Monday, February 24, 2025

Shevat 26 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of Rabbi David ben Shmuel Halevi (1586-1667), a primary Halachic authority, known as Taz after his work Turei Zahav ("Rows of Gold") -- a commentary on Rabbi Yosef Caro's Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law).

Link: Rabbi David Halevi (Taz)

Before you were born, they made you swear you would do good.
You were a pure soul before you were born. Your only desire was to do good. Why the oath?

Because you were to descend into a body driven by a beast that screams from within. Because you were to be surrounded by a coarse, confusing world that screams from all sides. And then you may begin to think differently; then your desire may change.

And so you swore. You swore that even if it made no sense to you, even if you had no desire, you would keep your word.

But if you would change your mind and change your desires, what is to say that you would keep your promise?

Because this oath reached into that place of your soul beyond reason, beyond desire, to the very core-essence in which all reason and desire are less than candles in the sunlight of midday. And in that place you resolved that you would be good—beyond all reason and despite your desires.

So that now, whenever it seems just too difficult to do that which Torah demands of a human being, you can ignite that place at your core once again. Before it, that beast and the entire world bow down as servants to their master.

Reach to that place from before you were born.