Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- D'varim
- Ki Tavo
By the simple review of the past events of the lasr seventy years of Jewish life, we are able to see clearly how these absolutely irreconilable and opposite events and moods can exist in simultaneous disharmony. The Holocaust was the complete fulfillment, down to the last horrid detail, of the prophecy foretelling the tochacha. Rashi points out that no one in the world would be ready to accept the Jews within their homes and borders, even as laborers and servants. Death would be the only acceptable solution to the "Jewish problem." As Moshe will state later in the book of Dvarim " the hidden things are known to God our Lord alone" but nevertheless "what is revealed to us that we must persevere and observe the words and commandments of the Torah for us and our descendants." So we can only accept the tochacha as a reality and not attempt tortured explanations and justifications.
However, the idea of the return of the people of Israel to the Land of Israel has also been translated into reality over the past decades. And we read in this week's parsha, a Jew who is priveleged to share in the bounty and blessing of the Land of Israel is obligated to make a public acknowledgement of one's gratitude and thanks to the God of Israel for living in such a time and place. The Torah teaches us to abhor ingratitude.
Life provides all of us with ample annoyances and problems to cause us discomfort. This is as true in the Land of Israel as anywher else. I have just returned from the United States where I experienced Israelis who now live there sheepishly tell me that their quality of life is no better if not even somewhat worse in New York than it was in Jerusalem. Most people are distracted by the mundane and eventually unimportant aspects of daily life.
The Torah bids us to view life in a broader perspective and more meaningful fashion. God wishes, so to speak, a more sophisticated and wise appreciation of the gifts granted us by Him. In our time, the Land of Israel is one of the greatest gifts granted unto us. We cannot be guilty of treating it with ingratitude and complaint, no matter the frustrations and problems of everyday life here. Balancing the polarities of the messages of the parsha remain a great challenge to us. May we be worthy of that challenge and its solutions.
Rabbis in Midrash
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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
