The hashkafic implacations of strikethrough

From Wikipedia:
Strikethrough (also called strikeout) is a typographical presentation of words with a horizontal line through the center of them. Here is an example.

It signifies one of two meanings. In ink-written, typewritten, or other non-erasable text, the words are a mistake and not meant for inclusion. When used on a computer screen, however, it indicates recently-deleted information. (The difference is that in the latter situation, the struck-through text previously was a legitimate part of the document.) It can also be used for humorous purposes, such as something that normally shouldn't be shown is shown anyway, but with the striketrough put on, rather than the text being deleted.

I admit, using strikethrough is nice, once in a while.  The new version of Blogger in draft allows one to publish using the typographic element of strikethrough.  In life I hardly ever use a pencil, I prefer pen.  When taking notes, if I make a mistake I simply mark it out with a pen.  I have no problem with this.  When it comes to typing a letter, email, or posting, I try to give as much of a finished product as possible.

When it come to Yiddishkeit and mitzvah performance, I'm not so sure where I stand on strikethrough.  One one hand, it's important to show ourselves and others that we make mistakes, think before we speak, and attempt to even take back things that we say (this can also be done with the DELETE or BACKSPACE key).

On the other hand, there is much to be said for a "finished product"' that represents hard work, rough drafts, editing, and spellcheck (currently missing in "Blogger in draft").  There are stuggles that one may have and accomplishments that one may have made that result in the "finished product".  These struggle and accomplishments might be of a private nature that only a close friend may know about.  It may be that only Hashem was privy to know of these things.

When it comes to giving chizuk, showing that I made a mistake in a certain area, and thus, exercised a strikethough on a particular thought, action, or word has merit.  However, showing the process involved in correcting something or doing teshuva seems to have even more merit, in my mind, as the total end result should be shelaymus (perfection).

Guest post by Rafi G: Minhagim-the spice of Judaism

I recently asked blogger Rafi G, from Life in Israel, about the importance of minhagim.  His well thought out answer is a must read.   

Neil asked me for my thoughts on maintaining a person's minhagim while learning in Yeshiva, and I thank him for giving me the opportunity to address you in his forum.


When I was in yeshiva I noticed a phenomenon. People were conforming to a standard method of behavior. They were no longer growing up doing things the way they had grown up doing them, the way they were raised to do them, but did things the way of the yeshiva.

I can understand why some people would want to change a personal custom for the more specific custom of a yeshiva. That being, people often do not want to stand out. Most of us do not want to look different. Somebody might think I am doing something the wrong way, so by changing what I do to what everyone else does, I protect myself.

There is also another reason I have found why some people change from their own customs to do things more generically like "most of the people around them". That would be that they often do not have the confidence in what they are doing and that what they are doing is correct.

I know somebody, nothing to do with yeshiva - he is not in yeshiva but the example still works, who has begun learning halacha much more now, in his late thirties, than he ever did before. He is coming across halchos that he did know about before, things he did differently than they way the Mishna Berura, for example, might explain something. This fellow, when he comes across these halchos, frequetly decides he was wrong before and changes what he does. Sometimes I tell him off, or other people do, and say that perhaps there is another source for what he did. Just because the MB writes to do something one way does not mean you did it incorrectly before, and it does not mean you should change your ways. The he will continue learning, and sometimes later in the same sefer, soemtimes in a different sefer, the Aruch Hashulchan for example, he will find another opinion explaining to do it the way he had been doing it all along.

Another example, someone told me this story about themselves. He learned something about making a bracha and washing. I do not remember the details of the halacha he learned, but he was very disturbed by it because he grew up knowing that his grandfather did that differently. This bothered him that his grandfather did it incorrectly (according to what he had just learned), so he came up with some sort of explanation that his grandfather did it because x,y, z and in this situatuion he would also have followed the MB. I told him, why are you making up a story to explain what your grandfather did. You have no idea and it is all a figment of your imagination. Maybe your grandfather had a custom, maybe he had a source from another sefer, or maybe the rav from the town he had come from told his kehilla a different way of doing things as being the right way. Sure enough, shortly later he found another source for what his grandfather had done.


By changing customs, often out of lack of confidence as to the "correctness" of what you are doing, you are not only changing a family custom, but you are being motzi la'az al ha'rishonim. You are saying your anscestors did not know what they were doing, and you know more than them. And that is hardly true.


In Europe there was no such thing as we have nowadays - everybody keeping their own customs. If you lived in Galicia youkept the Galicia minhagim. If in Germany, the German minhagim. if in Poland, the minhagim of Polish Jews. etc. It is only in recent generations, the generations of post-World War II that we live together in a community and each still keep minhagim from previous generations that differ with each other. Technically there should be a minhag of Jews in Chicago, and a minhag of Jews in new York, and a minhag of Jews in London, a minhag of Jews in Haifa, Jerusalem, Melbourne, wherever. But there is not. We keep our minhagim of previous generations. I do not know why that has changed. I assume it is because of the melting pot the world has become - the global village of sorts. It used to be people stayed put.  They lived there whole lives in one place. Nowadays, with the ease of travel, we move around from place to place, from community to community. Such a thing as a community custom might not even exist because everybody in the community comes from different places, merging various customs.

We all have customs how to do things. I wash before kiddush on Shabbos. I wore a tallis from when I was bar-mitzva even though I was not living in a yekkish kehilla (in the melting pot of America, and specifically Chicago, there are few community wide customs, so it is ok and common to see people in the same community following different customs). Did I have reasn to be embarrassed and refuse to wear my tallis or to wash before kiddush? I could have if done so. I stood out in the Litvishe yeshiva (Telshe) that I learned in. A teenager never wants to stand out. He is setting himself up for ridicule. But I did it. I continued wearing the tallis. I continued all my minhagim that I knew about.


I did so because minhagim are a piece of the rich history we have as Jews. We all come from different places with different backgrounds. They say the 12 tribes each had a different nusach of tefilla, and each had its own customs. We are not meant to merge and blend our customs into one. We should be proud of our anscestors, who often knew more than us, and we should follow in their ways. The variety of Judaism is the spice of Judaism.  Don't make Judiam bland by removing all the spice.

If...

"If you had to name one thing that repeatedly makes you angriest, what would it be?"

This question is from the book IF...Volume 2 by Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell.

Keep in mind that the Bal Shem Tov taught that when we we see negative traits in others we probably have that same trait in ourselves.

Upcoming release from Artscroll

Black hat tip from A Simple Jew

A Simple Jew emailed me a link announcing a new book from R Zelig Pliskin, TAKING ACTION.  This is little book should be great.

As I was checking Artscroll's website, I began to chuckle.  I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but the website states:

Scheduled to be released on August 14, 2008. Pre-order today!

Pre-order?  HaHaHaHa!  That's the best Mussar humor I've seen in a long time.  Yashar Koach to the folks at Artscroll.

To read more about this middah, click here. 

Sunday's Spark of Mussar

Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv, The Alter of Kelm
The words of our Sages are like sparkling stars hidden in the recesses of space.  The study of Mussar is a telescope that brings the stars within view of our human eyes.

From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik

Rav Hirsh on the prerequisite to peace

"וְהָאֱמֶת וְהַשָּׁלוֹם, אֱהָבוּ" - You shall love truth and peace


These words from the end of Zechariah 8:19 are quoted thoughout Rav Hirsch's writings.  R Eliyahu Meir Klugman eloquently write is his biography of Rav Hirsch that:

He explained that the concepts of truth and peace invariably occur in that order in Tanach, truth first and only afterwards peace, "For peace is not a father of truth; peach is the child of truth.  Win the people for truth, inalienable truth that can never be sold, nor even for the price of peace, when sacred causes are involved, and then true, everlasting peace will follow of itself." (page 314)

During the Three Weeks we all try to be a bit nicer.  There are time that I succeed and there are times when I seem to not be able to get past certain things.  It's a nesoyon (test) for me.  I accept that.  But, it seems that from the words of Rav Hirsch, making peace should not come at the expense of Emes.  In some cases, it's not the other party that need to see the truth, but ourselves.  We must only be willing to really see what the Emes is, despite any difficulties that may result. 

A story about Rav Kook and Reb Aryeh Levin

(Picture from istockphoto.com)

SerandEz has an awesome post last week titled "A List Letterman Won't Be Doing Anytime Soon " . I had actually planned on posting the except below a long time ago, but had forgotten about posting it until I read the above mentioned post.

This story about Rav Kook and Reb Aryeh Levin from A Tzadik in Our Time is one that I tell my kids as soon as they can understand the lesson within it.

who taught him compassion

In his memoirs Reb Aryeh wrote:

I recall the early days, from 1905 onward, when it was granted me by the grace of the blessed Lord to go up to the holy land, and I came Jaffa. There I first went to visit our great master R. Abraham Isaac Kook (of blessed memory), who received everyone. We chatted together on themes of Torah study. After an early minhah (afternoon prayer-service) he went out, as his hallowed custom was, to stroll a bit in the fields and gather his thoughts; and I went along. On the way I plucked some branch or flower. Our great master was taken aback; and then he told me gently, "Believe me: In all my days I have taken care never to pluck a blade of grass or a flower needlessly, when it had the ability to grow or blossom. You know the teaching of the Sages that there is not a single blade of grass below, here on earth, which does not have a heavenly force (or angel) above telling it, Grow! Every sprout and leaf of grass says something, conveys some meaning. Every stone whispers some inner hidden message in the silence. Every creation utters its song (in praise of the Creator)."

Those words, spoken from a pure and holy heart, engraved
themselves deeply on my heart. From that time on I began to feel a strong sense of compassion for everything. (Pages 108-109)

There are many times when it would be faster to walk to shul by cutting across a grassy stretch of land on Shabbos or easier to 'cut across the grass' or even walk over the planted grass that for some reason is in the middle of a parking lot. There are times when it's easier or quicker, I know. I, mostly, try to stay on the sidwalk, though. Mainly because of this story. If each blade of grass and stone has meaning, then even more so, each person.

Sunday's Spark of Mussar

Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv, the Alter of Kelm

A person who slaughters his Evil Inclination is considers to have offered a sacrifice on the alter. But he must now the laws of kosher slaughtering- how and what to slaughter.

From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik

Guest post @ A Simple Jew

Bottled Up Inside is now posted at A Simple Jew's blog.

Tinok ben Aviva was named...

...Avrohom Yeshayahu (after the Chazon Ish) ben Eytan Dovid...
I was told that over 1000 people were in attendance at the Bris.

Sunday's Spark of Mussar

Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv, The Alter of Kelm

"Avohom raised his eyes." (Genesis 22). The Torah emphasizes that even the raising of eyes should be the result of thought and intent.

From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik

As an aside, please see this story about R Eliyahu Lopian:
While waiting for a bus in Yerushalyim with one of his talmidim, Rav Lopian was learning. At some point he picked his head out of the sefer he had and looked up to see if the bus was coming. Right after he did this, he turned to his student and said something like, "Had I been in Kelm and did this, I would have gotten an hour mussar shmooze."

The idea being two fold:
a) Looking to see if the bus was coming doesn't make the bus come any faster
b) It's a bus. Is a bus so important that you are willing to give up even a second of your seder in learning. Who is in control? You or the bus?

Mensch-Israel blog update

Letter One pages 1-2 has just been posted here on the Mench-Israel blog.

Have a great Shabbos Kodesh!

Where Hashem's Shechinah resides

During an Avos U'banim (father and son) learning program on Shabbos I had a discussion with my son (entering 3rd grade) and one of his friends (entering 5th grade) about behavior and kavod (honor) that we need to have while in a shul or beis midresh.

I quoted the Gemora in Megillah 29a that states the since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple) Hashem's Shechinah (Presense) which use to reside in the the Beis HaMikdash, now on a certain level resides in a beis haknesses (shul) and beis hamidrash (study hall).

My son's friend piped up, "I thought that Hashem is everywhere?"
My son then quickly quoted the famous Uncle Moishy lines, "Hashem is here, Hashem is there...Hashem is truly everywhere."

They brought up a good point. I submitted to the following analogy to hopefully explain this concept:

We know that the sun give us light all over the section of the Earth that it shines upon. However if you were to take a magnifying glass and put a leave under it, with some careful focusing you can focus part of the sun's light and burn a leaf (this was a favorite activity of mine when I was younger). By doing this we are not taking away any of the light that's being shined by the sun. So to, as I explained to my son and his friend, when we say that Hashem's Shechinah resides in both shuls and batei midrashim, it doesn't mean that Hashem is only in these places and not everywhere else. The Shechina itself is only being re-focused in certain locations. That focusing of doesn't take away from Hashem being everywhere.

The power of Ratzon...

... or the great escape.

Friday morning my wife and I woke up to our 21 month old uber-daughter yelling, "Out! Out!". We then heard a thump, some crying and a door open. I got out of bed and when into the hallway to find our daughter out and about.
I found our two older children playing and asked them, "Did you take your sister out of the crib?"
They both answered in the negative.

I looked at our toddler and said, "Did (insert name of brother here) take you out of the crib?"

She said, "No."

"Did (insert name of sister here) take you out of the crib?"

Again, "No."

"Who took you out of the crib?"

She looked at me, raised her right hand up in the air, as if she was in a classroom, and answered, "Me."

Rav Dessler teaches that ratzon, desire, is the root of all action and that Hashem will help fullfill ones' ratzon. He gives the example of a a thief who wants to steal something will, with effort, acquire the desired object. Of course, our desire, as Rav Dessler write in Michtav M' Eliyahu, to grow in closenss to Hashem or work on Middos perfection will also be assisted by Hashem.

In this case, my daughter simply wanted out of her crib. My wife's desire, latter that morning was for me to lower the mattress in the crib. No more suprise escapes...for now!

Tinok ben Aviva home this past Shabbos

Received via email...

"Chasdei Hashem Yisbarach. With endless gratitude to HaKB"H for His endless rachamim, we would like to inform all of you chashuv mispallelim that Tinok ben Aviva has, after close to six months post birth, finally arrived at his home in the heart of Sha'arei Chessed on Erev Shabbos Kodesh, parshas Chukas."

Around the Shabbos Table-from the Salant Foundation

From the Salant Foundation's email list:
AROUND THE SHABBOS TABLE\CHUKOS

As the People of Israel traveled through the desert on their way to the Land of Israel, they came to the border of Edom, who were the descendents Eisev. Moshe asked the leaders of Edom permission for his people to pass through Edom because it was the most direct route to Israel. Moshe explained that his people "will not pass through field or vineyard." Meaning, that they will circumvent the residential areas, so that their passing will not cause any damage.

The leaders of Edom refused Moshe's request and amassed troops at the borders. Israel could have defeated Edom, just as they defeated the more powerful kingdoms of Og and Sichon. However, Moshe elected to withdraw and took a circuitous route around Edom.

What was the rationale of Moshe's decision? Why did he feel it was more important to yield to Edom, than to take lead millions of people on a longer, more dangerous route?

Moreover, there were several compelling reasons for Moshe to go through Edom. Firstly, Moshe had permission from HaShem to bring Am Yisrael through Edom. Secondly, Edom refused even though they heard the great miracles that HaShem had performed for Israel. Lastly, their stubborn refusal and aggressive response revealed that had were openly hostile to Am Yisrael. Since Edom were descendents of Eisev, they were "family" of Am Yisael.

Therefore, Moshe decided that family peace should be preserved under all circumstances.

Family relationships are a special gift from HaShem. Therefore, we should endeavor to preserve and protect our family relationships, as much as possible. As a result, HaShem will bless us with peace - the supreme element for quality living.

TODAY: Strive to make peace with all of your family members. To subscribe (free) to eMussar send email to salant@netvision.net.il or visit our website www.salantfoundation.org
Please share eMussar with a family member or friend.
eMussar" Copyright © 2008 by Rabbi Zvi Miller and the Salant Foundation