Almost Eden

BS"D Parashat Yitro 5770

Prior to the revelation at Mount Sinai, the newly freed nation of Israel encamped at a place called Mara, where HaShem revealed to Moshe three out of the pending 613 mitzvot: Shabbat, honoring one’s father and mother, and civil laws (there is an opinion that para aduma [red hefer] necessary for the removal of tumat met [tuma caused through contact with a corpse] was included at Mara).

The parasha relates that after the Mara experience Moshe served as the sole judge in all halachic matters. Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, who had gained wide experience in governmental affairs while serving as one of the three closest advisors to Paro, looked askance at the heavy judicial load Moshe was bearing. So, in the spirit of everyone's interest, good father-in-law, Yitro suggested to Moshe that he establish a judicial system composed of judges at various levels of judicial responsibility, with Moshe serving as Chief Judge in cases which were beyond the capacity of the lower courts to decide.

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DVAR TORAH: TO "SUMMIT" ALL UP
RABBI STEWART WEISS

The highlight of our Sedra - and perhaps all the Torah! – is the reading of the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments. The Torah’s intro to this earth-shaking (our apologies to Haiti) event - “And G-d spoke all these things, saying….” – is explained by Rashi:
“Hashem first spoke all 10 commandments at the same time (an act that is humanly impossible), and then He delineated each of them one by one.”

The obvious question is that if a human being could not process all the commandments presented simultaneously, then what was the purpose of doing it? Particularly if we were soon going to hear them individually anyway!

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Our friends over at the Shipping & Living in Israel blog have just offered the best advice for new or prospective olim I've heard in a long time! Recommended reading: Quite Possibly My Most Important Post.

DVAR TORAH: GO TO THE SOURCE, OF COURSE!
RABBI S. WEISS

From the “just when you thought it was safe to leave Egypt” department: The plagues are over, Pharoah has relented, you’ve said your last goodbye to the Pyramids and are on the freedom trail – but Whoa! - not so fast! What is that sound of chariots and “death to the Israelites” I hear fast approaching behind me? Can it be Paro – again?!

What is it now? Three days out of wretched slavery and well on the way to beautiful Israel, the Jews are once again in mortal danger. While I can understand Paro’s change of heart – after all, once an anti-Semite, always an anti-Semite – why must the poor Jews be put through yet another trauma. Hadn’t they suffered enough? Why this?

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BS"D Parashat Beshalach 5770

Shemot 13:17-18:

¹⁷ When Pharaoh sent out the (Jewish) nation, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though it was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might renege and return to Egypt."

¹⁸ And God led the people by way of the desert road toward the Red Sea. And The Israelites went up out of Egypt CHAMUSHIM

Rashi brings two non-exclusive commentaries for the word Chamushim.

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BS"D Parashat Va’ay’rah and Bo 5770

Shmot 12:12:

"And I will pass through the land of Egypt and I will smite the first-born in the land of Egypt and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, I am the Eternal God.

From the Pessach Hagada based on the above verse:

"And I will pass through the land of Egypt" - I and not a ministering angel;
"and I will smite the first-born in the land of Egypt" - I and not a fiery angel;
"and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment" - I and not a messenger;
"I, the Eternal" - I and no other

The humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquake in Haiti has moved the hearts of good people the world over.

And the question is repeated again and again, "Why did HaShem do this to the poorest, most backward country in the world?"

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Are you still unemployed/underemployed in the diaspora/galut/galus? Or an oleh/olah/new immigrant looking for work in Israel? The following list (mostly hi-tech, or marketing) is from the Jobs In Israel by www.AsakimPlus.co.il e-mail list. If you don't find a good fit for you here, I highly recommend joining Israeli and Jewish job groups at LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com - there are many and varied opportunities there.

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BS"D Parshiot Shemot and Va’ay’rah 5770
MY SABA (GRANDFATHER) AND ME - THE BIG DIFFERENCE

One can only imagine the ecstatic feelings of gratification, even rapture, after the enduring, never ending years of slavery. The man Moshe, (Moses) Prince of Egypt, suddenly appears with the cryptic words "pokod pa’kade’ti" (I have watched over you) that only the messenger of HaShem could know.

Am Yisrael is about to break the chains of bondage and return home to the land promised by HaShem to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov [Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob]. The land of milk and honey; milk to regenerate the emaciated bodies of the downtrodden slaves, and honey to soothe the lacerations on their bodies from the daily beatings of their taskmasters.

Moshe and his brother Aharon (Aaron) gathered together the elders of the nation to deliver to them HaShem’s message that the time for their redemption had arrived, as the Torah relates (Shemot 4:28-30):

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Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive guide, just my experiences in registering as a business in Israel today - at the request of my friend Shoshana

There are two ways to go about this - the hard way or the CPA way! For more than 6 months (on and off) I have been trying to accomplish this task the hard way, i.e., Internet research, meetings at MATI Centers in Jerusalem and Ra'anana (MATI is The Israel Small and Medium Enterprises Authority), blogs like Gidon Ariel's How to Succeed as an Atzmai... The bottom line is that my Hebrew skills are not good enough to navigate the system of locating the correct offices (and their business hours) or the correct forms (and completing them).

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BS"D Parashat Shemot 5770

Achdut (unity) is a major plank in the platform of Judaism. In our yeshiva education, we are nurtured with the concept of Ahavat Yisrael (love of fellow Jew) through mussar (ethical) lectures and our rabbis who serve as great role models. So a huge question emerges. If indeed unity is a supreme concept, why did HaShem bring forth the Jewish nation from the four wives of Ya’akov, who eventually evolved into thirteen tribal loyalties, instead of from one wife and no tribal fragmentation?

I submit:

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