Jacob’s ladder reaches up through the worlds to the inwardness of G-d called the Infinite Light. The point of our religion (with its 613 commands) is to bring us up those rungs to meet HaShem there face to face, core to core. That is what our First Commandment asks of us, to behold the simple oneness that Hashem refers to when He says, “I am….”2,3

It’s a multi-millennial journey with milestones along the way. Meor v’Shemesh divides the path into three stages based on the Torah’s account of the revelation at Sinai. The sequence is: 1) hearing the truth, 2) seeing the Light, and finally 3) beyond mind and sensory experience, just being with the One. His teaching has practical implications for us today.

Meor v’Shemesh derives the first two stages from the Torah as follows:

1) HaShem proposes that Moshe receive the revelation as an exclusive encounter between himself and HaShem, inviting the people to witness, from afar, their private exchange.
“And HaShem said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you…’”4

2) a) The people reject their spectator role and insist upon a direct experience of the revelation.
“We wish to hear the revelation directly from the mouth of our King. To hear from an intermediary is not like hearing from the king himself…And furthermore, our wish is to see our King. For hearing is not like seeing.”5

b) HaShem concedes to their request:
“All the people saw the sounds…” “They saw what is otherwise only heard.”6 (Rashi)

3) This prophetic seeing overwhelms them. Their souls fly from their bodies at every word. HaShem resuscitates them again and again. Finally, after the first two commands, they ask HaShem to reinstate Moshe as their intermediary.
“…And when the people saw it, they were shaken, and stood far away. They said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will hear. But let God not speak with us any more, for if He does we will die.7

4) Moshe assuages them:
“Do not be afraid for G-d is only testing you…8

Meor v’Shemesh explores what this test is about. He explains that our journey up Jacob’s ladder to fulfill the First Commandment requires us to become ever more immune to strange fire[9] (a Biblical term that has come to include all manner of tainted pleasures).[10] At each forward step, our awareness includes more and more of the hidden realms. Yet there are hindrances along the way that distract us with a bribe of some (perhaps quite subtle) ego gratification—another term for strange fire. The higher we climb the more subtle the lures. On the physical plane we get hooked by food and riches and lusts of every sort, yet it’s pretty clear what’s holy and what’s not. Though we might not muster the strength to resist, we know when we’ve done wrong. But on the inner planes truth gets fuzzier and the standards of integrity grow more precise. The focus shifts from rightness-of-action to purity of intent.

And so, says Meor v’Shemesh, even at the rarefied levels of Hearing Truth and Seeing the Light Hashem tests our resistance to strange fire which appears there as spiritual materialism. Can we enjoy the gift of revelation without puffing in self-importance? Do we fixate on the messenger and end up distorting the message? Can we resist the urge to freeze the frame and instead meet the future with proactive wisdom? Are we even aware that these problems exist?

Sinai was both a test and an initiation. HaShem made it clear what He expects from us—we must grow immune to the lure of strange fire no matter how subtle its bait. Life is our training ground.

On the physical plane it certainly makes sense to avoid temptations when possible. But the effort to eliminate stumbling-blocks must be accompanied by inner work. Otherwise it will not succeed and is likely to even backfire, in part for the following reasons.

• When a person succeeds in removing lustful enticements he starts to become more sensitive to what were previously neutral stimuli. He discovers a new set of more subtle triggers that must now be avoided as well. The list of culprits grows longer while his zone of comfort shrinks to the size of a prison cell. His life is controlled by the very scourge he sought to avoid.

• It doesn’t serve us in the long term. If our only solution for lustful thoughts is to banish whatever triggers them, we never develop mastery over our inner world. Our immediate enticements can (perhaps) be managed this way, but we don’t develop the skills to pass the tests that await us on the higher rungs of Jacob’s ladder—tests that require a practiced ability to gauge our purity of motive, to admit where it is lacking and to endure humiliation for the sake of truth.

The reason that avoidance of temptation must be supplemented by meditative work is because the problems don’t originate with the enticements themselves. The outer stimuli are simply triggering impurities of soul we’ve all inherited from primordial times, no blame. And now that our weak-spots are visible we can begin to repair them. And the tool for that work is a particular form of meditation called התפשטות הגשמיות (disengaging from material distractions) that our Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Aruch) considers a necessary preparation for prayer (and actually for fulfilling the even more basic obligation to “keep HaShem’s presence with us at all times.”)11

Hitpashtut hagashmiut is a method of not just quieting thoughts but of mastering them. The practice is simple. First choose something as the focus of your meditation (which could be a verse, a name of G-d, a holy word, or a prayer). Next, try to hold your mind on that focus for ten minutes or more. When your attention wanders, which it surely will, return to your focus and let the distraction go. You don’t fight it. You don’t suppress it. You don’t condemn yourself for its presence. You just shift your attention back to your focus. And so it goes, again and again, throughout the period you’ve designated for this work. The thoughts arise (which they inevitably will)12 and you let them go (reinforcing your independence from them). That’s it for starters.

Each time you dismiss the distraction and return to your focus you strengthen the muscle of self-determination. The distraction loses its power to intimidate and your nerve net absorbs the skill (and the habit) of holding its focus. Hitpashtut hagashmiut breaks the link between reactivity and action. An impulse arises and I can choose not to let it distract me. This muscle develops through daily meditation and strengthens year after year.

One who meditates KNOWS that the blame for wayward thoughts is partly from outer stimuli and partly from not taking responsibility for his or her inner world. If we don’t add meditation to our tool belt and deem it as essential as the strategy of avoidance, we will not advance beyond the lower rungs of Jacob’s ladder.

HaShem: Let it be that on this Shavuot, when the highest lights of Torah stream through the universe, that we remember who we are—masters of our inner world, guardians of the outer one, and a light unto the nations. May we internalize Your Torah to the depths of our being so that we become transformed by Your will and its truths. Let us become ever more immune to the lures of strange fire that distract us from You, compromise our integrity and keep us sidetracked from the real work (and blessings) at hand.
———————–
ר’ קלונימוס קלמן הלוי עפשטיין, מאור ושמש, רמזי שבועות, ד”ה ויאמר ה’ אל משה הנה אנוכי בא אליך… וגם ד”ה וכל העם רואים…
2 The first commandment of the Torah begins with the words: “I am the Lord your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
3 Pesikta 21; Zohar 2:85b. “We have been taught that when the “I” was proclaimed, all those commandments of the Torah…were comprised in it…”
4Ex. 19:9.
5Mekhilta, Tractate BaChodesh, Chapt. 2; Rashi on Ex. 19:9
6 Ex. 20:15 and Rashi there.
7 Ex. 20:15-16.
8 Ex. 20:17.
9 Meor v’Shemesh doesn’t actually use the language of strange fire. He speaks more abstractly but it is clear that this term faithfully conveys his intention.
0 Lev. 10:1; Bmidbar 3:4; 17:2; 26:61
1 Tur, Orech Chayim, 98; Shuchan Aruch, Orech Chayim 98.
2 Trying to prevent spiritually unproductive thoughts from arising is a losing battle (See Tanya, chapt. 26 & 27). Expecting them to stay pent up and invisible, is a HUGE energy drain that will never succeed. In hitpashtut hagashmiut you don’t try to prevent their arising, you simply direct your energy away from them and back to your meditative focus and they dissipate. It depressurizes the psyche, releasing its energies for more productive use.

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People who are accustomed to follow the kabbalistic Seder of fruits and wine on Tu B’Shvat organize their (thirty) fruits according to certain criteria. There are three intersecting (and somewhat conflicting) scales of measure.
(The Intrinsic) Scale of Klipa
This scale measures an innate feature of the fruit itself—the amount, placement, and intensity of its klipah (the inedible skins and pits attached to the fruit). In mystical texts, klipa is the skin or shell that surrounds each sliver of soul (be it human, animal, plant or mineral) and marks it out from every other, producing the illusion of multiplicity when really there is only One. We’ll call this the Scale of Klipa. At its lowest end are fruits with inedible skins or shells that must be removed to access the fruit. The next rung up are those with inedible pits or seeds hidden within. And finally at the top of the scale are fruits that are edible through and through. This hierarchy is a rich subject for observation, contemplation and meditation but it does not have halachic import at the Seder.

(The Objective) Scale of Yichus [i.e., Pedigree]
Next is a Scale of Yichus (you might say), which begins with the seven special fruits indigenous to Israel and continues with the fruits that are mentioned explicitly in the Bible and then, finally those named in the Mishna and Talmud. Status on the Scale of Yichus comes from association with holy writ. And since these texts have varying authority, so do the fruits mentioned therein.
When HaShem promised the land of Israel to the Jewish people, He mentioned seven local edibles by name to prove that this was His most prized real estate.
G d is bringing you to a good land—a land with flowing streams, and underground springs gushing out in valley and mountain. It is a land of wheat, barley, grapes, figs and pomegranates—a land of oil-olives and honey-[dates]. It is land where you will not eat rationed bread, and you will not lack anything…(Deut. 7:6-8).

The rabbis teach that when it comes to raw produce these seven are the most distinguished of all foods. Two are grains and five are fruits. Yet even among them a hierarchy exists. The word land occurs twice in this verse, and the closer a fruit appears to the word, land, the higher its status, and there are real privileges associated with its rank. According to Jewish law a pecking order exists among foodstuffs and we human beings must give honor where it is due.

Looking only at the five fruits, grapes are already 3rd in line from the first mention of land, whereas olives appear immediately after the Holyland’s second mention. Consequently the hierarchy of status with regard to fruits is: 1) olives, 2) dates, 3) grapes, 4) figs, 5) pomegranates.

Everyone knows that Jewish law forbids a person from eating before thanking G-d for the specific food that he or she is about to consume. When a person, with fruit in hand, before partaking, thanks G-d for the produce from fruit-bearing trees, all the other fruits at the table are covered by that blessing though only one was the actual focus of the brocha.

Every fruit hopes to be the one that inspires a blessing and gets tasted first. The spark that is its soul, has slowly made its way up through the ranks, enlivening minerals, now plants, soon animals, then humans and eventually (joyfully) tsadikim. It has, and will, spend painful years, centuries and perhaps even millennia in each kingdom. Yet now it has the chance to ascend many rungs in a single leap, boosted by the merit of instigating a blessing and being the one that gets eaten first. This is a privilege the Code of Jewish Law assigns to fruits based on their rank in the Scale of Yichus.[1]

So now, at a Tu b’Shvat seder, surrounded by thirty delectable fruits: How do you decide which to make the focus of your brocha, for only one out of all those thirty gets the privilege? One opinion is that the five fruits mentioned in the verse above are the elite of the fruit kingdom and must be accorded the honor that is their due. Hashem, Himself has set them apart which makes their superior status uncontestable.

Consequently, when faced with an array of fruits, the honor of being the focus of blessing goes to these five distinguished species, and if there are several present, it goes to the one of highest rank. So if olives are present, the blessing is always said on them.[1]

(The Subjective) Scale of Desirability
But the Code of Jewish Law brings a second opinion which gives primacy to the person’s genuine preference.2 The eater should say the blessing over the fruit that he likes best—the one that she honestly wants to eat first. In the Scale of Desirability the fruit’s rank is in the eyes of its beholder. It rises and falls according to the palette of the one who is about to eat it.
From this perspective, eating is an intimate encounter between a person and his food. It doesn’t make sense to force a person to eat olives first, when really he prefers an apple. This opinion weighs the person’s (subjective) wishes over the fruit’s (objective) yichus. The human’s right of self-determination overrides the aristocratic privileges of the fruit.

The Solution of the Pri Eytz Hadar (Guidebook for Tu B’Shvat Sedarim)[3]
For those who follow the first opinion, everyone at the table would say their blessing-of-gratitude-for-fruit-bearing trees over an olive, and then partake of all the other fruits which were covered by that blessing. Fortunate are the olives that land at such a table on Tu B’Shvat.
For those who follow the second opinion, everyone chooses the fruit that they prefer. Yet even here there is some confusion: Does this mean that they should choose their all-time favorite fruit, or the one that in this moment catches their eye? There are opinions in both directions.
The Pri Eytz Hadar suggests the following practice which honors both values. Each person should pick the fruit that is their favorite, the one that they want to honor with their blessing. Then the Seder proceeds according to the Scale of Yichus. Meaning, in terms of fruit, the olives are distributed and verses are read where olives are mentioned. Then, the person who chose olives as their favorite, says a blessing and eats their olive. But no one else eats olives yet. Then dates are distributed, verses are read, the one who chose dates recites the blessing, and that person can now eat not only dates, but all that came before (in this case, olives). Next the grapes are distributed, verses are read, the one who chose grapes recites the blessing and he or she can now eat all that came before. Everyone else has all these previously blessed fruits on their plate but they have not yet tasted them, for they are waiting till their favorite fruit comes up in the Scale of Yichus which proceeds as follows:
1) Olives 2) Dates 3) Grapes 4) Figs 5) Pomegranate 6) Etrog 7) Apple Walnut 9) Almond 9) Carob 10) Pear 11) Quince 12) Peach 13) Etc.
Not all of these fruits have to be claimed as the favorite by someone at the seder since those who choose fruits later on the list may have to wait quite a while before they partake. It is also fine for more than one person to choose each fruit.
Tu B’Shvat is New Year’s Day for fruit-bearing trees. May it be a year of abundant rain, nutritious soil, conscious pruning, right temperatures, successful pollination, disease and pest resistance, and bountiful harvest for the ilanot of the world. And may our Tu B’Shvat fruit-fest remind us that HaShem loves variety, color, vitality, sweetness and savor. And may we take that truth to heart. And may it change us in ways that serve only good.
———————-
1SA 211:1 and MB there (based on TB Brochot 40b, opinion of R. Yehuda in Mishna).
2SA 211:2 and MB there (based on TB Brochot 40b, opinion of Sages in Mishna).
3Pri Eytz Hadar, , Seder Tu B’Shvat (Mansour).

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The different terms for love and how they organize into a series of milestones that mark out a spiritual path (from Tanya, chapter 9, Zohar 11b/12a, Kuntres Hitpaalut)

1. Ahavat Olam. The process starts in the “head” as a shift of interest and intention. A decision arises—motivated by any number of things, but ultimately instigated by the nefesh Elokit (Divine soul)—to seek G-d, truth, authenticity, service, etc. Ahavat olam is a spiritual awakening that is totally unintegrated but which produces a calling.

2. Then begins the search, study and contemplation—the directing of one’s attention to G-d and spiritual things. This investment of time and energy now engages the daat (the sefira of integrated knowing which connects the head with the heart) and gradually one’s efforts and insights begin to penetrate the heart.

3. Slowly the heart awakens and begins to open an emotional channel with HaShem. Awe, fear, love, amazement, gratitude start to integrate and deepen.

4. Love intensifies to a passionate love (אהבה עזה- ahava aza) that overwhelms all other desires but by virtue of force (rather than sublimation). It’s a kind of romantic love of HaShem. In the language of Tanya the might of this love is from אכפיא (akafia-suppression) instead of אתהפכא (ashafcha-sublimation).

5. But slowly the heart transforms and purifies and one’s instinctive and reflexive desires (authentic desires) really do straighten and rectify as one comes to genuinely prefer G-dly pleasures over worldly ones.

6. The passionate (fiery) love gives way to what is called great or mighty love (אהבה רבה – ahava raba) which is more quiet and stable and compared to coals as opposed to flames. It doesn’t need to be constantly fanned but just burns steady on its own.

7. This mightly love effects a further transformation where the love integrates still deeper into ones heart, bones, cells and spaces…until it takes on a cool, watery quality called אהבה בתענוגים (ahava b’taanugim) which means literally a love of delights (but the delights referred to are the sweetnesses of Shabbat and all that it represents).  Ahava b’taanugim marks the complete integration of head and heart / love and fear and might best be translated as equanimity or deep and quietly joyful well-being…nachas.

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Announcing the release of a new book:

PurimBursts 2

the second decade of Purim teachings from A Still Small Voice.

( Hardcover, small format, 168 pp.). $14.95 / 50 NIS.

20% Discount on all orders received before Purim ($11.96 / 40 NIS plus shipping)

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Dear Friends,

The “You Are What You Hate” class will be moving from Nachlaot, Jerusalem, to the German Colony. Please read below for details!

Many thanks, A Still Small Voice Staff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Class: “You Are What You Hate”- A spiritually productive approach to dealing with enemies and the Yetzer haRah (Women only). Learn what the masters of Chassidut have to say about this powerful topic, which is relevant to our everyday lives and struggles.

Day: every Wednesday, starting from January 5 (THIS WEEK!)

NEW LOCATION: The Kolot Building, 17 Rachel Immeinu, German Colony

Cost:35 shekels per drop-in class

30 shekels per class if paid in full, upfront, for all 4 classes in January

(= bring 120 shek for 4 classes and save 20 shekels, plus you receive the audio mp3 download for each class)

Contact: Debra

dpellface at aol dot com

We look forward to seeing you there! (Women only)

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…The Jewish way does not easily lend itself to popularization for several reasons. First, it is mistrustful of that very experience which has become the selling point of most commercially successful ventures in the human potential movement. Judaism insists that one seek truth and not the experience of truth. The “high” that often accompanies spirtual practices (and becomes the stated or unstated goal of many) is, from a Jewish persepctive, the point of failure. It is the point of lapsing back into self consciousness (as opposed to G-d consciousness). For this reason, the traditional Jewish world is largely unimpressed by dramatic catharsis and psychic phenomena.

~Excerpt from Lesson 1, The Enlightened Body
For further light, visit our School

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This Shavuot teaching is dedicated to the health and prosperity of Moshe Aharon ben Bess and was sponsored by his loved ones.

Shavuot, 5770 (2010)

Based on Sod Yesharim (Radziner Rebbe)

(the actual text appears below)

While HaShem revealed the Torah no bird chirped, no fowl flew, no ox lowed, the Ophanim stirred not a wing, the Seraphim ceased their “Holy, Holy, Holy’s,” the sea did not roar, and no creature peeped…the whole world held still in breathless silence while the voice reverberated: I AM HASHEM YOUR GOD [and spoke the Commandments that changed our world.]… (Shmot Rabba 29:9)

We Jews pride ourselves in the fact that our religion began as a collective revelation. An estimated four million people (divided into 600,000 family units) simultaneously experienced a direct encounter with the infinite One.1 A searing revelation of Presence engraved the souls of an entire nation with the-truth-of-the-universe compressed into a single burst of light. Its impact continues to impel their generations to be seekers and servants of G‑d, and is certain to do so till the end of time.

Tradition teaches that each family that exited Egypt embodied a root soul, one of 600,000 that comprise the pool of neshamot incarnating, generation after generation, as the Israelite nation. Every Jew from that point onward embodies a different sliver of one of those 600,000 root souls—actualizing a drop of its potential through the odyssey of his or her life.

This means that every Jewish soul carries a memory trace of that Sinaic encounter. And it is partly because of this—because we heard it with our own “ears” so to speak—that we are bound by the covenant that was sealed that day. Somewhere, deep down, our soul remembers that earth-shaking event and the obligations it undertook at the mountain’s base.

But wait! The fact is we only committed to 10 Commandments that day. How did our obligations mushroom into 613?

Our sages explain that, in fact, all of the mitzvot are included in those original ten.2 One proof is that the Ten Commandments contain 620 letters corresponding to the 613 Torah mitzvot plus 7 rabbinic commands.

But it’s even more complicated than that, for our own history attests that we actually only heard the first two commandments direct from HaShem.3 Their revelation was so intense we feared for our lives—our souls flew from our bodies at each word. HaShem revived us with His resurrecting dew, the same drops He will use to restore souls to bodies in the end of days. We “died” over sixty times in those first two commandments. It was just too much, and finally we begged Moshe to be our intermediary and relay the message to us.

Even so, says the Oral Tradition, these first two Commandments, themselves, are comprehensive—every other mitzvah is simply a detail of how to fulfill one of these all-inclusive two. The First Commandment which declares the fact of God’s existence is the root of all the “248 positive directives,” those that require us “to do” a certain act of service. The Second Commandment, which forbids the worship of idols, is the root of all “365 negative commandants” that instruct us to abstain from a specific wrong-action. And really, says the midrash, both the positive and the negative are contained within the first one. If we really understood what it means that G‑d is one, as expressed through the First Commandment, our instinctive and reflexive response to the world would always accord with spiritual law—we would naturally and spontaneously choose the high road including any mitzvah relevant to the moment.

And so, the entire Torah is contained within the first commandment, which is not actually a command at all, but a declaration of truth: “I am HaShem your G‑d who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” Every Jewish soul heard these words straight from their Creator. And according to R. Tsadok HaKohen, the prophesy emanated from within and was vocalized through our very own voice box.4

The world was completely still when this truth-that-contains-all-other-truths was revealed. There could be no interference to distort its reception. The slightest static at this critical moment would garble the message for eternity. This global hush also proved that there were no dissenting views. Each creature was awed to silence when their Creator now revealed Himself as a personal G‑d—who speaks through prophesy, guides history, and demands virtue.

We took this First Commandment in as best we could but its implications were bigger than we could bear. The goal of our lives individually and collectively is to achieve an ever-deepening integration of what it means that G‑d is one. And towards this end, says the midrash, HaShem restates this fundamental truth over and over and over again. Each day HaShem rebroadcasts the First Commandment out into the world.

Why don’t we hear it? What keeps us from taking it in? The Sod Yesharim explains that we must reproduce the original conditions of its revelation. We must designate a time in our day to quiet our thoughts and cease activity. If we want to receive the First Commandment into our heart, bones, cells and spaces then we have no choice but to hush the static. And the tool for quieting chatter is meditation (in one form or another). If HaShem bothers to reiterate the First Commandment each day then we need to make the silent space to hear His message.

Let it be on this Shavuot, as the Torah is revealed anew, that we draw its precious teachings deep inside our souls. May it inspire an abundance of good deeds, joyful study, loving prayer and fruitful silence. And may the transformation born from this service radiate to the outskirts of the world. And may the Torah’s holy lights resolve the schism between truth and peace, and in so doing, bring Mashiach now.

—————————

Exodus 19: 6-20:15

2 Num. Rabbah 13:16; R. Saadia Gaon, Azharot; Rashi, Ex. 24:12.

3 Makkot 24a, Rashi Shmot 19:19

4 Tsidkat HaTsadik 193.

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This Tu Bi’Shvat teaching is dedicated to the complete and speedy recovery of Shoshana bat Sarah and was sponsored by some of her friends.

Tu Bi’Shvat: The New Year for Fruit Trees

Tu Bi’Shvat is the New Year’s day for fruit trees but it is important to note that this is not their day of judgment—that occurs months later in Sivan, on the holiday of Shavuot. The Mishna makes a distinction between these two types of days and lists four examples of each. The four New Year’s days are:

1st of Nissan – which starts a new year when reckoning the length of a king’s reign.

1st of Elul – which starts a new year for the tithing of animals (meaning that 10% of the livestock born in the previous year must be formally designated as gifts for the kohanim before this date).

1st of Tishrei (which is also Rosh HaShana) – which starts a new year for the counting of history as well as the tithing of grains and vegetables (and also for counting Sabbatical years).

15th of Shvat – which starts a new year for the tithing of fruits.

In contrast, the four judgment days are:

Pesach (15th of Nissan) – when Heaven decrees how much grain will be reaped in the coming year.

Shavuot (7th of Sivan) – when Heaven decrees how much fruit will be gathered in the coming year.

Rosh HaShana (1st of Tishrei) – when the spiritual (and by extension, material) resources that will be available to each creature are determined for the coming year.

Sukhot (15th of Tishrei) – when Heaven decrees how much rain will fall in the coming year.

There is one point of overlap between these two lists, and that is Rosh HaShana (the 1st of Tishrei) which is both a New Year’s and a judgment day.

We are all familiar with these judgment days—though we don’t usually think of them as such—for they are better known as our most distinguished holy days and, consequently, we observe them with great fanfare, as specified by the Torah. We refrain from melacha (creative work) and perform special rituals that help us absorb the spiritual gifts available on those days. Yet, our prayers and mitzvot apparently serve another purpose as well—they generate a pile of merits that will, hopefully, tip the scales toward a favorable verdict in the blessings that are allocated on those holy judgment days.

New Year’s days are different. Besides Rosh HaShana, they can pass unnoticed for without the Temple, there are no Torah obligations associated with them and, for city folk, especially outside the land of Israel, there is no practical observance that applies. So how do we mark these “minor” New Year’s days.

One clue is that the Hebrew word for New in the term New Year, actually, literally, means head (rosh). The idea is that according to kabbala, the beginning (or rosh) of something actually contains all the lights that are going to unfold in whatever it is the rosh of. Consequently, Jewish practice instructs us to give special attention to those first moments of each new cycle of time and fill them with prayer and holy thoughts. At the ins tant of wakening (the rosh of the day) we recite a prayer of gratitude; on the New Moon we sing Psalms of Praise (i.e., Hallel) along with special prayers; and on the rosh of the year we spend the entire day in prayer and celebration. Everything that occurs during that inaugural period (deeds, thoughts, prayers, emotions) impact the head of that cycle. And since the head defines and delimits future possibilities, anything that affects the head, affects all that will unfold in that cycle, even if its only contact with that cycle was in its first moment of formation.

Tu Bi’Shvat is the rosh of the fruit tree’s new year. All creatures have biorhythms. Plants go dormant in the cold winter damp. Bared of foliage trees look dead; they give no sign of viable life. Then in spring a growth phase begins; they bud and flower and bear their fruit. On Tu bi’Shvat the sap starts to rise and signals the flora to prepare for rebirth. It is the turning point when the plant kingdom shifts from death toward life.

As above, so below. As without, so within. The human being is a macrocosm that contains something of all the different layers of creation within itself. That’s one interpretation of what it means to be created “in the image of G-d.” And so, says kabbala, we all have a:

Mineral layer that includes the physical materials, the “dust and water” out of which we are formed;

Plant layer that includes all the vegetative functions that our body constantly performs: cell divisions, circulation, respiration, metabolism, etc.;

Animal layer that includes all the primitive thoughts and emotions, fight or flight responses, locomotion, pleasure principle, reproductive drives, etc.;

Human layer that includes our speech and conceptual thoughts, complex emotions, visions and aspirations.

And it is the vegetable layer that oversees our physical health. Its autonomic activity heals wounds, balances hormones, neutralizes toxins, metabolizes food, eliminates intruders, etc. (In contrast, the animal layer manages our emotional health, which is why efforts toward self-improvement must enlist its support if they are to produce enduring change.)

Consequently, Tu Bi’Shvat marks the point in our own biorhythms when one cycle of health completes itself and a new cycle begins. Tu Bi’Shvat is an opportunity to regroup, correct imbalances, and begin a new phase of health and healing—to boost the body’s efficiency on the vegetable layer.

What is the practice? How do we make the best use of the energies available on this New Year’s day for fruit trees? The tradition is simple: eat fruits of all sorts; admire the shape, color, taste and uniqueness of each one; and say blessings with deep intention.

This is actually a powerful practice; it conveys a deep secret about how to exert positive influence over the body’s vegetable layer that normally operates beyond conscious control and which oversees our physical wellbeing.

1) By surrounding ourselves with fruit of every sort, the successful harvest of last year’s cycle, we impress the picture of robust health onto the plant layer of ourselves using symbols that are meaningful to it. The form and color of each fruit is an icon that triggers associations in the plant layer of soul. These subliminal suggestions of health and success penetrate the unconscious and leave transformation in their wake. Each fruit expresses a unique way of turning ra w materials into something that is beautiful, healthy and life-nurturing. Admire the fruit. Notice its shape, color, taste and beauty.

2) Pray. Say your brachot with special intention. Create your own blessing for yourself and others that expresses the particular beauty of each fruit as an affirmation, for example, “Your cheeks should be as rosy and your Torah as sweet as this crisp and rosy apple.”

3) Eat with remembrance of G‑d. Meditate on the Creator of the fruit as you bite, chew and swallow it.

I want to bless us that as individuals, as members of the community of Israel and the larger world community that we should, through our Tu Bi’Shvat celebration, draw the special lights of this time into the depths of our souls, and of the world and of every creature in it, bringing light and trust and healing there. And in so doing may we contribute, in our small way, to the six millennial process of tikun olam. May all that we do be pleasing in HaShem’s eyes.

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What: A rare occasion of tremendous learning and inspiration with Sarah Yehudit (Susie) Schneider

Topic: On the Kabbalah of Ahavat Yisrael (Love)

When: Wed. December 2nd

Time: 8pm

Where: 1537 Edris Dr. Beverlywood, CA 90035

Contact: olivia@chaicenter.org

This is bound to be unforgettable encounter with one of the great Tzadikim of our time. Don’t miss it.

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“The ultimate conquest, kabbalistically, is to eat something. That’s a weird statement, but let’s look at the mechanics of eating to understand what it means: When I eat a piece of food, something that was not me, now becomes a part of me. It is the ultimate kinyan (acquisition). A final and irreversible conquest occurs when I eat something. … Before I ate it, that fruit, vegetable or animal was doing its own self-directed thing…and now, after being eaten, it is reduced to serving my trip. Before it had its own trip. Now its serving mine.”

“Really the whole world of geopolitics comes down to who will eat who. Not literally, but in terms of whose narrative, whose scripture, whose ideology, whose story of why we are here, and where we are going, and what G‑d wants from us ….whose narrative is going to prevail, and absorb everyone else into its story line.”

- Sarah Yehudit Schneider

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