Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
- Vayera
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Rachel Bat Yakut
The destruction of Sodom leaves a deep imprint on Avraham. It helps shape his attitude towards his son Yitzchak. He eschews the choice of the many - of Yishmael and the children of Keturah - in favor of the lonely good and pious son Yitzchak. That is perhaps the message of God to Avraham when He told him: "For through Yitzchak [alone] will you have true descendants." One Yitzchak eventually is able to counter - in God’s inscrutable reckoning of merits and salvation millions of evildoers - no matter how well pedigreed those evildoers claim to be. Sodom eventually is destroyed by its own innate lack of goodness and of a dearth of pious citizens. But Avraham and Yitzchak, small in numbers and opposed by most of the world, will continue to flourish and proclaim the values of goodness and righteousness in the general world. The prophet Yeshayahu characterizes Avraham as "echad" - one, unique, alone, singular. That description is to be interpreted positively and not as a complaint or source of weakness or pessimism. In a world of the many it is the few that really matter. The lord told us long ago in the book of Dvarim that we would be the fewest of all people. Yet in our influence and strength of spirit we are as numerous as are the stars in heaven. This inner realization of ourselves and our role in God’s plan for human existence and growth marks us as the true children of Avraham and gives us hope even in a world where Sodom appears all powerful.
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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.
