RABBIS CORNER Parshat Yisro – Inner transformation
We were very proud with a turnout of over 200 people at our recent talk by Dr Bernd Wollschlaeger “My father was a Nazi”.
It is now uploaded on YouTube (see link above) – for you to playback and share this intriguing inspiring and moving story that speaks to all human souls.
Behind this extraordinary story with an immense number of details to absorb is the deeply personal spiritual journey. A Journey that speaks to all souls about our life journey; How to embrace ourselves; that we must not amputate parts of our self or relegate our traumas into a box which we seal never to be opened. Instead we are invited to find the inner strength and courage and willpower and determination to make peace with our entire selves.
The Story of Bernd Wollschlaeger is one that begins with the curiosity of child looking for answers only to uncover more disturbing questions. Bernd is led to deep anger, resent and hurt. This develops into a full rebellion against everything he had been connected with- in particular his father an unrepentant Nazi.
His story is a modern day equivalent of Abraham and Sarah’s epic spiritual and physical journey “Go for yourself from your land, your birth place and your fathers house unto the land that I will show you”. (Genesis 12:1)
This journey led to the next almost inevitable stage: disconnection and alienation from himself. A renouncement of German citizenship being a reflection of this.
Bernd begins the process of redemption eventually converting to Judaism.
In a sense his redemption is brought about in the land of Israel by serving the Jewish people and the state in the IDF medical corps.
Yet the dark shadows of shame and trauma from the past still lurked inside his psyche. Hiding his true identity became the modus operandi until the circle came round again and his own Israeli son began asking questions of the past. The feedback from people is key to self discovery and when Bernd’s story starts to spill out and he sees how it is having a powerful impact on people this leads to the a deeper level of redemption. Now instead of just escaping his past (break down of old relationships, conversion IDF etc), Bernd begins to navigates the complex path of integration which introduces a new space within his soul to make peace with his past.
More than that he is be able to utilise his unique experiences to channel them into transforming people around the globe.
Dr Wollschlaeger is a truly remarkable man who teaches us that it is possible to take our darkest elements and use them for positive transformation of self and others.
This is the meaning of true Emunah -faith. To become aware of Hashem in every aspect of our lives.
The Talmud teaches “Just as we bless God for the good so too we bless Him for the bad”.
Because in truth that which we perceive as bad in our lives is not sent to destroy us. On the contrary it is sent to help us soar even higher!
How amazing that Dr Wollschlaeger spoke to us on Parshat Yisro! This is the Parsha of conversion and transformation!
According to some commentators Yisro converts to Judaism undergoing an extraordinary personal transformation by withdrawing from all forms of idolatry.
But more than that;the entire episode of the revelation at Sinai and the ten commandments is one of spiritual conversion. The basic laws of conversion (accepting the Mitzvot, circumcision, Mikveh) are learnt from this story.
In fact according to our spiritual tradition all future souls of the Jewish people as well as future converts were present at this revelation!
The opening phrase of the ten commandments begins
“And God spoke all these words saying -I am Hashem Your God who took you out of Egypt from the house of slavery”
The Hebrew for “saying” leimor appears extremely frequently throughout the Torah.
It is usually understood to mean “to tell over to others”. So when the verse states “God spoke to Moses saying” it means Moses is to tell over the message and communicate it to others (the people or the elders etc).
However here the word makes no sense because if all souls including future souls were present at Mt Sinai for the revelation then who is God telling us to communicate this to!?
The Sefas Emes (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib 18847-1905 2nd Gerrer Rebbe) addresses this question (in a discourse from 1900).
“Leimor” literally translates as to say which can be construed as declare.
Therefore he explains the verse to mean that “God spoke all these words to say that I am Hashem Your God…etc”
In other words all these words – the entire Torah, all of Judaism- is about one thing to absorb within our consciousness that Hashem is Your God.
Whether you pray one word learn a sentence of Torah, perform a Mitzvah or help another person it is all about bringing awareness of Hashem into our reality.
This means that all of reality is really an expression of Hashem.
This is the deeper meaning of faith in God- to realign our awareness with Hashem as our true source of existence.
Like Bernd we all have darker layers of self that cast shadows in our lives. We become confined by certain patterns of thinking. Our neural pathways become fixed at looking at the world a certain way.
Our friends, family etc walk into the room and most likely we have already defined them!
We tell ourselves stories about ourselves and others constantly. Mostly this is done subconsciously but it profoundly affects how we view the world and therefore how we react to the world emotionally – for better or worse.
Emunah is about being open to the infinite possibilities that Hashem gives us. To realise that we don’t have to be paralysed by one way of viewing things.
Which means we don’t need to be defined by or stuck in the past.
Emunah is the single greatest tool for empowerment and the world today despite all its technology has seemingly lost it.
Our generation has similarities to the Torah story of the tower of babel where they wish to build a tower to heaven and defeat God. the Ziggurats of the ancient world were impressive feats of architecture and human power but they did not defeat Hashem!
Like the days of the tower of Babel we want to make a name for ourselves. Ironically in searching for a name they lost themselves and the people were unable to communicate with one another (Babel as in babbling – mixed up communication)! Is this not what is happening today. All around us we hear people speaking. Gazillions of bytes of data are flowing around cyber space. But with all the mass communication how much data is meaningful information. Politics has descended into a cacophony of voices each trying to be louder than the next. To truly “make a name for ourselves” we first need to know who we truly are! We are Divine ambassadors (Divine sparks) and therefore represent the infinite power of Hashem!
This was all communicated to our souls at Mt Sinai – “I am Hashem YOUR God”
The first of the ten commandments teaches us that we have unique access to infinite power beyond the physical world when we see ourselves as sourced in Hashem. “I am Hashem Your God” means that God so to speak gives Himself to us. We have access to Him. He is ours !
Armed with this level of faith we can overcome all our challenges. From an Emunah perspective we have the strength to look a the darker elements of our soul and acknowledge them but then be able to deal with them. This is because we no longer define ourselves by the darkness.
As we start the davening each morning “The soul that you gave me is pure”.
Like Dr Wollschlaeger with Emunah we can develop resilience and determination to transform darkness to light and bitterness to sweetness.
With Emunah we realign ourselves with our true mission and bring true Simcha and joy into our lives and others around us
Shabbat Shalom