Our discussion of "Silence is a Fence for Wisdom"

Last night we met and David Schlesinger led our learning and discussion.  David talked about how the last day to say kaddish for his father, HaRav Natan Ben HaRav Shmuel, aka Dr. George Schlesinger, has been reached, and what this means to him.  We met and studied an article by his father “Silence is a Fence for Wisdom”.

We began by being introduced to the main theme of the article, which is the advice to “know what you say, but don’t necessarily say what you know”.  Of course this is very general, and this advice would seem to apply with respect to certain situations.  So we proceeded to study the article.

The article has a story of 2 characters, Alf and Bill, who play a game of “chicken” with each other.  The game is to drive at each other at a high rate of speed, and the first person to pull away to avoid an accident is labelled "chicken" and loses the game.  Of course in real life we would be more than happy to be labelled a “chicken” and not participate in this game, but in this story both of the characters really want to win the game and not be labelled as the chicken.

In this story, we learn that Alf has a super high IQ around 100,000, where-as Bill has an average IQ of around 100.  At first it would seem fairly obvious that Alf is going to win the game, as he can calculate the exact latest time, to the nearest fraction of a second, in which he can pull away and avoid an accident.  But what we learn in this story, is that Alf made a big mistake.  He let Bill know about his high IQ.  Bill actually wins, because he knows that Alf has a super high IQ and will be calculating times and he, Bill, can simply let Alf be the one to pull away, be the “chicken” and avoid the accident.  If Alf had not told Bill about his IQ, Bill would almost certainly have lost.

The article then goes on to point out where this principle of “not saying what you know” has come up in Torah.  We learn that in the Megillah of Esther, Mordehai, does not let everyone know of his gift of being able to understand multiple languages. And because no-one knows that he speaks multiple languages, Mordehai is able to learn of a plot to kill the King and stop this from happening.

What we learn from this story is that success in life comes from more than just one factor.  Having a high IQ, or having any other talent or gift,  does not guarantee success.  And conversely, having a low IQ or lack of some talant or gift, does not mean that one can not reach his or her goals.  Hashem may give us a gift such as a high IQ but then we have to do our part, which may include not talking so much about ourselves.  And we should never think we can't do something because we do not have some gift.  Hashem has given us what we need to fufill our mission, but we have to do our part.    Click here to read a tribute to Dr. George Schlesinger, including a list of all his books and articles: http://www.theapj.com/tribute-to-professor-george-schlesinger-obm.

This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.

Recap for 17 lyyar 5774, discussion of Parsha Bechukotai and the Virtuous Response to Evil and Suffering

This past Shabbos, David Schlesinger led discussion. We discussed Parsha Bechukotai and how the Torah seems to be out of order.  Why is it that we now seem to be making a covenant with Hashem?  Was this not already done, and was the Torah not given at Mt. Sinai?  We discussed how the sin of the Golden Calf resulted in our covenant being null and void, however we kept receiving the Torah.  We discussed how hard it is to learn Torah for a “half time” and then return for the rest.  Therefore, we received the whole Torah at once, so that we can learn it, but because of our actions the covenant was nullified.  And now, later in history, we receive the entire Torah again and make a new covenant with Hashem.

Yaki talked about the sections of the Parsha stating that we must “walk the walk”.  Simply learning Torah is not enough.  We must also follow the Torah.  The first time we were given Torah, we may have learned it, however in the middle of its revelation we committed the sin of the Golden Calf.  We discussed how the consequences of not following the Torah are already built into nature.  We also discussed how there is some randomness and unpredictability in nature.  For example, only some of those who smoke will get cancer.

David led discussion of an article written by his father, on the topic of the virtuous response to suffering. David’s father, Dr. George Schlesinger, HaRav Natan Ben HaRav Shmuel, discusses theories that have been proposed as to why there is evil and suffering in the world, and some of the problems with each of these theories.  Dr. Schlesinger then goes on to discuss his own theory.

Dr. Schlesinger starts off by discussing theories that have been proposed by others.  The first theory that we discussed, that is discussed in the article, is that there is suffering as a form of punishment. The problem with this theory, however, is that we see many cases in which those who deserve punishment, do not seem to be receiving it, and conversely, cases in which those who do not deserve punishment, are suffering.  We often see "bad things happen to good people".

The article goes on to discuss reincarnation, and the possible theory that we have consequences in our current life for our actions in a previous life. We discussed this idea, and Dr. Schlesinger’s thoughts in his article, that this does not seem plausible because no one seems to be aware of what events occurred in any previous life. The purpose of reward and punishment is to encourage or discourage behavior, but if one is not aware of the behavior, what would be the purpose of reward and punishment?

Dr. Schlesinger then proposes his own theory that the reason why Hashem created a world in which evil and suffering occur, is so that we have the opportunity to have a virtuous response to the suffering.  Hashem’s goal was not to create a world with minimum evil and suffering, but to create a world in a way that maximizes our opportunity to have a virtuous response to events in a life, do mitzvah, follow Torah, and get close to Hashem by imitating his ways.  If the world was created so that we all just hung out in the garden of eden with pleasure with our needs magically met, we would not need free will and not be human beings.

Dr. Schlesinger goes on in his article to discuss a possible problem with his theory: if suffering is “good” because it leads to a virtuous response, why is it not “good” for man to create and encourage suffering in order that there be a virtuous response from other men?  David talked about how if we let man create suffering, there would be no limit.  There is also the fact that Hashem created a world in which suffering is allowed in general, but does not necessarily pick and choose the specific suffering that will occur.  Much of the consequences of our world are already built in and happen automatically.  Hashem’s intervention would be to stop or reduce suffering, rather than to create a specific instance of suffering, so man creating suffering would not be doing the same thing as Hashem.

We then went on to discuss Dr. Schlesinger's thoughts on the holocaust. One of the biggest arguments against there being a God, is that if there was a God the holocaust would not have been allowed to occur. David talked about how his father believed that we should argue back to the non- believers, and logically counter their arguments.  We can counter the "holocaust" argument, by pointing out that the virtuous response to the holocaust is still going on today and will be going on for many many years.  And we also discussed, how if there is going to be suffering in the world, all kinds of suffering are going to be present at one time or another, especially given that man has free will.

I admire all of Dr. Schlesinger’s knowledge and wisdom, much of which he developed on his own.  I appreciate our learning in which much of the material at our Kiddush originates with him.  This material is fascinating, inspirational, and brilliant. Click here to read a tribute including a list of all his books and articles: http://www.theapj.com/tribute-to-professor-george-schlesinger-obm.

This is a summary of what we discussed this past Shabbos. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.

Recap of our discussion, 10th of lyyar, 5774 (Parsha Behar)

We started off this Shabbos with a siyum to celebrate the finishing of tractate Beitzah, which some of us have been learning as part of the Daf Yomi program.  We had this siyum in memory of David’s father HaRav Natan Ben HaRav Shmuel.  This tractate deals with the laws of Yom Tov.  We learn that on Yom Tov we can prepare food for the day of Yom Tov only.  We can slaughter an animal on Yom Tov, however we are not allowed to trap an animal, as this is something we could have done before Yom Tov.

This Shabbos, David Schlesinger led our learning and we discussed parsha Behar, including Rav Yeager’s commentary on the parsha. In the parsha we are instructed to keep a sabbatical year, every 7 years, in which we do not farm the land.  This applies in Israel only.  Once every 50 years, we have a jubilee year, in which slaves go free and land returns to its original owners.  We discussed how many of the mitzvahs associated with these special years have been rabbinical, but once a majority of Jews live in Israel, the mitzvahs become Torah commandments.   In fact several organizations in Israel are getting ready for this, and studying what it is going to be like to have these years as Torah level mitzvahs.

If we do not farm the land during the 7th year, how are our needs going to be taken care of?  We discussed one of the central themes of this parsha - that everything comes from Hashem.   Yaki talked about how the mitzvahs of the sabbatical and jubilee year are specifically mentioned in this week’s parsha as coming from Mt. Sinai.  We discussed how we need to have faith that Hashem will provide for us.   This is true not only with respect to the sabbatical years, but in general as well.

One of the interesting things we discussed this Shabbos, is what exactly did Moses receive at Mt. Sinai.   Why is it that the Torah that we see today contains historical events that occurred after Mt. Sinai, if the Torah was received at Mt. Sinai?   We discussed the different parts of Torah. One of these parts is the absolute – which applies regardless of what events are going on around us, or what time period we are in. These fundamentals are what was received at Mt. Sinai.  Then, as we go through history we apply Torah to our circumstances, and in doing so, more Torah is revealed to us.  For example, Torah concerning the use of electricity on Shabbos, was not specifically revealed to us on Mt. Sinai.  However, we did receive enough fundamentals to be able to gain more knowledge of Torah as we reached this point in our history in which electricity was invented.

David relayed a story that his father would tell.  There are 3 people sharing a house, a mathematician, physicist, and an engineer. There is a fire in the house.  The mathematician calculates how much water needs to be used to put out the fire, but does not do anything else.  The engineer does a very rough estimate and uses water, but uses the wrong amount. The physicist does an actual calculation, but fails to take into account the rate of change that the fire is spreading. We receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai, but this is not enough. The mathematician wants to rely solely on what was received at Sinai.  We have to actually apply it to whatever situations we find ourselves in.  But only using what we want to apply is not good enough either.  There are absolutes that come from Hashem, that apply regardless of our circumstances.  The engineer and physicist do not apply everything that they need to apply.

This Shabbos we also discussed the upcoming day of Lag B’Omer.  We discussed why it is that we would celebrate someone’s passing.  What we learn is that we are not actually celebrating our loss of someone in the physical world, but the point of view of the souls in the spiritual world that they are gaining someone. Likewise, we usually celebrate the birth of a human being from our point of view, but from the perspective of those on the other side, they have lost a soul.

This is a summary of what we discussed this past Shabbos.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.

Recap for 3rd of lyyer, 5774 (Parsha Emor)

This Shabbos, David Schlesinger led discussion. We discussed the week’s Parsha Emor, including Rav Yeager’s commentary. In the Parsha, there is discussion of our festivals and holidays, and a reminder to observe Shabbos. We discussed that we beginning counting the Omer on the second day of Pesach, and that on the 50th day we observe the holiday of Shavuos, which commemorates the day we received the Torah. We discussed how Shavuos can occur on any day of the week, including Shabbos, where as the other holidays are more restricted as to what day in which they can occur.

We discussed how in the past we would signal each other the beginning of the new month by lighting fires on the tops of mountains. Later in history, we would use messengers to go from village to village. This system was not perfect, and there would often be some mistakes here and there. These mistakes led to our current practice outside of Israel of observing Yom Tov for 2 days in order to ensure that we do it on the correct date.

We had some interesting discussion of the differences between Yom Tov and Shabbos. On Yom Tov we are usually allowed to cook, because the focus on the holiday is the relationship and connectivity between ourselves. If more people show up than we expect, we can cook more food.  On Shabbos, we are not allowed to cook, as the focus on this day is our relationship and connectivity between ourselves and Hashem. We want to try as much as possible to get outside of the material world, and get a spiritual perception of things. This is true for both Yom Tov and Shabbos. If Yom Tov falls on a Shabbos, we go with the more restrictive halakah of not being allowed to cook.

We discussed how during the week, on days that are not Shabbos or Yom Tov, it is not only permitted to engage in the physical and material world, but it is good and desirable to do so. It is considered good that we have to work and make a living and help finish the act of creation that Hashem started.  On Shabbos and Yom Tov we take a break from this, so that we do not get too absorbed in materiality and can get a spiritual perspective on things.

We discussed some of the other topics from the Parsha. It is not permitted to remarry someone, if there has been a new marriage in between. A Kohen is not permitted to marry any divorcee. This is because of the special role of the Kohen in promoting harmony. We also discussed from the parsha, the great Kiddush Hashem that some have done, by being willing to sacrifice their life rather than submit to others.

This Shabbos we discussed some of the agreements that have been broken against the Jews. We have been oppressed beyond what is acceptable, and it is not us who first broke our contract. We discussed how we first offered to live peacefully, but how this was simply viewed as weakness, and we were attacked.  We discussed how in contract law, if one side breaks an agreement, the other side may have the right to do so as well.  

We discussed the upcoming holiday of Yom Ha’atzmaut. It is a great mitzvah to live in Israel. We discussed how close we are to having the majority of the world’s Jews living in Israel. It is considered a greater mitzvah to live in a town in Israel with just a few Jews, than to live in a town outside of Israel, such as Muncy which has a large Jewish population. If we do not live in Israel, visiting Israel, is also a great mitzvah. We discussed the great mitzvah that many Jews do, by going to Israel and serving in the armed forces.

This is a summary of what we discussed this past Shabbos.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.