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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- Ha'azinu
The circumstances and certainly the tone of both songs are obviously different. The song of Yam Suf is a song of exultation, triumph and the relief of deliverance from a brutal foe and fate. But it is basically a poem of the past, what has already occurred and an acknowledgment of God's past goodness towards Israel.
This week, in Haazinu, the song is of much darker hue. It is visionary, prophetic and somber. It sees the great challenges of the Jewish future that lie before this people that Moshe so loved and loyally served. It is a song that will accompany the Jewish people throughout their long and tortured road of exile, persecution, survival and eventual triumph.
To our generation, standing as we do thirty-five centuries after Moshe spoke these words, this is a clear and incisive description of what has befallen us and our mission in the world. Haazinu is current events and not merely a recording of our past. Both poems of Moshe are essential to the furtherance of Jewish life and society. But they each transmit a different message.
The ability to live, so to speak, in the past and in the future at one and the same time is a particularly Jewish trait. The Jewish people have a long memory and collectively, even if not individually, we remember everything that has befallen us. Tragically for many Jews of our time this memory has failed and disappeared in our current society.
Only a minority of the Jewish world recites Moshe’s song at the Yam Suf in daily prayer services. The deliverance from Egypt and the splitting of the sea at Yam Suf are no longer even distant memories for large numbers of Jews. Forgetting the song of Yam Suf is tantamount to eventually excluding one’s self from Jewish life and society.
However, forgetting the song of Haazinu is even more damaging to the individual Jew and to the nation. Those who live only in the present and do not glimpse the greatness of the future truly cut themselves off from participation in that future. The poem of Haazinu promises us repentance and redemption, serenity and a better world.
Without such a vision and a belief that the song of Moshe here in Haazinu was accurate and true, the Jewish people could never have survived the long night of our exile and troubles. This song was "to be placed in their mouths" as the witness for all of our history and a valid proof of the just entitlements of our future. Our task is to rededicate ourselves to fulfill the goals of this great song of Haazinu in the blessed good year that is now upon us.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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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.
