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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- The Tenth of Tevet
- Yom Hakaddish Haklali
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Jewish Holidays
- Yom Haatzmaut
Thus even though the present does not exactly mirror the past any longer, nevertheless the problems and dangers of the past must be taken into account in formulating present behavior and halachic decision.
The concept in Judaism is that even though we may have computers and cell phones today and our ancestors were not so equipped, nevertheless the lessons of our ancestors and their safeguards in Jewish and general life should not be easily dismissed today.
The Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer, taught us that for every apparent reason used to explain why a rabbinic decree was originally legislated and enforced there are many hidden and subtle reasons that also exist that justify the existence of that decree.
Therefore, merely stating that circumstances have changed and that the stated reason for the decree no longer applies, in no way invalidates the decree itself since all of these unknown and almost prophetic reasons for the decree still exist.
One of these reasons is the idea mentioned earlier - perhaps the situation that exists today will somehow revert back to the same one that existed at the time of the original formulation of the decree.
The circumstances surrounding the Jewish people changed drastically sixty years ago after the Holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel. Jews had a sense that the world would never allow another such Holocaust to recur. Israel and the Israelis were seen as brave, progressive, heroic and justified in defense of their lives and their land.
The state was granted legitimacy by the United Nations and by much of the world. It was a fairly heady time for Jews. Open anti-Semitism was no longer socially and academically acceptable and individual Jews rose in growing numbers to power, wealth and influence undreamt of a century earlier.
Jews in the United States felt so much a part of American society that they no longer classified themselves as belonging to a minority group. Thus forty million Hispanics and thirty million African-Americans are officially characterized as belonging to minority groups while five million American Jews are not!
The state of Israel grew and developed and was seemingly the strongest power, militarily and economically, in its area and amongst its immediate neighbors.
All of this allowed for a weakening of faith in ourselves and for complacency that minimized outside threats and internal betrayals of purpose and policy. People, especially in the media and academia, Jews and non-Jews, began to enter the "post" period of thought.
Post-Zionism, post-Jewish solidarity, post-anti-Semitism but present supposedly legitimate anti-Israel complaints, post-Torah observances, post Jewish uniqueness and choseness, in short - the past was gone and we now live in a new world where we don’t fear the pogroms, bigotry and dangers that once were our daily lot.
But a strange thing occurred in our brave new world. The old world, about which the rabbis of the Talmud warned us somehow returned. Existential danger to the Jewish state from Moslem fundamentalism, anti-Semitic verbal, physical and media attacks, have returned all over Europe.
It has again become fashionable in many circles to blame the Jews for all of the world’s ills. The rhetoric against Israel and Jews today has returned to the levels of the 1920’s just prior to Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.
There are many, including those in powerful governing positions in the Jewish world, who somehow still prefer whistling past the graveyard. But the rabbis of the Talmud in their wisdom always warned us that the old can and oftentimes does return again to haunt and confound us.
History has a bite and a sting to it, especially Jewish history. In this season of remembrance of the Holocaust and of commemoration of the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel sixty years ago we should view our current Jewish world through the prism of that past Jewish world.
Circumstances are never the same from one generation to the next. But problems, dangers and weaknesses have a tendency to be consistent and repetitive.
The wise and prudent will always heed the advice of the Talmud and remember that the past situations may yet occur again and we should therefore be prepared somehow to deal with such possibilities.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
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.
