Today’s page of Talmud teaches that even though killing and even wounding animals is forbidden on the Sabbath, we can kill certain dangerous animals, even before they are actively pursuing someone.  There is a debate about the appropriateness of this allowance:

A teacher taught:  One who kills snakes and scorpions on Shabbat, the spirit of the pious is not pleased with him.  Rava bar Rav Huna said to him: And with regard to those pious men, the spirit of the Sages is not pleased with them!  The Gemara comments:  And this statement disagrees with the opinion of Rav Huna, for Rav Huna saw a person killing a hornet on Shabbat and said to him: Have you finished killing all the hornets?

The sages want you to kill dangerous animals on the Sabbath to remove the risk, and not to be overly pious.  The pious objected, but this is not an appropriate level of piety since it increases the danger to others.  However, you obviously cannot go after every dangerous creature that might pose a risk.  The Gemara explains that if you are walking along and a snake or scorpion is in the path, then go ahead and step on it, but you don’t go out of your way looking for them.  If a bee is simply buzzing around, you don’t need to go after it.

 

When something is a true danger to you, you remove the danger.  If something is a mere annoyance, you can’t waste your time and effort ridding yourself of every annoyance.  If you try, you will appear hypersensitive and anxious.  We need to evaluate when something is a real threat to our mission or simply a nuisance.  We should simply brush off the harmless nuisance while maintaining our composure, and not get upset by distractions buzzing around us.

 

Today’s Talmud learning explains permitted ways to block a fire on Shabbat without extinguishing it, which is forbidden.  We mentioned that in the past their buildings were stone and when a fire broke out they were not concerned it would spread and endanger life, only that possessions inside the house would be destroyed.  Nowadays with wood construction and gas lines we do extinguish fires on Shabbat as any uncontained fire creates a risk to human life.

 

One of the allowed methods is to block the path of the fire with vessels, even if they are full of water.  This is an ancient firewall.  Rabbi Yossi does not allow using new earthenware vessels since they will burst from the heat and spill the water on the fire.  There is a debate about indirectly causing a forbidden labor to take place.

 

The wisdom for modern men is to create emotional or psychological firewalls to safeguard your well being.  You need to evaluate your own life and figure out what you need to protect.  This could be realizing you have made stupid decisions after having four drinks in a night, so you decide to stop at three.  After three drinks you put that wall up.  Done.  It could also be your decision to not allow a woman you are seeing come to your place, or not moving in with her, to keep psychological space and maintain your options and objectivity.

 

Rabbi Yossi adds that sometimes there is a danger of your firewall bursting.  Some situations create extreme emotional pressure on a man, this is part of life.  Just as our ancestors may have given up blocking a fire and simply left the danger zone, you should realize that sometimes leaving an emotionally volatile situation is safer for you than staying.

 

 

Today the Talmud brings many episodes and details of how our ancient sages honored and prepared for the Sabbath. One of the stories is when Rabbah son of Rav Huna visited Rabbah son of Rav Nahman. He was served an extravagant appetizer, and commented “how did you know I was coming?”. Obviously he was a honored sage and thought they made the dish for him. They replied “Are you more honored than the Sabbath?”
The fancy food had been prepared for the Sabbath, not for him specifically.

This reminds us that as men we should be putting our mission before trying to impress other people. When we work to further our goals in life and improve ourselves, this may benefit others, especially our own families. However, the ultimate goal is not to make them gain, but to make progress towards your chosen mission. Praise from others may help you with your dedication, but don’t allow it to sidetrack you into working on behest of praise.

This week Jews outside of Israel study the Bible in Numbers 19:1-25:9, the portions called “Hukat” and “Balak”.  We read both sections this week to catch up with our brothers in Israel, as we had a two day holiday on a Sabbath and did not read the regular weekly portion then.

Hukat means decree, a law without a comprehensible basis.  Hukat refers to one of the most enigmatic rules in the Bible: If a man becomes ritually contaminated through a corpse, he must be purified through being sprinkled with drops of a potion made of the ashes of a red heifer or Parah Adumah and other ingredients.  However, the man doing the sprinkling also becomes contaminated (to a lesser degree).

The action in Hukat actually picks up 38 years after the last reading, with the death of Miriam.  Since the water supply was in the merit of Mirian, this led to the famous episode of Moses striking a rock to bring water.  Aaron also passes and is replaced as high priest by his son.  The Jewish people wage war on the Emorite kings Sichon and Og, who had come out to destroy the Jews as they approached Israel.

Let us learn from the red heifer.  This is the ritual purification required when a man touches or is under the same roof as a corpse or parts of a dead body.  A corpse is the highest level of contamination in Jewish law, which has a plethora of types and levels of purity and impurity.  For a man to enter the Temple or eat from sacrifices or tithes he had to be ritually pure.  Any loss of life or loss of potential life causes contamination, so does touching certain creeping animals.  In Judaism, the highest priority is life, so death is the lowest spiritual level.

The priests prepare the red heifer ashes into a potion in an intricate ritual, and along the way some become themselves ritually impure on a lower level that from a corpse (19:7, 10).  Then the priest who sprinkles the water becomes himself impure through the same action that is causing the contaminated man to become pure, and even someone touching the purifying waters becomes impure (19:21).  I can’t pretend to comprehend this.  Even King Solomon, the wisest of men, who could converse with animals and demons, admitted he could not fully understand the depths of the red heifer ritual.  That is why this law is called a “Hok” decree, not a “Mishpat” rule with a clear rational basis.

The red heifer hints to us that we are not islands.  No man can live alone.  When we are down and falling into impurity, we need to reach out to others, to leaders, to those men who serve us as priests.  We need help to attain purity and holiness.  A man cannot remain alone, isolated, quarantined and sink further into decay.

Men need other men to help them when they are stuck in life, to give them an outside perspective.  This is a concept our sages also explore in the Talmud.  It is also a modern necessity; we all grow up seeing only a small part of the bigger picture, and other men help us fill in the whole picture.  Men are especially subjective about their own situations, and often need an outside set of eyes to fully evaluate what is really going on in their relationships.

The actions of the priests remind men that when we are up, we must be willing to give to other men, even if we sacrifice some of our position to bring another man up with us.  This sounds esoteric because this whole chapter is full of mystical hints and undercurrents.  The priests give purity to the man who was near a corpse, even though they lose their own purity.

A lot of what we do for others is, on some level, self serving.  Some men raise money for a cause or institution to get their names on buildings or plaques.  In our relationships we often give in order to get.  Sometimes this is subconscious and covert, see Dr. Robert Glover’s book No More Mr. Nice Guy.  We help our friends to get help back, to be considered an upstanding guy.

The priests involved in the red heifer would become ritually contaminated, not on the same high level as the man who touched the corpse, but impure enough that the priests could no longer eat from sacrifices or from the special portions and tithes given to priests.  They had to immerse themselves and wait until nightfall to regain their purity even from merely touching the special water (17:21).  The priests were willing to take a hit and reduce their own status for a man who had contact with a corpse, probably a man who was at a funeral or helped to bury a deceased.  A man they didn’t necessarily even know.

Interestingly, priests themselves are not allowed to attend funerals or enter graveyards, except for close relatives.  The high priests cannot attend any funerals whatsoever, as he has to remain pure to serve the entire Jewish nation.  It is possible that the priests were willing and eager to help another man since they realized that this man had assisted in a funeral, something they could not do.  This attitude requires seeing the big picture: not every man can do every job in society.  In ancient Biblical society (and modern Jewish culture), the Cohanim and Levites have a special role.  We all need a role, a mission.

In modern society, it can be hard to find your own mission.  A lot of the problems men have in this area are due to the reality that other people and organizations, and society as a whole, are pushing their missions on to men.  Men want to help, to stand up and contribute.  This is how we are created as men and is a strength and key aspect of our masculinity.

But when a man does not have his own chosen mission to which he is dedicated, it is very easy for him to pick up tasks that are actually for the benefit of others.  Women, corporations, organizations, and political groups will task men with working for the agenda that they want, knowing that men want to feel useful.

Men are socialized into carrying water for certain causes, for women generally, or for a specific woman in exchange for access.  But many men feel that however much they do, they are not truly appreciated and valued, and are missing something.  This something might be working on their own personal mission.  Sometimes men are manipulated into making someone else’s dreams come true at the expense of their own.

Without the guidance of an outside source of wisdom and perspective it is hard for a man to know if what he is doing is for his own mission or for someone else’s benefit.  The Bible outlines many ways a man can contribute to society and benefit himself at the same time.  In modern secular life there are so many conflicting messages.  Young men are told they are not a man unless they make women their focus and mission, and this is terrible advice in the long run.

A man needs to work out for himself how he wants to live and make his mark on the world.  The key question to ask yourself is “what am I living for?”  Then you explore how to go about it. While you examine this, ask if you are doing what you do for yourself or for the benefit of others. It’s fine to help other people, but when that becomes your focus in life and you give up what you wanted out of life, you are going to have problems.

With the above concepts in mind, we can draw a comparison to Bilaam (aka Balaam), the main character in the portion of Balak.  Balak was the king of Moav and hired Bilaam, a powerful sorcerer and prophet on the level of Moses, to curse the Jews.  This is the only section of the Torah that switches the narrative’s point of view from Moses and the Jewish people to the enemies of the Jews.  This was obviously a critical turning point in Jewish history, even though the Jews were not even aware what was happening at the time.

Bilaam at first refuses to go with Balak’s messengers, they offer him more riches as reward and send higher ranking officers and nobles to plead with him and honor him (22:15).  Bilaam refuses until he gets prophetic dream stating if these men have come for your own benefit, you can go with them (22:20).  Then, even with seeming divine permission, there is trouble on the road.

Bilaam’s mule sees an angel with a sword and tries to divert from the road (22:23-27).  Bilaam beats the donkey until finally God open the mouth of the animal and it tells Bilaam that these impediments came since it was not appropriate to go and curse the Jews.  Bilaam finally sees the angel who wants him from his mission.  Bilaam insists on going, and the angel tells him “you will only be able to say what God lets you” (22:35).

Bilaam was inherently selfish, acting for his own gain, and his own hatred of the Jewish nation, which was even greater than Balak’s hatred. But even hating Jews was not enough until he would also gain honor and money from Balak.  He acted only for himself even when agreeing to perform the mission for Moav against the Jews.  He stubbornly continued his chosen path despite clear divine omens that the mission would fail and was contrary to what God wanted.

In modern society there are psychological barriers to a man putting himself first, as we discussed.  A man should be able to put his own needs and mission first to gain fulfilment in life. But this is not enough, you need another level of analysis: is what you are setting out to do truly good?

This requires wisdom and introspection.  Maybe you are simply selfishly charging through life without contemplating your role in the world.  Bilaam thought he was doing good by cursing the Jews.  After all, Moses and God had taken the stubborn Jews to task many times.  Many people doing what we would call evil are utterly convinced they are doing the right thing, standing up for justice, against imperialism, etc.  As we noted, Hitler thought he was doing good.

You want to decide and pursue your mission for your own benefit.  But you do want to accomplish something that will bring you respect from decent people.  This is another level of wisdom.  You don’t want to be stuck as a people pleaser and compromise your own mission, but you don’t want to walk over other people for your holy crusade either.  Many self proclaimed righteous people leave a lot of broken, traumatized victims in their wake.

These days it may be hard to find the right people to serve as your guidepost.  You must work to know yourself first and learn how to interact with other men for mutual benefit.   This takes work and it is hard to generalize.  I can suggest that when men are willing to take criticism and examine their own actions and motivations, they usually end up doing the right thing.  It’s the men who don’t doubt themselves who justify the evil they do.

Another way to put it is like this:  an evil man will tell you with great certainty that he is a good, righteous, upstanding man.  And how dare you questions his motivations!  While a truly good, introspective man actually will doubt if he is as good as he could be.  He knows he can improve, he does not identify as purely righteous.  He thinks he is a work in progress, and he should be willing to work with you to help himself and you to improve in life.

A related issue is having a victim mentality.  A man who blames others, or society, or women for his woes has externalized his own issues and removed his internal impetus to improve.  Balak blamed the Jews and sought to destroy them with a curse, instead of negotiating or strengthening the defenses around Moab.

The victim card is also the get out of self improvement free card.  If you gauge your own development against people who self identify as a victim, you will never improve.  They will wiggle out of their responsibility to work on themselves you will not improve.

I will give you another indicator of upstanding men you want around you.  Good men are interested in building up themselves and others.  Evil men undermine others.  The Bible hints to this in Balak’s message to Bilaam:  “So now, please come and curse this people for me, for they are too powerful for me. Perhaps I will be able to wage war against them and drive them out of the land, for I know that whomever you bless is blessed and whomever you curse is cursed” (22:6). 

Balak knew Bilaam had the power to bestow effective blessings, but hired him to curse.  Imagine if Balak had asked for blessings on Moav instead of a curse on the Jews!  But his focus was on harming the rival rather than improving his own kingdom.  If the men around you are spending their time and energy tearing other people down, they are not worth keeping around.  Our sages in the Talmud  Brakhot 28 discuss this concept as well:

Defending your idea is a higher level of intellectual achievement than attacking someone else’s opinion.  Anyone can attack an idea, it takes much more skill to develop your own positions based on all the evidence and be able to defend them from attacks.  Therefore the advanced scholars were known as shield bearers and not sword wielders.

Finding the right group of men to help you improve yourself is an important job.  Now, you may assume that the ultimate level would be to not care at all what other men think of you.  Our scriptures and ancient sages point out that this is a bad idea, see Proverbs 3:4 and 1 Samuel 2:26, where Samuel found favor with the Lord and also with men.

You do need to think about what people will think about you – provided they are the right kind of people.  A man who considers himself totally independent from what other men think will come to make terrible mistakes.  There are advantages to this outlook, but in the long run it creates a lot of angry enemies.

In a sense, God has provided us with other men as a way to provide outside evaluation on our own lives.  Contrast Genesis 6:8, where Noah found favor with the Lord, but not with other men.  In his generation that was actually appropriate, as the men of that generation brought about the massive flood through their debauchery.  You don’t want to find favor in the eyes of men who are evil, manipulative, and self destructive.  This a serious challenge for men in our generation.

May you be blessed to find a proper group of men to help your growth.

The scandalous final section of this week’s reading (Number 25) features a sexual attack on the Jewish men, causing a plague until Pinhas murders a Jewish prince and the Midianite woman he was sinning with.  After Bilaam failed to curse the Jews and actually blessed them by divine order, Balak was understandably disappointed.

As a parting gift, Bilaam advised the Moavites and Midianites that although he could not curse the Jews, there was another avenue open to harm them. Since God punishes harlotry, they should seduce the Jews to cause God to be angry at them. By causing Jews to sin, they will become vulnerable and perhaps die.

Understand that God does not actually become angry, nothing human do can change God at all.  God does express what humans consider anger in this world so we can learn to behave better.

The Moavites and Midianites sent their most beautiful women, including daughters of nobility, decked out in their most seductive outfits and ornaments, to entice the Jews.  The Medrashim (backstories to the Bible passed down from the people who were there) and the Talmud explain that these women set up trading posts and offered the Jews merchandise on sale, with an older woman outside a tent offering a higher price, and a younger woman inside the tent offering a lower price.

Jewish men went inside to strike a deal, and met a gorgeous woman dressed like a harlot and ready to please.  The Talmud details that they wore golden lingerie to emphasize their bodily assets.  In those days, a woman in any sort of revealing clothing was out of the ordinary.

As thousands of Jewish men got seduced, the Midianite women also convinced them to engage in idolatry (25:1-3). The pagan woman would get the Jews aroused and then demand he worship her idol before they went to bed.

God tells Moses to take the judges and sentence these men to death and execute them (25:4-5).  In response one of the princes of a Jewish tribe brought a Midianite princess back to the camp, and brought her before Moses, a public outrage (25:6).

He intended not only to engage in promiscuity with her, but to do this in front of the whole camp, giving an official imprimatur to this harlotry.  The Jewish leadership was paralyzed from shock at this desecration.  Only one man, Pinhas (also spelled Pinchas or Phinehas) took action against the prince.  He was a grandson of Aaron the high priest.

Pinhas spears the Jewish man and the harlot through their reproductive organs, then carries them outside on his spear.  The camp witnessed his zealous vengeance on the prince and stopped pursuing the foreign women.  Unfortunately, 24,000 Jewish men perished through this sexual warfare.

The obvious wisdom we can take is that men will follow their physical urges even into situations they should intellectually know are wrong.  Holy Jews who heard from God not to worship idols were doing exactly that in order to get sexual access to harlots.  It sounds amazing, but the Bible points out that men are men.  We are the same today as we were 3300 years ago.

We will discuss more amazing lessons from this episode, God willing, next week.

Today the Talmud discusses how many meals we eat on Shabbat, these meals are typically deluxe multi course meals made in honor of the holiday.  A man supported by charity was given get meals for the week, including Shabbat.  However, he was not given extra meals, and the Gemara debates how he should find the additional food for three meals on Shabbat (versus two meals per weekday).

Rabbi Akiva states: Better to minimize your meals than need to receive charity from others.

This means practically the poor man should reduce what he eats so he can save extra for Shabbat instead of needing to take food from charity.  The concept is that it is better to be self sufficient than to rely on others.

 

This is an important idea for men, and applies not just to food or money, but to your emotional needs.  Deal with your own problems and work them out, pursue personal growth.  When you are doing the right things and improving, you feel good about your life, and you don’t need to take emotional energy from other people to buoy yourself.

 

Our sages mentions various foods that they would use to honor and enjoy Shabbat.  The Gemara says even making one small extra dish for the sake of Shabbat fulfills the idea of “Oneg” or enjoyment from Shabbat.  The idea of oneg is broader, it is also contentment and psychological calm.

On Shabbat we internalize that God created the world, and saved our people from Egypt in the Exodus.  This is a mindset of recognizing that God is in control.  The feeling that things are out of control and you cannot control them provokes incredible anxiety, realizing that you don’t need to be in control brings deep peace of mind.  When we remember God is our partner (and the senior, managing partner) in our lives, his helps us to relax and enjoy life.

 

Modern men can understand this as a form of stoicism. When you know God is in charge, you don’t have to be bothered when things don’t go your way – since they are going in God’s way, and God has you in mind the best for you ultimately.  Now, we have free will, but sometimes in life we act as subjects and sometimes we are acted on as objects.  If it doesn’t bother you when you are an object, you have much more peace of mind, and the way other people treat you does not offend or irritate you.  You can be more aloof and confident by accepting that you don’t need to be in control all the time.  This is part of the overall restfulness we enjoy on Shabbat.

 

Suspected of something but didn’t do it – conficdence in innocence, so accusations don’t bother you

Today the Talmud continues discussing saving items from a burning house into an adjacent alley on Shabbat.  Keep in mind their houses were stone and a fire inside one room was unlikely to spread to adjacent structures.  Extinguishing a fire on Shabbat is a Biblical prohibition, so men would leave and let the fire burn itself out.  In modern times with wood construction we actively extinguish fires due to the potential of the fire spreading and endangering people.

Our sages taught that you can rescue food for three meals from such a fire.  Food is not something that is forbidden to move on Shabbat, so the Gemara asks:  Now, since one is exerting himself to move permitted food, let him rescue more.  Rava said: Since a person is agitated about his property, if you permit him to move more than a set amount, he will come to extinguish the fire.

What Rava is getting at is that if the sages gave an open ended allowance to save whatever movables he could, the man would remain in there with the fire for longer, considering what he wanted to save, and feel his attachment for his household goods.  He would keep coming back to get more, and worried for the rest of possessions, his emotions would overcome his intellect and he would do a forbidden labor of extinguishing.  Therefore the sages decided to make a standard amount.  Knowing the objective law in advance, we can rely on the man using his intellect and not being overcome by emotion.

This concept is for all men at all times: build up a framework of logical, intellectual rules for your life.  When you get emotional, you already have that structure and plan in place.  You may assume you are such a stoic that you don’t need this; but if you lit a stoic’s house on fire he would certainly react with some emotion.  There will be situations in life where even the most steadfast man is overcome, our sages knew this aspect of human nature.  Better to plan ahead than to get caught up in an emotional whirlwind spinning out of logical control.

Today the Talmud discusses what to do with scrolls written by heretics.  If a heretic wrote a complete Torah scroll, even if every letter is perfect, it does not have the holiness required for a real Torah, and should not be saved from a fire on Shabbat.  The holiness comes through the scribe, not the letters.

 

The Gemara brings King David’s statement about self-hating Jews (Psalms 139:21).  This is one of the most painful things Jews experience: when a Jew turns his back on God, he doesn’t just slink away, but often fights against Judaism (sometimes under the banner of enlightenment, communism, feminism or whatever).  There appears to be a psychological need for people who abandoned their faith to justify their weakness by deriding and attacking those who are steadfast in clinging to our tradition.  This is one of the reasons secularized Jews get involved in movements for “justice”, they are also trying to fill the void of missing meaning in their lives.

 

The issue of the scrolls of heretics provides a great lesson for all modern men.  Whatever wisdom you are pursuing, first check the source.  Today anyone can be a “guru” or expert author. There are a lot of men putting out a lot of content.  For you, it is more important to first filter the content you consume than to simply take in more and more.  There is so much useful information out there, but a lot of it contains concepts that are not good for you in the long run. Check out the sources. Vet your guru.

Today the Talmud begins exploring the chapter of Col Citve Kodesh, “all sacred writings”, and how we rescue them from a fire on Shabbat.  Immediately we find out that not all sacred writings are the same.  There are some we can translate and some we cannot, and some we read on Shabbat and some we do not – the “Writings”.  The Gemara explains we do not allow reading the “Writings” (the third part of the Bible after the Torah and Prophets) because on Shabbat men are supposed to get together to learn practical laws in the study hall.  If we let men stay home and read the interesting but less practical Writings, they will lose out on the group learning in the study hall.  (Tomorrow’s daf explains the details of when this applies).

This is an excellent piece of wisdom you can use.  You naturally understand that there is book learning and then there is actual application.  While Judaism values both, we know the main purpose is implementing the ideas we learn.  Therefore, our sages banned individual book learning in Writings to encourage group learning of practical laws.  You need to do the same for yourself.  Yes, you need the book learning, but you need to get together with other men and discuss how exactly to implement your learning.  You need to run your ideas by other men who have experience.  You need to take your wisdom into the field and try it out.

Judaism is naturally a spiritual faith, but pays attention to the physical world as well.  Our sages teach:

From where is it derived that changing clothes is a display of honor? As it is stated: “And he (the high priest) will remove his garments and will don other garments, and he will bring the ashes outside of the camp to a pure location” (Leviticus 6:4).  The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught:  The Torah taught you etiquette. The clothes in which one prepared food for his master, one does not wear to pour his master wine.

The clothing you wear actually impacts your mood and self confidence, wearing nice well fitting clothing can improve your performance.

The Gemara goes on to explain that it is a serious problem for a scholar to go out with patched up shoes and clothing, and even worse if his clothing is stained where people can see it.  Yes, a scholar is supposed to be heavily involved with learning and spiritual pursuits.  But he also needs to deal with other people and succeed in day to day life.  He needs to dress in a way that helps others to respect him, and this will also bring honor to the Torah.

You can and should do the same.

Today’s learning mentions a critical life concept: give wisdom to a wise man and he improves on it.

The first example our sages give is our spiritual heroine Ruth, who converted to Judaism and becomes the ancestor to King David, Solomon, and the whole dynasty.  Naomi told Ruth to adorn herself and go to the granary to meet with Boaz, to ask him to take her deceased husband’s place (including to marry her).  Ruth goes first to the granary, waits until night, then adorns herself.  Ruth did not want anyone to see her in her finery and assume she was a woman of ill repute.  This was an improvement over Naomi’s advice.

Obviously Ruth was dressed modestly, but also was doing her best to appear attractive to Boaz. We talked about how righteous women employ sexual attraction to attain spiritual goals. This is a reoccurring theme in the Bible, as we see with Tamar, Esther, and the Jewish wives in Egypt.

 

The general concept here is that when you get advice or hear wisdom you should not rush to implement it exactly as it was said, but first think about how to best apply it to your situation. This takes a deeper wisdom than merely accepting what others say and running with that. In this generation there is (in mainstream culture) a society wide push on men to conform, behave, and obey. Boys in school are taught they should act like girls.

The obvious examples we see today, at least in big cities, are people driving alone in their car or riding a bike wearing a surgical mask, because the government and media has told them to wear a mask. This mask may protect other people from the contents of their coughs and sneezes, but does nothing to protect the wearer, and may actually lower their blood oxygenation and hinder their performance. And yet people accept what they are told without critical thinking about how to apply it.

 

You need to develop the wisdom to properly apply advice and wisdom to your own life, instead of relying on statements geared to the lowest common denominator.