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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
- Chayei Sara
The well known axiom in Jewish tradition is that the lives of our ancestors, the history of the Jewish past serves as the guidepost for all present and future Jewish life as well. Therefore the most that we can apparently expect in the overall scheme of life and events is that it will be bittersweet. This is not a pessimistic observation for Judaism of all faiths is optimistic and forward looking to the core. Yet it is a realistic assessment of human beings and human and national life. There are many distractions and blandishments in life that eventually lead nowhere. Whatever hard won victories and accomplishments that the Jewish people have achieved against all odds akin to the miraculous birth of Isaac are nevertheless constantly endangered. If it isn’t Hitler, it is Stalin, and if it is not Stalin then it is Arafat and Ahminejad. The list is never ending and the dangers are omnipresent. There are people who recoil and even die (Jewishly speaking) at the realization that this is a permanent factor in Jewish national life. They wish to pretend that this is not so and that we can have all the sweet we desire without having to encounter the bitter as well. Would that this be so, but realistically speaking it just is not possible. So the example of our biblical ancestors serves us as a model for perseverance, faith and commitment in the face of all challenges and enemies.
Abraham is recorded in the Torah as having died "filled and satiated with his days." This phrase can be taken in different days. One can look at it with a jaundiced eye and say that Abraham was fed up already. He had had enough troubles and disappointments. In a moment of despair the prophet Jonah tells God that He should take his soul from him for "my death is a better option than my continued life." There have been many who have said that very thing in human and Jewish history and there are many more who have thought it without expressing it verbally. Yet Abraham, according to all traditional commentaries is not pessimistic or despairing at the end of his life. He is confident that God’s promises to him will all prove valid - that the world will be blessed through his progeny and that the Land of Israel will be the home and property of the Jewish nation. He is confident that his descendants will learn to live productively and morally in a world that is at best bittersweet and not succumb to the temptations of pure hedonism and materialism on one hand and also be able to survive and grow amidst crushing poverty and bigotry directed against them. He is satisfied with his days, with what has been accomplished and that a half-filled glass is always better than an empty one. That is the guidepost for life that is his legacy for all of us in our difficult world of today.
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.
