Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Jewish Holidays
- The High Holidays
It has often been said and quite truly that there are Jews who are only secondary Jews.
By this I mean that Jewish concerns and what the effect of their behavior on Jews as a whole will be are not primary ideas in their thinking and behavior. Thus Communist Jews were Communists first and Jews at best second. Zionist Jews were Zionists first and Jews second. Fanatical Jews are fanatics first - pick whatever stream of fanaticism you wish in the spectrum of Jewish life - and Jews second. Liberal Jews are liberal first and Jews second. As long as Jewish concerns are at most secondary to a large number of Jews we are in danger of our boat not surviving the rough seas that we find ourselves embroiled in. Jewish money is squandered in the millions in support of those who state clearly and openly that their purpose and goal is to destroy us. Where is the judgment, the clear unbiased thinking in such policies and organizations and funders? What happened to common sense and Jewish solidarity? This lack of judgment in matters that we can control - our own behavior and policies - speaks volumes and points to matters that constantly occur that we cannot control or even anticipate. Many Jews who tragically do not believe in the concept of Heavenly judgment therefore lose all rational human judgment in understanding the effect their words and deeds have upon the survival and continued welfare of the Jewish people. Bad judgment makes for a bad future.
The task of the High Holy Days was and is to create an atmosphere for the individual Jew and for the nation as a whole that allowed for clear thinking and wise judgment. Introspection is certainly a necessary ingredient in creating this atmosphere. However a sense of vision and responsibility is also just as necessary. The wise man, the person of balanced judgment, the rabbis taught us, sees the future, the consequences of behavior from afar. Abraham and Isaac are described in the Torah as being able to see the Heavenly cloud engulfing Mount Moriah from afar. There is no substitute for seeing things from afar if one wishes to gain measured and astute judgment. Not only seeing things from afar but seeing in a far sighted fashion is vital. The necessity for patience, strength, self-worth and self-belief to bring about intelligent judgment and wise regard for events and statements should be obvious to all. But sadly it is often lacking in our media, political leadership and even in our religious leaders. Realizing that history and destiny, let alone Heaven itself, will come to its own judgment regarding our attitudes and behavior can help us impose on ourselves a necessary guide to our own judgments and policies.
Rabbis in Midrash
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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
