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Tevet: Seeing the Hidden Good
For more about Tevet, see Beginning Again Every Day
Tevet shares the same root as the Hebrew word tov,
which means "good." Yet Tevet is also referred to as "the month of
anguish." How do we reconcile these two aspects of Tevet?
To understand Tevet, we must go from the light of
Chanukah to a darker place in Jewish history.
The Lion in the Cage
The month of Tevet begins with a great light: Zot
Chanukah ("This is Chanukah"), the eighth and final night of
Chanukah, when the candles are burning at their brightest.
Rabbi Baruch Shimon Schneerson, zt"l, explains the name
Zot Chanukah as follows: the word zeh (singular form of
zot) represents a level of prophecy that is so clear, it is as if
one could point to what is seen by the mind's eye. On Chanukah, we all
have the potential to reach this exalted level. By lighting the Chanukah
candles, a person gains new spiritual insights and reaches a level of
clarity equivalent with the level of
zot.
Even if a person has not succeeded in banishing all the
darkness from his or her life, Rabbi Schneerson assures us that if we
have performed the mitzvah of kindling the Chanukah lights, it is still
possible to proclaim with joy: "Zot Chanukah" - this is my level
of Chanukah. We all have a right to rejoice at the new spiritual level
we achieved during Chanukah and look forward to growing and gaining even
more insights after the holiday has ended.
Yet despite Tevet's bright beginning, three dark days in
the Jewish calendar quickly fall upon us.
On the 8th of Tevet, the Torah was
translated into Greek. King Ptolemy, who ruled over Egypt after the
death of Alexander of Macedonia, took 70 Jewish elders, locked them in
70 separate cells and ordered them to each do a complete translation of
the Torah into Greek (this is why this translation is known as the
Septuagint). A miracle occurred, in that all of the 70 translations were
exactly the same - despite the fact that every verse in the Torah lends
itself to a myriad of possible meanings. So why is this day a tragedy?
The translation that was presented to King Ptolemy by
the 70 scholars was a literal translation of the Torah. Although a
literal translation may be a necessary first step in understanding the
Torah, it can never be the final word because the Torah's literal
meaning is just one of many possible levels of meaning. Since the
Septuagint was totally devoid of any of the Torah's deeper wisdom, with
this translation the Torah was compared to a lion that had been roaming
free and was now put in a cage.
When we go to a zoo and see a lion that is housed safely
behind bars, it is easy to think that even a small child has mor e
power than the lion. Yet the truth is that the lion is still more
powerful, it's just that in captivity its power is hidden. So, too, with
the Torah. When we read the Torah in translation, it is easy to think it
is merely a collection of stories that are easy for even a child to
comprehend. Once you begin to study the
Hebrew, however, and delve into the
commentaries of scholars who carefully examined every nuance of every
word, you quickly realize that it could take a lifetime to truly
understand the depth of wisdom found in even the most seemingly
transparent sentence.
On this day, therefore, it is possible to say that the
deeper meaning of the Torah came under siege.
On the 9th of Tevet we mark the death
of Ezra the Scribe, one of the last of the prophets. Ezra lived at the
close of the Babylonian exile, and his entire life was spent in
expanding the light of the Torah during a time of darkness.
As his name suggests, Ezra was a scribe by profession
and he gave us the form of the Hebrew letters that we use today - a
style of writing called Ashurit script, which made the Torah accessible
to everyone due to the clarity of the letters.
Ezra also instituted the practice of having a public
Torah reading on Mondays, Thursdays and mincha (afternoon prayer
service) on Shabbat so that we wouldn't go more than three days without
hearing words of Torah.
Finally, he was one of the leaders of the exiled
community who brought the Jews back to Eretz Yisrael, and it was under
his determined leadership that construction began on the Second Temple.
With his death, the world was suddenly a much darker place and the light
of the Torah was constricte d.
On the 10th day of Tevet, King
Nebuchadnetzer of Babylonia began his three-year siege of Jerusalem,
which ended with the destruction of the First Temple and the 70-year
exile in Babylonia.
The 10th of Tevet, which is commemorated by
fasting from dawn until nightfall, is one of four fast days associated
with the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The other days
are:
-
the 17th of
Tamuz, when the walls of Jerusalem were breached during the time of
the Second Temple
-
the 9th of Av,
when the First and Second Temples were destroyed
-
and the Fast of Gedalia,
which commemorates the assassination of a Jewish leader and the end of
Jewish autonomy at the time of the destruction of the First Temple.
The question has been asked, what was so "tragic" about
the 10th of Tevet that we must fast on this day? Although the
Babylonian army was now camped outside Jerusalem's walls, on this day
the Jewish people were still free and going about their lives as usual.
The horrors of war - starvation, illness, and death or enslavement -
were still many months away.
Yet that is exactly the point.
State of Siege
In times of war, when the city is on fire and blood is
flowing everywhere, we are all prophets of destruction who can see with
the clarity of zot. A siege, however, is much subtler - at least
in its beginning stages.
True, we know that outside the walls we have constructed
to protect us, there is an enemy lying in wait for us. And true, we know
that the flow of goods into the city - and out of the city - has been
halted. Yet it is possible, at least in the beginning, to constrict
one's vision and one's intake of goods and ignore what is going on
outside of one's now limited perception of "reality."
Even as the siege worsens, it is possible to trigger
one's coping mechanism and assure yourself that things aren't really so
bad, there have been even worse times before, and things have got to get
better.
In history, we see the Jewish people experience this
siege mentality during the times of the destruction of the First and
Second Temples. And we also see it during the time of the Holocaust,
when the people were unable to see the terrible tragedy that was
unfolding before their eyes.
(This connection was immortalized in the Jewish calendar
when the Rabbinate of Israel established the 10th of Tevet as
a Memorial Day for those Jews who perished in the Holocaust and whose
date of death is unknown. In addition to fasting to commemorate the
siege of Jerusalem, it is now also customary on this day to say Kaddish
for these victims of the Holocaust.)
In addition to a physical siege, it is also possible to
experience a spiritual siege - and this is something that many of us are
experiencing today.
Many Jews, even those who are scrupulous about observing
the mitzvot, have trouble relating to these four fast days marking the
destruction of the First and Second Temples. The reason is simple. Even
though we may be experiencing some difficult times in Israel and
America, we Jews have never had it so good, both in terms of material
possessions and our ability to live our lives freely as Jews - and so it
is difficult to see what exactly is missing.
When we want to feel close to God, there appear to be no
obstacles. We have our homes and synagogues, and we even have the Kotel
- the Western Wall of the Second Temple. What could a Third Temple
possibly add to our already rich spiritual existence?
The sad truth is that most of us don't have a clue. But
we can receive a hint from just one comment that the Talmud records
about the times when the First Temple was still standing:
There was no need to recite blessings over food during
the time of the First Temple, because God's Presence was evident
everywhere.
Think about this for a moment. We are commanded to
recite a blessing over food because we need to thank God for creating
this food and providing us with nourishment.
Some of us comply and recite the blessing, usually by
rote, simply to obey the mitzvah. Others, who don't see a meaningful
connection between God and the food on their plate, don't even bother to
say a blessing. Only a few Jews really concentrate and say the blessing
with the intention to both obey the mitzvah and use the blessing as an
opportunity to focus on God's beneficence and thereby feel His Presence
in even this rather mundane aspect of life.
Yet during the time of the First Temple, everyone - from
the spiritual giant to the beginner - was so aware of God's Presence
that they didn't need to say a blessing to jolt them out of their
mundane, physical concerns and connect them with the spiritual. God's
Presence was everywhere. Everyone had clear vision and could look
beneath the "literal meaning" of nature and see a deeper meaning - the
work of Divine Providence in their lives.
When they held an apple in their hands, they didn't need
a blessing to remind them that this apple was created by God, Who
watched over every step in the process of this apple's growth. They also
didn't need to be reminded that this apple was a small miracle that had
been created by God just for them - for not only did the apple look good
and taste delicious, it also provided vitamins and other essential
nourishment for the body.
With such inner awareness of the true workings of the
external world, there was no need for verbal reminders of Who was the
Source of this bounty. Everyone had the power of "Zot."
But if God's Presence was clearly seen everywhere, if
all Jews were filled with the knowledge of God's Presence in their
lives, why did the Jews need a physical structure - the Temple - to
house, so to speak, His Presence?
An answer is found in Exodus 25:8, when God says
to Moses: "They shall make Me a Temple, and I will dwell among
them."
God, Who created us, is aware of both our capabilities
and our limitations. God wants to dwell within each one of us and yet
because He is hidden (ne'elam) in the world (olam) He
knows what a difficult challenge it is for us to create this dwelling
using spiritual means alone. We may know on an intellectual level that
God is the Creator of the Universe and that there is no place devoid of
His Presence, yet as we go about our daily lives it is extraordinarily
easy to lose sight of this fact.
To help solve this problem, while the Temple was
standing, the Jews - all Jews - were commanded to go to Jerusalem three
times a year (during Pesach, Sukkot and Shavuot) and bring an offering.
They couldn't perform the offering at their local synagogue and they
couldn't e-mail in a donation. They had to be bodily present in the
Temple grounds. Why?
The experience of being in the Temple was an experience
that affected all five senses and the deepest recesses of a person's
soul. The eyes took in the beauty of the marble columns and gold and
silver utensils, all of which were dedicated to give honor to God. The
ears heard the sweet singing of the Levi'im and the music of the harps
and timbrels that accompanied them. The nose took in the aroma of the
incense and the offerings. The mouth spoke words of thanks and praise.
The hands carried the offering from the person's home and placed it in
the hands of the Kohan (priest).
After the intensity of this total physical immersion in
holiness - and this inflow of God Awareness into the soul - how could a
person not be aware that God was present in every aspect of existence
and fail to carry this awareness with him when he returned to the
outside world? And should this vision began to dim with time, there was
always another holiday coming up on the horizon - a time when the person
was commanded to go back to the Temple to recharge the spiritual
batteries.
But what has happened to us during the thousands of
years since the Temple's destruction?
We have an urge to thank God when we see a striking
sunset, but usually not when we see a good parking space. We are moved
when we hear a soul-stirring melody, but we can become equally excited
when we hear a good piece of gossip. We feel close to God when we smell
or taste holiday foods - which stir up memories of family and friends
and remind us of the joys of love and companionship - but we're too busy
to make the connection when we're rushing to eat our fast food. We feel
good when we do God's will and extend our hands in giving tzedakah
(charity), but we don't feel too bad, either, when we find a way to
extend our hand and take advantage of a tax loophole.
In other words, our awareness of God's Presence has
become fragmented. When we see that God is "here" but not "there," it
means that our spiritual vision has become constricted. Somewhere the
free flow of God Awareness - the inflow into our souls and the
outpouring into our daily actions - has been stopped. When we become
contented with this constricted level of observance (or non-observance)
our souls are under siege, and we don't even know it.
Turning Fast Days to Days of Joy
The 10th of Tevet, when the siege of
Jerusalem began, is a day when we can take note of the places where our
own souls are under siege - and hopefully make the spiritual repairs
that will end the siege.
Although it is "a day of anguish," according to the
Sages the purpose of the fast is not only to evoke feelings of grief and
mourning. It is also an opportunity to bring down good into the world, a
time to open our eyes and take action to increase our awareness of God's
Presence - and let this awareness have a positive impact on every aspect
of our lives.
Once we realize that every moment offers an opportunity
to perform a Kiddush Hashem (Sanctification of God's Name) and bring
awareness of God into the world, we will be able to awaken God's mercy
and bring down salvation.
When that happens, we will see the fulfillment of the
prophet Zechariah's promise that, "the fast of the fourth (17th
of Tamuz), and the fast of the fifth (the 9th of Av), and the
fast of the seventh (Fast of Gedalia), and the fast of the tenth (10th
of Tevet) shall be for the House of Judah for joy and happiness and
holidays (8:19)."
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