March 9, 2006, Parsha Zuchor / Tetzaveh
The name of the parsha is Tetzaveh, but this is called Parsha Zuchor, because we are told to remember Amalak, remember all of the discouraging events in our life. In some communities, everyone goes to shul if only to hear the paragraph telling us to erase the memory of Amalak, remember!, page 1067 in the Stone Chumash, the last paragraph of Parashas Ki Seitzei. Tetzaveh and Zuchor don’t always coincide.
Sah-ter: hiding the light, root word for “Esther.”
The basis of the tsimtsum.
There should have been 974 more generations before the Torah was given. There were only 26 generations from Creation to the Revelation at Har Sinai.
If it were not for entropy, we’d fly into space. Evil contracts, good expands; balance is needed.
We study the paradox to understand the unity.
Memory transcends time. Does this mean that we carry eternity inside ourselves?
Regarding the picture of Timna and the ovens at Auschitz: Timna was the granddaughter of Asav (Esau) and the mother of Amalak (she married her brother Eliphaz).
Lushon hora (gossip) is about triangulation, two people excluding the third. The main teacher of this was Miriam. Do we use time productively when we’re the odd one out? Exile is fundamental to the human condition. Jewish history is an exile training course. In the Chumash it says to treat the stranger well because you were a stranger in a strange land—however, it could just as easily have read “you will be a stranger in a strange land.”
Esther starts off feeling abandoned; later she makes the connection. Esther’s adversity was enormous.
Add an aleph to exile, gay-u-la, last brucha before Shemona Essray, go-lah, redemption.
Our Purim seudah is meant to be a redemptive party instead of the drunken party of King Ahasveros. The Jew went to that party and ingratiated themselves, reliving the family dynamic. The poison and the cure are parallel.
We need to have a festive seudah on Purim day. Going to nursing homes is reaching out to those in exile.
The connection between Purim and Yom Kippur: karove (cuf, raysh, vov), the triangle of (1) denial, constriction, (2) atonement, expansion, (3) cover, G*d covers our sins. Kar-rove: cold? Call? and random.
Karah, cold? Call?, random, kuf, rayshe, hey
Kar, kuf, rayshe, aleph, is call.
Moshe was kicked out of the mishkan – he was called.
Kar-rove: come close to G*d, battle with G*d, Amalak.
Tefillah: to struggle, entwined.
Shulcan Arech: the time of prayer is the time of battle with Amalak. Amalak: Am-kal, the people who take things lightly.
He made you feel like a straggler inside; this is a type of exile.
The priestly garments: each article of clothing was a cover and an atonement (this parsha).
Hitler--social Darwinism—the first people he killed were mentally deficient.
Purim is a day to break out of our narrow places.
The word “Purim,” lots, contains randomness. Random luck. Haman gets a chamber pot on his head.
W have divine will and free choice.
Billam happened to meet G*d. G*d called to Moshe.
We’re trying to go from Elokim, the law of nature, to yud kay vov kay, being compassionate.
Hitler made a religion out of killing the stragglers. Terrible accidents happen to stragglers. If you’re in the back of a group, you will be discouraged no matter how strong you are. Put the strongest person in the back.
“May you be the head and not the tail.” Don’t have Elokim acherim, don’t have other gods. Acherim means back, other.
Did Moshe raising his hands cause Joshua to prevail? Or was he able to raise his hands only because Joshua prevailed?
Because of your exhaustion, you have no fear of G*d.
Timna is the picture of discouragement, lack of self-concept.
Esther gives birth to the Temple. Timna gives birth to Amalak.
How do we handle our exiles?
The slow people in the front get energized.
There’s a lot of conformist pressure in Jewish groups because we’ve been on the outside so often.
Paradox: erase, don’t forget.
Paradox: we’re supposed to drown out the name of Haman, but we’re not supposed to miss a word during the reading of the Megillah.
Pain is vital for tchuva. Buddhists say that pain is the result of too much attachment.
CHUMASH, PAGE 393
Memory is above time. G*d told Moshe to put it in Joshua’s ear, as if it were a solid object.
Being in first place is vital to Amalak because Timna felt so rejected. Sometimes we say go away and sometimes we have to ask for G*d’s help. Double erasure in this paragraph.
How is G*d remembered on Purim? By removing his name from the Megillah. Moses is erased from Ki Sava and almost erased from the Hagaddah.
How you greet people is one of the most important things in your life.
G*d is in exile in this world because of free choice.
Ashray: it got erased – the nun – the maiden of Israel has fallen and can’t get up. Somache nofellim.
We didn’t receive the Torah at Sinai, because of too many miracles, Moses was too brilliant, so everyone else became stragglers.
Where is Hashem? Wherever you let Him in.
Bitachon
Hishtalute
Our efforts (vain) v. trust in G*d (straggler).
Water rising = women doing mitzvote when they are not commanded, there is more merit than doing it from obligation. And yet I’ve heard the opposite, I’ve heard it both ways, it’s harder to do what’s commanded, it’s easier to do what’s commanded.
Israel is physically and spiritually between the East (passive) and the West (active).
Nes – G*d gives support to the fallen. I have to pray in the morning. I have to see myself hanging by a thin thread. Great vulnerability.
Hitler was called Amalak right from the start, because he engineered discouragement, useless labor, betrayal in the family.
AISH KODESH, P. 289.
He revealed to the discouraged ones the greatness of the Jewish people.
A lawyer is permitted to go into court bareheaded in order to avoid prejudicing his case.
Allowing people to fail v. stragglers – teachers shouldn’t say too much.
We have to drink until we don’t know to repair the tree of knowledge. Once we know it, we own it and G*d is lost.
One level is fear and desire. How are sin and din intrinsic, mitzvote and reward? There’s physical physics and moral physics.
TRACTATE CHAGIGAH 5b3
There are six people G*d cries for in the mistarim:
1. the destruction of the First Temple
2. the destruction of the Second Temple
3. Exile or neglect of Torah study
4. One who has the power to study and doesn’t
5. One who is unable to study but does
The leader that loses his connection to his people because of arrogance.
The Tree of Life: understands consequence, humility, dynamic tension, not trying to find the formula.
Tree of Knowledge
Exile, paradox, redemption
Why does He cry for the one who studies? Everyone has a deficit – never tell the person suffering from the deficit, “Get over it!” G*d has to acknowledge our pain.
The message of the Aish Kodesh was “don’t feel humiliated, you are noble.”
Humiliating someone is equivalent to murder.
If he’s humiliated, he will intrinsically bring about their punishment. He let the one day a year Jew off the hook. Be strict with yourself and give others the benefit of the doub.t
We need to drink so our daemons go to sleep and angels come out – wine goes in and secrets come out.
Open to inquiry – closed to comprehension.
When the fast go slow and the slow go fast, a group synergy is created that can bring down a group revelation.
Triangle: advice (top), connection (left), commandment (right), mitzvah (middle).