May 11th and May 10th (29th of Iyar) would have been my mother’s birthday. More precisely, her birthday was on the 10th but her birth was only registered on the 11th. Growing up and truthfully until her last birthday one year ago, she always questioned which day to celebrate. Mostly we celebrated the 10th, for there is real joy to your family when a new baby is born and there is joy to the world when a new neshama enters. Yet once someone passes away it is their yahrzeit that we mark, remember, commemorate. It is the day that they left this world that we choose to remember them and what they have given us while we were together.
In memory of my mom, I would like to share her motherly words of wisdom starting on her Hebrew birthday, words of Torah and the intertwining between the two and its relevance to daily life.
On my mom’s English birthday we had the pleasure as well as intense challenge of learning in daf yomi Zevachim daf 27 and 28. Yesterday as we were learning that the power of thinking about eating a korban at the wrong time (pigul) is greater than placing the blood on the wrong place on the alter, I came to the realization that thoughts can be more powerful than actions. Certain actions are meaningless and therefore cause less damage than certain thoughts.
א"ל רב אשי למר זוטרא מנא לך הא דכתיב (ויקרא ז, יח) ואם האכל יאכל מבשר זבח שלמיו פיגול יהיה מי שפיגולו גרם לו יצא זה שאין פיגולו גרם לו אלא איסור דבר אחר גרם לו
Rav Ashi said to Mar Zutra: From where do you derive this? Mar Zutra replied: I derive it from a verse, as it is written: “And if any of the flesh of his peace offerings be at all eaten on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be credited to he who offers it, it shall be piggul” (Leviticus 7:18). The verse indicates that only an offering whose intent of piggul alone caused it to be disqualified is considered piggul. Excluded is this case, whoseintent of piggul alone did not cause it to be disqualified; rather, the prohibition of something else, i.e., the intent to sprinkle the blood in an improper location, caused it to be disqualified.
*https://www.sefaria.org.il/Zevachim.27a.5?lang=bi
You might read this and argue that the inverse is true as well, certain thoughts are more meaningless than certain actions and of course that is true and we know that to be true. The epiphany is that thoughts have an awesome power when we think of them so often as ephemeral, meaningless, not significant etc. Thoughts can be significant so much so that they can outweigh the power of certain actions which are deemed meaningless.
אלמא קסבר שלא במקומו כמקומו דמי תנן באידך פירקין נתנו על הכבש שלא כנגד היסוד נתן את הניתנין למטה למעלה ואת הניתנין למעלה למטה ואת הניתנין בפנים בחוץ ואת הניתנין בחוץ בפנים אם יש דם הנפש יחזור הכשר ויקבל
The Gemara notes: Apparently, Shmuel holds that blood sprinkled not in itsproper place is considered as though it were sprinkled in its proper place. But we learned in a mishna in another chapter (32a): If an unfit person placedthe blood upon the ramp, or on the wall of the altar that is not opposite the base of the altar; or if he placed the blood that is to be placed below the red line above the red line, or if he placed the blood that is to be placed above the red line below the red line; or if he placed the blood that is to be placed inside the Sanctuary outside the Sanctuary or the blood that is to be placed outside the Sanctuary inside the Sanctuary, then if there is blood of the soulthat remains in the animal, the priest fit for Temple service should collect the blood again and sprinkle it on the altar.
ואי ס"ד שלא במקומו כמקומו למה לי יחזור הכשר ויקבל וכי תימא להתיר בשר באכילה מי איכא זריקה דלא מכפרת ושריא בשר באכילה
The Gemara continues: And if it would enter your mind to say that blood sprinkled not in its proper place is considered as though it were sprinkled in its proper place, why do I need the fit priest to collect the blood again and sprinkle it? And if you would say that although the first sprinkling already effected atonement, the second sprinkling is necessary to permit the meat of the offering for consumption, is there such a concept as a sprinkling that does not itself effect atonement and yet permits the meat for consumption?Rather, one must conclude that the first sprinkling did not effect atonement at all, since it was not sprinkled in its proper place.
אי דיהביה כשר ה"נ הכא במאי עסקינן דיהביה פסול
The Gemara responds: If a fit priest had initially placed the blood improperly, the sprinkling would indeed have effected atonement after the fact and there would not be another sprinkling. But here we are dealing with a case where an unfit person placed the blood, so that it did not effect atonement at all.
Zevachim 26b
Returning home from daf, my husband and I decided to do a mindfulness exercise from Sharon Salzberg’s book “Real Happiness The Power of Meditation”. For 10 minutes we focused on our breath. If thoughts entered out head we should go back to focusing on our breath, our breath is like an old friend that we see as our thoughts start to crowd in on us. Focus on the breath, no thoughts, 10 minutes. At the end, the author of the book on happiness and meditation wished us a happy day.
Her instructions on how to meditate include advice on how to manage random thoughts : “Many distractions will arise—thoughts, images, emotions, aches, pains, plans. Just be with your breath and let them go. You don’t need to chase after them, you don’t need to hang on to them, you don’t need to analyze them. You’re just breathing. Connecting to your breath when thoughts or images arise is like spotting a friend in a crowd: You don’t have to shove everyone else aside or order them to go away; you just direct your attention, your enthusiasm, your interest toward your friend. Oh, you think, there’s my friend in that crowd. Oh, there’s my breath, among those thoughts and feelings and sensations..”
“Once you’ve noticed whatever has captured your attention, you don’t have to do anything about it. Just be aware of it without adding anything to it—without tacking on judgment (I fell asleep! What an idiot!), without interpretation (I’m terrible at meditation); without comparisons (Probably everyone trying this exercise can stay with the breath longer than I can! Or / should be thinking better thoughts!), and without projections into the future (What if this thought irritates me so much I can’t get back to concentrating on my breath? I’m going to be annoyed for the rest of my life! I’m never going to learn how to meditate!). ”
At the end of the meditation, Sharon instructs the participant to open their heart:
“And because the inner work we do is never for ourselves alone, make a point of offering the positive energy you generate in your practice to those who have helped you. Maybe it is someone who took care of things at home so you’d have more free time or someone who has been encouraging you in your practice. You can offer the energy, the positive force, the sense of possibility you’ve been generating to this person, so that the work you do within is for them as well. May my practice be dedicated to your well-being.”
So meditation, positive energy, the work you do within is not only for yourself – it is for others as well. Positive energy although not tangible is very powerful, people see this as a new age idea – but we know this already from our Jewish sources. If one thinks of doing a good deed but was some how prevented from doing that deed through no fault of his own, it is considered as though he has already done it
במדרש שוחר טוב (ל, ד) :
רבי נחמיה אמר: חשב אדם לעבור עבירה, אין הקב"ה חושבה עד שיעשנה; ואם חשב לעשות מצוה ולא הספיק לעשותה, עד שלא עשאה מיד הקב"ה כותבה כאילו עשאה, שנאמר: "ויקשב ה' וישמע ויכתב ספר זכרון לפניו ליראי ה' ולחושבי שמו". אבל בנכרי, אם חשב לעשות רעה, אפילו לא עשאה, הקב"ה חושבה כאילו עשאה...
http://shaalvim.co.il/torah/maayan-article.asp?id=201 and as I had seen earlier at daf, pigul thoughts although not tangible are very powerful.
With those thoughts I continued my day and when we started daf on Friday and one participant expressed surprise that a non-cohen who can shechet the korban but not do any of the other sacrificial duties can have thoughts that would invalidate the next steps of the korban, I answered that yesterday I had an epiphany regarding the power of thoughts. Thoughts have a power that transcends from the meta physical to the physical. Our thoughts can be so powerful that the person shechting the korban can think that the the blood of the korban should be sprinkled at the wrong time and although he cannot himself sprinkle the blood. His thoughts regarding the sprinkling invalidate the korban.
And with that discussion, we began to learn today’s daf - Zevachim 28. We delved into a discussion as to the definition of Pigul for which the punishment is Karet. The person teaching at first thought that this discussion was very technical, but as the discussion on the page unfolded , it mirrored the one we just had. We realized that more than a technical matter was being discussed. What is pigul? The discussion in the gemera has come to a place where it recognizes the power of thoughts. Thoughts can be more powerful than actions, but which thoughts can be more powerful – those thoughts that are more strongly bound to physical acts relating to space or those that are more bound to the meta-physical aspect of time. What causes a korban to become pigul and thereby punishable by karet? Is it thoughts about eating the korban in the wrong place or thoughts about eating the korban at the wrong time?
ואימא והנפש האוכלת ממנו זהו חוץ למקומו ולמעוטי חוץ לזמנו מסתברא חוץ לזמנו עדיף דפתח ביה אדרבה חוץ למקומו עדיף דסמיך ליה
The Gemara asks: But why not say the opposite, that when the verse states: “And the soul that eats of it shall bear his iniquity,” this is referring to intent to consume the offering outside its designated area, to the exclusion of intent to consume it beyond its designated time? The Gemara responds: It stands to reason that intent to consume the offering beyond its designated time is the preferable candidate to carry the punishment of karet, as the verse opened with it. The Gemara rejects this: On the contrary, intent to consume the offering outside its designated area is preferable, as the clause that teaches liability for karet is adjacent to it.
zevachim 28a
I heard the “aderaba” (on the contrary) in the voice of my friend sitting next to me. Clearly it must be that what would add to the weight of importance to a thought would be the change in the physical space from one that is holy to that which is not. The thought (metaphysical) of two physical acts: Eating the korban or sprinkling the blood as well as doing so in a non-sanctified zone should out way The thought (metaphysical) of one physical act: Eating the korban or sprinkling the blood and one metaphysical change – which is time. It ends up that the power of a thought of eating a korban outside of the proper time receives a more severe punishment which means it is a more powerful thought than the thought of eating a korban in a non-sanctified space which invalidates the korban but is not punishable by death.
והנפש האוכלת ממנו אחד ולא שנים ואיזה זה חוץ לזמנו דגמר עון עון מנותר דדמי ליה בז"ב
Finally, when the verse states: “And the soul that eats of it shall bear his iniquity,” the term “of it” indicates that only one of the above disqualifications carries the penalty of karet, but not two of them. And which is this? It is intent to consume the offering beyond its designated time, as one derives by way of verbal analogy between “iniquity” and “iniquity” from notar(Leviticus 19:8), that “bear his iniquity” means that one is liable to receive karet. The comparison is apt since notar is similar to intent to consume the offering beyond its designated time in that both prohibitions share the features mentioned above that form the acronym: Zayin, beit.
Zevachim 29a
For further reading: The Mishnaic mental revolution: a reassessment Ishay Rosen-Zvi Tel- Aviv University, Israel
Thank you Tamara Spitz, Rav Yaacov Francis and Dena Freundlich for teaching daf these past few days and the women who participate the Alon Shvut Daf yomi and together we strive to ללמוד וללמד לשמור ולעשות
In Memory of my mom – Naomi Goldstein - Torah is Timeless © May 2018