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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- The High Holidays
- The Month of Elul
The Ashkenazic custom is to sound the shofar at the conclusion of the morning services during the month of Elul. Sephardim already begin the recitation of early morning selichot - penitential prayers - with the arrival of Elul. These customs are meant to remind us of the importance of preparation in spiritual matters and Jewish life. Just as one has to prepare one’s body for strenuous physical stress and activity - one cannot arise one morning and say to one’s self that today I am going to run a marathon race without having previously trained for that ordeal - so too is it in the spiritual world. Effective and meaningful prayer on the High Holy Days requires training and preparation. It is too great and dangerous a leap from the everyday mundane and often tawdry world to the exalted spiritual realm of the High Holy Day season if there is inadequate training and preparation for the event. Elul provides us with that month of training and preparation. It, with its special customs and rituals, is meant to help us to get into shape, so to speak, for the challenge of the Days of Judgment and Awe that follow it. Forfeiting Elul’s blessings and opportunities diminishes our abilities to truly exploit the opportunities that the succeeding High Holy Days can afford us. Elul is our personal trainer that helps prepare us adequately for the forthcoming challenges of the season and of life. It should therefore never to be treated lightly.
The turn of the seasons also reminds of us of the fragility of life itself. Israel is blessed with almost all evergreen trees in the country. But there are enough falling leaves around to remind us that "man is merely a tree of the field." The Torah serves us as being a "tree of life." If we are successful in keeping our leaf, so to speak, connected to this tree of eternal life then we are also eternally ever green. The Jewish view of life is that it is eternal in one form or another and this concept of eternity, of influencing our future generations that are yet unborn, should govern our lives and daily behavior. Elul comes to remind us of this truth. It raises and rouses us and forces us to see life in its long run and true perspective. The shofar sound and the selichot will long survive us but hearing them and following them in our lives is a guarantee of our soul’s eternity and Godliness. In the American West there is a tree called the "quaking Aspen." Its leaves constantly tremble even in the stillest of air. I recently saw these trees and was most moved by them. It reminded me of the month of Elul and its meanings and lessons. As long as nature still trembles before its Creator so should we.
Rabbis in Midrash
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
