Saturday, July 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
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Friday, June 3, 2016
Monday, May 2, 2016
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
Monday, April 11, 2016
Why G.d Couldn't But Love You: Get the lift of your life-Rabbi Aaron
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Is G-d Beyond Us or Within Us? #Parsha Terumah-Rabbi Aaron
Is G-d Beyond Us or Within Us? #Parsha Terumah
The Torah recounts that G-d instructed the Israelites to build a sanctuary, telling Moses, “Let them build a sanctuary and I will dwell in them.” Note that G-d did not say, “I will dwell in the sanctuary.” G-d said, “in them.” Is G-d beyond us or does God dwell within us?
Torah teaches that G-d is beyond descriptions that use neat and easy logical categories of either/or.
Most people think that G-d is infinite. But that is incorrect. The infinite is that which goes on and on in space. However, G-d created space and is therefore not bound to the laws and limitation of space. If we describe G-d as infinite, what we really mean is that G-d is spaceless. Infinite is the opposite of finite, while spaceless means “free from the limitations of space.” The One who is spaceless is free to be both beyond space and within space simultaneously. Therefore, G-d is beyond this finite world and yet G-d completely inheres every inch of the earth.
Most people think that G-d is eternal. But that is incorrect. Eternity would be that which goes on and on in time. But G-d created time and is therefore not confined to the limitations of time. If we describe G-d as eternal, what we really mean is that G-d is timeless. The eternal is the opposite of the temporal, while timeless means “free of the limitations of time.” The One who is timeless is free to be both beyond time and within time at the same time. Therefore, G-d is both beyond time and yet within every moment, completely filling it with His entire presence.
And when we say that G-d is One, we really mean that G-d is non-dual. One is limited; it is the opposite of many. But non-duality is free of the confines of one or many. Non-duality is free to be beyond the many and within the many. Therefore, G-d is beyond you, me, and everyone else in this world, and yet also within us.
How can the unlimited be expressed within the limited? How can the unlimited G-d be expressed within time, space, and finite beings?
How can the unlimited be expressed within the limited? How can the unlimited G-d be expressed within time, space, and finite beings?
If the unlimited could not be expressed within the limited, then that would be a limitation. Ultimate freedom must include the freedom to choose to be restricted. Otherwise freedom wouldn’t be free; it would imply a limitation of choices—you could not choose to be restricted and limited.
Therefore, G-d is free to be both beyond time and within each moment, beyond space and within every inch, beyond multiplicity and within billions of finite human beings. G-d is free to be manifest as one hundred percent transcendent and yet also one hundred percent immanent.
Of course, this is a contradiction and is not logical. However, we have to always be reminded that all this is from our limited point of view. From G-d’s perspective there are not two aspects to the Divine. It is only when we describe the divine truth with our limited language that we need to speak in this paradoxical way. Paradox is the path to paradise.
Is God within us or beyond us? The answer is Yes.
To experience ourselves as a living sanctuaries for the Divine we need to think, speak and act in ways that express that truth.
To experience ourselves as a living sanctuaries for the Divine we need to think, speak and act in ways that express that truth.
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Sunday, January 31, 2016
Rabbi Avraham Schorr -Growing with Hashem
Living in our day and age, life is fraught with difficult and dark moments. But from time to time Hashem shows us a smile and reminds us that He is always with us. As a loving Father, He will never abandon His children.
Amongst the segulos (auspicious practices) for an individual looking to get married, one is to recite at the conclusion of Shemonah Esrei the words of Tehillim (Ch. 121), “שיר למעלות אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבא עזרי, עזרי מעם ד’ עושה שמים וארץ” –“A Song to the ascents, I raise my eyes to the mountains, from where does my help come? My help comes from Hashem, Creator of heaven and earth.” Why is reciting this a segulah?
A person sometimes throws up his hand and wonders, “מאין יבא עזרי,” “Where will my help come from? This situation is impossible! There is אין –nothing –left to hope for!” But the answer to such despondency is found in the next Pasuk –“עזרי מעם ד’ עושה שמים וארץ” –“My help is from Hashem, Creator of heaven and earth.” From what material did Hashem make the heaven and earth? From nothing – מאין. If Hashem can create an entire world of beauty from nothingness, He certainly can take the nothingness any person feels in his or her life and turn it into something beautiful. A person must therefore never give up hope no matter how depressingly desperate life seems to be.
Praying Shemonah Esrei and realizing that no one can grant us help but Hashem, we will find the strength to optimistically look towards a better and brighter future. Even the bleakest of circumstances which we face can turn around in a moment. If Hashem can create an entire world from nothing, He can certainly take our troubled personal lives and make something from nothing. Coming to terms with this reality serves as a favorable merit for an individual beseeching Hashem.
Years ago, a religious Jew was regrettably sentenced to prison in Rikers Island. Allegedly known to be a prison where maltreatment is rampant and most certainly one’s spiritual, physical and mental health is at great risk, the situation for this Jew looked dismal. All efforts expended in pleading with the judge to change the verdict were to no avail. He simply would not budge from his decision.
There was a man named Feth, however, who was capable of altering this particular judge’s ruling. For Feth himself, he had just suffered the loss of a family relative in North Carolina. Flying there to be with his family during this difficult time, he eventually made his way back to New York. After arriving at Penn Station, Feth began to wait for a taxi amid the blazing heat of day. And then he waited some more. And then some more. But no taxi was available to take him home. Holding two suitcases all by himself, he began to weary.
But then, from nowhere, his help arrived. “Can we help carry your luggage to your house?” They were two fifteen year old yeshiva students who had noticed Feth tirelessly waiting for a taxi, but no one ever picked him up. “Are you sure?” Feth replied, “it’s four blocks to my house from here.” But without further hesitation, the boys carried the suitcases to his home.
Arriving at the front of Feth’s apartment, he profusely thanked the boys for their kind assistance. “No, no,” they said, “we want to take your luggage up to your apartment.” “It’s all the way on the third floor,” Feth said in dissuasion. But the boys insisted that they help him to the very opening of his door. Carrying the bags up, as they placed them down right before his apartment, Feth pulled out of his wallet two twenty-dollar bills. “Here,” he said, “this is for each of you. I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done.”
But the boys refused to accept any money. “We don’t take money,” they said. “It’s our pleasure to have helped you.” And with that they walked away. Entering his apartment, Feth was beside himself. He could not believe the extent of care and concern these yeshiva boys had shown to an absolute stranger.
Feth immediately called the judge and said, “That Jew you sentenced to prison in Rikers Island is not going there. I never saw such a thing in my life. I never saw anything like the care and sensitivity these Orthodox Jews acted with. You cannot put a Jew into Rikers.”
But this was not the only time Hashem has shown his smiling countenance towards His children.
For a man who was learning in Kollel in Israel and enjoying life, everything changed one day. Unfortunately, he was victim to a poisonous snake bite. Rushing him to a doctor specialist in Ramat Gan, he was operated upon in an attempt to extract the poison and return him to full health. But matters did not seem all too hopeful. After all, with venom of a poisonous snake in his body, his life was at risk.
A number of days later, after trying to remove the poison, the man called his doctor. “Doctor, what are the results?” “Let me tell you something,” began the doctor, “you won’t believe it.”
“I have never believed in G-d my entire life. But today, after seeing the results of your tests, that has all changed. I now believe in G-d. As we were examining you, we noticed to our unfortunate surprise that you had cancer in your lungs. Unbeknownst to you, your life was dangerously threatened. You may not have lived much longer. But now, there is nothing to worry about. The venom of that snake which bit you killed the cancer in your lungs. Had you not been bitten, your life may have ended sooner than later. But thanks to the bite of the snake, you can look forward to many years to come.”
Sometimes, the most dismal of situations is what brings about the most hopeful of situations. In the mind of this man, a poisonous snake bite meant something life-threatening. But in truth, what appeared to be a bite of death was a bite of life. Even amid the darkness of life, Hashem is our light. All odds may appear to be against us, but quite to the contrary, those odds may be the very reason we are given life.
At the end of this week’s Parsha, we learn how the Kohen would ascend to the top of the Mizbeach (Altar) not on steps, but on a plank. Why was this so? Why was there a plank to walk up to the Mizbeach instead of steps?
I once heard the following beautiful explanation. Steps allow a person to pause and take a rest. With a steep plank, on the other hand, any moment you stop, you begin to slide backwards. There is no option of stopping.
The same is true of serving Hashem. We do not ascend in spirituality by way of steps, but rather by means of ramp. We cannot choose to rest and complacently say, “Next year I will move up another step. I will take a break now and resume some time later.” On a ramp, we cannot choose to rest. Otherwise, we will inevitably start slipping backwards. Life is about constant growth and ascent.
What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu do, though, when we begin to slip? He sends a message to wake us up. He sends us a jolt we never expected and reminds us to continue moving up the ramp.
All throughout our lives, Hashem sends us reminders. Daily occurrences of having our car not starting, forgetting money which we needed at home or getting stuck in traffic and missing our appointment are events which we must take to heart. They are there for us to open our eyes. All the subtle messages, obstacles and smiling moments we experience in life are there for our spiritual growth and development. All we must do is open our eyes and ears and recognize the presence and presents of Hashem in our lives.
The Nourishing Power of Love Is Your Food Missing Vitamin L?- Rabbi Aaron
When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, G-d fed them with a hitherto unknown substance called “manna.” The people would go out of their tents every morning, and find this strange stuff lying there on the ground. G-d tells the Israelites: “I fed you manna -- something that you nor your fathers knew what it was -- so that you should know that not by bread alone does a person live, but by all that comes from the mouth of G-d.”
Why did it have to be something unfamiliar? What would have happened if the Israelites would have woken up in the morning and found bagels all over the place? Imagine being in the middle of the Sinai desert, and every morning appear these bagels, sliced in the middle, with two centimeters of cream cheese and lox. Now that would be a Jewish experience! Why did it have to be something that didn’t look like food?
Because if the manna did look like food the Israelites would think, “Well, okay, the bagels did come from G-d, the Bagel King, but the nourishment comes from the bagels.” However, since the manna obviously could not be nourishing in and of itself, the Israelites would necessarily learn an essential life lesson -- all things come from G-d, not just food, but the nourishment in the food. If G-d had wanted pens to be nourishing they would have been.
It’s not on bread alone that man lives but by that which comes from the mouth of G-d. G-d determines what is a vehicle for life force and blessing. The Israelites realized that this odd, gray stuff was not going to nourish them. G-d was going to nourish them. The manna was just a vehicle for the nourishing love of G-d. And then they realized that back in Egypt, when they had bread to eat, it was not the bread that nourished them. It was also G-d. It’s hard to recognize G-d as the source of the sustaining energy in bread, because we think of bread, or any food we are used to, as inherently sustaining. I know the bread nourishes me; I know the apple nourishes me. But what’s this white, powdery, amorphous stuff called manna? Is that really going to sustain me? Obviously not. It must be G-d who is going to sustain me through this stuff. This lesson is true forever.
To the extent that I realize that this bread is only a channel for the nourishing energy of G-d to enter the world, to that extent the bread becomes a channel for the nourishing energy of G-d to enter the world.
This is why Judaism teaches that we must recite a blessing before we eat. When we say a blessing over a food, I begin with, “Blessed are You, G-d…” Many people mistakenly think that these words mean that we are blessing G-d, the Infinite One. But we are in fact acknowledging G-d as the Source of this food. When we eat an apple, we can just eat an apple, or we can, by saying the blessing consciously, make the apple into a conductor-wire for channeling G-d’s presence, love, vitality, goodness, and blessing. An apple can be a nutritious snack, or it can plug me into the Source of all life force and nutrition.
The Kabbalah teaches that if we eat without reciting a blessing, then the food feeds just our body. It does nothing for our soul. But when we make a blessing on the food, we transform that food. It’s not the same bread. It’s not the same apple. It’s not the same pretzel. This pretzel is now a vehicle for the life giving force of G-d to enter the world.
What’s the difference between a home-cooked meal and a frozen dinner? It's the love and care that you can actually taste in the food. Even if it says on the package "Mom’s Home-made Frozen Dinner," you can taste in the food that "Mom" is just a company that wants to make money. But the real mom makes you dinner for free because she loves you and cares. And you can taste the difference.
In order to taste the divine love and care in all food, we need to arouse the taste buds of our soul and acknowledge G-d as the loving source of all by making a blessing before we eat.
LIVING IN SYNC WITH OUR HIGHEST SELF # Parsha Yitro-Rabbi Aaron
Many of my students are astonished to learn that the commandments — mitzvahs— guide us towards a natural life and empower us to become our most natural selves. That the commandment-driven life is all about being in sync with the cosmic principles; attuning us to the will of G-d that governs all life.
What really are the mitzvahs?
Mitzvahs, plural — mitzvah, singular — is often translated as commandment, but that doesn't do it justice. Mitzvah really comes from the Hebrew word that means "to connect" or "to unite."
Many people mistakenly think of commandments as demands. They are not.
Many people mistakenly think of commandments as demands. They are not.
A demand sounds threatening and self-denying, while a command is an invitation to commune, to join, which is joyous and empowering.
A mitzvah is about connecting with G-d. It's through the mitzvahs that we transcend our ego, and synchronize our individual lives to the universal life, bonding our selves with G-d, the all-embracing Universal Self of all selves, the Soul of souls. G-d is the Great Self — the Ultimate "I" — the source of all will, intelligence and love.
The Torah tells us that before the Israelites even knew what the mitzvahs were they accepted them unequivocally and unconditionally, telling G-d "we will do and we will hear." The Talmud says that G-d responded in admiration, "Who revealed this secret to My children, the secret that the ministering angels use for themselves.”
In contrast, the Talmud, also tells us that a heretic criticized the Israelites for being so impetuous putting their mouth before their ears. It makes more sense to first hear what the commandments would be and then decide whether to accept them or not. What did the Israelites understand that this heretic obviously was missing?
This heretic understands G-d as a being separate from man, floating in heaven over there, and that the mitzvahs are His demands. He therefore sees the acceptance of mitzvahs as a sign of weakness and an act of self-sacrifice. You are surrendering your will and your self-interests to the will and self-interest of this other being—-G-d. But the Israelites knew better. They knew that G-d is the Great Self; the root, context, ground and essence of our souls. They understand that there couldn't be any conflict of self- interests, because the soul is a ray of the One Universal Self of all.
If G-d were the sun each one of us would be a ray of His light. To do the mitzvahs is actually an act of Great Self-expression. It's an act of strength. In sync with G-d, I am even more natural and empowered to express the real me. This is the secret the angels know—- performing the will of G-d is a joyous opportunity for being our true self. Through the mitzvahs we attune ourselves to the Ultimate Self; radiate His light and channel His presence.
What a gift!
What a gift!
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Gratitude
http://www.yutorah.org/sidebar/lecture.cfm/848010/rabbi-moshe-taragin/middah-of-the-day-redistilling-gratitude-in-the-modern-world/
Rabbi David Aaron- Hearing the Voice of G-d. [2 mins] A shocking revelation about revelation.
https://www.facebook.com/100004098083076/videos/800472446766017/?pnref=story
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Rabbai Nathan Lopes Cardozo
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Freedom can be a very dangerous commodity.
When reading the story of the Exodus from Egypt, we are confronted with a strange phenomenon: the mashchit (destroyer). After the Jews were told to mark their doorposts with the blood of the korban pesach (paschal lamb), they were informed that God would pass over their doors “and He will not allow the destroyer (ha-mashchit) to enter your homes and attack you” (1). Later, at midnight, Moshe would call them to leave their homes after they had had a family meal, and they would subsequently leave Egypt. Commentators struggle with the term “the destroyer.” Who or what was this? God? A plague? Some other power?
One of the most remarkable explanations (2) is that the destroyer was freedom itself. Often in history, national liberations were followed by long periods of chaos and violence. Many bloody and ruthless insurrections erupted by slaves eager to settle a score with their cruel masters. The brutish drive for vengeance, for gratification of the satanic impulses within man, was often irresistible. At the time of the French revolution, many of those who were liberated initiated mass killings. The same is true of the upheavals after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Victims of harsh slavery tend to throw off the shackles of moral behavior and become criminals themselves, taking their revenge on innocent bystanders. The turmoil that often follows the experience of sudden freedom is too much for people to handle.
When we look at the story of the Exodus, we are struck by the fact that an upheaval of revenge was completely absent. No Egyptian babies were snatched from the embrace of their mothers and thrown into the Nile, as had been done to the Jewish male babies just a short time before. Not one Jew beat up his taskmaster who mercilessly tortured him only a few days earlier. There was not one Egyptian hurt; nor was there an Egyptian house destroyed or vandalized.
At that crucial hour, when the Jews had the motivation, opportunity and ability to take revenge for 210 years of exceedingly cruel treatment, they chose to be restrained and quiet. Instead of rioting in the streets of Goshen, they remained in their homes, ate a festive meal—which included the korban pesach—sang praises to God, and waited until they were told to leave. Would anyone have blamed them for beating up a few taskmasters who had thrown their babies in the Nile? Yet, not one Jew raised a hand against his enemy. Once it was certain that they would be free at any moment, and that there was no longer a need to defend themselves, revenge would be meaningless.
This is one of the greatest lessons that Judaism has taught the world. Freedom should be experienced in a prudent manner, far removed from chaos, bloodshed and revenge.
Freedom can be very dangerous if one does not think it through, control it, and apply it carefully. It is therefore quite understandable that Pesach—which celebrates freedom, powerfully symbolized through the Seder rituals—has a large number of restrictions, to the extent that even a crumb of bread is forbidden. In our chaotic world, this is a most important lesson.
Today, when so much freedom has been given to man, most people do not know what they are free from. We have confused the free with the free and easy. “He only earns his freedom and existence,” says Goethe, “who daily conquers them anew” (3).
In these days, when we hear calls for revenge in and outside Israel, the lesson of themashchit is of utmost importance.
When reading the story of the Exodus from Egypt, we are confronted with a strange phenomenon: the mashchit (destroyer). After the Jews were told to mark their doorposts with the blood of the korban pesach (paschal lamb), they were informed that God would pass over their doors “and He will not allow the destroyer (ha-mashchit) to enter your homes and attack you” (1). Later, at midnight, Moshe would call them to leave their homes after they had had a family meal, and they would subsequently leave Egypt. Commentators struggle with the term “the destroyer.” Who or what was this? God? A plague? Some other power?
One of the most remarkable explanations (2) is that the destroyer was freedom itself. Often in history, national liberations were followed by long periods of chaos and violence. Many bloody and ruthless insurrections erupted by slaves eager to settle a score with their cruel masters. The brutish drive for vengeance, for gratification of the satanic impulses within man, was often irresistible. At the time of the French revolution, many of those who were liberated initiated mass killings. The same is true of the upheavals after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Victims of harsh slavery tend to throw off the shackles of moral behavior and become criminals themselves, taking their revenge on innocent bystanders. The turmoil that often follows the experience of sudden freedom is too much for people to handle.
When we look at the story of the Exodus, we are struck by the fact that an upheaval of revenge was completely absent. No Egyptian babies were snatched from the embrace of their mothers and thrown into the Nile, as had been done to the Jewish male babies just a short time before. Not one Jew beat up his taskmaster who mercilessly tortured him only a few days earlier. There was not one Egyptian hurt; nor was there an Egyptian house destroyed or vandalized.
At that crucial hour, when the Jews had the motivation, opportunity and ability to take revenge for 210 years of exceedingly cruel treatment, they chose to be restrained and quiet. Instead of rioting in the streets of Goshen, they remained in their homes, ate a festive meal—which included the korban pesach—sang praises to God, and waited until they were told to leave. Would anyone have blamed them for beating up a few taskmasters who had thrown their babies in the Nile? Yet, not one Jew raised a hand against his enemy. Once it was certain that they would be free at any moment, and that there was no longer a need to defend themselves, revenge would be meaningless.
This is one of the greatest lessons that Judaism has taught the world. Freedom should be experienced in a prudent manner, far removed from chaos, bloodshed and revenge.
Freedom can be very dangerous if one does not think it through, control it, and apply it carefully. It is therefore quite understandable that Pesach—which celebrates freedom, powerfully symbolized through the Seder rituals—has a large number of restrictions, to the extent that even a crumb of bread is forbidden. In our chaotic world, this is a most important lesson.
Today, when so much freedom has been given to man, most people do not know what they are free from. We have confused the free with the free and easy. “He only earns his freedom and existence,” says Goethe, “who daily conquers them anew” (3).
In these days, when we hear calls for revenge in and outside Israel, the lesson of themashchit is of utmost importance.
1. Shemot 12:23.
2. Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, Logic of the Heart, Logic of the Mind (Jerusalem: Genesis Jerusalem Press, 1991) pp. 137-142.3. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Act V, Scene 6.
*****
Questions to Ponder from the David Cardozo Think Tank:
[We suggest printing out and discussing at your Shabbat table, if you like.]
1. Rabbi Cardozo suggests that the mashchit, the destroyer, is freedom.
What else might the mashchit be? From what other force might the Israelites need protection?
2. Had you been there that night, do you think you would have left as calmly and politely as our ancestors apparently did? Have there been times in your life when revenge was the preferred option? When have you felt vengeful? Does not acting on it feel good or bad?
3. Rabbi Cardozo asserts that many people today do not know what they are free from. Do you know? Do you feel free? Might there be advantages to not knowing the hardships of lacking freedom?
4. While Goethe’s character tells us “He only earns his freedom and existence, who daily conquers them anew,” Karl Marx tells the workers that if united, they have nothing to lose but their chains. How might these differing ideas about status, humanity and freedom relate to Rabbi Cardozo’s assertion that “freedom can be a very dangerous commodity”?
5. What do you think freedom is, and would you like it?
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Rabbi David Aaron
Identity Crisis is a Gift:
Awakening to the Role and Goal of Your Soul
Awakening to the Role and Goal of Your Soul
Kirk Douglas, the actor, once told me that when people compliment him on a performance, they often tell him how great he was at losing himself in the part. “You just became Vincent Van Gogh! You were so wonderful.” And he answers, “No, you lost yourself in the part. I can’t afford to lose myself in the part. I have to pay attention to the director, to the cues. I have to hit the mark just right so the action is in the camera frame. I must stay aware that I am an actor playing a role.”
A good actor plays his part, but he doesn’t get lost in his part. He can’t even begin to think he is the character he is playing. On the other hand, he still embraces that role with a tremendous amount of love and gives everything he’s got to play his character. But he doesn’t get lost in the part and start to think he is in fact Van Gogh, or Napoleon, or the President of the United States.
Similarly, you — the soul —are playing a character. And you must always be aware of that.
I am not David Aaron. I am a soul. I play the character David Aaron. I play the role of a short red- headed rabbi, founder and dean of Isralight International, an author of several books. I may come back in a different life and play another character.
Another way of putting this is to compare your character to a garment. Your garment is never your essence. The clothes you wear are not you, they are on you. Similarly, your character is not your “self.” So you must never confuse the two. You must know the difference.
You do not have a soul. You are a soul. But you have a character. And you–the self– are a soul, a part of God – the Soul of all souls, the Supreme Self.
The key question in your search for true identity and self worth is what do you choose to identify with? Do you identify with your character?” Or do you base your identity on your service to God – the Supreme Self -the Soul of all souls?
Great artists have confided in friends that they have looked at their own work on the gallery wall and wondered “Where did this come from?” Writers, composers, sculptors, have expressed the same thing. Bob Dylan was asked “How do you write your music?” And he said, “I put my pen on the page and I know it’s going to be alright.” Go to school to learn how to do that.
I met a famous screenwriter who told me that everyday before he writes he says a little prayer “Please, God, use me.” He explained that none of the films he wrote he wrote. Rather he experiences himself as only the typist in service of the true Writer. He sees himself as a tool for a God and believes that God is writing through him.
I told him that he was right about the good films but the bad ones are his.
Creative inspiration can sometimes be a very faint hint to the dynamics of prophecy. When the Torah says, God speaks to a prophet, it does not mean like a person speaks to another person. The prophet must transcend his character, free the soul and thereby bond and commune with the God – Source of all self; the Supreme Self. Only then can they hear “I–God–am your Lord.”
The Torah teaches us that Moses was the greatest prophet ever. This is what Hashem said about Moses, “If there shall be prophets among you, in a vision shall I, Hashem, make Myself known to him, in a dream shall I speak with him. Not so My servant Moses, in my entire household he is the trusted one. Mouth to mouth do I speak to him, in a clear vision and not in riddles….’ (Numbers 12:6-8) Moses sometimes reached prophetic peaks where Hashem would even speak out of Moses’ mouth. This is apparent in number of places in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses talks about Hashem in third person and then suddenly pops into first person. Here is one such example, “It will be if you hearken to My commandments that I commanded you today, to love Hashem, your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I shall provide rain for your land in its proper time, ……. I will provide grass in your fields for your cattle and you will eat and you will be satisfied.” Obviously it is not Moses who will provide rain, at this prophetic point God is speaking through Moses.
When we take a brief look at Moses early life, we begin to see the roots of his amazing ability for transcending his character and living in humble service of God’s wisdom and words. Moses was born to a Jewish family during the time of their bitter oppression by the Egyptians. King Pharoah issued a decree to kill all the Jewish baby boys. In desperation, Yocheved puts her new born baby in a basket and placed it among the reeds at a banks of the Nile river. Thanks to providence, the princesses of Egypt comes along and finds this abandoned baby, names him Moses and takes him home. Ironically she ends up hiring Moses real mother to nurse the child so Moses grows up knowing he is a Jew and yet receiving the royal upbringing of an Egyptian prince. Moses, however, was a restless soul and wanted to share in the suffering of his Jewish brethren who were enslaved by the Egyptians. The first day he goes out of from being isolated in the palace he sees an Egyptian beating a Jew. Without hesitation he kills the Egyptian to save the Jew. Realizing the implications of what he had done he quickly hid the body and returned to the palace. You would think after a day like that he would just stay put and never go out again. However, the very next day Moses goes out. This time he sees a Jew about to beat another Jew. He is shocked. “Why would you strike your fellow?”
“Who appointed you as a dignitary, a ruler, and a judge over us? Do you intend to murder me as you did the Egyptian?” Moses was devastated— the word was out. The Jew that he had saved must have spread the word. Pharoah also heard, and immediately issued orders to kill him. So Moses fled to the land of Midian. There he married a Midianite women whose family was excommunicated and harassed by the community. He moves in with her family and shepherds his father-in-law’s sheep. We can understand why Moses named his first son Gershom which alluded to his intense feeling of alienation. “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”
It’s just after these painful words of Moses that the bible narrates his first encounter with prophecy— the vision of the burning bush. This is no coincidence. Imagine the identity crisis of this man. He was a Jew but rejected by his people. He was the prince of Egypt but now a wanted fugitive. He once enjoyed royal status living in the palace of the king of Egypt and now he is a simple shepherd grazing in the desert. Here is a very lonely man. He has no real identity. However, it’s precisely his being stripped of his identity that freed his soul to bond with God. This identity crisis, the abandonment, loneliness and alienation freed Moses soul from getting lost in his character, identifying with any persona, and thereby freed him to only identify with God.
Most spiritual journeys start with an identity crisis. It is God’s gift to us; to awaken us to the truth that only He is our source of self worth. As a soul we know that the only role worth playing is a humble servant of God; a vehicle for His loving presence on earth.
Rabbi David Aaron
Author of Endless Light, Seeing G-d, The Secret Life of G-d, Inviting G-d In, Living A Joyous Life, The G-d-Powered Life, and Tefillah Training
Author of Endless Light, Seeing G-d, The Secret Life of G-d, Inviting G-d In, Living A Joyous Life, The G-d-Powered Life, and Tefillah Training
An excerpt from Endless Light
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