Va’eira: Anger and intolerance seem to have lost all place in modern civilization. Such emotions are considered taboo; entirely unacceptable in any shape or form. In fact many a brilliant career has gone down the tubes – instantly shattered – in a moment of unmitigated and heartfelt emotion.
In this week’s Parasha the Torah tells us about the hard work the Jews were forced to do in Egypt. In an answer the Rebbe writes to a Jew who wanted to leave his current employment since he was having difficulties, the Rebbe tell him that he is not to quit so long that he is certain that he has other employment.
Shemot: Jewish anti-semitism is far more sinister than we would like to believe. Western campuses are crawling with Jewish anti-semites, many of which are tenured professors. These self-haters are at the forefront of most every smear campaign against the Jewish creed and the Jewish land. They play a leading role in the campaigns to boycott and “Divest” from Israel.
Rabbi Benny Hershcovich, Shliach in Cabo, Mexico, delivers his brief and hilarious thought on this weeks Parasha, Shemot, titled ‘Get out of De-Nile’.
Vayechi: Vast cosmic secrets appear couched in the dramatic events surrounding the deathbed blessings bestowed upon Yosef’s two sons Menashe and Ephraim by our saintly forebear Yaakov. The cryptic narrative seems to alert the reader to uncanny Divine insight on the part of Yaakov, the purveyor of the blessings, regarding the future of the two emerging tribes and the nation of Israel as a whole.
Rabbi Benny Hershcovich, Shliach in Cabo, Mexico, teamed up recently with CrownHeights.info to provide his weekly Parasha thought on the Torah portion.
The fast begins Sunday at 5:34am and ends at 5:09pm (NYC)
On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later — on Tammuz 9, 3338 — the city walls were breached, and on Av 9th of that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.
The Beis Din of Crown Heights has released an instructional guide – in both English and Hebrew – which contains Halachos and Minhagim pertaining to Chanukah, as well as the answers to many questions regarding the upcoming holiday.
Vayeishev: There seems to be a form of cognitive dissonance that is unique to the malady of slander and hurtful speech. Our slander is rarely the result of a lack of knowledge and awareness. We know that it’s wrong; we are all quite familiar with its insidious and destructive outcome, yet we don’t seem to treat the tongue with the same prudence that we do other hazardous behaviors.
In tonight’s Maariv prayers we begin saying Vesein Tal Umotor Livrocho in Shmoneh Esrei. The Crown Heights Beis Din has released a letter with some of the Halochos regarding this change and if one had forgotten to make it. The letter was compiled by Rabbi Levi Gorelik.
Leshana Tovah Belimud HaChasidus ve Darchei HaChasidus, Tikosaivu VeTichosaimu!
Today, Yud Tes Kislev “The Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.” marks 214 years since the release of the Alter Rebbe, R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi founder of Chasidus Chabad in the year 5559 (1798). This year also marks 200 years since the Alter Rebbes Histalkus. In honor of this auspicious day, which is referred to by Chasidim as the “Holiday of Holidays”, Farbrengens are being held around the world!
He was a black-hatted chassid, but I thought he could be a storm chaser.
In a 1958 letter released this week by Vaad Hanachos B’Lahak, the Rebbe responds to a man who wrote about a proposed Shidduch between a bochur of Sefardi origin and a girl of Ashkenazi origin, and the opposition they were facing from apprehensive family members.
Chazan Rabbi Moshe Teleshevsky was born in Russia and reared in the tradition of music after his father – a Lubavitcher Rov and Chazan. At a very early age it became apparent that he had unusual musical talent; at nine he was already accompanying his father on the piano and at eleven he already began to sing at concerts.
Rosh Hashanah you hear the shofar. Yom Kippur you fast. Sukkos you eat in the sukkah and take the lulav-esrog. Simchas Torah you have no mitzvah. Simchas Torah, the joy of the torah, the joy of this learning that takes a lifetime, Simchas Torah has no learning. At night, we take the Torah but don’t read the Torah; we don’t even unfurl it. Simchas Torah we dance.
What was it like to spend Sukkos with the Rebbe – under his personal guidance and attention? British businessman Zalmon Jaffe merited an unusually close friendship with the Rebbe and not only spent many holidays over the years in the Rebbe’s holy neighborhood, accompanied by wife Roselyn, but recorded the bustling events in a diary My Encounters with the Rebbe, which was published annually and widely enjoyed among the Rebbe’s Chassidim. CrownHeights.info and the Avner Institute present the following collection of short stories and anecdotes, which were made available by Zalman’s grandchildren.
Shoshanah Silcove, an American freelance writer and a Machon Chana Alumnus who lives with her family in Melbourne, Australia, penned the following article in which she chronicles her arduous journey back to her Jewish roots through written correspondence with her former self.
8
