Save "Verses: Where Broadway and Torah Meet -                        Les Mis and Kabbalah"
Verses: Where Broadway and Torah Meet - Les Mis and Kabbalah
This episode addressed both Javert's suicide soliloquy and the concepts of Din and Chesed in Kabbalistic thought. A chart depicting the sefirot (emanations) in Kabbalah referenced in the episode is below.
סֶד וְהַצְנֵ֥עַ לֶ֖כֶת עִם־אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃ {ס}
“You have been told, O mortal, what is good,
And what GOD requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God;
From Judaism is About Love" by Shai Held
(p 225) "Judaism is about love, and its goal is to make us kinder and more present for one another. This is what traditioin refers to as 'walking in God's ways.'"
"The beginning of Torah is actos of lovingkindness and the end of Torah is acts of lovingkindness." (Rabbi Simlai)
"..Compassion, in other words, requires attention and discernment, a commitment to understanding as robustly as possible both the person in need and the situation in which they find themselves and to acting accordingly."
And, in discussing the Book of Ruth, which is consistently written about as a story of chesed, Rabbi Shai writes, (p 384) "..the Book of Ruth is not just about people doing acts of hesed, it is also about the kinds of healing, transformation, and redemption tht lives of hesed make possible."
Jean ValJean was able to be transformed through the chesed of the Bishop, and was redeemed from his former life by God.
(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 one of the last of the men of the great assembly. He used to say: the world stands upon three things: the Torah, the Temple service, and the practice of acts of piety.
(יח)רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַדִּין וְעַל הָאֱמֶת וְעַל הַשָּׁלוֹם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (זכריה ח) אֱמֶת וּמִשְׁפַּט שָׁלוֹם שִׁפְטוּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶם:
(18)Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel used to say: on three things does the world stand: On justice, on truth and on peace, as it is said: “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16).
How do you see these two viewpoints? Are they different? Which do you think Javert would agree with? Which would Jean Valjean agree with?
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