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But I want to focus for a moment on a rather oblique comment about the destruction in Gemara Shabbat: "Rav Yitzchak says: Yerushalayim was destroyed only because people equated the small with the great."
What exactly does Rav Yitzchak mean by this? Who are "the great" and who are "the small?"
This week I went to the Israel Museum in Yerushalayim, one of the premier museums in the world. One of the special exhibitions currently there is quite small, but absolutely amazing. It is the story, & display, of Ilan Ramon z"l’s celebrated notebook.
Ilan was a true hero of Am Yisrael & Medinat Yisrael. An air force colonel, he was the youngest pilot in Operation Opera, the daring & successful mission to destroy Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak. But his defining moment was when he became Israel’s first & only astronaut, joining the crew of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Though Ilan may not have considered himself "observant," he had a pure neshama. He was the first astronaut to request kosher food in outer space, & he took along with him a microfiche copy of the Torah, a miniature sefer Torah that had miraculously survived the Shoa, & even a dollar bill from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Tragically, the Columbia was destroyed upon re-entry, 16 minutes before landing, & the entire crew was killed. Two months later, in a Texas field, 37 pages of Ilan’s notebook were found. It took five years of painstaking effort & advanced infra-red technology to reconstruct the pages. Some of them are on display at the museum, including a copy of the Kiddush, which Ilan proudly brought with him. Said the curator: "There is no rational explanation as to how these pages survived the impact and the fire, & were somehow recovered."
Ilan wrote what a miracle from G-d it is that Man can rise to such awesome heights of accomplishment & can even conquer space, and he marveled that Earth is such a magnificent planet. And he recalled the suffering that his little Shoa Torah represented, & the need for Man to aspire to the good.
As I stared at that other-worldly notebook in the case, I suddenly understood Rav Yitzchak's words. "We Jews have been through so many traumatic times; times when we were brought low & made ‘small,’ " he was saying. "But don’t think that is our eternal fate; don’t doubt for a moment that we can reach the heights & that we can - & will - be great." Ilan rose physically higher than any Jew in history; he affirms that our holy nation, with G-d’s help, will rise above any other.
Army and War "If Haredim Should Serve in the IDF, So Should You"
IDF Service for Young Jewish Men from America
Army and War "If Haredim Should Serve in the IDF, So Should You"
IDF Service for Young Jewish Men from America
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.
