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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- Ekev
Rashi focuses on the unusual word, "Ekev" – which can also mean "heel" - & comments that one should be very scrupulous in observing the "light" Mitzvot that people tend to trample upon with their heel.
Perhaps Rashi was moved to say this because in the previous Sedra we read the grandest of all the many Mitzvot in the Torah: The 10 Commandments & the Shma. Perhaps he felt people might feel a kind of "letdown" after such weighty & profound principles. So he wants to emphasize that the "little things" also count for a lot.
How right Rashi is! It is davka the seemingly insignificant things that we do in life, & in Judaism, that often mean the most. Consider the following:
- Each day, we say the Amida & then the Chazan repeats it. We can sit back, relax & simply answer, "Amen" to each bracha of his. Except, that is, for the "Modim;" that we must rise from our slumber & recite individually, because it says, "Thank you." And the act of saying those two words (just one word in Hebrew!) cannot be overestimated.
- The Gemara records that the sage Rav Yehoshua ben Levi was once walking in the market & spotted Eliyahu HaNavi. He asked him, "Who in this crowd will merit a high place in Olam Haba?" Eliyahu pointed to a particular man; Rav Yehoshua ben Levi then asked the prophet what made that man so special. "He makes other people laugh!" said Eliyahu.
- The Rabbis bid us to be friends, not enemies, with our fellow Jews. They define an "enemy" as someone you have not said "Shalom" to for three days!
- Yakov’s bracha of royalty given to Yehuda ends with the strange statement, "Milk will be between your teeth." Gemara Kedushin explains this to mean that people will see the white of his teeth – when he smiles! As king, he must be sure to smile to all his subjects & brighten their day.
In the course of our daily lives, we have innumerable opportunities to positively affect other people’s lives with the tiniest of gestures; a hello, a thank you, a joke or smile. Not much effort expended, but an awful lot of benefit.
Life itself may be no small thing, but it is made up of lots & lots of small things. So rather than be a heel, why not take that extra second & connect to another sole/soul?
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Complaints about Contractor’s Work – part II
(based on ruling 83037.1 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Rabbis in Midrash
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P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Complaints about Contractor’s Work – part II
(based on ruling 83037.1 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
(based on ruling 83037.1 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Chemdat Yamim Moreshet Shaul: Twin Foundations
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 690
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 690
D'varim Judaism’s Social Vision
Re’eh
Giving is more than an act of generosity—it is an essential part of human dignity that belongs to everyone, rich and poor alike. The ultimate goal of help is to empower others to stand on their own.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
