Shalom to one and all...
Thank you all who have been showing your
support for
KOSHERTORAH. Please keep your support coming...
Those of you who have made pledges to
KosherTorah, I ask that you please keep your
word and fulfill your pledges...
Needless to say, I am back in the office (for
now). So, if anyone wants to get in touch,
now is the time...
Our ONLINE STORE SALE of 39% OFF ends on
SEPT. 1ST. Take advantage now of the savings
before they disapear.
5 Weeks, 17 States and Over 6000 Miles - The Summer '09 Road Trip
By HaRav Ariel Bar Tzadok. Copyright (C) 2009 by Ariel Bar Tzadok. All rights reserved.
Talk about having time to be silent and
contemplate the wonders of the Creator.
Nothing can compare to traveling across this
great continent and seeing the wonders of
creation that G-d's Hand has made.
Beginning here at home in L.A., we travelled
east through Flagstaff Arizona, Albuquerque
New Mexico, Amarillo Texas, Springfield
Missouri, Springfield Illinois, Chicago, Fort
Wayne Indiana, Cleveland Ohio, Oseta New
York, and the Big Apple (including the
western holy land, Brooklyn & Queens). I
spoke in Queens and the recording of that
talk is online on KosherTorah.com. It is
entitled "Bonding With G-d in All the Right
Places." Click here to access it.
When we hit the eastern ocean (the Atlantic),
we turned around and headed west again
through Youngstown Ohio, Des Moines Iowa,
Rapid City South Dakota, Mt Rushmore and the
Crazy Horse Monument (the highlight of our
trip), Sturgis (yes we actually made it to
"bike week" although a few days early), Cody
Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park and Old
Faithful, Jackson Hole Wyoming, Idaho Falls
Idaho, Ogden Utah (very cool place) and
finally down to Las Vegas (far enough away
from the strip). From there it was a hop
across the desert to home.
This continent is surely amazing. I will miss
it when I'm gone and judging from present
circumstances, who knows how soon that may be.
I am not one to enjoy big cities and urban
areas. I prefer the great outdoors, the
order of nature that G-d has created and
originally intended for us to live in. I
greatly enjoy going back to our collective
roots to bond with nature and to appreciate
all the splendor that G-d has made. I had
family in tow and unfortunately they are not
as capable as am I to literally bushwhack off
trail and to live off the land for days or
weeks at a time. So, rather than go camping,
we spent the nights in hotels. Oh well, I
guess the process of education must continue
for us all.
Nevertheless, "have lap-top and kosher food
will travel." We saw so many great sights.
Nature is truly amazing. It is a shame that
we so often stay cooped up in our urban
environments thinking ourselves kadosh
(holy). We rarely ever allow ourselves to be
reminded that urban living is considered by
Heaven to be a rebellion and is highly
unnatural for the human species in general
and especially for Jews.
Remember, G-d's promise to Israel was to
inherit the Land. We were originally meant
to be an agricultural society bonded to the
land. We have forgotten this ultimate Jewish
reality, which is THE PEOPLE ARE THE LAND AND
THE LAND IS THE PEOPLE. Israel the land and
Israel the people can never be separated
without both suffering immensely. Two
thousand years of past history has proven
this to be true.
While out in the Black Hills of South Dakota,
after spending a nice hour at Mt. Rushmore,
we drove south to the Crazy Horse Memorial.
This locale houses one of the best Native
American museums in the world. While it's
nice to look at things from the past, I
prefer to read books about Native American
spiritual beliefs and practices. With all
the archeological evidence found across this
continent clearly indicating an ancient
Israelite presence here thousands of years
ago, I wonder if indeed there may be lost
Israelite blood among some of the Natives
here. The Cherokee presently in Oklahoma
believe themselves to have such a past. I
wonder who else might share such a heritage.
The Native Americans have suffered from the
invading Europeans in an uncannily familiar
way. The Native Americans suffered under the
Europeans who invaded and stole their land in
the same way we Jews suffered when the
Europeans (Romans) invaded and stole our
land. The Europeans considered the Native
Americans savages and sought to culturally
destroy them, the European (Romans) did
exactly the same thing to us. It kind of
makes me wonder; do our peoples share a
common ancestry to have deserved such a
common fate? We may never know for sure, but
conjecture is one thing, archeology is quite
another. There is evidence that cannot be
disputed. It really needs to be explored.
The motto of the Crazy Horse Memorial is
words that the man himself is quoted to have
said. I thought they were pretty profound
and worthy to share here. Crazy Horse said,
"My land is where my people are buried." I
thought this to be a rather profound
statement as applicable to Jews as it is to
Native Americans. Where do we Jews point and
say these words? Our dead lie buried in
Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, and
everywhere in our land from the farthest
northern borders to the southern-most deserts.
Crazy Horse was a profoundly spiritual man, a
mystic in his own rights, and judging from my
understanding of Native American spiritual
beliefs and practices, we might refer to him
in Torah language as a true Ben Noah, a
Righteous Gentile (without knowing his true
ancestry). His role model was a profound
one, not only for his people, but for ours as
well.
Crazy Horse was a man willing to fight and
die for his land. How many of us can say
this today about our land of Israel? All too
many want to live in the shtetl and make
believe they are back in Europe two hundred
years ago. Others want to make believe that
Israel today in supposed to be an extension
of New York or Los Angeles, cosmopolitan,
flashy and "techy." My how far have we
fallen, how far we have drifted from the
natural order as ordained by our Creator.
My family and I were inspired by Crazy Horse
and his message. The message of the Crazy
Horse Memorial is, "Never Forget Your
Dreams." This is another poignant message
not only for Native Americans but or we Jews
as well. The monument that is being built to
honor his memory is a great thing. How come
we have no such monuments in Israel? Don't
quote to me Halakha about carving images. I
never said we had to carve a human image, but
other types of monuments to express our bond
with our Land and our love of it. What about
this? Woe to us how we have fallen!
Yes, I truly love to drive across the great
expanses of open space. Driving the open
highways does not require any hard work, nor
is it in any way stressful. It is very
relaxing and calming, with many long hours of
just being alone with one's thoughts to
think, contemplate, watch the scenery and
contemplate the wondrous beauty of G-d's
creation.
Long-distance highway driving outside of
urban areas can be a most profound hitbodedut
experience. This is why I love to take to the
open road. Even with my family in tow, for
the most part it is private time with just me
and my Creator. Although I am living in a
land not my own, and thus cannot bond with
the spirit of the land itself, I can still
bond with the Creator of this land. Road
trips of this nature are tremendous avenues
for such a bonding.
I plan to write more about this Road Trip in
future essays, but for now, while there is
still time left in the summer. Maybe you can
decide to take a road trip, even if only for
a day or so. Get out of the cities and
return to nature. Remember this all you
spiritually minded folks, the Torah says that
the name of G-d used to create the universe
was Elohim. Elohim in Gematria is
numerically equal to the Hebrew word for
"nature" (HaTeva). Thus one who returns to
nature is returning to Elohim (G-d). There
is no greater Teshuva (repentance=return)
than to return to one's Source.
----------------------------------------------
Shalom, HaRav Ariel Bar Tzadok
