This time the word play is from withIN the Holy Tongue (full version published on the blog Beyond BT - Torah Judaism for Growth Focused Jews). Truly, this is more than linguistic acrobatics:
בס"ד
An Innocent Mistake?
~ Chanuka 5768 ~
One of the most symbolic mistakes I've ever made as a newly religious Jew was the way I had been pronouncing – for YEARS! – a verse in the Hallel HaGadol. You see, I had always enjoyed flowing with this series of ki l'oilam chasdo praises for all those fabulous miracles done for our people throughout the expanse of history. From the time I began regular tfilla {praying}, I felt I could resonate with the meaning of these words, in contrast to many other tfillas which took quite awhile to identify with, let alone pronounce correctly.
Thus it was that one day, as I was learning about the deeper meaning of Chanukah, I did a double-take. The drasha {exposition} was explaining how the Chanukah miracle was associated with one of the concluding lines in that prayer:
b'SHIF'Leinu zachar lanu, ki l'oilam chasdo {in our lowliness He remembered us, since His kindness is forever}.
"Oh WOW," I exclaimed to myself, with an embarrassed chuckle. "I had always read this as b'SHVILeinu… {for our sakes …}!"
As I continued to learn, the depth behind this "mistake" became painfully clear. Our nation was t-o-t-a-l-l-y unworthy of the Chanukah miracle. We were so extremely shafel {in the spiritual pits}, that it was below what the Creator had designated for being within the purview of His planned interventions. In contrast to Pessach, for example, we weren't nationally hanging on to even that 1 / 50th level of purity that was the basis of meriting the Exodus. Rather, we had been forgoing circumcision, disusing our holy language and dress, forsaking Shabbos, making public declarations of atheism, etc., etc.
Similarly, I'd learn how the classic mashal {metaphor} about the nature of the feasting we do on the holy days must be modified to accommodate the two Rabbinic holydays, Purim and Chanukah. Whereas on the Sabbath our souls are said to be lifted up to the King's castle to dine with Him and on the holydays the experience is likened to His glory visiting our homes, on Chanukah and Purim the spiritual reality is comparable to a King who comes looking to visit His beloved son… and we're not there! So He starts searching, hears a faint moan, follows it until peering into a deep, dark pit – Oy! There we are.
"Gevalt," the King cries. "My son, my precious son. How did you get in there? I thought I told you to stay farrrr away from these pits!"
But we had no answer.
Then and there, the mashal continues, His royal Majesty jumps into the pit, to the utter consternation of His ministers. "Finally! We're together again," our Creator soothingly tells us. "Now let's work our way back up…" And so we proceed to climb out, slowly but surely. In the process, His holy garments get quite soiled and we expect to receive a giant umbrage from the royal ministers about this. Yet as we emerge, all we see is the awe they have for the King. Why? Because of the deepest love emanating from His Majesty's eternal eyes…
So that's the mashal (with a little embellishment). Now you tell me: Is this about shif'leinu or shvileinu?
Personally, besides my progressive exposure to the teachings of Tsadikkim {righteous individuals} which made it crystal clear that it's the former, my ultimate resolution came from within. I had to admit that the fact that I had been pronouncing that line as I did - for YEARS! - despite my relative Hebrew fluency, revealed a giant Freudian slip. Something within my subconscious, obviously based on my liberal, democratic education, was determined to deny any possibility of the existence of shiflus, spiritual worthlessness. Perhaps the intrapsychic term "cognitive dissonance" is more accurate. It means something like this: When the unique network of radio waves that are presently flying around within one's mind can't incorporate a particular broadcast of facts coming at it from without, it immediately scrambles them, as a kind of supremely self-sustaining defense mechanism.
B'shifleinu thus naturally blips into b'shvileinu.
Very nice. But surely we're talking here about more than a natural phenomenon. The words in question are part of a divinely endowed broadcast system! So shouldn't I assume that My Creator was communicating something through this "mistake?"
Indeed, as I thought more about it I realized that the immature religious side of me had been presuming that at LEAST Chanukah was a time when every Jew is fully appreciated for where he's holding; at LEAST these eight days were a time for unconditional, "democratic" celebrations.
'Tis the season to be jolly, right?
Ahem.
Talk about rude awakening. As much as the theory had worked nicely for the so-called Judeo-Xn value system, it simply was not authentic Judaism. That "the Shechina (Divine Presence) never dwells below ten tfachim (about 2 feet)," I'd soon learn, is a substantial principle in the Talmud (Succa 5B). It's referring to those who indulge in earthbound pleasures. And the fact that the Chanuka Menorah CAN be lit as low as three tfachim is merely an exception to the rule. An exception for the sake of encouraging us – but NOT a reprieve. The special Divine visit we gain at this time is meant to return us to the reality of being ABOVE ten tfachim and strengthen our resolve to NEVER go back to that deep, dark pit where sensualism and atheism call the shots (Nesivos Sholom throughout his Maamarei Chanukah ; see pp. 10, 14, 45-50 for starters).
As we sing in the Maoz Tzur Chanukah song:
naaseh nes l'shoshanim {a miracle was done for the roses}.
We're the roses; those lovely flowers embedded amongst awesome amounts of thorns. The thorns are not just our external enemies. They are the b'shvileinu-mindsets that try to confuse us into believing the reason our Maker helps us out of so many holes is in order to make our lives there more comfortable. But the truth is the opposite. It's ONLY in order to demonstrate the greatness of His love for bringing us back home…
ABOVE the allures of this world.
Halleluy`a!
בס"ד
An Innocent Mistake?
~ Chanuka 5768 ~
One of the most symbolic mistakes I've ever made as a newly religious Jew was the way I had been pronouncing – for YEARS! – a verse in the Hallel HaGadol. You see, I had always enjoyed flowing with this series of ki l'oilam chasdo praises for all those fabulous miracles done for our people throughout the expanse of history. From the time I began regular tfilla {praying}, I felt I could resonate with the meaning of these words, in contrast to many other tfillas which took quite awhile to identify with, let alone pronounce correctly.
Thus it was that one day, as I was learning about the deeper meaning of Chanukah, I did a double-take. The drasha {exposition} was explaining how the Chanukah miracle was associated with one of the concluding lines in that prayer:
b'SHIF'Leinu zachar lanu, ki l'oilam chasdo {in our lowliness He remembered us, since His kindness is forever}.
"Oh WOW," I exclaimed to myself, with an embarrassed chuckle. "I had always read this as b'SHVILeinu… {for our sakes …}!"
As I continued to learn, the depth behind this "mistake" became painfully clear. Our nation was t-o-t-a-l-l-y unworthy of the Chanukah miracle. We were so extremely shafel {in the spiritual pits}, that it was below what the Creator had designated for being within the purview of His planned interventions. In contrast to Pessach, for example, we weren't nationally hanging on to even that 1 / 50th level of purity that was the basis of meriting the Exodus. Rather, we had been forgoing circumcision, disusing our holy language and dress, forsaking Shabbos, making public declarations of atheism, etc., etc.
Similarly, I'd learn how the classic mashal {metaphor} about the nature of the feasting we do on the holy days must be modified to accommodate the two Rabbinic holydays, Purim and Chanukah. Whereas on the Sabbath our souls are said to be lifted up to the King's castle to dine with Him and on the holydays the experience is likened to His glory visiting our homes, on Chanukah and Purim the spiritual reality is comparable to a King who comes looking to visit His beloved son… and we're not there! So He starts searching, hears a faint moan, follows it until peering into a deep, dark pit – Oy! There we are.
"Gevalt," the King cries. "My son, my precious son. How did you get in there? I thought I told you to stay farrrr away from these pits!"
But we had no answer.
Then and there, the mashal continues, His royal Majesty jumps into the pit, to the utter consternation of His ministers. "Finally! We're together again," our Creator soothingly tells us. "Now let's work our way back up…" And so we proceed to climb out, slowly but surely. In the process, His holy garments get quite soiled and we expect to receive a giant umbrage from the royal ministers about this. Yet as we emerge, all we see is the awe they have for the King. Why? Because of the deepest love emanating from His Majesty's eternal eyes…
So that's the mashal (with a little embellishment). Now you tell me: Is this about shif'leinu or shvileinu?
Personally, besides my progressive exposure to the teachings of Tsadikkim {righteous individuals} which made it crystal clear that it's the former, my ultimate resolution came from within. I had to admit that the fact that I had been pronouncing that line as I did - for YEARS! - despite my relative Hebrew fluency, revealed a giant Freudian slip. Something within my subconscious, obviously based on my liberal, democratic education, was determined to deny any possibility of the existence of shiflus, spiritual worthlessness. Perhaps the intrapsychic term "cognitive dissonance" is more accurate. It means something like this: When the unique network of radio waves that are presently flying around within one's mind can't incorporate a particular broadcast of facts coming at it from without, it immediately scrambles them, as a kind of supremely self-sustaining defense mechanism.
B'shifleinu thus naturally blips into b'shvileinu.
Very nice. But surely we're talking here about more than a natural phenomenon. The words in question are part of a divinely endowed broadcast system! So shouldn't I assume that My Creator was communicating something through this "mistake?"
Indeed, as I thought more about it I realized that the immature religious side of me had been presuming that at LEAST Chanukah was a time when every Jew is fully appreciated for where he's holding; at LEAST these eight days were a time for unconditional, "democratic" celebrations.
'Tis the season to be jolly, right?
Ahem.
Talk about rude awakening. As much as the theory had worked nicely for the so-called Judeo-Xn value system, it simply was not authentic Judaism. That "the Shechina (Divine Presence) never dwells below ten tfachim (about 2 feet)," I'd soon learn, is a substantial principle in the Talmud (Succa 5B). It's referring to those who indulge in earthbound pleasures. And the fact that the Chanuka Menorah CAN be lit as low as three tfachim is merely an exception to the rule. An exception for the sake of encouraging us – but NOT a reprieve. The special Divine visit we gain at this time is meant to return us to the reality of being ABOVE ten tfachim and strengthen our resolve to NEVER go back to that deep, dark pit where sensualism and atheism call the shots (Nesivos Sholom throughout his Maamarei Chanukah ; see pp. 10, 14, 45-50 for starters).
As we sing in the Maoz Tzur Chanukah song:
naaseh nes l'shoshanim {a miracle was done for the roses}.
We're the roses; those lovely flowers embedded amongst awesome amounts of thorns. The thorns are not just our external enemies. They are the b'shvileinu-mindsets that try to confuse us into believing the reason our Maker helps us out of so many holes is in order to make our lives there more comfortable. But the truth is the opposite. It's ONLY in order to demonstrate the greatness of His love for bringing us back home…
ABOVE the allures of this world.
Halleluy`a!
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