Mail.Liberal-Judaism

• Your Moderator <faigin@cahighways.org>

• Lawrence Epstein <epsteil@sunysuffolk.edu>

• yitzhak@att.net

From: Your Moderator <faigin@cahighways.org>
Date: 1 July 2009
Subject: Administrivia: It's Been a While

Yes, I know it has been a while. I figured since it has been over a year I
should start a new volume. So Volume 18 has begun, but remember it is really
Volume 19, as we had no activity between July 2008 and June 2009.

Daniel
Note: Mail.Liberal-Judaism is on Facebook and Livejournal.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=100766833050
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From: Lawrence Epstein <epsteil@sunysuffolk.edu>
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:09:38 -0400
Subject: Moral Mitzvot

The Reform Movement should adopt a binding system of moral mitzvot.
Currently, individual members of the Reform Movement decide for themselves
which mitzvot to follow. An obligatory moral system separates rituals, which
are seen as customs or folkways of particular times rather than divine
obligations, from the moral teachings derived from Jewish tradition that
cohere with contemporary values.  Of course, ritual and moral mitzvot cannot
always be rigidly separated. They overlap in some cases such as in the
obligations of prayer, study, and family holiday gatherings.

A system of moral mitzvot is different from traditional halakhah, the codified
rules drawn from the Bible and Talmud, from progressive halakhah, the idea
that the halakhah is evolving so that it can still be the basis for rules
governing contemporary life, and from the absence of any mandated moral
behavior.

Adopting such a system strengthens bonds to Jewish tradition without accepting
traditional halakhah. Seeing the moral mitzvot as obligatory gives the
spiritual and ethical a more tangible and prominent place in the lives of the
Movement's members. 

One disadvantage is that adopting a system of mandatory mitzvot means the
voluntary surrender of some personal autonomy or freedom for Reform Jews. But
by choosing to join a faith community, Reform Jews already surrender some
individual autonomy. They can't, for example, accept Jesus as the messiah
and authentically be termed Reform Jews.

Will a required system cause current members to leave? Most Reform Jews
already believe in Jewish moral ideas or they wouldn't identify as Reform
Jews. Having a required system may also make it easier for traditional but
unaffiliated Jews who are currently reluctant to join the Reform Movement to
do so because a system of mitzvot is analogous to the halakhah they are used
to following, thus increasing membership.

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From: yitzhak@att.net
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:30:45 +0000
Subject: Stringing Pearls for God. A New Idea for Group Torah Study

Hevra, please read this and forward the message to those who might be
interested. Anyone can print this up or make other use of it with the
condition that they keep the credit at the bottom intact.

Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum

Stringing Pearls for God
A New Method for Group Torah Study

The Midrash says that the great rabbi of ancient times, Ben Azzai, was once
sitting and teaching (doresh) and fire was blazing around him. Hearing about
this, Rabbi Akiba went and asked him if he had been speaking about the mystic
Account of the Divine Chariot. Ben Azzai said No; he was just stringing pearls
of words of Torah, and from Torah to the Prophets and from the Prophets to the
Scriptures. And .the words were rejoicing and were as sweet as the day when
they were given at Mount Sinai.. (Lev. R. 16:4; Songs R. 1:10)

Students in my Jewish Spirit Maggid Training Program are regularly asked to
prepare and deliver divrei Torah, and they receive coaching to improve their
skills. I recently devised an exciting new format for a group dvar torah--
that relates to the above tale-- which we experimented with in our maggid
class conference call.

The new approach to group study can be used in a parashah study group or
around a Shabbat table. One person prepares a dvar Torah on a section of the
parashah, for example, in the parashah B'haalotecha, on the episode of Eldad
and Medad, or on the story of Aaron and Miriam criticizing Moses. The other
people in the group are told which piece to focus on, and prepare for the
session by simply studying the parashah with special attention to the chosen
piece; and they are asked to jot down any thoughts.

At the group study session, the format is that after the first person delivers
his d.var Torah, everyone else adds their thoughts, as they speak in order
around the table. And there is a .thread. to connect them: The person who
prepared and delivered the dvar torah ends with a question. The person who
follows picks up the thread by answering that question, and has to end with
his own question. The next person answers the question of the one who preceded
him and ends with a question of her own. Each person gets a limited time to
speak, whatever seems reasonable so that everyone has a chance to contribute
considering the size of the group.  One of the forms the Rabbis in ancient
times used for their sermons was the Peticha, in which a rabbi giving a drash
would choose a verse from the parashah to expound and then select a second
verse from elsewhere in the Torah-- sometimes from far away, let's say in Song
of Songs, which seemed to have nothing to do with the original verse-- and the
congregation wondered how he would connect the two verses. That format of
linking two verses and creating a .loop,. gave me the idea of going from
answering the previous person's question to ending with your own question to
the person who follows you. This serial question-and-answer method ensures
that each person picks up the thread of the previous person.

Thus, the whole group does a complete and varied dvar Torah, with each one
picking up the thread of the previous one and adding his own pearl. There is
no cross conversation or argumentation throughout this process. When each
person ends with their question, they say: "I have finished speaking; now I am
ready to listen." This sentence, which comes from Lakota Indian custom, allows
the next speaker and the group as a whole to know that the speaker is indeed
finished and is not just taking a lengthy pause. After each speaker concludes,
there is a full minute or two of silence, to respect that speaker's offering,
absorb it, and give the next speaker a chance to consider what he or she will
say. This silence also creates a meditative mood throughout the process.

If those who are not speaking next are finished with their reflections on what
they have just heard, they turn themselves to silently praying for God to send
true teachings to the next speaker and to open their own heart to receive that
speaker's words with attention to their relevance and application to their own
life.  I have tried this method of Stringing Pearls just a few times.at first
with my maggid students on our conference call (students call in from all over
the U.S. and Canada), then during our three day intensive in New York City,
and lastly at a Shabbat meal-- and the results were so exciting that I don.t
want to wait in bringing it to others and to the Jewish people in general! It
is so sweet to listen to each person speak without being interrupted! Without
question, the speakers produced higher teachings because they could express
themselves without fear of being interrupted. Aside from avoiding
interruptions, the silence while people were speaking and the minute or two of
silence between speakers creates a powerful meditative atmosphere, which helps
each person plumb the depths of his mind, to dive deep to find a pearl of
wisdom. And it is so peaceful to just sit back and listen to each person share
their ideas!  The results of this new method were exciting and gratifying when
some friends and I used it around the Shabbat table. The first person to begin
the pearl-stringing had not prepared a dvar Torah, but read a comment from a
hasidic book, the Kedushat Levi, which contains the teachings of Rabbi Levi
Yitzhak of Berditchev on the parashah. We listened and then went around the
table stringing pearls for God. The elevated, peaceful mood created by this
method was palpable; it was so shabbosdik!

The Berditchever commented in parashat B.haalotecha on the verse about Aaron
.lifting up. (lighting) the candles of the seven-branched menorah, that they
represented the sparks of godliness that a tzaddik elevates. A contemporary
rabbi had remarked, added the reader, that the menorah represents the seven
organs of a tzaddik.s face. his two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, and
mouth. Our friend the reader then asked his question: .How can a tzaddik .lift
up. the sparks in his face?.

I thought: .That.s a tough question! I.m very knowledgeable and I.d have a
hard time with it!. The woman next to speak wasn.t even Jewish, though she was
moving toward conversion; I wondered how she could answer such a difficult
question! After reading the comment from the book and asking his question, the
reader uttered: .I am finished speaking. Now I am ready to listen!.  We all
remained silent to reflect on the dvar torah from the book and we waited for
this woman who sat next to the reader to continue. She had her eyes closed and
seemed to be thinking of what to say. We had all embarked on this exercise at
my spontaneous suggestion and the group had not been told to study the
parashah; so no one had .prepared.. After a few minutes, the woman opened her
eyes and was surprised to see us all looking expectantly at her. She was
startled and said she thought the order was going the other way, and she had
been waiting for the person on the other side to begin!  Now that she realized
that she was next, and we encouraged her, she closed her eyes again to
consider what to say. After a couple of minutes she said: .When a person
listens with his two ears with holiness to another person, looks with his two
eyes on that person with love, smells with his two nostrils the fragrance of
holiness, and speaks lovingly . he raises the sparks on his face!. I and the
others were amazed at the simple beauty of her answer and we all silently
wished her a hearty, .Yashar koach!.

In the few times we have used the stringing pearls method we have gone in
order around the circle, and I think that is better than proceeding in a
haphazard way and having people volunteer to be next. In that more random
format, two people might volunteer at once, one would have the opportunity to
speak and the other would be frustrated; the .clash. would create disruptive
energy. Further, from the anecdote just reported, it.s clear that it should be
decided beforehand if the order of speaking goes to the left or the right of
the first speaker.

The method of stringing pearls ensures that each person gets an equal chance
to speak, and prevents one or two knowledgeable or talkative individuals from
dominating the Torah conversation. Sometimes shy people who have much to offer
never get a chance to contribute because they can.t elbow their way into a
conversation. Similarly, women are sometimes pushed to the side by the men;
stringing pearls gives women equal opportunity.

There is a time for less knowledgeable people to be quiet and listen to the
rabbi, teacher, or knowledgeable person, and there is a time for argumentation
and cross conversation. But this tranquil and egalitarian stringing of pearls
is also of great value.

We cited above the Midrash about Ben Azzai giving a drash surrounded by
fire. He told Rabbi Akiba that he was not speaking about the mystic Account of
the Divine Chariot; he was just stringing pearls ... linking words of Torah to
words of the Prophets and from the Prophets to the Scriptures. And the words
were rejoicing like when they were given at Mount Sinai.

What does this mean? On the one hand, it may mean that Ben Azzai showed that
teachings found in the Torah were also found, although in different form, in
the Prophets and in the Writings (see for example, Lev. R. cited
above). Similar to the Peticha, in which a rabbi expounding a Torah verse
would .leap. and show that a verse .far away. from the Writings such as Song
of Songs corroborated the Torah verse; in the Stringing Pearls method, the
rabbi would .leap. from the Torah to the Prophets to the Writings, showing the
connections and links between the different parts of the Tanach.  The Rabbis
saw the Torah as .alive. and organic in nature; the linear meaning was just
one of its aspects. All the parts of the Torah are connected to each other by
complex, myriad connections that can be teased out by midrashic play. Rabbi
Levi said in the name of Rabbi Aha ben Rabbi Hanina on Song of Songs 1:10
.your neck with beads.: These are the sections of the Torah that are strung
together [like beads on a necklace], that draw one another, that leap from one
to the other, that are alike one to the other, and are near one to the
other.. (Songs Rabbah on 1:10) .To read as the midrashist reads means to
experience scripture as an interwoven texture of texts.  We can pick up a
thread anywhere in sacred texts and it will lead us. by creative
juxtaposition, by plays on sounds, by flowing from one possible meaning to
another in the semantic range of a root, or by conceptual analogy. to see new
possibilities of meaning, or as the darshan has it in Song of Songs Rabba, to
penetrate and to link together (kodeach v.chorez) the language of the
Torah.. --Scrolls of Love by Hawkins and Stahlberg, page 202

Yet, there is another explanation on a more inner level of Ben Azzai.s
answer. Anyone highly knowledgeable in Torah and highly spiritual knows what
his answer means from his own experience. When one begins to expound Torah and
enters into a deep spiritual mood, there are blessed times when the fountains
of divine wisdom open, the Torah begins to flow freely, like wine at a joyous
feast, and one enters a .tent. of fire, one is surrounded by the fire of the
Shechinah. One teaching or tale leads to another, and another to another, and
they all join in joy because God is one and the Torah is one and everything is
connected.

Ben Azzai.s answer to Rabbi Akiba was perhaps disingenuous; he was not
teaching about the divine Chariot, but when he entered into a deep mood, an
ecstatic state, he became a Chariot for the Shechinah that spoke from his
throat.

There is a traditional phrase: .a mouth that spouts pearls. peh maifik
margoliot and there is another traditional phrase: to .string pearls. of Torah
mahroz haruzim. So the idea came to me that when we go around in a circle and
each one respects the other and picks up the thread of the one who spoke
before, and each adds his or her own pearl ... and as a holy group we enter an
elevated and joyous meditative mood and our teachings join one to the other,
and we ourselves join together in a mystic unity, because we are one with the
One . we can call this method or format of study: Stringing Pearls.

Although I suggested previously that the pearl-stringing be initiated by
someone who prepared beforehand and offered a dvar torah, and that the others
prepare by going over the parashah and jotting down notes of their thoughts
and comments; as said, at the Shabbat table, the method also seemed to work
without much preparation, with a short dvar Torah and one that was read from a
holy book. It also seemed to work without the participants preparing or
jotting down their thoughts. So the method is flexible in these respects.

This stringing of pearls is so good. I encourage people to try it out and if
they enjoy this new method, disseminate this piece of instruction. Our results
were thrilling. Try it and see!

Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum directs The Jewish Spirit Maggid Training Program, a
two or three year program conducted by conference calls and occasional live
gatherings that can lead to ordination (smicha) as a maggid, an inspirational
speaker and a spiritual storyteller. For more information about the program,
whose next term begins in September, contact him at
Yitzhak@jewishspirit.com. Maggid Buxbaum is the author of ten acclaimed books,
including The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov; Jewish Spiritual Practices;
Storytelling and Spirituality in Judaism; Jewish Tales of Holy Women. Visit
his web site for more information. If you would like to receive his free Daily
Maggid, a very brief Hasidic anecdote or teaching, contact him with that
request.

Please visit Yitzhak Buxbaum's
website at
http://www.jewishspirit.com.

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"It is not our task as liberal Jews to complain about the Orthodox attitude or to be bullied by it, but rather to choose our legitimate path according to the inner logic and development of liberal Judaism" (Rabbi Walter Jacob)

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