Meaningful Mondays meets each week (11:30-1) when classes are in session at the Clover in the Harvard Science Center. Our goal is to be a stumbling block of meaning in the heart of the Harvard community's frenetic bustle. Organized by Rabbi Getzel Davis and Amitai Abouzaglo, we are trying to cultivate a conversation among Harvard affiliates on some of life's most important questions. Please grab some food and open your heart! All are welcome! Really! Even you!
Rav Shai Held, Yeshivat Mechon Hadar
"I feel like there are few more important questions to ask oneself, as an heir of the Torah, than whether we have ever worshipped a God that loves orphans, widows, and strangers and the weak. Have you ever, in one moment of your life, truly, staked your life on, 'that's who I worship.' I worship the God of Children in Cages."
What does R’ Held ask of people who worship a God ultimately compassionate for His creations, especially the vulnerable among them? Is his challenge merely to imitate God? What are the inner dimensions of what Held is asking of God-worshipping and/or justice-loving people?
If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; they shall be excommunicated in the sight of their kinsfolk. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister, he shall bear his guilt.
Hesed is used here to mean “disgrace.” How might one’s Hesed lead to disgracing someone? What boundaries must we place on our loving generosity?
A synthesis of Jastrow’s definitions of Hesed and Hasad suggests that an act of grace may put someone to shame. How does deservingness fit into the picture of Hesed? What makes someone feel undeserving to give or to receive Hesed? Does R’ Held’s reflection offer insight on this question?
(6) Hashem passed before him and proclaimed: “HASHEM! HASHEM! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, (7) extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”
§ The verse states: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed” (Exodus 34:6). Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Were it not explicitly written in the verse, it would be impossible to say this, as it would be insulting to God’s honor. The verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, wrapped Himself in a prayer shawl like a prayer leader and showed Moses the structure of the order of the prayer. He said to him: Whenever the Jewish people sin, let them act before Me in accordance with this order. Let the prayer leader wrap himself in a prayer shawl and publicly recite the thirteen attributes of mercy, and I will forgive them.
On first glance, this text is contradictory. God extends kindness to the “thousandth generation” yet “visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.” God is described unequivocally in verse 6 as “abounding in kindness.” When has your hesed led to contradictory outcomes?
גימל דלת גמול דלים מאי טעמא פשוטה כרעיה דגימל לגבי דלת שכן דרכו של גומל חסדים לרוץ אחר דלים ומאי טעמא פשוטה כרעיה דדלת לגבי גימל דלימציה ליה נפשיה ומאי טעמא מהדר אפיה דדלת מגימל דליתן ליה בצינעה כי היכי דלא ליכסיף מיניה
Gimmel dalet means give to the poor [gemol dalim]. Why is the leg of the gimmel extended toward the dalet? Because it is the manner of one who bestows loving-kindness (gimilut chassadim) to run after the poor. And why is the leg of the dalet extended toward the gimmel? It is so that a poor person will make himself available to him who wants to give him charity. And why does the dalet face away from the gimmel? It is to teach that one should give charity discreetly so that the poor person will not be embarrassed by him. The children continued to interpret the letters.
Hows does this text potentially differentiate the spirit of generosity from the act of generosity?
(ב) שִׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק הָיָה מִשְּׁיָרֵי כְנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַתּוֹרָה וְעַל הָעֲבוֹדָה וְעַל גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים:
(2) Shimon the Righteous was from the remnants of the Great Assembly. He would say, "On three things the world stands: on the Torah, on the service and on acts of lovingkindness."
What would look different in our world if we we enhanced our life of Torah (or study), our life of service (or prayer), and our life of Hesed?
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. 1966 “Jewish Education”
Who needs the old, the incurably sick, the maintenance of whom is a drain on the treasury of the state? It is, moreover, obvious that such service does not claim all of one’s life and can therefore not be the ultimate answer of his quest of meaning for life as a whole. Man has more to give than what other men are able or willing to accept. To say that life could consist exclusively of care for others, of incessant service to the world, would be a vulgar boast. What we are able to bestow upon others is usually less and rarely more than a tithe.
Practice
Do two things in the next week that feel altruistic and "above and beyond" what you normally give. See how it feels to stretch in this way.
You are invited to review this practice on Shabbat. Please share what you have learned with us next week on Monday - back in the Science Center at 11:30! Next week's topic will be Yirah/Awe and Fear