|  | | With the revelation at Sinai something unprecedented entered the human horizon. It would take centuries, millennia, before its full implications were understood. | | | | | |  | Judaism is a complex faith. There is no one Torah model of leadership. We are each called on to fill a number of leadership roles.
| | | | | |  | | True freedom is the ability to control oneself without having to be controlled by others. | | | | | |  | | The primary way in which we encounter God is not through miracles but through His word. | | | | | | | | | Who is a leader? To this, the Jewish answer is, one who identifies with his or her people, mindful of their faults, to be sure, but convinced also of their potential greatness and their preciousness in the sight of God. | | | | | |  | | Jacob sought to signal to all future generations that there would be a constant tension between the desire to forget and the promptings of memory. | | | | | |  | | However great an individual may be in virtue of his or her natural character, greater still is one who is capable of growth and change. | | | | | |  | | Those who stand before God need no disguises to achieve self-worth when standing before mankind. | | | | | |  | | Jews are the people who refused to be comforted because they never gave up hope. | | | | | |  | | A people capable of feeling distress, even in victory, is one that knows the tragic complexity of the moral life. Sometimes it is not enough to make the right choice. One must also fight to create a world in which such choices do not arise. | | | | | |  | | There is an element of the religious life that is beyond conscious control. It comes out of nowhere, when we are least expecting it. If Abraham represents our journey towards God, and Isaac our dialogue with God, Jacob signifies God's encounter with us - unplanned, unscheduled, unexpected. | | | | | |  | | The future affects our understanding of the past. We are part of a story whose last chapter has not yet been written. | | | | | |  | | Faith does not mean passivity. It means the courage to act and never to be deterred. | | | | | |  | | You cannot worship impersonal forces and remain a person: compassionate, humane, generous, forgiving. | | | | | |  | | To be a parent in Judaism is to make space within which a child can grow. Astonishingly, this applies even when the parent is God. | | | | | |  | | Is there such a thing as an objective basis of morality? | | | | | |  | | Could we understand the history of Israel without its prehistory, the stories of Abraham and Sarah and their children? | | | | | |  | | The lulav and etrog are weapons of war and the fact that we hold them shows us to be the victors. But in what contest? And how are these plants to be viewed as weapons? | | | | | |  | Moses mediated with God, performed signs and wonders, gave the people its laws, fought with them when they sinned, fought for them when praying for Divine forgiveness, gave his life to them and had his heart broken by them when repeatedly they failed to live up to his great expectations.
| | | | | |  | | The Koran calls Jews "the people of the Book." That is a great understatement. The whole of Judaism is an extended love story between a people and a book - between Jews and the Torah. | | | | | |  | | We are part of a story that began long before we were born and will continue long after we are no longer here, and the question for all of us is: will we continue the story? | | | | | |  | | God is not a tyrant but a teacher. He seeks not just our obedience but also our understanding. | | | | | |  | | The greatest source of sin is to forget we are children of the king. And the mark of royalty is humility. | | | | | |  | Hatred and liberty cannot coexist. A free people does not hate its former enemies; if it does, it is not yet ready for freedom.
| | | | | |  | | How are we to know what is good in God's eyes? | | | | | |  | | The Exodus from Egypt to Israel wasn't merely a physical redemption from agonizing enslavement, but it also represented a deeper philosophical departure. | | | | | |  | | There is a Talmudic maxim that "a non-Jew who converts to Judaism is legally considered newly reborn." | | | | | |  | The Talmud states that when we leave this life and arrive at the world to come, the first question we will be asked will not be a conventionally religious one but rather, Did you act honestly in business?
| | | | | |  | | We have seen how every second of life is infinitely precious. Yet we often think that little can be achieved in a few minutes here or there. | | | | | |  | | God who knows all may execute sentence without a trial, but we, being human, may not. There are forms of justice that are God's domain, not ours. | | | | | |  | | Many times in life we are convinced that we know what we need, and we become upset when circumstances don't work out the way that we had hoped and we can't get what we wanted. | | | | | |  | | A leader is not one who holds himself higher than those he or she leads. That, in Judaism, is a moral failing not a mark of stature. The absence of hierarchy does not mean the absence of leadership. An orchestra still needs a conductor. A play still needs a director. A team still needs a captain. | | | | | |  | In relating that Moshe sent spies to scout out the land of Israel, the Torah refers to the spies using the expression "anashim." Why is this word used?
| | | | | | | | People become what their leader gives them the space to become. When that space is large, they grow into greatness.
| | | | | |  | | The Jewish marriage is a spiritual phenomenon, and the rules that govern its initiation and dissolution are to be regarded and studied in the light of the proper way to deal with spiritual phenomena and not in terms of the management of physical arrangements. | | | | | |  | The Torah is not mere history as a sequence of events. The Torah is about the truths that emerge through time.
| | | | | |  | Even in the darkest times, after enduring the most inhumane suffering fathomable, although we may not be accorded respect by our oppressors, our intrinsic worth in God's eyes is eternal and unchanging.
| | | | | |  | As the laws of nature require every living thing to eventually die, why is human nature to mourn the death of a loved one, sad as it may be, with such intensity when we mentally recognize that it is inevitable?
| | | | | |  | As Jews, whenever we encounter a value judgment, we ought to investigate what God has to say on the matter.
| | | | | |  | To a person looking up into the night sky, each star appears very small. However, if a person could approach a star, he would find that the closer he gets to it, the larger it appears. Similarly, when viewed from a distance, it is easy to dismiss another Jew as invaluable and worthless.
| | | | | |  | | The mystics tell us that in Egypt, not just the Jews, but speech itself was in exile. This means that when the redemption came, the mouth, too, was redeemed, enabling it to speak again. | | | | | |  | The insidiousness of thoughts or fantasies of sin is that the physical/animal has attained dominion over the spiritual, and the battle is thus lost before it is begun.
| | | | | |  | | The modern mind has difficulty relating to the idea of offering such sacrifices to God; we cannot help regarding the ceremonious butchering of animals as barbaric, a practice that belongs to a more primitive age. Yet we Jews pray for the rebuilding of the Temple and the reinstatement of animal sacrifices three times daily. | | | | | |  | All Jews are lamps; they are the carriers of the Divine flame and they were given the task to light up the world. Fusing all the individual Jewish flames into a single fire whose intense luminosity can dispel the darkness of the world forms the social unity of the Congregation of Israel.
| | | | | |  | When a person studies Torah and forgets it, he shouldn't become despondent and feel that his efforts were wasted, as the Torah that he learned still serves to purify and uplift his soul so that he will better be able to understand the Torah.
| | | | | |  | The Torah recognizes that the primary criterion for evaluating wisdom lies in the ability to connect one's mind, and the information stored therein, with his heart, which guides his actions.
| | | | | |  | | It is somewhat strange that Judaism should prescribe a pair of cherubs - rendered in human form - in the holiest of places. After all, what is the difference between the cherubs and the golden calf? | | | | | |  | The body's drives prevent the soul from expressing its full potential. Only when we completely purify and refine the body is the soul able to naturally and automatically perform the will of God.
| | | | | |  | The giving of the Ten Commandments in this week's parsha teaches us that growth has to be slow and deliberate. God did not give us one huge commandment.
| | | | | |  | | There is an inner connection between music and the spirit. When language aspires to the transcendent and the soul longs to break free of the gravitational pull of the earth, it modulates into song. | | | | | | | | | We are entrusted with the ability to determine the nature of time. Will it be sacred or mundane? | | | | | |  | How is it possible for anyone to state that the whole world is living wrong unless he is totally demented?
| | | | | |  | The Torah and the prophets are full of dire warnings about the consequences of Jewish sins and their correlation with the various exiles suffered by the Jewish people. But the Egyptian exile does not seem to be preceded by any Jewish sin.
| | | | | |  | | Yes, there's that old cliche, "Where there's a will, there's a way." The question though is: what does our will really want? | | | | | |  | | Faced with a history of suffering, sorrow, and persecution, Jews have met adversity with strong resilience and fortitude. What is our secret? | | | | | |  | It can be argued that Judaism is a practical necessity for Jews as Jews cannot live without a close relationship with a personal God.
| | | | | |  | There is a great temptation to go through life so absorbed in our own lives that we do not recognize the needs of others. One of the keys to being a genuine giver is to overcome our own self-absorption and notice the world around us.
| | | | | |  | What is it about us human beings that makes us want to save so many useless things?
| | | | | |  | A tradition that traces back to the Ari, the great Kabbalist and medieval sage, presents a startling theory about people's names.
| | | | | |  | | How could Isaac be so wrong? How could a patriarch who achieved such spiritual heights as Isaac did miss the mark so badly? | | | | | |  | God values Yishmael as a nation and He wants us to see the depth that is within the Yishmael/Arab personality. Since Yishmael was a son of Abraham, he must possess a profound spiritual potential.
| | | | | |  | Hidden in Abraham's personality was the spiritual potential for the fear of God, but it required the imposition of this test to be actualized.
| | | | | |  | The Jews, the descendants of Avraham, have outlasted the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans. All these oppressors have become a part of history, while the Jews remain vibrant. All this because Avram went to battle.
| | | | | |  | Man's weapon against God is the maintenance of social harmony and establishment of world peace.
| | | | | |  | What makes man uniquely human and elevated above all other species is the ability to speak.
| | | | | |
|  | Just as we must consciously, actively make a sukkah, we must also be consciously involved in building the Land of Israel to the point where everything is ready for Moshiach to come.
| | | | | |  | | Yom Kippur has the power not only to atone for the sins we committed in the past so that God waives any punishment owed to us, it also has the power to remove the spiritual contamination from the objects which participated in the misdeed. | | | | | |  | We must not fool ourselves into thinking we are praying for the manifestation of God's glory, when really we just want to guarantee a good year for ourselves.
| | | | | |  | Why is it that Jews study out loud?
| | | | | |  | | Although every love does depend on something, there is a difference between whether the foundation of the relationship is physical or spiritual. | | | | | |  | Just as the fruit-bearing tree transforms the nourishment it derives from the soil into edible fruit, so must the human being make use of the inputs provided by the earth to make himself sprout and grow until he is productive.
| | | | | |  | | There is no greater abomination than the sacrifice of human life as an act of Divine service, but such an act nevertheless constitutes an expression of intense devotion to God and the ultimate degree of recognition of His existence. | | | | | |  | | The convert has discovered on his own what the Jew was born with. | | | | | |  | | The very existence of the arey miklat (cities of refuge) and the laws surrounding them have a clear implication: there is always hope for the future. | | | | | |  | The Jewish People should never have felt small - not in the desert, and not during the Second Temple period. They should have known that God was, and would always be, with them.
| | | | | |  | | We may think that it doesn't matter very much when we firmly state our morals even without the ability to carry out punishment. But it matters very much. | | | | | |  | | Each Jew is assigned a particular number of holy sparks to collect from the existing environment that surrounds him. The assignment is determined by the nature of his spiritual power, or his neshama. | | | | | |  | | What is the Jewish view of pacifism? What does peace really mean? | | | | | |  | A person should think what he would be willing to die for. Then, he should say to himself, "I want to live for that."
| | | | | |  | | The authorship of the Torah has one of two possibilities: either God wrote it, or a human being wrote it. Let's take for argument's sake the side that a human being wrote it. If so, we discover a very strange phenomenon. | | | | | |  | | There is a world of difference between those who hate and kill and those who kill out of necessity. The difference lies in whether when we see evil perpetrated by criminals and oppressors, we react by hating the perpetrators or hating the evils committed. | | | | | |  | | May we all be blessed to view the world through the eyes of the ant. This will change the style of our lives into one where every act, word and thought will be performed with a consideration of our spiritual eternity. | | | | | |  | | According to the Torah's definition of greatness, Moshe represents the ultimate level a person can reach; he attained the greatest closeness to God humanly possible. It is clear that his outstanding humility is directly connected to his greatness. | | | | | | | | | The Jewish marriage is a spiritual phenomenon, and the rules that govern its initiation and dissolution are to be regarded and studied in the light of the proper way to deal with spiritual phenomena and not in terms of the management of physical arrangements. | | | | | |  | | If we fulfill our potential in our domain of mitzvah performance, not only will we be granted command over our speech, but God will deem us worthy to receive an even greater gift. | | | | | |  | | Ironically, demonstrating the truth of Judaism to the descendants of Abraham, the very people who have miraculously survived Jewish tragedies, whose own grandparents stood at Mt. Sinai, has become a difficult task in our modern post-industrial world. | | | | | |  | | How can we learn to be proactive, and to initiate giving rather than merely responding to requests for aid? The key is to develop love for the mitzvot we've been given. | | | | | |  | | Our service of God is measured not by quantity, but by how close it comes to perfection. | | | | | |  | | Holiness is separation from the passion for materialism. It is a turning away from this physical, material world, and turning towards God. | | | | | |  | | Why did God deliberately place the Jewish people in the most corrupt places on Earth? | | | | | |  | | Only by making distinctions and creating holiness, by properly using the power of speech, does man maintain his stature and make manifest the spirit of God within him. | | | | | |  | | When man uses his unique power of speech to unite the world in service of God, he realizes his potential as the pinnacle of Creation. Utilizing the tongue to degrade, or to cause strife, divests man of the very essence of his distinction as a human being. | | | | | |  | | Nadav and Avihu were great people, and they were aware of their high spiritual level. Yet they felt they had already reached the pinnacle of their achievement, and therefore had no need to strive for further growth and self-improvement. | | | | | |  | | Even the most righteous people felt the power of the yetzer hara (evil inclination) for acquisition of money. | | | | | |  | A soul cannot sin alone. A body cannot be kind alone. Reward and punishment can only apply to an entity that is the entire person, the body and soul together.
| | | | | |  | | All over the world, tiny enclaves of human beings manage to spend their lives in a state of grace, embraced by the consciousness of God's Presence. | | | | | |  | | If the way of the world is to first build a home and only then fill it with furniture, why would it make sense to build the furniture before the structure? | | | | | |  | | When reading the story of the Golden Calf, a common question is: How could the Jews commit such a terrible transgression just 40 days after receiving the Torah? | | | | | |  | | Moses was agitated that the people considered their own welfare and were not selflessly dedicated to relating to God directly, even at the possible cost of their lives. That is the level of selfless love. | | | | | |  | | Torah is not the only vehicle for achieving completion in Divine service. The Zohar and the Midrash Ne'elam both state that the 613 parts of the Mishkan directly correlate to the 613 parts of the human body. | | | | | | | | The process of achieving moral and spiritual perfection is two-sided: We must actively nurture our good inclination while at the same time identify and overcome our evil inclination.
| | | | | |  | Man's innate inability to hear views that contradict his own can even prevent a student from listening properly to those more learned than himself. The ability to wholeheartedly listen and comprehend what others are saying is one of the keys to greatness.
| | | | | |  | In our lives we experience moments of inspiration where we attain a heightened sense of awareness of an important matter. But the inspiration often wears away. How can we change this?
| | | | | |  | The first stage of changing as a result of the world around us is to learn the lesson of Pharaoh and to "think," to let events that happen in the world at large, and that occur in our own private lives, cause us to reflect on our lives, and make necessary changes.
| | | | | |  | The ultimate purpose of all revelation is to allow man to establish an emotional relationship with God. Information of immense importance that languishes ignored is only a mockery. God wants to teach and elevate, not to mock.
| | | | | | | | What does a soul do? Is it a type of muscle? A sort of spiritual organ that helps drive the human machine? Obviously not! The soul is immaterial and incorporeal. In fact... the soul is a communication device
| | | | | |  | Loyal feet faithfully follow the instructions and duly deliver the body to the correct place. But feet that tell the head to go away and are determined to work out the destination themselves do not have the slightest chance of reaching at the correct destination.
| | | | | |  | Jacob only accepted the news that Joseph was alive when they showed him the wagons that Joseph had sent. What was so special about the wagons?
| | | | | |  | The battle of Chanukah was the clash between two ideologies, one placed God in the center and the other put man there. May we all merit to follow the examples of Jacob and Joseph in placing God in the center.
| | | | | |  | The innocence of infancy enables us to begin life with a pure, complete connection to God. As we get older, we can use our mature intelligence to reconnect to God, if we realize that this world is purposeless for its own sake.
| | | | | |  | Free will power possessed by man is totally irrelevant if he has no options from which to choose. If man was to be allowed to exercise free will, the existence of evil in the world in some form was an absolute imperative.
| | | | | |  | God has no image. The meaning of being cast in God's image does not imply any sort of physical resemblance. It is a reference to a similarity of powers.
| | | | | |  | The yetzer hara, rather than advocating sudden change, entices us to sin by urging, 'Just do this one small thing.'The next day, it tries to persuade us to perform another small misdeed - until eventually, a person can be convinced to serve idols.
| | | | | |  | Living before God is the true essence of being 'double.' The double person conducts his or her life in God's presence. He or she lives before God even as he goes about his everyday business.
| | | | | |  | The Malachim's outward appearance was just completely external to their real essence, so why would they eat human food on earth?
| | | | | |  | | God promised Abraham that if he would live according to a metaphysical reality then he would no longer be bound by the physical reality of cause and effect that drives nature. Indeed, after Abraham successfully passes this test, God reveals to him that he will live according to a different set of rules. | | | | | |  | | How can we understand the idea of waging war against God? How could a rational human being possibly adopt such an attitude, believe in God and yet decide to fight Him?? | | | | | |  | | By expecting immediate results from actions and blurring the distinction between deliberate and accidental acts, the snake expresses a totally warped view of reality to make an apparently logical case. | | | | | |  | | God told humanity that He designed this world as a tool. When used properly to accomplish the task for which it was designed, it works well, but when it is allocated to other tasks it will surely break down. | | | | | |  | | Even if we accept that all of our souls were brought to Sinai and that in some way our souls accepted God's Torah as binding upon us, how could that acceptance and oath be valid? | | | | | |  | | There is an enormous difference between a lie where the words themselves are false, and a lie where the words are true but the intention is for a lie. | | | | | |  | | The Torah recognizes and grants great reward for commandments which involve our recognition of mesirat nefesh (self-sacrifice). | | | | | |  | We, the Jewish people, are experiencing the tragedy of living in a permanent war zone on our very skins.
| | | | | |  | | God forbid it should ever happen, but let's say you had to make a choice between having your sense of sight be removed or your sense of hearing. Which of the two would you rather have? | | | | | |  | | One should love God with a great, brazen, extreme love, until one's soul is connected with love of God, and he speaks of it consistently as if he were lovesick. | | | | | |  | | Too often Jews continue to be observant but are weak in a deeper understanding of what they're doing in their observance. | | | | | |  | | If the theories of Jewish tradition are accurate, Jewish sin is the true cause of all the enormous upheavals that took place in the ancient world. | | | | | |  | | Human nature tempts us to give free reign to our passions and then to create intellectual justifications for succumbing to them | | | | | |  | | Pinchas, the hero of this week’s Parshah, was previously unheard of, who, with a single act of bravery was catapulted to stardom. | | | | |
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