Rabbi's Blog

Over the years I have received numerous offers from credit card companies, banks, and vendors. I get very excited about new deals, special rates, or new promotions being offered. Unfortunately, time and time again I learn that I do not qualify for those particular promotions. Over a period of many years I have received a recurring and troubling excuse, explaining that I can't have this new 'deal' or promotion because it is only for 'new' customers. Existing customers don't qualify. Of course I understand that companies are always looking for new customers to grow their business. Nevertheless, I feel mistreated due to the fact that I have been a loyal customer for years and should be entitled at least to the same benefits, or even more benefits than those given to a new customer.

Years of learning Gemara (Talmud) in yeshiva have helped me to develop excellent critical thinking skills, but these very skills, beneficial as they are, have also created a great deal of frustration as well. What do I mean by that? As I speak with the agent of a company which sent me an offer that I didn't ask for but nevertheless created interest in obtaining, being told that I can't sign up because I'm already a customer, no amount of Gemara 'kup' logic helps. It is useless to try to convince an agent that I, a twenty-plus year member/customer in good standing, should be more entitled to this promotion than a new, unproven, prospective customer. Now I surely understand that the agent is only doing his or her job and is told what to say. I know that I am not going to get the new deal, but I want the person to at least admit that my logic makes sense even though I know he has no authority or ability to change the rules.

At a certain point it is irrelevant to me whether or not the company changes its decision. My only contention at this point is that the company should admit to me that their decision is illogical. Maybe they don't want to admit for fear I will then force them into giving me the deal, or they are just programmed to repeat the same old line they were told to say. Nevertheless, I used every logical deductive/inductive argument I could muster to show them how illogical their reasoning is - to no avail. Company representatives never give in - won't even agree with me 'off the record'. This is the problem of learning Gemara and trying to use that keen logic when dealing with a company or bank representative and a policy that is completely illogical.

I would like to suggest that the physical world as we know it runs on logic or ways and ideas that our limited human brains can understand. The spiritual world is something beyond the logic that our brains are capable of understanding; it just requires acceptance. Using Gemara, which is kind of spiritual, in a physical setting, does not necessarily interconnect well together. We as Jews have the understanding of both the spiritual and the physical, but at times we have difficulty reconciling the two.

One of the greatest challenges we face in understanding the Torah is the spiritual and miraculous pieces mentioned in the Torah. People have difficulty getting a handle on the laws of Tumah/impurity or things that are Kodesh/holy. Not to oversimplify the issue, but the reason we have difficulty with certain spiritual areas of the Torah is because we are physical beings. True, we have a neshama/soul that is spiritual, but it is overshadowed by the physical body it embraces.

After the Jewish people left Egypt, received the Torah, and became a nation, it was time to create a physical dwelling place on earth for Hashem - who is completely spiritual. This must be the most difficult task: to build a physical abode for God, who is completely spiritual. How was it possible for man to accomplish this? The answer is, we can't. The only way we could build such a dwelling was to receive exact instructions from Hashem, and that exactly what took place. The Mishkan /Tabernacle and later on the Beis Hamikdash /Holy Temple were built on ideas and measurements which were completely illogical. The only way this could exist was through miraculous means.

In this week's Parsha Teruma 25:8 the Torah states: "V'Asu Li Mikdash V'Shachanti b'Socham" "They shall make Me a sanctuary-so that I may dwell among them". Yet in this week's Haftorah Yeshayahu 66:1 (which is read because it is Rosh Chodesh) it states: "So said Hashem, the heaven is My throne and the earth is my footstool; what House could you build for me, and what could be My resting place? These two verses seem to contradict each other. I would like to humbly suggest the following explanation. Hashem knows how the human being thinks because He created us. Thus, when Hashem wants to convey a complete spiritual picture of Himself, He tells us that it is impossible for us to fathom or to understand because we can't take something so spiritual and find a place for it in this physical world. On the other hand when Hashem wants to make us feel connected to Him spiritually, He finds a way to do it through physical means. In order for us to have a way to relate to this spirituality, we get a glimpse into the spiritual world. The key into the spiritual world is knowing that we may not understand it all and certain parts don't make sense. But they only don't make sense because we are viewing it through the physical lenses and not the spiritual ones.

In today's day and age we are short changed. We lack the physical instruments such as a Mishkan to feel the spirit of Hashem. It is an even greater challenge today, especially with more physical pleasures and distractions all around us which make it more difficult to connect to Hashem. This is why Hashem commands us to build a sanctuary so that He can dwell in us. There is, as Chazal tell us, a place that Hashem is found in this world outside of a Beis Hamikdash and that place is the four cubits of Halacha, Jewish law. When we speak the language of Torah and learn Hashem's commandments and seek to fulfill them, then we can begin to feel and see the spiritual side of Hashem in this very physical place.

Ah Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky