around in this recent Twelve Day War than there was after the Six Day War....

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3- Vayiqra / Anger / Shaarei Yosher

As Yourself

I noticed that parshanim explaining the chumash on the one hand, and shas and posqim showing how the pasuq is associated with halakhah on the other, often end up giving different explanations of pesuqim...

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Shalom / Tefillah

Sim Shalom

Rav Dovid Lifshitz zt”l (whose 31st yahrzeit is today) often spoke about the connection between shaleim as wholeness, and that of another conjugation, “shalom“, peace. Shalom is not simply a cessation of violence. That wouldn’t be an expression...

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3- Vayiqra / Kavod

Behar: Money and Human Dignity

Parashas Behar is a list of mitzvos. The first section is all about shemittah and yovel. A family’s ancestral land cannot be sold into perpetuity. Instead, if someone is forced to sell their holdings,...

Moshe at the Burning Bush 0

2- Shemos / Rachmanus

Compassionate Moshe

והיה רגיל להוכיח אותי על שראה שאינני משתתף בצערא דאחרינא. וכה היה דברו אלי תמיד שזה כל האדם. לא לעצמו נברא רק להועיל לאחריני ככל אשר ימצא בכחו לעשות. [My father, Rav Chaim Volozhiner,]...

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Teshuvah

Who Am I?

I am only trying to start a conversation about whether this definition of who I am is one we should really promote. As for who “I” am, that’s a matter of perspective. Even on...

My Tzitzis 0

4- Bamidbar / Anavah / Clothing

So you shall not veer…

The Medrash about Qorach rhetorically asking of Moshe why a tallis that is made of tekheiles would need one more tekheiles thread for tzitzis ties the mitzvah of tzitzis to the next story in the Chumash – Qorach. The words of the parashah about tzitzis tie it to a slightly earlier story – the meraglim. ,,,

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Dei`os / Other-Focused O / Other-Focused Orthodoxy

Neo-Chassidic Spirituality and Self-Focus – a Pothole to Avoid

A big problem, and perhaps The Big Problem, of the Orthodox community as it revived post-Shoah has been “Frumkeit”, as Rabbi Wolbe defines the term. Doing mitzvos out of an instinct that I need to be holier, rather than out of a desire that Hashem’s Will be done. It is a self-centered and self-serving orientation, as are all instincts. Rav Dessler would say it is coming from one’s Will to Take rather than one’s Will to Give. … Neo-Chassidus, with its focus on my relationship with G-d, doesn’t have many tools to fix that. Going to a kumzitz or a singing minyan to have an inspirational moment certainly don’t. All it offers is a hope that one internalizes one’s studies.

Jar of oil 0

Anavah / Bitachon / Holidays / Yir`ah

The True Hero

Don’t picture a single jar of oil found amidst the rubble. The Beis haMiqdash wasn’t trashed, it was perverted into a Temple of Zeus. … That single jar oil needed to be searched for because it had been hidden. Who hid it?

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Audio / Shaarei Yosher / Torah as Growth / Zelmele's Kloiz

Widen Your Tent, ep. 1 / Relationship ep. 27

On Wednesday Chol haMo’eid Sukkos (October 12th) at 8pm, started our discussion of the introduction to Shaarei Yosher, by Rav Shimon Shkop. This is the last text in the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah,

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Shalom

Mishum Eivah and Darkhei Shalom

Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l proved that the common knowledge is simply wrong….

Mishum eivah is “merely” the importance of keeping hatred out of the world.

Whereas darkei Shalom is the ultimate – to walk in Hashem’s and His Torah’s ways.

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Audio / Dei`os / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Torah as Growth / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Shlomo Wolbe, “Frumkeit – Relationship ep. 26

Wednesday night (Sep 28th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah chaburah discussed Rav Wolbe’s essay titled “Frumkeit”, found in Alei Shur vol II, pp 152-155. (Warning: he actually comes out against!)

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Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 9-12) – Relationship ep. 23

Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.

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Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 7-8) – Relationship ep. 22

Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.

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Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 4-6) – Relationship ep. 21

Wednesday night (August 24th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah continued our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed chapters 4 through 6 (pp. 35-39)…. This week we saw how …[g]iving leads to love, far more than the other way around.

Brunecker Turm Peak in the Morning, Val Gardena, Dolomite Mountains, Italys 2

5- Devarim / Dei`os / Other-Focused O / Yir`ah

What does Hashem ask of you?

Adding together the two pesuqim, then, we get a more complete description of the path Hashem expects us to walk:

1- To be aware of the enormity of the Divine,,,.
2- which should motivate us to emulate…
3- … we come to love Him
and aim everything at wholeheartedly following His Plan to be good to us.
4- Hashem gave us Jews the Torah and mitzvos …
5- To help us become good human beings, creatures who are fair, motivated by lovingkindness, humility, in our partnership with our Creator.

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Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Qunterus haChessed (ch. 1-3) – Relationship ep. 20

Wednesday night (August 17th, 2022) the Beyond Meaningful Relationship – Relationshipful Meaning chaburah started our study of Rav Dessler’s Qunterus haChessed ,,, chapters 1 through 3 (pp. 32-35). In them, Rav Dessler talks about the potentials in a person for nesinah and netilah — giving and taking. These potentials have more to do with attitude and motive than the actual action…

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Ahavah / Audio / Ta`amei haMitzvos / Zelmele's Kloiz

Rav Shelomo Wolbe, Olam haYedidus (part 6, conclusion) – Relationship ep. 19

Wednesday night (August 10th, 2022) we completed our study of both versions of Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe’s essay Olam haYedidus. … [It] concludes with a discussion of zarus (estrangement) and akhzarius (cruelty,which Rav Dessler explains as a contraction of akh-zariyus – an extreme estangement). Our alienation from other people, from G-d and even our “need” to stay busy and never have to build a relationship with ourselves. Something to think about when singing “Mah yedidus menukhaseikh — How much affection inheres in your rest!” at the Shabbos table!

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Other-Focused O / Other-Focused Orthodoxy

Pesel Mikhah

From Sanhedrin 103b: תניא רבי נתן אומר מגרב לשילה ג’ מילין והיה עשן המערכה ועשן פסל מיכה מתערבין זה בזה בקשו מלאכי השרת לדוחפו אמר להן הקב”ה הניחו לו שפתו מצויה לעוברי דרכים. A...

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2- Shemos / UFEM

Killing Amaleiq

As the wise king wrote, “For everything there is a time, and a season for every goal under heaven.” The “time for war” was when Canaan was simply a battleground for warring barbaric tribes,...

1

Gratitude / Tefillah

Why So Many Laws of Berakhos?

When learning about berakhos, whether the halakhos or the latter third of the mesechta, I like to emphasize the following point… The vast majority of berakhos are derabbanan. So, why so many different berakhos,...

Halakhah is a Floor - Not a Ceiling! 0

Dei`os

Toward a Torah Definition of “Ethics”

A short thought, maybe “just” a conversation starter… There is a paradoxical obligation: it is prohibited to conform in all ways only to the letter of the law. One must stay well within it...

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Dei`os

Learning and Teaching

I The pasuq (Devarim 28:61, parashas Ki Savo) reads, if we would translate it naively (ignoring the point we’re about to see in Rashi): גַּ֤ם כׇּל־חֳלִי֙ וְכׇל־מַכָּ֔ה אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א כָת֔וּב בְּסֵ֖פֶר הַתּוֹרָ֣ה הַזֹּ֑את יַעְלֵ֤ם...

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Dei`os / Other-Focused Orthodoxy

Yeru+Shalem

The first time we encounter Yerushalayim (Bereishis 14:18), it is under the rule of Malki-Tzedeq, a “kohein leKeil elyon — a priest of the most high G-d”, under the name “Shaleim”. The other half...

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4- Bamidbar / Anavah

Anav Mikol Adam: reactions

My previous post engendered a couple of responses and a follow-up thought of my own that I would like to share. A quick reminder: In that post, I suggested that maybe “וְהָאִ֥ישׁ מֹשֶׁ֖ה עָנָ֣ו...