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May G-d grant that this seudah shelishit and this d’var Torah contribute to the elevation of the neshamah – the eternal soul - of my beloved father and teacher, Rabbi Dr. Moses Mescheloff, of blessed memory. His second yahrzeit will begin this evening, 4 Iyyar. He served G-d and G-d’s Torah and G-d’s people, for over 75 years. He served KINS for over fifty years! I urge you all to read about my father, of blessed memory, and his remarkable life, on Wikipedia. A link to the article appears on the KINS web site.
It is customary to study Mishnah to honor the memory of a Jewish soul. The principal reason for this is that Torah study is the most sacred spiritual activity we Jews know; thus Torah study is the highest honor one can give to a spirit. Also, since the departed soul can no longer engage in Torah study as it did in its lifetime, we honor it by filling the vacuum created by its departure from our world. An ancillary reason is that the four Hebrew letters of the word Mishnah, when rearranged, spell the Hebrew word neshamah, soul. I have been privileged to receive the one-volume edition of Mishnah and commentaries that my father, of blessed memory, carried with him everywhere. He never wasted a minute. When he found himself having to wait somewhere, he always had his Mishnah, or a chumash, a gemara, or a Rambam, from which to study more Torah. “Learn something new every day” was his motto, and he lived it to the fullest.
Since today is Shabbat, and since my father’s yahrzeit begins only tonight, we will not study Mishnah together. Instead, we will study our Jewish concept of neshamah, the human soul. My father, of blessed memory, in his divrei Torah, would teach some source material of substance, and relate it to the event at hand and to the weekly Torah portion. I will try to do that, as well.
This afternoon at minchah we read (Vayikra 16:1),
וידבר ה' אל משה אחרי מות שני בני אהרון בקרבתם לפני ה' וימותו
And G-d spoke to Moshe after the death of Aharon’s two sons, [Nadav and Avihu], as they came near to G-d, and died…
This is a paraphrase of something we read last Shabbat. After Nadav and Avihu died, Moshe told Aharon what G-d had said to him earlier, that Moshe realized now referred to Nadav and Avihu: "בקרובי אקדש" – “I will be sanctified by those who are near to me.”
These are horrifying verses. Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, died as they came near to G-d. But doesn’t G-d want us to be near to Him? Don’t we say in Ashrei קרוב ה' לכל קוראיו – “G-d is near to all who call Him”? Is death the price for such nearness?
At first thought, it would seem that, indeed, that is the case. The second, third and fourth principles of our faith, as enumerated by Rambam, declare that G-d is absolutely transcendental. The second principle states that G-d is one, single, indivisible, simple unique unity; thus He does not occupy space. The third principle states that G-d is not matter or energy. The fourth principle states that G-d is not within the dimension of time. Thus G-d is not imaginable, in the only terms in which we perceive anything: space-time-matter-energy. To come near to G-d must mean, then, to leave this universe, to die.
Indeed, the children of Israel who stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah wanted to live, and so they maintained a distance from G-d. The Torah reports that “They said to Moshe, ‘You speak with us, so that we may hear, and may G-d not speak with us, lest we die!’ … and the people stood some distance away” (Shemot 20, 16-18).
Thus we have four questions:
Our own human souls, our own consciousnesses, whose activities and existence we sense intuitively, are sometimes metaphorically called “a spark of the divine”, “G-d’s candle”, and “a part of G-d above”. Like G-d in relation to the universe, our invisible souls use our senses to see what is going on in the world. Our souls fill our entire bodies, infuse them with life, are pure and unspoiled by the pollutions of this material world, and reside hidden deeply within. As we say each morning, א-לוהי, נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא. “My G-d, the neshamah you placed within me is pure!”
The mind-body problem, trying to understand how a pure, spiritual soul remains linked to a material, physical body, is a true paradox. Our sages recognized the phenomenon as nothing short of miraculous – we say this every time we say the berakha “asher yatzar”, that concludes “רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות” – we bless G-d “Who heals all flesh and does wonders”. It is the linking of soul and body that we find wondrous!
Yet the fact of our having a soul, a spirit, a non-material consciousness, a neshamah, is intuitively true. We feel it every time we say “I”. Our awareness of this truth about ourselves is one of the ways we are able to know with certainty that our transcendental G-d exists, and that, while He is not of time-space-matter-energy, nevertheless, the entire universe of time-space-matter-energy is infused with the divine presence. G-d and we can be infinitely close in this world, because each human being has a G-d-like transcendental neshamah. קדוש, קדוש, קדוש ה' צ-באות, but מלא כל הארץ כבודו. G-d is infinitely holy – separate from this world – but the world is full of G-dliness.
G-d wants us to live. G-d told us so, in the Torah:ובחרת בחיים (דברים ל, יט) - Choose life! The prophet repeated, speaking in G-d’s name: כי לא אחפוץ במות המת (יחזקאל יח, לב). - “I don’t even want the dead to die.” G-d addressed His kohanim with the same instruction: דבר אל אהרן אחיך, ואל יבא בכל עת אל הקודש ... ולא ימות (ויקרא טז ב) – “Speak to your brother, Aharon, that he not enter the sanctuary at every opportunity … so that he may not die.”
Paradoxically, the way to closeness to G-d requires acknowledging that we are not G-d, that G-d and we have separate identities, and that if we want to be close to G-d then we are called on to do what G-d wants. As we read last Shabbat, זה הדבר אשר ציווה ה' תעשו, וירא אליכם כבוד ה'. This is what G-d commanded that you do, so that G-d’s glory will appear to you. In order that we serve G-d - and not ourselves - we must serve G-d in the way that G-d commanded, the way that He expressed as His will. That is the way we will merit experiencing the presence of G-d’s glory. It will not do to attempt to force our will on G-d, worshipping Him as we want to. This was one fundamental error of Nadav and Avihu: they brought a fire G-d had not commanded.
But their mistake was even more fundamental. They wanted pure spiritual existence, closeness to G-d that is not possible for a living human being, in a human body. They were ready to die to achieve the closeness they wanted, even if they had to force that on G-d. As it says in Shir haShirim, "כי עזה כמות אהבה" (שיר השירים ח, ו) Love can be powerful to death. And so they burned the k’toret. That is the mixture of incense, whose fragrance is the most spiritual of all our forms of divine worship. R. Chaim ibn ‘Atar, the holy author of the Torah commentary OhrHaChaim wrote: “Aharon’s sons approached G-d’s lofty light, in sacred love … [with the intense longing for pure spirituality aroused by the k’toret,] their souls loathed their material flesh and burst out of their bodies, to be close to G-d.” The gemara in Shabbat (113b) describes their deaths as שריפת נשמה וגוף קיים – the neshamah was consumed, while the bodies remained.
This was what they wanted. But G-d wants us to live. G-d wants us to take no shortcuts to His closeness. G-d wants us to face the daily challenges that this material world presents to our spiritual souls. G-d wants us to work day after day, deed after deed, thought after thought, to uplift the material world and ourselves within it, to infuse it with spiritual meaning and with G-dliness.
My father and teacher, of blessed memory, devoted his entire life to this endeavor, and to helping thousands of others live this way. May his memory be eternally for a blessing, and may G-d grant that we continue in his path, living holy, Torah lives, close to G-d. Amen.
These are horrifying verses. Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, died as they came near to G-d. But doesn’t G-d want us to be near to Him? Don’t we say in Ashrei קרוב ה' לכל קוראיו – “G-d is near to all who call Him”? Is death the price for such nearness?
At first thought, it would seem that, indeed, that is the case. The second, third and fourth principles of our faith, as enumerated by Rambam, declare that G-d is absolutely transcendental. The second principle states that G-d is one, single, indivisible, simple unique unity; thus He does not occupy space. The third principle states that G-d is not matter or energy. The fourth principle states that G-d is not within the dimension of time. Thus G-d is not imaginable, in the only terms in which we perceive anything: space-time-matter-energy. To come near to G-d must mean, then, to leave this universe, to die.
Indeed, the children of Israel who stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah wanted to live, and so they maintained a distance from G-d. The Torah reports that “They said to Moshe, ‘You speak with us, so that we may hear, and may G-d not speak with us, lest we die!’ … and the people stood some distance away” (Shemot 20, 16-18).
Thus we have four questions:
- Does closeness to G-d require death?
- What does G-d want?
- What do we want?
- How did Aharon’s two sons die?
- No, closeness to G-d does not require death.
- G-d wants us to live.
- Most people want to live.
- Nadav and Avihu wanted to die.
,ברכי נפשי את ה' - “May my soul bless G-d” –(103:1, 2, 22, and 104:1, 35). This five-fold repetition corresponds, says the gemara, to five correspondences between the neshamah and G-d:
הוא מלא כל העולם - אף נשמה מלאה את כל הגוף;
מה הקדוש ברוך הוא רואה ואינו נראה - אף נשמה רואה ואינה נראית;
מה הקדוש ברוך הוא זן את כל העולם כלו - אף נשמה זנה את כל הגוף;
מה הקדוש ברוך הוא טהור - אף נשמה טהורה;
מה הקדוש ברוך הוא יושב בחדרי חדרים - אף נשמה יושבת בחדרי חדריםיבא מי שיש בו חמשה דברים הללו וישבח למי שיש בו חמשה דברים הללו
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, fills the entire universe, so does the soul fill the entire body;
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, sees but cannot be seen, so does the soul see but cannot be seen;
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, provides existence to the entire universe, so does the soul vitalize the entire body;
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is pure, so is the soul pure;
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, resides in the innermost recesses, so does the soul reside in the innermost places;
May the soul, which has these five qualities, praise G-d, Who has these five qualities.
Our own human souls, our own consciousnesses, whose activities and existence we sense intuitively, are sometimes metaphorically called “a spark of the divine”, “G-d’s candle”, and “a part of G-d above”. Like G-d in relation to the universe, our invisible souls use our senses to see what is going on in the world. Our souls fill our entire bodies, infuse them with life, are pure and unspoiled by the pollutions of this material world, and reside hidden deeply within. As we say each morning, א-לוהי, נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא. “My G-d, the neshamah you placed within me is pure!”
The mind-body problem, trying to understand how a pure, spiritual soul remains linked to a material, physical body, is a true paradox. Our sages recognized the phenomenon as nothing short of miraculous – we say this every time we say the berakha “asher yatzar”, that concludes “רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות” – we bless G-d “Who heals all flesh and does wonders”. It is the linking of soul and body that we find wondrous!
Yet the fact of our having a soul, a spirit, a non-material consciousness, a neshamah, is intuitively true. We feel it every time we say “I”. Our awareness of this truth about ourselves is one of the ways we are able to know with certainty that our transcendental G-d exists, and that, while He is not of time-space-matter-energy, nevertheless, the entire universe of time-space-matter-energy is infused with the divine presence. G-d and we can be infinitely close in this world, because each human being has a G-d-like transcendental neshamah. קדוש, קדוש, קדוש ה' צ-באות, but מלא כל הארץ כבודו. G-d is infinitely holy – separate from this world – but the world is full of G-dliness.
G-d wants us to live. G-d told us so, in the Torah:ובחרת בחיים (דברים ל, יט) - Choose life! The prophet repeated, speaking in G-d’s name: כי לא אחפוץ במות המת (יחזקאל יח, לב). - “I don’t even want the dead to die.” G-d addressed His kohanim with the same instruction: דבר אל אהרן אחיך, ואל יבא בכל עת אל הקודש ... ולא ימות (ויקרא טז ב) – “Speak to your brother, Aharon, that he not enter the sanctuary at every opportunity … so that he may not die.”
Paradoxically, the way to closeness to G-d requires acknowledging that we are not G-d, that G-d and we have separate identities, and that if we want to be close to G-d then we are called on to do what G-d wants. As we read last Shabbat, זה הדבר אשר ציווה ה' תעשו, וירא אליכם כבוד ה'. This is what G-d commanded that you do, so that G-d’s glory will appear to you. In order that we serve G-d - and not ourselves - we must serve G-d in the way that G-d commanded, the way that He expressed as His will. That is the way we will merit experiencing the presence of G-d’s glory. It will not do to attempt to force our will on G-d, worshipping Him as we want to. This was one fundamental error of Nadav and Avihu: they brought a fire G-d had not commanded.
But their mistake was even more fundamental. They wanted pure spiritual existence, closeness to G-d that is not possible for a living human being, in a human body. They were ready to die to achieve the closeness they wanted, even if they had to force that on G-d. As it says in Shir haShirim, "כי עזה כמות אהבה" (שיר השירים ח, ו) Love can be powerful to death. And so they burned the k’toret. That is the mixture of incense, whose fragrance is the most spiritual of all our forms of divine worship. R. Chaim ibn ‘Atar, the holy author of the Torah commentary OhrHaChaim wrote: “Aharon’s sons approached G-d’s lofty light, in sacred love … [with the intense longing for pure spirituality aroused by the k’toret,] their souls loathed their material flesh and burst out of their bodies, to be close to G-d.” The gemara in Shabbat (113b) describes their deaths as שריפת נשמה וגוף קיים – the neshamah was consumed, while the bodies remained.
This was what they wanted. But G-d wants us to live. G-d wants us to take no shortcuts to His closeness. G-d wants us to face the daily challenges that this material world presents to our spiritual souls. G-d wants us to work day after day, deed after deed, thought after thought, to uplift the material world and ourselves within it, to infuse it with spiritual meaning and with G-dliness.
My father and teacher, of blessed memory, devoted his entire life to this endeavor, and to helping thousands of others live this way. May his memory be eternally for a blessing, and may G-d grant that we continue in his path, living holy, Torah lives, close to G-d. Amen.
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