Sukkot- October 2nd, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 6:18 PM
Shabbat Ends: 7:10 PM
Torah Message:
Bereishet – The Sweetest Thing
“And G-d said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” (1:26)
Here’s a thought for when you “dip the apple in the honey.” Apparently, a honey-bee’s life is around forty days long. In that brief span, it collects pollen sufficient for but one teaspoon of honey. At no point in that honey-bee’s life does it think of the tremendous effort expended for such a limited outcome. Like everything in Hashem’s world, the bee does its work because, on its level of understanding, that is its purpose, that’s what it’s here for. The sun doesn’t think about shining, the ocean waves do not think about their crashing assault on the beach and the trapdoor spider has no regrets as it sets its lure to seduce its unwary prey.
Everything is this creation does the bidding of its Creator without a second thought. With one exception — Man. Man is the only creation capable of rebellion. Man is the only creature with choice — “in Our image,” like Hashem, so to speak. Maybe that’s one of the ways we can understand the dictum of our Sages that a person should say to himself, “The world was created for me.” (Sanhedrin 37a) At every second of my life I have the ability to validate this creation of the world by choosing to serve my Creator with no less commitment than a honey bee.
Netzavim/Vayelech- September 11th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 6:47 PM
Shabbat Ends: 7:41 PM
Torah Message:
Let It Go!
“You are standing…” (29:9)
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that one of the great things about having been part of Ohr Somayach for more around three decades is that I have met some people who are clearly living on a different level to the rest of us mere mortals. One of these great souls distilled the essence of one’s relationship with one’s fellow into three principles: His first principle is, “I was created to serve others, and no one was created to serve me.”
The second is, “I wouldn’t do it to you. But if you do it to me – it’s okay.” This doesn’t mean that a person should be a doormat and invite the world to trample on him, but post facto – if you did something to me that I could really take you to court for and get back at you — and I give up on that — I get forgiven for all my sins.
The source for this is the Gemara that says, “Anyone who ‘passes over on his character traits,’ meaning one who resists the knee-jerk reaction that many have to resent and want revenge — and just lets it go – so, concomitantly, Hashem lets go on all our sins.
It’s true that this level of saintliness is beyond the letter of the law, but it sure sounds like a good deal to me. All of my sins? Another source for this idea is the Tomer Devorah, which says that even though we constantly flout the Will of Hashem and use our G-d-given abilities to go against His Will, nevertheless, He constantly continues to give us the power to continue to do this and doesn’t “hold a grudge.”
During this week, before Hashem opens the Books of Judgment, I can think of no better exercise than to think of someone who has wronged us — and remove all resentment from our hearts. And with that we may approach the Heavenly Throne.
Ki Tavo- September 4th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 6:56 PM
Shabbat Ends: 7:51 PM
Torah Message:
Expressing Thanks
“You will come to whoever is the kohen in those days and you will say to him…” (26:3)
A blisteringly hot Wednesday.
Suddenly there’s a power outage. A visit from the electrician reveals the worst: “It’s the compressor in your A/C. You need a new one. Trouble is, the manufacturer can only get it here next Tuesday.”
“But what are we going to do on Shabbat?”
“Does your Shabbat table fit in the fridge? Listen, I think I can get you a new compressor before Shabbat. I’ll do my best.”
“You’re a tzaddik!”
And sure enough, by Thursday lunchtime the new compressor is in place and the house returns to its regular cool temperature.
On Friday afternoon the electrician’s phone rings. He notes the caller ID — it’s the people with the new compressor.
“Trouble,” he thinks to himself as he answers the phone.
“We just wanted to call you and thank you so much for fixing our air conditioner. You’ve really made our Shabbat. Thank you so much! Shabbat Shalom!”
Gratitude should never remain implicit. It should be expressed.
In this week’s portion, the Torah instructs us to give bikkurim — the first fruits — to the kohen. However, it’s not enough just to give them.
“You will come to whoever is the kohen in those days and you shall say to him.…” Rashi comments on the phrase “and you shall say to him” — “because you are not an ingrate.” In other words, what prevents a person from being an ingrate is the verbalization of his gratitude. Anything less is considered lacking.
Ki Teitzei- August 28th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 7:06 PM
Shabbat Ends: 8:01 PM
Torah Message:
Freedom of Kosher Speech
“Remember what the L-rd, your G-d, did to Miriam on the way, when you were leaving Egypt.” (24:9)
When Miriam criticized her brother Moshe unfairly, Hashem punished her with tzara’at, a serious leprous-like skin affliction that covered her body.
The Torah, for some reason, connects Miriam’s punishment with leaving Egypt. What does one thing have to do with the other?
The captivity of the Jewish People in Egypt was more than physical bondage. On a deeper level Egypt represented the enslavement of the power of speech. Egypt not only enslaved the bodies of the Jewish People, but it put in chains the major weapon of the Jewish People – speech. Thus, the Torah writes that the Jewish People “cried out” to Hashem. It never writes that they “prayed.” For in Egypt, speech itself was bound.
The Exodus from Egypt was the beginning of the rebuilding of the power of speech.
Man’s pre-eminence derives from his power of speech. He has the ability to direct himself according to his will. When the Jewish People left Egypt, they went straight into the desert. In Hebrew, the word desert is midbar which is from the root mi’dibur – “from speech” – because the desert is the place that is separated and removed from speech. Since the desert is the maximum place of non-speech, of non-direction, it is the ideal place to rebuild the power of speech from the ground up.
When the Jewish People left Egypt they were like a newborn baby. When a child begins to speak, his father is obligated to start to teach him Torah. In this formative stage, then, it was essential that the Jewish People should guard their mouths and their tongues with great care. Something is most vulnerable during its construction. To protect the reconstruction of speech, they were given Torah, and to protect their mouths, they were given the manna.
The gravity of Miriam’s error was not just what she said, but when she said it. To use the power of speech incorrectly at the very time of its reconstruction required a serious punishment. Thus, the Torah connects her mistake to the departure from Egypt.
It is Miriam’s eternal privilege, though, that every generation has a positive commandment to remember what Hashem did to her, to teach us that death and life are in the power of the tongue.
· Sources: Sfat Emet, Ramban
Shoftim- August 21st, 2020
This Shabbat:
Friday Candle Lighting: 7:15 PM
Shabbat Ends: 8:10 PM
Torah Message:
The Cause of Pain
“Who is the man who has built a new house and has not yet inaugurated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he will die in the war and another man will inaugurate it.” (20:5)
Rashi: “and this thing will pain him.”
Rashi’s comment on the above verse cannot mean that the thought of someone else inaugurating his new home will be extremely painful to him. For, in the painful thoughts department, nothing is more painful than the thought of death itself.
The Midrash teaches that when the Romans executed Rabbi Chananya for teaching Torah in public, they wrapped him in his Sefer Torah and set it alight. To prolong his agony, they packed water-soaked wool around his chest. Rabbi Chananya said, “The parchment is consumed, but the letters fly up in the air.” The Roman executioner was deeply moved by Rabbi Chananya’s holiness and asked, “If I remove the wool from around your heart, will I have a share in the World to Come?” Rabbi Chananya promised him that he would. The Roman then removed the wool, added wood to the fire to curtail Rabbi Chananya’s agony, and jumped into the flames and died. A Heavenly voice proclaimed, “Rabbi Chananya and the executioner are about to enter the World to Come.” One thought of teshuva (repentance) can undo a lifetime of sin.
And one thought of sin can undo a lifetime of teshuva.
Arguably, the most important moment in a person’s life is his last moment. At that moment he has the potential to fix a lifetime’s wrongdoing. What a waste to spend that last moment immersed in the cares of this world, rather than one’s gaze on eternity!
This is what Rashi means when he says, “and this thing will pain him.“How great will this man’s pain be if he spends his last moments thinking about his real estate rather than preparing himself to enter the World of Truth!
Re’eh-August 14th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Thursday Candle Lighting: 7:23 PM
Shavuot/ Shabbat Ends: 8:19 PM
Torah Message:
“You shall open your hand to your brother, to your poor, and to your destitute in your Land.” (15:11)
Sign seen hanging in a store: “In G-d we trust, everyone else pays cash.”
A philosopher once said to Rabban Gamliel, “Your Torah commands you over and over again to give charity, and to not be afraid of its affecting your financial security. Isn’t such a fear natural? How can a person give away his money without worrying that perhaps he should have saved it for a ‘rainy day’?”
Rabban Gamliel asked him, “If someone asked you for a loan, would you agree?”
“Depends on who that someone is,” replied the philosopher. “If it’s someone I didn’t know, then yes, I would be afraid of losing my money.”
“What if he had guarantors?” asked Rabban Gamliel.
Ekev-August 7th, 2020
This Shabbat:
Thursday Candle Lighting: 7:30 PM
Shavuot/ Shabbat Ends: 8:27 PM
Torah Message:
Wealth and Poverty
“See! I am putting in front of you today a blessing and a curse.” (11:26)
Wealth and poverty do not always have the same effect on people.
There are those whose wealth influences them for the good, and through the blessing of their wealth they come to a greater appreciation of Hashem. However, had they been poor, they would have been so occupied trying to find food that they would have forgotten their Creator. This was the case in Egypt, where the Bnei Yisrael were so exhausted by the hard labor that they did not listen to Moshe.
On the other hand, there are those whom wealth removes from the path of righteousness. We have seen too often in our history that the Jewish People become successful and self-satisfied and forget Who gave them what they have. However, when a person is poor and “broken,” Hashem never ignores his supplications.
That is what the verse is saying here: “See! I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse” — and don’t think that the blessing is wealth and the curse is poverty. Rather, everything depends on how a person deals with his riches or poverty. And whether he is rich or poor, if he turns his focus to the Torah and mitzvahs, then whatever his status is in life — he receives the blessing.
Va’etchanan-July 31, 2020
This Shabbat:
Thursday Candle Lighting: 7:37 PM
Shavuot/ Shabbat Ends: 8:35 PM
Torah Message:
Why Was I Created?
“Now, O Yisrael, listen to the decrees and to the ordinances that I teach you to perform…” (4:1)
One of the privileges of having been associated with Ohr Somayach for the last thirty is that I’ve met, and in some cases been close to, several human beings who were clearly living on a different level than the rest of mankind. One of them (who will, of course, remain nameless) is a genius in the art of human relationships. He once distilled the essence of one’s relationship with one’s fellow into three principles. I’ll try to present the first of these principles this week, and, G-d willing, the other two in the weeks to come.
His first principle is, “I was created to serve others, and no one was created to serve me.” This may sound a little extreme. What, my entire existence is for other people? Ostensibly, this sounds to be beyond the “letter of the law.”
But Hashem wants us to go beyond the letter of the law. When we keep to the letter of the law, we treat the mitzvahs like a business transaction — you do this for me and I’ll to that for you. Unlike a business transaction, Hashem doesn’t want or need our mitzvahs. What use does He have for them? If we are very righteous, what does that give Him? What Hashem wants is our heart. When you get a present from someone you love, you’re getting the person you love wrapped up inside the present. When you get a present from someone you don’t care about, you’re getting something you like — delivered by a delivery boy.
So, really, to go beyond the letter or the law is the essence of our relationship with Hashem. However, upon deeper examination it could be that, “I was created to serve others and no one was created to serve me” is indeed the letter of the law, and not an exceptional level of righteousness.
The Talmud in Shabbat (31a) says, “Rava said: After departing from this world, when a person is brought to judgment for the life he lived in this world, they say to him … Did you conduct business faithfully? Did you designate times for Torah study? Did you engage in procreation? Did you await salvation? Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom and understand one matter from another?
The Reishit Chochma, quoting from Mesechet Chibut Hakever, says that in addition to these questions, a person is asked, “Did you crown Hashem as King over you, morning and evening?” Meaning, did you say the Shema morning and evening. And, “Did you crown your fellow over you by giving him/her pleasure (nachat ruach)?
“Now, O Yisrael, listen to the decrees and to the ordinances that I teach you to perform…”
And so is it when the Torah speaks of decrees and ordinances. Just as the questions in masechet Shabbat are of the essence, so too, “I was created to serve others and no one was created to serve me” is an essential duty — and not a level of saintliness.
Devarim-July 24, 2020
This Shabbat:
Thursday Candle Lighting: 7:42 PM
Shavuot/ Shabbat Ends: 8:41 PM
Torah Message:
Walk, Don’t Run
“These are the words…” (1:1)
After years of inactivity, my trusty Martin Acoustic Guitar emerged from its not-so-plush-anymore, lined case, its vintage attested to by the fading stickers saying “Pan Am Airways” and the like on the outside of the case. Decades of inactivity had rendered my finger-picking into finger-plodding, but I plowed on. Someone sent me a video of a world-renowned Australian guitar teacher, and one of his ideas resounded with me as a lesson for life. He was absolutely insistent that when you begin to learn a tune, you should play it at an absurdly slow pace — but you couldn’t makeeven one mistake. If you made a mistake, you had to go back and play the piece even slower, until you reached a tempo at which your brain was playing faster than your fingers and your performance was flawless. Only then were you allowed to speed up ever-so-slowly.
Matot/Massei-July 17, 2020
This Shabbat:
Thursday Candle Lighting: 7:46 PM
Shavuot/ Shabbat Ends: 8:56 PM
Torah Message:
Device Maintenance
“Moshe wrote their goings forth, according to their journeys at the bidding of Hashem, and these were their journeys according to their goings forth.” (33:2)
The screen flashed: “Device maintenance! Tap below to optimize your machine!” I tapped. “Wow! You’ve got 5 memory-hungry programs hogging up your memory! Let’s see what we can you about this! Tap below to improve it! This won’t affect your personal data.”
I tap the button. Immediately, circles spin on my screen, and little flashes, like so many drops of sweat, seem to spin off the circles as we valiantly do battle with those memory-hugging hogs. And then, in quick succession, “10 background apps closed.” “100 MB of storage space freed up.” “No abnormal battery use detected.” “No app crashes detected.” “No malware apps detected.” “Virus scanning turned on.” “Total freed up – 2.5 GB since you started using Device Maintenance!” And at the top the screen, inside a large circle throb the words: “100 – Excellent! Your device had been optimized.” I felt good about that.
It’s amazing how far a little encouragement goes – even from an inanimate machine.
“Moshe wrote their goings forth, according to their journeys at the bidding of Hashem, and these were their journeys according to their goings forth.”
In the first half of this verse, Hashem tells Moshe to encourage the people and write that all their “goings
forth” were only for the goal of reaching Eretz Yisrael — the destination of all their “journeyings.” That is why in the first half of the sentence, “goings forth” precedes the word “journeys.” Without that encouragement to the Jewish People in the desert, their journeyings seemed like nothing more than an incessant road-trip. In the second half of the verse, the word “journey” precedes “going forth.” Now, another place. Now, another place. Like a seemingly endless succession of “goings forth.” They didn’t focus on where the journey was taking them. A little encouragement goes a long way.