Re’eh – September 2, 2016
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 6:58 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:45 pm
Torah Message:
A Promise of Eternity
“…You are children to the L-rd, your G-d — you shall not cut yourselves and you shall not make a bald spot between your eyes for a dead person.” (14:1-2)
The fact that the Jewish People are a holy people promises them eternity.
It’s axiomatic that G-d doesn’t waste His time, so to speak. Why would He create a holy nation to then assign them to oblivion? What would be the point of infusing them with His own Holiness, and then have them evaporate like a mist after a few score years?
Eikev – August 26, 2016
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7: 07 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 7:54 pm
Torah Message:
Eikev
Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak!
You will eat and you will be satisfied, and you shall bless. (Deut. 8:10)
The verse states “You will eat and you will be satisfied, and you shall bless.” This is the commandment to recite Birchas Hamazon (Grace After Meals). The Talmud (1) notes that the verse contains an obligation to recite a blessing after eating. From where do we know that one is obligated to recite a blessing before eating? The Talmud answers that if one is obligated to make a blessing after eating, certainly one must be obligated to make a blessing before eating.
The Talmud asks further: we have a verse which tells us that one is obligated to recite a blessing before learning Torah. How do we know that one is obligated to recite a blessing after learning Torah? The answer: if one is obligated to recite a blessing before learning Torah, then certainly after learning Torah one is obligated to recite a blessing.
Vaetchanan – August 19, 2016
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7: 16 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:03 pm
Torah Message:
V’etchanan
Jealous??
And you shall not covet your fellow’s wife, you shall not desire your fellow’s house… (Deut. 5:18)
We understand why God commanded us not to steal or to kill; after all, it is physically possible for a person to refrain from performing such crimes. On the other hand, jealousy is an emotion and is an integral part of human nature; when you see something you like – you desire it. How can the Torah forbid something so natural as to desire someone else’s possessions?
Devarim – August 12, 2016
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7: 24 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:11 pm
Torah Message:
This is the People of G-d
“How can I carry alone?” (1:12)
Sometimes I sit down to write things that I know people will enjoy: a heart-warming tale, a wry take on our brief walk in this world. And sometimes I sit down to write something that I know people will find hard to take but nevertheless needs to be said. This is one of the latter.
Soon we commemorate the blackest day of the Jewish calendar, the Ninth of Av. The Ninth of Av has been a day of tragedy for the Jewish People since the Exodus from Egypt. In more recent times it was in the early hours of July 23, 1942, on Tisha B’Av, that the first train transport of deportees left Malkinia in Poland. The train was made up of sixty closed cars, crowded with Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. The car doors were locked from the outside and the air apertures were barred with barbed wire. That was the day the killings started at Treblinka.