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Eve of Sunday 7 Cheshvan 5787

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  • Torah Portion and Tanach
  • Bereshit
  • Noach
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Everyone – but everyone! – is familiar with the story of Noach, the Great Flood, the enormous Ark & the 2-by-2 march of the animals aboard (Noach was the 1st person to say not only "Baruch Hashem," but All Aboard!) But there is another episode in this week's sedra that is lesser known, yet is tremendously significant. That is the story of Migdal Bavel, the Tower of Babylon. It's not clear what the builders of this massive tower did wrong. Says the Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 38:6) “The sin of the generation of the flood is explicit in the text, but for the generation of the dispersion the text is vague & does not clarify the sin.” In fact, Rashi says the builders had the qualities of "love, mutual friendship & great unity." Some say that their sin was that they had less a love of people than of industry & materialism. Others say they were so impressed with themselves that they attempted to build a bridge up to Heaven, where they'd symbolically, or even literally, battle against G-d (thus they put an idol at the tower's top). But I believe there is a deeper message. After the Flood - when so many individuals had become corrupted & perverse - the leaders of the next generation decided they would create a single community. Strictly, harshly ruled, everyone there would abide by the same rules; diversity would be a vice, rather than a virtue. There, literally, "everyone spoke the same language." Their symbol? The tower; one was permitted to live only where the tower could be seen from their home. But G-d did not approve. Hashem wanted people to spread out, to fill the entire Earth, to experience & partake of all the amazing beauty which He had created. All of this was done for our benefit, so as to be able to say, "Mah rabu ma'asecha Hashem." And so, to facilitate this goal, G-d mixed the languages, as that is the primary key allowing people to develop their own communities. But this was just Step 1 in Hashem's master plan. Step #2 was Avraham. He would enter a world that was now widespread, & he & Sara would set about teaching all of these places & peoples about G-d & about the spiritual, moral thread that ties all of humanity together. And we, the descendants of Avraham, are Step #3. We, too, have the task of not only practicing holiness our-selves, but spreading that Kedusha worldwide. We must be the example – the "tower" - that all the world sees & through us, comes to know of G-d & the G-dly way to act. Then, & only then, will Hashem's name literally be One. ASK THE RABBI: WHY DO ISRAEL & THE DIASPORA ASK FOR RAIN AT DIFFERENT TIMES? On Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah at Musaf, we began to ask for rain with the prayer Mashiv Ha-Ruach U'Morid Ha-Gashem. On October 18th – 7 MarCheshvan, we in Israel will insert an additional petition for rain, V'tayn tal u'matar, in the Amida's "Barech Aleynu" bracha. Here we ask for Hashem's sustenance, which is linked to rain & much needed at this time in Israel. The sage Shmuel set the Diaspora petition to begin on the 60th day after the autumnal equinox, when rain was needed in Babylonia. This is a solar figure that falls on either Dec. 4 or 5; this remains the date for all Diaspora locales. One who forgets this petition must repeat the Amida. If in doubt, he must go back again, unless he has said this phrase for 30 days (or repeated it 90 times) so as to habituate himself to saying it. An Israeli who began to say V'tayn tal u'matar & then travels abroad continues to say it there as well – unless he serves as the Chazan (& then he follows the majority & their custom).
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  • Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed
     Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed
  • Rabbi Avraham Shapira Zt"l
     Rabbi Avraham Shapira Zt"l
  • Rabbi Yinon Grossberg
     Rabbi Yinon Grossberg
  • Rabbi David Dudkevitz
     Rabbi David Dudkevitz
  • Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli zt"l
     Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli zt"l
  • Rabbi Shabbtai Sabbato
     Rabbi Shabbtai Sabbato
  • Rabbi Ya'akov Shapira
     Rabbi Ya'akov Shapira
  • Rabbi Simcha Kook ZT"L
     Rabbi Simcha Kook ZT"L
  • Rabbi Hillel Geffen
     Rabbi Hillel Geffen
  • Rabbi Shlomo Shushan
     Rabbi Shlomo Shushan
  • FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
    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.

    Rabbi Ari Shvat | Cheshvan 17, 5787
  • Preventing Another Flood
    Noach

    Preventing Another Flood

    Rabbi Moshe Leib Halberstadt | 5 Cheshvan 5785
  • David’s Falling Sukka and its Connection to Noach’s Ark – part I
    Parashat Hashavua

    David’s Falling Sukka and its Connection to Noach’s Ark – part I

    Rabbi Yossef Carmel
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 26
    26 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 26

    R' Eli Stefansky | 3 Cheshvan 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 25
    32 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 25

    R' Eli Stefansky | 2 Cheshvan 5786
  • The Heroism of Ordinary Life
    Lech Lecha

    The Heroism of Ordinary Life

    Lech Lecha 5787

    Lech Lecha 5787

    Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Z"tl
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 24
    26 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 24

    R' Eli Stefansky | 1 Cheshvan 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 23
    31 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 23

    R' Eli Stefansky | 30 Tishrei 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 22
    29 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 22

    R' Eli Stefansky | 29 Tishrei 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 21
    30 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 21

    R' Eli Stefansky | 28 Tishrei 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 20
    26 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 20

    R' Eli Stefansky | 27 Tishrei 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 19
    34 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 19

    R' Eli Stefansky | 26 Tishrei 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 18
    29 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 18

    R' Eli Stefansky | 25 Tishrei 5786
  • A Story of Heaven and Earth
    Noach

    A Story of Heaven and Earth

    Noach 5787

    Noach 5787

    Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Z"tl
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 17
    36 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 17

    R' Eli Stefansky | 24 Tishrei 5786
  • FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
    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.

    Rabbi Ari Shvat | Tishrei 23, 5787
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 16
    39 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 16

    R' Eli Stefansky | 23 Tishrei 5786
  • Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 15
    23 min
    Bechorot

    Daf Yomi Bechoros Daf 15

    R' Eli Stefansky | 22 Tishrei 5786
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