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It is never a good policy to question God's will. Yet our Sages tried to understand how it happened that Elimelech and his family encountered such tragedy. How does a noble Jewish family, steeped in the traditions of Torah, disintegrate into nothingness? Rashi makes an insightful comment: It was a time of famine when many were starving and in need. Elimelech was a provider in his generation, a leader in the community both by virtue of his family lineage and his affluence.
But when too many people knocked on his door, he copped out. He abdicated his responsibilities, abandoned his community in Judea and fled. This was his undoing! His children saw this and learned from him how to shirk responsibility. And he couldn't have taught them better. He must have rationalized his behavior to his two sons, and explained to them that it was for THEIR welfare and THEIR benefit that he fled Israel and made the sacrifice of living in Moab. Elimelech must have known all the excuses. But you can't fool your own children. If Elimelech was able to abandon his responsibilities to the Jewish community, then it became kosher for his children to abandon Judaism and to marry Moabite women. If a father can abandon the Land of Israel in its hour of need, then why wonder that his children can abandon the Children of Israel?
Should we not be thinking of ways to make our OWN lives, our love and concern for the Land of Israel and the People of Israel more fully Jewish in both form and content, so that we are fully worthy of respect and emulation from our children?
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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)
