Rabbi Eliyahu Yaakov - The Circle Dance of Jewish Unity

good shalom everybody thanks for coming out good to see you new scenery shalom shalom very nice to have you here um yeah so tonight's topic is the circle dance of jewish unity and so of course everyone knows that we must have jewish unity and of course if everyone was just like me then we'd have it right and that's most people's attitude but i want to get today into a little bit about the concept of jewish unity and how we look at it or how we ought to look at it and uh we'll see where we go from there okay so the first time we really see i think i think the first time we really see the concept of jewish unity we find that jacob is surrounded by his children before he before uh when he's on his deathbed and so he's a it says that they all gather together right and basically this is supposed to indicate to us say the makubu the kabbalists explain that this is indicating to us that in order for the end of days to come in order for the end of days to come it you entails us having um a certain level of unity a certain level of togetherness all the brothers have to have to come together right and similarly in later on in the tour a little bit later when the jewish people are leaving egypt we find that the jewish people have when there's the city the splitting of the sea right famous episode however unlike what unlike what people uh think you know they see the scene on tv with the sea splitting in the middle and all the jewish people go in and that's one approach but there's approach by the rabbis that explains that the sea actually split 12 times once for each tribe and so what that teaches us is that there's you here you have the entire people leaving but each one has they're going to the similar destiny go in the same place but the way to get there is different a matter of fact the midrash the oral torah explains that there were windows between each path each one of these paths through the sea there are windows that you're able to be imagine you're a tribe there you're walking down you're walking through and there's a window and you can see that the other guy also has a path to get across right and so this is how the jewish people start and the way this goes it brings us to ultimately tahar sinai to this to the mount sinai where we get the torah and it says about the jewish people that the jewish people at mount sinai were ishakar that there were like one person with one heart so what does that mean that means that one person means that it's one entity but there's all sorts of aspects to the person there's also supports the person you have an arm you have a head you have a leg and the point is there's one goal there's one vision there's one inner essence but that has all sorts of different expressions it has all sorts of different part parts or tools by which we go ahead and facilitate the will of that one person right and so this is something that's often missed right because what we're saying here is something much deeper than oftentimes what people think is the way it's supposed to be people think that that like okay you know we're all supposed to be exactly one way and of course we're not we're not saying here that anything goes a person comes along and like okay i'm jewish i had a bar mitzvah once upon a time therefore you know i can just make up whatever i can make what i want to make up but we are saying that there's a certain level of plurality within judaism and for example in the it's very well known that in the talmud you had uh rabbis with all sorts of different opinions right you had bethel but chiamay they have all sorts of different differences within the talmud but we find that they actually married off their made sure to married off their students one to the other meaning to say that you had someone from beijing marrying off making sure to marry off their kid or their their student to someone from the other side meaning to say they were trying to make statements here that like yes we have different opinions we have different viewpoints but we are we want to show a certain unity that we're coming from the same place right that is that there shouldn't god forbid be a split in the jewish people it shouldn't become like there's two torahs or two religions here no that these are two sides of the same coin right and so this is something that's super important right because if not then you have all sorts of splits as unfortunately many times we see and so it doesn't mean though that everyone's supposed to be one exact way right but it means that there's what real unity means is that we can have within ourselves certain emphasis certain a certain emphasis or something that we connect to and someone else kind of connects to a different someone else could approach their their passion or their relationship with god or what they feel they're connected to in a different way than maybe another person so like for example um you know in like the army has this kind of thing at least an american army and probably exists in all armies like what's really the army you know some people like especially like a famous college game in a famous football game in america every year army versus navy right and like they're like each one has their own pride but like it would be nonsense to say like what's more important the army the navy the air force you tell me right really they're all important things and they're complementary one does something more the other so how do you know if you go to the army or you go to the navy or the air force so either you or the army the right you or the military decides based on who you are and your skill set and your interest or your passion or what you're good at like which one would be better suited for you but of course they're all aspects equally important of fighting for the same flag right and so you find a similar concept just like this also within the jewish people right within the jewish people you find matter of fact the catholics explain that there's that each soul is rooted in its own unique place so for example literally there's a kabbalistic source which says it like this that there are certain people that are rooted from the head or certain people that are rooted from the mouth certain people that rooted from the heart certain people from the arms certain people from the legs meaning to say that each soul has its own unique uh place that it's rooted in and that's going to lead to also what it's passionate about what it's interested in when it really feels its relationship with god so like you might meet someone and they they feel like they're like like okay these certain mitzvoth that i'm doing are good and nice and beautiful but really when i'm really feeling my passion really feeling connected to god when i'm really doing this whole religion thing that's what i'm learning torah then you'll have other people who have a totally different approach totally different opinion and they'll say well when i'm really feeling when i'm really feeling it it's when i'm praying to god when i'm talking to god learning eh okay right when i do some mitzvah okay that's nice but when i'm really feeling connected is when i'm talking to god right and so of course this go also you got your hand soles right you got your head soles your mouth soles your hand souls right people maybe feel like they're really doing their their relationship with god really feeling connected when they're giving or when they're giving charity right and so who's right right of course of course they're all aspects they're all aspects of the truth and it's not it's not that one's more right or ones are more wrong right the point is that each person is coming to it because they're or they are rooted in a certain place and so obviously the point is to encourage that right and the the people at least who i personally connect to um the people who are more uh i guess universal right have their real path right we're not saying here not that i've had a person has a strong path in terms of who they are what they connect to what they relate to um what outlook they feel or community they feel a connection to but what we're talking about when we talk about real jewish unity is to be able to have be strong in that path but also understand that that other person also has that path that has their own path right that they're gonna feel connected to and be strong and be strong with and that's equally that's equally okay and equally wonderful and equally good right that just like those when the jewish people were walking through the sea when the sea split so i have my path and i'm strong in that path that's the path i'm going in but to be able to look through the window and say oh this guy also has a path that a tribe also has a path that's also go and that's going to the same destiny and the destiny of course is revealing god in the world but the destiny is okay how can i go ahead how can we all go ahead and be the people we're supposed to be right and so this is really the story essentially when we're talking about jewish unity and it's very much like um dna right it's very much like dna dna if you pull a strand of dna from the head you pull strand of dna from the foot so essentially it's the same right so how does it know to when it's in the head to show up as a head and how does it know the foot to show up as a foot okay so this is a longer story and in science is possible they have an explanation and kabbalah there's a spiritual explanation to this concept i'm not going to go into it now but the point is that we all have it means to say that each dna each piece of dna strand of dna contains the the hole within it so every part contains the whole in a state of potential right and the question why does it show up as head in one place or a foot in another is its particular expression right based on the particular expression of the thing that's how it shows up but each part contains the whole within it and so that means it's just a question of what's active and protruding to the front versus what's kind of i don't know if the word with the word passive right and laying back in the back in the background right but the point is how that relates to us as jews is quite simple and that is that they're what it's saying is that we have to exist on two levels really and that is there is a universal holistic relevant to everyone concept of bottom line jewish law or the way we go in judaism called right and that's relevant to everyone bottom line right so for example in judaism there's an idea that's good to learn torah a little bit in the morning and a little bit at night all right another idea in judaism is that we're supposed to pray a certain amount every day all right another idea in judaism is that you're supposed to give charity 10 to 20 okay so this is relevant for all jews doesn't matter if you're a head soul or you're a hand soul or you're a mouth soul it doesn't matter right but on top of that you have something that we might call personal preference right based on who you are and where you're coming from and what you connect to so there's a certain bottom line jewish law and then on top of that it's like okay well where do i really fill my emphasis where do i want to go uh put my energy into right so you have somebody who maybe feels really connected to torah and if they're financially able to so great they can go ahead and learn torah all day long no problem other people that might be too much for them at that particular point and so but they maybe they connect to praying and there's someone hey i really feel alive and connected to god when i'm just like walking along in a forest talking to god for six hours straight okay so wonderful that could be a mouse soul you have other people who just who want to just give a tremendous amount of charity and that's also wonderful or be or volunteer whatever it might be but the point is that we all have a certain bottom line healthy diet right of judaism and that's what it means to be a jewish soul and then though which particular aspect of jewish people are you which particular place are you rooted in so then that's personal preference and so then everyone is a certain player in the story in this manner right right and so this is and then and when we when we have this approach also it's much more healthy it's balanced and people can find themselves in judaism as opposed to the way other you know the way certain things might be at certain times where people are trying to fit everybody into one particular box or one to a particular pathway right but there's a beta layout there's a hmi right there's a there's a head sole there's a mouse so there's a foot sole so every so if we can find our place right and figure out what that is and figure out what we're passionate about right and it's just again it's just like you know it's like most things in spirituality you can find a parallel for them in physicality right uh one of the ideas in kabbalah is that the word kabbalah is from the word macabre which means parallel because everything here in this physical world is a parallel to deeper spiritual reality so just like just like we're saying this exists in spirituality you can see this in physicality as well for example right just think about an athlete right because we're talking about working out spiritually so let's think about working working out physically let's say like a baseball player wants to be a pitcher okay so this person in general has to be toned has to be healthy or athletic usually most of the time right in terms of their entire phys physical body right but then they go ahead and have special emphasis workouts on the arm i'm sure there's i don't know the science of it i don't know details i was not a major league picture at any point in my life but but there's certain particular workouts that the pitcher is going to do that other players on the baseball team is not going to do any particular exercises and workouts that a quarterback of a football team will do that others will not do and there are certain things that other people would do that the quarterback would be harmful for them to do it's harmful for a quarterback to be able to to be have a level of strength that they're bench pressing that they look like some other position in the football like maybe some offensive lineman or something that's not going to work out very well right so there are certain things based so you they're most in general we have a certain balance of healthy physical living and then on top of that right what's going to be my personal uh my personal emphasis right on top of that so if it's a pitcher if it's a quarterback if it's an offensive line whatever it might be same thing same thing spiritually as well right there that what it means to be within the jewish people so we have a certain concept of bottom line jewish law bottom line bottom line the way we go right bottom line how do i go ahead and live spiritually here in the physical world according to judaism according to torah right and then on top of that okay how do i find myself what is my personal emphasis what's my particular path right and so and so this is the idea to understand it in a certain sense uh like a puzzle right i think it's like a puzzle because if you think about it every puzzle right is you every piece in the puzzle is a unique piece that's needed by the puzzle as a whole and any piece on its own is totally lost without the surrounding context without the puzzle as a whole and so i think it's kind of like that right that we each have our unique thing to give our unique place our unique purpose what we're really here for our unique individuality we all have our situation that we've been set up with we are custom designed right with our own particular unique uh circumstances based on what our unique soul needs and the whole point is can i go ahead and live out my soul live out my spiritual living live out my godly essence even here in this particular situation that i've been given with the parents i've been given in with this culture i've been put in with the socioeconomic background that i've had with this with the social upbringing that i've had right and can i go ahead and go ahead and live that out in my own unique way and so that's my piece in the grander puzzle of judaism and so therefore we're all different right it means that when you go ahead and fulfill a certain mitzvah fulfill a certain jewish positive thing so it's totally different than when i go ahead and fulfill it the same exact thing because it's not the same exact thing because you're coming at it with your unique soul in your circumstances and i'm coming at it with my unique stolen my circumstances so while the outside action might look the same the truth of that action is totally unique to each of us and so this is really the story of what i like to call the circle dance of judaism circle dance of jewish unity right because the circle dance of jewish unity means at least to me right it's really based on a certain piece of the talmud right the talmud says that in the end of days and the end of time in the future there's going to be a circle dance in the sky right there's going to be a time where there's going to be a circle dance of the righteous meaning to say that the righteous are going to get around and there's going to be a circle dancing the middle is going to be god right don't picture that because you're not supposed to picture god but this conceptualize with me for a second in theory right there's gonna be a circle circle dance in the sky and all the jewish people around the righteous around and the whole point is what's a circle circle means that every everybody has his own his or her own unique viewpoint on the centerpiece on the middle right and so the talmud says that each of these righteous people are going to be jealous they're going to be jealous of the canopy jealous of the relationship uh that the guy next to him or the gal next to him or her has with god right you get you have an angle on god that i don't have it's gonna be a holy jealousy right but the beauty of jewish unity is you're in a circle right so what are you doing in a circle you dance you move along right and so this is and so everyone will have their own unique relationship with god their own unique connection and the good news is that if we're all unified so then like it says in the jewish sources that each jew is connected to every other jew and so that means if i'm unified i can see out of your eyes and you can see out of my eyes right the relationship that you created with god and that's unique to you and it is unique to you you are that at your core but i'm connected to you so i have i can have a flavor of that too and you can have a flavor of where i'm at as well and this is the circle dance i think the circle dance of jewish unity to be able to to see the world in this way and to understand that yeah that's not only uh people like to think like in future times there'll be no uh mahloket and we're all you know there'll be no differences of opinion and everyone's gonna have the same opinion i don't know necessarily that that's true right means to say that each there's each unique flavor has its purpose each unique angle has its purpose right there's an idea in judaism that there were six hundred thousand torahs given at mount sinai that when god spoke to the jewish people god spoke to jewish people that's one but each of the jewish people at their root soul level heard it in a different way heard it as it was relevant to their soul right and so yes moshe bendu moshe is considered to be the all-inclusive he got them all fine but each of each jew has their own unique connection and so and that's the point and that's supposed to be that way and that's the beauty of it right that's the beauty of it and so this is a little bit uh the concept of the circle dance of jewish unity questions what do people have to say um so if everyone has their own viewpoint on their own version of the torah and their minds their perspective does that mean there is kind of not is there still one ultimate truth you you walked in late didn't you yeah you walked in late so we said at the outset that yeah okay okay for sure there's a concept of of plurality but it doesn't mean that anyone who just you know grew up with a jewish identity and had a quote unquote bar mitzvah that they now okay whatever they say whatever they feel goes right uh is within a certain context but the point is that we're talking that we should we need to draw us a clear distinction between um what's called jewish law and um right which is jewish outlook outlook with injuries law right so that could be different there are different communities a person can have identity with identify with or connect with within um within a within torah community within torah right and so that's important you know that's something that people struggle with especially um at the beginning of their journey it takes some time it may take a few years um before they kind of clarify that the difference between where halacha ends and ashkaffa begins and a lot of times unfortunately there are certain people or certain groups or certain organizations or whatever it might be that um that might blur that line that might talk about hashkaf as if it's okay to talk about outlook as if it's bottom line jewish law and that causes problems that causes people big problems right uh many ways so that could be a tough thing for a newcomer that could be a tough thing for a newcomer but if they speak to the right people and they have the proper conversations that they need to have um then um you can get some clarity and that just takes a little more time it takes a little more time and to surround yourself with healthy balanced um holistic kind of people and holistic has nothing to do with your food has to do with where you live um yeah who's next there it seems like there's kind of a level of objectivity relating to what we're all required to do in the level of connectivity in terms of what our role is yeah that's great yeah buddy i would even i would even say in terms of what you're talking about in terms of in terms of jewish law even there there's differences of opinion right so even there you can say that there's a certain level of subjectivity right like i just give an example i don't know if i'm cutting off your question just hang on if you have the other half of your question but i'll just give you an example that once i was kind of trying to you know a certain person was kind of new to judaism says i was kind of trying to work out with them there was something that they were going to take on that there were two opinions right and one of them would have been significantly easier for them to do than the other opinion and um so i suggested to a certain rabbi who is also associated with this person that like you know just tell her to do this other thing that's like more lenient or whatever right the guy looked at me like i was from mars okay um because because despite the fact that this opinion clearly exists um since it wasn't from that person's particular um outlook so a guy looked at me like i was like uh i don't know so so um i so that's that's unfortunate like a person and i'm a person who's involved in uh you know what's called the posik and jewish law right like a halal decider and jerusalem um you know when or and this is important also for finding your personal rabbi your personal mentor the person you're going to connect with has to understand two things number one you have to be very well versed in jewish law and all of that but also they have to know what they're talking to in other words there could be a time where normally i might do this and i would hope you know the masses would do something but then dealing with this person that's going to break them and there is another way according to another way according to jewish law in order that you can live as a kosher jew and also go in that other and also go with a different opinion right like so that's the time to utilize that okay that's the time to utilize that um it's and it's not like oh i'm doing a less good situation no in this situation that's the best thing you can do because the other thing isn't going to work out well and you don't need to do it and so that in that situation that's the ideal you should do that it's not like with the conjugate law be the evidence not it's not um it's not like a lesser or worst case scenario no that's that's the ideal in this situation that's the ideal right person you're gonna go give uh you're gonna a person has a medical emergency um on shabbat first let's just let's let's keep it happy right person needs to go give birth on on shabbat right so oh i have to pick up the phone no but no that's the idea like in that situation okay that's what trumps uh that in that situation that trump's not picking up the phone to make the phone call so um so this is uh you know we have to understand that's it also pays to be uh well versed in jewish law so you can know the different things that are out there and you can know when to utilize what right it's complicated but um it's a good idea to check out right okay now go ahead now what did you want to say i was also dangerous like the uh idea of objective truth that that's kind of the piece of objectivity i know but that's really kind of what i was had in mind that it was just the other piece of it the individual piece of it um i think i know all six of us are out here trying to figure out what our our piece of that is and what we're all meant to do and what our our contribution kind of the greater truth is and the question is how do you go about figuring it out and two the likelihood that you really totally figure it out ever in your life is really zero you're never going to totally get it so at what point can you decide okay i got it close enough if i let me just make sure i'm understanding the question correctly you're saying how do i go ahead and find that thing the subjective aspect of it what's my unique contribution what's my unique thing right so the kabbalists do suggest a certain something with this and some people here might have heard this before and that is very simply what is that thing not always is it easy but sometimes it is what is that thing that you are extra passionate about to the point that you're passionate about this positive thing more than is normal right like you're extra passionate about and by the way the reverse is also true reverse also true is there something that you have a particular drive for in the negative something that's not allowed according to judaism more than what's normal right more than i give my my class example i'd love to give i said over a few times recently um is uh when i was growing up and when i was in high school i just there's this guy that i knew in high school that this guy he could not walk into a 7-11 without walking out with like a bag of doritos or something under his leather jacket you know he didn't need to step he just couldn't he just couldn't walk out without stealing anything now listen there might be plenty of people here who is like yeah i'd like to steal stuff and i walk in and sometimes i see the guy go to the back and i'm like hey anyone could just jack this thing right now and that's totally fine that's normal but then other people this guy he could not walk out let's take another level you know what i mean that's a sign that's a sign according to the catalyst as a sign that like god's directing like hey this is something that that you're here to transform and to uproot and then ultimately to be the the beacon of light of what it means to not be someone who steals right or what it means to to to be someone who perfects this particular issue or trait like that thing that we really are bad at is really many times the reason we're here and it's and it's usually it's not just something that we have no connection to and like blah about it no but it's something a lot of times that is like an issue in our life like something could be something that destroys relation our relationships right and it's like okay you know i always get angry and somehow based on my anger like my wife is leaving me my kids hate my guts i just got fired from my job i have no f it's like okay hello from here from this angle from this angle there's like it's all about this anger like hello maybe someone's trying to send you a message you know what i mean so so if we can find those things that our life number one our life points do that basically that's what it is our life points to it whether it be we're passionate about it whether it be something that's that we're passionate about we shouldn't be or you know or something that's everything around us is just pointing us to this thing that's usually that's an indicator according to the tablets literally they're right about this um sometimes still it's harder for others that involves a more personal conversation but um in general that is definitely the general principle they put out there what else we got here you talked about like during the time of um shamai and hello that they would like mix is that still a car today like the chabad guys go out with like lit bucks so i don't think so not so much i mean maybe not so much maybe that happens uh here and there but that's that's not that's one of the reasons why i pointed it out i mean could you imagine such a thing now so um is that is that something that might be helpful perhaps it would you might come into there might be certain issues that need to be worked out but um but what changed a lot's changed in 2000 years you know i don't know lots i mean certain things have stayed the same but certainly things has changed um people got scattered around and got into their little uh circles and so we're now in a time of re-coming perhaps coming back to that place we're now in a time hopefully of mending certain things and certain rifts in certain divisions when we all got stuck here uh i got pushed here into this instead of different pockets we're all all of a sudden coming together so that has its set of challenges but hopefully also has a set of um you know beauties as well that hopefully will come out of it you know so stay tuned what else we got here yeah um what is this that get us separated like that we don't see the window we are uh just um what makes us to not dance um i think uh first and foremost arrogance i think so because like it's either i look at i can't see something that's outside of my perspective so um i think that's i think that's a plays a big role that um you know anybody it might be a person themselves it might be something that they were taught but when you can't see that you can't see that someone else has a certain other perspective or other way of looking at something you know so since you related to it this way everyone must relate to it this way you know what i mean that kind of thing um i mean i'm sure there's more to be said about this but on a very simple level i mean that's i think that's what it is not and not understanding how to properly value what's what is something that i can't bend on versus what is something that i can't bend on you know that's important to understand that there's places to ban there's places to not bend you know i think it's a longer conversation i think but yeah because now we're getting into people's psychology that's different what else we got here my friends anything else cool we'll break here we'll mingle we'll have some sufkana yoats so i hope this is meaningful i hope you guys enjoy if i want to talk privately a little bit i have a couple minutes okay i don't have a couple minutes okay it's been nice to see you find me ellie did you gmail.com what's up gotta go