New Kabbalah Series with Rabbi Moss

The Wisdom of Nature

Spiritual lessons for life from the world around us

Tuesdays 8.15-9.30pm

July 27 – August 24, 2010

Nefesh Synagogue

54 Roscoe Street

Bondi Beach.

All welcome.

Morals in the Marketplace:

Spend and inspiring hour over lunch.

A new series exploring sticky situations in the business world. A new dilemma each week.

Thursdays 1.00-2.00pm

Arnold Bloch Leibler

Level 24, Chifley Tower, Sydney CBD.

Lunch included. All welcome.

Question:

Rabbi, do you know why I don’t go to shul? I used to go, but I started to notice that in my shul, the rich people get more noticed and average people like me were overlooked. So I stopped going. If you need to be wealthy to be respected I want no part of it. Am I right or wrong?

Answer:

You are the third person this week to explain to me why they don’t go to shul. This happens to me all the time. At almost every function I attend, a wedding, kid’s birthday party or communal gathering, someone comes up to me and says, “Rabbi, do you know why I don’t go to shul….”

I have never asked anyone why they don’t go to shul. I don’t even know these people.  And yet they feel the need to share with me their particular Jewish gripe, either about the unfriendly rabbi or the arrogant cantor, the grandfather who forced them to pray or the G-d who didn’t answer their prayers.

It’s funny, I don’t feel the need to justify to my dentist why I never go to him, or the local gym why they never see me. And yet when people see a rabbi they are overcome with an urge to explain their absence from shul.

Mind you, the people who do attend shul don’t seem to have a good reason why they come. Even someone who has not been to shul in years can rock up to a service, and without any justification for their sudden appearance, they walk in, take a prayer book and sit down, as if they always belonged there.

Because they do belong there. A Jew needs no reason to be in shul. There is no explanation necessary.  Most of the time, they themselves don’t know why they started coming to shul. And so they offer no rationalization. You only need a reason not to go to shul. But to go, no reason is required. I am here because I am Jewish, and going to shul is Jewish.

This is why I love hearing those alibis people present for not being in shul. A Jew needs a reason not to connect to Judaism. Some may have pretty good reasons, like yours. But they are reasons nonetheless. A Jew needs no reason to connect to Judaism. It is who we are.

If you don’t like your shul, find another one. Until you do, all the justifications in world won’t change the fact that you’re a Jew, and a Jew wants to be Jewish.

All the best,

Rabbi Moss.

Question:

 What is the meaning behind the ritual washing of hands before meals? Was this some ancient Jewish version of hygiene?

Answer:

One of the laws of the hand washing ritual is that the hands must already be completely clean before you wash them.  You first clean the hands of any dirt, and only then do you pour water from a cup over each hand three times.

This is ridiculous: the prerequisite to washing hands is that they be clean?! The ritual washing of hands has no visible effect. It seemingly does nothing. So why do we do it?

The hand washing before meals has nothing to do with hygiene. It is not about cleanliness. It is about holiness.

Cleanliness is a physical state. By removing dirt you become clean. But holiness is an entirely spiritual concept. Holiness means a sense of something beyond, something higher, something with a higher purpose. You can be completely clean, but that doesn’t mean you’re holy.

You can have two business people who work side by side. They are both honest and good people. They are both clean. There is no visible difference between them. And yet one uses his wealth to help the poor and needy, while the other accumulates wealth purely for himself and his family. He is clean. He is not a bad man. But he is not holy.

You can have two plates of food. Both are made of healthy ingredients and prepared to the highest standards of hygiene. There is no visible difference between them. And yet one plate is kosher food, the other not. Kosher food is not healthier or cleaner. It is holy. It is prepared according to divine standards with a higher purpose in mind.

You can have two pairs of hands. Both have been cleaned and are spotless. And yet one hand has been ritually washed, the other not. There is no detectable difference between them. But these hands are holy, those are not.

Holiness means connecting to something higher. It means living with an awareness that not all dirt is visible, and we don’t always see the effect of our actions. So before engaging in physical activity, before consuming the fruit of our handiwork, we wash our hands. They may be clean already, but we must ensure that they are pure and holy too.

Question:

 Quick question: why do you dip the challah in salt?

 Quick Answer:

 In the Temple in Jerusalem, every sacrifice was accompanied by salt. The salt symbolised our indestructible connection to G-d. Just as salt never goes bad, so too G-d’s love for us never spoils. Even if we have done wrong and need to bring an offering to seek forgiveness, we are still as lovable as ever, for there is a part of the soul that always remains pure.

Without the Temple, our dinner table becomes the altar, and our meals the sacrifices. And so we dip our bread in salt. We are reminded that no matter what wrong we may have done, no matter how bad the mistakes we may have made, there is still hope for us. Even if we don’t forgive ourselves G-d forgives us. Because like salt, G-d’s love is undying.

All the best,

Rabbi Moss.

Question:

My Jewishness is making it harder for me to find love. The more I get involved in Jewish life, the less options I have for girls to date. To be honest, it is making me hesitate before becoming more observant. What should I do, take on more Judaism and limit my options, or keep my options open and put the Jewish thing on hold?

Answer:

It depends what you are looking for. If you are just after a partner, any partner that suits, then it is a simple numbers game, and the more options in front of you the better chances you have. If you have a wider pool of potential partners, the odds are higher that you will be successful in your search. In this equation, the vaguer you are about yourself, the more potential partners you will find.

But that’s only if you are merely looking for a partner. If you are looking for your soulmate it’s another story entirely.

Your soulmate is the other half of your soul, the missing part of your very being. You can only recognise your soulmate if you first get to know your own soul. When you know where you are going in life, when you are clear on your own identity, when you know who you really are, then and only then are you equipped to identify the other half of your soul.

Some people have it backwards. They think that when it comes to describing whom you’re looking for, you need a long and detailed list of specifications, but when it comes to describing who you are, you are better off being blurry and general. The opposite is true. Know yourself and your own soul. Explore your Jewish identity and become comfortable with it. You are not limiting your options, you are refining your search.

Question:

My grandmother always told me not to walk around the house in just socks and no shoes. Is there anything to this or is it a bubbemaise superstition?

Answer:

There is no law that forbids you to walk around in socks. But our sages teach us to never ignore the sayings of our grandmothers, for there is always some wisdom in them. Indeed, your grandmother’s aversion to shoelessness does have some basis.

Jewish law states that one who is mourning the loss of a loved one removes their shoes. Thus walking around in socks makes you look like a mourner, and we don’t even want to look like a mourner. This is part of a general Jewish attitude to death. We don’t like it. We do whatever we can to stay away from it.

There are many Jewish customs that stem from the desire to avoid anything associated with death. Some people don’t sleep with their feet facing the door, because that is how a corpse lies before burial. We don’t speak about what will happen when someone dies, but rather what will happen “after 120 years.” We wash our hands after attending a funeral, to rid ourselves of the impurity of the cemetery.

This dislike of death is not so much a superstition as an allergy. Our tradition trains us to love life and be allergic to death. Unlike some traditions that venerate death as an ideal and view life as a wretched curse, the Jewish tradition cherishes life as a blessing. Through customs that distance us from death and its trappings, the Jewish people has inculcated a worldview that is life-affirming and this-world focused.

Your grandmother had a point. Death is a part of life. But it need not be given any more space than necessary. Keep your shoes on.

All the best,

Rabbi Moss.

Question:

What is Judaism’s take on looking into our future? I’ve always been under the impression that it is forbidden for us to consult with spiritual ‘mediums’, but more and more I’m hearing of people who are paying big money to find out what their future may hold. Is it possible to know our destiny?

Answer:

The Torah forbids looking into the future, not because it isn’t possible to do, but because it isn’t a good idea.

There are indeed ways to divine the future. There are Jewish sources that speak of things like horoscopes and palm reading. The problem is not that these are false (though many practitioners of them are), it is that there is a danger when they are used to predict the future.

These readings can do nothing more than predict someone’s destiny based on current circumstances. The way things stand now, if all variables remain unchanged, this is your fate. What they can’t predict is human free choice.

We have the ability to choose our path, to change our destiny and to outsmart fate. We are not bound to a future that is out of our control. While we can’t change the forces of destiny, we can change ourselves. When a person improves themselves, becomes a better person, then they are now a new being with a new destiny. The human power to change is a variable no seer can predict.

 This is why we are better off not knowing what is in store for us. Because once we hear it, we may become stuck in the belief that our future is set. And this itself may affect our future negatively, as our will to change and freedom to choose becomes paralysed.

 If I am told that my future is all good, I will have wealth and love and happiness, this knowledge may make me complacent and lazy, expecting these things to just come on their own. But they will not. If I want wealth I need to work, if I want to find love I need to meet people, if I want happiness I need to live a life of meaning. G-d may want to bestow much good upon me, but it won’t happen without my effort.

 So too if I am given a negative prognosis, if I am told that I am destined to suffer and be sick, then the worry and anxiety caused by such a prediction can itself lead to the suffering and sickness I am dreading. The prediction becomes self-fulfilling, as I give in to a fate that need not be mine.

 For these reasons and more, you are better off leaving the future for tomorrow and focusing on today. If you do that, I predict good things in store for you.

All the best,

Rabbi Moss.

Question:

Many thanks to you and your wife for Friday night dinner. We had a great time. I just had one question. I noticed you have a huge picture of your Rebbe, Rabbi Schneersohn, on the wall. I don’t mean to be rude, but is this type of reverence appropriate? Isn’t he just another human being?

 Answer:

 Yes, the Rebbe was just a human being. That’s exactly why I revere him.

 Here was a man who was at the same time a world leader and a personal confidant. He received up to one thousand letters a day and opened each one himself, advised concerned parents of unwell children and singles searching for life-partners with the exact same love and attention as he advised presidents and prime-ministers on matters of state, had the vision to set up a global web of institutions to rebuild Jewish life after the Holocaust, promoted family values and moral living for the non-Jewish world, was as fluent in the sciences as he was in Torah wisdom and found G-d in both, healed the sick with his blessings, and answered people’s questions before they even asked them, took the responsibility of the world on his shoulders, but had time to respond to the questions of a child.

 These are just a sample of his qualities. And what makes the Rebbe so special was that he was human. For a superhuman to achieve all the above is no big deal. They don’t have to work hard to become heroes. But for a human being of flesh and blood to reach such heights is nothing short of amazing.

 That’s why I have a picture of the Rebbe on my wall. It always reminds me of what a human can achieve. I will never be a Rebbe, but I can certainly strive to do more than I am presently doing to better myself and the world. The Rebbe inspires me to do this.

 I only saw the Rebbe once. But it is due to his influence that I am today an active and proud Jew. His profound teachings and compelling vision inspired me to become a rabbi. Otherwise, who knows, I may have been a B-grade trapeze artist or struggling plumber’s assistant. The very fact that I am writing these words and you are reading them is thanks to the Rebbe and his vision.

 From the Rebbe’s teachings I have learnt what G-d is. From his life I have learnt what humans can be.

All the best,

Rabbi Moss.

Question:

 What do you say to this Gaza flotilla episode? Did you see the real story behind it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk ? As usual the media and world opinion condemns Israel for defending itself. When will truth prevail?

 Answer:

In the battle for truth, there is an important lesson we can learn from the Hebrew language.

The word for truth in Hebrew is Emet. The word for falsehood is Sheker. Both words are made up of three Hebrew letters. The difference is that the three letters of Emet are the first, middle and last letters of the alphabet (aleph, mem, tav), while the letters that make up Sheker (shin, kuf, reish) are consecutive letters, bunched together in the alphabet.

The holy tongue is here giving a profound insight into the difference between truth and falsehood. Truth is a broad and all-encompassing perspective, while falsehood is no more than a misleading and narrow snapshot.

To know the truth you need to know the full picture, from beginning to end. You cannot understand a situation without knowing the background, the events that led to it. And you don’t know whether an event is a victory or a defeat until its consequences unravel.

On the other hand, to view a scene in isolation, out of context, ignorant of the facts and unaware of the backdrop, will invariably lead to false impressions.

Sadly, modern mainstream media is prone to falsehood. Catchy sound bites, dramatic images, angry reactions and loose accusations are far more newsworthy than lengthy explanations, detailed analysis and historic perspective. In the grab for airtime, a tedious truth will not compete with a flotilla of falsehood.

But in the end truth will prevail. This crisis, like others before, will pass. People of good will and integrity around the world are already seeing beyond the false headlines. Newspapers are disposable, and for good reason. Truth is not.

All the best,

Rabbi Moss.