Parashat 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.
“Economic Difficulty”- the Most Common Excuse for Not Making Aliya
Part I
In many cases, Aliya to Israel involves lowering the standard of living. How much does one need to lower their standard of living in order to fulfill the commandment of living in Israel?
For many, this most basic question will formulate their decision whether to be religious-Zionists or not. Interestingly, the Rambam explains the celebration of Chanuka as thanks to Hashem for 200 years of Israeli Independence, even though the Maccabean Dynasty was not from the tribe of Judah and for most of that period was not religious! Why is it so important to have a Jewish State, even if not the ideal one?
A few days later, a royal emissary of the Empress Maria Teresa appeared at the rabbi’s home. The surprised rabbi realized that the wealthy Jew had broken the convention by which Jews did not involve non-Jews in their inner disputes. He had no choice.
Why is Torah study the most important commandment in the Torah? How does one fulfill this Mitzvah? Just how much Torah must one know? Rabbi Eliezer Melamed addresses these and other questions in his distinctly clear style.