Female LessonParashat HashavuaSeries'LibraryPiskei Din (Hebrew)Test YourselfThe Torah, in our sedra, prohibits tattooing: "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for a dead person; you shall not etch a tattoo (ketovet ka’aka) on yourselves. I am God." (this is the only time this word appears in Tanach)." The issur - either because it is associated with idolatry, or because it is an unnecessary cutting into the skin - only applies if the skin is perforated and the resulting hole filled with ink. A Jew with a tattoo may certainly be buried in a Jewish cemetery, despite popular misconceptions (including those made in episodes of both Curb and The Nanny). There is no obligation to remove a tattoo, a process that can be painful & expensive (though those with obscene or non-Jewish symbols may indeed opt to do so). A woman once asked Rav Ephraim Oshry, the well-known posek who wrote responsa during the Holocaust, if she could remove her concentration camp tattoo via plastic surgery. He advised Holocaust survivors not to remove their tattoos, but rather to wear them as badges of honor. But this would not apply to later generations who want a similar tattoo matching those of the survivors.
DO WE DESERVE REDEMPTION? “Blood, Covenant, and Return”- Parshat VaEra
Are we today so much greater than say the Rambam's generation? Why is G-d returning us to Israel & doing so many salvations and victories over Hamas, Hizballah, Syria and Iran in recent years, even if we haven't done Teshuva & seemingly don't deserve it?
The class deals with how to cleave and strengthen the G-dly trait of "Truth", the need to pray for Teshuva, the importance of returning that which was wrongly taken before saying Viduy, and other aspects of Teshuva.
Rav Kook explains why that which is learned on Shabbat is considered so much greater than that studied during the week, and why creativity is that much greater on Shabbat, for better or for worse!
The class deals with not "resting on one's laurels", and that not a few people who lived their entire lives idealistically, "lost it" upon getting older. Similarly the importance of not focusing on luxuries but on the necessities of life.
Seemingly 'Strange' Rabbinical Decrees- Not What You Thought!
Rav Kook suggests a very innovative and important "eye-opening" way to understand some of the rabbinical decrees which are particularly difficult to understand!