The Weekly Sedra – Bereshis

Most people, even Gentiles, are familiar with the opening sentence of the Torah: “IN THE BEGINNING G-D CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH”

But at first glance it has no practical importance.

What do we care how the world got created. or if it was created at all? In any case it happened thousands (maybe millions!) of years ago! Why can’t the Torah just be like the other religions and say that G-d rewards and punishes whoever doesn’t follow the rules? Who cares how the world got here?

But the teachings of Chassidut and Kabala reveal several vital messages here.

First of all, the Torah is telling us what the world is made of: that the basic element of creation is neither atoms nor quarks of energy or even spirit… all these are themselves creations.

Festival of the Booths

After the miraculous exodus from Egypt the Jewish people wandered in the desert for a period of forty years, during which they lived in temporary booths that provided shelter. It is for this reason that every year, beginning on the fifteenth of the month of Tishrei, we commemorate and relive this experience with a festival named “Sukkot”.

The word “Sukkot” means “booths.” The commandment to “dwell” in a Sukkah can be fulfilled by simply eating all of one’s meals there. Many people even study and sleep in the Sukkah booth.

On this festive holiday we are also commanded to acquire the four species, referred to in Hebrew as “arbat haminim”. The four species are a citrus fruit (etrog), palm branch (lulav), myrtle branch (hadas), and willow branch (arava).

A Yom Kippur Thought

A twisted ritual

According to custom, on the morning before Yom Kippur when a thread of divine grace prevails in the world, Jewish people across the world will ritually slaughter a rooster, after having rotated it around their heads while saying: “This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my expiation; This rooster shall go to its death and I shall proceed to a good, long life and peace.” The rooster is then slaughtered and its blood is spilled to “sweeten” and subdue the supernal severities. This ritual is known as ‘Kapparot,’ meaning forgiveness, in Hebrew.

One year, Moshe, a local shoemaker, was seen coming to the farm to do ‘Kapparot,’ but instead of buying a rooster, he pulled out two books from his bag, one much larger than the other. He then proceeded to mutter a few words, ceremoniously rotate the books around his head nine times and then toss the books into a fire.

The Weekly Sedra – Haazinu

This coming Shabbat is called Shabbat Tshuva the ‘Sabbath of Return’ and is a preparation for Yom Kippur, the ‘Day of Forgiveness’.

And the Torah portion read this Shabbat contains a fitting message. It is the song “Ha’azinu” dictated by G-d through Moses warning the Jewish people that abandoning the ways of the Torah will bring misfortune and tragedy.

Its purpose is that when the Jews see how G-d predicted their follies and resultant calamities and nevertheless declares He will always love them, they will return to their true identities as His Chosen People.

The perfect message for the Shabbat of Return.

Rosh Hashana: Coronation Night

Two elderly Jews who hadn’t seen each other in 50 years, met, slowly recognized one another and embraced. They went back to the apartment of one of them to talk about the days long ago.

The conversation went for hours. Night fell. One asked the other, “Look at your watch. What time is it?”

“I don’t have a watch,” said the second.

“Then look at the clock.”

“I don’t have a clock.”

“Then how do you tell the time?”

“You see that trumpet in the corner?” asked the second. “That’s how I tell the time.”

“You’re crazy,” said the first. “How can you tell the time with a trumpet?”

The second one picked up the trumpet, opened the window and blew a deafening blast. Thirty seconds later an angry neighbor shouted, “Two thirty in the morning, and you’re playing the trumpet?” The man turned to his friend and said, “You see? That’s how you tell the time with a trumpet!”

Rosh Hashana: A Sacred Marriage… VIOLATED

Overwhelmed with emotion, I lightly sway back and forth. I bring the siddur close to my face, breathing in the worn pages of the machzor. My lids are drawn closed by tears welling in the corners of my eyes. The day has finally come.

I stand before my G-d with both awe and the sinking feeling of a minute puzzle piece in the impressive puzzle of a Master. I take full stock of what I am. A TRAITOR.

I am a wicked, selfish traitor. I do not deserve this wonderful husband of mine. Time and again I have displeased him, caused Him pain and grief.

Our marriage is sacred. One no one can break. Yet, I have managed to violate that which I hold dearest and most holy. My marriage to G-d.

Rosh Hashana: The Drunken Prayer of A Sober Woman

In loving memory of my dear aunt, Esther (bas Batya) Twersky, whose beautiful soul ascended the heavens two years ago on her birthday, Rosh Hashanah.

A man was heading out of the synagogue one day, and as always the rabbi was standing at the door shaking hands as the congregation departed. The rabbi grabbed the man by the hand, pulled him aside and said “You need to join the Army of G-d!” The man said, “I’m already in the Army of G-d, Rabbi.” The Rabbi questioned, “How come I don’t see you except for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?” The man whispered back, “I’m in the secret service.”

In the Haftorah reading of Rosh Hashanah, we recite a most interesting incident recorded in the Prophets[i] about Hannah’s prayer to G-d on Rosh Hashanah[ii]:

The Weekly D’Var Torah – Rosh Hashanah

Rosh HaShanna is the first and most important holiday of the year; it commemorates the exact date that G-d put the finishing touch on the world by creating man.

The main ‘Mitzvah’ of this day, the first of the year and perhaps the most important commandment in Judaism is sounding the Shofar.

Besides the fact that the Shofar announces that Judaism is the only religion that celebrates and sanctifies the creation of the world, it also commemorates and reminds us of the reason that man was created; namely to be partners with G-d in maintaining and improving the entire creation…. by doing His commandments!

The Weekly Sedra – Nitzavim-Vayelech

This Shabbat is a preparation for Rosh HaShanna.

Nitzavim –Vayelech means ‘Standing firm and Moving” which is very symbolic of Rosh HaShanna when we are all standing firmly before G-d; certain that He our king and our father and will bless us with a good new year, and also moving spiritually upward and forward into more genuine levels of service.

But we see something strange here. In this week’s portion G-d promises that the Jews will become idolaters!

He says to Moses (31:15) Behold….this people will stray after the gods of the land….and they will leave me and transgress my covenant. And Moses (31:29) repeats it, ‘I know that after my death your will surely sin and turn from the path etc’ . In fact, this is the reason he writes the coming Torah section called HaAzinu; to stem the idolatry.

The Weekly Sedra – Ki Tavo

This week’s section always falls in the month of Elul, the month of mercy.

Even the initials of this month show how good G-d is: Alef Lamed Vav Lamed stands for “I am to my beloved (G-d) and my beloved is to me (Song of Songs 6:3). G-d loves us!

Not only that but in this week’s section ‘Joy’ is stressed not once but twice – once in the beginning ”You should rejoice with all the good that G-d has given (26:11) and later in the middle “Serve G-d with Joy and a good heart from great abundance” (28:47).

This is the preparation month for the days of ‘Repentance and Awe’ Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur’; namely when we see and feel how much G-d loves us and wants to forgive us. It encourages to return to Him.

The Weekly Sedra – Ki Teitzei

This week’s section begins with the bizarre law of the ‘beautiful (gentile) woman’:

“When you go to war on your enemies and G-d will put it in your hand and you will take prisoners. And you see a beautiful woman and you take her for a wife etc.”

This is very hard to understand.

First of all, how can the Torah allow a Jewish soldier to take a gentile wife just because she is beautiful?

Even more; the only soldiers allowed to fight were those that had no sins and were completely righteous. Why would they even want to do such a thing?!

Thirteen Attributes of Mercy – An Elul Anthology

“Though summer still lingered and the day was bright and sunny, there was a change in the air. One smelled already the Elul-scent; a teshuvah-wind was blowing. Everyone grew more serious, more thoughtful… All awaited the call of the shofar, the first blast that would announce the opening of the gates of the month of mercy….”

So describes the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1920), the onset of the month of Elul in the town of Lubavitch. A month of trepidation on account of the approaching “Days of Awe” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; but also a gentle month, softened by the reconciliatory prophesies of the “Seven of Consolation” read during this time and the vibes of divine compassion that linger from the time that Moses spent the whole of Elul on the summit of Mount Sinai procuring G-d’s wholehearted forgiveness for Israel’s first sin.

The Weekly Sedra – Re’eh

In this week’s Torah portion we find a clear hint at Jerusalem “And it shall be that the place in which G-d your G-d will choose to make is name abide. Bring your offerings etc.” (Deut 12:11).

Jerusalem is central and essential to Judaism. Not only was it the home for the first two Holy Temples and the direction to which every Jew in the world must face when praying today but it is there that Moshiach will rebuild the third Temple and gather the Jews.

So why isn’t it mentioned explicitly in the Torah? Why only as “The place that G-d chooses”?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe (Likuti Sichot Vol. 2 pp 617-6 19) asks this question and answers it from ‘Sefer HaChaim’ a book written by the brother of the famous Mahaha”l of Prague (1520-1609) as follows:

Chof Av: Yartzeit of R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, (1878-1944), was a Chabad Hasidic rabbi in Yekatrinoslav, Ukraine. He was the father of the seventh and last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was born in 1878 in the town of Podrovnah (near Gomel) to his parents, Rabbi Baruch Schneur and Rebbetzin Zelda Rachel Schneerson. His great-great grandfather was the third Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn of Lubavitch.

In 1900, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak married Rebbetzin Chana Yanovski, whose father, Rabbi Meir Shlomo, was the Rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Nikolaiev. In 1902, their eldest son, Menachem Mendel was born. He was later to become the Rebbe of Lubavitch.

The Weekly Sedra – Eikev

This week’s section contains one of the most important paragraphs in the Torah. We are commanded to say it twice daily, and it is written in every Mezuza and every pair of Tefillin:

“If you do what I want; to love G-d and serve Him with all your heart and soul, then I will give the rain when you need it and you will gather up your grain, wine and oil and your animals will have grasses etc. (11:13)”

It is the second paragraph of the three-paragraph “MOTTO” of Judaism; “Shema Yisroel.”

But seemingly it poses a few problems:

Firstly: Isn’t it a bit disappointing that all the Torah promises for serving G-d with all your heart and soul, is grain, wine and oil?! Why not something a little more exciting like everlasting bliss or salvation?

The Weekly Sedra – Va’etchanan

This week’s Torah portion contains twelve commandments, among them: 1) Not to desire the possessions of others; 2) To unify G-d and know He is One; 3) To love G-d; 4) To learn and teach Torah; 5) To say the “ Shema Yisroel” prayer twice daily; 6) To put tefillin on the arm and 7) on the head; and 8) To affix mezuzot on all of one’s doors.

At first glance, all these commandments are understandable . . . except the one about loving G-d.

How is it possible to command us to love anything? For instance, if a person doesn’t like peanut butter or classical music, then all the commands in the world won’t make it click for him. He can pretend to love . . . like a movie actor or a con-artist does . . . but not really love.

Especially when the command is to love an intangible, infinite G-d!

The Ninth of Av – Tisha B’Av – Laws and Customs

The Fast begins at 8:06pm and Ends tommrow [Thursday] at 8:48pm [Times are for the Brooklyn Area.]

In a Nutshell

Mourning the destruction of the Temple and the exile of Israel, we abstain from eating and drinking, bathing, the wearing of leather footwear, and marital relations — for the night and day of Av 9 (this year, from sundown on August 2 to nightfall August 3, 2006). It is customary to sit on the floor or on a low seat until after mid-day. Torah study is restricted to laws of mourning, passages describing the destruction of the Temple, and the like. The tefillin are worn only during the afternoon Minchah prayers. Consult a Halachic authority for more specific guidance in observance of this day or read on for the laws in detail.

More in the Extended Article.