Recap for 8 Nissan 5775 (Parsha Tzav)

This Shabbos Yaki spoke about the meaning of Pesach. We are commanded to recount our story of being enslaved and later set free.  However, the meaning of Pesach is more than remembering what happened.  We also need to be grateful for everything Hashem has given us.  On Pesach, we are reminded to be grateful for what we have today, as well as the freedom from slavery in Egypt that we were given.

We discussed how in the Torah, Abraham was told that we would later become slaves for 400 years. Why was Abraham willing to accept this without any question or attempts at negotiation? Yaki talked about how it was part of Hashem’s plan for us to go to Egypt, and that Abraham was aware of this fact.   Going to Egypt, helped make us the strong and successful people we are today. In our own personal lives, we can all take a look back at the “bad” things that happen to us and maybe see at least one good point from having gone through the experience.

Yaki also spoke about the Garden of Eden. The sin was not that Adam did not listen. The sin was a lack of gratitude. The lesson for us is to be grateful for all that we have, and to show this gratitude with our actions and not just our thoughts and words. On Pesach, by recounting our story, we show gratitude, as well as remembrance.

We discussed some of the “bad” things that have happened to us through out history, and how these "bad" things may have at least 1 good thing about them . Brett brought up the Holocaust. Although it is hard to see anything good about this, it can be argued it led to the creation of the state of Israel. Howard mentioned that we have reached the point where most of the world’s Jews live in Israel. This is a major milestone that has been met.    David S has talked in the past about what his father termed the "virtuous response to suffering".  

In the messianic era will it still be necessary for “bad” thing to happen, in order to lead to something “good”?   This is a question we may take up at future learnins.  Yaki spoke about how everything that comes from Hashem is good, no matter what it is.   

Harold Katz, a regular reader of these notes, pointed out that in the messianic era we may worship hashem differently. Our worship would be focused on giving thanks, rather than seeking forgiveness for our sins.

Finally, Rabbi Joel Finkelstein spoke about the importance of doing chessed this time of year. We should remember the mitzvah of visiting the sick and helping the poor. We should think of broad definitions of sick and poor.  For example, “sick” includes those who are not well spiritually and/or mentally, and “poor” includes those who do not have a lot of family and friends.

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

Recap for 23 Adar 5775, parsha Vayakhel-Pekudei (at Beth David synagogue)

Last year we discussed parsha Vayakhel at our kiddush and learning in Memphis.  We discussed how it was that we were able to reach a high enough spiritual state, to receive instructions so soon after committing the sin of the Golden Calf.  We discussed how we unified with a purpose, and were so motivated we could not stop making contributions.

This Shabbos at Beth David synagogue in Binghamton, NY, Rabbi Zev Silber gave commentary on the parsha Vayakhel-Pekudei, which adds to what we discussed last year.  (Rabbi Adamit was also there, and will give words of Torah next Shabbos, and on alternating Shabbos)

In the parsha, Moses gathers us together and conveys to us once again all the details we are to follow in building the mishkan.  Rabbi Silber commented that this brings up several questions.  First of all, why would all of us need to be gathered, when only some of us would be actually building the mishkan?  Secondly, wouldn’t it save a lot of time simply to refer us back to a previous parsha in which all these details were already given?

Rabbi Silber commented that Judaism is a religion in which everyone is included.  Certainly the Torah is for everyone, not just for the leaders and elite.  The mishkan was to take on the importance of Mt. Sinai - as a place in which we have the presence of Hashem.  And although just some of us would be the actual construction workers for the mishkan, the details of such an important structure are words of Torah for us all.  

To illustrate his point, Rabbi Silber commented how the chazzan is not someone who represents us, but someone who leads us. We each have an individual relationship with Hashem that grows closer as we study Torah, and carry out our mitzvah and purpose.  Our Torah and religion is not for some of us, but for all.

The reason we were given all the details for constructing the mishkan a second time is to show that we were forgiven and ready to receive the details again.  (Although we were forgiven, last year we did discuss how the sin of the Golden Calf has remained with us forever)

Moshe spent a long time convincing Hashem to change his mind and give us another chance.  Rabbi Silber talked about how it was not only important that we heal our relationship with Hashem, we needed to heal our relationship with Moshe as well.

Rabbi Silber also discussed the question of why the observance of Shabbos is included in the parsha.  Shabbos is included, to illustrate the importance of community.  Shabbos is a day in which we all come together, the same way we all came together to hear the instructions from Moshe on building the Mishkan.

This Shabbos at Beth David, we also were honored to have a guest speaker, Rabbi Baron, who is a chaplain in the US military.  He talked about the Jews who are in the armed forces, and how they tend to be scattered around, although minyans are available.  It was very interesting to hear what it is like to be a Jew in the U.S. military, and also to have Rabbi Baron from the Temple Israel in Binghamton where I had my Barmitzvah.  

Rabbi Baron talked about the strategies that were used in order to promote harmony amongst different religious groups.  He talked about the peaceful coexistance between Jews and Christians who were use to living together.  He talked about the importance that everyone get along and realize they are on the same American side.

Please consider Beth David synagogue in Binghamton, NY, on Riverside Drive, and recommend it to others.  They offered an excellent service, lunch and guest speaker today.

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

Recap for 16 Adar 5775 (Parsha Ki Tisa and yeirzeit for Yakutiel Yehudah Ben Yaakov)

This Shabbos we discussed parsha Ki Tisa and commentary by Rav Yeager.  We discussed the upcoming holiday of Pesach, along with commentary by Rav Malamed.  This Shabbos we had a special kiddush for the yeirzeit of Yaki's father.

As you know, this past week was Purim. My grandmother’s name was Esther, obviously a main character in the story, and I thought of her as I was celebrating. The one place my grandmother always spoke about was Haifa, and this week I was thinking about my grandmother and how happy she was that I visited Haifa on my last trip to Israel. Then on this Shabbos, right after Purim, Haifa came up again, as Yaki spoke about his father who use to live there.

We gathered for a special Kiddush to honor and remember Yakki’s father Yakutiel Yehudah Ben Yaakov. Yaki has told us incredible stories of his dad, about how he survived the holocaust and was one of only a few survivors among his brothers and sisters. This Shabbos, Yaki spoke more about his father and all of his good deeds.

His father would always have an open house on Shabbos, and this is a tradition that Yaki has continued here in Memphis. Yaki spoke about how his father lived in Haifa and would help keep the community together. This can be a very difficult thing to do with all the different opinions and groups that were there, but his father was able to get it done, and was very well known for his role.

Yaki spoke about the practice on Purim of giving a half-shekel. Hashem created a world in which we often see 2 halves forming a whole. Some examples of this are man and woman, body and soul, physical and spiritual, right and left. Norm pointed out how the parts of the brain work in pairs. By giving a half-sheckel we all contribute our half to form the whole of our community. Yaki spoke about how his father supported this concept, and how it is important for everyone to participate regardless of one's income or status in society.

David gave a dvar Torah on how the holidays correspond to the events of our life. Pesach corresponds to our birth.  Shavuous corresponds to our barmitzvah.   And Rosh Hashanah corresponds to our getting engaged.
Purim corresponds to the world to come. We discussed how Pesach is the new year for Jews, and Rosh Hashanah is the new year for the world.

This Shabbos we discussed the definition of spirituality as a connection to something greater than ourselves that we can’t sense physically. We discussed how we are all made up of a body and soul, and how the soul returns to the source of its creation when the body expires.  Once a soul has been released from the physical body, we can still elevate and bring joy to this soul, as we did today at our get together to honor Yaki's father.

We continued our learning from Rav Yeager this Shabbos. We discussed how the Beit Midrash is the holiest place, and how Shabbos is the holiest time. We discussed the idea that Shabbos is a reflection of a piece of our soul. 

We discussed how we committed the sin of the Golden Calf, which resulted in Moshe breaking up the tablets. We discussed how hitting this “bottom” enabled us to go forward and reach higher heights in our spirituality. Moshe was able to speak to Hashem and communicate our wishes and desires. It’s amazing we were able to do this after having sinned, but the experience we went through helped us become more aware of Hashem and our role in the world.

This Shabbos we discussed our special role as Jews to represent and bring Hashem to the world. We discussed how we brought morality to the world, which is the idea that we should do what is right rather than do whatever we have the power to do. Although much of the world still lives by the principle of survival of the fittest, we believe in doing things based on right and wrong, as outlined in our Torah. We discussed how we brought monotheism to the world, and how much of the modern world we live in today is based on ideas that originated with Judaism.

We discussed how 30 days before any holiday, it is appropriate to ask questions of Torah scholars about the upcoming holiday. We are now within the 30 day period prior to Pesach, and we began our study of Pesach, and commentary on the holiday from Rav Malamed.

This holiday has a reputation of putting fear in people's minds, but actually we should be looking forward to Pesach and realize that preparation is only stressful if we make it so. It should not take hours and hours and hours to get our homes ready for this holiday. We discussed that, yes, the kitchen is going to take some work, but the other rooms should not be that hard, especially if we have not eaten chametz in these rooms.

We discussed why we eat matzah on Pesach.  We discussed how bread can represent arrogance, with the rising dough analogous to our rising egos. We eat matzah to reject what the rising dough is symbolizing.

This brought up a very interesting question. If chametz is so bad, why do we eat it year round?  The answer is that chametz can also represent our participation in the creation of the world. Hashem provides the raw ingredients of bread, and we do the rest of the work. The important thing, during the rest of the year, is to remember that it is Hashem that has provided us the raw material and tools, and not let our ego get the best of us.

We discussed some more  about the importance of bringing spirituality to the physical world. If we only live in the physical world, we tend to never be happy with what we have and always want more. However, Judaism does not believe in rejecting the physical world completely and being abstinent from things. What we want to do, is use the physical world as a base, the same way our body is the base for our soul. Keep in mind that Hashem created a physical world to begin with and everything is here for a reason.  However, we have a mission and purpose to channel physicality for spiritual purposes.

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

Recap for 13 Adar 5775 discussion of Purim

The mid-week notes concern the holiday of Purim which begins tonight. I want to thank David for having a learning and get together at his house last night, especially for those who will not be able to come out tonight due to weather or other reasons.

We discussed how today, on Adar 13, our enemies were given permission and encouraged to attack us. Eventually it was rulef that we could defend ourselves, but this did not deter a lot of the attacks. Today we fast from around 5 am until after the megillah reading tonight. Today it is customary to go to shul and give 3 ½ dollar coins. These coins can usually be acquired in shul.

We discussed how we successfully defeated our enemies, however in Shoshan the fighting continued for an extra day.  Because of this extra day, Purim was to be celebrated an extra day in all walled cities, however today this extra day of celebration only takes place in Jerusalem.  Although the fighting did not take place an extra day in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is given a special status and is not left out of important holidays.

We discussed how Esther asked the sages to include Purim in Tanach. We discussed how the book of Esther was included in Tanach, and ties the knot between the written and oral parts of our Torah. We discussed how the first 4 mitzvah of Purim have Torah status, and the last 3 have rabbinic status. Torah status means we “go strict” if in doubt, and rabbinic status means we “go lenient”.

We discussed how Purim is considered to be the most important holiday.  This is the holiday in which we take Judaism to the max.  It is the only holiday which we will continue to celebrate into the messianic era.  Judaism is all about bringing spirituality to the physical world, and we try to do this as much as possible on Purim. Purim is a very hard holiday to celebrate because it is easy to lose track of why we are partying so much. The purpose of all the consumption and fun is to elevate the sparks of kidusha, as well as to celebrate our victory as a Jewish people.

We discussed how this victory is the first one in which Hashem remains hidden. There are many other differences between Purim and the other holidays. This is the only holiday in which we wear costumes and engage in parody. This is the only holiday in which we show up to shul and make a lot of noise. On purim, we let loose and be ourselves. Our divisions in society are lost. All of this is different than the other holidays.

On any other day all of this would be quite inappropriate.  But on Purim this “ISSS the program”, as my friend would say.  David presented a very interesting take on all this.  David discussed the idea that on Purim the rules remain the same but the definition changes. We still come to shul wearing Shabbos clothing, but the definition of “Shabbos clothing” includes wigs and masks on Purim. Men still can not dress like woman, but the definition of how men and woman dress on Purim changes.

Finally we discussed that drinking on Purim can be a mitzvah, but there are many exceptions to this. There are cases in which we would be commanded not to drink.  These include cases where we have health issues, may be on certain medications, may be pregnant, may be underage, and certainly if we are driving we would be commanded not to drink. We discussed how drinking a small amount and sleeping would still give us credit for the mitzvah.

It is extremely important to choose between drinking or driving tonight and tomorow. If we get bad weather it may be necessary to choose between walking on ice and drinking.  Please do not take risks just because it is Purim.  The holiday will soon be over and we certainly do not want to have created problems that will stay with us for a long time.

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

Recap for 9 Adar 5775 (Parsha Tetzaveh and Siyum in honor of Baruch Elyiahou)

This Shabbos we discussed the upcoming holiday of Purim. We also had a Siyum and lunch in honor of Norm’s father Baruch Elyiahou.  This was also in honor of Norm's son Bryan's birthday which is today (day after Shabbos).  Also, On Shabbos was Harold Katz birthday, and I would like to thank him for reading, learning from, and enjoying these notes every week.  It means a lot to me that you guys read and like the notes thank you for all the compliments!

Norm sponsored a Siyum in honor of his dad, in which we discussed some pages from tractate Megilla. This tractate discusses the holiday of Purim and the rules and procedures that must be followed when celebrating this holiday. We also discussed some of the laws and practices concerning the synagogue in general. For example, it is not proper to cut through the synagogue to get to another destination, or use the synagogue just to get out from the rain.  It is important to remember the purpose of the shul, which is to learn, daven, and gather as a community.

Norm spoke about how his father passed on March 1, the same day of the solar year – March 1, that his son Bryan was born. His father passed away on March 1, 1982 and Bryan was born on March 1, 1996. Although March 1 does not seem like a date from the Jewish calender, Hashem may speak to us in whatever way we are most likely to notice at the time.  Regardless if this is a coincidence or not, there is no question that our parents live on in us and in our children.

I have some thoughts from when my own father passed.  My thoughts are that our parents live on physically in our genes. And our parents live on spiritually as we perform mitzvah and live a life of goodness and Torah that is inspired by our parents. Norm spoke about how his father valued Judaism. And Norm spoke about how is father would be proud of his family, and I would absolutely agree his father is proud, and that his father lives on both physically and spiritually.

This Shabbos we learned some more about the upcoming holiday of Purim, and discussed commentary on this holiday from Rav Revansal. We talked about how Purim is the holiest day of the year. When we first hear this it does not sound right. Isn't the holiest day Yom Kippur?  It is true Yom Kippur is the day in which we abstain from the physical, and there are reasons why we do this on this day.  However Judaism is not about abstinence, it is about embracing the physical but channeling what we are doing in the most spiritual way possible.  Purim is the day in which we maximize our efforts to “elevate the sparks of kiddusha”.  And Purim can be a lot more difficult than Yom Kippur, because it is a lot harder to lose track of why we are eating and drinking and having such a great time.

We discussed what caused the downfall of Haman. Haman was never satisfied with what he had and always wanted more. David shared what his dad shared at his wedding, to focus on wanting what we have rather than having what we want. David’s dad would also point out how Haman’s name was similar to a passage in the Torah from the Garden of Eden when there was an extreme focus on the forbidden tree. Haman was always focused on what he did not have.  And Haman was a very very self-centered person in general. To Haman the entire world was all about him. And this is all what led to his downfall.

On Purim, the most important mitzvah is giving to the poor, because doing this is just the opposite of self-centeredness. Dave K pointed out that there are different ways that we can be poor. One example, is that we can be socially poor. Another way we can be poor is to lack the tools to deal with what our life is bringing us. I relate to ways of being poor other than financial. Perhaps we are all poor in certain areas.

Another important aspect of Purim we discussed is how Hashem remains hidden, but still plays a role. Yaki touched some more on the reasons why hashem remains hidden. If hashem were not hidden, this would take away our free will. We would be forced to believe in hashem. And we would be very tempted to rely on hashem, and not accomplish much ourselves. Back in the time that we left Egypt, we still had to use our free will.  It may have seen like Hashem's presense was obvious with all the miracles taking place, but there was a tremendous temptation to worship idols. Yaki spoke about how hashem created the world so there are always alternatives.  Today the temptation to worship idols is diminished, but there is still temptation to believe that we have higher powers other than Hashem.

We talked about how we are all born with this yearning for a higher power.  But like everything else we are born with, such as hunger, sexual desires, etc. etc. we get to choose how we are going to channel these desires.  

Finally, David spoke about how his father would ask and answer questions such as how do we know the others around us are not just robots and we are the only ones with feelings.  We could ask each other if we are real, but we could always be programmed to rely.  My father once said that we can never be 100% certain of anything.  And I guess this is one of these things, but I am almost 100% certain you guys are for real and not programmed robots!

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