IJII

Dear Rav Marc Angel,

It was good to have the conversation that we did today.

Besides what we talked about which I will address below, I want to suggest that some of the students of yeshivot might do well reviewing the work of Rav David Zvi Hoffman - Melammed l'ho'il--and Rav Eliezer Berkowitz as a counter balance to the unrealistic Rosh Yeshivah Halakha prevalent currently.

I also want to mention some contemporary sources of cosmology: Robert Godwin's One Cosmos Under God besides the works of Ken Wilber and those of Ervin Laszlo.

When I read your article in Conversations 3 that dealt with superstition, with which I agree in the main, I felt the absence of a devotional approach to prayer. A lot that goes under the name of spirituality today is an expression of the longing that people experience and for which they find no help in the private and synagogue liturgies which are recited in a hurry, with very little kavanah in order to, as Rabbi Rackman characterized the phrase Yotze' y'dey Hovato --- To extricate oneself from the grasp of obligation.

In reading the articles in your journal, I am delighted by the searching tone of the contributions. I get to see the great courage that centrist Orthodoxy is displaying making sure that it has its own voice separate from the voice of the Hareidim who seem to want to monopolize the of landscape of observance of Judaism. For us who live here in the United States and other open societies, the approach of the Hareidim will not work in a sustainable way. We cannot compel people to stay on in engaged level of observance if in their souls and spirits they do not feel a connection to the living God.

What we are doing has not only to do with the covenant that we have with Hakadosh Barukh Hu "in ages past". ( Hakorei shema' lemfre'a lo yatza - one who reads shema' as if it belonged only to the past, has not fulfilled the obligation.) It has something to do with the vertical relationship that we have with the living God and with that urging to connect with holiness that we feel when we observe halakha. When we observe halakha, we are doing it not only for ourselves in order to gain a reward in the afterlife but because there is a divine need for us to contribute something that God needs from us. In the tradition this is described as Tzorekh Gavoah, the need that God has -- this is contrary to some of medieval philosophers who want to claim that God is impassable.

How will we be able to nurture people in loyalty to the tradition and in service to God if we do not provide them with spiritual means for transformation and for experiencing the virtues of Ahavah, love for God, Yir'ah respect and awe before God and experiencing, when we pray a sense of the Deveikut, of cleaving to God. These are things that one cannot learn only from books.

In the early generations of Hassidism, people traveled to their masters in order to become attuned to their fervor so that the nonverbal dimensions of spiritual work could be emulated. Reb Avraham Yehoshu'a Heschel, the Rebbe of Apt , author of the Ohev Yisrael, pointed out that one needs to learn how to davven (pray) from a davvener (one who prays properly).

Therefore I want to challenge your contributors and readers that they might explore what I have come to call davvenology; that is to say, what does it take to take the words off the page of the Siddur and to breathe life into them in order to make it an experience of connecting with God. This also goes along with one of the reasons for centrist Orthodoxy (which is not merely Orthodoxy lite-- renewal has been accused of being Judaism lite) to avail themselves of the emerging reality maps/cosmologies that see the immense vastness of creation.

In the yeshivot, the emphasis is on meticulous external observance; and very little attention is given to the experiential participation in the part of the liturgy that should produce affect and transformation.

In Hassidism as well as in Mussar there is a difference between Penimiyut (interiority) and Hitzoniyut, external observance . After the Holocaust we had to pay much attention to external observance and to build the infrastructure of kashrut and Jewish education.. The strong focus of our concern was about halakha. At that time, when we had to rebuild observance among people and staunch the hemorrhaging of Jews away from our religion it was important to strengthen the boundaries. However, without the interiority, without the Penimiyut, it is almost impossible to sustain the halakhic boundaries in a world where there are so many enticements to follow the search for interiority, for working with one's soul and consciousness, that are available on the spiritual supermarket from non-Jewish sources.

As I mentioned, the issues of cosmology can generate a great dissonance within us, creating a blockage between the literal translation of the Hebrew prayers and what we really believe. Allow me to give you an example of a translation that is not so much focused on telling you the denotations of the original Hebrew but instead offers a free connotational translation.
Ahavat Olam

From ever

You have loved us into life.

H'-our G-d

You nourished us with kindness

and abundance.

Holy One!

for the sake of Your plan

for Your honor,

and because we know

that our parents trusted You,

and You, in turn, taught them

how to live life

so as to be serving Your purpose.

We ask You to share with us

in the same way.

God, kind Parent,

we live in the embrace

of Your caring.

Make ours an understanding heart,

To become aware and

be careful and effective,

in this way to make real

what You speak to us in Torah

And with so much love.

When we study Torah-

May we see clearly

what is meant for us to know.

When we do Mitzvot,

may all our feelings

sit harmonious in our heart.

Focus all our hearts' longing

to that moment

when we stand in Your Presence

in both awe and adoration .

.

May we never have to be apologetic

for our love for You

Trusting You

We are happy to see

Your beneficent plan unfolding.

May Your kindness and compassion

Be available to us

Please hurry

Bring blessing and peace to us.

Gather us, so we not be scattered

all over the world.

Lift the hold of estrangement from us.

Lead us to live in this world

so that we feel at home in it.

You can do this for us.

You have assigned us

To do our special work in life

You brought us close to You

We are grateful.

We hold You special.

And are filled with love for You

Barukh attah H'

Who relates to us in Love

Amen

 

I also took great pleasure in reading your article on the confusion of Midrash with Peshat in the education of our children. Here I want to highlight the point that Abraham ben Maimon makes (included in the introductory material of the the Eyn Yaacov). He builds on what has father wrote in the Mishnah commentary to Perel Helek. But -- and this is essential to my point about interiority-- at the end of his Perush Maspik he has material on the interior work.

So my challenge to my friends in your camp is that while we want to get rid of superstition, we must be aware of the new emerging cosmologies that point to spiritual realms beyond our own physical one. Ideas contained in the Kabbalah should be taken seriously. Without a vital and irrational weekday prayer life, connected with the living God, observance will not be a sustainable part of the life of the people who participate in centrist Orthodoxy.

READERS' RESPONSES:

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalom’s Challenge:

Comment By Rabbi j Simcha Cohen

Reb Zalman’s reference to the Rebbe of Apt’s profound comment that “one needs to learn how to daven from a davener” brought to mind the following:

Shimon HaTzadik says in the beginning of Pirke Avot that “the world stands on Torah, Avoda (Prayer) and Gemilut Ha’sadim (Loving Kindness).Each concept requires a dynamic, personal relationship with a charismatic leader.

Torah needs a Rebbe, not a book.To develop into a true scholar one needs to learn a proper method of how to think through issues as well as how to resolve moral and halakhic dilemnas This approach is only finely honed through the experience of learning torah and dialoging with a Rebbe.

Prayer. So too with prayer. A Rebbe is essential. Someone must serve as a Rebbe to instill the significant aura of what it means to stand before our creator in prayer. Unless one witnesses the sanctity coupled with the joy of someone whose soul is experiencing true prayer, one will generally be merely reciting empty  words without meaning; the prayers will have no impact on the person praying.It will resemble the rushed (by rote) experience of synagogue prayers.

Gemilut Ha’sadim-loving Kindness. One also needs a Rebbe to teach how to give Tzaddaka.How to feel for the poor. How to have empathy for others in need.A Rebbe is needed to teach us how to observe the protocols of Mentsh’lichkeit. One needs to see in real life how a Rebbe of morality and kindness behaves.

If privileged, we may find one person who encompasses all three traits.In reality, we generally have to have more than one Rebbe. One for each trait.

The difficulty is that most Jews have no Rebbe at all.


Response from Michael Makovi

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi writes, "So my challenge to my friends in
your camp is that while we want to get rid of superstition, we must be
aware of the new emerging cosmologies that point to spiritual realms
beyond our own physical one. Ideas contained in the Kabbalah should be
taken seriously. Without a vital and irrational weekday prayer life,
connected with the living God, observance will not be a sustainable
part of the life of the people who participate in centrist Orthodoxy."

Now, I might disagree with his insistence on Kabbalah specifically, I
myself, at least, am highly skeptical and suspicious of anything
Kabbalistic. That is, I, like Rav Hirsch, question whether Judaism
properly will deal with anything theosophical or thaumaturgical.

Moreover, Rambam and Rav Hirsch (according to the interpretation of
Rabbi Shelomo Danziger), and the rest of the rationalist school, would
not have held by anything Kabbalistic per se, in terms of their
davening kavanot. Rambam obviously did not have (or, at least, did not
accept as legitimate), what we today would call Kabbalah, while Rav
Hirsch treated Kabbalah like we treat the Midrash Rabbah, as an
allegory. (Dr. Nachum Klafter has pointed out that Rav Hirsch is
similar to an ikkar b'tachtonim [temporal and material, this-worldly]
interpretation of Habad, while similarly, Rabbi Aryeh Carmell,
following Rabbi Dessler, believes Rav Hirsch interpreted Kabbalah as a
metaphorical analysis of psychology.)

Nevertheless, the rabbi is certainly correct that we do need to have
some otherwordly sense of G-d's presence, beyond the mundane
physicality of this world. Now, there are caveats to this; Dr. Klafter
has pointed out that to a rationalist like Rabbi Hirsch, material
actions in this world *are* spiritual; to give tzedaka to a poor
person, is as metaphysically transcendent as a mystic's meditation.
But however one achieves it, one certainly must have some sort of
spiritual connection with G-d, by whichever means and route one finds
appropriate for himself. One way or another - whether by deed, by
meditation, by study, by prayer - one ultimately must feel that G-d
and he have some sort of relationship. (I'll prefer to see the deed as
the highest connection to G-d; as a Habad rabbi I heard yesterday put
it, if G-d's will and His essence are one, then by doing mitzvot,
fulfilling His will, and making His will into our will, we are
actually joining with G-d Himself, if one can speak in such a way. I'd
also see tikkun olam, the practical temporal and material
rectification of the physical and sociological reality, as His highest
aim; as that same Habad rabbi put it, "hitava Hashem dira b'tachonim"
[Hashem craved for a dwelling place in the lower worlds], and, as Rav
Hirsch is fond of noting in connection with the sanctification of
mundane physicality, "ikkar shechina b'tachtonim" [the Shechina
principally rests among the lower beings]. As Hazal put it, "sanctify
yourself with that which is permitted to you", by using the mundane
for holiness, as Rav Hirsch and Rav Kook alike emphasize.)

So I would disagree with Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi that this must all be
Kabbalistic, but I agree with him that one way or another, we must
have some sort of spiritual connection with G-d. The danger he points
out is real; if we spend too much energy combating superstition and
intellectual obscurantism, we are liable to become overly critical,
overly intellectual, and overly skeptical.

I myself am naturally not a very spiritual individual in the first
place (I was attracted to Orthodoxy due to a combination of
intellectual "ethical monotheism", as well as loyalty to tradition,
but not due to any spiritual or "religious" feeling), but I feel that
my constant battle to discern obscurantism and parochialism and
chauvinism and ignorance in the Orthodox world, has caused a sort of
auto-immune reaction in myself; I am almost afraid, I think, to feel
anything spiritual or religious, for fear that this will descend into
emotional and intellectually-unsound charismatic cultism, of the sort
that pervades Orthodoxy today. That is, I am so afraid of becoming
overly superstitious and irrational, that I have fled in the opposite
direction. Part of this is due to my inborn inclination (I have joked
that if I weren't Orthodox, I'd be an ultra-left secularist;
meanwhile, my rabbi likes to jokingly make fun of me for my Yekke-ish
emotional distance), but part of it is due to overcompensation, to
avoid that which I fear. Rabbi Shechter-Shalomi observes, "When I read
your [Rabbi Angel's] article in Conversations 3 that dealt with
superstition, with which I agree in the main, I felt the absence of a
devotional approach to prayer.", and I believe his observation has
much truth in it, based on my own personal experience.

               

 

 

 

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