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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Jewish Holidays
- Tu Bishvat
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Hana Bat Haim
Ostensibly, Tu BiShvat (The 15th of the Hebrew month of Shvat - the New Year of the Trees) is no more than a means for calculating the laws connected to those Mitzvoth whose fulfillment is connected to the soil of the Land of Israel: tithes, heave-offerings, the "uncircumcised" fruit of a young tree, and, perhaps, the Sabbatical year. However, on an instinctive national level, Tu BiShvat holds an honorary position. On this day, the heart would become filled with warm feelings of affection and great longing for the Land of Israel: her commandments and landscape, her fruit and her young trees, her past and her future. It is possible that in the Diaspora, where we were unable to fulfill the Mitzvoth of the Land of Israel, there was a need to invest this day with added emotion in place of the commandments we lacked. Yet, even in the land, we are not free from putting our hearts - not just our heads - into this day. To the contrary, in the Land of Israel the need for affection is that much greater, for it also receives actual expression in our entire being. The heart and the head, affection and obligation, the commandments of the soil and our natural inner bond with the Land of Israel, are one.
Indeed, this is a profound approach. Love for the land is not merely an appreciation for her landscape and sites; it is not merely the land's development and transformation from a wasteland to a paradise. Love for the land means a deep inner dialogue with the land's sanctity, its values, and its unique hidden qualities. This is the land that was chosen by God, and to which He gives special attention and for which He harbors love. He therefore chose to rest His presence herein, and commanded that certain unique commandments be performed here. It is not just some piece of land; it is, rather, the Holy Land, and its holiness finds expression in special concrete ways.
The Land of Israel is not just "territory." She is not just some place in which we are permitted to live. She is not just a piece of land which sustains us. She is not just a beautiful landscape which enchants us. True, she is all of these things, but she is more as well. It is a fact that even when we were not in her midst physically, she was with us spiritually. Not only were our inner ties with the Land of Israel not weakened while we were far away in exile, they were deepened and strengthened - for the intimate bond between the People of Israel and its land is not an external matter, it is a inner fundamental bond.
The land-dependent commandments find expression in concrete practice, which is the most important expression through which it is possible to display such a special bond. For, this land is not like any other land in the world. Its soil is holy and it is therefore deserving of special commandments. God wished to bestow privilege upon the Land of Israel, and therefore filled it with Torah and commandments. According to Ramban, all of the commandments in the Torah, even those which are not dependent upon Israel's soil, are vitally connected to the Land of Israel. Even Rambam, who does not share this opinion, tells us that central and fundamental aspects of the Jewish religious experience would collapse, Heaven forbid, without the Land of Israel. For example, the entire Hebrew calendar and holiday cycle is dependent upon the Land of Israel. Hence, the seasons of the year which exist in the Land of Israel are what determine the character of the Jewish holidays and significant times and obligate every Jew wherever he might be - even if the particular season in which a Diaspora Jew finds himself does not fit the Festival. For example, an Australian Jew celebrates the Festival of Spring in autumn. Moreover, this is quite fitting, for it teaches such a Jew that he is not in his natural environment. A complete fulfillment of our Torah and our national institutions: law, kingdom, priesthood, and prophecy, can be brought to fruition only in the Land of Israel. Therefore, all of our aspirations, hopes, and desires bear fruit in this land. "Whoever lives outside of Israel is comparable to one who has no God." Such a person's spiritual world lacks significance. He lacks inspiration, faith, and destiny.
Tu BiShvat - the Festival of the reawakening of the trees of the Land of Israel from their wintertime slumber is also a Festival for the reawakening of the Jewish People. In the past, the blossoming of the trees in the Land of Israel led to the reawakened hopes of the nation to return to become planted once again in its land. With our actual physical return to our homeland, we have also set about sinking our spiritual roots into her. All of the land-dependant commandments have sprouted and reawakened, and with them, the Torah of the Land of Israel has begun to flower once again. No more detached from nature, from the earth and from national self-sufficiency; rather, full and complete life which embraces all - labor, moral and social duty, the nation, the first inklings of a kingdom of Israel, and a combination of both physical and spiritual strength.
The New Year of the trees is a New Year for the tree of the nation, for the sinking in of its roots into the soil of the Land of Israel and the lifting up of its treetop to the heavens above.
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.
