Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Vayikra
- Emor
Rav Kook explains that as opposed to other religions who mainly turn to the clergy before and during the process of death (for all agree, when man does not understand a topic, it's "prime-time" to turn to religion or l'havdil, superstition) and there are "no atheists in the foxholes", we don't want our holiest people to be associated in our minds with death, but rather life.
Similarly, Rav Kook explains the kabbalistic custom that some WOMEN don't enter the cemetery, for they are ALL LIKE Kohanim, who should be preoccupied with conceiving & raising life, tahara, and not the opposite, tum'ah! Even though "death" is seemingly "part of life", all of Yisrael are called "ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש" (Shmot 19, 6), "a nation of Kohanim", likened to KOHANIM, because Am Yisrael lives forever and is preoccupied with -טהרה life, and the Living Torah.
Children inevitably focus on short-term pleasures, eating as much candy as possible, without thinking of cavities or diabetes. Contrarily, mature adults already know that long-term pleasure is more important than short-term. But Judaism says, why settle for third class (short-term) pleasure or even second class (long-term) pleasure, when one can opt for longer than long= ETERNAL pleasure which is first-class. The eternal G-d, created the eternal Israel, to live the eternal Torah in the eternal land of Israel. We focus on the eternal, and don't get hung up on death. Our enemies glorify death and the Shahid, but we fight our enemies for the sake of giving life to our eternal people & eternal Torah, yet even after death, there is "life after death".
The mitzvot bring a taste of that eternal Living Torah to our daily lives, but every child knows that just about all mitzvot are superseded by life itself (Shulchan Aruch Or. Ch. 329). We grow up with this as obvious, but the Samaritans will not drive in an ambulance on Shabbat nor will they eat on Yom Kippur even to save their lives! They say to us cynically "we are more religious than you, and do G-d's mitzvot even when it's hard, even if it really 'costs us' our lives". We answer that our Living Father is a מלך חפץ בחיים"", a King who desires life, who commands "וחי בהם ולא שימות בהם", "live by them [the mitzvot] and don't die by them" (Vayikra 18). Only the 3 cardinal sins, idolatry, murder and adultery [as the Maharal, Netzach Yisrael, ch. 5, p. 36, explains, which respectively correspond to the epitome of the 3 mitzvah categories: between man and G-d, man and man, and man and himself- his desires for making life], show us that life itself is meant for meaning. That same G-d is the One who created us with the survival instinct, the strongest of drives, to continue our life.
Apparently, Hashem has arranged that the most known Hebrew phrase in the world (unfortunately probably even more than "Shema Yisrael", and probably because of "Fiddler on the Roof"!), is "LeChaim"- "To Life", for we are in fact preoccupied with life. Shabbat Shalom! Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)
Rabbi Ari Shvat
Lectures at various yeshivot, michlalot and midrashot. Has published many books & Torani articles and is in charge of Rav Kook’s archives.
Ein Aya Why Judaism Respects the Corpse and the Dead- Eternity, Not Superstition
Ein Aya Shabat Chapter B Paragraph 52
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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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
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
