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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
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Somehow, Avraham suppresses his doubt along with all its moral dilemmas, & reacts to Hashem’s command with Emuna Sh'lema. The man who discovered G-d through deductive reasoning, logic & common sense must now put all those aside & activate his element of pure Faith.
But Avraham is not the only hero of this story. Yitzchak - no mere "lad" at age 37 - also submits to Hashem’s will. At one point he asks (sheepishly?), "where is the lamb for the offering?" but then he accepts Avraham’s assurance that "G-d will show us the lamb." Fittingly, this episode is called, "Akeidat YITZCHAK" (and not "Nisayon Avraham) in Yitzchak's name and honor.
Approaching Har HaMoriah, Avraham sees glowing clouds ringing the place of the Akeida, future home of the Bet HaMikdash & he asks Yitzchak, "Do you see the place?" Yitzchak says he does. Avraham then asks Yishmael & Eliezer, but they see nothing! So they stay behind with the donkey, as father & son go forward. The pasuk then dramatically declares: "The two of them walked together."
This Shabbat is our beloved Ari z"l’s Bar Mitzva parsha. I am thinking of all the parents who brought their children to Israel, to live in this "challenging" neighborhood, to fight like lions in our holy army against the enemies of Am Yisrael. These parents deserve enormous credit for answering the command of Hashem to come here with their families, despite all the risks that this entails.
But it is the children, the "Yitzchaks" of our people who risk their lives. They are the ones who face the knife as they selflessly defend us, who "tie" themselves down for several years while other kids their age around the world go on with simpler, safer lives. Somehow, like Yitzchak, they, too, see what the others do not see, they perceive the mountain of Hashem that must be climbed.
It is in their great z’chut that the foundation of the future – and the final Bet HaMikdash - is being built here & now. May we & they "walk together" as we proceed to Geula Shlema.
Rabbis in Midrash
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
