Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
- Vayishlach
There is a common adage that God helps those that help themselves. To accomplish things in life, both spiritually and materially, effort and planning, devotion and industry must be expended. Once in my yeshiva days long ago I had great difficulty in understanding a difficult concept that was raised by one of the commentators to the Talmud. I asked my teacher whether prayer to Heaven would help me understand that concept. He answered that it would help only if one has truly exhausted one’s own abilities to understand the matter. I then realized that prayer was Yaakov’s second strategy and that he felt it would help only if at first he employed it together with prayer - first the attempt to soothe Eisav’s anger first with gifts. Relying on prayer alone without the expenditure of one’s own talents and resources is a way of getting away cheaply in the matter. The famous rebbe of Sanz, Rabbi Chaim Halberstam stated: "First one must be prepared to tear out one’s own rib before one can expect Heaven to intervene on one’s stead!" Yaakov is prepared to risk all of his hard earned wealth and in fact his life itself when forced to deal with Eisav. Because of this Heaven intervenes and Eisav conciliates with Yaakov. There is a lesson here for all of us.
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
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)
