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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Jewish Holidays
- The Three Weeks
The prophets of Israel laid out a blueprint for proper vision for the nation. They stressed that proper choices for the future are heavily dependent upon a sense of what has happened to us before. Even though it is foolish if not even bordering on the insane to keep on following policies, ideas and ideologies that have proven to be wrong and harmful, nevertheless the tendency to do so remains strong within the Jewish people. It is difficult in the extreme to admit error and it seems that the greater the error the more difficult it is to face up to it. Politically and diplomatically it seems clear that that the policies of Israel over the past two decades regarding "land for peace" and other such high sounding mantras have proven to be wrong and harmful. Yet no one is willing to own up to these errors and in fact the ideologues that first proposed and implemented them stubbornly cling to them even today in the face of all contrary evidence to their viability. The search for a secular "loaded wagon" has gone on for over a century in Jewish educational life without producing results except for complete ignorance of Judaism and Jewish values and therefore rising rates of assimilation and alienation from the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The inability to articulate a more meaningful vision of Judaism and its value system has crippled generations of Jewish youth and left them stranded in an ocean of hate and despair. Bad vision certainly extracts its toll of woe.
But all is not lost nor should we give in to despair regarding our future. The same prophet Yeshayahu that portrays for us the vision of destruction and sadness in this week’s haftorah reading will follow with seven soaring visions of redemption and hope and success in the forthcoming weeks that will bring us to the High Holy Days. We have the choice of choosing which vision of the prophet we wish to follow and implement. And even though on the surface the choice should be an easy and simple one to make, since switching to the positive one requires that we make fundamental structural changes to our educational and social systems, it will be hard to choose to follow and implement our correct vision. There are the accumulated crusts and layers of apathy, mistakes, vested interests and shortsighted leadership that somehow have to be overcome in order for the greater positive vision to be revealed to the people. It took us some considerable time to get ourselves into our current mess and it will therefore take great patience and perseverance to extricate ourselves from it and abandon bad vision in favor of clearer and brighter one. The Shabat of Chazon crystallizes these choices and their resultant consequences for us. As in everything else in life, the Torah bids us to choose wisely.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Israel and the Nations A Few Minutes & Many Innovative Ideas on Antisemitism & What to do About It
As we approach the High Holidays, this short lecture (18 minutes) deals with the unfortunate situation of how Israel and the Jewish People stand against antisemitism, analyzing its cause according to Rav Kook, and how to deal with the issue pragmatically & via our prayers.
Ha'azinu PURSUIT is PERFECTION
p. Ha'azinu, Shabbat Shuva
Rav Kook deals with the question of the seemingly hopeless nature of Tshuva. For G-d Himself knows that He created us with free will, which inevitably means we will sometimes make mistakes and choose wrong. This can easily be frustrating, freezing us into inaction and ye'ush (loss of hope). If one sins even once, does he chalila have no choice but suicide?! Moreover, our Godly conscience demands justice, righteousness and perfection, but we all know this is impossible, so what's the solution? Rav Kook's innovative thinking, strongly based on chazal (our sages), offers an inciteful and important aspect to this topic, especially this time of year!
Sukkot Bug-Free Sukkah: Essential Halachic and Practical Schach Guide
How to inspect, clean, and store bamboo mats and palm branches to protect your mitzvah and holiday meals.
