Female LessonParashat HashavuaSeries'LibraryPiskei Din (Hebrew)Test YourselfIt Is A Torah Mitzvah To Hear The Shofar On Rosh Hashana (Though Not On Shabbat, Which Is The 1st Day Of Rh This Year), Consisting Of 3 Teruot, With An Added Sound Before & After Each Teruah (A Simple Tekiya). In All, This Would Be A Total Of 9 Shofar Blasts. But Since There Are 3 Types Of Terua Shevarim (Akin To Sighing), Teruah (Akin To Crying) & Shevarim-teruah (A Combination Of Both), Our Custom Is To Add These Sounds And So Hear At Least Thirty Shofar Blasts (Shevarim-teruah Are Considered Two Blasts). An Enhancement Of The Mitzva (For A Total Of 60 Blasts) Is To Sound The Shofar During The Chazan’s Repetition Of Musaf. Some Rabbis Went Further, Increasing The Mitzva To 100 Blasts (Or 101 For Sefardim), Including During The Silent Amida. It Was The Ari Hakadosh Who Spread This Minhag To Most Jewish Communities. In Cases Of Illness Or Extenuating Circumstances, Sounding 30 Or 60 Shofar Blasts Would Be Halachically Proper And Absolutely Fulfills The Mitzva.
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!