Parashat HaShavua Sites and Hagim

Akedat Yitchak raises the question of Providence (Yediah) and free will (behira) in the context of Hashem's Omniscience (hashgahah pratit) and we see the yad Hashem when the angel (malakh) says to Avraham "al tishlah yadkhah el ha-naar")

PowerPoint given as per request of Professor Esther Boylan for her course at LCW.

Considers questions such as: (1) The makloket of Hillel and Shammai on how to light the menorah, (2) Who is liable for damages if a camel laden with flax overturns an outside menorah as mentioned in Mishnah Baba Batra, (3) Questions surrounding lighting the menorah in a synagogue and origins of the minhag from the rishonim to ahronim, (4) Where does on place the lit menorah, (5) Origin of difference of minhag between Ashkenaz ultimately following Rambam and the Sephardim following Tosofot, (6) Lighting the menorah at the Kotel, (6) Lighting the menorah at events and parties, (7) The debate between the Pharisees (Rabbis of 1st & 2nd &3rd centuries) the Sadducees, and the Dead Sea Scroll Essence community (DSS) over the question regarding why, if, and how to tevel (immerse) the Temple menorah in a mikvah, (8) current practices today by Chabad Lubavitch to proclaims the timeless message of Chanukah victory by phenomena such as car parades with menorot on the roof, etc.

Thiis brief sketch looks at some sources for RH in the Tanakh, Talmudim and Rabbinic corpus/oeuvre, Kabbalah, hilchot birkat ha-hodesh, and significance for women, etc

As the Baal HaTurim notes The gematriot of words and phrases in the first first alyiah of Ki Tavo reveal esoteric secrets with regards to the ritual (tekas) of bringing the Bikurim to the Kohen in the Beit HaMikdash. On one level the recitation by the bringer of the Bikurim also engages in a living historical memory in Jewish history such as the remembrance of "Lavan the Aramaean who sought to destroy our father Yakov" etc, and how the "Egyptian task masters oppressed some of the Jews they enslaved giving hard labor" but "that when the cries of the oppressed were heard by Hashem, Hashem rescued us with a strong hand and oustretched arm with signs and wonders" because "G-d heard our voices and saw our afflications " etc and brought us to holy EY a land of milk and honey," etc. While Rashi notes that the poor brought baskets of wicker when offering the bikkurim, and the wealthy presented their first fruits in baskets of gold, the actual confession before the Kohen not only reveals historical factoids but esoteric and enigmatic secrets as clarified by the Baal HaTurim on topics such as the transmigration of souls (gilgulim) from rakiot to rakiot (in the 7 heavens), but also indeed can effect a kind of theurgic tikkun al pi kabbalah. when as Masorite Asher ben Asher notes that the musical cantillation in which the confession is chanted is sung in an accurate manner of trope with tone, proper cadence, musical notation, rhythm, and syncopation which musically serves as a "key" (mafteah) to open the gates in shamayim (the words are likened to the body and the musical cantillation the soul which resurrects the text....), whereby the angelic gatekeepers, giving celestial discourses on topics including, the beauty of Shabbos, the unity of Hashem, the sublime nature of revelation, and Hashem's attributes, [see Hechalot texts, Rambam Moreh haNevukhim ch.51 P2, Orhot Tzadikim], etc the proper trope & notes serving as "passwords" (received by gatekeepers (archons in Gnostic analogues) for the further journey of the soul through Hashem's 7 tiered palace chambers. Iff meritorious the soul may be ushered to the throne of glory under which the souls of the Tzadikim (Those who have achieved the level of Tzadik Gemor) rest in perfect peace and tranquility) under Hashem's merkavah (surrounded by angelic seraphim, ofanim, and hcayot hakodesh (see haftora yetro ad loc Rambam). Hechalot texts liken those pure souls of the Tzadikim to being as pure as "white snow" (see Baal HaTanya on Otzrot shel Sheleg in Tehillim).. Come hear a tincture of the substance of the Baal HaTurim's mind expanding insights. The knowledge may very well change your life and how you understand life's purpose with regards to the beit HaMikdrash mematah and beit hamikdash memalah, 18 parasangs according to the Rashbi above Har HaBayit, destined according to some Jews to be the site of the third Temple "back to the future."

Some meanings and secrets behind the birkat ha-torah chanted by the person given an Aliyah in shul that evokes notions of "asher bachor banu mi kol ha-amim ve natan lanu et torato" hinting at each aleh as a link in a chain of transmission stemming from har Sinai which rashi teaches that when the text in Pirke Avot ("moshe kibel Torah mi Sinai" the text is careful not to write "hatorah" for if it had then that would only refer to torah shebikatav, but since the word "torah" is employed that implies the written and oral (torah she b'al peh) being coterminous in the revelation on Har Sinai, as in the aggadata that Moshe Rabbenu was given view of Rabbi Akiva darshanoning every crown on every letter of the Torah and was told that indeed this was implicit in Moshe's being the vehicle for Hashem's revelation. the concept of "offenbarung" (revelation) is something that the higher Biblical critics denied when they argued the torah was a divinely inspired text written by individuals and groups (JEPD), because traditionally the torah is something supernatural as when Moshe Rabbenu did not sleep, eat, or drink for 40 days and nights upon "receiving" the torah etc.

In layning parasha Behaalothecha DBL is always intrigued year to year, by hoping to find out more and more of the deeper meanings and significance of the lighting of the menorah by Aaron ha Kohen ha Gadol and thus began a journey that is still not complete. The menorah is a universal metaphor for enlightenment. On fathoming the depths of the halakhic and mystical-enigmatic and wondrous secrets of this parasha Behaalothecha that begins with an account of going up to light the Menorah, one always turns up new insights upon each new visitation.. Any researcher into the menorah knows that any investigation on this subject is always a first step but never the last step in plumbing the depths, not just of "this symbol" but of such an important theurgic act of "going up" to "light" this ritual object whose branches have been likened to correlate to the 7 planets as the GRA's comments on Kail Adon note. In the spiritual journey of life and beyond the veil of olam ha-zeh the menorah can take on the significance of a holy grail or "key to all secrets and spiritual heights." This study in part traces how Hazal in some Rabbinic texts have sought to search out the quest for the menorah's mysteries in halakhah and aggadata. For a broader context of where the Menorah will ultimately be lreinstated and lit, please see DBL's library guide on the Beit HaMikdash at http://libguides.tourolib.org/secondtemple

Isaiah has a vision of G-d''s chariot in the heavenly temple while standing in the physical Jerusalem Temple. The aggadata notes that Yehezkeil saw G-d's chariot in the "suburbs" in babel as a reflection in the river chabar. The tradition of ma'aseh ha merkvah has early origins in the vision of Elijah the prophet being translated to heaven in a fiery chariot etc. This essay deals with the warnings in Rabbinic texts for the premature and undeveloped intellects to engage in such esoteric topics which risk taking one across the limits of reason into madness itself as was the fate of ben Azai in the arba sheniknasu bi Pardes who "cut the shoots." Indeed when ben Uzziel discussed this subject of the ma'aseh ha-merkvah birds flying overhead were said "to catch on fire". One bar mitzvah youngster meditating on this engimatic topic is said to have "burnt up." The taboos in Rabbinic texts include those in Hagigah and Megillah warning the dangers of plumbing the depths of such esoteric matters. Better Rav Ashi and Rava say to fill one's belly with the chulent of halakhah rather than engage in these secrets likened in Pirke Avot to the "after dinner drinks."

Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel said: There were no days of joy in Israel greater than the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur. Section two: On these days the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in borrowed white garments in order not to shame any one who had none. All these garments required immersion. The daughters of Jerusalem come out and dance in the vineyards. What would they say? Young man, lift up your eyes and see what you choose for yourself. Do not set your eyes on beauty but set your eyes on the family. “Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). And it further says, “Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her works praise her in the gates” (ibid, 31:31). Section three: Similarly it says, “O maidens of Zion, go forth and gaze upon King Solomon wearing the crown that his mother gave him on his wedding day, on the day of the gladness of his heart” (Song of Songs 3:11). “On his wedding day”: this refers to Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah). “And on the day of the gladness of his heart”: this refers to the building of the Temple; may it be rebuilt speedily in our days, Amen.

Hashgahah pratit and behirah Revisited
אַל-תִּשְׁלַח יָדְךָ אֶל-הַנַּעַר, וְאַל-תַּעַשׂ לוֹ, מְאוּמָה: כִּי עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי, כִּי-יְרֵא אֱלֹהִים אַתָּה, וְלֹא חָשַׂכְתָּ אֶת-בִּנְךָ אֶת-יְחִידְךָ, מִמֶּנִּי

This version of meditation on Akedat Yitchak as paradigm of zekut avot is a short hypertext version linking to other library guides by dbl

The 50 days between Passover celebrating freedom from slavery and Shuvuos celebrating freedom for revelation, are known as sefirath ha-omer where each evening Jews count up towards Shavuot, noting the exact day of the omer within the Jewish Calendar. Rambam summarizes how the omer was designated [Rambam, Hilchot Temidin uMusafin 7:11] by a ceremony that elevated the sheafs of barley to a spiritual offering by the priests in the Temple which Jews still mourn and wish to be restored in the messianic age so that the heavenly temple of the afterlife be brought down in Jerusalem. Besides this literal agricultural context of the korban ha-omer, there is a spiritual and mystical dimension of the counting of the omer, that relates Pesah to Shavuoth and the mystical number of 50 days in between, correlating to Ramban’s notion of the Grand Yovel and what the Rashbi song sung on Lag Ba’omer refers to as the secret of 50. In recent times environmentalists relate the omer to to an environmental eco friendly-ethic of care.

Rabbi Akiba and the Plague

In the 2nd century CE, there was a plague that killed 40,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiba. The Talmud shares that this plague is punishment for their not showing proper ethical gravitas, or derekh eretz ( virtuous behavior ), towards each other.

Rabbi Akiba had five disciples who survived the plague. One of them, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, known as the Rashbi, went into hiding in a cave to escape persecution by the Romans, eating only carob, with his son to whom he transmitted mystical teachings. It was on Lag BaOmer that Rashbi left the cave. The Rashbi later would ascend to heaven, on Lag BaOmer, making Lag Ba’omer, a day of commemoration.

The "last words" of the Rashbi are in the section of Sefer HaZohar known as Idra Zutra. `There' the Rashbi prepares his disciples to join him in olam ha-bah (this world is a prosdur (vestibule) to olam ha-bah). Rashbi engages in mystical techniques of unio mystica to `marry' the Shekhinah (divine presence of G-d) whereby his talmidim are enjoined to prepare their souls also "to enter the metrakalin (banquet hall). Rambam rejects such anthropomorphism.

The 16th century mystics of Safed such as HaAri HaKodesh would make pilgrimages to Meron, the resting place of the Rashbi, and prostrate to effect cosmic theurgic unifications by reciting the Rashbi’s torah, “causing the lips to move,” and with great concentration (kavanah) recite basic texts such as the shema, 10 commandments, an mishnah (the textual incarnation of the Shekhina according to Rabbi Yosef Karo, Magid Mesharim).

As the power of Hebrew music in the Jewish arts testifies, song epitomizes the transcendence of the spiritual over the physical, please enjoy some music associated with Lag BaOmer. The custom of some is to listen to music again after the 33 days of mourning associated with the passing of 40,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s disciples who died from the plague, caused for not showing proper respect to one another.