The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Va’eira

The Rebbe says:

1. This weeks Parshah tells us about the beginning of the redemption from our Exile in Egypt. Seven of the Ten Plagues are mentioned in this week’s Parshah, and the Ten Plagues were what caused Pharaoh to let the Jews leave Egypt (actually at the end of the tenth plague Pharaoh chased the Jews out of Egypt).

2. As we said many times, every story in the Torah is written for us to learn a lesson from.

Seemingly the Torah should be called “Chochmah – Wisdom” because the Torah is the wisdom of Hashem? Instead Hashem named the Torah “Torah” which comes from the word “Ho’ra’ah – lesson”. This is because the Torah is deeper then just having great wisdom, it is a guide book for us as to how we should conduct our daily lives in the service of Hashem.

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Shemos

The Rebbe says:

1. This week we begin the second book of the Five Books of Moses, the second book in the Torah. The second book in the Torah is called “Shemos – Names”.

2. In the beginning of this week’s Parshah the Torah enumerates for us the names of Ya’akov Avinu and his children which had gone down to Egypt earlier on.

[Earlier on when Yoseph made it known to his brothers that he was in fact their brother and not just an Egyptian ruler he told his family to come down to Egypt and live there. And so it was that Ya’akov (Yoseph’s father) and all his family went down to Egypt].

The Weekly Sedra – Parashas Shemos – In The Eyes Of The Beholder

It happened in those days that Moshe grew up and went out to his brethren and he observed their burdens . . . – Exodus 2:11

“And he observed their burdens:” He focused his eyes and heart so as to feel their suffering and grieve for them – Rashi Exodus 2:11

Among the volunteers that came, after World War II, to visit and aid the thousands of survivors who found themselves in displaced-persons (DP) camps throughout Germany and Poland, was Rabbi Eliezer Silver.

One day, as they were distributing Siddurim (prayer books), the Rabbi came across a man who emphatically refused to accept anything of a religious nature. “After seeing with my own eyes the way religious Jews behaved in the concentration camp,” the man declared disdainfully, “I no longer wish to have any involvement with religion!”

A Nation Apart — A Vayechi Essay

“…If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Vayechi

The Rebbe says:

1. In this week’s Parshah Ya’akov Avinu (our father) blesses each one of his 12 children (Chapter 49, Verses 1 through 28).

When Ya’akov Avinu blesses his son Asher he says “From Asher- his bread is rich, he will provide kingly delicacies” (Chapter 49, Verse 20).

Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki) explains this blessing and says: The food which comes from the land that Asher received as an inheritance is rich and fat because there are many olives in his portion which give oil like a spring. As we see that Moshe Rabbeinu (our teacher) also blessed Asher by saying “and he will (even be able to) dip his feet in oil”.

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Vayechi – Let’s Not Sell Ourselves Short

Please speak in the ears of the people: Let each man request of his fellow and each woman from her fellow silver vessels and gold vessels.– Exodus 11:2

G-d asked Moses to make a special effort to prevail upon the Jews to request valuables from their Egyptian neighbors, because unless they did so, the soul of Abraham would have a grievance against G-d. He would say that G-d carried out in full measure the prophecy that his offspring would be oppressed, but not the companion promise that the Jews would leave their captivity with great wealth (Genesis 15:14-15). To forestall this, G-d pleaded, as it were, with Moses to prevail upon the Jews to request valuables from the Egyptians – Rashi from Midrash

“Yaakov never died,” declares the Talmud: “Just as his progeny is alive, so too is he alive.” This revolutionary assertion may be understood on multiple levels, the most basic of which is the idea that the righteous live on through the perpetuation of their progeny and accomplishments.

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Vayigash

The Rebbe says:

1. Towards the end of this week’s Parshah the Torah tells us about Ya’akov Avinu (our father) traveling down to Egypt to see his son Yoseph.

Before Ya’akov Avinu went down to Egypt he sent his son Yehuda ahead of him. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki) tells us- in the name of the Medrash- that the reason Ya’akov Avinu sent his son Yehuda ahead of him was so that Yehuda could set up a Yeshiva (a study-hall to learn Torah in) there first. Ya’akov Avinu did not want to go to a land that did not have a Yeshiva ready. (See Rashi to Verse 28, Chapter 46).

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Vayigash – Fateful Encounter

“Now, I pledged myself to my father as a guarantee for the lad, saying: ‘If I don’t bring him back to you, I will have sinned against my father forever’ . . . For how could I go back to my father if the youth is not with me?” – Genesis 44:32-34

Yehuda’s conduct contains an everlasting lesson for every Jew: The Holy One, Blessed Be He, endowed him with the responsibility to give his soul for the wellbeing of even a single child – that he shall not part from the walls of Judaism – Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson

This week’s Parsha; Vayigash, opens with the fateful confrontation between Yosef and Yehuda. In light of the elaborate buildup to this dramatic face off – as depicted in the narrative of the preceding several Sedros – coupled by the subsequent historical prominence of these two legendary rivals (as discussed in this week’s Haftorah), one cannot help but share a sense of awe and imagination as to the deep significance of this pivotal encounter.

Parshas Mikeitz

The Rebbe says:

1. The beginning of this week’s Parshah tells us all about Pharaoh’s dreams. Verse 1 through 45 (Chapter 41) tells us about Pharaoh’s 2 dreams with all their details, how Yoseph was called to interpret them, how Yoseph actually interpreted them and how Yoseph became ruler of Egypt.

To summarize these 45 verses:

Pharaoh King of Egypt has a dream. He dreams that out of the Nile comes 7 healthy cows and they start grazing. Right after this 7 sickly cows come out of the Nile and eat up the 7 healthy cows. The 7 sickly cows don’t even get fatter.

A Tale of Two Dreams

“Nothing you have acquired is real unless you worked for it. If you were born a nice guy, the niceness isn’t yours. If you started off not so nice, and now you do a little, that’s divine.”
– Tzvi Freeman Be Within Stay Above

“Nothing of real substance comes without work. Our pioneer forebears could never plow a field by turning it over in their minds. They had to put their hands to the plow and walk forward. The work is, by and large, easier now than in earlier times, but the principle is the same. There must be work, and what a great and wonderful privilege it is.
Again, there is no reason to be averse to some recreation. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and Jill a dull girl. But when pleasure or recreation becomes an end in itself, we are in danger. We are in trouble. We simply cannot expect to refine the substance of character from hunks of pleasures.
– Gordon Hinckley, Standing For Something

Never having flown in an airplane, an old-timer was about to embark on just such a trip. While standing at the check-in counter, he queried the ticketing agent: Nu, so tell me, how does the plane stay up in the air?
”Well,“ said the agent, ”there are four engines which impel the jet forward. The force of the impulsion keeps the jet from falling.”

A Chanukah story

The whole battalion was camped together for the first time since last year for the imun gidudi (battalion maneuvers). We had been at it for two-and-a-half weeks already: first in the Bika (the Jordon valley) on the shooting ranges and on maneuvers from squad to company level, and this week in Midbar Yehuda. Since Sunday, we had been competing against each other in competitions ranging from running to navigation and shooting skills, and every soldier in every company and platoon in the battalion had given his all. Now we had come to the targil gidud, the culmination of our maneuvers. It was Wednesday morning. We got orders to take down the tents that we had been using since Sunday, and the officers and sergeants went to look at the fire ranges and to be assigned objectives and boundaries. We, the soldiers, were left alone on base to prepare for the coming twenty-four hours.

Chanukah

The Rebbe says:

1. The lights of the Chanukah Menorah are different than any other lights. Even the lights of Shabbos (which women light before Shabbos begins) or the lights that the Priests lit in the Beis Hamikdash (the Temple) are not like the lights of the Chanukah Menorah!

The reason the Chanukah Menorah’s lights are different than other lights is that they are not a means to an end. The only reason we light the Chanukah Menorah is for it to be lit. However the other lights are supposed to do something.

Parshas Vayeishev

The Rebbe says:

1. In the beginning of this week’s Parshah the Torah tells us about Yoseph having two dreams.

Yoseph’s first dream was that he and his eleven brothers were busy working in the field binding stalks of grain into bundles when suddenly Yoseph’s bundle stood up and all the brothers bundles bowed down to it (Chapter 37, Verse 5 through 7).

Yud Tes Kislev

Intro: 1. On the day after the festival of Succos in the year 1798 the first Chabad Rebbe was arrested in White Russia. The first Chabad Rebbe, who was called the Alter Rebbe, was officially charged with treason against the Russian government. The Alter Rebbe was jailed in the capital city of Petersburg.

There was a camp of religious Jews who were against Chassidus, especially Chabad Chassidus, and they went and informed the Russian government that the Alter Rebbe was collecting money for the Turkish government. The Turkish government at that time was also the ruling power over Eretz Yisroel (Israel). Really the Alter Rebbe was collecting money for the Torah scholars who had moved to Eretz Yirsoel who didn’t have money to live. The camp of Jews that were against Chassidus being revealed and spread throughout the world were hoping that by imprisoning the Alter Rebbe they would be stopping the Chassidic movement.

Much much more in the Extended Article!

Not Perfect, But I Won’t Let That Discourage Me…

A High-Priest. A South American Indian. Your average guy with a pencil behind his ear…

What do YOU aspire to be?

And this isn’t just one of those “What do you want to be when/if you grow up?” types of questions…

What do you want for yourself in life? What are your ideal circumstances? What goals do you set for yourself?

Fighting Chutzpah with Chutzpah

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man,
His enemies’ say he’s on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive.
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin,
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Vayishlach

The Rebbe says:

1. In this weeks Parshah Ya’akov Avinu (our father) meets with his brother Eisav after many years of not seeing each other. When Ya’akov Avinu had taken the Blessing from his father Yitzchak that was “supposed” to go to his brother Eisav he ran away in fear of Eisav’s wrath. Now Ya’akov Avinu is about to meet with his brother Eisav for the first time after this incident. Ya’akov Avinu is nervous about what his brother Eisav will do to him and therefore he sends angels to speak to Eisav before he actually sees him again.

2. Part of the message that Ya’akov Avinu tells the angels to give over to Eisav is “Eem Lavan Garti – I lived as a guest with Lavan” (see Chapter 32, Verse 5). Rashi (an acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, he wrote a super-commentary on the Bible and Talmud) writes that what Ya’akov Avinu meant to tell his brother Eisav was that he had kept all of the 613 Torah commandments even though he had lived with their wicked Uncle Lavan. Rashi writes that he knows this explanation because the word “Garti – I lived as a guest” has the numerical value of 613, and the total amount of commandments from the Torah is 613.