An Idea

Who am I?

2009-09-28T22:20:00.008-04:00

"The Master of all strength, Who is able to do anything and Who takes care of me with Divine Providence, before I was formed I was not worth to be created and now that I have been formed it is as if I was never formed for the world has not gained by my exsistence. I am like dust while I am still alive for I do not have sufficient good deeds and I will surely be so in my death when I will no longer be able to perform mitzvos. Therefore I stand before You like a vessel full of embarrassment and shame. May it be a time of favour before Your Throne of Glory Master of all, the Master of all strength, Who is able to do anything and Who takes care of me with Divine Providence, and the G-d who took care of my Fathers with Divine Providence that You help me so that I should not sin anymore by removing the causes of sin and daily preoccupations and that which I have already sinned before You cleanse with Your great mercy but not through terrible suffering or difficult illnesses rather through minor pains."

This is the translation, according to Pathway to Prayer by Rabbi Mayer Birnbaum of the last Yom Kippur specific paragraph of the Amidah. After this paragraph, we go back to the regular one.

If you look throughout history, you will find perhaps two dozen names that really stand out. That's 24 names, for, I don't know, call it 1000 years of events. What happened? Where's everybody else?

This tefillah had special meaning for me this year. I am a nobody. That's how I try to live my life. I do my best not to ask special treatment from anybody. I don't go out and try to impose my beliefs on others. I try not to make others go out of their way for me. I am a nobody. I know that. I'm not anybody special. I'm not an Albert Einstein. I'm not a Moshe. I'm not a Winston Churchill. I am not somebody who is going to be talked about in 100 years. I'm not somebody who's going to be talked about in the next city. I am a nobody.

I am a somebody. There are people who care about me and talk about me. There are people I care about. Everyday I perform actions the effects of which go way beyond my sight and knowledge.

This I feel is part of the message of Yom Kippur. On this day, we come before G-d. The Master of all strength. He knows everything. He knows exactly what we have done. He knows exactly what has happened b/c of us. He knows everything, that which we know, and that which we don't know.

The first bracha of the Amidah contains the words "gomayl chasodim tovim." "Who always does kindnesses that are purely good." G-d has no ulterior motives. All He wants is for us to be with Him.

I am a nobody. Before the great all encompassing that is G-d, how could I ever hope for Him to recognize me?

I am a somebody. Despite creating an entire universe, despite thousands upon thousands of miracles He performs every single day, despite 6.5 billion different voices and problems and wishes and prayers, G-d hears me. G-d listens to me and helps me every single day. Despite all my failings, numerous that they are, G-d is right beside me every second of every day and all He wants is to help me. No matter what I may do, He is there.

A Leader

2009-09-26T22:42:00.004-04:00

There's an old saying "misery loves company," and I've found it to be quite a true saying. When somebody is miserable, or upset, or angry, they tend to pass that along to others. Sometimes, in fact probably most times, this transference will be completely unintentional. You're upset, so you're caught up in your own thoughts, perhaps not quite paying full attention to the outside world, and so you might fail to say thank you to the person who just held the door open for you. This person gets offended, and a transference has occurred.

This shabbos I attended NCSY's Leadership Shabbaton. Throughout the shabbaton, the idea of leadership was discussed. What is a leader? Dictionary.com defines it as "a person or thing that leads." Not the most clear definition. So really, what is a leader?

I remember once I was watching an episode of M*A*S*H and Hawkeye says "Do you know what a hero is? 99 times out of a 100, he's somebody who's tired enough, and cold enough, and hungry enough not to give a damn." In other words, and apologies to Hawkeye if I get this wrong, a hero isn't somebody who is created or trained or made in anyway. All a hero is is somebody who saw something that needed to be done and did it.

Perhaps a leader is something similar. Perhaps a leader is somebody who just felt they were doing what they had to do. They weren't doing it in order to be a leader, or to gain publicity or followers. They were just doing it b/c that's what they felt was right.

And if in fact that is what a leader is, then perhaps we all have the ability to be leaders. All one has to do is do the best they can to be a good person.

Misery loves company, but happiness inspires happiness. As humans, we are social animals. We crave to be accepted, and in the pursuit of that, we tend to emulate those we want to be accepted by. As we start a new year, perhaps we should try to start new habits. If we all make an effort to be more sensitive to others, make an effort not to spread misery or sadness or when you're upset, perhaps we might find others make a similar effort.

It's said that one of the main reasons for the destruction of the second Bais Hamikdosh (Temple) was baseless hatred amongst the Jews. This new year, let's try to bring this exile to a close by simply making an effort to be nicer to one another. It's a little bit of a "pay it forward" idea, but perhaps it'll work. What's to lose by trying?

A Statue?

2009-09-15T08:19:00.002-04:00

I once had the privilege of hearing Rabbi Gavriel Ginsberg speak on the concept of avoda zorah, of idol worship. Back in the day, people would create statues and then actually believe that these statues were gods. They would pray to them, leave food offerings and sacrifices for them, place them in prominent places in the house, etc. etc. Sounds kinda kooky, right? I mean, we're talking about something that you would create with your own hands. How can a creation of your hands and will and skill have more power than you? How can it be a god? It just doesn't make sense to today's world. So one would think that the idea of idol worship is simply a thing of the past. It's something that doesn't apply today, and so the second of the Ten Commandment, that you shall have no other gods, isn't something that we would have to worry about in our day to day lives. R'Ginsburg said no. The concept of idol worship hasn't disappeared, it's simply changed face.

Yesterday, as part of the Toronto International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to go see Chris Rock. He was being interviewed about his new movie, Good Hair. The interview was interesting, as it's always interesting to learn about new people, especially those who enjoy worldwide fame. However as I was sitting in the theater, listening to the interview, I began to learn a social lesson. People can be blinded by the concept of "fame". I'll admit that there were times where I was laughing, but frankly they were few and far between. I happen to find Chris Rock most funny, which is why I went, but this wasn't a comedy show. He was talking about his new movie. Now it's not that he didn't say anything funny, but most of the time, it was just a regular conversation. And yet, throughout the entire show, the power of his "fame" simply took over the entire theater to the point where everybody was rolling with laughter at the most inane comments. Things that were either just not funny, or perhaps mildly amusing, had people almost falling out of their seats with laughter.

Last night I came to realize exactly what R'Ginsburg was trying to say. Idol worship today is not about statues. Today, we take ordinary people and elevate them. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that. That's probably a normal thing, to have role models and what not. The problem comes when you elevate them to such a level that you are willing to go to extreme lengths for them. When you obsess about them. When that person comes to fill your life. We see this almost on a daily basis; sports stars, actors and actresses, politicians. One could almost say that the paparazzi are the biggest idol worshipers we have today. They spend all their time trying to take pictures of normal people. Yes celebrities have fame, and money, and are well known, but at the end of the day, they are normal people who just happen to be good at their job.

Now I'm not saying that we should immediately do away with the concept of celebrity. Not at all. Socially it's probably a very important and necessary concept. All I'm trying to say here is that while yes it is most interesting to see what these celebrities do and whatnot, we should try to remember that real celebrities often go unsung. Your waiter, your store clerks, your librarian.....These are all examples of people who work hard everyday and are as proficiant, if not more so, at their jobs as any "celebrity". And yet these people, who have much more of an impact on your daily life then you perhaps realize, often go unnoticed.

I suppose, at the end of all this, what I'm trying to say is that, while following celebrities is fun, one must take care that it does not become all consuming. Standing in the rain for hours on end simply for a glimpse of one, this today is what idol worship is, and that is how we can, G-d forbid, come to violate the second of the Ten Commandments.

For Your Consideration

2009-09-13T21:42:00.000-04:00

Once there was the guy. He was non-Jewish, but he had been studying a bit and liked what he saw. So he thought he'd check it out a little more in depth. He thought that what he say might be for him, but he wasn't really sure. So he decided he'd come up with a little test to see if he could get straight down to the root of what Judaism was all about. At the time, there were two great Yeshivas. One was run by Shamai, and the other was run by Hillel. He went to Shamai and said "I am highly interested in what the Torah is all about. What I've seen so far jives with what I think. But I have a question for you; I'm not entirely sure what the root of all of it is. If you can tell me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot, I'll convert." Shamai, not being the most patient of men, promptly threw him out. He went to Hillel's yeshiva and went through the same conversation with Hillel. Hillel however was a much more patient man and had the following answer for the man. "Treat everybody the way you would want to be treated. Everything else is simply filler."

Famous story, right? Fairly simple message, right?

I spend about 95% of my time working among and interacting with non-Jews. They are my co-workers, some of them I consider friends. These non-Jews have had an extensive exposure to frum Jews. Unfortunately, we have come up wanting. These non-Jews have tale after tale of how we Jews have acted arrogantly, rudely, towards non-Jews. Just last week I listened to a co-worker while she told me how she had been working and this completely random guy had come up to her and scolded her for singing happy birthday as she approached a table. Her only desire was to brighten up somebody's day. Yet she was scolded for this, something that not only was the gentleman wrong to scold her over, as the volume of singing would have been way below general hearing, but he was wrong for another reason; Kol Isha is the prohibition against hearing a woman sing b/c we are afraid that we men may become physically attracted to a woman upon hearing her voice. A little old fashioned perhaps, but the prohibition is against a man hearing a woman sing. There is no prohibition against a woman singing. This gentleman had it completely backwards. This incident, along with many others which I hear about, are all chillul hashems. They give people the wrong idea of what Judaism is all about.

Friday evening is the start of Rosh Hashanah. This marks a period of time where we beg Hashem for forgiveness for all the sins we may have committed over the past year. It culminated in Yom Kipur, where we pray to G-d that we should have a good year. One of the customs of Rosh Hashanah is to ask for forgiveness from all the people we may have wronged over the year, and to look for ways to better ourselves. For most people, this will result in an effort to daven more, or try to learn more. This Rosh Hashanah, perhaps we should look even deeper. This Rosh Hashanah, instead of trying to stregthen our relationship with G-d, let's try to stregthen our relationship with our fellow man. Let's try to be more considerate to what others may need. There's a concept that you should always greet somebody with a happy smiling face. The idea is that when you're confronted with a smile, it's a natural instinct to smile back. Misery loves company, but at the same time, joy inspires joy. This Rosh Hashanah, let's try to make the world a better place through the simple act of treating our fellow man a little better. If we try to treat everyone the way we would like to be treated, or even better than we would like to be treated, then perhaps we will soon be able to experiance the world-wide glory of the coming of the Messiah.