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Beit Midrash
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Perhaps standards should address how things should be. This choice is, in my opinion, what lies at the heart of many of the internal conflicts that continue to divide our society and cause anguish to all concerned. The Jewish people for centuries on end always recognized that the standards, social, personal, religious and national, that they lived by were the standards set in the Torah and in the words and ideas of the Talmud, Midrash and other rabbinic writings. While it is true that the Jewish people as a whole and individual Jews as well, many (if not most) times failed to live up to those standards of morality, piety and inspired behavior, nevertheless the standards themselves were never tampered with.
No one dared to rewrite the Ten Commandments or revise the Torah rules of the sanctity of life, person, family, marriage. The bar may have been set very high for all Jews to reach at all times, but the bar was nevertheless never lowered in order to accommodate those of us who could not reach it. The Torah and its way of life remained as the ultimate challenge in Jewish existence, something always to strive for no matter how weak in flesh and spirit the Jews were.
With the coming of the ideas of the Emancipation, the Enlightenment, Haskala, urbanism, secularism, Marxism and other utopian schemes in the eighteenth century and thereafter, this attitude towards immutable standards began to change. In essence, standards were compromised; the bar was lowered to accommodate the public's behavior. And once that process began it has never been arrested. Under the protective slogans of academic freedom, artistic expression, pluralism, alternate lifestyles and liberalism, the traditional standards for Jewish society and life were lowered and in many cases completely eliminated. The assault on the Jewish home and family that these new standards encouraged has wreaked much havoc in the Jewish world.
The disappearance of millions of Jews from our society because of rampant assimilation over the last decades, when added to the destruction of the Holocaust, has created a demographic problem in the Jewish world of almost unparalleled proportions. Standards once dearly kept and with great personal sacrifice are today merely options and not very popular ones at that. Shabat, family, marriage, tradition, moral behavior and sexual probity have all been sacrificed on the altar of a modernity that no longer maintains any absolute standards and treats every problem evenhandedly and with moral equivalency.
Standards by their very nature oppose the concept of unlimited personal freedom. The entire structure of halacha and Jewish tradition is meant to create a sense of balance between the required personal freedom of an individual and the challenge of standards that order society and enhance personal behavior. High standards can lead to better societies and a life of greater quality. I once had a teacher in college who gave everyone high marks no matter what their performance in class and tests warranted. Having also received a high mark, I nevertheless felt cheated since my high mark in no way reflected my valiant attempt to achieve a goal commensurate to a high and demanding standard.
I think that much of the frustration, stress and dysfunction that so characterize modern Western society can be traced to the inner realization that our so-called achievements are not really being measured against any true standard. We therefore feel cheated because of the very laxity of standards that we craved and created. A study of traditional Jewish standards of education, social behavior and faith would certainly help us all regain a sense of pride in ourselves and in Jewish society as a whole.
The Rediscovery of Tekhelet: A Century of Research Tekhelet and Life's Temptaions
The Rediscovery of Tekhelet: A Century of Research
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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.
