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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- V'zot Habracha
As such, there is a true sense of finality to this last chapter of the Torah. It not only details the end of an era and the mortality of a life but it serves to teach us another important lesson. And that lesson is that the past cannot be repeated and that every generation, just as every individual, is charged with the challenge of creating a new Moshe, so to speak, and a new sense of redemption, freedom and a new reacceptance of the Torah of Sinai.
The fact that Moshe is irreplaceable and that a new generation will not personally witness the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation at Sinai in no way alters the demand, that this coming generation preserve and protect the eternal Torah and its values.
This very finality – the sealing of the books, so to speak - is itself one of the great lessons of this Torah reading. Reconstructing the past may be the preoccupation of historians and professors but in terms of life and achievement, it is only the present and future that can guarantee our survival and success.
There is a great danger in forgetting our past, whether as an individual and certainly as a nation. Without recalling the past we invite ourselves to be blindsided by unexpected events and the unpredictability of human nature and behavior. Yet there is a great difference between recalling and remembering the past and attempting to live in the past. Living in the past freezes us and makes us a relic instead of a vibrantly creative society.
Nostalgia is part of the human condition but oftentimes serves as a negative brake upon positive future progress. Throughout human history all attempts to recreate the past through sentimental or even imaginary means of fantasy have inevitably met with ultimate failure, if not even defeat and tragedy.
Inherent in the blessing that Moshe bestows upon his beloved people Israel, is his look forward. He sees the Land of Israel, where he will not now ever enter, and views the Jewish people settled therein. He sees all of the challenges that Jewish life in the future will bring to his beloved people while they are living in the Land of Israel and for the millennia thereafter, scattered throughout the world.
But he also sees the last days of the new redemption and the restoration of Israel to its Torah and homeland. And his warning, repeated throughout his lifetime, that the Jews should never return to Egypt, takes on new meaning. The Jews should never live exclusively in the past but always to begin again and anew, as we do with the Torah reading itself, and build a bright, secure and holy future.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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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.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
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.
