Parashat HashavuaSeries'LibraryPiskei Din (Hebrew)Test YourselfAs you may have read, a shocking tale unfolded this week in Yerushalayim: a man who acted as a Rabbi, a Sofer, a Mohel and a Kohen was found to (allegedly) be a non-Jew, who came to Israel to missionize Jews to Christianity. If true, what, now, must be done to "undo" the religious ceremonies he performed? The boys upon whom he performed a circumcision must have "tipat dam brit," a small drop of blood drawn from the area of the brit. Any couples he married must go through the ceremony again; the same applies to any Pidyon Ha-Ben at which he served as the "Kohen." The Tefilin & Mezuzot he wrote are invalid & must be replaced with kosher ones. As for his wife, who passed away & was buried in a Jewish cemetery, it is not absolutely required that she be re-interred in a non-Jewish cemetery; a divider may be placed around her grave, separating it from the other graves. And while it certainly is valid to financially assist both Jews & non-Jews, because money for the family was raised under false pretenses, those funds should be returned to the donors, if at all possible.
The class deals with the most common examples of mistakes or sins which we almost all do, some of which haven't changed, but we also point out those where historically there has been an interesting improvement over time.
Sometimes We Have No One to Blame But Ourselves & Our Imagination!
Rav Kook explains how fear and one's imagination often cause more damage than the problem itself. In fact, most of our problems we cause to ourselves, and if we made decisions based upon Godly logic and ideals, it would not only grant us a feeling of security, but in fact we would save ourselves from most problems, and surely the inflated or exaggerated ones.