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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
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The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Asher ben Chaim
I have always felt that the interpretation lay in the fist part of Yaakov’s answer "I am." The core of Judaism is that a person must have an acute and accurate awareness of one’s self. If a person feels that he or she is only part of the herd and has little or no self-awareness then it is impossible to grow spiritually and intellectually. We have a tendency to judge ourselves through the prism of external factors. Wealth, age, appearance, career success, public opinion and other factors completely external to our true selves blind us to our true essence. The great rebbe of Kotzk, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgenstern (Halperin) stated: "If I am I and you are you, then I am I and you are you. But if I am you and you are me then I am not I and you are not you." Yaakov tells his father "I am"– I am I and not a creature of external forces, drives and ambitions. I am here because through me the Jewish people will be built. That is my essence and my soul and my mission in life. Eisav on the other hand is formed by purely external factors – jealousy, physical desires, violence, greed and station in life. His claim to fame is that he is your son but that is an external accomplishment not related to his true identity. The blessing to which I am entitled can in no way help Eisav for he has no permanent deep self-identity. He will live by the sword but no lasting holy people with a divine and eternal mission can be built from him. So "I am" is the correct response of Yaakov to his father Yitzchak.
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
