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By Modya Silver, Co-President Welcome to this summer edition of Yashar. We’ve just come through the three weeks of mourning over the loss of the Jerusalem Temple. I don’t know about you, but for me it seemed quite poignant this year against the backdrop of the U.S. and Israel not seeing eye to eye, against the rise of Iranian nuclear ambition and against the rise of anti-Semitism around the world. Mussar is about living in the world, about taking who you are inside and making it a reality outside. The question then is what is your appropriate response to what is happening to the Jewish people today? More simply put, we might ask what middah (character trait) seems to be most in play when I think about the struggles of the Jews in Israel and around the world. When I ask myself that question I come up with an image of what may have been happening in Jerusalem during the time of the Second Temple. The reason for the destruction was baseless hatred – Jew not caring about Jew, only caring about self. This is something I feel I can work with in sorting out my feelings about my fellow Jews. When I see acts that make me want to distance myself from a person, I have to look at how I can stay close and still honour my values. The middah that speaks most to me in those situations is the trait of love. Pirkei Avot (5:16) says: “All love which depends on some thing, when the thing vanishes, the love also ceases; but if it does not depend on any thing, it will never cease.” If I can ignite an inner love then while all around falters and fails, I can still tap into that love and share it with others. In the Shema we are told to love G-d with all our hearts. The Hebrew for heart is usually spelled with one “vet,” but in this case it is spelled with two. Rashi and the Rambam both suggest that the two “vets” speak to the two inclinations we have, the inclination to do good and the one to do bad. We are to channel even the bad inclination to a direction of love and we are to do so regardless of what is happening outside. Perhaps this is a tall order, however, our sages direct us to increase love in the world. How can I do that practically? For me, I have a strong ability to visualize. So, I can visualize someone who I might be seeing today and I set an intention now that when I see him or her, I want to direct love towards that person. I can start with someone who it’s easy for me to love, then move to someone whom I have neutral feelings for and then finally tackle someone for whom I have negative feelings. Our Mussar tradition tells us that the idea of having a motivation to love and an outlook to love everyone will help build the middah of love and through that I will affect in some small positive way the Jewish people. May we not be like the Jews of the Second Temple. May we not be like the Jews in the story below. A young scholar from Toronto was invited to become Rabbi in a small old community in North Bay. On his very first Shabbat, a hot debate erupted as to whether one should or should not stand during the reading of the Ten Commandments. The next day, the Rabbi visited 98 year-old Mr. Katz in the nursing home. "Mr. Katz, I'm asking you, as the oldest member of the community," said the rabbi, "what is our shul's custom during the reading of the Ten Commandments?" "Why do you ask?" asked Mr. Katz. "Yesterday we read the Ten Commandments. Some people stood, some people sat. The ones standing started screaming at the ones sitting, telling them to stand up. The ones sitting started screaming at the ones standing, telling them to sit down......" "That," said the old man, "is our custom." |
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