Recap for 23 Tevet 5777 (Parsha Shemot)

This Shabbos, we discussed Parsha Shemot, including commentary by Rav Yeager. It was a special Shabbos, as we held a siyum on tractate Bava Metzia. The learning was held in memory of Irwin Ravinett (Yisrael Moshe Ben Mendelleib), David’s father-in-law, and Yishai Davidi (Yi Shai ben Tzvi Arieh), David’s uncle. David Schlesinger led discussion.

We learned the last daf in tractate Bava Metzia.  We discussed who would own plants, and be entitled to the fruit, if trees and/or plants seemed to be on more than one property. We discussed specifically the case of two properties at different elevations with a vertical wall separating them. We discussed who would own the plants growing out of the vertical wall. There were several different opinions. One of them was that whomever’s property possessed the roots, owned any plants that came out of these roots. Another opinion was that whomever could reach the plants from their property, was entitled to them. After finishing the Daf, we held a siyum to celebrate the finishing of the tractate.

This Shabbos we began a new book of the Torah, known as Shemot. We discussed how the word Shemot means “names”. We discussed why this second book of the Torah is called “names”. When we went to Egypt and became enslaved, we each lost our identity and purpose, which is represented by each of our names. Pharaoh took away our identity, purpose, and thus our names. We discussed how the specific names of characters in the parsha are not mentioned, which indicates that the names were effectively taken away.

Later in the book of Shemot we get our names back.  Hashem sets us free and we journey to Mt. Sinai, receive the Torah, and have our identities, and purpose restored.

We discussed how Hashem gives us all a purpose, which along with our name gives us an identity. Rob pointed out that it is often hard to figure out what our purpose is. Nevertheless, we all have different purposes and identities that together with others, form a team.

We discussed how Pharaoh messed up our team, by stripping each of us of any purpose.  We discussed how this is analogous to a football team.  Every position on a football team, such as quarterback and center, has a purpose. What pharaoh did to us, is ask the quarterback to kick field goals, and the wide receiver to play center and hike balls.

David shared about how woman have been activists in our history, and have played a major role in contributing towards our well-being. We discussed specifically in this parsha, it was the midwives who refused to kill newly born males. And it was Miriam who was able to get Moshe nursed by his biological mother. Back in the Hanakuh story, it was a woman named Judith, who played a role in helping us be victorious.

Yaki gave a dvar Torah about how Moshe was instructed to perform miracles to convince us that he was really bringing a message from Hashem. Yaki spoke that it was necessary to perform 3 miracles, because there was a concern we had assimilated into Egyptian culture. Yaki spoke about how each of these miracles, symbolized how we as a nation could move from one state to another.

We discussed this Shabbos the role of angels. Rob shared the idea that perhaps fights with angels as mentioned in the Torah, are actually fights we have with our own conscience. Irv shared that angels in some cases would seem to be physical, as the fights resulted in physical injuries. I shared that perhaps these physical injuries were just perceived but not really there.

David shared that his father, Rav Dr. George Schlesinger, would say that events happen in clusters. This seems to be true, whether it is events in the Torah, or events in our everyday life. I personally seem to have stressful things to deal with, all happening within a few days of one another. Another example, in the Torah, we seem to have a lot of misfortune clustered within the month of Av.

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

Recap for 16 Tevet 5777 (Parsha Vayechi)

This Shabbos, we discussed Torah Shebealpeh, known as the oral law. We also discussed parsha Vayechi.  David Schlesinger led discussion.

We discussed the different categories of Torah Shebealpeh (oral law). One of these categories is known as implementation details.  The written Torah contains some general halakuh, such as the commandment to wear tefillin. However additional to the written Torah, Moshe received implementation details at Mt. Sinai, such as the requirement that the tefillin be black. For many years these implementation details were transmitted only orally, until it was decided to write them down in what is known as the Talmud.

Another category of Torah Shebealpeh we discussed, is laws which are the Rabbis interpretation of the contents of the Torah. At Mt. Sinai, Moshe received 13 principles, which are used to unlock the “secrets of the Torah.” For example, the law against mixing milk and meat, and the laws requiring a minyan of 10 are extracted from the written Torah using these principles.  Halakha that is not explicitly written in the Torah, but the Rabbi's pascan from the written Torah using these principles, is a special category of Torah Shebealpeh.

Another category of Torah Shebealpeh that we discussed, are laws that the Rabbi enact in order to protect us from being at risk of violating Torah prohibitions. We discussed an example of this, which is the law forbidding the mixing of chicken and dairy. These laws, known as Rabbinic Torah, are at a lower level than Torah law, which comes from the written Torah. One of the main differences between Rabbinic and Torah law, is when we are in doubt with a halakha we go lenient with Rabbinic, and strict with Torah law.

The Torah allows Rabbi’s to enact laws that create a “fence”, however today there is no central rabbinic authority to do this. We discussed how it was important for the Rabbi’s to be careful enacting new laws. We discussed the implementation of Purim as a holiday, as an example. We discussed how careful the Rabbi’s were with their decision to declare this holiday.

We discussed the holiday of Yom Ha’atzmaut. There is a belief by some that this is not a religiously sanctioned holiday. In Israel, this is considered a holiday and people take the day off. In the United States, we may not consider it as big of a holiday as some of the others, but we recognize the great importance the state of Israel plays in our religion, how the land of Israel was promised to us by Hashem, and what Israel means to us today.

We discussed parsha Vayechi, including commentary from Rav Yeager. We discussed how Jacob appeared to be very old to Pharaoh who asked him how old he was. Jacob responded that there were many years that he felt like he wasn’t living. These were years in which he was concerned about Joseph. Last Shabbos we discussed how Jacob never accepted that Joseph was dead, however was concerned that Joseph was dead spiritually. Elliott, a newcomer to our Kiddush this Shabbos, shared his thoughts that the specific concern was that Joseph had assimilated into Egyptian culture.

We discussed that although Joseph had spent many years preoccupied about Joseph, he kept up his practices. We discussed how when we are depressed, we can continue living by keeping up our practices of davening, studying Torah, doing mitzvah, and making a positive contribution to our communities and the world.

We discussed this Shabbos how there are different definitions for the word "living". There is of course physical life. But there is also spiritual life, which means we are continuing our practices, and making a positive contributions and not merely surviving. We discussed that when living, it is important to keep growing, as we will lose any growth we have attained unless we keep moving forward. Elliott shared his thoughts that it is the nature of human beings to have to keep moving forward in life.  We discussed that we will fall back if we don't continue pushing forward.

We discussed this Shabbos, how after Jacob passed away, the brothers told Joseph that Jacob wanted them to be forgiven. We discussed from Rav Yeager, how Joseph knew they were lying, because he had never told Jacob what had happened.

We discussed a few other topics this Shabbos.  Hannah shared that it was unlike most families, that the sons of Joseph went with the flow and did not become jealous of each other.  Also, Rob shared this Shabbos, about the historically different types of laws in Judaism. There are serious laws, which when violated called for the death penalty, less serious laws that when violated called for lashes, and still less serious laws that would have less serious penalties.

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

Recap for 9 Tevet 5777 (Parsha Vayigash)

This Shabbos, we discussed parsha Vayigash, including commentary from Rav Yeager.  We discussed fast days in general, and specifically the fast day of the 10th of Tevet.  And we discussed the character trait of humility.  I would like to thank David and Linda for hosting our Kiddush and learning.  David Schlesinger led discussion.

We discussed that humility is a very important character trait. Hashem gives each of us special talents. But we should never view these talents as making us more important than others. David spoke about his dad, Rav Dr George Schlesinger, and how he would describe humility as being aware of our strengths, but not believing our strengths are any more important than anyone else’s strengths. In addition to being aware of our strengths, we should of course be aware of our weaknesses.

We discussed why we have fast days, and what Rav Malamed says on this subject. We have these days to help remind us of  tragedies that happened to us through out history.  If we did not have fast days, we would tend to forget these tragedies.  

We discussed some of the specific fast days.  We discussed the fast of the 9th of Av, and how it commemorates the destruction of the first and second temple, which both happened on the same day of the year. We also discussed the fast of the 10th of Tevet, which was the day after Shabbos. Unlike the fast on the 9th of Av, the fast on the 10th of Tevet only goes from sun up to sun down, rather than 24 hours.  The 10th of Tevet is the date the Babylonians started their invasion of Jerusalem. After this date, they were eventually able to penetrate the wall surrounding the city, and later were able to destroy the first temple. All of this led to our exile from Israel.

We discussed how back in this time of the first temple, we were engaged in immorality and were warned by prophets that there would be consequences, however we ignored these warnings. Although the Jews who were exiled were engaged in immorality, the presence of any Jew in Israel has great significance, and the exile of any Jew is a tragedy.

Yaki gave a very interesting dvar torah, about how things that seem to be bad, can be there for the reason of leading to a greater good.  We have discussed the virtuous response to suffering. This Shabbos, Yaki discussed how it would seem like a very bad thing that Joseph was sold off as a slave and sent to Egypt, but in the end this ended up ensuring the continuation of Jacob’s family, who were not going to be able to survive in Israel any more due to a famine.

In the parsha, Joseph speaks about forgiving his brothers, because this was all a part of Hashem’s plans. Yaki shared about how Jacob also realized this was Hashem's plans, and said the Sh’ma the first moment he saw Joseph after all those years.  Coming to Egypt allowed us not only survive, but to flourish and grow substantially in numbers. Of course, we were later enslaved by the Egyptians, but if it wasn’t for this enslavement we would not have had the opportunity to be freed by Hashem, and begin our journey to Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah.

We discussed an idea from Rav Yeager, how when Jacob learned that Joseph was still alive he was not totally surprised, as he had never accepted that Joseph was dead in the first place. Jacob’s main concern with Joseph was whether or not he had survived spiritually. Dave W shared his thoughts that Jacob was very concerned that Joseph may have assimilated into Egyptian culture.

Rob asked an interesting question, which is whether Jacob would have preferred Joseph to die physically rather than spiritually. We talked about how Jacob’s main concern was the continuation of Judaism, and the special relationship with Hashem that had begun with Abraham. Jacob did not want Benjamin to go to Egypt, as this was Rachel’s only other child.  It was Benjamin who was chosen by Jacob to continue our faith, after Joseph was sent to Egypt.

We discussed from Rav Yeager, how Judith understood all this, and this is why he offered to guarantee Benjamin’s safety. In Egypt, Judith offered to substitute himself for Benjamin, as he understood the spiritual importance of Benjamin to his father, and to the continuation of our faith.

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

Recap for 2 Tevet 5777 (Parsha Mikeitz)

This Shabbos, we heard a dvar torah from Rav Males.  We discussed the holiday of Hanukkah, including commentary by Rav Malamed. And we discussed parsha Mikeitz, including commentary by Rav Yeager.  David Schlesinger led discussion.

Rabbi Males talked about how historically Hanukkah menorahs were located outside, in front of our homes. He spoke about how, today, in Israel it is still customary to place menorahs in “fish tanks”, outside, in front of homes, and on the porches of apartments.

He talked about some of the differences between the menorah we light in shul during Hanukkah, and that which we light at home. It is a mitzvah to light a menorah at our house, so simply being at shul during a menorah lighting does not sufficient. The menorahs located within shuls are located near the southern wall. We light the candles on this menorah from west to east.

This Shabbos fell during the 8 days of Hanukkah. We discussed some of the differences between Hanukkah and Purim. Hanukkah is about our triumph over attempts to overtake us spiritually, whereas Purim is about our triumph over attempts to destroy us physically. We discussed how the Hanukkah story took place in Israel with the resurrection of the Beit Midrash, whereas the Purim story is about surviving outside of Israel.

We discussed some of the halakhah of Hanukkah. The candle light can not be used for anything other than a commemoration of the miracle of Hanukkah. Therefore, it is forbidden to use the light for reading or any other work, such as house work.

We discussed how woman, in particular, are not allowed to do work, such as housework, during the first 30 minutes the candles are lit. This halakhah makes absolutely sure the light won’t be used for anything else. Also, by only applying to woman, we remember the special role woman played in the Hanakhah story, especially the role of Judith.

We discussed the custom during Hanukah to eat foods cooked in oil. We enjoy food such as latkas, but also other types of food fried in oil. We also discussed the custom to eat dairy during this holiday, which helps us remember how Judith gave cheese to our enemies.

This Shabbos, we discussed the idea of trust, and in particular having trust in Hashem. We discussed exactly what is meant by the word trust. An example of trust we discussed, is trust by our employer that they can assign us a project, and we will get it done without the need for micromanagement. Rob pointed out that there is a difference between trust and faith.

We discussed how although we have trust in Hashem, this doesn’t mean we can simply sit around wishing for things to happen (or not happen) to us. Hashem gives us what is best for us, which may not be what we want at the moment.  Also, Hashem will only do his part. I mentioned at our learning, that life requires a combination of action and prayers, action for what we can control, and prayers for what we can not.

In the parsha, Hashem did his part by giving Joseph the ability to interpret dreams, however it was up to Joseph to do dream interpretation. We discussed how the solution to Joseph’s problem of being stuck in jail, was contained within his dream that the butler would soon be let free. Although the Butler did not tell Pharaoh immediately of Joseph’s situation, eventually it came out when Pharaoh needed help interpreting his own dream. The butler told Pharaoh about Joseph, and Joseph soon found himself freed from jail, and eventually became a leader, second most powerful person in Egypt.

We discussed how Joseph did not think he was chosen to represent the continuation of Judaism that had begun with Abraham, passed down to Isaac, and then to Jacob. By not being part of the covenant, he felt that he was only subject to the laws of Noah.

We discussed one of the laws of Noah, which is the prohibition against eating the limb of a living animal. We discussed how this one law is actually more strict with non-Jews, who must wait longer with kosher animals, than with Jews who can consider the animal deceased, immediately after it has undergone shechita according to halakha.

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