 I want to do a trip next year, I'm going to go. Okay, we're back, we're back, are we back? Yes, we're back. I got it from the Rabbi. Rabbi Itchell Krasnijanski, here we are on what community matters, and we're going to talk about a Jewish holiday that's coming up. It's very important that we know about all these holidays. There are one, you know, every holiday, every, what, few weeks or months or so. And the one that's coming up even this week, the 9th and the 10th of June, is it? Yes, Sunday and Monday. Sunday, Monday. Is Shvus, or Shvat, as you like. We'll talk about the pronunciation. Welcome to the show, Rabbi. Well, thank you, Jay. As always, it's a pleasure. And it's great to be here, especially to talk about such an important holiday as Shvus. Yeah, let me make some guesses. It's about, it's a celebration of the Torah. It's a happy holiday. It's the Pentecost you mentioned to me. I'm not sure what that is. Can you tell us more about Shavua, Shavuos? Sure. So in Hebrew, the word Shavua means a week. And in the Torah, in the Bible, it says that when the Jewish people left Egypt, they counted seven weeks when they left for 49 days. And on the 58th day, God came down on Mount Sinai and gave Moses the Torah, which is encapsled in the Ten Commandments. And this happened on Shavuos. So it's basically the holiday commemorates our receiving of the Torah. So what days does it fall on the Hebrew calendar then? It falls out on the sixth and the seventh day of the third Hebrew month of Sivan. And it's the same every year on that day. Now what's interesting is that when Moses was first sent to Egypt, let the people know and to instruct Pharaoh, let my people go, God told Moses to tell the Jewish people that when you will leave Egypt, you will serve me, God, on the mountain, referring to the giving of the Torah. In other words, Passover represents freedom. We were liberated from Egypt. But freedom is not the end goal. Freedom is just the environment that one needs to be in to be able to realize their goals. The goal is Shavuos, the goal is to receive the Torah. The Torah is the destination and the compass, our GPS, our spiritual GPS that guides us. And in that way, the holiday of Shavuos is the pinnacle of Jewish holidays. Ah, the pinnacle. And receive, what does receive mean? Of course, you receive the Torah from God. But you also distribute the Torah. You advance the Torah. Right, pass it on. Pass it on, yeah. Tell us how that works. Well, so basically the Torah, which is the Hebrew word for the Bible, is God's word, God's teachings. And as explained in the mystical teachings of the Torah, it's God's wisdom embedded in the Torah. Basically, God put us here in this world and didn't just let us figure things out on our own, through our own devices, but gave us a manual. And the manual guides us, teaches us how to use all the parts and how to optimally put, you know, how to live life optimally. That's how we view the Torah. The Torah is not just a book of laws, not just a book of history. It is basically our guiding light and teaches us meaning of life, the purpose of life. And in every situation, how to conduct oneself. In the Bible, the Torah is referred to as Torah or the Torah of light. The Torah illuminates. Now, if you're sitting in a dark room, you could be sitting surrounded by treasures. But in a dark room, you have no clue, you don't see them. Switch on the light, then you see what's in the room. In the same way also, a person can go through life and be in a dark place, not see their own worth, their own riches, their own purpose, not understand what life is all about. The Torah teaches us all of that. Let me throw a theory at you and tell me, you know, if this is consistent and right in terms of the Jewish way of looking at it. To go from what you said seems like to me, on the Torah, it's not only a pathway for your own self and for the way you lead your life. But it puts you in a larger landscape, puts you in perspective in the world. Because, you know, sometimes it doesn't work so well, like in the Holocaust, or an individual who may lose his life for the wrong reason, or in these murders and synagogues and the like. But you still need to look at things from the big picture. So it's not just that you lead your life better. Tell me if I'm right. But it helps you participate in the larger picture and be more comfortable in the larger picture, however your individual life is going. Am I right? I believe that's correct. See, the Torah, the other adjective in the description of the Torah in the scripture in the Bible is that it is Torah's emis. It's the Torah of truth. Meaning, it being God's word, everything that's, all the teachings in the Torah are expressions of truth, eternal truth. So, yes, the Torah guides us in our individual path because when it manifests itself for the individual, it carries the message of truth for the individual. And the same is also true in the bigger perspective that the Torah opens up our eyes and helps us understand the purpose of creation, you know, everything about life and this world, in this world. That's what I was kind of getting at, right there. So it's interesting too that the last couple of times we met, we talked about Passover, which is in a prayer, what, a month ago or so? Yes. Almost two months ago. Sorry. See how things get away with, time gets away with us. And it seems like this is the next holiday that you and I are talking about. And it involves going through the desert. It involves receiving the Torah in the desert, Moses, all that. So there's sort of a linear historical statement here. Yes. On Passover, you leave, on Shavuos, you receive the Torah. Shavuos, you're told, you're given your mission statement. Okay. So, let me just share a couple of interesting things about the Torah, the giving of the Torah, and specifically about what sets the Jewish religion apart from almost all other religions in the world. That is, all the other religions in the world are pretty much come down to a matter of faith. You either believe or you don't believe. For example, in Christianity, Jesus, it is said that Jesus was with his disciples and then he went off, he came back and he said that he had a vision from God, or he had a message from God, and he became, you know, the preacher of that truth, of that message. Whether, in fact, he had a vision from God or not, that's a matter of faith. Those who believe, believe he did, and those who are skeptical or don't believe, don't believe. And that's true for all other religions, the Muslim religion as well. Judaism makes an entire different claim. Judaism doesn't say that God, that Moses went on top of a mountain and came down saying, this is what God gave me. Judaism claims that in the presence of several Muslims, there is no other religion that gives me. Judaism claims that in the presence of several million people, all of the Jewish people at that time, God came down on Mount Sinai and gave, spoke to 10 commandments and gave the 10 tablets to Moses to bring down from the mountain. Now, basically the Torah claims or Judaism claims this event as a historical event. Now, how do you know that George Washington lived and was a fictitious figure? We know it because had he been a fictitious figure, he would have come down to us in the history books, but no, George Washington never really lived, it was all hoax or whatever. If this claim was not true, that God came down in the presence of millions and millions of people, then it would have come down to us that this is the claim. Other hundreds of thousands of people who lived in that time said it's never happened. So for us, this is an historical truth, it's not based on faith. It seems to be unanimous in the writings. Right. This is how it was passed down to us, generation to generation. So this is how truths are established. Again, so Judaism is not based on believing Moses' word, it's based on this historical truth. Now, the teachings of the Torah is based on faith plays a very important role, faith in God. God is not something we can touch or feel. It's beyond any of, you know, it can be quantified and it can be proven, you know, with our senses. So the mind, God gave us an intellect, a mind. And the mind, when it contemplates and reflects and meditates, could come to the conclusion that what they call intelligent design. This whole world, which is so intricate and every aspect of it is so amazing, to suggest that it just happened to be, there was a big bang and it all came into being, makes no sense, it would be the equivalent of suggesting that Shakespeare's plays were written by throwing ink, you know, on a tablet and it just came out that way. Obviously that never happened. So the Torah does require us to use our intellect to come to the, to conclude, to come to the realization that there is a Creator, that there is a God. In fact, the first Jewish person, Abraham, came to that realization through intellectual contemplation. The Talmud says that he reflected, he looked at the world, during the day he thought, son was God, and at night he realized when the son wasn't there and yet the world still existed that the moon was God until he realized that there is a higher being that created all of this. However, the intellect, as powerful as it is, has its limitations. You mentioned before the Holocaust. So how does the intellect accept God, a God, that allows for such suffering, or even individual suffering and all the other big, big questions that we have about life in this world. That's where faith kicks in. And faith basically tells us, just like a colorblind person who can't tell the difference of colors realizes that the deficiency is in his inability to see the different colors. In the same way also, the intellect itself can accept that it's only a finite tool and cannot therefore assume that it can understand everything and what it doesn't understand, it doesn't exist. Well, there's a humility in that, isn't there? That is true. And I think humility has to be built into people. They have to appreciate. They have to have a certain humility. Exactly. By the way, in the ethics of our fathers, which is one of the ethical teachings of the Torah, it says, who is a wise man? He who learns from all people. It doesn't say he who has a PhD from Harvard or he who has an IQ above average. A wise man, a smart man is someone who has the humility to learn from everyone and everything. You feel that? A whole different perspective. I feel that. But life teaches you at some point. When you're young, you think that you have it all figured out and you follow your understanding of things. But as you grow older and you come up with certain things in life, you learn. Let's take a short break. That's Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky of Khabarra, Hawaii. And we're talking about Shavuos, my pronunciation. Perfect. Of the Hashkenazi pronunciation. And it's a holiday coming later this week. Yes. The Sunday and Monday. Correct. A very interesting holiday. When we come back, we'll talk about exactly what you do and how you celebrate Shavuos. We'll be right back. Aloha. I'm Warren Parr. A host here at Think Tech, Hawaii. A digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to thinktechhawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Aloha. I'm Cynthia Sinclair. And I'm Tim Appichella. We are hosts here at Think Tech, Hawaii. A digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to thinktechhawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Thanks so much. We're back with Community Matters. Itchel Krasnijansky, the Rabbi of Khabar of Hawaii. And so honored to have him here. And so happy to be able to talk about Shavuos with him. And Shavuos, you talked about the Torah and you talked about reading from the Torah. And every week, every Shabbos, which is Saturday in the Jewish religion, there's a different reading through the year. And undoubtedly, there's a reading this Saturday from the Torah has a lot to do with Shavuos. What is that reading? What's it about? Well, like we said before, Shavuos is on Sunday and Monday. So the reading on Sunday, which is the main day of the holiday, is we actually read of the giving of the Torah, the story of the Ten Commandments where the Jews were gathered around Mount Sinai. And Moses goes up the mountain and God comes down and he speaks to Ten Commandments. And so this is the reading that we do in the synagogue and the Shul, every Shavuos. Interestingly, just to like a little off on a tangent, if you look at the Ten Commandments, which the commentaries tell us really contain within it the entire body and entire teaching of the entire Torah. As we know, there are 613 commandments in the Torah. 248 positive ones, you shall do this, usually you do that. 365 thou shalt nots. What you shouldn't do, by the way, is more than what you should do. There's more of what you shouldn't do than what you should do. All of it is contained in the Ten Commandments. However, just on the surface, if you read the Ten Commandments, you find something very, very, very, very interesting. That is, usually the Ten Commandments is five on one side and five on the other side. Five to the right and five to the left. The first of the Ten Commandments is, I am the Lord your God who is taking you out of Egypt. Basically, it is the whole idea of faith in God which we touched upon a moment ago. Then the second one is not to do idol worship and things like that. There are basically theological teachings that are the basis and foundation of our world view. The second set of tablets, the second five are not to murder, not to steal, not to live with another woman, I forget the term for that. The last one is not to covet, not to desire that which is not yours. The question is, the commentary points out that the contrast between the first five commandments and the second five commandments seems to be so great. The first five are really deep theological truisms. The second five are moral ethical 101, moral ethics 101. I mean, it is such a big contrast. Really the question is, can a person be truly moral and ethical without accepting the religious theological underpinnings of these teachings? On the left side. Can a person follow the right side? Can you follow the left side which are the moral ethical teachings without accepting the right side? And there are in fact many people who will tell you that they live an ethical life, but they are not religious. They don't even believe in God or whatever. What claim does religion have to suggest that these two are interlinked, that you shall not steal, not because it violates your ethical sensibilities, but you shall not steal because God in the Torah says, thou shalt not steal. Basically, it's accepting this higher authority. So the Rebbe would point out something very, very interesting, and that is, look at Germany. Germany was a very cultured nation. Music, philosophy, they had all these philosophers and big musicians and science and they were advanced. And then as we know, they turned into the most barbaric Nazis, the most barbaric nation in the history of mankind. How did they go from being so refined and quote-unquote ethical and moral to becoming such a beast? And the answer is that if we rely on our own thinking without accepting a higher power, then our mind can play tricks on us. So Hitler, may his name be erased, while he was very strong, I don't know if you know this, but he was very strong against cruelty to animals. In Germany, there were very, very harsh laws about being cruel to animals. But at the same time, in his mind, in this whole Nazi country, it was perfectly okay to murder and kill men, women and children, Jewish men, women and children and others. In their thinking, they've come to an understanding that they were an Aryan superior race and to cleanse the world from the inferiors, that's what they had to do. So their mind led them to this conclusion. So for example, everybody will tell you, yeah, if you see a poor man walking the street that only has a piece of bread, someone to come and steal that bread from that poor man, that's disgusting and you don't need to be a super religious person not to do that. But how about something more subtle? For example, if you can get away with something in a way that no one will ever figure out, like fees that you're contractually obligated to pay the utility company, but you have a way of circumventing it and you think to yourself, anyways, are they entitled to such big fees? I'm going to stick it to them. In that instance, a person may conclude that it's okay, and you not lose too much sleep over it. So what the Torah teaches us is that truly ethics and morals have to be based on the acceptance of a higher authority. And it's not something that you could negotiate away. And we see even today, where are we today as a society? We have a whole concept of moral relativism. That what is right or what is wrong is really determined by the parties involved. There's no absolute right or wrong. And that seems a logical conclusion if you don't accept that there's a higher authority. Which you take on faith, ultimately. Yes. So yeah, it's very interesting that the Torah is read at a service on Sunday. And this reading is a reading of the handing down of the receiving of the Ten Commandments. And the Torah, essentially. And so what it is, this is probably the most interesting part of the Torah in the sense that this is the story of the Torah itself. So you read from the Torah about receiving the Torah. This has got to be a unique day for reading the Torah on Sunday. Yes. As a matter of fact, the Talmud says that when God was going to give the Torah, he asked the Jewish people for guarantors that they would faithfully keep the Torah. So first, the Meder says, as the oral tradition, that they said, oh, our parents will be our guarantors. And God said, not good enough. And he said some other suggestions. So they said, our children will be our guarantors. In other words, we guarant that we will pass it on our children. And God accepted that. So the custom is that on the holiday of Shoe is, especially the children, they all come to synagogue and are present when the Torah is read with the giving of the Ten Commandments. Because the emphasis on Judaism, interestingly enough, is on the future, not on the past, even though it's rich in its traditions and the whole idea of being connected to our past, but the focus and the emphasis is on the future. Rabbi, it reminds me of the story of Ben Franklin, who was in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. And they were in there having this meeting about designing the government to follow whatever government that would be. And they weren't telling anybody exactly what they were talking about. There was a woman outside, and she waited for them to break their meeting. And as he walked out, she approached him and she said, Dr. Franklin, Dr. Franklin, what kind of a government are we going to have? And he said, and I quote, we are going to have a republic, madam, if you can keep it. The burden is on you to keep it. So it's this whole notion of keeping it and having a guarantor who promises to keep it going forward. You need that in order to perpetuate the value there. Same thing, isn't it? Yeah. There's another interesting aspect, and this touches upon, as you know within the Jewish community, within the Jewish nation, we have basically in America three main streams of Judaism. Quote, unquote, Orthodox, conservative, and reform. And the theological difference between them relates to the giving of the Ten Commandments. And that is that in the Orthodox, which Chabad is part of the Orthodox group, it adheres to the Torah and the Mitzvahs. It believes that God's words are eternal and are eternally binding, even though that society changes and life changes, but God's truths are for all time. So today we keep, if Moses woke up and he walked into an Orthodox show, he would feel very at home because everything is done the exact same way that he taught. So the basis for that is our belief that the Torah is God's word. The Torah is from heaven, it's God's word. Moses was just a stenographer. Moses was just a messenger to deliver God's word. And because it was God's word, it is God's word, then it's eternal, just as God is eternal. And it's infinite in its depth, meaning layers upon layers upon layers of meaning. The conservative movement believes that Moses, who was a very inspired person, who was a prophet-like or a prophet, a very inspired person, the Torah are his words, the Torah are his teachings, written down, being inspired by God, but it's not God's word. And therefore it calls for change. When the reality is on the ground change, then it calls for change. In the Bible, in the Torah, there's a lot about keeping kosher, meaning the foods that you eat have to be only from certain animals, they have to be slaughtered and prepared in a certain way. Well, the way in which the Torah says to be prepared health-wise, protected the Jews from a lot of disease and plagues, basic hygiene. So at that time, they argue, it was very necessary. But today, in the modern world, where the hygiene, the government inspects everything and you have all of these agencies making sure, there's really no need to keep to the strict kosher dietary. Things have changed. What's the third one? Oh, the third one is Reformed Judaism. Reformed Judaism is, I'm not an expert on it, but Reformed Judaism basically, you know, okay. Reformed Judaism, the emphasis is on the ethical teachings of the Torah. That's really the whole message of Judaism. All the other elements of Torah, the ritual of Torah, they pretty much discard. And they say, you know, a man is left to choose whether he wants to abide by it or accept it or not. As a matter of fact, as part of the Reformed platform, it's not even required to have faith in God, to believe that God exists. You can be an atheist and still be... As long as you're ethical. As long as you're ethical. Interesting. And what's interesting is that... And that's relatively recent. Well, see, Reformed movement began in the early 1800s in Germany, and it was actually a movement to break away from traditional Judaism, and it was an assimilationist movement to assimilate within society at that time. I would really like to talk to you about this subject, about those three groups and how they think, and not only how they think, but how they relate to each other within the group and among the groups and to the community, because... We should do our own... ...not everybody agrees on a lot of things. We've got to go... And by the way, within the Orthodox movement, Chabad, I am part of, is almost like a part of the Orthodox movement, because we don't believe in all these labels. But the Rebi Torah says that we're all Jews and we're all connected intrinsically together through our souls and our common destiny. And therefore, Chabad is totally colorblind when it comes to these labels. And that's why Chabad is so loved by the wider community. I know that from knowing you. Grab my Israel Kres and Jansky. We'll do this again soon. Here on Community Matters, it's great to talk to you. Thank you, Jay. Always. Shalom. Shalom. Happy Holidays. Happy Holidays.