Parshat Vayera

(October 30, 1999)

"The people of Sodom were exceedingly wicked."

(Genesis 18:20)

This portion contains the destruction of the evil cities of Sodom and Gemorrah. What was so evil about these two cities? The rabbis taught that their evil ways were based on their attitude towards money.

We learn that someone who says "What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours is a mediocre person, but many would say these are the qualities of Sodom." (Avot 5:10) The people of Sodom hoarded their money. When Abraham's nephew Lot moved into town, they certainly welcomed him. He was a wealthy man, and they saw an economic advantage having him as a neighbor. But poor people, beggars, visitors without money to spend, were not welcome in Sodom.

According to the Rabbinic midrash, a poor man came into town and one young woman was kind to him and shared her money. When the people heard this, they attacked and tortured her. Helping the poor would set a bad precedent for the community; beggars and poor people would move into town. The Torah teaches that "God heard her cry," the cry of a generous young woman attacked by her wicked neighbors.

The people of Sodom had a scarcity complex. There was only so much wealth to go around, and if people shared money each would have less. It is the way of the animal world. If a group of dogs has a fixed number of bones, and if more dogs come, each dog will receive less. This scarcity attitude towards money is not the way of human beings.

The Sodom story is in the Bible to teach us a different attitude towards money - wealth is to be shared and passed on. "What's mine is yours and what's yours is yours, this is the way of the righteous." Or, as a Buddhist leader taught, "Money is round so that it will keep rolling." Many great teachers have taught that when we share our wealth, in the end we often receive more. Our charity comes back to bless us.

Rather than a scarcity paradigm (wealth is limited and the more I give away, the less I have), we ought to live by a prosperity paradigm. This teaches that wealth is unlimited. If one person has more, it does not mean that someone else has less. Because Bill Gates is a multibillionaire, does not mean that the rest of us are poorer. (If anything, his wealth created more wealth.)

The people of Sodom were bitter and unhappy, hoarding their money and constantly frightened that someone would take it away. The Biblical lesson is that wealth is unlimited, and is given to us on condition that we constantly give some away. We humans are different from the animals fighting over limited scraps of food. We live in a world of unlimited wealth. Let us switch from a scarcity to a prosperity paradigm.

Parshat Lech Lecha

(October 23, 1999)

"Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, from your father's house..."

This portion begins with God's command to Abram "Go forth." The Hebrew words lech lecha can probably better be translated "Go to yourself." In this simple phrase, we learn a profound truth about human destiny. Each of us must not simply leave home; we must go to ourself, find the unique purpose why God put us on this earth.

Each of us has a destiny. Each of us has a mission. Each of us has a calling. In a powerful statement about the uniqueness of each and every human being, the rabbis taught, "A human being makes many coins with the same stamp, but each one is exactly like every other one. But God made many human beings with the same stamp, and each and every one is unique." (Talmud - Sanhedrin 5:4) No two humans have precisely the same calling on this earth. Even identical twins, although they share genetic information, have a separate set of life experiences that contribute to their uniqueness. Every human being is totally irreplaceable, for nobody else was born according in the exact same circumstances. No one else can do the task that each of us was put on this earth to do.

The first great journey of life is not only leaving home, but finding our particular calling. Some of us know immediately, from the earliest days of childhood, why God put us on this earth. Others spend much of their lifetime in search. Some find it as young adults, some in their middle years, some not until they retire from the work force. Some never quite find it. We often speak of young people who are still "finding themselves." Our very language reflects this sense that each of us has a unique mission.

There is a powerful story told of the great Hasidic Rabbi Zusya. When Rabbi Zusya was about to die, his students gathered around him. They saw Rabbi Zusya's eyes break out into tears. "Our master," they said with deep concern, "Why are you crying? You have lived a good, pious life, and left many students and disciples. Soon you are going on to the next world. Why cry?" Rabbi Zusya responded, "I see what will happen when I enter the next world. Nobody will ask me, why was I not Moses? I am not expected to be Moses. Nobody will ask me, why was I not Rabbi Akiba? I am not expected to be Rabbi Akiba. They will ask me, Why was I not Zusya? That is why I am crying. I am asking, why was I not Zusya?"

The greatest tragedy of life is not death. The greatest tragedy is dying without having completed our mission, dying before we know why we lived. Each of us has a responsibility to search our own soul and ask the ultimate question - "why did God place me on this earth?"

Parshat Noach

(October 16, 1999)

"All the inclinations of man's heart are evil from his youth."

The Talmud speaks of a great argument between the school of Shammai and the school of Hillel that continued for two and a half years. Is it a good thing that humanity was created or would it be better if humanity was never created? By a majority vote, the rabbis decided it would have been better if humans had not been created. However, since we humans are here, we ought to carefully scrutinize our future actions.

In this portion God regretted having created humanity. He brought a great flood to destroy humankind and decided to start all over. God then realized that the humans he created have an inclination for evil. God made His peace with the reality of what humans are really like.

Fortunately, mankind is not only evil. According to a brilliant rabbinic insight, we humans have two yetzers, two inner drives or inclinations, that struggle with one another. These two inner drives define our behavior throughout our lives. The rabbis called these the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, and the yetzer hatov, the good inclination.

The yetzer hara consists of those primitive drives within us which seek immediate gratification. They are what Freud defined as the id. The yetzer hara is the sexual drive, the drive for violence, the drive for acquisition, the emotion of anger, all out of control.

The evil inclination is that part of each one of us which says, "I want what I want and I want it now!" They are our primitive appetites, necessary for survival but in desperate need of control.

The yetzer hatov or good inclination is the drive to be altruistic. It is the part of us willing to delay gratification, practice self-control, share with others, sacrifice for a greater good, and do the right thing. Some would identify it with Freud's superego. For humans, life is a constant struggle between these two inclinations, between "I want what I want and I want it now" and "do the right thing."

Like God in our story, there are parents who regret ever having children. They have created a being over which they have no control, a being whose inclination often goes towards evil. Opinions polls have shown that many parents regret ever having children.

As parents we finally understand what God went through creating humanity. Like God, we parents are to be teachers for our children. Parents must teach children to control the evil inclination and develop the good inclination. Children need to be carefully nurtured in the art of self-control. They must learn that they cannot have what they want immediately when they want it. They must manage their appetite for food, for money, for things, and once they become teens, they must manage their appetite for sexual satisfaction. Not material goods but values are the greatest gift parents give their children.

Parshat Bereishit

(October 9, 1999)

"And the world was void and without form ... and God said, Let there be light."

(Genesis 1:2-3)

What is the creation story all about? What is it trying to teach us? The traditional translation of the first verse of the Torah is In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, And the earth was void and without form. The words seem to indicate that in the beginning God created chaos. The first thing God made is a turbulent universe, wild and without form. However, this is a mistranslation. For those who know Hebrew or who have studied Rashi's comments, the words indicate the precise opposite. A better translation is When God began to create the heavens and the earth, when the earth was void and without form ... God said, Let there be light. Before God began His creation, the world was chaos. God's first act was to bring order to this chaos.

There is a word in modern scientific terminology for chaos - entropy. What is entropy? All systems eventually wear down. Or as the poet W.B. Yeats put it, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold." All things, rocks and mountains, humans beings, planets and suns, the universe itself, eventually wears down and dies. Entropy is an absolute scientific law of the universe. Chaos is the natural order of existence. Every system falls apart, unless something outside the system infuses it with energy. Without some outside force, the world would be void and without form.

So what was the light God created? It was not electromagnetic radiation, there was no source for such light. The sun was not created until the fourth day. Perhaps the light was actually the fundamental life force of the universe, anti- entropy, the source of energy which brings order out of chaos. Let us now retranslate the first lines of Genesis. At the dawn of time the universe was chaotic, at maximum entropy. And God infused this universe with a creative lifeforce strong enough to overcome entropy. This life force brought order out of chaos, creating more and more complex lifeforms, and eventually humanity itself.

In Kansas, officials are arguing whether to teach creationism or evolution in the schools. They believe the teaching of evolution is somehow anti-religious. In my mind, they have it all wrong. Evolution is the movement from less complex to more complex, from simple proteins to complex organism, from lesser to greater forms of life, from animals to humans. Evolution is the precise opposite of entropy, it is the movement from chaos to order. Evolution is proof of a fundamental life force in the universe. The evolution of life, and particularly human life out of a chaotic universe is the strongest indication for the existence of a living God.