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Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
- Ki Tisa
Speech gives man special standing within creation, which consists of the inanimate, growing, living, and above that, speaking. When the Torah describes Adam’s passage from "living" to "speaking," it says "He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living spirit" (Bereishit 2:7). Onkelos translates this as: "… man became a speaking spirit." We note that the same root is used for the blowing that Hashem did to give us our soul, which comes "directly" from Him. Man’s spirit finds expression in practice in speech, as his "lips" give an outlet to his cognitive side. Rav Kook, in Orot Hatorah (1:2), wrote that the root of the Oral Law is higher than that of the Written Torah. Following in Rav Kook’s footsteps, we suggest that the expression Torah Sheb’al Peh (Oral Law, literally, on the mouth) stresses the importance of speech and its connection to the mouth. Since the mouth’s main job is to grant access to da’at, we can appreciate the pasuk "the lips of knowledge are the precious vessel."
Da’at is important even before it enters the physical world through the mouth. Thought is man’s way of connecting to the world that is beyond physicality. The more abstract a thought, the more transcendental it is. The great riddle is how someone who is "created from earth" can approach the Maker. The pasuk of Hashem blowing a soul into an earthen body is part of the paradox.
The answer is that thought allows us to connect to Torah, which is our entrée to "divine thought." It enables us to express our thoughts within the world of the Oral Law. Prophecy, which is an expression of great closeness to Hashem, is often called "davar," which shares a root with dibbur (speech). Yeshayahu prophesies that Mashiach will possess a spirit of Hashem, various types of wisdom, and fear of Hashem (11:2). He will usher in a period of da’at filling the land "like water covers the seabed" (ibid. 9). Our generation has thankfully seen a "flood" of Torah, with more people studying it seriously than ever before. The goal is to grow our connection to our Creator. At Creation, water covered the whole world and a divine spirit hovered over the water.
We now need to make the importance of Torah study not just clear to certain sectors, but to the whole nation. This requires that those who are involved in Torah join in the country’s security obligations, and thereby avoid a perception that a life of full-time Torah is a tool to receive special privileges. Rather, the da’at that the Torah engenders must spread great light and a special uniting between Hashem and His nation.
Rabbis in Midrash
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
