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The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
R. Avraham ben-tziyon ben shabtai
Yet there is with what to comfort these weary individuals. The situation is not entirely hopeless. The Talmud informs us that the Almighty "concocted the remedy prior to the illness." The difficulties of our world were long ago anticipated by the Creator. Pirkei Avot , Chapters of the Fathers, teaches us that a number things were created even before the creation of the world, and that amongst them was teshuva, repentance. This, as a matter of fact, is the purpose of creation, and the true task of the Torah- to face difficulties and to overcome them, to accept fearlessly life's struggles, even the most difficult amongst them. To the contrary, the light of Torah is that much more discernable when it appears as a result of struggle with conflicting ideologies. In fact, the more that the darkness around it grows, the more the light of Torah breaks forth and rises with greater clearness and purity.
This concept is contained in the words of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi in the tractate of Shabbat where he relates that when Moses went up to heaven to receive the Torah, the ministering angels said to God: "Master of the Universe, what is this human doing here amongst us?" He replied: "He's come to receive the Torah." They said to Him, "A hidden treasure which has been stored away with You for some nine hundred and seventy four generations before the creation of the world, You now wish to hand over to a man of flesh and blood?" God's ministering angels didn't understand how it was possible to give the Torah to a mere mortal, how it was even thinkable to present a heavenly Torah to an 'only-human' world. The most fitting place for the Torah, they reasoned, is in heaven. Man lacks stability, he contradicts himself and changes his mind from one moment to the next. What's more, man is easily given over to all sorts of influences. What, they contended, does he have in common with God's Holy Torah?
God, though, chose not to respond to the angels. He said to Moses, "You give them an answer!" And how did Moses reply? He explained to the ministering angels that this is precisely the purpose of the Torah: to descend to the human world and to elevate it. To penetrate the complex and confusing material existence, in order to light up the darkness. The task of the Torah is to repair all. To plunge to the depths in order to elevate even the lowest of the low. To confront the most far-out ideologies with the intention of bringing-them-close. To leave no place empty of the light of God.
So, we see that man - with all of his shortcomings - is, in a sense, superior to the angels. Man unites within himself body and soul- a lowly, material body and a lofty soul - and, in this respect, unites the higher and the lower worlds. He is capable of ascending to the loftiest heights and elevating everything else with him. It is the free-choice of man which brings him into the innermost chamber, to a place which even the angels cannot enter. The ministering angels, for all of their greatness, are by nature static. True, they don't descend or fall, but, in the same respect, they don't ascend and are not capable of elevating the world. That is the task of the Jewish People and the Torah: to light up the darkness, and to face life's challenges, aware of the fact that the more the darkness grows, the more the light of Torah breaks forth and rises.
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.
