A New Vocabulary Word?

 The purpose of this blog is to expand everyone's vocabulary to the Shabbat table... Please print and share...

In memory of my grandmother Yehudis bas Alexander, whose yahrzeit was observed this week.

Here's an interesting question to try at your Shabbat table:

Can you guess what's the #1 question asked to rabbis?

In my opinion, the answer is: "Why the Holocaust?"

Or some version of that.... 

Next question: What's really bothering someone when they ask that question?

It seems to me that what's bothering them is: How can a putatively good God allow innocent people to suffer?

Not a new question, not unique to Judaism, yada yada. 

But I'd like this week to focus on one aspect of that question that came up recently.

Recently, someone asked me, "OK, let's say for the sake of discussion that I accept that there is a reason for everything and that God has a masterplan and that one day it will all make sense. But why does it appear never-ending? We're supposed to be good to each other, we're not, we're going in circles, it looks like a never-ending cycle."

So again, what's the question? What's bothering this person?

Maybe what's bothering him is: How are we meant to get out of the cycle? How are we meant to repair the world?

It seems to me that the key to humanity's "salvation" is learning how to master maklokus.

Maklokus means argument or disagreement. 

The Talmud says that there are two kinds, good maklokus and bad maklokus.

Good makokus is when we're loving and respectful and we happen to disagree, and we're both arguing - sometimes passionately - not because we each want to win but because we each want to arrive at the Truth. Arguing is like playing tennis - I need you to argue with me either to help me see flaws in my thinking or to help me solidify my thinking. 

Bad maklokus is when we're neither loving nor respectful, we're not seeking clarity, we're both convinced a priori that we have the Truth and the only goal is to win.

Bad maklokus is thesis-antithesis.

Good maklokus is thesis-antithesis-synthesis.

Question for your table - How can you make sure that every maklokus is a good one?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Yes, as always, that pic up there is clickable....
PPS - Shopping on Amazon? Please use https://smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate a % of the sale to the non-profit of your choice (such as Jewish Spiritual Literacy), at no extra cost to you. Why not? 
 
Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers!  Like it, tweet it, forward it....

Could it Be Any Other Way?

The goal of this blog is to bring peaceful conversation to your Friday night dinner. Please print and share.
In honor of our great friend in Jerusalem, whose birthday was this week - Happy Birthday, Pinchas.

A young woman phoned me the other day - someone I've never met - with a burning Jewish question, that is so good I offer to you as this week's Table Talk question:

Did God have to create a world with pain and suffering?

It seems to me the answer must be yes....

....or no

Let's start with the no.

The question assumes that we're talking about creating a world with a specific purpose. Let's say that purpuse is for us to achieve a certain thing. So the question is, did God have to create this purposeful world with pain and suffering - was it impossible to create a world with the same potential but without the pain and suffering?

If the answer is "no" - that God could have created creatures with the same potential yet without the pain and suffering, then it seems to point to God the sadist. Why would God make us suffer unnecessarily?

OK, so perhaps God is a sadist.

But if that's so, then God isn't a very successful god. After all, millions of people are happy. Millions of people - despite their pains and sufferings - are enjoying many blessings. If God were a sadist, he's not batting 1000.

So we have to reject the "no" answer and turn to the "yes" answer - that God had to create this purposeful world with pain and suffering, or at least with the potential for pain and suffering (perhaps triggered by our own actions).

That is, we need pain and suffering in order to achieve our purpose.

What is that purpose?

Simply put: knowledge of God.

In other words: the pain and suffering are custom-designed for each person to achieve divine knowledge.

The reason people are confused by this is because our materialistic culture teaches us that our purpose is material (money, leisure).

Judaism is a spiritual culture, teaching us that our purpose is spiritual.

In a materialistic culture, pain and suffering are inherently bad, because they are the opposite of comfort.

In a spiritual culture, comfort is not the goal. The goal is enlightenment, and usually this only comes through discomfort.

The girl's question was, Couldn't God have made a world with the same enlightenment but without the discomfort (pain)?

The answer is no, because learning to deal with discomfort is part of the enlightenment. Without discomfort, we would be missing certain facets of the jewel of enlightenment:

Without someone testing my patience, how will I learn patience?
Without someone testing my calmness, how will I learn calmness?
Without having my honesty tested, how will I learn honesty?
Without feelings of laziness, how will I learn zeal?

And so on.

And here's the real zinger for your table:

What's the greatest discomfort (pain) in the world?

I'm interested in your answers. Here's mine:

The greatest pain in the world is the bruised ego.

That's why the Torah starts with the legend of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Their great mistake wasn't eating the fruit - it was their refusal or inability to admit they'd done something wrong.

Thus the singlemost important thing you and I can do right now in order to become enlightened is to look in the mirror and practice over and over saying the two hardest phrases in the English language:

- "You are right - I'm wrong"
- "I'm sorry."

Only by embracing the pain of saying those two phrases can a person become truly great.

Good luck....

....and Shabbat Shalom

PS - There is another, less painful, route to enlightenment, and you can find it here.

Don't Think Too Much

The purpose of this email is to provide something deep for Friday night dinner conversation. Please print and share.

"Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so." - Bertrand Russell

As you may know, I put that great Russell witticism in Chapter 3 of The Art of Amazement, along with a parallel quote from Thomas Jefferson.

Today's first question for your table is a simple one: Why do we hate thinking?

Here is a short provocative article on the nature of "nothingness" that may get you thinking....or not.

Question #2 - What is fundamentally missing from this article?

(I have tried to write a comment but keep getting a "technical error" - so if you'd like to hear my own critique, send an email.)


Shabbat Shalom




The iPhone app: http://tinyurl.com/amazingcalendarlink
Android version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingandroidcalendar
Bar and Bat Mitzvah gift suggestions at bestjewishkidsbooks.com (a service of JSL).