By Tzvi Freeman
 | It was an eerie feeling as the orbit of the planets suddenly swung into reverse. The moon was no longer receiving and reflecting light; as though sucked inwards, radiance flowed from the moon to the sun...
49 Comments Posted
Tzvi shalom,
I'm a Baal Tshuve for a few years and live in Israel.
Although I learn currently with Charedic institutions I try as much as possible to stay open minded.
One of the things I try to fight in my tshuve is to restore my essence. Amongst other things I think that my personal cynicism is one of the places which prevent me from reaching more meaningful prayers / AVODAT HASHEM. Sometimes when I go to the Kotel it is easy to cry - but this is not every day..
I've read many of the articles posted on the Chabad site, yours and from Yanki Tauber and my general question is - what is the purpose of presenting those ideas as we do ?
It truly shows great and inner principles - but does it also bring more YIRAT SHAMAYM ?
Can we perhaps show those exact same things without using the EDOM context (i.e. Western World) ?
Sometimes things seems even more impressive if they don't resemble what I'm familiar with.
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While I appreciate that your concern is sincere, I must differ with you on the definition of Yirat Shamayim. That's literally, "awe of heaven." Crying at the kotel may be one expression of such a sense of awe, when it comes spontaneously out of a meditation on the greatness of the Ein Sof and our inadequacy before Him. Every day--I don't think this is the path of the Baal Shem Tov or the Arizal, who taught to serve G-d with joy--but it has its place at certain times.
But, to me, yirat shamayim is a much greater issue. It is a constant sense that everything we see or hear, everything that exists in our world--or anywhere else, for that matter--all is constantly being generated into existence by the Ein Sof, blessed be He, all for His glory.
This is what the Ari taught, that everything in our world has a spark of G-dliness buried within it. Our job is to rescue and liberate those sparks. Especially the very holy sparks hidden within Edom--for Esav was a child of Rivka and holds very special sparks, the light of Tohu that fell in the shattering of vessels.
This is why we have been spread throughout the nations, as chazal put it, "to add more converts". The Mittler Rebbe explains this to mean those sparks the Arizal is talking about. They are spread thoughout all the nations and we are sent there to return them to their proper home.
This is why the "Cause of all Causes" made so many twists and turns to bring you and I and many others to be born buried deep within the world of those hidden sparks--so that when we return in tshuva, we will carry those sparks, which otherwise we would never touch, and reveal the true glory and beauty for which they were originally intended since the six days of creation. And, whatever you can say, there are many very beautiful things out there to elevate.
Once those final, deepest--and most magnificent--sparks are redeemed, then we shall all witness the time when "the glory of HaShem will be open for all flesh to see."
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I have no words to describe my appreciation of this article, which I teach to my students every year. By bringing the highest Chassidic teachings into our lives, you are actually bringing heaven down to earth!!
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Today I've stopped my search for the main message in your story. I've simply become tired of the process of looking for - finding? - wondering if what I had found was the main message - starting the process all over again.
It was when I stopped that search, that the story began to 'speak' to me.
It told me things about myself. Example: that my stubborn nature in itself is neither good nor bad. My use or abuse of it is what makes it into one or the other.
And so your story became a friend, giving me what I'm able to understand (and make a part of me) at this point in my life.
Thank you for writing it.
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Thank you for your beautiful article! It made me realize how we each can bring more light into the world, with only one small deed. This article comforts me when I'm in despair, now knowing how much light i can achieve through the darkness...
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We stand in front of a mirror and we behold an image. But the image that is within the mirror is an illusion. The image we perceive is the reverse of the essence that casts it. The inner essence is what is true. G-d says, “For Me, you and the sun are both the same. You both shine, and that's it." When we Understand and Know, on All levels, that the essence that is projecting the image is the only thing that is real, we will see and behold the truth. “A little light disperses much darkness.”
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I have learned more reading this argument between the moon and G-D in the short time it took to read it than I learned in all the years of attending school classes. I simply don't see why it is listed as SCI-FI...
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My husband and I, who also are authors , really appreciate your work, especially the article named "Women of the Inner Bible." We also liked "The Lunar Files" with its fluent, unique creative humerous method of instruction and inspiration.
As a thought, you might want to consider breaking a long article like The Lunar Files up up into several parts to maintain its high level of spirit and reader interest...
Much success,
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Thank you for the wonderful writing. Who can look at the Moon and fail to be amazed? And, to liken Israel unto the Moon, when it is the analogy of the "stump of a stump" that more often comes to mind....
Tears flowed at this moment in reading your piece, and again at the conclusion as HaShem explains to Moshe Rabbenu why He wants Moshe to make a sacrifice for Him.
I am glad I could read it in one piece and not in a series, as one reader suggested before me, as I would have lost interest and in not reading the entire piece, would therefore have lost the point as well.
Chodesh Tov....
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If women are compared to the moon, and we have a special connection to the holiday of Rosh Chodesh, then why are women not involved in blessing the moon each month, Kiddush Levana?
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How true are these words. Mr. Freeman, you wrote -
This is what the Arizal taught, that everything in our world has a spark of G-dliness buried within it. Our job is to rescue and liberate those sparks. Especially the very holy sparks hidden within Edom--for Esav was a child of Rivka and holds very special sparks, the light of Tohu that fell in the shattering of vessels.
This is why we have been spread throughout the nations, as our Sages put it, "to add more converts". The Mittler Rebbe explains this to mean those sparks the Arizal is talking about. They are spread thoughout all the nations and we are sent there to return them to their proper home.
I have tears in my eyes. I am a convert. AND I know with such a deep "knowing" that I have always belonged to the Truth.
Thank you so much for this article as well as you words.
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Thank you for having this magnificent well. It is my first visit to your site. I am interested in all aspects of being Jewish. My roots are Jewish but I don't have as much information as I would like. Now, your site will provide discovery and closure to my life's journey. I am not familiar with specific terms on this page, but I believe that I understand some of the concepts which I have experienced myself.i.e. "the sparks," the "tears" and yet I have not been to Israel. I have a strong spirituality and I have always had a strong sense of being Jewish, even though I was not told that until the passing of my father. I hope to be able to learn more because the knowledge brings tears to me, as did my first, and many subsequent times at the synagogue. Much is happening in the world and knowing that your site is available is truly G_d sent. I hope that my lack of skill and knowledge has not caused offense and that my words are somewhat understandable. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
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Rachel M. of Las Vegas, NV, wrote asking,
"If women are compared to the moon, and... have a special connection to the holiday of Rosh Chodesh, then why are women not invoved in blessing the moon each month, Kiddush Levana?"
As Woman is compared to the Moon, then a man making Kiddush Levana metaphorically acknowledges the Sanctitiy of Woman, does so, and is obligated to do so, each month by making Kiddush Levana. As the Moon does not Itself make Kiddush Levana, then Woman, who is like unto the Moon, does not Herself make Kiddush Levana.
This possible original explanation comes to my mind, and so I invite Torah Scholars to research, if there are commentaries on this subject.
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Dear Rabbi,
Your expansion of the midrash of the moon and the sun is quite impressive. The praises of those respondents who saw it before I did are all appropriate. They have said it all. Please consider as if I had praised it exactly as they did.
I also unfortunately read it as if it were a play. Just the other day I read the following advice: Let your characters be themselves. Don't force them to conform to your agenda.
But this story already exists, as do its values, so Gd's agenda has to win. That is a problem, no gettring around it. And so your moon gets to the end and suddenly capitulates. She suddenly starts saying, "Oh, I get it." But really, with her attitude, she would not get it that easily. She's pretty sullen, and stubborn. I can imagine lots of people absolutely not giving in at that point--and, personally, I cannot think of how to convince her. Truly.
Can you? Can you really? Is there any more that Gd can say other than "It's a mystery"?
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I enjoyed this very much. I understand wanting to question G-d like the moon does repeatedly. I enjoyed the resolution with Moses. I have also come to understand everything is for the best and the mystery keeps us striving for the light and not to be alone or apart from G-d. Thank you for sharing this.
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You did a great job representing the moon.
You have convinced your readers that the moon has reason to be resentful.
So my question stands.
How do you get such a moon over her resentment?
Yes, G-d offers a sacrifice. What does the moon say to that?
She says Sacrifice, shmacrifice, just make me big again.
She's going to keep saying that.
Can anything truly convince her? Can anyone think of a way to convince a moon who stubbornly keeps demanding to be made as big as the sun?
I mean it: the question stands. Please do try to answer it, or acknowledge that it is unanswerable.
The question is, Can you, rabbi, or can any of the readers of this site, think of a way?
A way to reconcile the moon--not us as readers, for whom the moon is metahor, but the moon herself--to reconcile the moon to her smaller estate?
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That's the point, Ann: We don't want the moon to be reconciled. G_d doesn't want her to feel reconciled. We're never to be reconciled with injustice.
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To coin a phrase,
oy is my face red. So obvious & I missed it.
Or to coin a Texas phrase,
"If it'd been a snake it'd 'a bit me!"
OK, the moon must never be reconciled.
In that spirit, knowing the moon can feel no appreciation for my words, let me thank her for being there at night, to beautify the darkness in a way impossible to the glaring sun.
W/o wishing it, the moon perforce deeply understands all resentment. Yet the moon does not care about us at all but only about herself. Yet she MUST understand, since she must stand UNDER the sun who, being further from the earth (thank GD!), is "higher" in the sky than she is.
We can stand under the moon as it rises and say, "It's only a big chunk of rock." Try it. Feel it. The White One. Lavanah.
She's more than just a big chunk of rock. Willingly or not, she serves HaShem, with all the rest of Creation.
Listen, moon, to what we never tell the sun:
Kiddush Lavanah
at least till Mashiach
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Thank you so much.
So wise, spiritual and excellently written.
Very, very funny
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Thank you for pointing out (Ann in Houston) that the moon, because we can gaze upon her is priviledged to hear our secrets, view our loves, absorb our tears, know our awe of the universe and the moon herself. The moon then may have a quality of value to establish herself as a peer and may be able to, not reconcile injustice, but create a workable, sustainable existence. Truly we as people can learn more than awe.
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Thank YOU, Faith, and you, Rachel, for your sensitivity to a variety of things and for your beautiful wordings of beautiful thoughts.
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Very interesting. Now that I know about this part of your web-site I will read it and learn as much as I can.
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Based on the Posuk "Shemesh Begivon Dom", Chassidus discusses at length the fact that (the earth does not spin, but rather) the sun travels quickly around the earth to create day and night.
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Note that the commentator "Anonymous" makes the provacative statement that Cassidus "discusses" the "fact" that "(the earth does not spin, but rather) the sun..." circumnavigates the earth quickly, creating "day and night". Three things come to mind: (1) for some reason not stated in that comment, "Anonymous" calls attention to the posuk "Shemesh Begivon Dom";
(2) it is not clear from the comment, if the posuk presents as "fact" that the sun travels quickly around the earth, or if "Anonymous" comes to this conclusion from his reading of the posuk; and, (3) it is not clear from the comment, if the parenthetical "the earth does not spin, but rather..." is also a conclusion of "Anonymous" or part of the text of the posuk.
Hopefully, another commentator will look into the posuk. Science, which proofs include multiple extraterrestrial travel, manned and unmanned, has established that indeed the earth does spin. As well, the sun is in motion in universe.
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Please rabbi settle this. Does Chabad maintain as "fact" the illustion that the sun travels quickly around the earth?
We all know that the various time zones are based n the fact that the earth turns on its axis. if Chabad labors under this delusion, we need to know it now.
Similarly, if Chabad is free of this delusion, let us not labor under a libelous misconstrual of Chabad.
Thank you.
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All things are relative.
To us, watching from planet earth, the sun rises and sets while moving slowly in a cycle from north to south. To the sun, the earth is spinning while revolving about it.
As far as the moon is concerned, everything revolves around it. Same with my four year old. To George Mach, everything is moving in relation to the mass of the universe.
All perspectives are valid.
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First, get the terminology right, or no communication is possible that means anything.
The "spin" of the earth pertains to it's own rotation along it's own axis. The respective "revolutions" of the planets (including earth) with respect to our singular sun pertain to the orbital paths of the planets around the Sun, even as the Sun itself is in motion in the Universe.
The Sun may well travel around the earth, and the extent of this can be measured, as can the earth's revolution around the Sun, and so too can the spin of the earth be measured.
I'd still like to know (if there is a Talmud Chacham interested in this subject), what is said in the Posuk referred to by Anonymous and what is only the interpretation of that posuk by Anonymous.
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If you will recall, a professional physicist pointed out to us that even though, to us, it looks as if the sun moves about the earth, the fact is that neither physically nor mathematically can the sun's motion be accurately depicted that way, not even using Einstein's relativity.
Sorry, that won't wash.
So, once again, does Chabad really think the sun really moves about the earth?
No fudging, please! Check with your science mavins, take your time, and then come back with a straight answer this time. Thank you.
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which it does, then how can the sun's motion also take it around the earth? They are not doing a do-si-do as the earth does with the moon. The sun is the center of the solar system, and its motion within the galaxy does NOT take it around the earth at all.
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Dear Rabbi Freeman, thank you so much for the articles i enjoy every word in them its the logic and the contemporanean taste that captives the audience.
I'm trying to buy your book "Heaven Exposed" but its out of stock. Is there a website where i can buy it?
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I don't know who has any left. I would like to reprint--adding new material--just looking for a sponsor.
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I keep coming back to this story and these ideas.
I am trying to evade my own agendas and I think the ideas of spinning while revolving and moving (rises and sets) is striking some internal chord.
The themes keep bringing to mind NUN NUN ALEPH.
Any ideas why?
Are "All perspectives valid"?
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Thoughts are interpretations and not necessarily truth.
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I love reading these things - Every piece of creation has a beautiful story in it to tell - while the story is in a fantasy type setting, the moon (and everything there is that is) was placed there by G-d for a purpose and stories like these fill my heart with happiness and joy - reminding me that all there is has purpose and a story to tell.
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Thoughts are interpretations and not necessarily truth.
What then is "necessarily turth?"
Maybe the not so beautiful things out there need to be elevated more than the beautiful?
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This is different than the other conversation you presented between G-d and the moon.
In that one I didn't get that we are supposed to join with the moon in objecting to her diminution. Here you say so up front. And here you bring in Moses.
Interesting variation.
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Skimming, I see the rabbi fudges, saying "all things are relative" and that from the earth's perspective, the sun revolves about the earth.
Not so. Regardless of relativity, the sun does NOT rotate around the earth.
So, rabbi, trying to fudge using relativity won't cut it. That's a copout. From the earth we have the illusion that the sun rotates about the earth but the sun does not EVER go AROUND the earth. To say that it does is simply false, and relativity does not make it true. If Shimon robs Reuven, relativity does not reverse the situation.
Come clean.
Admit that Chabad knows that the sun does NOT revolve about the earth. Acknowledge the fact that the apparent motion of the sun about the earth is an illusion produced by the earth's rotation on its axis. Say that the Tanakh speaks metaphorically when it says the earth circles the sun.
Or admit that Chabad prefers to pretend that this illusion is fact.
No fudging this time!
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Considering the comments of Simon, perhaps the word relativity is used here as our perception to our understanding of truth. Example when a small child has a minor cut, we know that the child is still reasonably safe and the cut should heal with proper care, but to the child, anything could happen, including the loss of all of ones' inner contents. The experience is based upon the individual's knowledge of truth and perception of the event.
Perhaps the relevance is the seeking of truth, moving beyond our perception in the creation of our journey in this life. For it is through this that we all meet.
Thank you for meeting with me.
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This story is utterly gorgeous. I felt it was speaking directly to my soul, and directly to the questions that I constantly, and all of us, battle with ourselves over. I have often pondered the essence of greatness, while suffering constantly questioned what the meaning of the suffering is, and while not, trying to alleviate it from others. The beauty of the end, the realization that we must not grow complacent, and that perhaps our outrage at the seemingly unjust would diminish if we truly understood... and yet why does HaShem cause some of us to be greater than others even on the inside? Why are there people who can committ evil? Why must a pure one suffer while a villain continues down the Gehinnom-bent path? Perhaps it is just as we all have learned, you can scold a person who is willing to listen, but it does indeed no good to scold the person who is unwilling to listen. Again, one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. Thank you!
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I have a slip of paper in my studio posted that says "if you want to be happy, give up the need to know the reason why things happen as they do" I enhoyed this story very much.
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It's all a matter of frame of reference. From my frame of reference, standing here on earth, the sun rises in the morning and sets at night. That is not an illusion, that is my reality.
From the physicist's frame of reference, if he understands inertia to be an inherent quality of space, then the earth is simply rotating while the sun stands in its place. That is also truth, by those parameters.
From the Creator's frame of reference, it's all irrelevant. Whatever He decides is the center of all things, and everything else moves around that.
He has decided that each of us is the absolute center of the universe.
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We are now in Kislev. I don't "tolerate the darkness."
As you referred to in today's Daily Dose, during the week of our immense painful dark tragedy in Mumbai and loss of The Holy One's most precious lives;
" redeem every spark of light from its captivity, until you can bring sweetness to the most bitter places, until you have not left a corner of my world untouched with acts of kindness and compassion... until then you must hate the darkness as a blood-sworn enemy."
"So until that time, when I will wipe the tears of sorrow from every face, when all darkness -- even the darkness of the past -- will become light as the light of the first day of Creation, when, as Isaiah will say, the light of the moon will be as great as the light of the sun..."
"Until then, atone for Me."
In deep sympathy, I share the light.
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Wow! What a beautiful, amazing article. Thank you so much!
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We just said Birchas haChammah for the Sun this past April 8, 2009 (Erev Pesach), which won't be said again for another 28 years. Yet the Moon gets blessed every month. Can't the Moon so to speak get its consolation from the fact that it has so many more blessings than the Sun? Could this story also be an allegory for the Jewish woman - Jewish man, who play different and necessary roles in Jewish life? Do the Jewish woman's special Mitzvos (candlelighting, challos and Mikvoh) give consolation for seemingly being "diminished" in importance? Does the violinist have to apologize to the oboist in the orchestra?
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Simply brilliant! Your inspiration is heavenly.
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I would like to point out from your wonderful story, that the moon, just like mankind, suffers from ego.
Without darkness we could never appreciate the light. Light and dark are two sides of the same coin. They need each other, one can't exsist without the other.
Peoples of the world are the same. We have good and bad. The bad people are usually driven by an over - inflated ego. Again, these are two sides of the same coin.
We need each other in order to gain spiritual growth, and for material sustenance.
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Re: comment by Ben Moshe, Israel
thank you for your comment. You brought to my mind a lesson of years ago which my father said that mankind's soul could not grow without his body and experiencing the earth. He continued that how could we address the issues of our ego if we did not have contrast. My father's example was compassion and understanding for the different colors of our skin. If we are all blind, we are the same. If we are all spirit, we are more identical; but with the lessons of the earth, we have an opportunity to test who we are as spirits (or soul), testing our quality and not just our existence.
My father was born in Montana, US in 1904.
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Your Torah is awesome! I am humbled by you.
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