Al Reguel Ajat

The term “tikkun olam” is a deeply important and commonly misunderstood Jewish concept. Tikun olam is not the fulfillment of a mitzvah, but rather refers to the Jewish drive and commitment to perfect the world according to God’s will, through our own behavior, attitude, and action. Many scholars point out that the term has been done an injustice when it simply refers to man’s involvement in charitable activities.

The first reference to tikun olam occurs in the Mishnah and broadly means “promoting the general welfare” (see Mishnah, Gittin 4:2). Another early rabbinic reference appears in the Aleinu prayer, which originated in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy but became a daily prayer around 1300 CE. In the second paragraph it says, “Therefore we trust in You, that we may see Your glorious power, to banish from the world the detestable things “l’takein olam b’malchut shaddai” and to perfect the world under Your sovereignty.” Here it is still spoken of as repairing the world being a divine rather than a human action.

Isaac Luria, the 16th century Kabbalist, emphasized the concept of tikun olam in his theology. Luria taught that God emanates into the world through the sefirot, which have personality traits, such as compassion. He said that by meditating on each of these sefirot and their unification, one can help heal what is a shattered spiritual world.

In 1964, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook expanded on Luria’s concept when he wrote that tikun olam must “fly not only over the spiritual ether,” but must equally concern itself with both the spiritual and the physical. (Orot Ha-Kodesh, sect. 3, p. 180).

In the early 1950s Shlomo Bardin, the director of the Brandeis Institute in California, taught that tikun olam refers to the obligation of Jews to work for a more perfect world. This interpretation had an enormous impact on Jewish youth movements and by 1970 it had been adopted by the youth movement of Conservative Judaism as the motto for its social action activities. In the following decades, tikun olam became the motto for social action in Judaism in general.

Judaism teaches us that the reason for human existence is tikun olam, the «repair of the world.» God left the world incomplete and imperfect so that human beings could participate in the act of creation, completing and perfecting it. And God is referring to this world, in this life. Focusing on a hypothetical (or real) «afterlife» is likely to weaken our commitment to improving this one. It is not forbidden to believe in or hope for paradise, but let us not worry so much about it that we forget about the world in which we live. It is this world that we need to repair.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Articles on Tikkun Olam by Rabbi Paul Steinberg, Rabbi Dan Danson and others.

For Judaism, anything that even remotely conflicts with the concept that there is only one God is rejected on principle, because it contradicts the idea of ​​pure monotheism. That there is a God in heaven who fights against a god of the underworld or hell is not monotheism. It is the same dualism that we find in pagan beliefs.

The Bible speaks of a character known as Satan, who acts as an accusing prosecutor in God’s court. Satan has no powers or authority of his own, but must obtain God’s permission to act.

Every time he is mentioned in the Bible we see him written as «HaSatan», or «The Satan». By using the definite article «the», it indicates that it is a title, like the rabbi, the teacher, etc. Thus, in the Bible the term HaSatan is used more as an indication that the subject performs a certain job and not as a description of a being.

Therefore, Satan’s job description is very different from that of the devil. For Christians, devil and Satan are synonyms, and for them the devil does have power and authority on his own. In contrast, in the Jewish Bible, Satan only has the power that God gives him and has no authority. The fact that the devil is defined as having power and authority implies that there is more than one god.

Satan is mentioned in only a few places in the Hebrew scriptures. In each case, he is an angel who works for God and not against God, and as we said before, he must have God’s permission to act. Chronicles, Job, Psalms, and Zechariah are the only places where he is mentioned. In each case, Satan’s job description is to act as what we know in our time as the prosecutor and his duty is to present the accusation and the evidence that shows the guilt of the accused. Furthermore, the prosecutor must obtain permission from God, The Judge, to initiate an operation to unmask a lawbreaker.

Some scholars explain the term satan as a metaphor referring to the evil inclination, the “yetzer hara”, that every person has. The term satan literally means adversary. And in Jewish philosophy it is said that one of the things we battle with every day is our own evil inclination, the yetzer hara. The yetzer hara is not a being or a force, but is man’s innate capacity to do evil in the world. Its counterpart is the “yetzer hatov”, the inclination toward good.

It is clear that the concept of “The Devil” in Western culture contradicts the foundation of Jewish monotheism. That is why, in Judaism, we have sent the “devil” to hell.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Articles by Rabbi Stuart Federow, Ariela Pelaia and the Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Samuel Ibn Nagrel´a was born in Granada, Spain in 993. He received an excellent Jewish and general education and became a Talmudic scholar, statesman, poet, soldier, philologist and one of the most influential Jews in Muslim Spain. He was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and Latin. He was a student of one of the most respected rabbis of his time, Rabbi Hanoch ben Moshe.

Fleeing from the Berbers, Samuel settled in Malaga. There he opened a spice shop, near the Palace of the Vizier of Granada, Abu al-Kasim ibn al-Arif. Samuel began to receive visits from a servant of the Vizier who asked him to write letters for him, which he did very well thanks to his mastery of Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy. The Vizier, who admired Samuel’s writing style, asked his servant to introduce him to the author. After their first meeting, Samuel was hired as the Vizier’s personal secretary. Samuel and the Vizier became good friends and soon the Vizier realized Samuel’s capabilities. In addition to his secretary, Samuel became his political advisor.

Upon the Vizier’s death, Sultan Habbus al Muzaffar appointed Samuel Vizier of Granada, despite a decree prohibiting Jews from holding public office. Samuel became the king’s advisor on political and military matters. He rose to be the head of the Muslim army of Granada and participated in multiple battles against Arab Seville. Upon the death of Sultan Habbus, his son Badis was crowned and Samuel was appointed his chief advisor and general of the army. In 1027, the Jewish community granted Samuel the title of HaNagid, the prince.

It is said that a fanatic Muslim had severely offended Samuel and the king, upon learning of this, ordered Samuel to have his tongue cut out. Instead, Samuel sent a gift to the offender, thereby earning his gratitude. The king questioned Samuel and he replied: I cut out his aggressive tongue and gave him a gentle tongue instead.

Samuel put his wealth and high authority to good use. He was passionate about spreading knowledge. While serving as a soldier, he wrote poems on the subject of war and battle. He purchased and gave thousands of copies of books to poor Jewish students in Sicily, Spain, Egypt and Jerusalem. He actively sought to spread Judaism and Jewish culture, helping less fortunate scholars such as Salomon Ibn Gabirol.

In addition to serving as Vizier for three decades, his military responsibilities gave him no respite and Samuel HaNagid, weakened by the same, died of natural causes in 1056 on a battlefield. He was beloved by the community and mourned by Muslims and Jews alike. Aside from his poems, his only major surviving work is Hilchot Hanagid, a compilation and commentary of halacha based on the two Talmuds. Samuel HaNagid certainly deserves to be in the Jewish hall of fame.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jewish Encyclopedia and other sources.

The existence of Jewish streets or neighborhoods arose, on the one hand, from the interest of Jewish communities to live separately in order to better observe their laws and customs. On the other hand, the separation was the result of decrees by the authorities, especially the ecclesiastical ones. Observing the commandments, the need to have a minyan for prayers, a cemetery, a mikveh, and mutual help, were what motivated the Jews to group together in neighborhoods or streets that in some cases were separated from the rest of the city by walls.

For example, the Jews of Speyer in 1084 asked the bishop for permission to live in a separate, walled neighborhood. In other cases, it was the Church that imposed on them the obligation to live separately from the Christians, seeking to isolate and humiliate the Jews.

The word “ghetto” comes from the Venetian gettare, meaning slag, the product of metal foundries, and borghetto, a diminutive of borgo, a neighborhood. The Venetians coined the term in the 16th century when they forced the Jews of Venice to live together, surrounded by a wall, in the poorest part of the city, near an iron foundry.

The Venetian ghetto was not the first Jewish ghetto. In 1179 the Catholic Church decreed that Christians should not live together with Jews. This led to Jews being segregated in most European countries, at first in streets called Judengase and later in walled neighborhoods with gates that were closed at night. In 1555 a decree by Pope Paul IV forced the Jews of Rome to live in an area on the left bank of the Tiber River, which was immediately walled off. Other Italian cities followed Rome’s example. In addition to living in the ghetto, Jews were required to wear a badge, were required to listen to sermons seeking their conversion, and were restricted in their professions. In Muslim countries, too, different ethnic or religious groups lived in their own neighborhoods. “Harat al Yahud” literally means “Jewish neighborhood” in Arabic.

Living in a ghetto had both positive and negative effects on Judaism. The Jew in the ghetto lacked political, economic, social, and cultural freedom. He had no political rights, his economic activity was restricted, as was his socializing with non-Jews, and he could not participate in the culture and education of the outside world. Living conditions in the ghetto were therefore very difficult. On the other hand, they did not have to worry about maintaining their identity and the Jewish way of life. The walls not only kept out anything Jewish, but also kept out nothing from outside. They were an antidote to the problem of assimilation. Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: History of the Ghetto by Dr. Gerhard Falk, Encyclopedia Judaica and other sources.

Maimonides held that one should not read the Torah literally. In his view, one was obliged to understand the Torah in such a way that it was compatible with scientific discoveries. He wrote that if the Torah and science did not agree, it was for two reasons: either the scientific part was not well understood or the Torah was misinterpreted. He said that if science proved a point, the scriptures should be interpreted accordingly.

The age of the universe is one such discrepancy. Unlike the majority, a small minority of rabbis in classical times held that the world was older than the nearly 6,000 years that the literal interpretation maintains. In the Talmud’s tractate Chaggiga 13b-14a, it is written that there were 974 generations before God created Adam. And in some midrashim it is explained that the “first week” lasted much longer than seven days. (Midrash Breshit Rabbah 9).

In his Torah commentary, Rabbi Bahya ben Asher in 11th century Spain maintained that there were many time systems in the universe before the present time. He said that the earth was billions of years old.

Rabbi Israel Lipschitz of Danzig (1782-1860) commented in “Yachin u-Boaz,” his commentary on the Mishnah, that the world had had many historical cycles, each lasting thousands of years. The age of the dinosaurs was one such cycle. He said: “From all this we can understand what the Kabbalists have told us, that the Earth has been destroyed and renewed several times.”

Some Orthodox rabbis, such as Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, maintain that scientific theories confirm that God had a master plan for creating the universe and that this is consistent with modern Orthodox thought. In the early 20th century, both Conservative and Reform Jews accepted scientific discoveries as true and therefore interpreted the sacred writings in light of them.

Rabbi Kook said that the creation account belongs to “The Mysteries of the Torah” and is therefore open to interpretation. The creation account was not intended to be a literal description of how everything came into being, but rather to emphasize that it was God who called everything into existence. But furthermore, the theory of evolution agrees with the order marked out in Genesis. The most evolved beings were created last.

As C.S. Lewis says, the scientist knows while the religious man believes. Science tries to explain how the universe works while religion tries to explain what its purpose is and what place man occupies in it. One is a matter of knowledge and the other of belief.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Jewish Responses to Modern Science, by Rabbi Louis Jacobs and other sources.

Reading Maimonides is not easy, especially his work “Guide for the Perplexed.” When one begins to read it, the first obstacle one encounters is his reluctance to accept that God has human form. And that goes against what many people think. Many people imagine God as an old man with a beard or a king sitting on his throne. They also think that a prophecy is like reading the palm of your hand and that the commandments imply submitting to the will of someone strange and alien. If we were to vote for or against Maimonides’ ideas, the majority would vote against, but fortunately the truth is not defined by votes.

Looking at the behavior of a group, to try to understand what their principles are, is something we must be careful about. For example, the Bible tells us of episodes of revolts, frustrations, disobedience and hypocrisy. As soon as they were freed from Egypt, the Hebrews wanted to go back. Some even rose up against Moses’ authority. The episode of the golden calf proves that they needed an idol to worship. Immoral practices of the Canaanites were copied in Israel. Intrigues and murders plagued the lives of ancient kings. And the northern and southern kingdoms plotted against each other. The above describes a group with few ethical principles.

But paradoxically, all this was happening at the same time that the Jewish people were creating the foundations of the Western moral tradition, giving us the legacy of Moses and a succession of prophets whose words inspire faith, hope and courage. Moses and the prophets saw the possibility of changing these attitudes and elevating the Jewish people to a level of spirituality that few could imagine. In a time when oppression and inequality threatened the social order, the prophet Amos saw an era where justice would prevail. In a time when war seemed imminent, Isaiah saw an era of universal peace. In a time of widespread idolatry, Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant between God and Israel. But at the same time, the Bible also tells us that Amos was cast out of town, that Isaiah’s advice was not heeded, and that Jeremiah was sent to prison.

Maimonides never claimed to be a prophet, but like the prophets, he did not accept the prevailing attitudes in Jewish thought and practice. He insisted on reaching higher levels. His work reminds us that love for God does not come from fanaticism and blind faith. If our love is directed toward that king sitting on the throne or the monarch who only issues arbitrary decrees and cares nothing for the education of his subjects, then that is not the God Maimonides describes, but a sad substitute. The God he describes is one who loves the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, who regrets the existence of ignorance and superstition, and who does not accept people making images of Him, physical or mental. According to Maimonides, thinking and acting in this way is what it means to have been created in the image and likeness of God.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: “Maimonides: A Guide for Today´s Perplexed” by Kenneth Seeskin.

After a long wandering, Maimonides finally settled in Fustat, a city near Cairo, in 1168. The Jews were doing well in Egypt, living in peace with their Muslim neighbors and belonging to what we would call the middle class today. They lived around synagogues in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.

Jewish families lived just like Muslim families: they wore similar clothes, shopped in the same stores, and apart from the dietary restrictions each group had, they ate practically the same as their neighbors. One difference was the tallit, which the Jews wore all the time.

In Fustat, Maimonides became interested in the religious affairs of the 7,000 families living there and in Cairo. He was especially concerned about the differences in religious practices between the descendants of Babylonian Jews and the Jews originally from the land of Israel. The most important of these had to do with the order of prayers and the cycle of Torah readings, which for some was completed in one year and for others in three. He tried to mediate to unify religious practices, but he could not. The division was deep-rooted and each group prayed in its synagogue.

He also cared for Jews captured in wars waged by the forces of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, as well as those kidnapped by pirates. By appealing personally, forming committees or writing letters, he raised the money needed to pay the ransom and free the captives. He was able to do this because his fame had spread throughout the world and had earned him recognition, not only from Jews, but also from Christians and Arabs. The authorities referred to him as “Rais al Yahud,” the leader of the Jews.

In those years, the Jewish community of Yemen, the second oldest after that of Jerusalem, asked him for advice on how to deal with a situation that threatened its very existence. The Shiite rulers who took power in Yemen in 1172 gave Christians and Jews the choice of converting to Islam or dying. Many Jews converted, not only because of the threat, but also because of their poor knowledge of Judaism. They believed that Muhammad had brought a new religion to replace their own and therefore there was no point in resisting.

Maimonides wrote them a letter, now known as Iggeret Teman (Letter to Yemen) or Petah Tikvah (Gate of Hope) in which he extended his message of hope to all those who lived under oppression and in which he declared his firm commitment to the faith of Israel. He assured them that the Jewish nation always survives any attempt to annihilate it and that oppression would soon end. The letter was distributed throughout the country with very positive effects. Yemenite Jews renewed the bond between Israel and God and waited patiently for Maimonides’ promise to be fulfilled. In 1174 Turhan Shah, Saladin’s brother, entered Yemen and took control of the government, freeing the Jews from their oppression. Maimonides’ promise had been fulfilled.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: “Maimonides” by Sherwin B. Nuland.

Maimonides was born in Cordoba in 1135, at the end of the golden age of Spanish Judaism. At an early age he developed a marked interest in science and philosophy. He read Greek philosophers in Arabic translations and immersed himself in the study of science and Islamic culture. He studied Torah with his father, Rabbi Maimon ben Yosef.

In 1148 the Caliphate of Cordoba, tolerant of Christians and Jews, collapsed and fell under the regime of the Almohad dynasty, whose attitude was totally contrary, as they forced the “infidels” to convert to Islam or die. Maimonides’ family, like many other Jews, opted for exile. For the next ten years they wandered in southern Spain, until they finally settled in Fez, Morocco. It was during this time that Maimonides wrote his commentary on the Mishnah. From Morocco they moved to the land of Israel, where they stayed for a short time, leaving for Egypt to settle in Fostat, a city near Cairo.

Upon the death of his father, Maimonides became the head of the family, but he was able to continue his studies thanks to his brother David, who managed the family business, the precious stones trade. David drowned at sea on a business trip and Maimonides had to find a way to earn a living. He decided to devote himself to medicine, a profession he studied in Cordoba and Fez. He soon gained public recognition and was named physician to the Court of the Grand Vizier and Sultan Saladin, a position he held until his death in 1204. In accordance with his last wishes, his remains were transferred and buried in Tiberias, in the land of Israel.

Maimonides’ influence on the development of Judaism is incalculable. No spiritual leader after the Talmudic era has had such a great impact as he. Although his philosophical work was initially met with much opposition, over time it was finally accepted. His two main works were the Mishneh Torah, a codification of Jewish law, written as a guide to how to live according to the divine commandments, and the Guide for the Perplexed, a philosophical work where he explains the true meaning of the spirit of the law.

Maimonides, along with Rashi, is one of the most studied authors within Judaism in the Jewish academic world. His work marked the path of synthesis between Aristotelian thought and the Bible. He deeply influenced both Christian thinkers, such as Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Arabs. He is also one of the most widely discussed Jewish thinkers. He has been adopted as a symbol and an intellectual hero by almost all movements in modern Judaism. Having managed to reconcile the philosophical with the traditional has given his legacy great richness and an uncommon quality. That is why it is said that “From Moses to Moses, there has been no one like Moses.”

Prepared by Marcos Gojman from various sources.

From a strictly historical point of view, the Talmud was never finished, never officially declared finished, without the need for additional commentary. The Bible, comparatively, went through different stages of compilation and redaction, but eventually it was completed and it was declared, categorically, that nothing could be added to it. The same was true of the Mishnah in its time. But although there is a certain edition of the Talmud that is considered definitive, the fact that it had reached its completion was never announced publicly and officially and that, consequently, a new era was about to begin.

The final edition of the Talmud can be compared to the stages of maturation of a living organism: like a tree, the Talmud has come to have a certain form, which is very unlikely to change substantially, although it continues to be a living being, growing and proliferating. Although the organism has taken its final form, it still produces new shoots that draw their sustenance from the roots and so continues to grow. This fact is more important for our approach to the Talmud than for its history. The principle that the Talmud is unfinished maintains a constant challenge to continue the creative work. It is up to each scholar to add to the Talmud and to contribute to the work, knowing that it will never be finally completed.

The Talmud was edited by Rev. Ashi, but it is not his work, but rather the collective effort of the entire Jewish people. Just as it has no single protagonist, no central figure who sums up all the themes and discussions, so it has continued through the centuries in a continuous creative process. In a way, this is the source of the difficulty and the fascination that its study entails. It requires of the student the ability to identify with it, but without insisting on blind faith. There are few sacred works that do not demand of the student the acceptance of certain principles. But in the case of the Talmud, the scholar is not obliged to accept all the arguments and is allowed to question or appeal at some point. Indeed, he is obligated to do so.

One of the great Talmudic commentators, the Maharsha, often ended his commentaries with the word “vedok,” continue to examine the matter. This exhortation is an explicit acceptance that the topic has not been exhausted and that there is still room for additions and new arguments to old questions. In a way, the entire Talmud is completed by this “vedok,” this command to continue searching, to ask, to see new facets to old problems. Therefore, it is our obligation to continue to examine the matter.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: The Essential Talmud, by Rabbi Adin Steinzaltz

Fanaticism is excessive zeal in religious matters and is especially serious when directed toward others. Judaism, like other religions, has had to face the problem of how to achieve the balance between complete loyalty, carried out with enthusiasm and conviction, and the unbridled zeal of some who, in acting, seem to ignore the very values ​​they preach.

The Torah presents us with several examples of fanaticism. One is the story of the abduction of Dinah, where despite Jacob and his sons having made an agreement with the prince of Shechem, two of Jacob’s sons, Simon and Levi, kill the men of the town anyway. Jacob, on his deathbed, as he blesses each of his sons, condemns the action of Simon and Levy.

Kenneth Seeskin, in his book “Maimonides, A Guide for the Perplexed Today” tells us: “On the matter of fanaticism, Maimonides points out in his work entitled Eight Chapters that, according to the Torah, God does not want and in many cases does not accept extremist behavior. God does not want people to starve themselves, torment themselves, take vows of celibacy or endure deprivation. What He wants is honest dealings with one’s neighbor, moderation of passions, respect for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the sick and the stranger, rest on Shabbat and in general, a life in which we can grow to our full potential. It is true that the Torah calls for moral and religious discipline, but it never recommends discipline for discipline’s sake. The purpose of the law is not to promote unquestioning obedience to authority. It is rather to create an environment in which man can perfect his soul and the society in which he lives.”

In Leviticus 19:18 and 19:34 the Golden Rule is first expressed: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Kant himself in the 18th century said that this principle was the basis of every ethical system and that every commandment, moral judgment or action must be completely compatible with it.

Seeskin continues: “If Maimonides is correct, the divine commandments have as their goal human excellence (Guide 3:27). No commandment mandates a form of conduct that does not instill in us a correct way of thinking, that does not contribute to social harmony and that does not provide us with physical and mental health.”

Today our world is torn apart by men and women who claim that God is on their side and who, convinced of the correctness of their positions, commit physical or psychological acts of violent destruction. These individuals are driven by the certainty that they know the sacred truths and are therefore morally obligated to do everything in their power to enforce them, regardless of the suffering of others. Along with their inflated sense of righteousness, moral certainty, and ideological purity, they have a tendency to dehumanize and even demonize those who oppose them. They believe that they have the absolute truth. But this is not the case.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Kenneth Seeskin, “Maimonides, A Guide for Today’s Perplexed” and articles by Rabbi Louis Jacobs and James Green