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Beit Midrash
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The most fundamental requirement is to somehow upload the link to the specific lesson on one's computer or phone and then to click on that link to join the learning session. Without having the link and clicking it one will never be able to hear what is being taught or benefit from the zoom session being conducted. This link is the essential ingredient to all the learning or entertainment projects that can exist on this electronic platform.
The phrase "just send me the link" has become part and parcel of our everyday conversation and mindset. Just a few short years ago, using such a phrase would only have incurred stares of wonder. Our society was not thinking in terms of links. However, among all the other immense changes that the Covid epidemic has created in our society, the realization that one must somehow find a specific link and click on it, is part of a new language and a different set of words and phrases. As such, let’s consider if we do not give proper weight to understanding the import of the links in our lives.
Judaism has always been based on links, the link to family and tradition, links to generations gone before us, and the links to eternal values and unchanging assessments of life and people. These constitute the bulk of thought and activity in every day Jewish existence. We see ourselves as being linked to the eternal chain first created by our father Abraham and continuing for millennia till our time.
Judaism values age, experience and, most importantly, links to the past, even more than it encourages the vitality and experiences of the young. We say in our prayers that we are grateful for the previous generations that have survived, so that we to are able to be connected and linked to the past, as far back as our father Abraham and our mother Sarah.
This linkage is vital to Jewish survival, both personally and nationally. One cannot participate in the eternal zoom lesson of the study of Torah and the performance of its commandments without somehow obtaining the link and clicking on it by ourselves.
When one is young, one rarely appreciates this type of generational connection. However, as one's years increase, it becomes apparent that one of the tasks of maturity is to provide that personal link that binds generations together and gives purpose and value to each individual life. For many Jews in our time, the tragedy of complete assimilation and the lack of any Jewish content in life is directly traceable to the fact that they never found the link and are cut off from their tradition by their secularism and hedonism.
The purpose of Jewish education, in my opinion, should be to impress upon the student throughout all the years of one's school experience, the necessity of finding their personal links and clicking on them. If one has the link, then there is no limit to what can be learned, understood, and creatively woven into the fabric of one's own personal life. However, if that necessary personal link is somehow unavailable, then school and knowledge become only a jumble of facts, opinions, boredom, and worse.
We are currently very careful that schools and classrooms should not infect their students with viruses and diseases of the body. We should be just as careful and vigilant that schools should not infect their students with moral viruses of unproven agendas, current political theories and correctness, and wildly impractical and utopian ideas and hopes. We cannot leave our younger generation without any link to the realities and experiences of past generations and to ancestors, that would leave them vulnerable to harmful teachings and opinions.
The truth is that every one of us, especially those of us who are blessed with being grandparents, should establish themselves as that link that is necessary to benefit from the spiritual and psychological zoom class that is currently available to all who are interested in finding and utilizing what constitutes their Jewish hertiage.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part II
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
Parashat Hashavua Happiness for the Right Reasons
[With painful longing, we share these divrei Torah from our co-Rosh Kollel for close to 40 years, Harav Moshe Ehrenreich zt”l.]
Israel and the Nations A Few Minutes & Many Innovative Ideas on Antisemitism & What to do About It
As we approach the High Holidays, this short lecture (18 minutes) deals with the unfortunate situation of how Israel and the Jewish People stand against antisemitism, analyzing its cause according to Rav Kook, and how to deal with the issue pragmatically & via our prayers.
Ha'azinu PURSUIT is PERFECTION
p. Ha'azinu, Shabbat Shuva
Rav Kook deals with the question of the seemingly hopeless nature of Tshuva. For G-d Himself knows that He created us with free will, which inevitably means we will sometimes make mistakes and choose wrong. This can easily be frustrating, freezing us into inaction and ye'ush (loss of hope). If one sins even once, does he chalila have no choice but suicide?! Moreover, our Godly conscience demands justice, righteousness and perfection, but we all know this is impossible, so what's the solution? Rav Kook's innovative thinking, strongly based on chazal (our sages), offers an inciteful and important aspect to this topic, especially this time of year!
Sukkot Bug-Free Sukkah: Essential Halachic and Practical Schach Guide
How to inspect, clean, and store bamboo mats and palm branches to protect your mitzvah and holiday meals.
