Recap for 2 Adar 5775 (Parsha Mishpatim)

This Shabbos we discussed parsha Mishpatim.  Ronnie talked about the meaning of the temple in Israel, and how we build shuls in our own communities. Ronnie shared about how our shuls are  places where we feel closeness to hashem and can experience a spiritual elevation. Ronnie spoke about Dr. Fink, and how much he contributed so that we could have our shul here in our community.

There are some reminders that I have been asked to include in the notes.  First, please be very careful and responsible on Purim. There have been tragedies in our community and elsewhere. Please either drink or drive but not both. Please set responsible limits, and do not take risks just because it is Purim. Second, thank you to those who came to the early minyan this Shabbos. Please consider coming on Shabbos to the early minyan and helping out. If you can not come, please help tell others about the early minyan. Also, coming on time, which is 7 AM SHARP, helps ensure we have enough guys to proceed, and is much appreciated.

Norm mentioned that the yahrzeit for his father, Baruch Elyiahou, will be this coming Tuesday evening, 6 Adar, and Wednesday.  I looked our recap from 6 Adar 5773.  Back then Norm talked about how his Dad worked very hard in the garment district of New York.  Norm spoke about meeting his Dad at the train station with an umbrella, and how his dad was very loving and generous opening up his home for lodging and meals to anyone.

This Shabbos, Norm talked about how we often receive the solution before the problem occurs. The structure we were building was the solution to the spiritual void that would later be felt.  However, when Moshe ascended Mt. Sinai, instead of turning towards this solution, we committed the sin of the Goden Calf.

Seth shared with us some of his thoughts on our history. We did a lot of complaining after we left Egypt. Seth shared that we have a choice, either to complain and expect others to give us things, or to be grateful and to focus on being of value and giving to others.  Seth shared that happiness comes from giving and being of value.   This is related to what we have discussed at prior learnings - how we each have a position on the team. If we can determine what our position is and play it to the best of our ability, this will get us to a place in our life where we are helping others, and feel like we are of value, in a way that is consistent with Hashem’s plans.  

We welcome Dave W back from his trip to Israel. Dave mentioned how he has not been to Israel in a long time, and the amazing experience it was for him to return to Israel. Dave shared how he has a daughter in Israel who has lived there for some time. Dave talked about all the different places he visited including Safed, Tiberias, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Dave mentioned that a big highlight of his trip, was seeing people he knows from Memphis, in Israel. Norm mentioned how his son Bryan who has the same birthday as me, March 1, is in Israel. And we know that David S has 3 sons living in Israel. We missed David this Shabbos but very glad he is with his sons in Israel.

Dave K mentioned that during the service it is sometimes difficult to not lose focus and start thinking about the weeks issues and activities. We have discussed in our learnings how we need to get ready for Shabbos. Part of this getting ready is taking care of things during the week to the best of our ability. Perhaps another part of getting ready for Shabbos, is practicing mindfulness during the week so we have more experience doing this on a day like Shabbos which is most important to us.

As we recall from last Shabbos, mindfulness involves the focusing on the here and now.  Those who get good at meditation perhaps practice this the best.  Norm continued sharing on this topic, of how mindfulness can help us in many ways.  If we are trying to make changes, taking things one day at a time can help us break large tasks into small pieces which are not as overwhelming to us.  I once saw a movie - in which taking baby steps helped a person achieve his goals.  But it was not only taking baby steps, but only focusing on each baby step at a time.  

Norm also shared his thoughts concerning the differences between pain and suffering. Pain is something that happens to us, whereas suffering is something we do to ourselves.  Seth was sharing how we did some suffering to ourselves when we left Egypt and were complaining all the time. If we tell ourselves over and over again how horrible things are, we create our own suffering. And then if we expect others to help us as we do nothing, we ensure that our suffering is going to continue.  On the other hand if we look at “bad” things as opportunities, or focus our thoughts on what we are grateful for, we may still experience pain but won’t be creating suffering for ourselves.

This is a summary of what we discussed.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred. 

Recap for 25 Sh'vat 5775 (Parsha Mishpatim)

This Shabbos we discussed 2 very important issues that I am including at the top of the notes because of their importance. The first is that Purim is coming up in about 2 weeks. There have been tragedies on this holiday in our community and elsewhere. Please do not drink and drive, and please drink total amounts that are responsible. We discussed that there are many important Purim mitzvah and that the focus does not have to be on drinking.

The second issue is that we are having a crisis with our early Minyan in which not enough people are showing up. If you do not currently come, please consider coming. If you do come, please come on time which is 7 am - sharp! If not enough people show up, it becomes necessary to do a last minute recruitment that is kind of difficult on a day when phones are not permitted!  I myself have had issues with drinking, and not davening on Shabbos, so I don’t mean to be critical. We just discussed these issues this Shabbos and I  try to be helpful by including them.

I was reading an email by Dave W this week about how he was visiting guys we know that are serving in the IDF over in Israel. I have a tremendous appreciation and admiration for these guys, and anyone who has made Aliyah to Israel. I think of the sacrifice these guys are making, and the fact I actually know these guys – it is all amazing to me.

David Schlesinger led discussion of an article written by Rav Ari Heller from Ha Kotel.  The article discusses how we were forced to accept the Torah by Hashem hanging an entire mountain over us. Our relationship with hashem was originally based on fear, but over time we developed a relationship based on love as well.  And over time, the fear became a fear of missing out, rather than a fear that something bad is going to happen.

We discussed an alternative theory from the article, that maybe we experienced both love and fear at the same time at Mt. Sinai. We have seen that the Torah is not always in chronological order. Children often have to be motivated by fear, but beneath this fear is a love they have for their parents. Once they grow up, hopefully the fear develops into something more mature. Just like children love their parents, we may have had love for Hashem from the beginning.

This Shabbos we talked about the idea of living in the here and now. We discussed how we need to focus on doing our part and letting Hashem do his. We discussed specifically the idea of the “world to come”. The messianic era will come, when hashem wants it to come. However, we can do our part by spreading Torah, and being a representative of Hashem when we interact with others.

Norm talked about how this is also a very important concept in psychology, that is called mindfulness that has applications in therapy and self-improvement programs. Norm talked about living in the “here and now”. It is my own experience that if I’m constantly obsessed about the past, or worried about the future, it interferes with what I’m doing today. I have taken meditation classes and they are very helpful.

This Shabbos, Dave K discussed a video he found on facebook, that was a summary of an article we discussed a few Shabbos ago. Back in the 60’s we could look up at the sky, and although only a small fraction of the planets were believed to have the necessary conditions for life, the total number of planets was so incredibly enormous, that we could think to ourselves that it was entirely reasonable that life could emerge randomly. 

Today, we have discovered so many conditions that are necessary for life, that other than earth, the number of planets that would be expected to meet all the necessary conditions is zero. So we are left with 2 alternatives, one being that there was such an incredible miracle that the only planet that met necessary conditions, was "lucky" enough to have life randomly develop, or 2 that there is a creator and life was created as a separate process.

One thing we discussed, is that if this is all the case, why do we have to have so many planets to begin with? Yaki talked about how it would interfere with our own free will if there was only 1 planet and we were on it. Yaki talked about how we always will have alternatives. Even back when seas were being split, and plagues were occurring, there were alternatives around so that we would have to use our free will to believe in Hashem.

It should not be surprising that scientists are busy coming up with a 3rd alternative to the above, so that we will be back to using our free will to believe in Hashem, and this is just the way Hashem wants it!  He created us to be human’s with free will rather than robots that automatically believe in him.  And these humans will always come up with alternatives to the idea that there is a designer.

We discussed this Shabbos about how we have to do some ground work before we can experience rewards such as “spiritual highs”. Dave K shared how he felt a spiritual high in Israel, but would not have felt this if he had not gone to shul and learned in Memphis. We talked about how this is similar to have to do gournd work before experiencing "runner's high". Bucky shared about how he has to work out and diet during the week to get maximum enjoyment from Shabbos. Norm has mentioned the spiritual high he received by sensing his son’s heart beat for the first time.

We discussed the upcoming holiday of Purim from Rav Malamed’s book. Purim is usually celebrated on the 14th of Adar, however in Jerusalem and locations in which the city walls can be seen, Purim is celebrated on the 15th. This is because in certain walled cities it took us an extra day to fight off our enemies.

We discussed some of the mitzvah’s of Purim, such as reading the Megillah. Brett brought up the mitzvah of reading the Torah portion concerning Purim. There are also the mitzvahs of given gifts to the poor, and bags of food to our friends. We discussed how the book of Esther marks the end of the canonization, and from that point forward all mitzvah’s are contained in the oral law.

Finally, we discussed again that Judaism is not just about abstinence. Judaism is about “elevating the sparks of kidusha”.  Judaism is about bringing spirituality to a physical world.  We do this in many ways such as saying a blessing, having our most delicious food on Shabbos, and lighting candles.

 This is a summary of what we discussed.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.

Recap for 18 Sh'vat 5775 (Parsha Yitro)

This Shabbos we discussed the 2 ways in which the Torah can apply: to us as a nation, and to us as individuals.  We discussed the week’s Parsha Yitro, including commentary by both Efroni Schlesinger and Rav Yeager.  And we continued our study of Rav Malamed – this week focusing on Purim.

David spoke about how we experience the Torah in two different ways: as a nation, and as an individual.  One example we looked at is the idea of the “world to come”. As an individual we will experience this when our soul returns to the spiritual world of the creator.  As a nation we will experience this when we reach the messianic era.

Another example is our redemption from Egypt. As a nation we experienced a sudden and decisive redemption, followed by a slower process to our final redemption. As individuals we may experience enslavement in our lives. This enslavement may be mental and not physical at all.  Hopefully we can be redeemed from this enslavement.

This Shabbos we talked about Shabbos and what role we play in making it holy. One of the questions we asked is whether Shabbos is intrinsically holy, or do we make it holy? I suggested that maybe the answer is both.

David talked about how we have the ability to extend the time for Shabbos. Although there are limitations, we can start Shabbos early, and/or we can end Shabbos late. Regardless of whether or not we extend Shabbos, there is something very special to the day that seems to be intrinsic, but we certainly can add to the holiness in certain ways.

In fact, in this week’s parsha, we receive the 10 commandments, one of which is how we are commanded to make Shabbos holy. Efroni comments in his dvar Torah, how in the current parsha Yitro, Hashem commands us to both remember (Zachor) and guard (Shamor) Shabbos. Hashem communicates these 2 words, zachor and shamor, at the same time. Efroni comments how we hear the word zachor in parsha Yitro, and then later in parsha Veletchanan we have to be reminded of the other word, shamor.

We talked about how this is similar to hearing 2 songs at the same time. If we really like one of the songs, that is the one that we are going to hear. Likewise, we really like to hear about the simchah of Shabbos – the festivities, food and drink, and do not like to hear as much about the “guarding” part, which includes the laws and all the work we are forbidden to do.

We discussed how when we are first introduced to Judaism, whether as a Baal Teshuva, or as a child, it is important that we experience plenty of the “zachor” part. I remember when I was first exposed to Judaism in Memphis. If the Rabbi had pulled me aside and told me you are going to have to wake up at 530 AM to go to minyan, and can no longer eat out at restuarants, I would have lost any motivation I had to experience Judaism further.

But the Rabbi did not do this.  At his house, he offered up festivities, interesting learning, food, socializing and drink which was very attractive to me.  Only later on did I find out about having to wake up early and no longer being able to go to restaurants! 

David commented that the first thing that his children remember about Shabbos is the “zachor” part as well. Now I know that guarding Shabbos enhances the “remembering” part. Hashem knew we would only listen to the zachor part but gave us both to let us know in his Torah that both words are important.

This Shabbos we discussed Rav Yeager’s commentary on the parsha. Although the parsha is aboutYitro, is this really the time he arrived or is the parsha out of chronological order? And if it is out of chronological order, why is Yitro mentioned in the parsha now?

We discussed how including Yitro in the parsha, makes us aware of some of the prerequisites of receiving the Torah.  One of the prerequisites is that we need to have a system of disseminating Torah.  The system of having one Torah scholar, and everyone lining up to learn from him is not sustainable.  That is why Yitro appears in the parsha to tell Moshe to set up a system of more than one decision maker and leader.

Perhaps the biggest pre-requiste of receiving Torah, is that we have to be open minded.  Yitro was known as someone who was very open minded.  He accepted the idea that there could be a power greater than man.  We compared this to Pharaoh who thought everything was about him.

We discussed Rav Malamed and his discussion of Purim.  We discussed the idea that as Jews we have intrinsic holiness regardless of what we choose to do.  We discussed that even if we wanted to assimilate into the host culture, it isn't going to work.  Even those who tried to become Greek or German were rejected by the host culture.

Finally, David talked about how we should be very grateful to be part of this country, with its freedom and democracy.  And how we should participate in and celebrate our nations holidays such as thanksgiving and the 4rth of July.

This is a summary of what we discussed.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred. 

Recap for 14 Sh'vat 5775 (siyyum in honor of Micha Ben Tzvi Aryeh)

We gathered yesterday for a Siyyum in honor of Micha Ben Tzvi Aryeh, David Schlesinger’s uncle from Israel. It so happened that David and those participating in the Daf Yomi program, were finishing tractate Yevamos, at around the same time as the shloshim of David’s uncle Micha. The shloshim marks the end of the initial 30 day mourning period.  So we held a learning of the last page of tractate Yevamos, and then had a siyum, all of this in memory and honor of David's uncle Micha.

Before our learning, David spoke about his uncle Micha. David spoke about the extraordinary kindness and love that Micha exhibited towards him - David, and also towards his family and community. David spoke about how his uncle was very helpful in shul – especially with keeping the services moving. And how his uncle possessed such a great knowledge of Torah and halahkuh which he often shared with others.

Before making the siyum we studied the last Daf of Mesechta Yevamos. A Daf is a page of Talmud study. David led discussion. We discussed to what extent testimony about a husband’s death would be considered good enough to allow a woman to remarry. Testimony could come from several different sources. We discussed the different cases, which include testimony from the wife herself, another Israelite, or a non-Jew.

We discussed how in many cases, we go lenient, which means we take the witness at their word, and do not cross examine them. We do not want a woman to have to wait “forever” to be able to remarry. One of the issues we discussed is whether or not the deceased husband was actually seen by the witness. A man can give his name and say he is dying. If a witness testifies that this man said he is dying is this good enough? These are some of the questions that we discussed, that are contained in the Talmud.

One of the issues we discussed is how many witnesses we can rely on. Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion is that we can not remarry based on one witness. Rabbi Akiva says we can not rely on one witness if it is a slave or family member.  There is a lot of discussion in the gemara that goes back and forth between these 2 rabbis.

The other main issue we discussed is whether or not we can interrogate the witnesses. Rabbi Tarfon seems to believe that interrogation is necessary. We discussed how we do not interrogate in monetary cases, because this would discourage people from lending money.  Does this mean we should not interrogate in these issues involving a husband's death?

We also discussed the ketubah and what this agreement means.  And we discussed the issues surrounding receiving dishes from a non Jew.  In some cases it is fine to accept the dishes as is.  In other cases we need to wash the dishes, and in still other cases we may need to apply fire to the dish.

This is a summary of what we discussed.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred. 

Recap for 11 Sh'vat 5775 (parsha Beshalach)

This Shabbos David Schlesinger led discussion. We discussed parsha Beshalach, including Rav Yeager’s commentary.  We discussed what led up to the events in the parsha. Hashem freed us from slavery in Egypt, but we still had to rely on Hashem to a large degree. It was important that we do our part, and then have faith that Hashem would do his part.

We discussed how in the parsha we were instructed to do a “u-turn” and head back towards Egypt. This required a lot of faith in Hashem.  We discussed how when we became trapped in between Egypt’s army and the Sea, Hashem did in fact intervene.  We discussed how there was another episode when we did not believe in Hashem. This is when we went out looking for mana on Shabbos, and this caused Hashem to become angry that we did not believe in him.  David talked about how his mom would recognize the birds who removed the excess bread.

This concept of having faith in Hashem was not only important in the Torah, but is important in our personal lives today. It is easy to lose faith when we see or go through personal crisis and tragedy. David talked about how sometimes it may be helpful to look at the big picture. There are many miracles going on today, such as the survival of the Jewish people.

We discussed how the redemption from Egypt was sudden, and how it was brought about completely through the intervention of Hashem. We compared this to our future redemption.  Unlike our redemption from Egypt, our future redemption will come about gradually, and we will have to do our part. Brett brought up how we still had the mentality of slaves when we left Egypt. With the coming redemption, we gradually become free from this mentality.

Once we left Egypt we began to experience some freedom, but with this freedom came the responsibility to do our part. Hashem was the force that liberated us from Egypt, and we could still count on him, but we would have to do our part. At first, we did not want to do our part and simply wanted to take the path of least resistance. We wanted to take the easiest route to the promised land, which was not necessarily the best route. David pointed out how we were depressed as a people, and this is how depressed people sometimes behave.

The events in Exodus, are similar to what happens to people who are in need of 12 step programs. In the beginning we are powerless in Egypt, the same way someone who needs a 12 step program is powerless against his behaviors. Just as Hashem is the force that initially frees us, Hashem is the force that initially frees someone from their behaviors and leads them to recovery and a 12 step program. Step 1 in the 12 step program is realizing that we were powerless and then later in the steps we realize that we need a power greater than ourselves. Once we left Egypt it was important for us to review what had happened, and seen how we were powerless and how we were helped by a power greater than ourselves - Hashem.

We discussed how there are 2 cases that we encounter in life. In case 1 we need to rely on Hashem completely. And in case 2 we do our part and Hashem does his part. We discussed how we have a yearning to find a power greater than ourselves. Unfortunately we do not always choose the right power, and that can lead us into trouble.

This Shabbos we continued our discussion of the halakuh against making a fire on Shabbos. We discussed that the problem is not necessarily the fire itself, but that we are using the fire to do work that takes the form of converting potential to kinetic energy. We discussed that not all conversions of energy are forbidden, but that starting and extinguishing fires is a Torah level violation. Bucky talked about how our body “burns” calories. Should we be trying to do as little activity as possible on Shabbos? It turns out that the “burning” of calories is permitted however we wait until after Shabbos to do our normal exercise routines.

This is a summary of what we discussed.  No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred. To unsubscribe, send reply email with unsubscribe in the subject line.