Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Family and Society
- The Jewish Household
- Various Subjects
Ashkenazic Jewry and Sephardic Jewry as well, though by employing different customs to do so, memorialized themselves and their previous generations by continuing to name their offspring with the names that were common in their family background. In current Jewish society, except for perhaps the Charedi world and parts of the religious society, this method of naming children has waned. Modern names are employed. When the child grows up and reaches understanding and maturity there is no connection with one’s ancestors. He or she does not bear a generational name. In the course of my rabbinic career I have had many people come to me to ask how they can trace their generational roots. Many times their name was the clue that allowed a successful search to be made. We all wish to know from whence we came. The sense of generations is comforting because than does not feel alone. One has a past and if one is blessed with grandchildren, let alone great grandchildren, then one has a future as well. We are able thereby to live beyond the grave. The Torah counts the Jewish people a number of times, sometimes by name. Names in classical biblical Hebrew described one’s genealogy, who one’s parents were and sometimes even who one’s grandparents were. Bezalel who was the architect and the builder of the Tabernacle in the desert is identified by his generations. Someone who has a sense of generations is apparently entitled and able to build a holy place for himself and others even in an arid desert.
My little great granddaughter is too young to understand any of this yet. Only at the end of the Shabat did she recognize me sufficiently to smile at me. I hope that she will live in health and security to see her own great grandchildren smile at her. But I also pray that she and all of our family will have within their souls and psyches that treasure of appreciating the generations of our family. She is the sixth generation from my beloved grandfather who taught me Torah when I was a young child and whose Pesach seder remains embedded in my heart and memory till today many decades after the fact. So I see myself, as I think all of us should see ourselves, as the bridge between the known past and the unknown future. Armed with generational knowledge and family loyalties the Jewish people have weathered unbelievably difficult storms and times. This has been our solid anchor and the source of our tenacity and survival. Communicating this idea to our offspring is the real challenge of Jewish parenthood. We must not allow our future generations to be buffeted by the questions of "Who am I?" and "Where did I come from?" Thinking in generational terms provides strength, serenity and continuity to our lives.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
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)
