Siyyum Teaching for Shloshim

I had the opportunity to teach in my Abba's memory for his shloshim on two occasions last week - one via video to the siyyum Mishnaot at the Chabad of Boynton Beach, FL and one over Friday night dinner at Temple Beth Shalom in Cambridge. Below are the combined words I shared (so a bit long!) and following that the text study sheet I handed out and that we followed.

At his burial in Boston I shared that my Abba’s illustrations have impacted people’s imaginations and learning. He did this through his children’s books like the colorful Artscroll Megillat Esther which many children and adults alike are devoted to shlepping to shul each year on Purim (you may have seen the original artwork on the walls of my parents living room in Boynton Beach). He did this through his precise depictions of the inside of a cow and a chicken in Artscroll's Mishnah Chulin which helps people visualize what they were learning. And that’s just to name a few.

In thinking about how to participate in this siyyum I wanted to learn together with our friends in Cambridge and beyond the two Mishnayot that he illustrated – chulin (the parts he got from the butcher sat in a paper bag in the Artscroll fridge for a few weeks and there were some lunch-time mixups in that Brooklyn office during that time that caused a few laughs) – and Pirkei Avot for kids.

I want to saying thank you and Yasher Koach to everyone who participated in learning for the siyyum for my Abba Meir Leib Ben Binyamin Chayim. Together with his community in Florida all of Mishna was learned in his honor, with our friends focusing on Pirkei Avot and Mishna Chulin which my dad illustrated. People from MA, NY, MI, FL, CL and Israel participated, and many of you reached out to me to share that what you learned was so reflective of the person my Abba was.

Learning Pirkei Avot together was particularly meaningful to me. Pirkei Avot, part of Seder Nezikin, s an interesting Mishna. It's title is translated as “The Chapters of our Fathers” but Avot can also mean main principles (such as an Av milacha in the 39 main methods of work prohibited on Shabbat). And it’s true that many of us learn our foundational principles and values from our parents. I appreciate that my Abba's illustrations grace the pages that contain ageless wisdom and advice that I can continue learning from. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg in his commentary on Pirkei Avot published in 2016, says that Pirkei Avot was compiled to distill rabbinic wisdom for the broader public to absorb. While we came together to study all of Mishna in less than 30 days in the merit of my father, the truth is that these texts take a lifetime to fully understand and unpack as they contain thousands of laws. Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi, the 2nd century editor of the Mishna, was fully aware that most people are not cut out to master all of those intricacies, and wanted to create this special volume that would make our tradition more accessible and one that we can live by.

I appreciate that my Abbas pictures helped make this volume even more accessible.

It is the practice to study the chapters of Pirkei Avot on Shabbat afternoons between mincha and maariv from Pesach to Shavuot. In fact one extra perek was added to the collection of this Mishna to perfectly match that time span. And since Pirkei Avot begins with the description of the continuous chain of the Oral and written Torah from Moshe to the rabbinic leaders, it makes sense that we follow these texts as we prepare to mark the anniversary of receiving the Torah. 

Thinking about that time of year, and that time in shul where I studied these texts as a young girl and a young woman, I’m reminded of all the times that my Abba and I walked hand in hand the dozen blocks from our apartment in Riverdale, NY to our shul, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Whether it was for Kabbalat shabbat, shacharit, or mincha/maariv, I never felt too old to hold his hand. We traversed a foot bridge that went over a parkway and I remember as I grew how my strides were able to come a bit closer to matching my Abba’s but that he never left me behind to catch up, which enabled us to have many conversations on the way to and from shul. 

There are 66 sages whose teachings are included, each of whom were contributors to rabbinic culture and to the larger body text of the Mishna.

Let's look at the first source of the handout. 

Chapter 1:15

שַׁמַּאי אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה תוֹרָתְךָ קֶבַע. אֱמֹר מְעַט וַעֲשֵׂה הַרְבֵּה, וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּסֵבֶר פָּנִים יָפוֹת:

Shammai used to say: make your [study of the] Torah a fixed practice; speak little, but do much; and receive all people with a pleasant countenance

All three of these principles were things my dad lived by. 

-My kids would watch him walking out the door early in the morning in Florida with his tallis and tefilin under his arm to catch a Tanya class before daily shacharit, or in MA, sitting at the large wooden dining room table at his computer preparing to send out the daily Rambam that everyone would learn together. What an example he set for them. Later in the Mishna it says don’t say I’ll study when I have the time, because you may never have free time. My Abba knew the value of choosing to fill his time with Torah.

-My dad wasn’t always a man of many words, but boy was he a man of action. He would often stay up late into the night, even at his age, working to finish a project just so - he had very high standards. On the handout is a picture of my Abba working in his garage studio in Update NY, circa the late 1980s, early 90s. I’m sure he was airbrushing and was on some deadline, but look at that smile. He always greeted people with that warmth, just like the last line of this Mishna says.

And I want to point out the other picture here of these smiling faces of school children that I found when googling my dad and his artwork in the last few weeks. The picture was taken last February at a Jewish community day school in Baltimore where students had just received their own copies of my dad’s Pirkei Avot. He had no idea the extent of the joy that he spread with his art.

Let's look at the next few sources of the handout. 

First we have my dad's illustration of Chapter 3 Mishna one. This text is often said at funerals.

עֲקַבְיָא בֶן מַהֲלַלְאֵל אוֹמֵר, הִסְתַּכֵּל בִּשְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים וְאִי אַתָּה בָא לִידֵי עֲבֵרָה. דַּע מֵאַיִן בָּאתָ, וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ, וְלִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עָתִיד לִתֵּן דִּין וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן. מֵאַיִן בָּאתָ, מִטִּפָּה סְרוּחָה, וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ, לִמְקוֹם עָפָר רִמָּה וְתוֹלֵעָה. וְלִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עָתִיד לִתֵּן דִּין וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן, לִפְנֵי מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא:

Akabyah ben Mahalalel said: mark well three things and you will not come into the power of sin: Know from where you come, and where you are going, and before whom you are destined to give an account and reckoning. From where do you come? From a putrid drop. Where are you going? To a place of dust, of worm and of maggot. Before whom you are destined to give an account and reckoning? Before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be he.

 Let's look at source 3. Rav Yitz's commentary on this passage. 

Sage Advice, Pirkei Avot Commentary, Yitz Greenberg Chapter 3, Mishna 1

Akavia feels that all acts of sin involve a loss of perspective. Something appears so desirable, urgent, that all other considerations violations of trust, disobeying God, hurting another - appear trivial by comparison. The person then pushes all the right considerations aside and sins. Someone who understands the ephemerality of earthly life and the awesomeness of God before whom one will be held accountable will never sin, because no goal or pleasure will stack up against the majesty of God and the eternity of judgement.

Personally, grief has changed my perspective on life’s priorities. It’s helped me slow down a great deal and not try and always be getting things done - namely because I’m too sad to do them, but it’s also helping me take life in a it more now, to the extent that I have the capacity to do so. But suddenly the dishes and email seem much less pressing than.

I struggle a bit with the last sentence and I think it may be the reason that some people struggle with saying kaddish. I personally don’t relate to God as stern judge, but as the ultimate source of love. But saying the words of kaddish, or exalting God each day, are easier for me to relate to since I know my Abba related to God this way and it feels good to say those words in his honor, and to think of the time that my dad said these words, at my exact age, for his own Abba and how they lead him back to Judaism.

So let's look at source 4, an even more open interpretation of the questions in the Mishna.

 TheRebbe.org by Yanki Tauber, Pirkei Avot, Chapter 3 Mishna 1

In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explores the spiritual and psychological makeup of three classes of people: the Tzaddik ("righteous man"), the Beinoni ("intermediate man") and the Rasha ("sinning man"). So to the Beinoni, "from where you came" is not the putrid drop of the Rasha's corporeal origins, but the origin of his soul in its Divine source. To the Beinoni, "where you are going" refers not to the dissolutionary destination of the body, but the sublime heights attainable through his service of the Almighty. To him, his accountability to G‑d is not the "threat" of retribution for wrongdoing that it is for the Rasha, but the responsibility to optimally develop his potential. Instead of dwelling on the lowliness of the corporeal, the Beinoni meditates on his holy origins, his purpose, and the One whom he is responsible in his mission in life.

 

If we think about the questions in the ways posed above it can give us more wiggle room in how we answer them. And if we asked my father these questions I think he would answer as follows;

Where did you come from? From a family of four simple, decent Jews in Philadelphia

Where are you going/ what are you trying to do in lif? Contribute in my own ways to make the world a little bit more beautiful, a little more full of learning, a little more full of love

And who are you ultimately responsible to when it comes to developing your potential and making an impact in this world? To God, to my family, my community, and to our future generations in the legacy that we leave.

I would love it if before we studied the last two sources, you turned to your neighbor to answer the bolded questions in source 2 for yourself.

Let's look at source 5. Again we have an illustration of my Abba's if you look at the last page.

 Chapter 2 Mishna 9

אָמַר לָהֶם, צְאוּ וּרְאוּ אֵיזוֹהִי דֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה שֶׁיִּדְבַּק בָּהּ הָאָדָם. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, עַיִן טוֹבָה. רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אוֹמֵר, חָבֵר טוֹב. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, שָׁכֵן טוֹב. רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, הָרוֹאֶה אֶת הַנּוֹלָד. רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אוֹמֵר, לֵב טוֹב. אָמַר לָהֶם, רוֹאֶה אֲנִי אֶת דִּבְרֵי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲרָךְ מִדִּבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁבִּכְלָל דְּבָרָיו דִּבְרֵיכֶם. אָמַר לָהֶם צְאוּ וּרְאוּ אֵיזוֹהִי דֶרֶךְ רָעָה שֶׁיִּתְרַחֵק מִמֶּנָּה הָאָדָם. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, עַיִן רָעָה. רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אוֹמֵר, חָבֵר רָע. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, שָׁכֵן רָע. רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, הַלֹּוֶה וְאֵינוֹ מְשַׁלֵּם. אֶחָד הַלֹּוֶה מִן הָאָדָם, כְּלֹוֶה מִן הַמָּקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים לז) לֹוֶה רָשָׁע וְלֹא יְשַׁלֵּם, וְצַדִּיק חוֹנֵן וְנוֹתֵן. רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אוֹמֵר, לֵב רָע. אָמַר לָהֶם, רוֹאֶה אֲנִי אֶת דִּבְרֵי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲרָךְ מִדִּבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁבִּכְלָל דְּבָרָיו דִּבְרֵיכֶם: 

He [Rabban Yohanan] said to his students: go out and see if you can discover which is a good path that each person should follow. Rabbi Eliezer said, “Look at everything with a good eye” Rabbi Joshua said, a good companion; Rabbi Yose said, a good neighbor; Rabbi Shimon said, “before you do something, think of what it will lead to.” Rabbi Elazar said, have a good heart. He [Rabban Yohanan] said to them: I prefer the words of Elazar ben Arach, for in his words your words are included.

The person speaking is Rabban Yochanan, the leader credited with saving Judaism after the destruction of the 2nd Temple. He moved his students to Yavneh and established a yeshiva that allowed the practices of our people to appropriately evolve, enabling people to relate to God by learning Torah and doing good deeds for your fellow human beings in place of giving sacrifices. In fact his title “Raban” is an acknowledgement of that role as the only others who ever held that title were the nasis, the heads of the communities descended from Hillel.

In this Mishnah we see the teacher in action - he is asking his students to go out and discover on their own what would be deemed a good path in life. My Abba certainly forged his own path in life, and never had any embarrassment when talking about different parts of that path and his past. Raban Yochanan’s favorite answer from his student Rabbi Elazar is the one that makes me think of my father. Have a good heart.

My Abba’s hebrew name was Meir Lev, Lev meaning heart. I always thought my dad lived according to his heart. To me all his patience and all his creativity and his love for Judaism came from his heart. When I was in highschool I was learning about Bezalel, the architect of the Mishkan. The text in the Torah at the end of sefer shemot uses the phrase, Chochmat Lev to describe his creative abilities. 

Micaela Ezra, a NY based Judaica artist writes in source 6.

Chochmah is one of the Ten Sefirot (according to Jewish Mysticism these are ten aspects through which divinity enters our world). It is loosely translated as “wisdom”, but viewed through a Kabbalistic lense the hebrew word is much more complex. Chochmah captures the innermost point of inspiration, the first spark of an idea. It is linked to the energy of the first day of creation. It is a wisdom that perceives a greater picture; a capsule that holds within it the concept of everything to come. It is connected to the nothingness before it, and also to the ultimate fruition that will spring forth from it.

I always thought that Chochmat Lev was an apt description of my Abba too - he had such a wise heart. Bezalel seemed to have an ability to combine the instructions of God with Bezalel’s own divinely inspired style. I always saw my Abba’s illustrations - from the most polished that now adorn bookshelves in Jewish libraries - to the most off the cuff doodles on restaurant menus that he would create to entertain my kids - as divinely inspired. Because he lead with his heart. When his heart stopped working on Jan 1 that was the end of my Abba on this earth. But aren’t we all lucky to have benefited from his artictic work, this legacy of his to continue connecting with. 

So I want to invite everyone to raise your glass of Irish whisky which my dad learned to love when we were on a family trip to Ireland and we went into a restaurant on our first night and he ordered a scotch and they said to him "Sir - here we call it Irish whiskey!" Or you can raise a glass of Gin from Vermont that my Abba's chevruta Robert introduced him to. And let's say a Lchaim Liluyi Nishmat Meir Leib Ben Binyamin Chayim.

 

Shloshim for Michael Horen, z”l

Meir Leib Ben Binyamin Chayim

Friday, January 31, 2020 at TBS Cambridge

Source Sheet by Elisha Gechter using Sefaria text and translation

1. Pirkei Avot, Chapter 1 Mishna 15

שַׁמַּאי אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה תוֹרָתְךָ קֶבַע. אֱמֹר מְעַט וַעֲשֵׂה הַרְבֵּה, וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּסֵבֶר פָּנִים יָפוֹת:

Shammai used to say: make your [study of the] Torah a fixed practice; speak little, but do much; and receive all people with a pleasant countenance.

 

Students at Beth Tfiloh Dahn Community School in Baltimore, MD received a beautifully illustrated copy of Pirkei Avot 2/25/19

2. Pirkei Avot, Chapter 3 Mishna 1

עֲקַבְיָא בֶן מַהֲלַלְאֵל אוֹמֵר, הִסְתַּכֵּל בִּשְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים וְאִי אַתָּה בָא לִידֵי עֲבֵרָה. דַּע מֵאַיִן בָּאתָ, וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ, וְלִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עָתִיד לִתֵּן דִּין וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן. מֵאַיִן בָּאתָ, מִטִּפָּה סְרוּחָה, וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ, לִמְקוֹם עָפָר רִמָּה וְתוֹלֵעָה. וְלִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עָתִיד לִתֵּן דִּין וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן, לִפְנֵי מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא:

Akabyah ben Mahalalel said: mark well three things and you will not come into the power of sin: Know from where you come, and where you are going, and before whom you are destined to give an account and reckoning. From where do you come? From a putrid drop. Where are you going? To a place of dust, of worm and of maggot. Before whom you are destined to give an account and reckoning? Before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be he.

3. Sage Advice, Pirkei Avot Commentary, Yitz Greenberg Chapter 3, Mishnah 1

Akavia feels that all acts of sin involve a loss of perspective. Something appears so desirable, urgent, that all other considerations violations of trust, disobeying God, hurting another - appear trivial by comparison. The person then pushes all the right considerations aside and sins. Someone who understands the ephemerality of earthly life and the awesomeness of God before whom one will be held accountable will never sin, because no goal or pleasure will stack up against the majesty of God and the eternity of judgement. 

4. TheRebbe.org by Yanki Tauber, Pirkei Avot, Chapter 3 Mishna 1

In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explores the spiritual and psychological makeup of three classes of people: the Tzaddik ("righteous man"), the Beinoni ("intermediate man") and the Rasha ("sinning man"). So to the Beinoni, "from where you came" is not the putrid drop of the Rasha's corporeal origins, but the origin of his soul in its Divine source. To the Beinoni, "where you are going" refers not to the dissolutionary destination of the body, but the sublime heights attainable through his service of the Almighty. To him, his accountability to G‑d is not the "threat" of retribution for wrongdoing that it is for the Rasha, but the responsibility to optimally develop his potential. Instead of dwelling on the lowliness of the corporeal, the Beinoni meditates on his holy origins, his purpose, and the One whom he is responsible in his mission in life.

Please turn to your neighbor to answer the bolded questions in source 2 for yourself.

5. Pirkei Avot Chapter 2 Mishna 9

אָמַר לָהֶם, צְאוּ וּרְאוּ אֵיזוֹהִי דֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה שֶׁיִּדְבַּק בָּהּ הָאָדָם. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, עַיִן טוֹבָה. רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אוֹמֵר, חָבֵר טוֹב. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, שָׁכֵן טוֹב. רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, הָרוֹאֶה אֶת הַנּוֹלָד. רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אוֹמֵר, לֵב טוֹב. אָמַר לָהֶם, רוֹאֶה אֲנִי אֶת דִּבְרֵי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲרָךְ מִדִּבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁבִּכְלָל דְּבָרָיו דִּבְרֵיכֶם. אָמַר לָהֶם צְאוּ וּרְאוּ אֵיזוֹהִי דֶרֶךְ רָעָה שֶׁיִּתְרַחֵק מִמֶּנָּה הָאָדָם. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, עַיִן רָעָה. רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אוֹמֵר, חָבֵר רָע. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, שָׁכֵן רָע. רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, הַלֹּוֶה וְאֵינוֹ מְשַׁלֵּם. אֶחָד הַלֹּוֶה מִן הָאָדָם, כְּלֹוֶה מִן הַמָּקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים לז) לֹוֶה רָשָׁע וְלֹא יְשַׁלֵּם, וְצַדִּיק חוֹנֵן וְנוֹתֵן. רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אוֹמֵר, לֵב רָע. אָמַר לָהֶם, רוֹאֶה אֲנִי אֶת דִּבְרֵי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲרָךְ מִדִּבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁבִּכְלָל דְּבָרָיו דִּבְרֵיכֶם: 

He [Rabban Yohanan] said to his students: go out and see if you can discover which is a good path that each person should follow. Rabbi Eliezer said, “Look at everything with a good eye” Rabbi Joshua said, a good companion; Rabbi Yose said, a good neighbor; Rabbi Shimon said, “before you do something, think of what it will lead to.” Rabbi Elazar said, have a good heart. He [Rabban Yohanan] said to them: I prefer the words of Elazar ben Arach, for in his words your words are included.

6. Micaela Ezra, NY based artist 

Chochmah is one of the Ten Sefirot (according to Jewish Mysticism these are ten aspects through which divinity enters our world). It is loosely translated as “wisdom”, but viewed through a Kabbalistic lense the hebrew word is much more complex. Chochmah captures the innermost point of inspiration, the first spark of an idea. It is linked to the energy of the first day of creation. It is a wisdom that perceives a greater picture; a capsule that holds within it the concept of everything to come. It is connected to the nothingness before it, and also to the ultimate fruition that will spring forth from it.