Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
- Ki Tisa
We are all aware of the injunction not to count Jews directly but rather indirectly as in this week’s parsha where they were counted by the means of the number of half shekels collected by the census takers. We read in the book of Shmuel that King Saul counted the Jewish people by means of the number of individual sheep that were counted. There is this same lesson involved in this rule as the idea mentioned in the previous paragraph – the true count of the people of Israel is never only in the raw number of people present arrived at. It is in the worth of the individual, the pride and self-esteem of being Jewish and that is not something that can easily be assessed by a number. Coins and sheep are susceptible to being counted numerically – not the Jewish people or for that matter any human being. For the influence of a life is something not given to physical measurement or numerical count. The Torah commands us to raise our heads, to become more knowledgeable, devoted and committed to its holy values, observances and spiritual outlook. Each individual Jew must feel and believe that he or she is special, unique, vital and necessary for the whole nation to exist and prosper. People who feel "what is the difference if I am Jewish, observant, part of a people?" do themselves and the Jewish people as a whole a great disservice. Only those who proudly raise their heads are truly part of the eternal count of the Jewish people.
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
