Eating, Sin and Spiritual Advance: Chet = Sin/ Chitah = Wheat
It is not only traditional but manditory to ask people their pardon and forgiveness before Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year.
The prayers on Rosh HaShanah and Yom HaKippurim (Day of Atonement
when our fates for the coming year are sealed) only get us straight
with God. They do not make amends for the hurt we have caused Human
to Human.
The Law requires that we ask the people who we have hurt directly for
their forgiveness. No amount of prayer substitutes for the humbling
activity of going to the people we have wronged, admitting the
wrong, asking for the forgiveness and how we can make amends.
Jews call sin "the descent for the sake of ascent". We know that the
Human soul is a part of God and that it's inmost desire is purity and
holiness. The Human soul only allows the mind and body to sin so that
the revulsion against the sin causes a catapult-like reaction toward
greater holiness.
King Solomon wrote: "Because not one Human on earth is perfectly
righteous, doing good (always) and (never) sinning." (Ecclesiastes
7:20) The taking on of sinning is part and parcel of existing in the
phenomenal worlds. It is a great self-sacrifice that the soul
undertakes for the sake of greater holiness and God holds that
undertaking very dear.
Jewish tradition teaches us that when a person eats wheat (chitah in
Hebrew) for the first time, s/he becomes capable of sin (chet in
Hebrew, you can hear how closely related the two words are. In Hebrew
any two words that are grammatically connected are also conceptually
connected).
The basics of life: eating (which always involves a modicum of
violence, no matter how gentle we are), sin and resultant spiritual
advancement are intimately related.
Rather than elucidate on what this traditionally means, I'd like to
read your reactions to the above teaching. What do you think the
teaching is trying to relate?
Doreen
posted by Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat @ 8:16 AM
<< Home