Themes in Talmud Study and in Hassidic Thought

Themes Often Occurring in Talmud Study Themes Often Occurring in Hassidic Thought (from" Talmud for Beginners," by Rabbi Judith Abrams, pp. 4-6) 1. Judaism is a religion of time. The first Mishna asks when is the right time to recite the Sh'ma. Everything has its season and the Talmud is instrumental in assigning tasks for every moment of every day, including, especially, the studv of the Torah. 1. Judaism is a religion of experience. Pneemee-ut- Innerness - Experiential spirituality is valued over time functions. This seeming break with Talmudic Judaism was grounds for early claims of heresy against the Hassidim. 2. Temple Cult Issues 2. "Gathering the NitzutzotSparks" Issues Sacrifices; Tumah and Taharah;Kedusha,Khol All life, Torah Study, and Mitzva performance is By the time the Talmud was completed, Tumah directed towards the drama of collecting and and Tahara (ritual purity and impurity) were not as refining the "sparks" lost in the Garden of Eden's crucial a category as it had been when the Temple early attempts at doing too much too fast. The dynamics of Tzimtzum SheviraTikkun, stood. The categories kodesh (holy) and khol (profane) became more important. Contraction, Breaking of the Vessels, and the Fixing of the World are oft-occurring themes, as is Gilgul, reincarnating in order to gather all the sparks related to your neshama. 3. Din and Lifnim Mishurat Hadin. 3. Bittul and Yeshut Issues The Talmud deals with the tension between the The tension between autonomy (Yeshut),the self minimum the law requires (Din), and the norm the identifying as a separate self and self-transparency rabbinic culture desires (Lifnim Mishurat Hadin), (Bittul), the self identifying not as itself but as a which includes building a sayag l'Torah (a fence single ray of Divine light emerges again and again around the Torah.) 4. Kabbalat Ol Malkhut Shamai-yim 4. Devekut and Kfitzat Haderekh Acceptance of the laws and all their implications, in activity and passivity (mitzvot asayand mitzvot lo ta'aseh)is considered a basic prerequisite to carrying the kedusha(sanctity) and being considered a (haver) fellow. 5. Torah Sheh'b'k'tav vs. Torah Sheh-Baal Peh D'Oraita I D'Rabbanan. • The oral Torah vs. the written Torah are the primary divisions. The tension caused by the (apparent) primacy of commands that are derived directly from the Torah (D'Oraita) over the dictates of the rabbis(D'Rabbanan). In point of fact, dictates of the rabbis were often upheld more strictly than laws derived directly from the Torah. 6. The role of personalities shapes the tradition. When an individual states an opinion, it is important to know as much about this person as possible, since the background data will help us evaluate the opinion. By connecting up with your Tzaddikthrough Devekut(cleaving) and Hit'kashrut (tying oneself to another with elevated consciousness) one can leap (kejitzathaderekh)over conventional consciousness (mokhind'katnut) with its extremely long journey to reach the limits of its own possible evolution, and attune to the Tzaddik's consciousness (mokhin d'gadlut). 5. Nigla vs. Nistar The external or revealed Torah (nigla) is discriminated from the internal and concealed Torah (nistar). The external Torah's inapplicable laws are abstracted and shown to convey current soul-truths (one facet of inner Torah) as much as possible. Weight is given to the living words of one speaking with Tzaddikconsciousness over and above quotations from the Torah repeated by those without Divine consciousness (RuakhHakodesh). 6. The role of the Tzaddik is to hit the high note of consciousness for everyone. Every statement in the Torah has to be seen through the eyes of the Tzaddikwho said it or re- learned it.