Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Vayikra
- Bechukotai
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Vayikra
- Behar
This duality of view regarding our national life also applies to our dealings with others on a daily basis. To try and see the good lurking within another person whenever possible - and I will admit that there are situations that make it look impossible to do so - has always been a premier Jewish trait. The rabbis in Avot taught us that every person has his moment so to speak. Seizing and exploiting that moment is the main accomplishment in life. But that requires a sense of realism. We cannot fool ourselves to think that everything is always correct and well with ourselves and our society, nor can we always be so pessimistic and down on the situation that we find ourselves in that we preclude honest attempt to improve it. The balance of hope and warning that these concluding parshiyot of Vayikra exude is an important lesson and guidepost for our daily lives. This lesson lies embedded in another teaching of the rabbis in Avot: "It is not incumbent upon you to complete the entire task at hand but then again neither are you free to discard it entirely." Reality dictates to us that we face our world and its dangers squarely and honestly. But we should not abandon hope and effort to improve our lot. We believe that positive effort and wise decisions, coupled with faith and tradition allow us to survive and prosper. Therefore at the conclusion of the public reading of these mixed messages at the end of the book of Vayikra we rise and strengthen ourselves "Chazak chazak v’nitchzeik."
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
