The Oneness of Conciousness

Yom Shevi'i Shalom,

If you are someone who likes to listen to classical music as much as I do, then you will probably know that every instruments in that particular orchestra has an important role to play. The Violin almost leads the congregation and the Double Bass strengthened the bass sound, enabling a richer and warm tone to penetrate the atmosphere. If a Triangle is included, its sharp piercing sound enables us to listen to it clearly. A simple 'ting' would be heard far away, sometimes without a microphone.

Sometimes, life is just as simple as this: working together to create perfect harmony. Just as instruments playing coherently will produce the most wonderful of music; so is life, when every player strive to make this world into a better one. Why Does HaShem wants a Nation to spread His Wonderful Teaching i.e. the Torah? Why not an individual? Why the need to make the whole Nation sees the Giving of the Torah? All these questions will be answered if we see it this way: Unity is strength. No individual can accomplish what a group or nation can establish; this is the way of HaShem.

In unity we find strength, in a lot of things we see this in working in principle. In nature, if one cell goes haywire, the whole organism crumble. If a species fail, the whole ecosystem nullified. This is the importance of coherence... Always trying to accomplish one goal; together.

The what about the other instruments in the Orchestra? What can they taught us?

One very important thing is this: In an orchestra, the big things don't really sound big and the small things don''t really sound small... The Triangle is a very small, humbled instrument but when you strike it, it can be listened from miles... However, the function of the double bass is to strengthen the bass sound and could easily be droned by the other instruments. The lesson here? Be humble and HaShem will exalt you! The most humblest person alive is Moshe Rabbeinu, and what does he merit? The Torah! What is more than the Torah?

So? The lesson is, exalt yourself! What? That is snobbish!!! No, don't just exalt yourself, be humble and fulfil your greatest potential, ironically, by lowering yourself. This is the most exalted of all... May all of us learn from this. Amen.

p.s. Hope I am not too horrible in presenting my view. All of this is purely my view and if I am wrong, do correct me. :-)

Shalom,
Henri Lai

Transgressing While Mitzvah-ing...

Yom Shevi'i Shalom,

It has been quite a while since I post anything... This is really due to my inability to maintain a blog; moreover a group. I apologise for that; truly.

This week is about Mitzvot that are performed under transgression... The classic example is read from (Psalms 10:3)

When a thief recites a blessing, he angers God

The Talmud (Bava Kama 94a) explains that a person stole wheat, ground it into flour, knead it into a dough, tore off a portion for the tithe for the High Priest, and recite the blessing over it. Instead of being pleased with that person's prayer, G-d is extremely angered by this deed because that person is brave enough to pronounce G-d's Holy Name despite the fact that he has offered a stolen portion!

A lot of things, if we did not realise at all, comes from stolen things (just like praying from a Stolen Siddur) and happily, this is not "kosher"... It is not at all...

Everyone knows that, sometimes, we did not care about the copyright law and we use pirated software for the sake of conveniences and carelessness... Yes, we might not be able to afford the original software but it is not at all pleasing to HaShem... Let's say that you always read Torah portion through the internet and your copy of your operating system is actually illegal! Do you think that your knowledge is in any way, Kosher? Not so I am afraid.

However, there is sometimes a Mitzvah in transgression and it is very very very limited in its sense (severely limited perhaps). This will be explained in details in next week post.

So what should we do? Make sure that our Mitzvot are performed in perfect honesty and no illegal actions are involved.

May all of us are able to do so... Amen..

Lashon HaRa

The Sages taught us one very important thing: Lashon HaRa (Evil Speech). A lot of people do not know exactly the definition of evil speech but a handful can define misconduct. I, myself, experience this before; supposedly that Mrs. A did something bad and I know it, then I go around telling others that Mrs. A is a bad person because she do so-and-so. Am I wrong? Last time I used to think, I am only doing a good thing, telling others what kind of person she is and I am doing a good thing telling others about it.

The preconception I had last time is wrong, as wrong as stealing and shaking the foundation of society. Lashon HaRa has a lot of categories and one of them is Tale-bearing. Tale-bearing is a very grave sin because of one thing: it disturbed peace and make other looks worse than they really are. Even though the ‘tale’ is true, we are still not allowed to tell it unless someone did something really terrible like killing and stealing. If the fall into such categories, it is a Mitzvah to tell them out (bearing witness). However, if the matter is trivial such as you overheard someone speaking ill of others, do not go around telling others about it; rather it is best if you tell it straight to the person who speaks ill of others.

Things that are not secret, positive, not altered, and true cannot be told spontaneously without the person involved present. This is illustrated in the story of Do’eig, who saw Achimelekh HaKohen giving a sword and a bread to David. Do’eig later tell Saul about it and he changed nothing. What he told is true. Not a secret and even if asked, Achimelekh will tell the same thing. However, things are different when others tell the tale. After the act of Do’eig, Saul proceeded to kill all but one Kohenim.

The Talmud relates that the tongue is so dangerous that it needed two walls to protect it from doing harm (the lips and the teeth). So, what does HaShem trying to teach us with out anatomy? One very simple thing: before you say anything, think twice (or a multitude of time). Do not say something out of rash and do not say anything just because you wanted to say so and that you are angry. Always put yourself in others’ shoes, try to see things from others’ perspective and in this time, what do you want others to say to you. Will your utterances make a person feel worse? Will your words hurt that particular person until the point that he feels that he is completely useless?

Rendering a person useless with words is as though as you have killed the person. This is why some sources listed three sins that you cannot commit even to save life (murder, idol worship, and forbidden sexual relationship) are equivalent to Lashon Hara. When you killed someone’s self esteem, you are as though killed that person because that affected individual might not want to continue on his anguished life. This is why this is said concerning the Sages:

Avtalyon said: "Sages, be careful with your words, for you may incur the penalty of exile and be banished to a place of evil waters [heresy], and the disciples who follow you there will drink and die [spiritually], and consequently the Name of Heaven will be desecrated." Pirkei Avot

I truly have to learn from this verse because I tend to be too soft with my words until others can misinterpret my words. Through the Net, everything is possible and misunderstanding can flourish as flour spread to the winds.

The conclusion is? Do not talk about others when you are talking. Praise not and gossip not if the person you are talking about is not there. However, if the person’s enemy or enemies are present, do not try to belittle the person because this might give the enemy more to talk about.

Updated Website

Shalom,

So, if you notice, I updated my website to include a lot of things, for starter, I have a new layout and a nice about me section. I still have not updated the prayer page though because I have not settled my copyright and Halachic issues. However, it should be up soon. And FYI, I have corrected some errors in the FAQ section.

Anyway, a Hag Hanukkah Sameach to everyone!

Lately, I have been attacked theologically and being insulted for things that I did not do. I was, at first, shocked at their accusation that I am trying to lead others astray but actually I did not have such intention at all! I have been involved in interfaith 'ministry' (notice the quote; haha) lately and there are some fundamentalists that are very much disturbed by my new website and Noachism at large. I do not want to do name callings here but I hope that there is a lesson to be learnt.

On a lighter note, I would want to state several things:

1. To those who do not like what I am saying, do verify and try to look at others' point of view as not baseless. Much of them are my hard work and research, do not dismiss them eagerly just because you think that your view is correct.
2. It is true that I might be young but it doesn't show that I have less knowledge than you do.
3. I am especially disturbed by people who try to demand respect. Respect is earned, not demanded.
4. I know I am not as educated as some of you but I do my homework.
   
5. The Sages did not say 'The Torah has Seventy Facets' for nought.
6. Last but not least, refute anything as you may, people have mind and they will know who is trying to tell the truth. For ignoramus, I have nothing to say because they so choose to remain ignorant. Some people just couldn't be bothered.

Well, there are a lot of people out there who are dissatisfied with my way of presenting things. I am fine with it because no one thinks the same; even Hillel and Shammai disputed in an albeit peaceful way.

However, I would like to extend my thanks to anyone that has supported and reminded me along the way of discovery. Those who constantly remind me includes our beloved 'Big Sis', Eliel, and MW as well as many others. Without them, it would be very impossible to continue on such formidable journey of discovering HaShem.