Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Sections
- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Vayikra
- Emor
Our mentor, Rav Shaul Yisraeli, zt"l, was one the Jewish leaders, who immediately understood the events’ great significance. He wrote about why it is so important to commemorate, celebrate, and thank Hashem on a day that was to be set aside for the re-establishment of a Jewish state, and why 5 Iyar, the day we declared our independence is important. (See Eretz Hemdah, vol. I, 1:6.)
The Chief Rabbinate at the time of Rav Herzog and Rav Uziel set the order of prayers for this occasion. At the evening prayers, we recite two mizmorei Tehillim that refer to the time of the coming of Mashiach and are part of Kabbalat Shabbat (97-98), along with three stanzas from "Lecha Dodi," written by Rav Shlomo Alkebetz, a student and friend of Rav Yosef Karo. Why did the initiators of Kabbalat Shabbat (16th century Safed) choose these psalms, and what messages are embedded in Lecha Dodi?
After the tragedy of the Expulsion from Spain, there was a spirit of anticipating liberation in the community led by Rav Yaakov Beirav, and Safed became a center of "revealed" and "hidden" Torah. Practical steps toward creating an independent state to be led by Mashiach were still just a dream, as any actions in this direction could have caused harsh reactions by the new rulers of the Land, the Ottomans. The psalms that Rav Moshe Kordavero chose for Kabbalat Shabbat deal with the coming of Mashiach, along with references to the past liberation, from Egypt. While these songs did not openly call for steps toward liberation, they safely hinted at increasing the yearnings. Shabbat was the "cover" for the feelings, with a double meaning that the Times to Come are "the times that are all Shabbat and rest forever." Lecha Dodi went further in mixing between Shabbat and liberation, using the motif of the marriage between the beloved and his/His bride, as described in Shir Hashirim. This wedding is to occur in a flourishing Land of Israel, as described there. So we can call Lecha Dodi a song about Shabbat and an "underground song" about the coming of Mashiach.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
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
