Chabad.org on Shabbos Bereishit

The Shabbat after Simchat Torah is Shabbat Bereishit — “Shabbat of Beginning” — the first Shabbat of the annual Torah reading cycle, on which the Torah section of Bereishit (“In the Beginning”) is read.

The weekly Torah reading is what defines the Jewish week, serving as the guide and point of reference for the week’s events, deeds and decisions; Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi called this “living with the times.” Hence the theme and tone of this week is one of beginning and renewal, as we launch into yet another cycle of Torah life. The Rebbes of Chabad would say: “As one establishes oneself on Shabbat Bereishit, so goes the rest of the year.”

The Weekly Sedra – Succot

The holiday of Succot is the only holiday in Judaism that doesn’t celebrate a particular historical date.

Even Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur commemorate the dates Adam was created and when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies.

Rather Succot commemorates G-d’s constant protection of the Jews with ‘clouds of glory’ all the forty years they wandered in the desert. Something we must remember each time we sit in the Succa.

But surprisingly, in our prayers make no mention of this! Rather Succot is called ‘Zman Simchatenu” The holiday of Joy.

What have we got to be happy about on this holiday in particular?

The Weekly Sedra – Haazinu

This Shabbat is the happiest of the year. It is the one that prepares us for Succot “The Holiday of our Joy”.

Not only that, but this week’s portion is the ‘song’ of Haazinu designed to inspire Jews in all generations to serve G-d.

But anyone who reads the words of Haazinu probably won’t be very happy. Most of it is telling the Jews off for the sins they will do and justifying the resultant tragedies that will befall them.

There are just a few sentences in the end that hint at a future redemption.

What is this telling us?

The Weekly Sedra – Vayelech

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Tshuva (Sabbath of Repentance) because it is one of the “Ten days of Repentance” from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur.

But really the term “Tshuva” implies much more than just repentance.

Here is a story that I hope helps to explain this, and also its connection to Parshat VaYailech.

Rabbi Mendel Futerfass was a very active Chassid (follower) of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, in the most oppressive years of Stalin’s regime. Years earlier, Stalin had declared war on all “counter-revolutionary forces” in Russia, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his Chassidim, who secretly encouraged and spread Judaism, were considered public enemy number one.

The Weekly Sedra – Nitzavim

Try to remember the first time you ever heard the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah? There are millions of Jews throughout the world that cannot. They never heard the Shofar in their lives. In fact they do not know that they are Jewish … or they simply don’t care. But the Baal Shem Tov taught in a parable that every Jew, without exception, feels the same strange awakening when he hears the Shofar, (he just has to know that it is something Jewish).

Here is the Baal Shem’s parable: Once there was a great king that had a mischievous ten-year-old son. The young price had requested from his father several times to let him play with the town children outside of the castle wall but his father refused each time saying, ‘Soon you will be King, and a King must be different’. But eventually the son decided that he was bored and he planned an escape.