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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bamidbar
- Shlach Lecha
- Family and Society
- The Land of Israel
- Additional Lessons
The Law makes demands upon those who live here. It has, to speak, a very delicate digestive system, and the land rejects, after a period, behavior that is detrimental to creating a viable and moral society. Yet, the attachment of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is so strong that it has been able to survive centuries of separation, conquest, and exile.
Whatever period of history you choose, Jews always lived in the land of Israel, and some Jews lived there even vicariously. The Jews never forgot that they were strangers in alien countries, and if some of them did forget, the societies that they lived in eventually reminded them that they were, after all, only strangers and outsiders. All this serves as a backdrop to the spies who appear in this week's Torah reading.
Over the centuries, there are many reasons given by the commentators as to why the spies returned with such a negative report, with twisted positive facts into potential calamities and disasters. But one of the main and cogent reasons for this behavior was the ambivalent fear that has always existed within Jewish society, i.e., to commit to national existence in the land of Israel, independent of the blandishments and seeming advantages of physical life under different circumstances.
The fear and trepidation exhibited by the spies, when Moshe confidently said to bring back a report about the land of Israel, did not die with that generation of doubters in the desert. I am not speaking here of immigration to the land of Israel today, or entering the process of Aliyah. Rather, I am addressing an attitude that exists in almost all sections of the Jewish world outside of the land of Israel. That attitude is the commitment involved in living in the land of Israel, a justified concern regarding the spiritual and social commitment necessary to successfully live as a Jew in the land of Israel.
It is this challenge, more than anything else, that shook the spies and turned them into slanderers There are many of these same personalities, unfortunately, that still exists today in the Jewish world. There are Jewish organizations as well as individuals who are in the forefront of anti-Israel movements and programs, not politically driven, but rather an expression of the ambivalence that prevails within the souls besetting Jews in our time. The results of the behavior of the spies should be a sobering reminder regarding the dangers of slandering the land of Israel and the Jewish population.
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.
