RDK - R'Yehoshua Ben Levi

(Ch.26)
Last time began world of Moshe as expressed in ahava raba
Shift in sha'ar
When M&A say nachmu it is def'n of their nature and identity
Different from world of avot
Different b'n havaya and
Ma is with aleph, unfication, essence
Ba is diiferent
Aleph is a vav on a slant with 2 yud's, gematria 26
Orientation to essence and unity
Ma is non-presence
Denial
After saying there is nothing left of you
Completely lost in presence of divine
Act of abnegation
What did you think we are?
What is that?
Not interested in its functions
Unrelated to anything
'Mahut'
Reflected in kabbalah - Ma and Ben
Ban - 52 -
Ma - ?
Yud is chochma is essence
Chochma is Ma
Bina is Ban
After seeing the sneh, M goes to par'o
Who am i?
... I am with you.
Bina is the power of redemption
The wise man has what he has
Bina is the ability to derive one thing from another
Ma is the essence in presence
Redeem involves ability to step the next step
To find out 'who' it is, requires context and expression
Who we are is defined with bina
E'he'ye - I will be with you
I don't provide names - ma
E'he'ye & E'he'ye
First appearance, after Gd asks, who am I
E'he'ye is the def'n of both Gd and man
Par'o is a disrupter
Lots of boundaries in Egypt (euclidean plane)
Subjugation and oppression has no connection to spirituality
Mitzra'im is 'meitzar', confinement of me.
Physics & geometry is the opposite of Gd/spirituality.
E'he'ye means i will be - Essence and core
Modality and personality is governed by e'he'ye
Identity is essence&core, liberating
Personality are the pieces
Self is the integration and expression
Self-dedication is confinement & control
E'he'ye is dynamic, expose yourself
David HaMelech is dynamic
Sha'ul was trapped in his image, paranoia
E'he'ye is a mode of becoming
Becoming free
E'he'ye is uncommonly used
Malchut is a reflection of bina
Selfhood is the end and emergent personality
Selfhood, if it loses bina, becomes self-serving and non-expansive
Moshe needa to go in with E'he'ye, not with Ma.
E'he'ye is the power of liberation.
E'he'ye is the keter
Ari: E'he'ye is in keter and bina
Doubled E'he'ye, 1st is keter, asher is chochma, 2nd is bina
... I am, that is, what i become
2nd E'he'ye is the revelation of Gd
Expansion and moving out
Only way to be in resemptive posture, needs preceding with E'he'ye and Asher, essential stillness and listening
Asher is the anchor, or else it comes with too much frredom - hippie, footloose.
Moshe is ma.
In M's presence, everything can begin to expand.
Zohar: bina is a river flowing out of Eden.
Needs to achieve a sense of presence & worth.
Bina is the source of simcha and liberation
Zohar: 50 times in the chumash
Mi is 50 times
E'he'ye is the only name of Gd in 1st person
But as soon as you say it, it is yourself.
It is the expression of Gd in this world.
Ban is mi, who, my power
Beginning in anochi, keter
Nothingness to the Ma

Moshe asks for an identity when he goes to see Par'o.

(Yovel is 50 - Mi - comes back to primary identity, beginning. It is also shavuot)
Nachala is bina
Shavuot is nata betochenu
Chachamim are guiding with a 'cattle prod', but they're not moving around. But they are not stuck, they are planted. Therefore able to grow. They have a foundation.
When the malchut becomes a separate reality, then we get disconnected and enclose ourselves in a mitzraim
Always reference to source before reacting
Moshe in the desert finds Yitro the 'Keni' and marries tzippora

Ultimately, Ma is static. Asher and chochma allows us to respond.
Nature unfolds so that if we stay passive in the Ma, then we are abortive of Gd's revelation in this world.
Nature of reality is that Gd is always calling us forth.
Ma will lead into Mi. Gd is calling us to task.
Asher is an affirmation.

Resentment - steps, process...

1. Bringing forth the object of our resentment. Judging, deriding.

2. Confessing the extent of the resentment. What i've been doing to this person and to myself.

3. Gains and losses

4. Ask forgiveness - gam anosh l'tzadik lo tov ('even punishing for a tzadik is not good'). Offer forgiveness.

5. Choose an action. Imagine it done. To reflect this new perspective.

Resentment (my response)

I don't know you well enough.

Where is your life, your character, in respect of Torah. If you were to reflect on that, what's the difference.
Stubborn, rude, condascending, nasty
Obvious lack of patience
What makes you like you are
Lack of compassion
Not very happy
I only see smiling when there is a joke
Mocking
Too serious
Closed
Disconnected
Proper
Does the negativity overflow into all areas of life

Yet i think you know what you're like...?
How do you reconcile?
Tell me about your life?
Why are you the way you are

tazria-metzora-omer

Tazria has 67 verses which is gematria for the word בניה – her children – a reference to the woman who gives birth (at the beginning of the parsha). The word בניה can also be understood to be mean 'builders', since children are also the builders of the future. Metzora has 90 verses which is gematria for the word עידו – his witness – a reference to tzaraas which is witness to someone who tells lashon hara. This week we also start perek aleph (ch.1) of Pirkei Avot, which we say weekly between Pesach and Shavuot. Pirkei Avot begins with discussing how the Torah was received by Moshe at Sinai and then 'passed on' ("Mesora" = tradition) to Joshua, etc.

What's the relationship between the two sidras and Pirkei Avot?

In all 3 cases the relationship revolves around the origin of Torah for the Jewish people.

Tazria: The children (בניה) were the 'guarantee' offered by the Jewish people at Har Sinai in order to receive the Written and Oral Torah. The male child, discussed at the beginning of Tazria, is also the receiver of the Jewish covenant by the law of brit milah – 'circumcision'. The builders of the Torah are the Torah scholars , and Gemara Berachot 64a tells us that children shall be the learners of the Torah.

Metzora: In our system of imposing Torah law in our society, we also have the Jewish Beit Din. The Beit Din when listening to cases needs to have independent witness/es in order to pass their judgement. The judgements of a Beit Din are clarifications of our Written and Oral Torah and therefore carry similar obligations to be observed by Jews. Therefore the Jewish court system is an additional aspect of the origin of Torah for the Jewish People.

Pirkei Avot: So we received the Written and Oral Torah at Sinai (Tazria), and we have rules and judgements by the Beit Din (Metzora), both of which contribute to Torah in our daily life. The last aspect of how Torah is a part of our daily life comes from the way Pirkei Avot begins – traditions. For many Jews, one of the most regular ways that Judaism plays a part in our lives is by the traditions we receive from our parents and our families.

Tazria (67) + Metzora (90) = 157 => 1+5+7 = 13

Gematria for:     13 = אחד (unity)                13 = אהבא (love)

This is the 'antidote' against lashon hara, disunity and baseless hate between Jews.

67 (סז) + 90 (צ) = 157 (קנז)

קנז is a reference to Othniel Ben Kenaz who was the first of the lineage of Judges. He was the first to follow after the end of Joshua's reign.

RDK - tefilla - R'Yehoshua HaLevi

Introduction:
Moshe
Ish elokim
Divine human being
Introduced as in the 'flesh' - 'certainly'
Relationship b'n flesh and selfhood
Flesh is needed to fully participate in the temple service
Vegetarian age - body?
Transcendence
Pride of incorporation of body with Torah
Primitive sacrifice of animals
We are now not necessarily at the highest development
Power of divine to relate to the basar, rather than relating to the soul

Ahavat Olam

Looking at body of world, life force, origin
Ya'akov touching the place
Other Avot oriented to essence, not manifest or output
Female to embodiment and realisation
Male essence concept
They declare their identity
Aspect of 'Ma' has 2 meanings

1. They way it is - not sensing. Abstract. Whatness not suchness. Template for physical formation.
e.g. hardness and resistance. modality for finding difference b'n bodies
There are 10 differences - sphirot - b'n all the elements, colours, sounds, tones, motion, rhythm, energy.
Goes back to chochma and then atzeilut
Things are in revolution
Humanity constantly shifts paradigm, e.g. Analog to digital, discovery of 'genes'
Chochma and nachmu ma, are those who hold the abstracted format. Not the world.
Moshe and Aharon are introducing something new.
This is looking to essence - not the world.
Avot melachot are physical
Moshe & Aharon are divested of reality
'Ein kavod ela Torah' nothing to honour except Torah
i.e. No origin for kavod without Torah
Honour is part of the essence and embedded meaning.
Given significance by manifestation and teaching.
Nothing here without purpose and significance - R'Nachman.
Those who are attached to chochma will assign kavod, honour.

2.

Esh Kodesh - Piasetzner's Torah from Warsaw Ghetto - Parsha Mishpatim

Bracha...
Understand
Connect
Dedicate
Learn
Something new
Beyond reason
Something real

Laws placed before them
Broken houses (Gemara Berachot)
Daven in a ruin
Eliyahu was at the doorway
Daven on road
Daven short amida
Voices of hurva
Heavenly voices
Cooing like a dove
Woe that my home is destroyed
My children are exiled
That voice is heard 3x a day
Gd bows his head during kaddish
'keve yachol' - so to speak...
Woe to children exiled
Woe to father who exiles his children
Jewish soul tortured
Thinks only he is tortured
All the pain is not of interest above
Heaven doesn't care
All the pain - gd is in pain
When the shechinah is in pain, Gd's limbs are hurting
More than a person feels pain
Gd himself, so to speak, feels the pain

Does the Piasetzner see Gd's pain?

Not perceived in the world that Gd is not in pain
If Gd is infinite, then he is in infinite pain
Imagine Gd's pain
Do we even hear the echo of the voice of Gd'w infinite pain
It is beyond our human limitation
How could R'Yosi have heard Gd's voice and here in the Warsaw ghetto we can't hear it?
Hurva of J'lem, your identity is nullified
R'Yose's limitations were nullified in J'lem
Part of R'Yose was destroyed
That's when R'Y heard Gd's voice, an echo
Heard from far away, faint

This is the explanation for the world existing, if we don't hear His pain.
Gd's pain is not entering the world, and this is why the world exists
Angel told Gd that he wanted to cry instead of Gd, during the destruction of Temple
Gd said that He wants to, and not to stop Him
Angel says that it's not prayer
Piasetzner says that this is not protocol
Gd goes to a different place to cry
It's not good for servants to see the King crying
The King's pain boundless! That's why it can't come into the world.
The angel wanted to cry so the pain would go into the world
Angel is Gd's extended will/messenger
Emissaries of Gd
The angel wanted to cry the cry of the 'so to speak' - the 'so to speak' is that which can't come into the world.
Otherwise the world would have heard the cry
LET THE WORLD HEAR HIS CRY - AND BURST!
ONE SPARK AND BURN UP ALL THOSE WHO HATE HIM... i beg you.
Gd had mercy on Egyptians
Now the Jews are drowning in blood.
Can the world continue to exist?
Angel: i'll cry, and You wont have to, so then there will be nothing left to cry over

... It wasn't yet the time for the revelation.

Now.
The pain is great
It's too huge for world to contain
It is transcendent
He lifts his pain higher than the angel
Even the angels can't see it

Kabbalah:
That place is the inner chamber
Understanding beyond cognition
Intuition
Bina exists for us to wonder
Not for that which needs to be known
It is higher
His pain is hidden from us and malach

My thoughts:
People visit a makom (omnipresent) many years after the dust has settled 'so to speak'. Like R'Yosi visit the hurva of the Beit Hamikdash. This is when you feel and hear the souls. This is when you hear the latent echoes of Gd. When the injustice is being done - during the destruction and the death - the voice is still in its chamber. The cry is in its chamber. The cry of when you open your mouth and nothing comes out. You are in such pain. When we go to the Har HaBayit, when we go to Warsaw, to Auschwitz, to Dachau and all the places where the cry was of such pain that it was not heard, now, today, we hear the moaning and the cooing and the keveyochel, the 'so to speak' - beyond this world.

Parshat Tsav - Shabbat HaGadol Teaching

2 teachings...

1. picture from Mei Hashiloach (R'Leiner-Ishibitzer) about how we will regard each other in the days of Mashiach. This is from parshat tsav.

2. below, from R'Brodt about Shabbat HaGadol

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Before leaving Mitzrayim, Hashem gave us a very special mitzvah: the mitzvah of Korban Pessach, the Paschal lamb that was to be sacrificed on the 14th of Nissan in the afternoon and eaten in the evening, the 15th of Nissan, at our last meal in the land of Egypt. However, for this Pessach sacrifice, Hashem required us to acquire the lamb on the 10th of Nissan and to bring it home for safeguarding until it was time to offer the sacrifice, to ensure that it would not have any blemishes that would otherwise disqualify it as a sacrifice.

It is well known that the lamb was one of the many gods that the Egyptians worshipped. The mitzvah of the Korban Pessach was an opportunity for us to do something that required a great deal of faith and courage. Visualizefa a little 'yiddele' who all his life was a slave to the Egyptians and now he had to confront his masters. Here he is walking home with a little sheep on his shoulders and an Egyptian stops him on the street and says to him, "What are you doing with that lamb"? And this little yid, had to tell him, "I'm bringing this lamb home because in four days from now we are going to use it as a Pessach sacrifice." He had to find all his courage and gather all his faith and publicly proclaim that he was now prepared to slaughter the god of his oppressor slave-master, for now he truly believed and knew that there is only one G-d, the G-d of Israel.

The miracle was a twofold one. The Jewish slave found his faith and courage, and the oppressor was overcome with fear and did not try to stop him from killing his god. But there was something even greater that took place in this miracle! When the Egyptian first-borns were told of the coming 'plague of the first-borns' they, the very Egyptian first-borns who oppressed the Jewish slaves, went to demand of their elders to let the Jews go. When their request was refused, they waged battle against them and many were killed. This is alluded to in the verse: "To Him who smote the Egyptians with their firstborn." The Rebbe zt"l explains that this represents the highest stage wherein "darkness is tranformed into light".

But why do we honor the Shabbos before Pessach each year, instead of the 10th of Nissan? Chassidut explains that all the spiritual and material gifts that come to us during the week, actually originate in the preceding Shabbos. Thus we observe the Shabbos before Pessach as Shabbat Hagadol, rather than observing the 10th of Nissan for the miracle that occurred on that day. The miracle that took place on the 10th of Nissan in Mitzrayim was nurtured by the fact that it was Shabbat.

Today, it is a widespread custom that on Shabbos afternoon of this Great Shabbos, we read a part of the Haggadah, from "avadim ha-yinu" until "lechapeyr al kol avonoteinu", to note the miracles of Shabbos Hagadol and to prepare ourselves consciously for our upcoming liberation celebration. It is also customary to do further study and review of the many laws of Pessach.