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My conversation with a reform rabbi and a priest

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 10:47 AM

As part of their adult education course on the world's religions at Florida Atlantic University, a reform rabbi and a priest invited me to represent Judaism in front of a large audience.

I was asked for my view on the Meaning of Life, in under 3 minutes!

Phew.

My answer- abra cadabra!

This favorite phrase of magicians actually is Aramaic for 'I create through my speech'. You see, when G-d created the world in the first place, he did it through his speech (as in the verse: 'and G-d said 'let there be Light' and there was light'). Hence, the catch phrase 'abra cadabra' was adopted by the magicians in their attempts to the do the same.

The problem is that speech lasts for just a moment and then dissipates. G-d therefore needs to constantly 'speak' the world into being, at every single moment in time!

Creation therefore, is not just a historical marvel, but an ongoing phenomenon.

This, in my opinion, is the meaning of life:

To work on ourselves to recognize the presence of G-d constantly animating everything around us and sensing the equilibrium of the universe by recognizing the power source that power it. When we are able to live our lives in sync with the creative forces around us, it is then that we can achieve peace, stability and happiness in our lives.

In the Torah portion Bo, we are commanded to lay the Tefillin on our arms and in between our eyes. At that time we recite the Shema and read: 'and you shall teach these words to your children and you shall speak them, when you sit at home and when you walk on the way, when you go to sleep and when you arise'.

Why do we need to speak these words? Why can't we just think them?

Verbalizing these words of Torah actually arouses our consciousness of the G-d spoken words around us. So instead of thinking of lip service as a negative, the Shema reminds us that just saying the words is enough to jog our memory to recognize the beauty that surrounds us!

Heartbreaking final text message before he was killed

Monday, January 26, 2015 - 10:21 AM

A random text message that he sent has become his legacy.

Late on Friday afternoon, January 9, 21 year old, Yoav Hattab sent a text message to a friend encouraging him to celebrate and observe Shabbos that evening. Little did he know that it was going to be the last text he'd ever send.

Minutes later he walked into the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris, where he was killed by a cowardly terrorist together with three other precious souls.

We feel anger and frustration in our inability to help our brothers and sisters in distress in France and elsewhere in the world where they are persecuted. Whilst we can't always help them physically, we can certainly help them spiritually.

By embracing the last legacy of Yoav Hattab, we can allow his soul to live on through us, since our added observance and sensitivity to Shabbos is due to his inspiration and encouragement.

If you don't light Shabbos Candles, try to do so. Try to arrange to have Shabbos guests around your table with Kiddush and Challah so as to spread the love of this beautiful day with those who don't yet experience it. Come to Shul and celebrate with our warm, loving community. Please contact me if you would like to hear any more ideas as to how to perpetuate the legacy and last will and testament of Yoav's beautiful soul.

Translation of the actual text message (pictured):

Yoav: Try to observe the Shabbat as soon as you arrive

Friend: This Shabbat is stressful, I have exams tomorrow morning and I’m flying, but next Shabbat for sure

Yoav: These are difficult times in France for the Jews. So, at least try.

Yoav: Don’t do everything but at least try.

Friend: Yes, no worries! For sure.

Yoav: You’re the bomb.

Friend: lol, thank you.

Here's someone in our community who was inspired to make a difference in his life this week:

Peter was denied a bris in his native Hungary by his own family for fear of the anti-semites ever finding out that he is Jewish. This week, he bravely arranged a bris for himself, at 33 years old, without anesthesia!! He entered as Peter, hiding his Judaism and emerged Moshe, proudly celebrating his Judaism.

Not everyone can do a bris at 33 years old, but we can certainly be inspired to enhance our Judaic experience on the next level!

Should I Carry A Gun?

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - 9:37 AM

After the horrific attacks in Paris in a kosher supermarket on innocent shoppers, hours before Shabbos, we are all nervously asking ourselves the same question; 'How prepared do we really need to be?'

So what does the Torah have to say about Rabbi's, or any innocent civilians, carrying guns?

On the one hand:

Talmud, Bava Kama 46a:

R. Nathan says: From where is it derived that one should not breed a dangerous dog in his house, or keep an impaired ladder in his house? From the text [ Deuteronomy 24:8 ], "You shall bring not blood upon your house."

I.e., it is forbidden to have anything likely to cause damage about one's domicile.

Our Commentaries deduce from here that a gun, like a dangerous dog, is intended to hurt others and therefore something we are not allowed to own. Even if the dog is chained, we may not own it, the same argument would apply to a gun that is supposedly locked away.

On the other hand:

We are commanded to be proactive when it comes to self-defense:

"If someone comes to kill you, kill him first. Derived from Exodus 22:1

"You shall not stand by [the shedding of] your fellow's blood. Leviticus 19:16 [I.e., do not stand by,] watching your fellow's death, when you are able to save him; for example, if he is drowning in the river or if a wild beast or robbers come upon him. — [Torah Kohanim 19:41; Talmud, Sanhedrin 73a]"

Indeed we find in Genesis 4:20 an enigmatic debate between a man called Lemech and his two wives about the metal tools that he invented. Our Sages explain that the wives were rebuking him for having introduced weapons of death into the world, to which he responded that it is not the tools, but the man that inflicts damage unto others.

Whilst this is not resolved, we do see that some things never change!

What do you think?

G-d needs a new PR firm!

Thursday, January 15, 2015 - 10:21 AM

The Burning Bush. Great Material for a good movie. But an icon to represent G-d?? Ouch!

Choosing an icon is critical to any business. The subliminal message is very powerful and could potentially generate million dollar deals. Did you ever notice how the FedEx logo has a hidden arrow inside it? Companies from Apple to Coca Cola invest millions in developing the perfect logo.

Isn’t it a little strange that G-d chooses a thorn bush as his logo? Couldn’t He choose a pretty hibiscus or hyacinth? How about a luscious apple or avocado tree? But a thorn bush-seriously? This just isn’t good for business! No wonder religion has such bad PR!!

Upon closer examination we find a beautiful message here: The burning bush had the passion of fire deliberately mixed together with the pain of thorns.

When we experience a moment of inspiration, on Yom Kippur, a wedding or birth of a (grand)child, or just out of the blue, we are animated like fire. We’re all aflame and we feel so spiritual! But then reality sets in and we recognize that we still have so many ‘thorns’, so many imperfections, and we dismiss our inspiration as a passing fad with no bearing on who we really are.

As he approaches the Burning Bush, G-d tells Moses that 'the ground upon which you tread is holy’. Herein lies one of Judaism’s greatest revolutions: Holiness is not the state of perfect inspiration. Holiness is the state of imperfect goodness. Thorns and all!

The Burning Bush inspires us to celebrate our ‘fire’, our yearning to be more spiritual, even when we are filled with ‘thorns’, all our imperfections!

Did you hear what UK PM David Cameron said about Jews

Monday, January 5, 2015 - 10:33 AM

Is there hope for our grandchildren to want to be Jewish, in an overwhelmingly influential and seductive culture in which they are immersed?

In the Torah portion Vayechi, we find our people taking on this challenge for the very first time, as our forefather Jacob confronts his two Royal Egyptian Grandchildren. What can he say to these kids that will influence them to want to follow his legacy and remain committed Jews, thus abstaining from the allure and dazzle of the Egyptian High Society into which they were born?

His words to them seem to ask them to be like fish: 'Veyidgu larov beerev haaretz', 'May you be like fish in the land in which you live'

What's that supposed to mean? A blessing? A rebuke? A warning?

Fish have the most incredible quality: After living in the great wide ocean, once they have spawned a new generation of Salmon, they are overcome with the urge to return to their ancestral birthplace. Known as 'The Great Salmon Run,’ tens of thousands of fully mature salmon will swim out of the ocean and into the rivers from where they originated. There they have been known to jump an astonishing 12 feet, in order to overcome waterfalls and other obstacles that stand in their way to return home, in the sunset of their lives.

What a gift!

It turns out therefore, that Jacob was blessing his Royal Egyptian grand kids that, notwithstanding the decadent pleasures and awesome power they would wield in secular culture, at some point in their lives they would experience an inexplicable urge to come back home to their roots. An urge so strong, that if they express it, no obstacle will stand in their way.

Two weeks ago, British PM David Cameron was Lighting the Menorah with many Chabad Rabbis last month, where he commends the Jews of the UK for being so well integrated into a foreign culture, whilst retaining their identity as Jews. See the video here

Like adult salmon, many Jews here in Palm Beach have already 'spawned' the next generation: They already have grandchildren, have built great careers and businesses and can often be found in the sunset of their lives.

Do you sometime feel pulled to Shul? Do you feel like you 'just need to talk to the rabbi'? Do you then just dismiss this urge as foolishness and convince yourself 'to get a grip on yourself and get back to the Golf Course?

Jacob's blessing to his Egyptian Grandchildren teaches us a powerful truth: Your calling to be a little more Jewish and more connected to your Shul, your rabbi and your people is the timeless blessing of Jacob. That his descendants, like fish, will experience an extraordinary calling to come back home, no matter how far they have roamed.

Celebrate this gift of 'fish instinct'. Give the rabbi or rebbetzin a call. Lets have a chat and connect your soul with where it naturally yearns to be!

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Introducing himself as an African American rabbi, Dovid Vigler blends together the African culture in which he was raised with the esoteric Chassidic pulse of his passion. Inspired by the survival instincts of -the wild, Rabbi Vigler is most comfortable teaching down-to-earth and easy-to-understand explanations of deep mystical concepts taught in the Kaballah and Chassidic works. He believes that true genius is not the ability to complicate the simple, but the ability to simplify the complex.

Driven by the Rebbe’s message to reach out to every single last Jew, he founded Schmooze Radio in 2009, South Florida’s only Torah Radio Show, ‘separating fact from fiction and bubbe maasehs from the bottom line’. A live call-in show, there are no holds barred and any question from his forty thousand weekly listeners is fair game. Now in it’s fourth year, Schmooze Radio recently added a co-host, CEO Mr. Mitchell Zachary, where the rabbi and the CEO face-off on all relevant issues and current affairs as they settle the Jewish views on the news. Schmooze Radio is broadcast from Boca Raton through Vero Beach every Sunday Morning at 9am. Visit www.JewishGardens.com/Radio for station info and archives.

Rabbi Dovid Vigler received his Rabbinical Ordination in Melbourne Australia in 2004. Together with his wife, Chana, they founded and direct the Chabad of Palm Beach Gardens , FL in 2006 where they have created a dynamic, warm and inspired community in one of America's most disaffiliated Jewish Communities, in seven short years.

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