Eggs and the Value of Completed Systems

I've heard that due to the spherical nature of an egg shell, were equal amounts of pressure to be applied simultaneously to it (by grasping it with the fingers from both top and bottom) it would never break, regardless of the amount of pressure exerted-->> The value of something whole and complete.

Similarly you see in science the stability of the noble elements (elements whose valence shells have a completed set of electrons) over their counterparts, even those elements who are "greater" by being further down the chart. Nevertheless, the completeness of the nobles makes them infinitely stronger than the others.

And so i come to my point. The existential paradox of "יש לי כל", man's drive for the "all", the "whole", the klall/kol; when he is tragically fundamentally merely a פרט . How? Through כלה, ( kol ) the infinitely valuable state of a completed system or organism. In that noble state of kol one does not covet nor lack or want even of the elements that are greater than he, for he is complete and in that completion he shares and accesses the ultimate "kol". Thereby displaying the beauty of Tiferet.

Death or Ru Ru?

Could just be that i'm in a pessimistic mood these days but saw this joke in Dan Stone's book on Drexel Burnham "April Fools" and really captured the thought. Namely, that with some choices in life you've lost before you've even begun, you just don't know it yet:

Two professors were captured by a tribe of natives deep in the Amazon. The tribal chief turns to the first professor and asks "will you choose death or ru-ru?".

The first professor figuring to take his chances with the curious ru ru is thereupon taken by the tribal men, beaten to point of unconsciousness and thrown to a pit of savage tigers who quickly tear him apart limb from limb and kill him. His remaining body is raised up from the pit and thrown onto the floor to the horror of his colleague.

The chief then turns to the other professor and asks the same: "Death or Ru Ru?" to which he quickly and emphatically replied "Death. Absolutely Death".

"Fine", said the chief, "death it is."

"But first.... a little Ru-Ru. "

:-)

Pesach Shiur- Yound Israel Holliswood 5768 - Levaya

I לויית המתים, לויית אורחים, ולויית חבר

- סוטה מו: -- עגלה ערופה, "ידינו לא שפכו... לא ראינוהו ופטרנוהו בלא לויה וכו'"
-- חיוב מרחק לויית תלמידו חבירו ורבו
-- כל המלוה חבירו אפי' ד' אמות בעיר אינו ניזוק
-- מצות לויה אפי' בד' אמות
-- תניא היה ר"מ אומר כופין ללויה ששכר הלויה אין לה שיעור שנאמר (שופטים א) ויראו השומרים איש יוצא מן העיר ויאמרו לו הראנו נא את מבוא העיר ועשינו עמך חסד וכתיב ויראם את מבוא העיר ומה חסד עשו עמו שכל אותה העיר הרגו לפי חרב ואותו האיש ומשפחתו שלחו וילך האיש ארץ החתים ויבן עיר ויקרא שמה לוז היא שמה עד היום הזה תניא היא לוז שצובעין בה תכלת היא לוז שבא סנחריב ולא בלבלה נבוכדנצר ולא החריבה ואף מלאך המות אין לו רשות לעבור בה אלא זקנים שבה בזמן שדעתן קצה עליהן יוצאין חוץ לחומה והן מתים והלא דברים ק"ו ומה כנעני זה שלא דיבר בפיו ולא הלך ברגליו גרם הצלה לו ולזרעו עד סוף כל הדורות מי שעושה לויה ברגליו על אחת כמה וכמה

-- מה היא הענין ומה הן הסבר הדברים?

II לוי בן יעקב וחיבור

-- הופעה ראשונה של לויה בתורה--> "עתה הפעם ילוה אישי אלי וגו'" ותרגום שם
-- ענין של חיבור, bonding, connection
--"כי לוית חן הם לראשך" --> necklace

-- חיבור אפילו באופן אינטימי --> "כמער איש ולויות (מלכים א ז) וסוגיית כשנכנסו עכו"ם להיכל (יומא נד')
--גם בלשון חול מצינו מלת לויה (escort) משתמש באופן אינטימי

-- וכמו כן מצינו בגמ' התייחסות לויה לענין הלואה --> מלוה ה' חונן דל ... אל תקרי מלוה אלא מלוה וכו'

III מלוה ולווה, מרבית ונשך

-- הנה ענין מצות הלואה מצינו הנהגה שהיא נגד סברא ונימוסי פרקמטיא
-- עד כדי כך שמצינו איסור ב"קרוב לשכר ורחוק מהפסד" (ב"מ סד')
-- מה היא ההסבר?

-- משנת וסוגיית אין נותנין לחנוני מעות למחצית שכר ובירור הבדל מונח הלואה לבין מונח עסקת פרקמטיא --> נקודה של חיוב אחריות ו Guarantee
-- וכן מצינו בעיסקא --> forward looking statements, no guarantee

essentially it is prohibited to profit from future guarantees (in contrast to the realm of mecher) without taking upon oneself some form of risk to one’s initial investment

Guarantees of future profits are fundamentally antithetical to escorting and levaya

to be mitlaveh, to truly be a part of a relationship of mutuality demands “jumping in” with no guarantees of future gain on profit. Anything less is self-serving. The moment you wish to demand a profit for yourself at the end can only be done in the context of mecher i.e. business, proposition, prostitution

George Bernard Shaw--> “Sleep with me for a million dollars… sleep with me for a hundred dollars… we’ve already established what you are, now we’re just haggling over the price”

-- רמב"ם הלכות תשובה י' ג' -- העובד מאהבה, עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה--לא מפני דבר בעולם, לא מפני יראת הרעה, ולא כדי לירש הטובה: אלא עושה האמת, מפני שהוא אמת; וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל.
--Rocky IV --> Drago --> “I don’t fight for you. I fight for me. I win for me.”

-- לויה מחייב "מה שיהיה יהיה" --> Que Sera Sera… the future’s not ours to see

-- כמה מאושרים אותם שמתיחסים בבחינת לויה ולא בבחינת מכר --> מיתת עוה"ז ונצחיות עוה"ב ועיר של לוז
-- כמער איש ולויות


IV סוד פתרון לויתן לספר איוב

-- עי' בבא בתרא בסוגיות לויתן
-- [ See מדרש פליאה )עד( לא נתקררה דעתו של איוב עד שראה בסכת בסכת בסוכות שלשה פעמים... maybe it has to do with the fact that סוכות is the "end of the process"...]

-- מעשה ר' אלעזר בן פדת (מס' תענית)


It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not, we’ve got each other, and that’s alot, for love, let’s give it a shot …. (Bon Jovi)

My Rebbe - Rav Matis Weinberg

Just wanted to take a moment in the face of all the craziness to say:

Rav Matis Weinberg I consider to be my Rebbe Muvhak and Teacher. Without him I would have been lost, truly. A man whose ma'asim merubim me'chachmato, he opened up my eyes to the Torah, the World, and to Life. To you Rebbe (if you ever should read this) I give my deepest thanks and respects. I owe you my very life. Thank You

http://www.thelivingtree.org/

כי מלאך ה' צבאות הוא... אם דומה הרב וכו
- Doniel

Nida Thoughts

Nida Notes

מס' נדה- a ולד is seen as being equivalent to דם נדה . One is just another form of the other. Consider:
1)כל אשה שדמיה מרובין, בניה מרובין (סוף פרק ט') - more blood, more children. less blood, less children
2) a יולדת is literally equated in the פסוק to be like a נדה . Even when sitting 14 days for a girl the פסוק still says כנדתה, whereas by the 7 days of a מצורע מוסגר that comparison is never made (even though the דיני טומאה are the same, as far as I know). So in a sense it comes out almost parallel: you sit 7 days of טומאה for a ולד, 7 days for דם
3) (this “proof” is a little bit complicated but follow me here.)-- both a ולד and נדה דם have value on an existential level ( בבחינת הויה) i.e. their very existing in this world makes them significant regardless of how little impact we see them having on their external environment (בחינת חיים).
First let’s show this by ולד and then by דם נדה.(See נדה 5:2? ) I ask you what difference is there between a fully formed baby one second before it sticks out its head [which is the halachic threshhold for defining a לידה] and the second after it sticks out its head. Yet the Torah sees one as killing an object and one as killing a בן קיימא .
Furthermore, the Torah says you should do ייבום for a man who has died and בן אין לו, yet if a man had a son born to him for even a second and then that son dies (where he dies as a result of something external killing him בר קיימא vs. לאו בר קיימא) there is no longer any mitzva to do yibum! This is called “בן יש לו”.
Life is meaningful because it exists .
מאי חזית דדמך דידך סומק טפי דילמא דמא דההוא גברא סומק טפי
Who says your existence is worth more than hers. Who says your blood [דם] is worth more than hers?
See Sotah by Amram and Miriam where it implies that the birth of a child by definition allows for an עוה"ב whereas he wouldn’t if he were never born So we see that a ולד’s value is existential in nature.

Now דם נדה.(עיין מס' נדה ריש פרק ז') With exception of דם נדה ( including דם זבה ויולדת see Rambam perek 3 Hl’ mishkav u’moshav ) and בשר מת all other טומאות are only מטמא as long as they are moist. Once they’ve dried up to “the point of no return” (see גמ' שם) they are no longerטמא . This includes שרץ, נבלה, ש"ז, וכו' . Yet דם נדה is מטמא even then. Why, says the גמ'? because it exists and the פסוק says דם יהיה זובה בבשרה , so long as it exists it is טמא even where it lacks any moistness allowing it to impact on things around it. (although I should be honest and point out, as mentioned above, that this halacha isn’t only by דם נדה but by dam zava and yoledet also. Maybe that ruins what I’m saying, maybe not, I’m not sure).

[Maybe that’s also the reason for בשר מת being מטמא when it’s dried up, although the source in the torah that the גמ' brings doesn’t harp on any הויה language. Keep in mind also that there are other connections of נדה to טומאת אדם including it’s purification process of הזאת מי נדה.]
4)(מס' סוטה) אדם - אפר דם מרה אדם-


--the relationship of לידה to death and burial, both being a transition of worlds or “states of existence” if you will. The “seeding” of the woman and her giving forth those seeds [תזריע] similar to the seeding of the body in the ground and its coming up for תחית המתים. Note the גמ' (Sanhedrin Perek Chelek I vaguely remember) learning that people will get up from תחית המתים clothed similar to grain, and the קל וחומר of תחית המתים because מה ולד שנכנס בחשאי יוצא בקולי קולות זה שנכנס בקולי קולות כל שכן שיצא בקולי קולות . [1]

The גמ' (ל:) also connects these two events in the pasuk (ישיעיהו מה') כי לי תכרע כל ברך תשבע כל לשון .כל ברך- זה יום המיתה זה יום הלידה- תשבע כל לשון

Don’t forget the famous משל (I don’t know where the source is though) of the twin babies in their mother’s stomach and the one baby “mourning” over his brother who just “died” by being born.

[1] I’m a little bothered though about a גמ' (ע:) towards the end of the מס'. The גמ' says that the אנשי אלכסנדריא asked R’ Yehoshua ben Chananya 3 foolish questions. One of them was “Would people who got up for תחית המתים require sprinkling to purify their tumah?” to which he answered them “we’ll find out when mashiach comes”. Yet the גמ' earlier in the מס' mentioned this concept by showing the amazing quality of hashem to bring something tahor ( a child) of something tameh (the דם נדה and sperm). We note there the paradox so why is it so foolish to ask whether the same paradox will occur in the future for תחית המתים?

Another Great Passage from Nietzsche

""As regards a woman, for instance, the control over her body and her sexual gratification serves as an amply sufficient sign of ownership and possession to the more modest man; another with a more suspicious and ambitious thirst for possession, sees the "questionableness", the mere apparentness of such ownership, and wishes to have finer tests in order to know especially whether the woman not only gives herself to him, but also gives up for his sake what she has or would like to have-- only then does he look upon her as "possessed". A third, however, has not even here got to the limit of his distrust and his desire f0r possession: he asks himself whether the woman, when she gives up everything for him, does not perhaps do so for a phantom of him; he wishes first to be thoroughly, indeed, profoundly well known; in order to be loved at all he ventures to let himself be found out. Only then does he feel the beloved one fully in his possession, when she no longer deceives herself about him, when she loves him just as much f0r the sake of his devilry and concealed insatiability, as for his goodness, patience, and spirituality. ""

If only Nietzche were around that I could kiss him :-)

שפתים ישק משיב דברים נכוחים

Nice Lines -- Nietzsche -- Beyond Good and Evil

Couldn't possibly quote all the lines that i liked from the book-- but just a few short ones:

--Where there is neither love nor hatred in the game, woman's play is mediocre

--A sign of strong character, when once the resolution has been taken, to shut the ear even to the best counter-arguments. Occasionally, therefore, a will to stupidity

-- He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a despiser.

..and finally, a longy but a goody:

-- "It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong. .... He enters into a labrynth, he multiplies a thousandfold the dangers which life in itself already brings with it; not the least of which is that no one can see how and where he loses his way, becomes isolated, and is torn piecemeal by some minotaur of conscience. Supposing such a one comes to grief, it is so far from the comprehension of men that they neither feel it, nor sympathize with it. And he cannot any longer go back! He cannot even go back again to the sympathy of men!"

you gotta love it! :-)