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Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Ein Ayah
Ein Ayah: Being rich, and thus not being poor, includes three positive impacts. One is that it allows for an increased gentility, connected with cleanliness and purity, which poverty ruins. The second is the brightening and elevating of an individual’s spirit, which brings a person to sanctity, good actions, and a pure life. The third is the peace within the family and its positive influence on the interrelationship between people in general, which has a lot of impact on the general education of people.
For those people whose personalities are complete in regard to these elements, Divine Providence is likely to view him as a good candidate for wealth, as wealth will prepare him for the role in the world that he is fit to have. After all, Hashem is the One who "gives abundance to all who live in His grace" (Tehillim 145:16). In contrast, one who lowers himself to a lifestyle of disgrace, to the point that he cannot inspire himself to seek luxury so that he can act with dignity in the way he acts in his home is deserving of poverty. Why should he receive wealth if he does not know how to use it properly, as he is missing one of the foundations of the spirit which go well with riches? One who urinates before his bed when naked is one of the starkest examples of a disgusting home life, of one who has no inner yearning to expand the delicateness of his soul, which is something that poverty would inhibit.
The idea of brightening and elevating of an individual’s spirit is epitomized by washing one’s hands before eating, which Chazal derived from "You shall sanctify yourselves" (Vayikra 20:7). There is something about the desire to eat that can lower man toward the level of an animal, with coarse emotions making up the essence of his life power. On the other hand, he has the ability to elevate himself, with the spiritual advantages he has over animals, to the point that his table can be refined by his intellect and his divinely endowed pleasantness in a major way. The first step toward this improvement is washing his hands before eating in order to sanctify himself, and recognizing that the table is Hashem’s table and the eating should be an eating of sanctity and delicateness, not just an unsightly physical necessity. Someone who cannot take this washing of the hands seriously has no right to ask for wealth or the lack of poverty. After all, riches would anyway not work well for his spirit in regard to his coarse human needs but only on the internal fineness that goes with the physical needs being used for spiritual ones.
The third goal of wealth is to help facilitate peace within the family. If one’s wife curses him to his face due to his improper behavior, he has already lost the feeling and the ability to maintain a morally proper family model, so how will riches help? Therefore, he is slated for poverty. "Like the actions of a person he will be paid, and like the paths of a person he will be provided" (Iyov 34:11).
The main determinant of whether a person will be elevated or lowly are his actions and comportment, which impact his characteristics. Hashem arranges it so that these actions determine what tools the person will be given to do his tasks. "Hashem is the judge; this one He lowers, and this one He raises up" (Tehillim 75:8).
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.
