This Shabbos we discussed parsha Re’eh, including commentary from Rav Yeager. We began studying a new book from Rav Yeager know as Paths.
In the parsha, there is discussion of blessings and curses. There are rewards and punishments that are consequences of our actions. We discussed the idea that the rewards are already built into the world. Hashem assumes that we will use our free will to make the right choices, to the best of our ability. It is when we do not make the right choices, that Hashem has to intervene and hold us back from receiving a blessing.
We discussed the idea that mitzvahs are blessings in and of themselves. Doing mitzvah brings us closer to hashem, and brings us the opportunity to do more and more mitzvah. In the world to come, we benefit tremendously from how close we are to hashem. David has shared in the past how his father compares this as getting ready for an opera.
We discussed this idea that every opportunity we have to do a mitzvah is a blessing, because it will bring us the opportunity to do an increasing number of mitzvahs. David told a story from his dad about how giving tzedukah to people, will lead to more and more people coming to ask for tzedukah. Of course it is important to ask people and research where the donations are going to make sure we are really doing a mitzvah!
We discussed the question of whether or not the world is good overall. If hashem has built in blessings, and the times when he has to intervene are exceptions to the rule, does this mean the world is good overall? It seems like people could argue this question forever. Perhaps hashem created the world so that we would all have the free will to perceive the answer to this question as we wish, the same way we can perceive the answer to the question of Hashem's existence as we wish.
I personally choose to believe the world is good overall because that has been my experience. Every country I have visited there are hospitals, police, ambulances, some sense of law and order, but I understand others have had different experiences in their life.
David brought up some interesting questions about how we would design things if we were hashem.
David shared about how his father would say this is the most perfect of possible worlds. If we could perfectly understand the world we would be hashem. But some things do seem to be designed with certain objectives in mind.
Hashem wants us to have free will, and have something to do. If hashem was out and visible we would automatically follow each and every directive in the Torah automatically and be robots instead of people. If everything was perfectly good, we would not know things were good as there would be nothing in which to compare. We would have nothing to do. There would really be no reason for us to be here, at all.
David mentioned again the idea from his Dad with respect to the virtuous response to suffering. Sometimes we feel a lot of stress – I know I have recently – and wonder what in the world could be the virtuous response to this? Sometimes at least with me the stress is there because it is something I have never dealt with before, so maybe this is an opportunity to learn something new and grow stronger.
Norm shared about how we have some choices in life. We can see the glass as half empty or half full. We can decide how long we want to hold on to things which can be represented as glasses or other objects. If we hold onto them for a little while, we will be fine, but after a while our arm is going to get tired. Norm shared about the importance of letting things go, and turning things over to Hashem after we have done all we can.
David shared how his father would say if Hashem is not the creator of everything, omni present, and having always existed, then we would ask what is the point of worshipping him. We discussed how hashem not only created us to have free will, but created us to have something to do as well. Yaki shared how there are specific plans and missions for each and every one of us. Who we meet, and what we experience may give us some clues as to Hashem’s plans for us. David has shared about how we are all on a team with each of us occupying certain positions.
Eliona shared about her recent trip to Poland and Denmark and Israel. My grandmother is from Poland, so I really related to all this. My grandmother was lucky to escape from there many years ago, and it seems that it may still be a place worth escaping from. Eliona also shared about being in Denmark, and how some people there have obstacles that make it hard for them to practice our relgion. She then shared about arriving in Israel and the emotional experience of going to the Kottel. I related to this, remembering the first time I went to the Kottel back in 2010.
Hashem wants us to have free will, and have something to do. If hashem was out and visible we would automatically follow each and every directive in the Torah automatically and be robots instead of people. If everything was perfectly good, we would not know things were good as there would be nothing in which to compare. We would have nothing to do. There would really be no reason for us to be here, at all.
David mentioned again the idea from his Dad with respect to the virtuous response to suffering. Sometimes we feel a lot of stress – I know I have recently – and wonder what in the world could be the virtuous response to this? Sometimes at least with me the stress is there because it is something I have never dealt with before, so maybe this is an opportunity to learn something new and grow stronger.
Norm shared about how we have some choices in life. We can see the glass as half empty or half full. We can decide how long we want to hold on to things which can be represented as glasses or other objects. If we hold onto them for a little while, we will be fine, but after a while our arm is going to get tired. Norm shared about the importance of letting things go, and turning things over to Hashem after we have done all we can.
David shared how his father would say if Hashem is not the creator of everything, omni present, and having always existed, then we would ask what is the point of worshipping him. We discussed how hashem not only created us to have free will, but created us to have something to do as well. Yaki shared how there are specific plans and missions for each and every one of us. Who we meet, and what we experience may give us some clues as to Hashem’s plans for us. David has shared about how we are all on a team with each of us occupying certain positions.
Eliona shared about her recent trip to Poland and Denmark and Israel. My grandmother is from Poland, so I really related to all this. My grandmother was lucky to escape from there many years ago, and it seems that it may still be a place worth escaping from. Eliona also shared about being in Denmark, and how some people there have obstacles that make it hard for them to practice our relgion. She then shared about arriving in Israel and the emotional experience of going to the Kottel. I related to this, remembering the first time I went to the Kottel back in 2010.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
No comments:
Post a Comment