cash Torah

[David Seidenberg]

Hevra,

The book on ecology and Kabbalah is in progress with Camrbidge
University Press and I just celebrated my Jubilee birthday. Quite a
lot of transition. I wanted to share some Torah with you on the
occasion. Before that, I want to mention that I am available for
scholar-in-residence teaching around Tu Bishvat, which falls January
15th this year. Because of prior travel plans, coming to in the New
York and Denver areas would be especially easy.

So, here's a "shtickel" Torah--a little bit of Torah teaching. It's
the kind of Torah that Reb Shlomo Carlebach would call a "cash Torah"
-- something you can khop (get it) in one sentence, that is powerful
and impactful. ("Cash torah" because you can get it and use it right
away.)

The Talmud (Brakhot 35a-b) teaches that eating food without saying a
brakhah (a blessing) beforehand is like stealing. A lot of people know
that teaching, and it's pretty deep. But here's an even deeper part:
the Talmud doesn't call it "stealing", but "me'ilah", which means
taking from sacred property that belongs to the Temple. So that means
that everything in the world is sacred and this Creation is like a
HOLY TEMPLE.

That's the cash part. Here's the next part:

If me'ilah means that you can't use property that's sanctified, that's
because sanctified property must be used for a sacred purpose and it
must be used by the priests. So if saying a brakhah changes the status
of something so that you can now eat it, what status is the brakhah
changing? Is it turning the food into something that's no longer
sacred and can therefore be used by an ordinary person (a "hedyot")?
OR, is it turning the person from a hedyot into a priest?

I think it means that by saying a blessing before we eat--or before we
take in any pleasure that has a brakhah--we become like priests
administering to Creation, which means we take on an awesome
responsibility: that we should act not just for our own sakes but for
the sake of all people and all beings. That's the role of the priest
in the Temple.

Wow! As Shlomo hevra would say, I bless us that we all merit to really
see the world through such eyes, and that our every act of eating, of
taking, from this world, be an act of sanctification and blessing --
meaning, not just blessing God, but bringing blessing, to all the
creatures that we share this planet with. Or, in R' Moshe Cordovero's
words, may we live and work and act so that our actions "cause life to
stream forth, to all beings".

You can read more about Cordovero's ecologically-tuned Kabbalah in my
article on Kabbalah and ecology, from the Encyclopedia of Religion and
Nature at:http://neohasid.org/kabbalah/kabbalah_and_ecotheology/

You can also get the prayer for voting in advance of the Nov 5
election at: http://neohasid.org/resources/votingprayer/

Reb David Seidenberg

P.S. If anyone has special teachings or liturgy for "Thanksgivukkah"
they'd like to share on this list, please send them to me!