Vayeshev- November 26, 2021
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:27 PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:25 PM
Torah Message:
Yaakov settles in the land of Canaan. His favorite son, Yosef, brings him critical reports about his brothers. Yaakov makes Yosef a fine tunic of multi-colored woolen strips. Yosef exacerbates his brothers’ hatred by recounting prophetic dreams of sheaves of wheat bowing to his sheaf, and of the sun, moon and stars bowing to him, signifying that all his family will appoint him king. The brothers indict Yosef and resolve to execute him. When Yosef comes to Shechem, the brothers relent and decide, at Reuven’s instigation, to throw him into a pit instead. Reuven’s intent was to save Yosef. Yehuda persuades the brothers to take Yosef out of the pit and sell him to a caravan of passing Ishmaelites. Reuven returns to find the pit empty and rends his clothes. The brothers soak Yosef’s tunic in goat’s blood and show it to Yaakov, who assumes that Yosef has been devoured by a wild beast. Yaakov is inconsolable. Meanwhile, in Egypt, Yosef has been sold to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s Chamberlain of the Butchers.
In the Parsha’s sub-plot, Yehuda’s son Er dies as punishment for preventing his wife Tamar from becoming pregnant. Onan, Yehuda’s second son, then weds Tamar by levirate marriage. He too is punished in similar circumstances. When Yehuda’s wife dies, Tamar resolves to have children through Yehuda, as this union will found the Davidic line culminating in the Mashiach.
Meanwhile, Yosef rises to power in the house of his Egyptian master. His extreme beauty attracts the unwanted advances of his master’s wife. Enraged by his rejection, she accuses Yosef of attempting to seduce her, and he is imprisoned. In prison, Yosef successfully predicts the outcome of the dream of Pharaoh’s wine steward, who is reinstated, and the dream of Pharaoh’s baker, who is hanged. In spite of his promise, the wine steward forgets to help Yosef, and Yosef languishes in prison.
Vayishlach- December 4th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:26 PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:25 PM
Torah Message:
Air Thin
“And Yaakov sent angels before him to Esav, his brother.”
Seeing is believing, but there is far more to see in this world than meets the human eye. Take the air that surrounds you, for example. The air seems empty enough, but take a not-so-powerful microscope and you’ll be amazed at how the emptiness of the air teems with all manner of minute particles.
And if you could go further than that, beyond the microscopic, if you’d go beyond the limits of human vision itself, you’d be even more amazed and possibly more than a little frightened.
The fact is that we are all surrounded by myriad incorporeal spiritual beings. Some of these beings are benevolent and others, well, let’s just say, they’re less than benevolent.
“And Yaakov sent angels before him to Esav, his brother.”
Why does the Torah include the phrase “before him”? Ostensibly, the sentence could have equally well been, “And Yaakov sent angels to Esav, his brother.”
The Mishna (Avot, Chapter 4) tells us that if we do even one mitzvah, we acquire for ourselves a defending angel, and if we do one transgression we acquire a prosecuting angel. The mitzvah itself creates that spiritual entity (so inadequately translated into English by the word “angel”). Every mitzvah literally begets a holy angel.
As in the world beneath, so too it is in the world above.
A defense lawyer will do everything he can to show off his client in a good light, and, similarly, the angel born of a mitzvah pleads for his “client” before G-d’s throne in the Heavenly Realms. This angel tries his hardest to advance his client’s welfare, not only spiritually but materially too. This angel is really more like a son pleading on behalf of his father, for, like a son, he was created by his “father.”
Rabbi Yosef Karo, the Beit Yosef and author of the Shulchan Aruch, the standard compendium of Jewish law, would regularly learn the entire six orders of the Mishna by heart. It is well known that, as a result of this prodigious achievement, an angel would come and learn Torah with him. The book “Magid Meisharim” (lit. The Speaker of Straight Things) details what the angel taught him, and more. This book is still readily available to this day.
The Shelah Hakadosh in his commentary on Tractate Shavuot recounts an amazing story. One Shavuot, he and nine other Torah sages stayed up all night on both nights of Shavuot and they witnessed how the angel spoke with the Beit Yosef. It started speaking as follows: “I am the Mishna speaking in your throat.”
The name of that angel was “Mishna,” since that was the mitzvah that gave it life.
At the end of this lengthy testimony, all ten Sages, including Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz (the composer of the famous Shabbat song Lecha Dodi that is sung in synagogues every Friday night the world over) signed an authentication of what they had seen and heard.
“And Yaakov sent angels before him to Esav, his brother”
Yaakov didn’t want to employ the services of those angels who stand before G-d’s throne. He sent only angels that were the offspring of his good deeds, the ones that were “before him.”
- Source: Lev Eliyahu
Vayeitzei- November 27th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:27 PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:25 PM
Torah Message:
Believing in Our Abilities
One of the best predictors of whether I will attain a goal or not is if I believe that my actions can bring about the desired results. Believing in my ability to accomplish something specific will help generate a goal, boost motivation, and increase the likelihood of success.
This power of believing in our own abilities was first formulated in the psychological literature by Albert Bandura and is referred to as self-efficacy. Bandura understood self-efficacy to be domain specific, meaning that we have different beliefs in our abilities, depending on the type of ability in discussion. I may have high self-efficacy for writing but low self-efficacy for calculus. Later researchers suggested that there can also be a general self-efficacy that is not domain specific. This means that I can have a general belief in my ability to accomplish tasks and overcome barriers, regardless of what type of task it may be.
As Yaakov makes his way to Charan he dreams of angels ascending and descending to the heavens. This vision proves impactful as he comes to the realization that God was present in that place (“Surely God is present in this place” Genesis, 28:16), a fact that until this point, he was apparently unaware (“and I did not know.”) Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli, perhaps bothered by the assumption that Yaakov wouldn’t have realized the presence of God before the dream, rereads this verse with a message related to self-efficacy. To fully understand the point, we first need some background.
In his vision of the throne of God, Yechezkel (10:14) describes seeing four faces; a cherub, a lion, an eagle, and a human. The Talmud (Chullin 91b) elaborates on Yaakov’s dream and suggests that the angels were going up and down, looking at the picture of the human’s face by the throne and comparing it to Yaakov’s face. Seeing the resemblance, they became jealous of his presence on the throne and wanted to harm him, so God had to protect Yaakov.
Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli suggests that Yaakov was previously aware that there were creatures that could reach elevated spiritual heights. He knew that the cherub, lion, and eagle had their place by the throne of God, but he was not aware that his image was there as well. It wasn’t until the dream, where he saw the angels comparing the image on the throne with his face that he realized his true potential.
In a brilliantly creative rereading of the verse, Rabbi Shimshon suggests that alluded to in Yaakov’s word choice is the discovery of self-efficacy. Yaakov already knew the spiritual potential of “achein – surely,” in Hebrew spelled Aleph – Chof – Nun, representing the lion (aryeh, which begins with an aleph), cherub (which begins with a chof), and an eagle (nesher, which begins with a nun). Yet, until this dream, he was unaware of the spiritual potential of anochi, literally myself, and spelled aleph – nun – chof – yud, representing, the three from “achein” with the addition of the yud for Yaakov.
This new-found self-efficacy was not domain specific. It was not just limited to spiritual pursuits. Yaakov’s new attitude pervaded all his interactions, as is clear from the very next episode regarding the shepherds by the well. In a powerful sermon (“The Stone on the Well – Boulder or Pebble?”), Rabbi Norman Lamm contrasts the attitude of the shepherds with that of Yaakov. When Yaakov asks the shepherds why they aren’t working, they respond that there is a giant stone covering the well and until more people come to help push it off, “lo nuchal” – they just can’t do it. They don’t believe in their ability, so they don’t even try. Yaakov, believing in his ability to accomplish, walks over to the stone, tries, and succeeds in removing it from the well. He believes in his ability to effect change, puts in the effort and succeeds.
How many areas of life – spiritual or otherwise – do we write-off as being too hard or not within our abilities? Perhaps if we learn this lesson from Yaakov, we can work on boosting our self-efficacy by realizing our potential, putting in the effort and increasing our chances of success and accomplishment.
Toldot- November 20th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:29 PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:26 PM
Torah Message:
A Lover of the Land
“And these are the offspring of Yitzchak son of Avraham: Avraham begot Yitzchak…” (25:19)
It is difficult to speak of someone as great as Rabbi Mendel Weinbach zt”l. Together with his life-long partner Rabbi Nota Schiller (lblch”t), Rabbi Weinbach created an institution that brought thousands of Jews back to Torah. I had the privilege to work for him for more than twenty years and I would like to highlight just one of his many talents. Ohr Somayach has been the gold standard in Jewish education. One of the reasons for this has been the tremendous diversity in the faculty, from world-class talmidei chachamim and leaders of their generation in Jewish thought to professors of philosophy and linguistics and media and communication experts.
To take such a diverse mix of talented people and keep them performing as a team is no mean feat. Rabbi Weinbach knew how to get the best out of everyone. And I think one of the reasons was his humility and his self-confidence. Many bosses follow the principle of divide-and-rule. This betrays insecurity. Rabbi Weinbach was always happy that someone could do something better than him. As my father a”h used to say, “You don’t buy a dog and bark yourself.” If you’re hiring the “dream team”— let them excel!
Rabbi Weinbach once published a book (among his many) on the mitzvah to love Eretz Yisrael. It was a combination of sayings from our Sages about places in the Land of Israel, together with photographs of those places. The writing was Rabbi Weinbach’s, but the photographs were from stock sources. At the time, I was working on a black-and-white art photography book with many photographs of Eretz Yisrael. When he showed me the book, I was disappointed by the stock color photographs. Some were a bit fuzzy. Not being the most diplomatic of people, I impertinently pointed this out to him. He just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t insulted or hurt in the least.
“And these are the offspring of Yitzchak son of Avraham: Avraham begot Yitzchak…”
Why does the Torah repeat that “Avraham begot Yitzchak” if it already wrote “Yitzchak son of Avraham?”
The primary characteristic of Avraham was kindness, and that of Yitzchak was strength. The emphasis in the verse here is to teach us that kindness and strength must always go hand in hand. Kindness without strength can lead to indulgence and excess. Strength without kindness can lead to intolerance and insensitivity. Happy were those who worked for someone who combined those two qualities with a smile that seemed etched in his face! The eighth yahrzeit of Rabbi Chona Menachem Mendel Weinbach zt”l will be on the 27th of Kislev.
Chayei Sarah- November 13th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:33 PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:29 PM
Torah Message:
Practice Makes Perfect
“Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years…” (23:1)
Apparently, it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice to master an artisanal skill. That’s a serous amount of time, and sometimes before you clock up those 10,000 hours, you may be tempted to think that you’ve got it down. I well remember putting a lot less than 10 hours into learning Chuck Berry’s classic intro to Johnny B. Goode, in a pastiche version I wrote called “Yankie Levine” for the Ohr Somayach Simchat Beit HaShoeva the year before last (when masks where something that only surgeons wore).
Despite what I considered to be adequate practice, on the performance night I found that my fingers had not yet learned the notes that my brain thought they had, and under the pressure of performance, well, let’s say, Chuck was rockin’ and a’rolling in his grave.
On the other hand (l’havdil), this Rosh Hashana I got up to daven Pesukei d’Zimra in Ohr Somayach, (my privilege for more years that I can remember). I was feeling a little ‘under-the-weather,’ nothing terrible, but suffering from yet-undiagnosed COVID-19. Nevertheless, I got ‘up to bat,’ and thanks to Rabbi Mordechai Perlman’s relentless drumming the nusach into my head (and years of practice), I adequately completed my task.
Rav Shlomo Wolbe once remarked that being a Jew means being “a professional human being”. To be professional at anything — especially being a human being — takes a lifetime of dedicated practice.
“Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years…”
Why didn’t the Torah just write, “Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred and twenty-seven years”? Sarah never stopped growing. She never stopped practicing to be a professional human being — not at seven years, not at twenty, not at a hundred and not even on the day she left the world. That is what made her the mother of the Jewish People.
Vayera- November 6th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 4:38PM
Shabbat Ends: 5:34 PM
Torah Message:
Last in Line
Something that always amazes me when I travel by plane is how competitive people are to get to the front of the line, whether it’s for the security check, check-in, passport control or boarding. Human nature wants to be “the first.” And even in these days of limited air travel and much shorter lines, people still want to be first in those short lines. When flying out of Tel Aviv the other day, I pointed this out to my wife and asked, “We’re all going to get on the same metal tube and leave at the same time, so what does it matter who goes first?” “Well,” she said, “they’ll have more time for shopping.” I said, “But the shops are all closed in the airport.” So she said, “Even so, people want to just get through and sit down.”
During the prayers of the Yamim Noraim — the Days of Awe — we pray to Hashem to put an end to competitiveness. Were it not for competiveness, a person would be happy to live modestly, dress modestly and behave modestly. But, because we cannot bear the thought of someone being more than us, our lives become dedicated to out-doing our neighbors.
The difference between Capitalism and Communism is the kind of competitiveness their systems produce. The Communist says, “Your car is bigger than mine. I’m going to make sure you don’t have a car at all!” The Capitalist says, “Your car is bigger than mine. I’m going to make sure that I have a car so big that I can put your car in my trunk and give you a ride!”
Arguably, the beginning of the Communist approach to competiveness was in Sodom. The evil of Sodom and Amora was that they usurped a trait of Hashem. The deeper sources teach that their society was based totally on the characteristic of din — strict justice. The trait of din says, “You get what you deserve, no less, and certainly no more.” In such a society there is no room for chessed, kindness, because we often receive chessed even when we do not necessarily deserve it. Chessed is “for those who are good and for those who are evil.” When Hashem judges us with din, it is always to fulfill the purpose that His chessed should be of the best kind.
But, if competitiveness is part of human nature, it must have a positive application. The Mesillas Yesharim describes three levels of spiritual motivation. The second level is that we cannot bear the thought of getting to the next world and seeing our friend in a “better seat.” The third level is that we cannot bear the thought that when we get to the next world we will see someone in a “better seat” and think to ourselves, “That could have been my seat!” It is not that we are jealous, that we want our fellow not to have that seat. It is just that we know that had we tried harder and been more competitive in the things that really matter, we could have the front row in the stalls of the World to Come. And that’s significantly more painful than having to join the line at the back of the line at the airport.
Lech Lecha- October 30th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:44 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:39 PM
Torah Message:
Nothing Is More Serious Than Humor
“Go for yourself… (lit. Go to yourself)” (12:1)
Around twenty-five years ago, I remember sitting in the dining room of Ohr Somayach at a Sheva Berachot (post-wedding celebration). One of the Rabbis there was noted for his seriousness, self-control and gravitas. He sat, his hooded eyes fixed on a small Gemara held by his slender fingers. As soon as the bride and groom entered, he set his Gemara down, stood up and took a small vase with a flower in it that was on the table in front of him. He then proceeded to climb onto the table, place the vase on his head, and dance on the table with the vase perched precariously on his head. The bride and groom were beside themselves with laughter. After the singing and dancing to welcome the bride and groom had died down and everyone returned to their seats, I noticed that the Rabbi had gone back to his learning as though nothing had happened. Every time I saw him, he would do the same thing. It was fascinating to watch this instant metamorphosis. I have never managed to work out if he is a deeply serious person who could turn on the merriment at the turn of a mental switch, or a deeply humorous person who held his humor in check with his self-control.
The Gemara in Ketuvot (17a) recounts that Rav Yehuda bar Ilai would take a branch of myrtle and dance before the bride. Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yitzchak would dance while juggling three branches. Rabbi Zeira complained to Rav Shmuel and said, “The elder is embarrassing us.” But when Rav Shmuel passed away, a pillar of fire separated him from everyone else, and there was a tradition that this happened only for one or two people in each generation. The question arises: Why didn’t a pillar of fire separate Rav Yehuda bar Ilai from everyone else when he passed from the world? It cannot be because he only used one myrtle and not three. The Eitz Yosef explains that, whereas Rav Yehuda would dance in front of a bride, it wasn’t part of his habitual behavior. He would do it only on occasion. Rav Shmuel, however, never failed to do this.
There are times when we can slip and fall very far, and there are times when we can reach for the stars — but what we normally do is who we really are.
Noach- October 23rd, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:51 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:46 PM
Torah Message:
Noach – Human vs. Humanoid
“May G-d extend Yafet, but He will dwell in tents of Shem…” (9:27)
In a recent Hollywood gangster movie charting the life of hitman Frank Sheehan and labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa, rather than employ younger actors to portray the two characters as younger men, Hollywood used the latest ‘de-aging’ technology, and two well-known Italian-American films stars — one 76 and the other 79 — shed 40 years electronically. To de-age actors, a visual effects team creates a computer-generated, younger version of an actor’s face and then replaces the actor’s real face with the synthetic, animated version. Moshe Mahler, who worked for Disney Research for many years, writes that audiences are much more sensitive to distortions in computer-generated faces than to even larger, seemingly more obvious distortions that are present on the body. His research showed that viewers often experience an uncomfortable feeling when they see computer-generated faces that “aren’t quite right.”
Robotics professor Masahiro Mori hypothesized that as a humanoid becomes more lifelike, an audience’s “familiarity” toward it increases, until a point where the humanoid is almost lifelike, but not perfectly lifelike. At this point, subtle imperfections lead to responses of repulsion or rejection. The effect is stronger if the humanoid is moving.
If today’s technology allows actors to shed years, we can probably expect that future technology will allow them to win posthumous Oscars for performances constructed on a computer decades after they have returned to the ground.
“May G-d extend Yafet, but he will dwell in tents of Shem…” Yafet is the father of Yavan, and Yavan translates into English as Greece. The Greeks are the inventors of the drama — the father of the film. Interestingly, there are several stories in Greek literature concerning immortality.
Shem is the ancestor of the Jewish People, who have always proclaimed that immortality is not to be found in works of art or works of computers, but in connecting to the Source of all. Because every mitzvah allows a Jew to turn the present into the future — before it becomes the past.
Noach- October 16th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 5:59 PM
Shabbat Ends: 6:54 PM
Torah Message:
Noach – Human vs. Humanoid
“May G-d extend Yafet, but He will dwell in tents of Shem…” (9:27)
In a recent Hollywood gangster movie charting the life of hitman Frank Sheehan and labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa, rather than employ younger actors to portray the two characters as younger men, Hollywood used the latest ‘de-aging’ technology, and two well-known Italian-American films stars — one 76 and the other 79 — shed 40 years electronically. To de-age actors, a visual effects team creates a computer-generated, younger version of an actor’s face and then replaces the actor’s real face with the synthetic, animated version. Moshe Mahler, who worked for Disney Research for many years, writes that audiences are much more sensitive to distortions in computer-generated faces than to even larger, seemingly more obvious distortions that are present on the body. His research showed that viewers often experience an uncomfortable feeling when they see computer-generated faces that “aren’t quite right.”
Robotics professor Masahiro Mori hypothesized that as a humanoid becomes more lifelike, an audience’s “familiarity” toward it increases, until a point where the humanoid is almost lifelike, but not perfectly lifelike. At this point, subtle imperfections lead to responses of repulsion or rejection. The effect is stronger if the humanoid is moving.
If today’s technology allows actors to shed years, we can probably expect that future technology will allow them to win posthumous Oscars for performances constructed on a computer decades after they have returned to the ground.
“May G-d extend Yafet, but he will dwell in tents of Shem…” Yafet is the father of Yavan, and Yavan translates into English as Greece. The Greeks are the inventors of the drama — the father of the film. Interestingly, there are several stories in Greek literature concerning immortality.
Shem is the ancestor of the Jewish People, who have always proclaimed that immortality is not to be found in works of art or works of computers, but in connecting to the Source of all. Because every mitzvah allows a Jew to turn the present into the future — before it becomes the past.
Shemini Atzeret- October 9th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 6:08 PM
Shabbat Ends: 7:01 PM
Torah Message:
Noach – Human vs. Humanoid
“May G-d extend Yafet, but He will dwell in tents of Shem…” (9:27)
In a recent Hollywood gangster movie charting the life of hitman Frank Sheehan and labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa, rather than employ younger actors to portray the two characters as younger men, Hollywood used the latest ‘de-aging’ technology, and two well-known Italian-American films stars — one 76 and the other 79 — shed 40 years electronically. To de-age actors, a visual effects team creates a computer-generated, younger version of an actor’s face and then replaces the actor’s real face with the synthetic, animated version. Moshe Mahler, who worked for Disney Research for many years, writes that audiences are much more sensitive to distortions in computer-generated faces than to even larger, seemingly more obvious distortions that are present on the body. His research showed that viewers often experience an uncomfortable feeling when they see computer-generated faces that “aren’t quite right.”
Robotics professor Masahiro Mori hypothesized that as a humanoid becomes more lifelike, an audience’s “familiarity” toward it increases, until a point where the humanoid is almost lifelike, but not perfectly lifelike. At this point, subtle imperfections lead to responses of repulsion or rejection. The effect is stronger if the humanoid is moving.
If today’s technology allows actors to shed years, we can probably expect that future technology will allow them to win posthumous Oscars for performances constructed on a computer decades after they have returned to the ground.
“May G-d extend Yafet, but he will dwell in tents of Shem…” Yafet is the father of Yavan, and Yavan translates into English as Greece. The Greeks are the inventors of the drama — the father of the film. Interestingly, there are several stories in Greek literature concerning immortality.
Shem is the ancestor of the Jewish People, who have always proclaimed that immortality is not to be found in works of art or works of computers, but in connecting to the Source of all. Because every mitzvah allows a Jew to turn the present into the future — before it becomes the past.