An Acquired Taste

"Moshe caused Yisrael to journey from the sea of Reeds…" (15:22)

They say that oysters are an acquired taste. They must be. The thought of swallowing (you don’t eat oysters, you swallow them) what looks like a two inch disk of rubber with the odoriferous bouquet of an ancient sea-wreck must, I’m sure, take some acquiring.

There are some tastes, however, that require absolutely no acquiring whatsoever.

In the above verse, Rashi comments that Moshe caused the Jewish People to journey against their will. Let’s picture the scene. The Egyptian army is lying scattered across the seashore. The Egyptians had crowned their horses with ornaments of gold and silver and precious stones. The Jewish People were busily gathering these jewels from the sea. Even before Moshe moved them on, the treasure that they amassed from the seashore was greater than the treasure collected when they left Egypt. The seashore probably looked like someone had raided all the storefronts on Fifth Avenue, including Tiffany and Cartier, and dumped it all on the beach. It’s not surprising Moshe had to drag them away from such a bonanza.

What is strange is that in last week’s Torah portion (11:2) G‑d asked Moshe to tell the Jewish People to ask the Egyptians to give them their valuables. For unless they did so Avraham would have a grievance against G-d. G‑d had promised Avraham to bring out his progeny from the slavery of Egyptwith great wealth. If G-d asked Moshe to make sure the Jewish People took from the Egyptians, the implication is that without this chivvying, the Jewish People would not have asked the Egyptians for anything at all.

So how come a few days later the reluctant and retiring Jewish People are all over the beach scrabbling for jewelry? What happened to their diffidence?

It’s amazing how some tastes take absolutely no acquiring whatsoever!

• Source: Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky

The Big League

"Moshe replied to G-d, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should take the Children of Yisrael out of Egypt?" (3:11)

The lights of Chanuka have faded into darkness. The dreidel lies motionless in the glass-fronted cabinet in the living room. What have we taken with us from those Chanuka lights?

Surely one of the most important lessons that we can learn from Chanuka is that we are capable of rising to great heights if we really believe in what we are doing. Even the might of an empire cannot stand in the way of someone who is prepared to give up his life for what he believes.

About sixty years ago in a dark horse stable in Auschwitz, a handful of girls gathered around some hastily-prepared Chanuka candles. Soon the group grew in size, and the light spread over the entire barracks. In a few minutes several hundred Jewish women were singing the immortal song of contempt for all the tyrants of history:“Moaz Tzur Yeshuati…" After they had finished the song, they listened quietly to words of Torah filled with trust in the ultimate vindication of G-d’s actions.

Who were the girls that organized that Chanuka in hell? They were pupils of a school in Tarnow founded by an unassuming seamstress named Sarah Shenirer.

Sarah Shenirer was born in 1883 in Krakow, Poland, which was then part of the Austrian Empire. At that time there was no formal system of education for Jewish girls and Sarah was educated in a Polish public school.

Sarah saw all around here the ravages of the so-called "Enlightenment" on the Jewish woman. Jewish girls were well versed in the latest in Polish poetry, but disdained their own traditions and religion. Yiddish was an embarrassment to them. A question in Yiddish would be answered in Polish. Sarah Shenirer saw a terrible lacking in the education of Jewish girls. Their brothers were shielded by their immersion in Torah, but for the girls, there was little or nothing to fend off the blandishments of secularism.

Meanwhile, World War I broke out, and Sarah, together with a stream of refugees, left for Vienna. On Shabbat Chanuka, Sarah went to the Shtumper Street Synagogue and heard an address by Rabbi Dr. Plesh that summoned her to her life’s task.

Rabbi Dr. Plesh spoke of Mattityahu and the Chashmonaim; of Chana and her seven sons; of Yehudit. A history of dedication and self-sacrifice.

She returned to Krakowfull of enthusiasm. With nothing more than faith in G-d and a burning desire to serve Him as best she could, Sarah opened a school for little girls. She rented two rooms; one served as a"tailor shop," where she "sewed clothes for the body," and in the other she set up a new kind of "shop" where she began to "sew clothes for young souls." Secular studies might beguile the mind, but only Torah andmitzvot can nourish the Jewish soul.

She wrote to her brother, a Belzer Chassid living in Czechoslovakia, about her undertaking. At first he ridiculed her. However, when she insisted that nothing would stop her, he invited her to come to Marienbad. He wrote, "The Belzer Rebbe is here and we shall ask him."She invested her last pennies in the trip. Her brother wrote a note to the Rebbe: "My sister wants to educate B’not Yisrael in the spirit of Judaism and Torah." The Rebbe replied with two very important words: "Beracha Ve’hatzlachah!" (Blessing and Success!) Those two words gave her all the impetus she needed. And one might add that, at the time, this was the only help she received.

Thus, with twenty-five children whom she had prevailed upon her customers to entrust to her, the Beth Jacob Movement was born.

At first, Sarah’s school provoked contemptuous dismissal as the "undertaking of the seamstress." However, the educational results of her new school very soon spoke for themselves. The parents of Sarah Shenirer’s pupils saw a new spirit in the hearts of their children. Sarah Shenirer’s pupils spoke differently from the pupils of the Polish schools. They did not speak with arrogance and defiance. They showed respect to their parents. They wanted to go to shul with their parents. They asked whatberacha (blessing) to recite for this or that. They were keen to hear stories about the Tzaddikim and the pious.

Sarah Shenirer almost single-handed revolutionized the education of a generation. And all this by a seamstress whose formal education ceased at the age of 13. When she passed away, more than 200 schools had been established attended by some 25,000 students all over Eastern and Central Europe. The Beit Yaakov network of schools has grown exponentially, and is today, the backbone of Torah education for girls.

Very often we are our own greatest enemies. How often do we hear the little voice that says, "You belong in the little league." "You can’t do it." "Who do think you are?" "You’re way out of your league!"

In truth, we possess enormous untapped resources. Every one of us is a gold mine that goes down to the depths, but we don’t see it. We see the virtues of others, but because we see ourselves from close up, sometimes we suffer from myopia when it comes to our own virtues.

When G-d told Moshe to take the Jewish People out of Egypt, he said "Who am I?" Rashi explains Moshe meant "Am I important enough to speak with kings?" The negative drive in our heart says "Who are you? Who are you fooling?"

We must know that if we sincerely desire to do something, then, with the help of G-d, the sky’s the limit. Apart from our hidden resources, apart from the qualities that we possess and of which we are ignorant, we should always remember that G-d runs the world. If G-d decides that He wants us to achieve something, however far above our capabilities, we can raise ourselves above not only what we believe we can do, but even what we actually can do.

Only G-d decides who gets into the big league.

G-d’s Witnesses

"And Yehuda approached him." (44:18)

A tramp standing by a traffic light. Suddenly, a big Rolls Royce limousine about half a block long pulls up right next to him. The tramp stands immobile and somewhat alarmed. One of the tinted windows in the back of the limo rolls down with an expensive electronic purr. From inside the car emerges a hand wearing a white cotton glove. The hand is waving a crisp $20 bill. Silently the gloved hand beckons to the tramp with the money. Like a silent Charlie Chaplin comedy, the tramp does a double take, looks behind him, convinced that the hand must be beckoning to someone standing behind him. Then he realizes the $20 bill is for him. The tramp cannot believe his luck. He beams from ear to ear, and back again, walks up to the hand, and takes the money. Just as quietly and mysteriously as it arrived, the Rolls Royce glides away from the sidewalk and is soon lost in the traffic. The tramp stands there gazing after it for a long time.

The next day, the Rolls-Royce again draws up next to him. This time, the tramp is somewhat less surprised but no less grateful. Overjoyed, he again takes the money.

The next day the same thing happens, and the next and the next and the next…

This goes on for a month.

One day, the Rolls Royce draws up at the lights but the window doesn’t go down. After a few seconds the tramp knocks on the glass, but it doesn’t go down. So he knocks harder and then starts to shout, "Where’s my twenty dollars! Where’s my twenty dollars!"

Gratitude is proportionate to the extent that we understand that we received something that wasn’t our due. If we think that something is due to us, why should we be grateful?

"And Yehuda approached him."

The name Jew comes from the name Yehuda. We are Yehudim or Jews. We are not called Jews by coincidence. In Hebrew, a name defines the very essence of a thing. If the name Yehuda means to thank, that must be the essence of being Jewish – that’s our name. We are the ‘thankers.’ The Hebrew for "to thank" is l’hodot. However, there is another meaning to the word l’hodot. It can also mean "to admit." What’s the connection between giving thanks and admitting?

To the extent that we admit we received something and we really didn’t deserve it, to that same extent will be our gratitude and to that degree we will give thanks.

"And Yehuda approached him."

We are Jews because we thank G-d for everything we have, however big or small. A Jew admits that everything comes from G-d. That is how Yehuda – the Jewish People – are able to approach, to come close to G-d.

"And Yehuda approached Him."

The job of the Jewish people in this world is to be quite literally ‘G-d’s witnesses’. (Not to be confused with Brand X who would also like to claim this job as their own). The job of the Jewish People is to testify by the way we live our lives that there is a G-d in the world. As it is written: "You are My witnesses."

So if our job is to be the Witnesses, why are we called the Thankers, or the Admitters?

The foundation of all belief in G-d is to admit that life is one gigantic gift. If a person doesn’t feel that he was given anything, he will never look for G-d, he will never look further than his own nose.

If I sensitize myself to the gift I will sensitize myself to the Giver.

Atheism is not the root of ingratitude. Ingratitude is the root of atheism.

Coming To A Theater Near You

"Seven years of famine…" (41:27)

As a young boy I remember sitting glued to the screen of the Golders Green Ionic, waiting to see the trailer of the next Steve Reeves epic. Steve would battle some unlikely plastic reptile with the shadow of the ice-cream lady falling all over him. Her torch usually managed to wash-out most of the picture until you could barely tell the difference between the lizard and Steve.

How things have changed.

On a recent trip to the States I was subjected to about an hour of broadcast television. I was amazed at how much time was taken up ‘trailing’ coming attractions. The identical trailer for some up-coming program was repeated ad nauseam.

We are rapidly reaching the Brave New World where trailers become so frequent and pervasive that there will be no time for the features themselves.

This will be the perfect paradigm for the dream-box which has always been long on promises and short on delivery.

At the root of this mania, however, is some solid reasoning. You can’t get people to listen to you unless you can first grab their attention.

The most important part of a record is the first twenty seconds. By that point the listener has already decided whether he wants to listen further or not.

It’s the same in a business interview. Much stress is placed on the way you look because firstimpressions are, as they say, lasting impressions.

In this week’s Torah portion there’s an interesting anomaly. When Yosef interprets Pharaoh’s dream, he starts off by telling him about the seven years of famine. Chronologically, the seven years of plenty came first. Why didn’t Yosef start by talking about them?

In a country as prosperous as Egypt talking about seven years of plenty would have been about as interesting as watching wallpaper. Yosef deliberately started speaking about the famine because he knew that this was a ‘trailer’ that would certainly make Pharaoh sit up and take notice.

Iron Yarmulke

(Yosef said to the Chamberlain of the Cupbearers): "If only you would think of me… and mention me to Pharaoh, then you would get me out of this building." (40:14)

Something very strange happens on the twenty-fifth of the Hebrew month of Kislev. Two completely different festivals are observed.

One festival celebrates a military triumph by a small group of partisans who manage by their own bravery to overcome vastly superior forces and restore Jewish statehood to the Landof Israel. The other commemorates a supernatural victory against powers of darkness that wished to adulterate the Jewish People and their Holy Torah.

The bizarre thing is that both these festivals have the same name.

They are both called "Chanuka".

The secular version of the Chanuka story makes Mattityahu and Yehuda Maccabee sound like characters out of a Cyborg movie. True, there’s an eight-branched candelabra somewhere there at the back of the set, but Chanuka is really a nationalistic shoot-em-up where the good guys win and the bad guys lose and G-d got written out of the plot at the first script meeting.

The other version of Chanuka focuses on the supernatural events that surround Chanuka. The miracle of the oil lasting eight days; of a small minority who manage to hold onto their Judaism against the blandishments of materialism and hedonism. True, there’s a military victory somewhere in there, but it’s a miraculous victory against impossible odds, a victory which is no more than the revelation of G-d’s providential Hand.

There’s a fine line between faith and folly. There’s an equally fine line between thinking that the Jewish People win wars because we have the best tanks and planes and the best training.

In 1967, the Six Day War opened with a blistering attack on the Egyptian airfields by the Israeli air force. The Israeli air force managed to knock out 90% of the Egyptian planes while they were still on the ground. Now, 90% is an interesting statistic – because it can’t happen. Warplanes bombing a tiny ground target under fire can achieve 40%, maybe 50%. But 90% doesn’t happen.

After the Six Day War finished, you couldn’t buy a set of tefillin in the whole of Israel. There were appeals in the United Statesfor anyone who had a spare pair to send them to Israel. The Jewish People realized that G-d had given them a miraculous victory against five Arab armies on four fronts, and the upswell in the observance of Judaism was remarkable.

Equally remarkable – and predictable – was the short-lived nature of this awakening. Nothing much had changed in three thousand years, and just as the Jewish People were capable of cavorting around a golden calf a few weeks after they had witnessed the splitting of the sea and all the miracles in Egypt, so too the Jewish People very soon forgot Who it was Who fights our wars and were busy bragging about the invincible Israeli army.

So, as it were, to give us a little reminder of Who’s really running things, some six years later, the Arabs attacked again. This time they managed to make deep inroads into the heartland of the country. But the Arabs made a fatal mistake. They think that they will attack on Yom Kippur when everyone is fasting and weak.

They forget two things: One strategic and the other supernatural. Strategically, the most difficult thing about starting a war without a large standing army is to mobilize. The major problem is to find everyone. However, on Yom Kippur you can find everyone. Because almost everyone is in shul. So all you have to do is to take a truck drive from shul to shul and call out the names at the back. Also the roads are empty so you can mobilize your army in about half the time it would normally take.

Secondly, the Arabs forgot to read their history books. If they’d paid closer attention, they’d have realized that traditionally the Jewish People always used to fast before going into battle to purify themselves before G-d. And even in the secular State of Israel, anyone with the remotest connection to his Judaism is praying his heart out in shul and the angels are taking his prayers upstairs to the King of Kings. Not a good day to attack really…

Again the same thing happens. A realization of a miraculous miracle followed by a return to "with my own power and the strength of my own hand" kind-of-thinking.

So next time, G-d, as it were, says "So you think it’s your army that’s winning these wars? I’ll tell you what. Next time, your army will sit on its benches, and I will send the largest and most powerful navy in the world steaming half way around the world and your army and your navy and your air force will do absolutely zero."

And that’s exactly what happened in the Gulf War. I remember sitting in a taxi at the time, and this secular taxi driver was quoting me a verse, I think it was from the prophet Yishayahu, all about how G-d will tell us to go into a sealed room for a little while until the danger passes. "Who is like your people Israel?! One nation in the land!" Even the taxi drivers quote you the prophets!

I also remember when the day the Gulf War ended. It just "happened" to be Shushan Purim. I went into my own sealed room and ripped the plastic off the window and threw the window open wide to let in the sweet air of freedom wafting in the holy city of Jerusalem.

If I live to a hundred and twenty, I don’t think I’ll ever have a Purim like that one.

And now, G-d has saved us again from rockets aimed at the very heart of this Holy Land. And what is the word on the street, in the media?

“Kipat Barzel is a game-changer.”

What a shame that we think that the “Iron Hat” saved us!

The “Iron Hat” didn’t save us. The “Iron Yarmulke” saved us.

The massive amount of Torah learning that the State of Israel supports is the real “Iron Hat.”

"If only you would think of me… and mention me to Pharaoh, then you would get me out of this building."

In this week’s Torah portion, Yosef asks the Chamberlain of the Cupbearers twice to intercede on his behalf to Pharaoh. By his lack of trust in G-d – by asking the Chamberlain twice – Yosef languished two further years in jail.

Rabbi Chaim of Brisk once asked Rabbi Shimon Shkop how long Yosef would have been kept in prison if he had only asked the Chamberlain once to help secure his release.

Rabbi Shimon replied that if Yosef had asked only once, he would have spent only one year in prison.

Rabbi Chaim disagreed. "He wouldn’t have had to spend any more time in prison at all. To try to secure his release by asking once is considered to be hishtadlut – the human effort that G-d expects of each of us. To ask twice showed a lack of trust in G-d. So it would have been two years or nothing."

The Jewish People are faced yet again with the threat of War. Again there are those who rise, as they do in every generation, wishing to annihilate us. We must fight. And we must fight with everything we have. With our bodies. With our minds. But mostly we must fight that little voice inside us that tells us that we ourselves are doing all this.

Time to put on the Iron Yarmulke!

Protecting An Endangered Species

"I have sojourned with Lavan." (32:5)

One of the reasons I like swimming is that waterproof smart-phones have not yet been invented. (Please, do not show this article to Nokia, Motorola, et al!)

A few months ago, I noticed one of my swimming buddies carefully placing a towel at the end of the pool right by the edge of the water. He did a few laps and then coasted to a halt in front of his poolside towel. He carefully dried his hands and then he flipped the towel open to reveal – a smart-phone.

Is it my imagination or has solitude become an endangered species?

Life can be divided into two distinct phases: input and output.

In one’s childhood, our brains are largely set to "record", and we record by imitation. A child learns to speak by imitating his mother. A boy starts to learn by imitating his teacher.

Part of raising a child is to encourage positive role-modeling and minimize contact with negative stereotypes.

In this week’s Torah portion, Yaakov sends a message to Esav that he "sojourned with Lavan."The numerical equivalent of garti, "sojourned," is 613. Yaakov was hinting to his brother Esav that Lavan’s negative influence had not rubbed off on him, that he still kept the 613 mitzvot.

A similar example is when Yaakov prays to G-d (28:21) to return him in peace to his father’s house without Lavan’s negative influence. Even though already 75 years old, Yaakov was still concerned that the natural instinct to imitate would lead him astray.

This also explains the Torah’s praise of Rivka. Despite being surrounded from the cradle by evil people she was able to sense that they were unsuitable role models and did not learn from them. Only an inherent holiness could have protected her.

The second phase starts when a child reaches maturity, or should reach maturity.

At this point, imitation should give way to our motivation. It’s not enough for us to do things because "that’s the way we always did it at home." Lessons learned through imitation must be re-learned and made our own. If not, we will never grow to be truly independent thinkers and doers. Not only that, but our own ability to be role models for our own children and students will be severely limited.

At a certain point, we have to pick up the ball and run with it by ourselves.

The only way we do this is by giving ourselves time; time to introspect, to examine our lives, our wants, our goals. A quarter of an hour a week may be sufficient, but it has to be quality time. If one’s spouse or child comes and asks for advice, we would make sure to close the door, take the phone off the hook, and give them our undivided attention. Should we not give ourselves the same attention?

In a world where the deep-sea smart-phone is just around the corner, it takes a little effort to create the silence of solitude that is the key to maturity.

• Based on Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe

As Close To Eternity

"Yitzchak loved Eisav for game was in his mouth; but Rivka loves Yaakov." (25:28)

Not far from where I lived as a child there was a particularly fascinating shop. On the sides of the entrance doors, two mirrors faced each other. As you extended your leg over the threshold, millions of legs in perfect synchronization also extended themselves to your right and left.

It seemed that the reflections went on forever. And indeed they did. There was no beginning and no end.

To my young mind, this was as close to eternity as you could get.

Of all the misrepresented words in the English language, "love" must be up there with the top scorers.

Love is unique because it’s like those mirrors. In love, the cause and the effect are indistinguishable. Any love that depends on a reason will evaporate when the reason is no longer valid. If you love someone because they are young, their old age will not appeal to you; because they’re beautiful – they better watch the lines round their eyes, the chins under their chins and the escalating battle of the bulge. Love that depends on something else isn’t really love. It’s love of… Love of this; love of that.

Real love is defined as zero distance between cause and effect.

G-d chose Noach because he was a righteous person. In Parshat Lech Lecha, however, the Torah describes how G-d chose Avraham without mentioning anything about his prototypical kindness or his hospitality or any of his other merits. The reason is that G-d chose Avraham for no other reason than that He loved him. Why did He love him? Because He loved him! The cause was the effect, and the effect was the cause, like an infinite unceasing reflection.

"Yitzchak loved Eisav for game was in his mouth; but Rivka loves Yaakov."

The grammar of this verse is strange: The love of Yitzchak for Eisav is described in the past tense "Yitzchak loved Eisav." The love of Rivka for Yaakov, however, is portrayed in the present: "Rivkaloves Yaakov." The love of Yitzchak was a love that depended on an outside factor. He loved Eisav because "game was in his mouth." When that external reason turned out to be misplaced, the love ceased. Rivka’s love, on the other hand, was a love that was self-sustaining, it needed no cause, and thus the Torah describes it in the present tense since it never came to an end.

• Based on the Ramban and the Sh’lah HaKadosh

SuperHero

"And I will have you swear…" (24:3)

In a more modest world, mild-mannered ClarkKentwould discreetly slip into a phone booth, tear off his shirt and reveal his true identity as Superman.

If truth be known, we can all be Superman.

Within us exist tremendous untapped powers. There are well-documented cases of mothers lifting cars to save the lives of their children, or running at superwoman speeds to rescue their offspring from wild animals. Ostensibly, these were ordinary folk, suddenly possessed of superhuman strength. G-d has put inside us enormous powers but most of the time we do not, or cannot, access them. Why?

In this week’s Torah portion, Avraham makes his servant Eliezer swear not to take a wife for Yitzchak from the Canaanites: "Rather, to my land and to my kindred shall you go and take a wife for my son…"

If Avraham doubted Eliezer’s loyalty, why send him in the first place? And if Eliezer’s loyalty was beyond question, what was the need for an oath?

Avraham realized that it might not be easy to find a wife for Yitzchak. He made Eliezer swear so that if the going got tough, Eliezer would reach down into hidden reservoirs of persistence and continue the search.

Nothing substitutes for the will to succeed. Our mindset is very often our greatest enemy. Lack of self-esteem and/or self-confidence limits our ability to take wing and fulfill our potential.

A Jew is supposed to say to himself every day, "When will my actions reach the actions of my fathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov?" When we compare ourselves to these giants we are reminding ourselves of the spiritual legacy locked inside us, which would, if we would only let it, send us looking for the nearest telephone booth to reveal our superman costume to the world.

• Source: Based on the Shem MiShmuel

Jewish Ecology

Turning Over

"And He (G-d) overturned these cities and all the plain and all the dwellers of the cities and the vegetation of the earth." (19:25)

When we look at the situation today it’s easy to despair.

The strident metallic clang of materialism and selfishness seem to swamp out the message of the Torah and its People. The sensuous siren call of the media surrounds us all with a world whose reality is merely virtual.

Society at large seems deaf to morality, to modesty, to the values that are rooted in the Torah. The motto of the time is "Let it all hang out". In a world where there is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing brings shame, and thus anything is possible. And what is possible – happens.

Those who stand for the eternal values of our people are despised as fundamentalists and violent barbarians. Everything has been turned upside down.

There is a strange thread of history that runs from this week’s Torah portion down through the ages and climaxes in the end of history: Lot was rescued from the overturning of Sodom. Why specifically was it necessary to overturn Sodom? Why couldn’t Sodomhave just been destroyed with fire and brimstone? Wouldn’t that have been cataclysmic enough? What are we supposed to learn from the fact that Sodomwas overturned? From the fact that it was "reversed"?

After the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s daughters thought that they were the only human survivors of what must have looked like a global nuclear holocaust. They surmised that the only way to perpetuate the human species was to cohabit with their father. The Torah, however, ascribes no blame to their actions, as their motivation was pure.

From this incestuous union came a people called Moav – literally ‘from father’. From Moav comes the prototypical convert, Ruth. From Ruth comes King David, and from King David comes the Mashiach. So it turns out that the foundation of Mashiach is ultimately in Sodom.

There are two ways that society’s spiritual landscape can be changed. One way is by improving the situation bit by bit until the world is perfected. The other is that things get so bad that they cannot get any worse. At that point everything reverses in an instant from the nadir to the zenith. This second way is the way Mashiach will come.

The prophets speak in many places about the coming of Mashiach in terms of childbirth.

Someone ignorant of the process of childbirth who sees for the first time a woman in labor would be convinced that she is about to die. And the closer the actual moment of the birth, the stronger that impression would become.

And then, within a couple of minutes, seeming tragedy has turned into the greatest joy. A new life has entered the world.

Immediately prior to the coming of Mashiach there will be a tremendous confusion in the world. Everything will seem to have gone haywire. The natural order will be turned on its head: Age will bow to youth. Ugliness will be trumpeted as beauty, and what is beautiful will be disparaged as unattractive. Barbarism will be lauded as culture. And culture will be dismissed as worthless. The hunger of consumerism and the lust for material wealth will grow more and more, and it will find less and less to satisfy its voracity.

Eventually "materialism" will grow so rapacious that it will become its own angel of death. It will literally consume itself and regurgitate itself back out.

But from this decay the line of David will sprout, like vegetation that springs forth from no more than dirt and earth. For vegetation cannot flourish unless the seed rots. The second event is predicated on the first. It can be no other way.

It’s interesting to note that Mashiach is referred to as the "tzemach tzedek", literally the" righteous sprouting". This is because his coming is identical to the growth of vegetation. First total decay and only then new life.

This is the way Mashiach will come. The worse things become, the more painful the birthpangs, the nearer is his coming. Until, like a mother who had delivered, all the tears and pain will be forgotten in the great joy of a new life.

Jewish Ecology

Life In The Fast Lane

"Go for yourself…" (12:1)

Very soon, only the speed of light will limit our ability to communicate a thought, a picture, a sound or a sentence from one side of the world to the other – and beyond.

The meaning of the word "distance" has changed forever.

Just as the electron has shrunk our world, so too there has been a quiet and maybe even more fundamental revolution in the way we look at traveling. We see nothing special in the fact that several hundred people can file into a large metal room and find themselves on the other side of the world in a matter of hours.

A little more than a hundred years ago, to circumnavigate the globe would have required months of arduous, dangerous and expensive effort – almost beyond our imagining. Nowadays, the major drawback in circling the earth in a plane is an aching back from sitting in a reclining chair that doesn’t quite live up to its name.

We have breached the last frontier. Distance has become no more than a function of time spent in a chair.

The electron and the 747 have had their impact on our culture in other ways. Our cultural mindset mandates that speed is of the essence. "How fast can I get there?" vies in importance with "Where am I going?"

Immediacy has become an independent yardstick of worth. How fast is your car? Your computer?

Our age has sought to devour distance and time, rendering everything in a constant and immediate present. Now this. Now this. Now this. (Interestingly, the languages of the age – film, television and computer graphics – are languages which have trouble expressing the past and the future. They only have a present tense. Everything happens in a continuous present.)

All of which makes our spiritual development more and more challenging.

Spirituality is a path. And like a path you have to walk down it one step at a time. Your fingers cannot do the walking on the spiritual path. You cannot download it from the Internet.

Everything in the physical world is a paradigm, an incarnation, of a higher spiritual idea. Travel is the physical equivalent of the spiritual road. The quest for spirituality demands that we travel – but this journey is not a physical journey. Many make the mistake of thinking that hitchhiking around the world and experiencing different cultures will automatically make them more spiritual. The truth is that wherever you go – there you are. When your travel is only physical you just wrap up your troubles in your old kit bag and take them with you.

Spiritual growth requires the soul to journey. Our soul must notch up the miles, not our feet. The spiritual road requires us to forsake the comfortable, the familiar ever-repeating landmarks of our personalities, and set out with an open mind and a humble soul. We must divest ourselves of the fawning icons of our own egos which we define and confine us – and journey.

Life’s essential journey is that of the soul discovering its true identity. We learn this from the first two words in this week’s Torah portion. "LechLecha." "Go to yourself."

Without vowels, these two words are written identically. When G‑d took Avraham out of Ur Kasdimand sent him to the Landof Israel, He used those two identical words – LechLecha –"Go to yourself."

Avraham experienced ten tests in his spiritual journey. Each was exquisitely designed to elevate him to his ultimate spiritual potential. When G-d gives us a test, whether it’s the death of a loved one or a financial reversal or an illness, it’s always to help us grow. By conquering the obstacles that lie in our spiritual path – be it lack of trust in G‑d or selfishness or apathy – we grow in stature. We connect with the fundamental purpose of the journey – to journey away from our negative traits and reach and realize our true selves.

We "go to ourselves."