Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- Re'e
For those of us who have chosen to make Aliyah, we naturally feel a sense of accomplishment. However, Aliyah is just step one - and that’s exactly what Parshat Re’ay is telling us.
In this week’s Parsha, there are no longer discussions about whether Israel is the right place for the Jewish people - we’re past that, and the Parsha reflects that reality. "For you are crossing the Jordan to come and possess the land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you; you shall possess it and you shall settle it."
With this out of the way, the Parsha addresses why it is so important for the Jewish people to be in Israel. "Only at the place that Hashem, your G-d, will choose from among all of your tribes to place His name there, shall you seek out His presence and come there."
The Torah is, of course, referring to the Beit HaMikdash, the permanent resting place of G-d’s presence in this world, and the spiritual, cultural, religious and political center of the Jewish people.
There are many reasons to live in Israel. It’s nice, in December, to see Chanukiyot instead of Christmas trees, and to hear people speaking Hebrew, Lashon HaKodesh, everywhere one goes.
However, the Torah is telling us that there is a fundamental reason for living in Israel, more important than simply being part of the majority culture. Only in the Land of Israel is the destiny and future of the Jewish people being played out, and only those living here have the ability to take an active role in making it happen.
It’s time to get off the sidelines, and start becoming relevant to the Jewish future!
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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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)
