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64 days ago
BS”D The sun is already beginning to set in the western sky. As the precious final minutes of the holiest day of the year slip away, we reach one of its celebrated high points - the haftorah reading which relates the story of Jonah and the whale. This famous yet thoroughly baffling story opens with Hashem sending Jonah as a divine messenger to the huge Assyrian metropolis of Ninveh. The city had descended to a level of decadence that was simply intolerable, and destruction was imminent. Only immediate repentance would bring about a reprieve. Jonah, however, does not want to undertake this mission, and he attempts to flee from Hashem. He books passage on a ship which will carry him far away from Ninveh, but a sudden storm threatens to tear the ship apart. The sailors cast lots, and Jonah is tossed into the sea, where he is swallowed by a whale. From the belly of the whale, Jonah cries out to Hashem in anguish and despair and pleads for deliverance. Hashem answers Jonah’s prayer. The ...
148 days ago
BS”D PARASHAS CHUKAS Miriam’s Well Without water, life cannot survive. Nonetheless, millions of Jewish people survived in the parched and barren desert for forty years. How was this possible? Only through a miracle. During their travels through the desert, the Jewish people were accompanied by a rock from which an abundant supply of water constantly flowed. It was called Miriam’s Well, because it existed in the merit of Moses’ older sister Miriam, who was a righteous woman and a prophetess in her own right. In this week’s portion, we read about Miriam’s death only months before the entry of the Jewish people into the Holy Land. The Torah also tells us that Miriam’s Well ceased to function after she died, and the people were faced with a critical water shortage. They besieged Moses and demanded that he provide water for them, for otherwise they would die. God told Moses to take his staff in hand and speak to the rock. Instead of speaking, however, Moses struck the rock with his staff. ...
169 days ago
A Taste of Heaven by Rabbi Naftali Reich~Ohr Somayach It didn’t cost anything. They didn’t have to work for it. They didn’t even have to go anywhere to pick it up. For the entire forty years the Jewish people spent in the desert, they did not have to worry about where their next meal was coming from. It fell from the heavens in the form of manna. When they stepped out of their tents in the morning, there it was, covering the fields like a shimmering crystalline blanket on a bed of moist dew. And what a food it was! King David called it “the bread of angels.” Our Sages tell us it provided perfect nutrition, every last molecule being absorbed into the body, with no wastes whatsoever. Our Sages also tell us that this wonderful manna contained the tastes of all the foods. It seems the Jewish people enjoyed an ideal situation in the desert. They were free to pursue intellectual and spiritual goals without being distracted by such mundane concerns as making a living. What more could ...
211 days ago
Kedoshim (Leviticus 19-20) How To Be Holy Parshat Kedoshim begins with the commandment to "Be holy." How do we achieve holiness? Nachmanides explains that holiness is the result of exercising restraint in areas that are permitted to you. For example, let's say a person keeps kosher. It may be no great challenge for him to refrain from eating a ham sandwich. But the question is: When he sits down to eat kosher food, what is his frame of mind: Does he pronounce a blessing with concentration, appreciating God's gift of bounty? Does he eat slowly and with dignity? Does he focus on the fact that the ultimate purpose of food is to nourish the body - in order to have strength to do good deeds? The story is told of the Baal Shem Tov, the great kabbalist, who looked out the window and saw his neighbor sitting at the dinner table. In the eyes of the Baal Shem Tov, the neighbor appeared not as a human, but as an ox. The neighbor was ...
310 days ago
There are times in our lives that we see G-d from afar. What do I mean by that? There are times that even though we realize and recognize that G-d runs the world and that everything happens from a reason, we lack the clarity of a certain situation or cycle in our lives. I learned this week from A shir from Rabbi Eli Mansour that the greatest in Tanach have asked them selves this same question. As a matter of a fact Moshe Rabbeinu our greatest leader asked himself the same thing. When he goes up to Sinai and receives the 10 commandments from G-d he asks to see his face. Hashem responded that He would show Moshe His back, for no living mortal would be able to see His face and live.The chachamim (wise men) are puzzled as to why at the peak of clarity Moshe would ask this question or better yet what was he really asking with the question? We learn the same in Last weeks Parashat Shemot; the medrash tells us that Amram and yochebed Moshe's parents decided to get a divorce. Miriam ...
