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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
- Vayetze
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Asher Ben Haim
There are clear similarities between the two stories yet the differences are very striking. In both segments, Yaakov leaves one place and goes somewhere else, but in the first story he heads for a specific location, namely Charan, whereas in the second account, Yaakov goes on his way, "bedarko", without a precise destination. In the first segment, Yaakov moves and the place remains stationary - he goes to the place. In the second segment, Yaakov is encamped and the angels of God come to him. At the beginning of Vayetze, Yaakov emphasizes that he is in the place of G-d, a permanent fixed and immovable place. On the other hand, at the end of Vayetze, Yaakov discovers a portable Shehinah, an encampment of God.
These segments may be similar but they reveal a major difference. We are a witness to two approaches to the Shehinah. When he left his father’s house, Yaakov, "the dweller of the tents" had to seek out the Shehinah. God’s presence is found in a specific place. Yaakov goes on a pilgrimmage to that place we call Yerushalayim.
After his travails with Lavan, Yaakov emerges unscathed. He has succeeded because he has internalized the Shehinah - it goes wherever Yaakov goes. This Yaakov calls "Machanayim" - an encampment of God, not a house. Yaakov enters the galut of Charan with a vision of a fixed place for the Divine Presence that is forever with him wherever he might go. A person must internalize his religious experiences and create a dwelling place for the Schehinah. In the galut, we pray towards Jerusalem to reach our spirituality - but in Eretz Yisrael our whole life is surrounded with Shehinah wherever we go.
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Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part II
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
Parashat Hashavua Happiness for the Right Reasons
[With painful longing, we share these divrei Torah from our co-Rosh Kollel for close to 40 years, Harav Moshe Ehrenreich zt”l.]
