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Ein Ayah: Sometimes the intellects of simple people recognize something’s innate greatness but cannot refine that recognition. Such weak understanding is damaging and can even lead to their death.
We need to toil so that the general public, including those with intellectual abilities which have not concentrated on Torah, will understand that external items connected to good relate to divinely inspired wisdom. Even the untrained mind, if it is sensitive enough, can grasp truth like a flash of lightening. A person needs to put in proper perspective the connection between lofty ideas and specific physical things, which he can do according to his spiritual level. This is the foundation of the Torah and the path of a life of truth. This is also the strength of prophets, who connect the physical with the divine so that divine intellect influences their emotions and elevates everything.
For any person to have a life of sanctity, he needs to be connected to divine conceptions of truth, which possess great power to elevate him. A person has to choose a path in his life, and life presents many conflicting experiences. In whatever place and level he is, he can find divine grandeur, as the pasuk says: "If I rise up to the heaven, there You are, or if I go down to the depths, indeed it is You" (Tehillim 139:8).
In order to recognize this, natural intellect does not suffice, as one requires serious, consistent study. Torah is compared to water, which descends from a high place to a low one, representing humility, which is the crown of wisdom. With such recognition, one views an aron kodesh as a storehouse of sanctity.
If an ignorant person relies on his natural intellect, he will continuously deteriorate. He will not allow special things to impact on his life, and he will not agree to surrender his opinion to those of scholars. If he views himself as intelligent enough to know better than the scholars who have learned truth, life, and goodness, he can lower himself to a pit of destruction.
It may start internally, with an attitude on how to view Torah and the honor it deserves. But from there, untrained ideas continue to matters of the running of society, which, if they take hold, can prevent society from progressing in sanctity. They will view society from its secular side and will not enable the internal value of society to take root. This happens because the untrained mind does not see a way to connect between lofty ideas, which are the basis of sanctity, and life of activity, which involves simple, small matters.
When one cannot see sanctity in communal life, he views a beit knesset as a beit am. This is wrong because sanctity of divine origin descends upon a united community of Jews, with all the matters of life that join them, and turns a synagogue into a House of Hashem and a mini-Temple. This imprints on the entire holy community a stamp of sanctity, life, and truth in a manner that it cannot impact on individuals. People can then see how events are connected to a greater picture that is full of light, and that the community can be truly successful when the Torah impacts on it. "In the congregations, bless Hashem, the Lord, from the source of Israel" (Tehillim 68:27). The more the light of Torah shines on people, the more their untrained intellects become elevated. Then, they will grasp the tree of life and its branches and view the aron kodesh as sacred, and realize that Israel is separate not by chance but by design of the special divine soul, which accompanies us when we join together. Hashem is present in a synagogue, not in a beit am.
Rabbis in Midrash
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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.
