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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- Re'e
The holy days of the Jewish calendar appear in detail in this week’s parsha. In the Land of Israel these holy days had a physical and agricultural content as well as the inherent spiritual nature of all Jewish special days. In the long and dark Jewish exile the physical and agricultural aspect of the holidays was lost but the remaining spiritual and holy qualities of those days nevertheless sustained the Jewish people. The early pioneers who returned to the Land of Israel, secularized and Marxist to the hilt but nonetheless Jewish, attempted to reinsert the physical and agricultural qualities of the holidays of the year and at the same time to discard completely the spiritual and Torah qualities of those days. Unfortunately, that experiment has proved to be a dismal failure. The holidays are bereft of any spiritual content and also of any agricultural or national meaning. Moshe would caution us to begin again, to include life and good and tradition into the holy days so that they would have true meaning and impact and to revive through them our attachment to this holy land and its bountiful produce. I think that the revival of the true spirit of the holidays is one of the great challenges that face us in our land today. In its own way it is a key to solving many of the difficulties that bedevil us currently. Moshe bids us only to look clearly at all of these matters and to decide wisely.
Rabbis in Midrash
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D'varim Judaism’s Social Vision
Re’eh
Giving is more than an act of generosity—it is an essential part of human dignity that belongs to everyone, rich and poor alike. The ultimate goal of help is to empower others to stand on their own.
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.
