Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
- Ki Tisa
There appears to have been multiple causes for the construction of the original Golden Calf. The absence of Moshe, Aharon’s vacillation, the presence of a large and vocal non-Jewish section within the Jewish people - the eirev rav, - the always present memories of Egypt and its pagan society and culture, the uncertain self-worth of a recently emancipated people from slavery, are all contributory factors in the unfolding tragedy of the Golden Calf. Almost all of these factors exist in our time as well. The absence of inspiring religious leadership, the inability to formulate a positive vision for the people and the state, the influences of a non-Jewish world that has turned all basic human values on its face, the revival of the pagan ideas and lifestyles of the ancient world in the guise of new liberal ideas and permissive values, the difficulties of adjusting to national independence after millennia of exile, all combine in our time to allow the Golden Calf to still exist within us. The failures of assimilation, secularism, Westernization at all costs, are all visible to all of us. Yet we are all reluctant to abandon the allure of the shine of the Golden Calf. Only when we will have our fill of these false hopes and retrograde ideas will we be free to accept Moshe’s dramatic act of destroying the Golden Calf into dust and powder. Perhaps then will our bill for the original Golden Calf be finally stamped as being paid in full.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
