Recap for 12 of Sivan, 5776 (Parsha Naso)

This Shabbos we discussed parsha Naso, including commentary by Rav Yeager.  We continued our discussion of material by Leo Levy.   David Schlesinger led discussion.

We welcomed back Dan B. this Shabbos, who has done a great job reminding us of our purpose and mission, to "elevate the sparks of kiddusha".  We discussed what this means - to apply spirituality to our physical world.  David spoke about how we can apply spirituality to the most mundane things.  An example would be cement.  If we use the cement to build a synagogue, we are “elevating” the cement to a spiritual level.  Yaki has shared in the past how every object has a purpose.  We discussed how the Torah is our guidebook in how we are to live spiritually and "elevate the sparks of kiddusha".  

One of the interesting ideas we discussed, that Rob mentioned, is that we can actually improve how we sense the properties of something physical  by applying spirituality.  For example, the food we eat on Shabbos – cholent, barbecue, potato kugel – all tastes better than it would during the week.  And for me, it tastes better than any of the non-kosher food I use to eat, because eating kosher has meaning to me.  Another example, our awareness that Hashem created the world, causes us to have an enhanced sense of physical beauty.

Harold Katz, a regular reader of these notes, pointed out that this is a very long parsha.  He commented that everything had to be repeated 12 times, once for each of the tribes. 

One of the ideas we discussed, from Leo Levy, is that Adam was originally created as a spiritual being.  His physical needs would be taken care of, and he would not have to work.  However, his decision to eat the forbidden fruit changed all this.  We would now have to take care of many of our needs on our own, and do work in the physical world.  

One of the interesting ideas we discussed, is that this is actually the most desirable state of affairs.  Hashem does not want to be the king of a purely spiritual, or physical world.  He wants to be king of a world in which spirituality is being applied.  We discussed the idea that Hashem would have had to create another form of man to live in the physical, if Adam had not given in to the temptation.

In our Thursday night learning, we continued our discussion from Leo Levy, of the importance of work, known as melachot.  Leo Levy was a contemporary of David's father, Rav Dr. George Schlesinger.  We discussed how simply making money is not necessarily melachot, if it does not add value.  For example, a professional gambler is not adding value, although he may earn money.  There are some professions that create negative value for society.  However, generally if someone is willing to pay for work, that work is adding value at least to someone.

We discussed how the Torah and Rabbis introduce us to ideas that are later in history included in secular knowledge.  For example, the Torah first came up with the idea that time had a beginning long before scientists “discovered” there was a big bang.  Another example, there are many self-help books today which suggest we should have gratitude and have positive thoughts and perceptions.  We discussed how this idea actually comes from ancient Rabbis, who commanded us to say the morning prayer thanking Hashem for giving us another day of life.  It's interesting that the Rabbis knew it would be helpful to us to start the day off with gratitude, long before some of these self-help books hit the shelves!

We discussed how there is some element of luck in nature, and that our main focus should be on how we react to events.   By reacting in a positive way, trying to turn lemon into lemonades, we can benefit from events.  We have discussed how sometimes bad things happen so we can have a virtuous response to them, although there are certain bad things I would never wish on anyone.

The “God Debate” is a debate in a video that David posted online, that took place between a Rabbi and an atheist.  Both sides made some interesting points, however it is my opinion that the Rabbi won on points as he presented various arguments that were not addressed by the atheist.

One of these was the argument that something physical cannot come out of nothing physical, so there would have to be something other than physical.  The atheist responded that nothing was actually something, so something could come out of it.  The Rabbi’s counter argument, that nothing refers to what came before anything the atheist was referring to, was never addressed.

Another argument made by the Rabbi was the astronomical odds against life forming purely by random change and physical laws.  The atheist responded that this is “post-hoc” reasoning.  For example, we can throw a dice a million times, and then say that the odds of the particular combination occurring are 1 in some astronomical number.  The Rabbi’s counter argument, that we are talking about something special such as a million rolls of the dice coming up with the same number each time.  The atheist never seemed to respond to this argument.

One of the arguments the atheist made was that man created God in order to satisfy psychological and other needs.  This is interesting, as it is something we have discussed in our learning.  We discussed how Hashem did create us to search for and believe in a higher power, however we need to use our free will to decide what that higher power will be.  There are in fact other higher powers such as idols that in the past have satisfied needs to explain things.  Hashem wants us to believe in him, however some choose to believe in something else such as idols, or just luck and chance.

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