The predominant theme for this time of year, the days of the month of Elul is in the word, S’lichah:  “I’m sorry for the wrongs I did.”  Please read Reb Zalman’s message.  It is a message for everyone, and especially for people who may find this time of year a challenge as the light begins to wane.  [Edited and with Notes by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor]

It is also important to know that not everybody has to begin with the intellectual side of one’s inner malaise. 

[NOTE:  “Not everybody.”  While some will still begin the process of S’lichot drawing upon their malaise, and going to an intellectual place (i.e. staying in the head), others may begin in another way (i.e. tapping into emotions).]  

S’lihot happens in the Fall season and that means that we see the colorful beauty of the impending ending of the summer and it brings a melancholic sense to one’s physical being.

And then, too, if there are some other reasons and feelings of inferiority, guilt, spiritual dirtiness, it tends toward depression.

There’s an intuitive sense [of malaise] we become aware of – not so much in the emotional thing but an intuition that wanders off the track.

[NOTE:  Perhaps Reb Zalman has in mind a Seasonal Affective Disorder that some of us have at this time of year.] 

All these conspire to create that kind of ambience of sadness at that time.

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Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av begins this Sunday night, July 11, at sunset.  It is also the Yahrzeit of Aaron, older brother of Moses and the first High Priest.  Please read the following thoughts for this time from Reb Zalman.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

The Yahrzeit of Ahron The High Priest

I am a kohen, a descendent Ahron.  (This, I was also able to verify through genetic testing.)

Descendents of Ahron have a particular genetic marker regardless of whether they are Ashkenazi or Yemenites.

I’ve given myself over to contemplating the life of my ancestor, the high priest.

Once, when I was at the Kotel, the sacred wall of the Temple, there were five rows across the plaza of Kohanim offering the priestly blessing to the people of Jerusalem and to the whole world, urbi et orbi / to the city and to the world.  It was very impressive.

Ahron, the high priest, is always faulted for having built The Golden Calf.

In my imagination I see my ancestor beleaguered by people who are missing Moses, their leader and their contact with the living God, therefore asking Ahron to make them “a God that shall lead them” (cf., Exodus 32:1, ff).  We read that he made them a Golden calf and that they worshiped it. 

I see, in my mind’s eye, an image in which the statue that he made was draped in a cloth and that the people are standing in front of it in great anticipation.

Now imagine along with me:

We are in the present, and I, Zalman, am as my ancestor, in his role, and people are asking me to make them a God. 

And here it is:  I have produced a statue for them which I’m about to unveil.

Wanting to show them how ridiculous their request is, I’ve chosen Mickey Mouse for the statue. 

I covered it with a cloth and I’m about to unveil it.

With a flourish, I pull down the cloth and say “this is your God O Israel!”

And I expect the people to get the point and then slink away in shame for having made such a foolish request. 

This, too, is the way I see what happened when Ahron unveiled the golden calf.

The trouble is, however, that when it comes to religion, people don’t have a sense of humor or irony and they take it literally. 

Oy! Oy! What a pity!  What problems this attitude creates.

Today, we are not, I believe, any much better when we take a look and consider the idols that we worship in our own day.

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The following comes from Reb Zalman on this week’s Torah portion, Mattot-Massei. [NOTES by Gabbai Seth Fishman]

In Mattot / tribes, the Torah speaks about people who make vows,  (Numbers 30:2, ff):

Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying: This is the thing the Lord has commanded:  If a man makes a vow, etc.

The way in which the Torah has Moses addressing this to the heads of the tribes is unusual, and it makes us wonder why this law alone was to be addressed to the heads rather than directly to the children of Israel. 

Speech is something to be taken seriously and vows are a form of speech. 

(Psalms 33:6) “By the words of God heavens were made.” 

Words are powerful when they are not made hollow. If they are made hollow, there is a sense of desecration. As the Torah says, (Numbers 30:3),

When a person makes a vow let hir not desecrate it: According to all that comes forth from hir lips, s/he shall activate.

Then, the text goes on to say something of the circumstances in which a vow cannot be kept, as when an underage woman is still in the house of her father and her father disagrees and nullifies; or a  married woman with a husband or father who disagrees and nullifies.

So a possible explanation for this law having been addressed to the heads of the tribes is the following: 

In order to release a person who makes a vow from the vow, the head of the tribe helps the person find a “gate of regret.”

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The following comes from Reb Zalman on this week’s Torah portion, Balak.  [NOTES by Gabbai Seth Fishman] 

When Balak called on Bilaam to come and curse the people, 

Balak, as we get it  from the Torah, was an Aramean, because Pethor, the city where Balaam was, was near the Euphrates and not quite where the Moabite country was.

[NOTE:  Numbers 22:5, “Balak sent messengers to … Pethor, which is by the river of the land of his people.”]

now there are several words being used for curse:

The Zohar has a remarkable thing about how Balak was a magician. 

[NOTE:  Zohar Balak (3:184b) states that Balak was called “ben Tzipor“ because he would use a bird as a means to perform his magic and he also understood wisdom by way of a bird.]

For Balak, there was something impossible at that point about handling the Jewish people’s presence, and therefore, he wanted to have a kind of curse put on.  Not everybody believes that verbal curses or magic and voodoo can really influence things, but this is exactly what Balak wanted; he really believed that curses work.

The lightest curse is kal, l-kalel, which comes from “making light off,” and just sort of like, “insulting.”

The next one is arur which is really much stronger.  And it was this second kind of curse, arur, that Balak wanted to do. 

Aror is to remove the protection from somebody.  A person under the influence of a curse of Arur will not then be protected.  Then, the karmic power that was to have taken vengeance on a person is able to do so. 

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In this week’s portion, parshat chukat, we read about the Red Heifer.  Reb Zalman writes: 

“The issue about the Red Heifer has puzzled people through the ages.  Many a time, they have come and given a reason to it.  But according to the basic understanding, the red Heifer and its rules are a chok, that is to say, a law that is not up to reason.

[NOTE:  Not up to reason, meaning that whether or not it makes sense is not relevant.  The three kinds of Mitzvot:  Mishpatim, Edut and Chukim, are compared to three kinds of K’tav practiced by scribes.  Each type of mitzvah is engraved inside of us to a greater or lesser degree.    Chok, compared to otiyot chakika / letters of engraving, is the most deeply engraved and the hardest to erase.]

“And I have the sense that it has a certain kind of shamanic element about it.

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In Tikkunei Zohar 9b it states that for each Hebrew month, there is a different permutation (”tziruf“) of the holy name YHVH. 

There are a total of 12 unique ways that the four letters with two repeated can be arranged (i.e. YHVH, YHHV, YVHH, HVHY, HVYH, HHVY, VHYH, VHHY, VYHH, HYHV, HYVH, HHYV) and each month has its unique combination.

Click here for a table of the months, in Hebrew and English - scroll down -, and their corresponding permutations).

Here’s some more from Reb Zalman on tziruf:

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The following text by Reb Zalman is from this week’s Torah portion, Shabbos Vayak’hel. (Click here for Hebrew/English version).

(Exodus 35:30) “See, Hashem has called” (Bezalel). 

In Targum Onkelos, this phrase was translated into Aramaic as chazo d’rabei Hashem / “See, Hashem has raised up” (Bezalel), i.e., the calling of this man by Hashem was on the level of personal growth, similar to the way one helps a child grow, i.e. to learn to develop one’s strengths and feel confident about a particular task.

And whoever has sensed that Hashem yisborach appointed hir to a particular assignment has certainly been given the strength, the ability, the sense and the tools to complete it.  And thus, all hir thoughts are on the level of Machshavah Tovah / a good thought because Hashem yisborach refines it into a good deed, to do all milechet machashevet / intentional work.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
from Yishmiru Daat (2009 revision),
“Parashat Vayak’hel,” pp. 33

The following text by Reb Zalman is from this week’s Torah portion, Shabbos Ki Tisa. (Click here for Hebrew/English version). [Notes by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor]:

“When you lift up the heads (i.e. take the sum) of the children of Israel according to their count, let each one give to Hashem an atonement for hir soul when they are counted, etc.” (Exodus 30:12)

[NOTE: Reb Zalman begins by noting a similarity between the counting of the census, (cf Rashi on Exodus 30:15), and the counting of worshippers in a minyan.]

Through the minyan of davenners in which they count those of Klal Yisrael who make a minyan / quorum of worshippers, they do it through lifting the heads

[NOTE: Think of “lifting the heads” in this regard as “raising the consciousness” or awareness.]

of all the children of Israel who came. For in a minyan, it is, as the quote says, (Chronicles II 17:6), “And hir heart was lifted up” through knowing Hir, for in the ways of Havaye, worshippers see themselves together with every Jew and one enters, because of this, into a sense of (Psalms: 47:5) “the pride of Yaakov.”

[NOTE: This piece is based upon many double entendres, in this case, being lifted up and being counted. Both derive from the root, נשא nun-sin-aleph, with a primary meaning of lifting up, (cf., Genesis 40:13, “Yisa Pharaoh Et Roshecha” / Pharaoh will lift up your head.) In the context of our text, Tisa Et Rosh is understood as “Taking the sum,” or counting.]

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The following text by Reb Zalman is from this week’s Torah portion, Shabbos Terumah. (Click here for Hebrew/English version). [Notes by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor]:

“And have them take for me an offering” (Exodus 25:2)

[NOTE:  The word “offering” is a translation of Terumah, the name of this week’s portion.  The word comes from the root רום   (reish-vav-mem) which means height.  In ancient time, the sacrifice was raised by the priest in an up-down direction.  Tenufah, another ritual, had the sacrifice moved side to side.] 

They should take the “Me,”

[NOTE:  The word  לי  can be read as “for me” as in the text, or it can be read as the direct object, as in “Have them take Me.] 

which is continually with them,

[NOTE:   In the innermost I-am-that-I-am-ness, the nominative of the nominative has havaye manifesting in each one of us.]

which will effect a raising to Hashem -

“You shall take Terumati / My heave offering / the raising of Me” (ibid.)

[NOTE:  Being in God’s presence creates a kind of inner-elevator which in turn sends blessings toward heaven which are accepted by God as Terumah / heave offerings.]

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
from Yishmiru Daat (2009 revision),
“Parashat Terumah,” p. 32

The following text by Reb Zalman is from this week’s Torah portion, Shabbos Mishpatim. (Click here for Hebrew/English version). [Notes by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor]:

Positive commandments are time-bound, for with all positive commandments that are dependent on time, the responsibility isn’t fulfilled unless one does it at the particular time specified.  However, with the negative commandments, the observance has greater frequency for they are fulfilled constantly all 365 days of the year on the level of “return to God” and “Don’t do them.”

[NOTE:  When we  “just say no” to something that is disallowed in our Torah, we show the Creator our willingness to be good Jews, an opportunity for all, regardless of on-going traditional discussion on time-bound Mitzvot which they say are required only of males.]

If his master gives him a wife, etc., (Exodus 21:4)… the woman and her children - and he left alone.

[NOTE: (cf. Rashi).  The text is understood as referring to a Hebrew slave and a non-Hebrew, (i.e., Canaanite), wife also a slave.  When the period of servitude is over, the Hebrew slave goes out by himself, without his wife and children.]

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