This Shabbos was a special Shabbos as I very much appreciate our learning was in memory of my father, Joseph Ben Abraham, whose yahrzeit is this coming Tuesday. This Shabbos we discussed the holiday of Chanukah, and parsha Vayeishev.
Last year I wrote about my Dad, how he was not religious but was a very good person who received happiness out of doing mitzvah. I also shared about how I have been using some of the memory tricks he taught me to write these notes every Shabbos. Some more about my Dad - he liked to joke around a lot and did not like everything to be serious. He would have liked our kiddush and learning! It is amazing that the philosophical issues we discuss, are the same ones I remember discussing with him. In particular, I remember discussing with him evidence of Hashem’s existence.
David mentioned this Shabbos the idea of using the memory of a loved one to inspire us to do good things. This helps keep our loved ones spiritually alive within us and continue their presence in our world. This is really a beautiful idea that has helped me a lot.
One of the ideas we discussed this Shabbos, is how scientific knowledge keeps changing, but Torah does not. An example we discussed is the once held scientific belief that everything revolved around the earth. Of course, later scientific belief changed to the earth revolving around the sun. Later, scientific belief changed once again, and now we know that the sun as well as every other object in the universe is moving.
The Torah has always stayed the same, although it does need to be applied to a changing world. The Torah has always held that earth was a special place, but never suggested that everything in the universe physically revolved around it. Another example is that the Torah always held that time had a beginning, whereas scientific knowledge use to be that time always existed.
We had a discussion this Shabbos about this apparent new scientific discovery that particles can go back in time. This brings up questions, like can time really run backwards? Can we really return to the past? Of course an all-powerful God could change the state of the universe to be exactly what it was in the past, effectively moving us back in time. Perhaps what this new discovery has revealed, is part of the mechanism that would make something like this happen. There are a lot of mechanisms built into the physical world, designed by the creator to carry out his will. David shared with me his father’s take on this, which is that Hashem has not changed his mind yet and the direction of time is forward!
We discussed this Shabbos from Rav Malamed the holiday of Chanukah. We discussed the number 8, which is the number of days in Chanukah, and the day on which we perform and have Brit Milah. We discussed how a Brit Milah finishes the act of creating the human body on the 8th day. It symbolizes how Hashem creates the world in 6 days and then rests on the 7th day. On the 8th day man works on finishing the act of creation.
We discussed how 8 is an important number with Chanukah. For 8 days the oil burned when there was only enough oil for 1 day. The burning did not continue for 7 days after the oil was used up. The amount of oil used each of 8 days was only 1/8th what it would usually be. The miracle is how Hashem intervened to make this happen. Miracles can happen to us today just like they happened back then. Chanukah helps remind us of Hashem and miracles.
We discussed this Shabbos from Rav Yeager parsha Vayeishev. We discussed how in the parsha Joseph gets thrown into a pit and later sold off to become a slave in Egypt. We discussed the conflict that Jacob had with his brother Easu. Jacob wanted to have an arrangement with Easu, wherein Easu would engage in the physical world and help provide for both himself and Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob would engage in spiritual pursuits. However, it did not work out. Easu ended up rejecting spirituality and became emerged and engulfed in physicality.
We discussed how Jacob then had no choice but to engage in physicality. But unlike Easu, he did it in a way that used physicality as a platform for spirituality. Easu became very jealous of his brother’s success, and there was a lot of conflict between the two. We discussed how this conflict continued through to the descendants of Easu and Jacob. At some point Jacob had to choose which of his children would be the best antidote for Easu and his descendants, and he choose Joseph. As we know, this choosing made Joseph’s brothers extremely jealous, and they ended up throw him into a pit and then selling him into slavery.
We discussed why Joseph was such a good antidote to Easu. Brian Rubin pointed out that an antidote should have some of the “bad” as well as the solution. In this case Joseph had some of Easu, in the form of the desire to engage in physicality, but also had spirituality to channel the physicality in the right direction. We discussed how the result of using physicality as a platform for spirituality, by using the ideas that come from our Torah and religion, results in the maximum possible success.
David told a story from his father, Rav Dr. George Schlesinger, how Joseph was so successful Potifar ended up believing Joseph over his own wife! Of course, Potifar still had no choice but to put Joseph in jail, but it ended up being a special type of arrangement in which Joseph excelled.
Today is the fourth year anniversary of these notes based on the Hebrew calander, I started doing them shortly after my father passed away 4 years ago. The notes have helped me honor my father and I would like them to help honor everyone’s loved ones as well. If you can help remember my father, especially on his yahrzeit this Tuesday, that is really appreciated.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
One of the ideas we discussed this Shabbos, is how scientific knowledge keeps changing, but Torah does not. An example we discussed is the once held scientific belief that everything revolved around the earth. Of course, later scientific belief changed to the earth revolving around the sun. Later, scientific belief changed once again, and now we know that the sun as well as every other object in the universe is moving.
The Torah has always stayed the same, although it does need to be applied to a changing world. The Torah has always held that earth was a special place, but never suggested that everything in the universe physically revolved around it. Another example is that the Torah always held that time had a beginning, whereas scientific knowledge use to be that time always existed.
We had a discussion this Shabbos about this apparent new scientific discovery that particles can go back in time. This brings up questions, like can time really run backwards? Can we really return to the past? Of course an all-powerful God could change the state of the universe to be exactly what it was in the past, effectively moving us back in time. Perhaps what this new discovery has revealed, is part of the mechanism that would make something like this happen. There are a lot of mechanisms built into the physical world, designed by the creator to carry out his will. David shared with me his father’s take on this, which is that Hashem has not changed his mind yet and the direction of time is forward!
We discussed this Shabbos from Rav Malamed the holiday of Chanukah. We discussed the number 8, which is the number of days in Chanukah, and the day on which we perform and have Brit Milah. We discussed how a Brit Milah finishes the act of creating the human body on the 8th day. It symbolizes how Hashem creates the world in 6 days and then rests on the 7th day. On the 8th day man works on finishing the act of creation.
We discussed how 8 is an important number with Chanukah. For 8 days the oil burned when there was only enough oil for 1 day. The burning did not continue for 7 days after the oil was used up. The amount of oil used each of 8 days was only 1/8th what it would usually be. The miracle is how Hashem intervened to make this happen. Miracles can happen to us today just like they happened back then. Chanukah helps remind us of Hashem and miracles.
We discussed this Shabbos from Rav Yeager parsha Vayeishev. We discussed how in the parsha Joseph gets thrown into a pit and later sold off to become a slave in Egypt. We discussed the conflict that Jacob had with his brother Easu. Jacob wanted to have an arrangement with Easu, wherein Easu would engage in the physical world and help provide for both himself and Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob would engage in spiritual pursuits. However, it did not work out. Easu ended up rejecting spirituality and became emerged and engulfed in physicality.
We discussed how Jacob then had no choice but to engage in physicality. But unlike Easu, he did it in a way that used physicality as a platform for spirituality. Easu became very jealous of his brother’s success, and there was a lot of conflict between the two. We discussed how this conflict continued through to the descendants of Easu and Jacob. At some point Jacob had to choose which of his children would be the best antidote for Easu and his descendants, and he choose Joseph. As we know, this choosing made Joseph’s brothers extremely jealous, and they ended up throw him into a pit and then selling him into slavery.
We discussed why Joseph was such a good antidote to Easu. Brian Rubin pointed out that an antidote should have some of the “bad” as well as the solution. In this case Joseph had some of Easu, in the form of the desire to engage in physicality, but also had spirituality to channel the physicality in the right direction. We discussed how the result of using physicality as a platform for spirituality, by using the ideas that come from our Torah and religion, results in the maximum possible success.
David told a story from his father, Rav Dr. George Schlesinger, how Joseph was so successful Potifar ended up believing Joseph over his own wife! Of course, Potifar still had no choice but to put Joseph in jail, but it ended up being a special type of arrangement in which Joseph excelled.
Today is the fourth year anniversary of these notes based on the Hebrew calander, I started doing them shortly after my father passed away 4 years ago. The notes have helped me honor my father and I would like them to help honor everyone’s loved ones as well. If you can help remember my father, especially on his yahrzeit this Tuesday, that is really appreciated.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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