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The Most Effective Way to Fix Your Flaws

31/8/2017

I wanted to re-emphasize something mentioned in a previous post.

In Words of Faith (Vol. I, pages 410-412), Rav Levi Yitzchak Bender refers to Likutei Moharan, explaining that in order to tame and focus your mind, you need to liberate it.

And Likutei Moharan emphasizes that the only way to liberate your mind is through joy.

Yet especially if you're feeling despondent and loathsome, how can you cultivate such a positive emotion?

By finding good points within yourself.

And again, this idea is directly from Rebbe Nachman's Likutei Moharan.

Paradoxically, Rav Bender uses the example of tackling the negative trait of pride:

"For example, I now want to speak to Hashem Yisbarach about...nullifying a certain negative trait, such as pride and the like. In order to do this properly, it is necessary to bind mind to idea. This is done through joy...
But how does one achieve happiness?
By means of the amazing advice in the lesson Azamra L’Elokai B’Odi (Likutei Moharan 282):
To seek and find in myself good points."

So in order not to feel superior and haughty, you davka need to find the superior (i.e. positive) attributes Hashem engraved within you and not the inferior (i.e., negative) attributes He also gave you.
(He gave you negative stuff for the purpose of rectifying and elevating these same negative aspects.)

So, you'd think that in order to feel less superior and less arrogant, you'd need to find the good points of others or to see where you are flawed.

And you do need to do those two things.

But first, find the good points in yourself.

It's counter-intuitive, but it's the truth.

Get happy, feel good about God and yourself...and then focus on your flaws.

In order to plumb your personal depths, you need to first uplift yourself with joy.

For more details, please see How to Use Joy for Self-Improvement.

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The True Story of How a Murderer Did Teshuvah

30/8/2017

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In Words of Faith (pages 380-382), Rav Bender mentions a secular Jew in Uman who apparently was a hitman for the underworld.

Think about this for a moment:
It means he killed people in cold blood simply for the money.

Jews and non-Jews alike were terrified of him.

But he did teshuvah.

It started by his coming to the Breslover shul to say kaddish for his father. (None of the other shuls allowed him to enter.) He only recited kaddish without any other prayers and without putting on tefillin until one day, Rav Yankel Zhitomer approached him and said, "Moshe...if you already came, you can put on tefillin!"

That was the first step in a long line of steps to completely transform himself from a murderer into an upright Torah Jew.

It's always one step at a time; sometimes a series of baby steps or sometimes long strides. Self-transformation is always a process and no one has any right to shove you up to where they think you should be or judge you for the size of the steps you're taking.

Anyway, Moshe did honest and complete teshuvah. And believe me, he had what to beat himself up for.

But he cried to Hashem—literally, he fell upon Rebbe Nachman’s grave many times and cried to Hashem with regret and remorse.

(Regret and remorse are good. Self-hatred and self-recrimination are not.)

And then he picked himself up and risked his life to build and maintain a mikveh against Communist law for the Jewish community to perpetuate life. Furthermore, he was very generous with all the impoverished people who came to him for food.

This man who had taken lives in cold blood was now giving life with a warm heart.

He lived among the very Jews who knew him at his worst, which takes a lot of courage.

But apparently, he felt his teshuvah was accepted, both before Hashem and by the Breslov community. And after they saw his generosity to the poor, the other Jews accepted his teshuvah too.

In other words, despite his horrific deeds, he managed to go on with his life as a rectified Jew.

How is this possible?

Needless to say, I have no idea what he spoke to Hashem.

But using the principles of teshuvah and the idea discussed in the previous post (regarding the need to find good points in yourself and cultivate a happy mood before you engage in self-improvement), an oversimplified version of what someone like him might go as follows:

“Look, Hashem…You’ve known me forever—literally! You gave me this ability to murder in cold blood another human being made in Your Image. How many people can say they can do that? Yet I’d like to use this cold-blooded fearlessness to serve You. And You know what? I think that says something good about me. After all, how many cold-blooded murderers ever develop a conscience or regret their deeds? Also, I find myself attracted to davening at the Breslov shul. I think that’s a good sign too. It means that deep down, I do want a connection with You. And in order to really connect with You, I need to stop being a hitman and start being a God-fearing man. Please help me do complete teshuvah from love and please help me rectify the terrible crimes I’ve committed.”

You probably haven't done anything nearly as bad as this guy has. And even if you have, if his teshuvah could be accepted, then yours can be too.

That's something to be very happy and relieved about.

If he could face the worst parts of himself, then you can too.

Hashem is right there holding your hand as you do it.

Previous Post: How to Use Joy for Self-Improvement

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How to Use Joy for Self-Improvement

30/8/2017

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(Emphases throughout the article are mine.--Myrtle Rising)

"Constant Search has to be Coupled with Constant Joy"

Thus says Rav Levi Yitzchak Bender in Words of Faith, Vol. 1 pages 410-412

He states that the following two commands must be performed simultaneously:

“Seek His Face constantly”
“It is a great mitzvah to always be happy”

The Rav advises:

"The best solution to keep the quest going without getting weary is to have a heart filled with happiness and hope."

Rav Bender himself lived under terrifying Communist pursuit with his life constantly in danger at times. Or at least, under the constant threat of being sent off to a slow and grueling anonymous death in Siberia.

And he’s very honest and open about his feelings.
He endured personal moments of sheer terror.

Yet he emphasizes the constant seeking of connection with Hashem accompanied by a happy heart.

Believe me, he wasn't chuckling or doing the Irish jig when he was brought to KGB interrogation where they talked about shooting the rav and his friend with the casualness of shooting a beer bottle.

Yet he emphasizes the importance of being happy in connecting with Hashem and scrutinizing yourself for self-improvement and repentance.

Rav Bender says:

"If one looks without joy, he is prone to stop looking.
Because he will always harbor thoughts that maybe he is not finding enough in his search."

And true enough, you can always find someone—including yourself—to put you down about any spiritual efforts you struggle to make.

"Not only will he not find, he will lose what he already found. For small-mindedness discourages a person and brings detrimental thoughts…such a thought pattern is very bad when a person is busy looking for what he has not yet attained."

You need to bring yourself to happy heights in order to plumb your dreary depths.

"Go with a happy heart when looking for Hashem. The fruit of the search…lifts you higher and higher. You will certainly not fall back and lose what you already found…"

It brings to mind the image of a person whistling as they search for Hashem, doesn't it?

A Happy Mind is a Disciplined Mind

In Likutei Moharan II:10, Rebbe Nachman states:

“To come to peace of mind [yishuv hadaat] is through joy. Because joy is mental freedom. But through depression it is impossible to run the brain as you wish. It is hard to settle the mind. But through joy, one can settle the mind and run it the way he wants. Since the mind is free and not in exile.”

Coming from American culture, this amazes me.

I always associated joy or a happy heart with giddiness and frivolity. It always seemed like being happy makes you crazier and more impetuous while being very solemn and even grave grants you a balanced mind and better decision-making.

In fact, we even refer to deep thoughts with the slang, “heavy.” If something is very profound, we say, “Whoa, that’s pretty heavy.” There’s a sense of being weighed down with all that deliberation and contemplation.

And of course, a happy-hearted person can still possess a serious countenance. But he or she is not depressed or sad. They’re just taking their responsibilities seriously, that’s all.

One of the things I’ve been learning from reading Chazal is to reframe my understanding of happiness.

When Judaism talks about joy and happiness, it means real joy and not the fake giddy frivolous merriment I’ve been seeing most of my life.

Happiness that comes from mockery, secular comedy, or emptiness is latzanut. This is disconnected from Hashem and leads to lightheadness or recklessness or a mind-numbing “high.”

Real joy is connected to Hashem and leads to all the good things Rav Bender describes here.

From reading classic Torah sources, I’m learning about genuine joy and not its giddy shadow.

Rav Bender says:

"For example, I now want to speak to Hashem Yisbarach about a certain holy thought. Let us say nullifying a certain negative trait, such a pride and the like. In order to do this properly, it is necessary to bind mind to idea.

"This is done through joy. Because joy is the world of freedom.
The mind is liberated and you can control it.
But when it is not happy, thoughts do not stick…
Happiness is the most effective solution to attain freedom and peace of mind."

This is incredible. In order to control the mind, you first have to set it free?

Yes, apparently so!

Once again, Judaism is cozying up to the very real paradoxes that Hashem established within the world.

But how does one achieve happiness? By means of the amazing advice in the lesson Azamra L’Elokai B’Odi (Likutei Moharan 282):
To seek and find in myself good points. Through this, the mind is elevated.

Eureka! I mean, Azamra! You mean, doing something ordinarily considered gaavadik is actually good for you?

Well…as always, it depends on your motivation.

Understood superficially, this sounds like all the self-affirmation and self-esteem building stuff advocated by psychology. We’re back to the the old “Love yourself and everything will be dandy!” method again.

But it's much deeper and more real than that.

"Thought is in my hand to use for doing the will of the Creator. To seek Him in every place, to draw close and cleave to Him."

No pop psychology here! Again, it’s all in the motivation.

Why are you seeking out your own self-fabulousness?

In order to work on the not-so-fabulous parts of you.

You are using your acknowledgement of your good points for Hashem, to bond with Hashem and to enable yourself to perform a genuine cheshbon hanefesh and perfect yourself as much as humanly possible.

This goes far beyond the psychology of “love yourself so that you can love others” or "Be happy and then you'll be a nice person."

It’s "love yourself so that you can love Hashem" because your self and your positive attributes come from Hashem. He’s part of you and you are part of Him.

Your negative attributes also come from Him, by the way. So self-hatred and self-recrimination are not part of cheshbon hanefesh or Jewish teshuvah.

(Regret is good. Recrimination is bad.)

Summary of the Main Points

So in order to strengthen yourself for cheshbon hanefesh to do teshuvah:

Work yourself up into a good mood as best you can; cultivate a happy heart
Seek out the good points in yourself and actually find them.
While in this state, look out what you need to improve in yourself. (You can use your children’s undesirable behavior or someone's hurtful comment for clues. Ask Hashem to guide you in this. After all, He gave you those hints, so feel free to pester Him to enlighten you!)
Do each step with Hashem. All of this needs to be done with Hashem.

Again, it's important to be happy.

This does not mean you think your negative points are cute or funny, as people often imply when they joke about their penchant for snipey comments or coarse behavior.

"Funny" and "cute" aren't joyful or happy.

You're happy that in addition to being snipey or coarse, you also cook meals for the sick and you have a soft spot for elderly people.

And you are happy that you are willing and able to regret your snipeyness or coarseness because the ability and willingness to do teshuvah are great middot!

Example:
1) Admit to Hashem that you've been snipey.

2) Regret it. (And feel happy about the fact that you are able to regret it.)

3) Take upon yourself to cease and desist with the "sur m'ra v'aseh tov" ("turn from evil and do good") method: "Instead of using my quick tongue to slice through people, I will now use it to build people."

4) Think of to whom and how you need to apologize: "Shira, I feel that I've said things in the past that were inappropriate and hurtful, and I'm very sorry. You have many admirable qualities and I was wrong to ever insinuate otherwise. I truly regret my hurtful and inappropriate behavior, and have resolved to work on this bad middah. If there is any further way I can make amends, I hope you will feel free to discuss it with me."

May we all merit to do full teshuvah from love.

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Why Monotheism was So Radical for the Ancient Idolatrous Cultures

24/8/2017

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Note: This post discusses the cultures surrounding the Jewish people from the time of Avraham Avinu and onward (AKA the Ancient Near East). Please be aware that the study of the Ancient Near East is an imprecise field because it is based on whatever happens to have been dug up and interpreted.
(And much of what has been dug up still hasn't been translated or published.)

Researchers hold opposing views, each with strong proofs for their stance. Without interviewing a selection of actual ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, or any other Mesopotamians, etc, it's hard to know what their attitudes really were.

Furthermore, researchers in this field do not usually recognize the Divinity of the Torah and tend to compare it with other Ancient Near East literature as if it's all human-sourced (while noting that Judaism was radically different than its neighboring belief systems), which makes researchers innately wrong about certain things.

So with that disclaimer...

Mesopotamia: The Ancient Near East (Courtesy of Joey Hewitt)

Ur, the birthplace of Avraham Avinu in Iraq today (Photo by Aziz1005 - Own work, CC BY 4.0)

While the inclination toward occult worship was nullified by our Sages in a powerful and holy way, polytheistic tendencies still exist.

The Torah is eternal and the bare fact that Hashem and His Neviim (Prophets) repeatedly remind us through the entire Tanach that there is only One God, and that we shall have no other gods before Him, and that Hashem is Loving, Just, Compassionate and Omnipotent means that we still have the tendency to drift away from these facts of monotheism.

But why?

If God is so Good and His Perfection, Omnipotence, and Oneness are the Truth, then why would we struggle with this fact?

And why is polytheism (or a fractured belief in God) so compelling?

The Illusion of Control

Turning away from Hashem appears to give you control over your life. By conjuring spirits or conducting rituals, you feel like you can fulfill any wish, whether it’s revenge, success, “love,” protection, or anything else humans desire.

And because there is a type of “physics” within kochot hatumah, these tricks can work (or appear to work) for a time. But eventually, the price gets higher and usually, the end is pretty dark. And that’s just what happens in This World, let alone the Afterlife.

Whether a person chooses to ignore God in an atheistic manner or in a polytheistic manner, God generally attempts to shake a person awake at some point.

(And though beneficial, it’s not fun when that happens.)

Moral Ambiguity

When you read about ancient polytheists and the more disturbing extremes of their idolatry, it’s mind-boggling. How does a person sacrifice another human being, especially their own child? And how does a person debase themselves to voluntarily performing the most disgusting or raunchy acts as part of a religious ceremony?

Also, polytheists seemed kind of weird. They could be kind of nice, but also manipulative and even heartless and brutal. Sometimes, they just seemed kind of blasé about everything.
(Read the Torah and you'll see what I mean.)

So if you look over whatever writings have been dug up from those times, you'll notice that people didn’t seem to think very highly of their gods. In fact, almost no published literature expresses the idea that a god is innately good or just or wise or compassionate.

This is interesting because Christianity and Islam do say this about their trinity or Allah.

But we said it first!

So they got it from us.

And until Avraham Avinu came to restore things, these ideas don't seem to have existed among the surrounding cultures.

However, you can find lots of literature expressing the desire on the part of the penitent that the god will behave in a manner defined by that penitent as good, just, wise, or compassionate.

Some researchers believe that these people simply didn’t possess an independent standard of goodness. “Good” was defined as relative to the people themselves.

If they liked something, it was good. If they didn’t like it, it was bad.

This is shocking today because many people throughout Western society have this idea of “universal values” and "following your conscience."

But the ancients in the Biblical era and area apparently did not have such ideas.

So the idea of “universal values” likely stems from Judaism (even as it has been warped to mean anything liberals deem good).

As Professor John H. Walton says:

The operative question in their minds, for instance, is not, “Is the deity just?” but, “Does the deity administer justice?”

It is not important whether the deity is inherently good—is the deity doing good for me?

Furthermore, polytheism is perfectly comfortable with the idea of worshiping gods who are capricious, evil, licentious, or can't be trusted to make good decisions.

(This is actually the attitude people today reflect regarding their favorite politicians, sports teams, or celebrities.)

In other words, the ancients were okay with a god not being perfect. They didn't have expectations otherwise.

If the more capricious or malicious gods got the upper hand, then the polytheist simply felt appeasement was needed or that the intervention of another god was called for.

Cheshbon Hanefesh as a Form of Jewish Radicalism

While ancient texts discuss confession and sin, it’s all in relation to the whims of a god and whether that god has been personally offended.

Professor K. Van de Toor seems to say that a Babylonian living in that time was capable of feeling guilty about personal wrongdoings and being concerned for personal integrity, but there was no cultural idea or guide for such values as emphasized in Judaism (values which today are considered "universal" and "self-evident").

Van de Toor says:

The Babylonians did not have an introspective tradition…Individual identity, in this view, is not what you are deep down, but what you manifest to be: it is public and social.

Again, it’s unfathomable to us today. No self-introspection? How can that be? Everyone in the Western world talks about “getting in touch with yourself” and the term “self-introspection” is a byword. People fork out tons of money in therapy to plumb their inner depths.

Despite the fact that it's usually not real or complete self-introspection (it’s impossible to perform a complete cheshbon hanefesh in all its raw honesty without involving Hashem), but people today at least give lip service to the idea.

Another researcher, Tzvi Abusch, postulates that aspects considered internal today were externalized and objectified within the non-Jewish culture of Biblical times.

"In that sense," adds Walton, "self and soul are external identity constructs rather than internal ones."

With all today's talk of one's "inner self" and understanding or internalizing things at the "soul level" and much more, it's hard to see these intrinsically internal aspects as external. Yet apparently, this is how these aspects were seen at that time.

It’s bizarre to think that these ancient societies, for all their genius as displayed in their astronomical tables and architecture and more, were so shallow and superficial.

(The same, however, could be said today. The geniuses behind all the hi-tech stuff aren’t necessarily deep thinkers nor introspective ones.)

This provides additional insight into the scope of Avraham Avinu’s power and influence in the world at that time.

Imagine him and Sara Imeinu as the lone voices in the world informing people of an independent and unmoving standard of good, of right and wrong, and of Hashem Who is Always Right and Perfectly Tzaddik (Righteous & Just), in addition to being Compassionate, Gracious, and Slow to Anger (even if the individual does not experience certain events as Compassionate or Just).

In other words, "Please meet the Only God there is...and He's Perfect."

Imagine them introducing people to the fact that Hashem does not possess any base human qualities like whims or lusts.

And that people needed perform an accounting of their deeds based on objective standards of right and wrong.

Imagine them speaking to people of the need to internalize things, of the human soul as deeper part within one's self.

It must have been mind-boggling.

Public Shame vs Personal Guilt

Anyway, another facet that applies to today comes from a theory developed by a professor of Ancient Near East history, Robert H. Walton (quoted above). He claimed that culture of Middle Eastern polytheism populating the world of Tanach acknowledged public shame, but not personal guilt.

For example, if something went wrong in a person's life, it was embarrassing because others saw it as a sign that this polytheist hadn’t taken care of his god properly. So he was ashamed before his society.

But he didn’t feel bad necessarily about having actually done something wrong.

(Or maybe he personally did, but it wasn't culturally appropriate to feel so.)

In other words, he didn’t necessarily feel guilty or any sense of healthy accountability.

There was no examining himself and his deeds, but only his deeds in relation to his occult worship.

In light of this, another researcher in the field, K. Van der Toorn, notes that in the world surrounding the Jews of the Tanach, these ancient polytheists valued “shame over guilt” and “success over integrity.”

This is shockingly similar to the dynamic of toxic shame today.

Within society, a person might be shamed for being overweight or for not dressing “right” or not keeping a clean enough home or for being socially awkward or for not being up with the latest popular fad/TV show/whatever.

But certain types of lashon hara or snipey humor or demeaning dress or raunchy behavior might be perfectly fine and even laudable within society.

And of course, modern culture abounds with examples of people choosing success over integrity.

So we see that a lot of people feel bad about the wrong things and feel good about the wrong things too.

The few laments archaeologists have recovered show the desperation idol-worshipers felt when things didn’t go their way, like from this Mesopotamian:

I wish I knew that these things were pleasing to one’s god!
What is proper to oneself is an offense to one’s god;
What in one’s own heart seems despicable is proper to one’s god.
Who knows the will of the gods in heaven?
Who understands the plans of the underworld gods?
Where have mortals learned the way of a god?

Another one, an Assyrian (Ashuri in Hebrew), laments his inability to know which god is angry and what he has done wrong. So he addresses his prayer to “the god I know or do not know, the goddess I know or do not know.”

This is so obviously pathetic.

He is ready to confess anything, ready to do anything to appease.

He ends with:

Man is dumb; he knows nothing…what does he know?
Whether he is committing sin or doing good, he does not even know.

It’s astonishing to think that they not only had no idea of right or wrong, but that they didn’t care whether something was morally right or morally wrong.

All that mattered was that the god was appeased and that the suffering ended.

The above verse “What in one’s own heart seems despicable is proper to one’s god” is particularly disturbing.

What did this Mesopotamian feel expected to do?

What was “despicable” in his eyes that desperation was leading him to do?

People felt if they didn't appease whichever god they'd offended, then their suffering would just go on until for the rest of their life. And who can stand that?

So you can see from this why polytheism led to the foulest and cruelest acts being committed as a form of worship.

(All quotes are from the book Ancient Near East Thought and the Old Testament by John H. Walton)

And the Winner is…Monotheism!

Having explored the culture and experience of the Ancient Near East in Biblical times, it seems inconceivable why anyone would want to be a polytheist.

So why did they do it?

Well, first of all, polytheism was a way of covering all their bases.

Suffering happened or people wanted protection from future suffering, so they turned to whatever they thought could possibly be behind it.

They had no problem including Hashem in the picture, and they could accept him as the Most Powerful, but they struggled to accept him as the One and Only God and as the Only Force in the Universe.

The problem is that the minute you think that Hashem isn’t behind everything or that He isn’t operating in your best interests, then this is the first step in a slippery slide.

So this is the pull of any polytheistic belief system:

I don’t want to deal with the paradox of a Loving God in a hateful world.
I want to feel in control of my own destiny.
I want to feel like I can get what I want—guaranteed!
I don’t want to have to examine myself in a cheshbon hanefesh or do real teshuvah.
I don’t want to deal with the guilt of not living up to my potential and fulfilling the purpose for what God put me here.
I don't like the idea of absolute morality; I prefer to do whatever brings me pleasure and helps me avoid pain.
I’ll do anything to avoid shame while reaping adulation as defined by whatever society in which I live.

So while we don't have the actual yetzer hara to go and bow down to an idol, we still struggle with the underlying tendencies that led to avodah zarah (occult-/idol-worship).

We can also be grateful that Hashem orchestrated things so that Judaism influenced the world so profoundly that the above Ancient Near East value system now seems mind-boggling to us.

May we all merit to live every moment in complete emuna.

Hashem is behind ALL of it.

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Why People Find True Monotheism So Difficult

23/8/2017

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Ever since I heard about idol-worshiping as a little girl, I felt puzzled as to what the pull of idolatry was. Reading watered-down Greek and Roman mythology sure was fun, but the thought that these being were in charge?

Terrifying.

It also seemed so simplistic.
Seasons occur because Persephone ate 6 pomegranate seeds at Hades’s table?
Snow falls because Mother Holle thoroughly shakes out her feather pillows?

Such beliefs would also discourage the kind of scientific research that eventually led to handy inventions like weather balloons and the like.

Then when I learned of Christianity’s Trinity, it got even more puzzling. Heck, they read our Bible and memorize the 10 Commandments (including the prohibition against making images to worship, which if they believe their founder to be God chas v’shalom, you’d think that all that crucifixion jewelry and those statues and paintings might be a problem, theologically speaking).

Furthermore, they've also read last week’s Parshat Re’eh with pointed verses such as Devarim/Deuteronomy 13:1-4:

All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams--and he give thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee--saying: 'Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them'; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God putteth you to proof, to know whether ye do love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Hmm…sound like any character you know from, say, 2000 years ago?

So they read the Torah, and yet...

Even more intriguingly, Christians become deeply and sincerely offended at the mere hint that their belief system is anything less than strictly monotheistic. They’ve got all sorts of twists and distortions to “prove” their monotheism and the “truth” of their belief system. “Oh, here’s what the Torah really meant,” claim these non-Hebrew-speaking people, many of whom have never even heard of Rashi.

And I couldn’t help noticing that Christians who’ve left that belief system to become full-fledged Jews or Noachides describe a terrible struggle to release themselves from their belief in Christianity’s founder. As bizarre as this struggle has always seemed to me (having been brought up Jewish), I certainly can’t deny the objective observation that it is a struggle and even a kind of trauma.

Why do people who value monotheism to the point that they’re willing to lie to themselves and spin passionate theories of how a trinity is monotheistic still hold so tightly to an undeniably polytheistic belief system?

What’s going on here?

Accepting Paradox: The Key to Spiritual Truth

So the big huge stand-out quality in Judaism is its recognition of and insistence on acceptance of…paradox.

Two opposing contradictory facts are both…true.

Technically, one should cancel out the other. But in a paradox, they don’t.

They’re both true.

Left-brained physicists like to ponder and explore abstract paradoxes. But in general, human beings find paradoxes repellent, especially spiritual ones. Spiritual paradoxes can be agonizingly painful.

For example, Judaism insists that God is Loving, Kind, All-Merciful and All-Compassionate. And He is all that! Yet there’s also the Shoah. There’s child abuse.

There are a lot of disturbing things that we consider hateful, cruel, merciless, and ruthless. Yet God is behind it all and He’s Fabulous and we are supposed to love Him and trust Him as a suckling infant trusts its mother.

So there are terrible things in a world run by a Wonderful God.

If you’ve suffered, then you might find this paradox overwhelming at times.

In fact, people who grew up with abusive fathers understandably find it very difficult to connect to Hashem later on. Obviously, they could not turn to their own cruel father in supplication after he meted out some punishment for punitive reasons of his own ego, and not remotely for the good of the child.

So the thought of turning to Hashem when life metes out its challenges becomes too much for them. They feel like it’s turning toward their abuser for mercy, l’havdil.

And I believe this is why Christians, when they talk about the sterner side of things (like judgement, rebuke, punishment, etc), they tend to refer to God.

But when they talk about love, compassion, mercy, and warm fuzzies, they tend to use their founder's name.

And I think this is why they have such a hard time tearing themselves away from that belief system: It means giving up that image of an all-loving, never-chastising, nurturing, gentle, never-angry parent......and having to deal with the Truth:

Your Strict Chastising Judge is also Your Nurturing Compassionate Father.

And this is a GOOD and happy thing.

Welcome to Judaism.

A Beautiful Paradox

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Is Something Lost When a Keyboard Replaces Your Pen?

21/8/2017

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Personally, I prefer typing rather than using a pen or pencil.

At this point, my hand gets so tired from handwriting.

Also, typewritten stuff is easier to read (as long as you chose the right font, of course).

And I fully intend to continue typing the vast majority of my writing, including correspondence.

But I wonder whether an essential medium gets lost in typewriting?

To take a totally different method as an example, books and courses that claim to increase your writing capability to 10,000 words a day rely on transcription technology. Meaning, just by using a decent microphone and the voice recognition transcription software that comes with Windows, you can speak your words onto the screen, then copyedit it as you normally would later.
This has worked out great for many writers, who love the increased output.

But some writers felt that their manuscript or article projected a different tone and wording than it would have otherwise.

So does the same thing happen when you type everything without ever handwriting it first?

Handwritten Drafts vs Typewritten Drafts: Is There a Winner?

For example, writers used to produce at least one handwritten draft (often two) before typing out the final draft on a typewriter.

Despite the convenience and spell- and grammar-check capabilities of today’s word processing programs, plus the ability to endlessly polish and revise, are today’s books and articles better-written than those that predated the home computer?

For example, one book revision course insisted that writing out the entire manuscript by hand was an essential part of the process to improve the book. I threw in the towel after hand-writing several pages, but I believed the truth behind the instructor’s insistence.

Handwriting Reveals the Real You...For Better or For Worse
Like I said, I even type out letters that I send through snail-mail. But I noticed that handwriting shows a lot even if you (like me) know nothing about graphology.
Your personality still shines through your handwriting.

Examples:
1) I remember watching a simple non-Jewish Rumanian woman write out her address and phone number and name. Her handwriting was startlingly beautiful and elegant, and I later discovered she possessed an unusually refined personality too.

2) Another friend of mine possessed handwriting that resembled the round bubbly script I remembered from notes passed in high school. The sincerity, girlishness, and innocence reflected in her handwriting lent a welcome dimension to her words, which would have been lost in typewriting or email.

3) And yet the glib quick-witted manner of another acquaintance in verbal conversation kept me off-balance for an embarrassingly long time. However, upon receiving a handwritten letter from that same person, it became clear that I wasn’t the problem. The letters and strokes were jerky and shooting out all over the place (even on lined paper).

Intended to be cheerful and spontaneous, it was the handwriting of a manic second-grader in possession of a scattered and fragmented mind. Yet this was a college-educated middle-aged mother. Plus, the handwritten letter enabled me to take the time to analyze its contents rather than be rushed along in glib conversation or hung up on just as I was getting past my initial “Huh?” in response to yet another one of her inappropriate comments.

4) Yet another person wavered between a petulant snipey persona and a compassionate insightful one. But her refined and intelligent handwriting reflected the wise insightful part of her, and she did tend to be at her best when writing her thoughts out by hand while email brought out her passive-aggressive side. Interesting, no?

It’s important to emphasize that in all the above examples, I wasn’t examining their handwriting. The personality reflected within simply jumped out without me expecting it to.

I remember going through a stage in which I dotted all my eyes with billowy hearts. What did that mean? I have no idea. I don’t know graphology at all. But it meant something.

Using Handwriting as a Jewish Meditation

And apparently, there is a form a Jewish meditation recommended by Rav Avraham Abulafia that calls for writing Hebrew letters by hand:

He proposed using a writing mantra, meaning instead of the usual verbal or visual mantra, one should write a word repeatedly over and over again in various styles and configurations. One should attempt to alter the sequence of the word and to permute and cycle the letters of the word in every which way possible: combining and separating the letters, composing entire new motifs of letters, grouping them and then joining them with other groups, and so on. This was done until one attained a heightened state of consciousness.

So there is clearly a spiritual component to handwriting with a spiritual hand-brain connection.

Well, this is just some food for thought.

Personally, I’m going to continue typing for the majority of my writing, while using a pen when I feel the need or have no other choice.

But I think it's still important to keep in mind that ideally, perhaps writing by hand is actually the better choice.
______________
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/170308/jewish/What-is-Kabbalah.htm Please scroll down to see the part quoted above.
(For what it’s worth, a more detailed description of this meditative process is described on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Abulafia . It looks kosher, but I don’t know anything about the rav’s work and so cannot judge the legitimacy of the Wikipedia content either way. Hatzlacha rabbah!)

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What I Learned about Taming My Email Habits

20/8/2017

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At first, email seemed like one of the most innocent aspects of the new Internet technology. In fact, you could even get email without Internet pretty early on (at least in Eretz Yisrael).

Yet problems appeared as fast as you could press “Send.”

Spam - Traif in a Whole New Way
Spam arose as email’s shadow. Now, spam filters come with your email. But back then, spam could be anything from innocent but annoying ads to filthy forbidden images.

A Whole New Area of Forbidden "Speech"
Then email’s deceptive appearance as regular mail (only in digital form!) plus its immediate response time led to people using it for intimate exchanges or lashon hara that quickly found its way across the Internet. Or if not made completely public, at least forwarded on to the one or two people where it could do the most damage.

The concept of “flame wars” also developed, with the lightning back-and-forth of hot ‘n’ heavy disagreement that was unlikely to develop in a face-to-face exchange and NEVER would have developed through a hand-written exchange of letters or even memos or faxes.

New Hacker Outlet
Hackers continue to hack email even with improved security and strong passwords. Inconvenience, identity theft, and worse continue to plague users.

But I thought I could handle it.

The Sweet Siren Song of Email

I express myself best through writing, so it seemed like the ideal communication tool for me. No more searching out the right-sized envelope or figuring out what kind of stamp and how many, no more dragging myself to inconveniently located post offices to stand in line.

Furthermore, it’s an easier and seemingly gentler way of communicating with people, especially if you want to say something they don’t necessarily want to hear, whether for your own good or for theirs.

And finally, it has proved such a boon to employers and employees everywhere.

As just one of a million examples: If you’re a writer, no more waiting months to receive a reply to your submission. Your submission is received immediately and rejected immediately. No more waiting and wondering for an eternity! (Or accepted without the need for phone calls and stuff.) You can even interact with a colleague for months without ever hearing their voice.

Progress, O blessed progress!

Oops! Delete! Delete!

The thing is, you can find yourself emailing things to people that you wouldn’t say or write to them.

It’s not always conventionally "bad" stuff either. You can get intimate too fast over email, you can give forth too much of yourself via a mechanism that not only cannot be erased (unless the receiver is willing to press “Delete Forever” and even then, only Google knows whether it’s really gone), but can be forwarded infinitely for eternity.

And that’s the well-intentioned use of email.

Despite my best intentions, I’ve found myself guilty of sending emails (for better or for worse) full of content that I wouldn’t have said or written in snail-mail.

In fact, I think I even lost a job due to email, via the actions of a particularly disturbed and devious individual, though I’ll probably never know exactly why or how -- nor even if that individual was actually involved.
But if it did happen in the way I suspect it did, then I deserved it and kaparat ha’avonot.
Better to suffer consequences for negative actions in This World than in the World to Come.

Anyway, there are also altercations you undergo via email that you likely wouldn’t have otherwise.

There are also things you reveal (whether private for you or hurtful for the other) that you might not have revealed otherwise.

(You can also think you’re anonymous with email—and you can be anonymous to a certain extent if you want—which is part of email’s lure and part of its pitfall.)

Via email, I’ve maintained more contact with certain people than I would have otherwise.

But ironically, it took me years to realize that mostly wasn’t a good thing.

After all, if you can’t be bothered to address and stamp a letter or make a long-distance phone call (or they can’t be bothered to do that for you), then what kind of relationship do you really have?

People grow in different directions and compatibilities change (or were never really there in the first place).

What is Email Really Good For?

Yes, email is the ideal option for many business situations and also for some personal interactions.

I have it and will continue to enjoy its convenience.

But what I’m realizing more and more is that a lot of this fast and easy technology is best used for faster and easier business and short tasks, but not more.
___________
Scrolling and scrolling down a screen to read long, complex messages also ensures that the message isn’t absorbed as well as a printed-on-paper message. Regardless of how habituated you are to reading on a screen, your eyes skip a lot. Even with the specially designed anti-reflection e-ink e-readers, studies have shown that people reading a book on an e-reader understand and retain less than they retain from reading the exact same book in print.

But so far, I can't avoid sometimes producing really long blog posts... ;-)
___________
So basically, email is good for:

Business back-and-forth
Sending invitations
Thank-you notes (okay, not everyone agrees with me here, but I definitely prefer thank-you emails to handwritten thank-you notes)
Dropping a quick message
Reminders
Unavoidable long-distance communications (i.e., can you imagine blogs if you had to mail your comments?)
Sending someone pleasant thoughts, praise, encouragement, or genuinely helpful and light advice
Certain kinds of photos
Quick and helpful information (telephone numbers, names, addresses, etc)
Many of the heart-warming or funny viral forwards are pretty nice too!

Like I said, I’m not giving up email. I honestly feel its benefits outweigh its disadvantages. And like I said, I feel like now I know how to deal with it in a healthier manner.
________
And believe me, I’ve been building up to this healthier manner for MONTHS. Some things are a process and even when you realize the truth of things, it still takes you a while to get there. This is also good because it gives me more compassion and understanding for others who may also struggle with actualizing their realizations. Sometimes, it takes a while for what’s in your brain to travel to your heart and all the other parts of your body.
_________
And it would be hypocritical to look down on anyone for using it like I used to use it until very recently. I’m really not in any position to judge, trust me.

Furthermore, I still intend to respond in kind to anyone who sends me an email. There are wonderful people out there, and you sometimes end up finding them online.

But for me personally, I’m using email with greatly heightened awareness and newfound self-discipline. That’s all.
____________
For the differences of absorption and retention on e-readers vs print:
http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/02/the-physical-effects-of-e-reading/

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Please Help: Frum Family under Attack from Esav

20/8/2017

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Note: Important links below toward end of post.
_____________

One of the most frustrating aspects of Western Esav society is the oh-so pure and caring persona it loves to project while in actuality, it's committing the worst crimes when no one's looking.

Compared to a pig that extends its cloven hoof as a sign of its kashrut, the Esavite pig hides its lack of any cud-chewing apparatus deep inside itself where no one can see.

Likewise, Esav himself piously inquired as to whether salt must be tithed and always served his father with great dedication...yet ambushed and assaulted young brides in deserted fields and showed no respect for human life and even married women addicted to occult worship.

Yes, Esav was sooooo concerned with tithing salt...yet couldn't be bothered to marry a monotheist or raise Jewish children.

Fostering Abuse and Egos

Modern countries offer so many services to assist in every need. And yes, there are definitely sincere people who provide concrete help to those who need it. Yet so much else is broken or inconsistent.

Take the justice system, for example. It can condemn an innocent person to prison and let a guilty person go.

Or the foster care system. It's already a given that people who've been through the foster care system as children were likely to have been abused. Foster children are also much more likely to be given prescription drugs (and several kinds of them) to control their behavior, even as kindergartners.

Sometimes, children really do need to be removed from their biological parents. But sometimes, the decision is left to judges and social workers who aren't morally qualified nor possess the wisdom to make such decisions.

In fact, it's always a disturbing experience to meet a dysfunctional person and then discover that this person is a social worker! How can a person with such poor middot and such a warped value system of their own help children and parents in difficult and complicated situations?

And even if a social worker isn't mamash dysfunctional, I've definitely met social workers who displayed excessive self-absorption and the inability to recognize that the people who consulted with them lacked resources to which the social worker had access.

For example, one social worker with a car and an available cooperative husband would advise mothers as if they too had cars and an available cooperative husband...when they didn't. She insisted that they cultivate morning routines which for them meant shlepping around on several buses for at least on hour with a bunch of small children and a twin stroller during rush hour when the buses are crammed to overflowing...all because they lacked a car and an available cooperative husband.

"After all," boasted the social worker, "I do it!"

If the mother pointed out that she didn't have the resources the social worker had, the social worker implied that the mother simply didn't care about her children enough to sacrifice for them.

See what I mean? No brains. No heart, either.

Help Frum Parents Get Their Children Back

Within the frum community, sometimes a "frum" person screams "Discrimination!" at the authorities simply because they are remorselessly angry at getting caught.

How dare anyone stop them from behaving deplorably and against halacha!

Yet sometimes, there are genuine incidents of discrimination against frum Jews and even a "par-for-course" miscarriage of justice.

Each situations need to be examined individually without knee-jerk reactions of uninformed onlookers who either scream "Discrimination!" or consider court judges on par with the ancient Sanhedrin.

Recently, I was made aware of a situation in England in which a frum couple had their children removed from their home.

How did this come about?

Basically, the mother turned to different services for help in being the best mother she could be. A couple of the children have special needs, which obviously demands a whole different set of skills from the mother. (And please note this family has more than one child born with special needs, which is obviously a huge challenge.) Such a situation also affects both parents on the individual level, for which additional guidance was also sought voluntarily.

As I understand it, both the parents are good decent sincere people who want to give each other and their children the best of themselves...but they needed guidance in doing so due to the unusual challenge of the situation in which they found themselves.

And then these very services that exist supposedly to assist and support families decided to take these frum Jewish children away and dump them into the foster care system to non-Jewish homes, and shortly afterward, they were transferred to Jewish homes.

This is very disturbing, and not only because anyone familiar with the foster care system knows that abuse runs rampant within and that you are placing a child at risk by placing that child within the system.

Needless to say, children are always traumatized when uprooted from their homes, even genuinely abusive homes (which is not the situation in this case). So removing a child from his or her home is not something to be done lightly.

And obviously, placing Jewish children in a situation where they'll be fed non-kosher food and transgress Shabbat is pretty harmful (although hopefully, this is not the case in the Jewish foster home where they now reside), not to mention the adjustment whenever they would go back to their family of origin.

People who know the couple and know their situation are appalled at what has happened.
(I don't personally know them, but was informed by those who do.)

One of them started a GoFundMe campaign on their behalf to get the children back.

You can see by the size of the donations, the comments, and the fact that many of the donors are willing to use their full name on the donation that people really believe in the truth of the parents' side of things.
https://www.gofundme.com/help-to-get-my-kids-back-home-sha

Here is the family's Tehillim page if you'd like to say Tehillim for them is here:
http://tehilimyahad.com/mr.jsp?r=sNTu3p6HJV

Please remember that the mother initially turned to the services out of her own accord and sincere intentions in order to receive the help they claim to offer.

Then they turned on her and her family.

P.S. You can see how rotten to the core the British social welfare system is because British social workers routinely abandon British girls to Muslim traffickers and "groomers" (the most infamous being the Rotherham scandal, which involved the appalling abuse of at least 1400 minors and evidenced actual collaboration of social workers with the Muslim perps, and among other horrors, covered up the murder of a 17-year-old girl).
This is obviously not a trustworthy system.

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The Song of the Lion

17/8/2017

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If you've read Perek Shira (Chapter of Song), then you probably recognize the following verse from Yeshayah (Isaiah) 42:13 as the Song of Lion:

אריה אומר (יג) ה' כַּגִּבּוֹר יֵצֵא, כְּאִישׁ מִלְחָמוֹת יָעִיר קִנְאָה; יָרִיעַ, אַף-יַצְרִיחַ--עַל-אֹיְבָיו, יִתְגַּבָּר

"The Lion says: 'God will go forth as a mighty man, like a man of wars will He arouse zealousness, He will shout, he will even scream; He will overcome his enemies.' "

*Note: Kinah (קִנְאָה) is always one of those words I get frustrated about translating into English. It can mean religious zeal or zealousness or envy or jealousy, depending on how it's used. Also, teruah (the root word of יָרִיעַ ) can be expressed vocally by a person or by the blast of a trumpet or shofar, making this also difficult to translate exactly.

Metzudat Tzion (Rav David Altschuler, Galicia, published in 1753 by his son, these commentaries were written while locked in a tower; like a dictionary this commentary explains the words in the text)
יָעִיר - hitorerut, an arousal/awakening
יָרִיעַ - teruah, a loud sound
יַצְרִיחַ - a matter of shouting in a great voice (as mentioned in Tzefania 1: "mar tzoreach")

Metzudat David (Same as above; this commentary explains the meaning of the text)
יֵצֵא - He will go out for the salvation of Yisrael
יָעִיר קִנְאָה - He will arouse zeal of the zealousness of His Nation
יִתְגַּבָּר - He will overpower his enemies

Radak (Rav David Kimchi, 1160-1235, southern France)
"God will go out as a mighty man" for the salvation of Yisrael like the mighty one who goes out to war without fear.
"He will arouse zealousness" of Yisrael, whom they [the nations] oppressed in Exile for years.
"He will shout, He will even scream" -- All this is a form of metaphor representing those victorious in war, that they make noise and scream to overpower that which opposes them.
יַצְרִיחַ - it's like "he will make a loud noise/יָרִיעַ" and it says "He will even scream" because hatzricha (bellowing) is even louder than teruah (shouting) and will overpower His enemies.

Ibn Ezra (Rav Avraham ibn Ezra, 1089-1167, Muslim Spain)
"God will go out as a mighty man" -- Indicates the secret decrees that go out from Hashem's Mouth
"zealousness" -- for the Babylonian worshipers of Bal
"He will shout" -- a kind of teruah

Malbim (the words in parentheses also appear in the Malbim's text in parentheses)
Gibur/Mighty Man: The power of a gibur is in his loins as he goes out to war himself like it says "God will go out as a mighty man"
Ish Milchamot/Man of Wars: And a man of wars is not a gibur; he is only learned in the strategies of war. And a man of wars is one who has examined many wars and is expert in the administration of wars. And he is not a warrior himself; he only arouses zeal from knowing the tactics that hasten men of valor and arouse zeal in their hearts.

(And the metaphor is: Just as the gibur himself fights, likewise God will appear with miraculous leadership and the overriding of the planetary/star system Himself by His Own Might. And just as the ish milchamot organizes the men of valor according to his will, likewise will God organize nature and the planetary/star system to concede to His Orchestrations against His enemy.)

יָרִיעַ - It used a metaphor of a man of war's cry of victory that strengthens his battalion.

אַף יַצְרִיחַ - He will orchestrate things so that His enemies will scream out in a broken cry that will terrify them with tactics so that in this way, their heart will weaken. And by means of this tactic, He will overpower His enemies.

Final Thoughts

Malbim (1809-1879) clearly says that Hashem will override (שידוד) the entire system (מערכה) of orbits and constellations in order to bring His enemies to their knees.

Over the past years, we've been hearing lots of predictions, but we don't know what exactly will occur, nor when or how it will occur.

And the Malbim seems to imply that astronomical predictions simply won't be, well, predictable because Hashem will override anything He chooses in order to achieve His desired result.

We can make observations regarding objects and their trajectories, but it is all subject to change depending on what Hashem plans to do with it.

If you're on His Side (or at least sincerely trying to be on His Side, even if you mess up at times), then His enemies are your enemies and you have nothing to fear, Jew or non-Jew.

Where does it say that? Previously, in verse 12 (included in the Song of the Bear), the Malbim explains:
" 'and in the islands they'll relate His Praises' -- to recognize the Unity of Hashem and His Spirituality (Ruchaniut), that He overrides the planetary/star system."

Malbim may be referring either to:

two different times (the initial terror and the later recognition)

two different categories of people (His enemies who will scream in terror and His non-enemies for whom the miraculous override fills them with recognition of His Unity and Ruchaniut)

Or both.

May we all do true teshuvah from love & not from trials or disgraceful events.

The Malbim (1809-1879) is Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel who was born in Russia and served as rav all over Eastern Europe. He was bitterly fought by the Reform Movement for most of his adult life, even suffering a brief imprisonment on a false accusation in Rumania by wealthy German Reformers. Fortunately, he left us an amazing commentary on the entire Torah among other valuable works he composed.

This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.

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If the Torah is So Adamant, Then That Must Mean Something: Why Polytheism Really is So Awful

16/8/2017

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Nowadays, it can be difficult to understand why polytheism is so bad.

Many secular Jews are attracted to Buddhism and in general, the Far East religions strongly appeal to many Westerners, many of whom claim they find inner peace, inspiration, and a much-need adjustment of perspective by visiting these places and following their practices.

Many Westerners are enchanted by the lack of materialism and the seeming contentment of the locals with their poverty. Culturally, the people of the Far East are often very nice to socialize with.
The Far East also seems to hold a treasure chest of benefits:

martial arts
delicious and healthier foods
inspiring philosophies
meditative disciplines
fortune cookies ;)

The problem is that polytheism always leads to cruelty in the end.

These same cultures that Westerners admire so much are also rife with female infanticide, racism, violence, starvation and malnutrition, the persecution of the helpless or minorities, elitism, government and police corruption, misogyny, domestic violence, child marriage, honor killings, and more.

Even more disturbing, these cultures have suffered from the above evils for millennia. Any current improvement in these cultures has only been brought about through the intervention of those from Western culture, particularly those who come from a Christian background (which derives any of its positive values from the Torah, however much they end up misapplying those same values).

India

It was the British who stopped the infamous Hindu immolation of widows in India. It is Western organizations who seek to rescue innocent village girls tricked into coming to the cities and forced to work in places of ill repute until they die of AIDS or botched abortions.
(And most of the activists who rescue these girls are the same “white guys” who are so vilified for their race and gender in their cultures of origin.)
As a group, the Hindus do nothing to help their society.
(And their cruelty and suffering inherent in their caste system deserves a whole post of its own.)

China

In China today, North Korean refugees are imprisoned and sent back to certain torture and death in North Korea unless they are rescued and sheltered by American and Canadian activists operating near the border. (Not all of whom are white, but all of whom grew up in America or Canada.) Not to mention, China’s one-child policy and the accompanying forced abortions for those whose parents didn’t comply.

In To My Daughters with Love, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Pearl S. Buck wrote of one of her mother’s most terrifying experiences living as a Christian missionary in China.

In the Chinese town in which Buck's parents lived, there was a terrible drought. During that night, Buck's father left town to take care of some business, leaving his wife and small children alone.

Buck describes the natives of this town as "usually kind."

However, the idolatrous temple priests (the same priests who everyone thinks have "achieved balance" and "attained wisdom and serenity") said, "The gods were angry because strangers, white people, were in the city."

This riled up the local “usually kind” Chinese until a whole mob came to the Buck home with sticks and knives, intending to stab and beat to death this lone woman and her young children.

Fortunately, with a courage that “came from despair,” Buck's mother shocked the raging mob by throwing open the doors to her home and with fearless composure, she offered the idol-worshipers tea and refreshments.

Then everybody went home.

That same night, it suddenly rained and it kept pouring all throughout the next day.

But look at the cruelty and stupidity that "usually kind" polytheists can suddenly commit when hard times come.

Thailand and Nepal

And the above is why Thailand can be known as the “The Land of Smiles” while being equally known for a brand of tourism that is licentious, diseased, and exploitative of impoverished females.

In the earthquake that crushed Nepal, we saw people who saved their idols before their fellow human beings and who invested money in their idols rather than in the rehabilitation of the homeless and injured people surrounding them.

Little girl in Nepal

Godless Gurus

Disturbingly, the much-admired monks and gurus meditating in their ashrams and temples, the same people who are lauded in the West as being “enlightened” and “compassionate,” do almost nothing practical to ease the suffering and injustices in their surroundings.

Sara Yocheved Rigler wrote of how her guru denied accommodation to flood survivors in New York merely because their traumatized state would disturb “the vibes” of the commune. Actually healing their trauma through kindness and generosity was not an option for this “enlightened” guru.

And there are many stories like this.

Emuna, Emuna, Emuna

The source of the all the above-mentioned cruelty and warped thinking is lack of emuna.

However, emuna is impossible within a polytheistic mindset which believes in equal but opposing forces and all sorts of little tricks and ceremonies to combat mazal rather than engaging in a cheshbon hanefesh and accepting the paradox that both the sweet and the bitter emanate from One Source.

Polytheism in Ancient Mesopotamia

The Torah records the Jewish battle against polytheism throughout its 24 books. Polytheism of that time led to atrocities like human sacrifice, including child sacrifice.

Our Sages note that Lavan’s beloved trafim were the shrunken heads of first-borns that, with the right incantations, could speak with psychic insight. Did Lavan and his ilk actually wait until a first-born man died of old age before making off with his head? I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good.

Archeologists have dug up correspondence and declarations and other writings that shed light on the values of these cultures.

Princess and High Priestess or Snow White's Evil Stepmother?
In one long poem, a Sumerian princess and high priestess from Ur (around 2300 BCE) writes of her demotion and then later re-installment to her exalted position.

Far from mourning her spiritual descent and present inability to inspire others, she merely kvetches about her sudden lack of materialism: “Like the light of the rising moon, how she was sumptuously attired!”
(Yes, she also refers to herself in third-person at times.)

Humility is also not one of her virtues—“I am the brilliant high priestess of Nanna.”

She tries to convince her goddess by reminding her that the goddess “loves the good headdress befitting the office of En priestess.”
(Because everyone knows how important fashion is in lofty spiritual service.)

Then she flatters her goddess by reminding the goddess of how incredibly violent she is (“Be it known that you crush heads! Be it known that you devour corpses like a dog!”) and how much suffering the goddess can cause with stanzas like, “Because of you, the threshold of tears is opened, and people walk along the path of the house of great lamentations” and “Your malevolent anger is too great to cool.”

She also addresses the goddess at one point as “Aggressive wild cow, great daughter of Suen.”

Her boastful description of her occult service is also disturbing:
“Also, I erected a temple,
Where I inaugurated important events:
I set up an unshakeable throne!
I gave out dagger and sword to...(?),
Tambourine and drum to [men intimate with men](?),
I changed men into women!

Obviously, nothing good can come of this.

Why is changing men into women even the goal? What is that supposed to accomplish exactly?

(I hope this has also helped to discredit the highly vaunted notion that goddess-centered religions were more nurturing and pro-female and more appreciative of the feminine roles and female empowerment than Judaism. In Ancient Near East findings, the above was not the only example of disturbing goddess-worship led by females.)

Some Ancient Fatherly Advice
“Advice from an Akkadian Father to His Son” (2200 BCE) reads:
Do not marry a kadesha, whose husbands are legion, an Ishtar-woman who is dedicated to a god, a kulmashitu-woman. . . .When you have trouble, she will not support you, when you have a dispute she will be a mocker. There is no reverence or submissiveness in her. Even if she is powerful in the household, get rid of her, for she pricks up her ears for the footsteps of another.

(If you're a learned Jew, you probably recognize "kadesha" from Tanach. And I couldn't find out what a kulmashitu-woman was.)

This indicates that despite the glory polytheistic priestesses enjoyed, there was no real spirituality or self-improvement involved and they were actually despised by the surrounding society, contrary to the fantasies of Women's Studies professors.

An Egyptian Princess Writes Home
The correspondence of an Egyptian princess to her father callously complains about several inconveniences in her marital home, one of which is that the slaves he sent with her just upped and died, much as one might complain about a trinket breaking.

The Crazy Code of Hammurabi
The famous Code of Hammurabi (1754 BCE) accepts trial-by-water as equal to trial-by-court-judges (and in some cases, insists on trial-by-water as preferable to holding a trial).

The punishment for a man who strikes and kills a pregnant woman is the execution of his daughter, who had no part in the violent death of her father's pregnant victim and may have even opposed it.

Likewise, it calls for the execution of the son of a builder whose badly constructed building collapses and kills the owner’s child, and so on.

What’s very disturbing about this is that the Code was not a list of laws, as many people think.

It was more of a statement of ideals which was meant to appeal to the general populace and increase the king’s popularity, much the way today’s politicians will make promises and declarations not based on what they actually think, but on what will increase their popularity and votes.

So the above values were so prized by that society that the king encoded these values to maintain his popularity.

So the Code of Hammurabi actually represents the values of the average Babylonian, and not necessarily that of the king.

Hittites are Just Gross
Hittite Law called for execution if a man had relations with a pig or dog. But with a horse or mule, it was totally okay—no punishment, not even a fine.

The Assyrian Koran?
Assyrian Law was very similar to Sharia Law. Enough said.

Greek and Roman Culture

If you're a frum Jew, you've probably heard a lot about all the materialism and cruelty of Greek and Roman society. They're referred to quite often in the Talmud. And before that, there was Chanukah.

But suffice to say, Greek and Roman myths featured tremendous cruelty and capriciousness among their gods.

And like other polytheistic societies, a strong tendency toward inane distractions, immorality and self-indulgences, and cruel gladiatorial events loomed over anything good the West feels it inherited from these cultures.

Africa and Oceania Today

In many other places around the world, the values Westerners consider most basic and self-evident are contradicted in places like Africa and other primitive areas.

In fact, travel warnings (both official and anecdotal) for both Africa (where animism is popular) and Papua New Guinea caution visitors against stopping to help an injured child or a pedestrian hit by a car even if it’s not your fault, or even if you’re clearly just passing by and not involved at all. Just the act of involving yourself anoints you with an aura of accountability.

“Yes, it’s difficult witnessing a hit-and-run with a child lying there injured,” the anecdotal warnings read. “But your instinct to save that child’s life could put in you in danger with locals who may not perceive your altruistic behavior in the light to which you are accustomed.”

These places also tend to be rife with wars, domestic violence, and tribal clashes.

Kumbaya, everyone!

Islam: Is that a Sword or a Crescent Moon?

As stated by the Rambam and others, Islam is one of the only (and perhaps the only) non-Jewish religious system considered monotheistic.

And Chazal predicts that Yishmael will eventually do teshuvah, may that day come soon.

But Islam is based on a moon-worshiping system (hence all those crescent moons that became swords upon their Islamization).

And that is why Islamic monotheism is often expressed in the way of ancient polytheists.

And Last But Not Least, Our Favorite Polytheists...

While Christians consider themselves monotheists, the Trinity is clearly polytheistic.

And true to their monotheistic aspirations, many of today’s Western Christians finally uphold the values of mercy, charity, and forbearance they’ve always claimed to have.

I do credit Christians with leading the battle against abortion and non-traditional marriage, among other important battles. Also, many Christians saved Jews during the Shoah. I believe this decrease in the savagery of Christians is because as literacy spread, Christians ended up reading Tanach too (as opposed to just listening to the propagandizing sermons of Jew-hating priests) as part of what they consider to be their bible, and because their gospels ended up paraphrasing Jewish ideas at times, and thus the Christian reader can't help imbibing Torah values along with all the polytheism-derived ideas.

But until relatively recently in Christian history, many Christians were easy to incite into the worst acts of violence and treachery.

And even today, you can find groups that still commit immoral and harmful acts (cough, the Catholic Church, cough) and uphold wonky, weak values.

Not to mention the undercurrent of resentment and envy against Jews that many Christians secretly harbor.

The Torah: Right Again!

I guess that for people who love to quote pithy proverbs from Buddha and Confucius or who romanticize the hopeless Indian people living on a blanket spread out over a steaming sidewalk or who idealize Ancient Greece and Rome as the cradle of their beloved modern culture, then all these facts won't make a dent.

But it can't be denied that despite the West’s love affair with polytheistic belief systems and societies, the truth is that polytheistic societies have always sat on top of a dark underbelly of cruelty, excess, and sadism.

If God considered the system REALLY, REALLY BAD...then it just is.

And if you really look at what's going on within the polytheist societies and groups, you'll see just how bad it is.

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"Constant Search has to be Coupled with Constant Joy"

A Happy Mind is a Disciplined Mind

Summary of the Main Points

The Illusion of Control

Moral Ambiguity

Cheshbon Hanefesh as a Form of Jewish Radicalism

Public Shame vs Personal Guilt

And the Winner is…Monotheism!

Accepting Paradox: The Key to Spiritual Truth

The Sweet Siren Song of Email

Oops! Delete! Delete!

What is Email Really Good For?

Fostering Abuse and Egos

Help Frum Parents Get Their Children Back

Final Thoughts

India

China

Thailand and Nepal

Godless Gurus

Emuna, Emuna, Emuna

Polytheism in Ancient Mesopotamia

Greek and Roman Culture

Africa and Oceania Today

Islam: Is that a Sword or a Crescent Moon?

And Last But Not Least, Our Favorite Polytheists...

The Torah: Right Again!

Myrtle Rising

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