This Shabbat:

Friday Candle Lighting: 4:30 pm
Shabbat Ends: 5:17 pm

Torah Message:

Waiting for G-dot

“These are the generations of Yitzchak ben Avraham; Avraham gave birth to Yitzchak.” (25:19)

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch remarks that the universal sign if you want someone to be quiet, if you want them to listen, is to raise your finger to your lips and say “Shh!” The sound of air flowing over lips is the universal sign to be still. The English word “hush” is connected with this sound. The same sound appears in the name of the month we are in — Cheshvan. The root of the word Cheshvan is chash,which in Hebrew means quiet.

The very name of the month commands us to be still, to be quiet and reflect.

If you look at the prayers of Rosh Hashana, the overwhelming theme is that exile of the G-d’s majesty. It’s true that we also speak about teshuva and mending our ways — but time and time again we pray for the day when the whole world will recognize that the G-d of Yisrael is the “The King”.

All of the anti-Semitism of the world, whether the BDS of the cultured glitteratus knocking another brick from the wall of Jewish security, or the bloodied kitchen knife of a fanatic slaughtering a family in their Shabbat peace, or a truck driven down a cycling path mowing down the young and innocent — all of this, at its root, is a denial of the G-d of Israel.

The reflection of the month of Cheshvan requires us to think: After praying so hard over the great High Holy Days, how much do our lives reflect that yearning for the coming of Mashiach and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of G-d?

For surely it is at hand.

The last verse of last week’s Torah portion says, “These were the years of Yishmael’s life… over all his brothers he dwelled.” This week’s portion begins, “These are the generations of Yitzchak ben Avraham; Avraham gave birth to Yitzchak.”

When Yishmael ceases to dwell over all his brothers, when the petro-dollars have dried up, then the sun of Mashiach ben David, the scion of Avraham, will rise.

May it be speedily in our days!

• Source: Based on the Ba’al HaTurim