a waxing wellspring

Its the journey not the destination

2012-01-12T17:53:00.000+02:00

The Noam Elimelech on parashath Shemot says something very cool: Why does the parashah start with Bnei Yisrael coming down to Egypt and continue about Bnei Yaacov who arrived in Egypt? He explains: The Tzaddik who is starting out on his journey is called 'Yaacov', and often this Tzaddik feels like he has already attained righteousness, he's already arrived. But the true Tzaddik is called 'Yisrael' and he knows that his accomplishments are forever dwarfed by what he has yet to achieve, and so he is always "on his way," never actually getting there.

I think one thing we can learn from this teaching of the Noam Elimelech is that in order to attain holiness, we need to first think we've arrived, that we already made it, so that all the depression and self doubt don't trip us up. Only after we've achieved some level of holiness, we need to start recognizing how far we still have to go.

In order to get anywhere, we need to arrive first.

Remember to put on your tefillin when you put on your tefillin

2011-12-29T08:53:00.001+02:00

When you put on your tefillin, it's easy to just put them on by rote. But you can just as easily remember R' Nachman's Likkutei Halachot, and when you wrap the hand-tefillin think of and connect with Klal Yisrael. When you donn your head-tefillin think of and connect to HaShem (if you feel too distant from HaShem at present you can connect to the true tzaddikim, who exist solely for the purpose of helping us connect to HaShem.)Now you've put on your tefillin.

The elephant in the room

2011-12-28T11:47:00.001+02:00

When we talk about the number of candles we light on Hannukah, we inevitably ignore the Shamash, after all, it isn't one of the actual candles of the mitzwah. It's a helper candle. Yet, for children, and even for our own eyes, it's a constant source of cognitive dissonance. On the first night we light one candle. ..in addition to the Shamash, so when we look and see a Hannukiah (aka. Hannukah Menorah) lit on the first night, there will be two candles there.

Yeah ok, we all can deal with a little cognitive dissonance, but since nowadays everyone lights the Shamash, and (almost) everyone lights according to Beit Hillel, we should delve into the deeper meaning of the Shamash as well.

One thing to learn from the Shamash, is that whenever we are involved in a mitzwah, HaShem is right there with us, involved too. The Shamash's light represents that, and helps us to properly perform the mitzwah, just as HaShem is always helping us to perform each mitzwah.

Normally HaShem's presence is implicit, why make it explicit on Hannukah? On Hannukah a unique and elevated light is revealed in the world, so high that we can't use it for any other purpose than simply to look at the candles. Also, on Hannukah, that light illuminates in the lowest places, even deeper than HaShem's light normally descends the rest of the year. So on Hannukah, the Shamash represents HaShem's participation in our mitzwot in a more visceral way than the rest of the year.

So when we look at it that way, there's no cognitive dissonance, as the Baal Shem Tov teaches, [see: helping us (all) along] HaShem always helps us do the mitzwoth.. He even does the lion's share of the work, we do the physical action and He reflects those actions in more radical changes throughout the upper worlds.

One little light

2011-12-27T09:51:00.001+02:00

In the Sefer Menorat Zahav parashat Bereishit we learn about the debate between Rav Zusha of Anipoli and his brother the Noam Elimelech regarding how better to approach service of God.

Is it better to recognize one's own insignificance in order to arrive at an understanding of the greatness of God? Or is it better to focus on the greatness of God in order to arrive at a true level of humility?This is the question they posed to their Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch.

This Hanukkah it occurs to me that this question mirrors the two methods of lighting the hannukiah put forward by Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. Beit Hillel says you start with a single light, with the humility of your own insignificance and then you build to many lights recognizing the greatness of HaShem's presence in the world. Beit Shammai says you start with all the beautiful greatness of HaShem's many lights and then work your way down to the smallness of your one little light.

The Maggid's answer to the original question is in line with the Halakha as well: they are both the words of the living Torah. But it is more correct (safer) to start from one's own smallness in serving HaShem.

And so that's another reason we start with just the one little light on the first night of Hannukah.

All the way down

2011-12-20T11:33:00.001+02:00

Today I was reminded of something the Tanya mentioned a few weeks ago:

"Learning Torah reveals tremendous amounts of light in the upper worlds.. but only prayer draws that light down into this world."

The shacharit prayer is constructed such that there's an ascension in the first half, a silent focused prayer at the pinnacle of the world, and then a descent back to earth in the second half... It's during the second half where we draw the light back down into this world.

Sadly I usually rush through the second part of the tefillah, even though, when you think about it, if you don't invest energy in bringing the light down, you climbed all the way up for nothing.

(of course not entirely nothing, and I could explain why at length, but let's just say for now, what Rebbe Nachman says, no positive action or good intent is ever lost.)

Peace is worth fighting for

2011-12-13T16:17:00.003+02:00

[This is one of the biggest relationship/parenting secrets I know of for overcoming anger.]

Every time you catch yourself getting angry at someone else, or experiencing any other similarly negative emotion, realize that the source of that emotion isn't within you but within the yetzer hara. When you recognize that you have no vested interest in this feeling, turn that feeling on its source, get angry at the yetzer hara instead.

This clears out so much damaging negative emotion from our interpersonal relationships, so much that gets in the way of peacefully interacting with our loved ones as much as with random walkers by.

It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.

2011-12-13T16:07:00.000+02:00

At the stroke of solar midnight we mourn. The reasons for this mourning are manifold. We've lost so much. But one thing I never knew we were meant to mourn is (according to the Ben Ish Hai - Parshat VaYishlah 11) the secrets of the Torah which were exiled among the "externalities."

I was reviewing this teaching while sitting at the kever of Benayahu ben Yehoyada, and it hit me that these lost sparks of the hidden Torah are all the truths buried in pop culture, common sense, and Science.

To think that all of these truly enthralling truths are in exile, and that if they could be perceived through their true lens would be that much more wonderful really makes me sad. Sad and hopeful. Expectant for what is to be -- which is exactly what Tikkun Hatzot is supposed to be all about.

Everlasting Love

2011-11-03T22:38:00.001+02:00

Today, the seventh of cheshvan, is the first day we pray for rain in Israel each year.

As we say in the Shema everyday twice a day, the seasonal rains begin with what is known as the Yoreh, a shocking sudden and powerful rain.

Tonight the Yoreh came thundering down here in Jerusalem, on the same night we began to pray. What a beautiful fulfillment of HaShem's commitment to provide for us.

Thank you HaShem!!!

From the first to the last, Holy

2011-11-03T22:32:00.001+02:00

כל שקדם הקדשן את מומן או מום עובר קודם להקדשן ולאחר מכאן נולד להם מום קבוע ונפדו פטורין מן הבכורה ומן המתנות ואינן יוצאין לחולין להגזז ולהעבד וולדן וחלבן אסור לאחר פדיונן והשוחטן בחוץ חייב ועושין תמורה ואם מתו יקברו:

The mishna quoted above from Chulin 130a states that if an animal was consecrated as holy to God and then it was maimed or otherwise damaged in a way that made it not fit for an offering, still it is holy and must always be treated as such.

From this we can learn that the Jewish people who were first consecrated. Even if they were to now stray from HaShem, they are still eternally Holy.

We might be tempted to think about ourselves that while we might have been pure in our youth we are too far gone now to be redeemed.

This mishna teaches us the opposite. Since each of us bears a holy soul. Holy even from before our birth, none of our acts no matter how awful justify us in accepting our current seemingly contaminated state.

How do we obtain this state of holiness and purity we've lost? The first step is realizing it can't be lost. The second step is treating yourself now as the holy and pure person you are within.

Parshah Back Story

2011-11-03T15:31:00.000+02:00

ויבא הפליט ויגד לאברם העברי והוא שכן באלני ממרא האמרי אחי אשכל ואחי ענר והם בעלי ברית-אברם: יד וישמע אברם כי נשבה אחיו וירק את-חניכיו ילידי ביתו שמנה עשר ושלש מאות וירדף עד-דן: טו ויחלק עליהם | לילה הוא ועבדיו ויכם וירדפם עד-חובה אשר משמאל לדמשק:

"And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he lived in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshkol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them to Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and defeated them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left side of Damascus."
(Parshat Lech Lecha, 4th Aliyah)

Until now I never realized that this is the first interaction between Abraham and Eliezer/Og. And that Og was avenging his race when he and Avraham took down the four kings who wiped them out. It's also curious why Avraham doesn't consider Lot as his inheritor rather than Eliezer in the next Aliyah.

And especially: I'd love to see a perush with alternative explanations for what HaShem means when He says Avraham will be inherited by someone who is born of his "innards." There has to be a hint in the text for Yitzhak. Here's my take on it. I once had an insight (I wish I remembered the whole flow of it) that the word kaf-heh pronounced 'koh' which HaShem uses here to describe Avraham's children: "Thus will be your children," describes self-sacrifice in the name of HaShem. This would be a direct hint at the future Akeida. (binding of Yitzhak) Now, if only I could remember how it is that 'Koh' hints at this.

A Fast Shabbat

2011-11-02T12:36:00.000+02:00

ואמר רבי אלעזר משום רבי יוסי בן זמרא כל היושב בתענית בשבת קורעין לו גזר דינו של שבעים שנה ואף על פי כן חוזרין ונפרעין ממנו דין עונג שבת מאי תקנתיה אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק ליתיב תעניתא לתעניתא: R. Eleazar also said in the name of R. Jose b. Zimra: If one keeps a fast on Sabbath,29 a decree of seventy years standing against him is annulled;30 yet all the same he is punished for neglecting to make the Sabbath a delight.

(Brachot 31b)

For two years (5771, 5772) in a row Yom Kippur fell on Shabbat. Last year I had a tremendously hard time doing Yom Kippur on Shabbat. I really missed Shabbat that week. This year I was more prepared for it, but still, it's a challenge having your favorite day of the week, a day of rest, superceded by the hardest day of work in the world.

Last week I cam across this teaching and it made my day. For two years in a row the majority of the Jewish people fasted on Shabbat, one Shabbat in particular: Yom Kippur. And since we're required to fast on Yom Kippur, even if it falls on Shabbat, we aren't liable for the punishment mentioned above.

HaShem made it such that for the past two years, the Jewish people (rubo k' kulo -- the whole follows the majority) were blessed with keeping the mitzvah to fast on Shabbat and all of the benefits that accompany it. (a total of 140 years of decrees against us annulled - as quoted above)

Wow!

May it be HaShem's will that these two Shabbat-Yom Kippurs we kept count as the Two Shabbatot necesary for the nation of Yisrael to keep in order to merit the redemption. In accordance with Chazal's teachings:

Rav Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: "If Israel were to keep two Shabbatot according to the laws thereof, they would be redeemed immediately."

(Shabbat 118b)

buy-a-friend

2011-10-31T18:21:00.002+02:00

Being a good friend is not easy. It requires a certain amount of selfishness and a willingness to reveal that selfishness. We need friends. For many people admitting our needs is difficult. It requires a public revelation that we aren't complete in and of ourselves.

Finding for yourself a Rabbi is exactly the opposite. Everyone is fallible and submitting to a higher authority is an act of humility, something that is admirable when seen in the public eye. Not so seeking out friends upon whom you rely. Friendship is balanced, you can't just be a giving friend, if you are it's not a true friendship.

It's hard to open up our lives and make room for a friend. This is why pirkei avot phrases obtaining a friend in the context of purchasing. Just like when you buy something you are parting with cold hard cash, something of value, in order to obtain something else of value. So too, when you purchase a friend you are giving up a little privacy a little solitude, revealing things you might rather hide in order to obtain something else of value, true friendship.

upside down man

2011-10-26T16:56:00.002+02:00

'ונח מצא חן בעיני ה
And Noach found favor in the eyes of God.

If you notice in the hebrew the word Noach and the word favor (or Chen) are palindromes. As we know from science, when we look at something, its inverse is reflected in our eye. That's why Noach found favor (the inverse of his name) in HaShem's eyes.

R' Ginsburgh brings down a really cool point that the first letter of darkness (chashcha) and the first letter of light (nehora) as written in aramaic spell out Chen. Chen represents turning darkness into light. (see more here: http://www.inner.org/times/kislev/kislev61.htm )

Know your enemy

2011-10-06T21:31:00.001+02:00

We spend so much time judging and hating one another, I think it's time we start blaming the real problem. This Yom Kippur let's love each other and hate the Yetzer Hara.

Ten things for every Jew to remember

2011-10-05T17:02:00.003+02:00

It is a mitzwah for a Jew to remember each of these ten things every day. (Here are my thoughts as to why.)

The Redemption from Egypt - no matter how difficult life may be, remember that HaShem loves you and will redeem you from all your hardship. You aren't alone.
Shabbath - Some people like to take it easy all the time. No. We should work hard to achieve our goals all week because we know we will have Shabbat to rest.
The Mann(a) - The miraculous bread, a gift of heaven which sustained us throughout the desert. It's important to remember that our livelihood will be provided for us, so that we don't toil all week long solely for physical wellbeing. Our work week should involve rigorous spiritual work as well!
Amalek - They are nation who believes in chance, we need to remember that everything happens for a reason. Even if we trip up in our rush to achieve, we have to thank HaShem for the signs he sends and the constant course-corrections.
Har Sinai - Not everything is relative. There are Absolutes. The Torah is Objective Truth. It was given to us, and there is nothing more certain in the world than that a Jew should always be involved in Torah and Mitzwoth.
How we angered God in the desert - When everything is going great, that's when we make the biggest mistakes. Be simple. Do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. Be humble. Don't let things go to your head.
What became of Balak and Bilaam's plots - They wanted to destroy us, and HaShem intervened to prevent it. We don't need to worry about our enemies, that's HaShem's job. We do need to work on ourselves and worry about our own.
Miriam's punishment - Especially when our motivations are righteous, we must be careful, if a Tzadeket like Miriam failed through good intentions, we need constant reality checks.
HaShem gives us strength for mighty deeds - Don't shy away from a task because of its shere size. HaShem has no limitations, and He's got our back.
Jerusalem will be rebuilt - Will you be part of rebuilding it?

faster than chariots

2011-09-27T23:23:00.000+03:00

וַיֶּאְסֹר יוֹסֵף מֶרְכַּבְתּוֹ, וַיַּעַל לִקְרַאת-יִשְׂרָאֵל אָבִיו גֹּשְׁנָה; וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו, וַיִּפֹּל עַל-צַוָּארָיו, וַיֵּבְךְּ עַל-צַוָּארָיו, עוֹד.

And Joseph made ready his chariot, and [he] went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen; and he presented himself unto him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

Bereishit 46:29 (text source: mechon-mamre.org)

Yosef, out of love for his father and in anticipation of meeting up with him, wasn't willing to wait for another to prepare his chariot, instead he did so himself. (Even though it was beneath his station as second to Pharoah to do such a menial task.)

One thing I understood from the text, and I assume it's implied there, is that as he approached his father, he couldn't even wait for his horses, and so he ran ahead on his own feet. (If you notice the expression vaya'al - and he went up, could mean exactly that)

This right here is the essence of what is unique about the Jewish People.

Yosef represents every Jew in this little story. He is so filled with love for his Father in heaven, that he first hitches his chariot and eventually abandons that chariot out of an unparalleled desire to be reunited with his Father. The chariot and the horses represent the Angels and all other creations who cannot keep up with the Jewish Soul in its speedy flight.

May we all merit to bare our hearts before our Father in Heaven this new year. May we celebrate with the King of Kings as only His children can, and may we rush to welcome Him, as Yosef rushed to welcome his father.

And one final blessing, much less important than the first: May our enemies meet a similar fate to Pharoah, who also hitched his own chariot, but on a very different occasion. He hitched his own chariot in pursuit of Bnei Yisrael when he rushed to destroy us, before HaShem split the sea and swallowed up the nation of Egypt forever.

[There are so many more secrets hidden in this passuk, b"h, may we merit to reveal some of them in the future.]

Darkness into light

2011-09-22T13:40:00.000+03:00

One of the central goals of Judaism is just that, to turn darkness into light. No, we aren't talking alchemy.

Each one of us is composed of a body and a soul. The body is dark, the soul is bright. When we subdue the body and put it to work for the soul, the body is consumed and 'becomes' light, just like the wick of a candle.

The most natural thing in the world is to sleep at night when it's dark, and awake with the sun and the return of the light. During this time of year, as the days grow shorter and the night encroaches, we prepare for the New Year, and the Day of Judgement.

We attend slichot either late at night or early in the morning, in the thick of the darkness. We treat the night as if it is day. When we go to say slichot we are saying to HaShem: "Look, we treat the night, Your creation, as if it's day, treat our 'dark' actions as if they were 'light.'"

We're asking HaShem to redeem what is beyond our ability to redeem. To fix all the darkness we failed to turn into light. It might be out of our reach, but nothing is out of Yours HaShem.

angels in their mouths

2011-09-15T19:07:00.000+03:00

"HaShem doesn't dwell in conflict with his creations." (Tikkunei Zohar pg. 60a)

That's what the Zohar has to say about a Jew's obligation to learn Torah night and day. It may seem impossible to spend one's whole day and night learning Torah, but the Zohar explains, one who says the Shema Yisrael in the evening and in the morning is considered to have fulfilled this mitzwah.

Though people might think otherwise, a basic tenet of Judaism is that God isn't out to get us. He's not trying to trip us up and He's not waiting to mock us when we fail. More importantly He doesn't command us to do things that are beyond our ability to do.

Chazal (Our Rabbis) make this point clear when they recite the passuk: "And you shall live with/through them." Meaning, "fulfilling the mitzwah obligations should not make life impossible."

No matter how crazy-sounding a mitzwah may be, do a double take, think about it. Look for the hidden brilliance that it is buried somewhere in there. Don't walk away taking something at face value. You have to dig in or else you miss out on what is really there. Especially when it seems like there's no room for confusion.

A great example of this is: "An eye for an eye." If you stop there, you couldn't be further from the truth. Slavery. Sexism. Cruelty to animals. Genocide. Racism. If you look in the Torah and see these things, it's because you never cared to actually perform the related mitzwoth. If you had, you'd know how wrong those initial assumptions are.

God's demands of us are always reasonable, and always enlightened. And you can be enlightened too, but first you have to choose to be.

This is why we received the Torah, because when it was offered we said, first we will keep the mitzwoth, and only then we will seek to understand them -- Na'aseh v'Nishma.

Tikkunei Zohar pg. 64b:

And all the nation saw the voices. These were angels, each of whom became voices and took flight, and each one of Bnei Yisrael, as they said "We will do and we will listen" the angels would land in their mouth and would teach them the entire Torah.

the fruit of life

2011-09-14T18:20:00.000+03:00

All who taste the fruit of the Torah will live forever. (Tikkunei Zohar pg. 60a)

Yeah, but no one lives forever. Don't overthink it. The Torah says that because Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that he will die. The Torah also says that if he were to eat from the Tree of Life he would live forever.

Our Rabbis teach that the Torah is the Tree of Life.

Even though we ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and we are destined to die, we still can eat from the Tree of Life, the Torah.

Learning the Torah ensures that we will rise again in the end of days. Learning Torah makes our death now only temporary. So yeah, eternal life is only a few minutes away and it isn't even that big of a secret.

There's got to be a catch. There is. As mentioned here in the past, the Baal HaTanya explains very simply how in the World to Come, the Torah is our sustenance, our food, but Mitzwoth are our clothes.

Learn one minute of Torah in this world and you are guaranteed to live forever, but you might be very 'hungry' and very 'naked' for all of that eternity.

Since you've already learned a little Torah, you might as well go all in and learn a lot. While you're at it, do some mitzwoth, so you can sport some slick threads too.

The light of today

2011-09-12T17:14:00.000+03:00

One of our mistakes in worrying too much about tomorrow is that we don't focus on our goals for today.

There is a Hassidic idea that we cannot plan for Rosh HaShanah. Each year on Rosh Hashanah a new light comes down into this world as the Shofar is blown. That light has never been revealed down here before. For just this reason it is impossible to know what Rosh Hashanah or next year will be like.

The Baal HaTanya explains that the same phenomenon happens each day. It's only with the morning prayer of Shacharit that a new light descends to this world. Being that this is the case, it makes perfect sense that we should spend significantly less time planning what we will do tomorrow and focus on making the most of today's light.

Tomorrow morning something completely new and unprecedented might happen, making all of our plans irrelevant. Let's get today right and tomorrow will flow naturally from there.

Mean what you mumble

2011-09-12T14:20:00.000+03:00

One of the unique things about Jewish prayers is their extensive length. Despite the few thousand words we are meant to say every day, our lips very quickly learn them by heart. Typically, when we pray our thoughts wander and our lips stay on track.

The Baal HaTanya explains that HaShem is both hidden and revealed. Wherever He is revealed, His Divine Presence, also known as the Shechinah, resides there. The Shechinah is compared to speech. Just as our thoughts, hidden deep within our minds, are only revealed when we speak them aloud, so too HaShem is forever present but only the Shechinah's presence makes us aware of that.

The Tikkunei Zohar says that the only way to relate to HaShem is through the Shechinah.

If we want to telegraph our desire to HaShem that we would like Him to reveal His divine presence, then one straightforward way to do that is to align our speech and our thoughts.

Try once in a while to think about the words that are about to leave your mouth when you pray. It's hard not to revert to auto-pilot, there's a lot to say and our mouths are better at saying it than we are. But still, try it and show HaShem you want His hidden essence revealed through the Shechinah in our daily lives.

We don't want Him to put us on autopilot. (Aka. 'mother nature')

wait for the punchline

2011-09-08T14:50:00.001+03:00

The Angels in heaven turn to one another giving each other permission to enter their respective realms before pronouncing God's greatness.

The Tikkunei Zohar says something incredibly cool. What makes the Angels give each other this permission? [After all, each Angel has a fixed lot and a fixed role and cannot effect change in and of themselves?]

When Bnei Yisrael share Torah or money, they cause the Angels in heaven to share too.

Giving a dollar to someone who needs it, or exchanging a few words with a friend seem like inconsequential forgettable actions.. but in the heavens huge winged beings of fire are affected and fundamentally changed by those same actions.

Just by reading this right now you had a profound affect on the world we knew. It's different now than it was when you started.

he loves me

2011-09-05T11:47:00.001+03:00

I saw three very holy people get off a bus, all of them in their advanced sixties. One was a known (although he keeps a relatively low profile) Tzaddik, getting off the bus in one direction. The other two were a secular-looking husband and wife. After the three descended from the bus and exchanged farewells, the husband smiled and bragged to his wife as they were walking away: "He loves me." He was proud that the tzaddik loved him. He sounded full of himself in the way that a four year old might.

It was true. The tzaddik does love him, just as he loves each and every individual in the nation of Israel. But it made the man so proud.

If only we knew how much HaShem loves us. We'd walk around glowing each day, brimming over with exuberant pride.

HaShem calls us His first-born son, he loves us and redeems us from the deepest and darkest of places. The Tikkunei Zohar teaches that the final Beit HaMikdash will be built by HaShem for us, because he loves us so much!

Crunch time

2011-09-01T16:00:00.001+03:00

Rebbe Nachman teaches that no action with holy purpose, no matter how small, is ever lost. Instead, all of these actions with good intentions, even if they never amounted to anything hang around and wait until they are needed, and then in a moment of crisis they come to your aid.

What is this moment of crisis? I wanted to explain it like so: In general we refer to the Yetzer Hara, or the animal soul, as something evil. In reality, the Yetzer Hara most of the time plays a role more like training wheels. It makes you seek out the right things for the wrong reasons. A person can live their whole lives listening to the Yetzer Hara and accomplishing mainly good. He can make a good living, marry a nice woman and have a beautiful family. These are all things the Yetzer Hara encourages.

Sometimes, though, the Yetzer Hara encourages us to go beyond our own personal boundaries and cross into areas that are more black than gray. These are the times of nisayon, of challenge, of crisis. These are times when suddenly all of the good intentions and baby steps you made toward holiness come back to pull you across the finish line. This is the time of crisis about which Rebbe Nachman was speaking.

unicorns don't exist

2011-09-01T15:44:00.001+03:00

While learning the Tikkunei Zohar for the second day of Elul, I was reminded of a teaching of the Komarna Rebbe -- something I found fascinating at the time, but forgot to mention here.

The Rebbe (in his Otzar Hayyim) explains that horns represent the sefirah of Keter, (Crown/Will) being that they radiate from and above the head which represents the mental faculties. (Hochmah, Binah, and Da'at)

Since there is only holiness and certainly no impurity at the level of Keter, only holy animals have horns. For this reason you will never find a non-kosher animal with horns.

I thought this was perhaps the coolest thing I'd ever learned, and was amazed I never noticed this before. As much as I thought about it, I couldn't come up with a single animal that had horns but wasn't kosher. Deer, goats, cows, sheep, even giraffes, they're all kosher. Recently I remembered the moose, sure enough it's kosher too.

And now, from the department of things you'd never think to hear me say: (it's a fairly small department, let's be honest.)

Which leads me to the title of this post: Since a horse is not a kosher animal, there are no horses with horns, let alone a single horn in the center of their head. The only possibility for the existence of unicorns is if they were to be a peculiar brand of horse with split hooves and who chews its cud. Stranger things have been discovered, but any depiction of a unicorn with an uncleft hoof is clearly inaccurate at the very least.

The better question is this: Why doesn't the Torah mention horns as a symbol of kosher-ness? I've got two ideas: 1. Maybe I misunderstood the Komarna? Doubtful though, it was seemingly very clear. 2. Perhaps there are situations in which horns do apply to non-kosher animals, outside the context of what the Komarna was referring to? 3. Since there ARE kosher animals without horns, including an option for horned animals being kosher would be at least a little confusing. 4. Have you seen the jackalope? (Finally proof the jackalope doesn't exist)