You're Not Jewish, Are You?
TV show Frasier (I didn't watch it or anything....). Scene: Frasier walks into a shiva house for someone he didn't know, wanting to find out something about the guy's death. His actions keep prompting the question, "You're not Jewish, are you?" from the family. At last he talks to the wife, who asks, "why did this happen?" He says he doesn't know, there is no good answer...
Frasier: We just have to concentrate on the little surprises in happinesses in life, and not concentrate on death."
Wife: You're not Jewish, are you?
As Rabbi Wolicki said in a shiur this year (Parashas Emor), you'd think that Judaism is all about death, right? I mean, look at the things that even non-religious people do: burial, shiva and aveilus (mourning), kaddish, yartzheit, and yizkor.
I don't remember the entire shiur, but basically, it went that no, pum fakhert (yiddush - just the opposite)! It's all about life! That's why we can't be tamei (impure) in the Beis HaMikdash (Temple). Why not? we can't have death on the mind. We have to be totally separated from it. Which is what kedusha (holiness) is: separating from stuff, even from things that are ok, as it says in [I think] the Gemara, "Qadeish atzmecha b'mutar lach--holify yourself in that which is permitted to you." Kohanim have to be qadosh, holy, separated from death, before they can serve HaShem, the Ultimate Lifegiver.
Death isn't even what it seems like if you think about what. What is death? Death is when our soul leaves our bodies, and goes to the next world, called Olam Haba, or, Olam HaEmes (World of Truth). We sit and take in the Glory of God. That's why we're here. We do everything, to try to get to that place, to just take in God's Glory. So, death isn't really bad at all, in fact it's better than living. I don't know about you, I would love to take in Glory from the Ultimate Goodness. That is to say of course, we shouldn't kill ourselves to hurry the process, but do as much as we can in this world, before we do that. So it's not even really dying, it's living PLUS.
But we still gotta separate from it.
Frasier: We just have to concentrate on the little surprises in happinesses in life, and not concentrate on death."
Wife: You're not Jewish, are you?
As Rabbi Wolicki said in a shiur this year (Parashas Emor), you'd think that Judaism is all about death, right? I mean, look at the things that even non-religious people do: burial, shiva and aveilus (mourning), kaddish, yartzheit, and yizkor.
I don't remember the entire shiur, but basically, it went that no, pum fakhert (yiddush - just the opposite)! It's all about life! That's why we can't be tamei (impure) in the Beis HaMikdash (Temple). Why not? we can't have death on the mind. We have to be totally separated from it. Which is what kedusha (holiness) is: separating from stuff, even from things that are ok, as it says in [I think] the Gemara, "Qadeish atzmecha b'mutar lach--holify yourself in that which is permitted to you." Kohanim have to be qadosh, holy, separated from death, before they can serve HaShem, the Ultimate Lifegiver.
Death isn't even what it seems like if you think about what. What is death? Death is when our soul leaves our bodies, and goes to the next world, called Olam Haba, or, Olam HaEmes (World of Truth). We sit and take in the Glory of God. That's why we're here. We do everything, to try to get to that place, to just take in God's Glory. So, death isn't really bad at all, in fact it's better than living. I don't know about you, I would love to take in Glory from the Ultimate Goodness. That is to say of course, we shouldn't kill ourselves to hurry the process, but do as much as we can in this world, before we do that. So it's not even really dying, it's living PLUS.
But we still gotta separate from it.
(I think I gave over the main point correctly. If not, Rabbi, say something.)
posted by Karban Nesanel at 17:18
2 Comments:
: )
whoa completely didnt understand the hava mina, Why would anyone think that Judaism is all about death? burial/availos/kadish are only a handful of the big 613.
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