Election 12

The Ba'alei Mussar say that a person should be concerned with his own spiritual and the next persons physical well being and not the other way around.

The Republican Party is way too concerned with their own physical well being and the next persons spirituality.


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God is an Existentialist

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People think that Sartre is incompatible with religion.

I disagree.

There's s Midrash in last weeks Parsha
V'Ha'aretz Haysa Sohu V'Vohu...eilu ma'aseihem shel resha'im
VaYomer Elokim VaYehi Ohr...eilu ma'aseihem shel tzadikim
Aval eini yodeia b'eizeh meihem chofetz...keivan dichsiv Va'Yar Elokim Es HaOr Ki Tov...bma'aseihem shel tzadikim ani chofetz.....

What is going on here?
Hashem says I see the deeds of the righteous and of the wicked and its not certain which I'd rather have. Until the Torah reveals that He'd rather the deeds of the righteous.

What I think is going on here is that the Midrash is revealing something incredible here.
Hashem is saying. There's nothing objectively right in the deeds of the righteous over the deeds of the wicked. There's nothing intrinsically pulling Him in one direction over the other...after all they're both a manifestation of his kingship (rewarding righteous and punishing wicked).
It's Hashems SUBJECTIVE choice that makes him favor the righteous. Because he wants to.

It's the same with us. We're so used to thinking that our tasks are laid out for us objectively.
We underestimate the power of our choices and we take away our autonomy by viewing the world that way.
We must put ourselves first and give everything in the world subjective value. This means even putting ourselves before God in Choosing to believe in Him. We believe in Hashems because we subjectively want to.
This gives us tremendous power and adds so much more value to our choices.

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there's this cheese

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there's this cheese
...it always catches my attention
in the supermarket

..it costs $5.99

..and every time I pass
the brightly lit refrigerated
....row of cheeses
I think to myself
...one day when I'm a
millionaire

I'm going to buy
.....that cheese


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In the Shadow of Faith

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We find the Jewish year anchored by two long holidays, Pesach and Sukkos.

The main Mitzvah of Pesach is eating matzah which is called Michla D'heimnusa, the bread of faith while the prime Mitzvah of Sukkos is sitting in the Sukkah which is called Tzila D'heimnusa, in the shadow of faith.

We have two objects representing faith, one is ingested inside us while the other surrounds and enfolds us. Many have already questioned why this is so, but based on my last post perhaps it can be understood as follows.

On Pesach the Jews placed great faith in Hashem by following Him out of Egypt into an intimidating barren unknown desert. All they had was some crustly hastily baked Matzah. Hashem still recalls those days fondly "Ko Amar Hashem..Zacharti Lach Chessed Nearayich..Lechtech Acharei Bamidbar...etc".

So we internalize our faith in Hashem every year by taking the Matzah inside ourselves.

On Sukkos which is right after Yom Kippur, Hashem places his faith in US and in our resolutions.  He grants us a good year because he believes in us.

So when we enter the Sukkah, the Shadow of Faith, Hashem is ingesting US. It's not our faith that we're talking about but Hashems. He internalizes his faith is us by taking us inside Himself.

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