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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Purim & The Month of Adar
- The Month of Adar
Adar also marks the final month of winter. It therefore becomes the harbinger of the beautiful weather of spring and summer that is the climate of the Land of Israel. Though Europe and America have experienced a truly cold, snowy and windy winter we here in Israel have escaped with our moderate and mild winter weather interspersed with the blessing of periodic days of life giving rain. In this, Adar fulfills its role of looking forward optimistically to better climes and times. Adar is so to speak the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel of winter and its inclement weather and sometimes dreary days. People are clearly affected by the weather climate where they live. The pervading darkness of the upper reaches of the northern hemisphere contributes to higher rates of suicide, depression, alcoholism and other negative behavior. People do better in sunlight and warmth than in ice and snow and penetrating cold. The dramatic and continuing population shift in the United States for example to the warmer West and South is testimony to this fact. The coming of the month of Adar, above and apart from its aspects of Purim, is therefore by itself a sign of hope and optimism. The sun will now shine more brightly and more often. As you can already fathom none of this brilliance of journalism of mine that you are reading really applies to those living south of the Equator. But since Israel is the center of the world and Israel is my home everything written here should therefore be considered valid.
Adar is also the sole month chosen by Jewish law to be leap month. In every nineteen year lunar-solar calendar cycle there are seven years in which an extra lunar month ids inserted into the Jewish calendar. This extra leap month is always the month of Adar. We can all use an extra dose of Adar every so often. The realistically difficult world that Jews constantly live in needs to be occasionally lightened by an additional dose of joy and optimism. People gladly bear the idea of two Adars wile they would be less likely to accept a doubling of any of the other eleven months of the Jewish calendar year. The Talmud advances practical and logical reasons to explain why Adar was chosen to be the potential double month. All of these reasons are naturally valid and acceptable on their own - a late rainy season, crops not ready, etc. The rabbis prevented King Chizkiyah from doubling up Nissan instead of Adar. There is an underlying value that the month of Adar possesses that no other month in the Jewish calendar can lay claim to. This idea of the joy of survival, of the ultimate downfall of the wicked, of the better tomorrow in physical, spiritual and national terms, belongs exclusively to Adar. It has therefore no substitute for it in the rest of the year’s calendar months.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
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.
