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- Torah Portion and Tanach
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- Nitzavim
This Year, Rosh Hashana Falls Out On Shabbat & Sunday. Though The Torah Mandates The Blowing Of The Shofar Whenever Rosh Hashana Falls Out, & The Shofar Was Indeed Sounded On Shabbat In Biblical Days When Rosh Hashana Was Only 1 Day, Today We Do Not Blow Shofar 1st Day/shabbat. The Rabbis, Exercising Their Mandate To Make Binding Decisions Crucial To Jewish Survival, Decided To Push Off The Tekiot Until Sunday, Second Day Rosh Hashana, To Safeguard The Sanctity Of Shabbat, Which They Feared Might Be Violated.
With All The Serious Issues This Raises About Rabbinic Responsibility & The Vital Importance Of Shabbat, There Is Another Sentiment Here That Should Not Be Lost On Us. As Crucial As It Is To Hear The Majestic Notes Of The Shofar, Sometimes It Is Equally Important To Take Note Of The Notes Which Are Missing & Which Are Absent; To Ponder Not Only What We Have, But Also That Which Is Lacking In Our Lives.
This Is A Common Theme In Judaism: At The Seder Table, We Customarily Leave A Chair Empty For Eliyahu, For Until Moshiach Comes, We Cannot Completely Celebrate. At Every Chupa We Break A Glass, To Remind Us That However Great Our Joy Is At This Simcha, The Loss & Lack Of The Bet Hamikdash Is Very Much In Our Hearts. And At Each Of The Shalosh R’galim & On Yom Kippur, We Do Not Complete The Festivities Until We Remember Those Who Are Physically No Longer Part Of Our Lives, But Yet Whose Spirit Permeates Everything We Are & Do; For What Is Yomtov Without Yizkor?
And Before The Yamim Noraim, We Are Told To Do 2 Things: Seek Peace & Reconciliation With Neighbors And Family Members - & Visit The Graves Of The Righteous. Those Who Live Among Us, And Those Who Reside Beyond Us.
And So Now We Understand. As Moshe Gathers His Beloved People At His Side, His Own Life Slipping Away, He Reminds Us That We Are Much More Than Just The Reflection We See When We Look In The Mirror. We Are The Product Of Those Who Bore Us, Who Shaped Our Lives, Who Loved Us So Deeply And May Have Moved On To Higher Life; & We Also Bear Responsibility For Those Who Will Descend From Us, Learn From Us, Inherit From Us. We Are Bound Together Not Only With Those Standing Here Today, But Also With Those Who Are Not Here.
All These Lovers And Friends, I Still Can Recall; Some Are Dead & Some Are Living; In My Life, I've Loved Them All.
On This Last Shabbat Of The Year, As We Approach The Coming New Year, May Hashem Remember Us & Our Loved Ones - Past, Present And Future - For Good.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss
Was ordained at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, and led congregations in Chicago and Dallas prior to making Aliyah in 1992. He directs the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra'anana, helping to facilitate the spiritual absorption of new olim.
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
