Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- Ki Tavo
The second scenario in the parsha is a much more somber and even frightening one. It describes the events, travail and persecution that will visit the Jewish people over the long millennia of its exile from its land. In vivid detail, the Torah describes the horrors, defeats and destruction that the Exile will visit upon the Jewish people. In our generation, this portion of the Torah reading can actually be seen on film and in museums. We are witness to the fact that not one word of the Torah’s description of dark future events was an exaggeration or hyperbole. This period of trouble and exile lasted far longer than the first scenario of the offering of the first fruit in the Temple. Unfortunately, the residue of this second scenario is still with us and within us as we live in a very anti-Jewish world society. Yet we are to be heartened by the concluding words of this section of the Torah that promises us that it will be the first scenario of this week's parsha that will eventually prevail. Even though so much of the negative is still present in our current state of affairs, we should nevertheless be grateful for our restoration to sovereignty and dominion in our own homeland and for the bounty of the land that we currently enjoy. All of this is a symbol of the beginning of the resurrection of the first scenario and the diminishing of the effects of the second scenario outlined in this week's parsha. May we all be wise enough to realize this and adjust our attitudes and actions accordingly.
Rabbis in Midrash
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
