Almost Eden

BS"D
Parashat Ki Tisa 5770

Part A:

The roots of this message are imbedded in the Megila and Tractate Megila, and therefore it would seemingly have been more appropriate to send it before Purim. But since its massive trunk, intertwined boughs and thick foliage stretch far into the future, spanning 2500 years to our days, its relevance goes far and beyond the miracles of Purim.

I believe that the Purim episode holds within it the secrets of the final chapters in human history, and even their time frame.

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DVAR TORAH: PICKING UP THE PIECES
RABBI STEWART WEISS

Life, as we know, is often inscrutable. While we certainly experience life and know a lot about it - and even try to master it – its intricacies and its deeper meaning are often beyond us, and defy our intellect and understanding.

So, too, the Torah. We marvel at its wisdom, its logic, its timeless ability to inspire and invigorate us. But it, too, has an inscrutable side, a point beyond which even the most brilliant among us cannot journey. The section chosen by the Rabbis to represent this principle is the Para Aduma, the red heifer whose essence is beyond mortal reason.

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BS"D Parashat Tetzaveh - Shabbat Zechor 5770

Shemot 27:20

And you shall command the Children of israel, that they take to (for) you clear oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the eternal flame ablaze

The Midrash Raba on this week’s parasha compares the Jewish nation with olive oil, in two respects: olive oil does not combine with any other liquid, and when added to any other liquid olive oil always rises to the top. So too the Jewish people maintain a hard core that has never inter married with gentiles and never will, and in the most difficult of social and economic circumstances they always rose to the top of society.

But there is a third comparison made between us and olive oil stated in various books, that just as the olive delivers its pure oil through pressure, so too do the Jewish people express their unique genius only under pressure and duress.

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BS"D Parashat Teruma 5770

A: SEDER AND HESDER

Book of Daniel (10:4-7):
⁴ On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris,
⁵ I looked up and there before me was a man (angel) dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist.
⁶ His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
⁷ I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves

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DVAR TORAH: YIDS AND YUDS
RABBI STEWART WEISS

This is something out of the “When Moshiach Comes!” file: Moshe appeals to the nation for donations, and after just a few days, he must beg them to stop giving – we have more than we need!

Our response to the building of the Mishkan was so strong that in no time at all, we had reached full-funding! But – there was one flaw in the ointment: the Princes of the nation never got their chance to donate.

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BS"D Parashat Mishpatim 5770

Two statements came out this week from the Ayotullas in Teheran, that they will begin enriching uranium to the level of 20%, and their oft repeated threat to destroy every man woman and child in Medinat Yisrael as the initial step in doing the same to all Jews, wherever they might be. Sounds familiar as the holiday of Purim draws closer.

This Shabbat, we will bless the new month of Adar which will begin on the following Sunday night. Adar is the month that plays host to the miraculous holiday of Purim, when HaShem intervened to save the Jewish people from Haman and Achashverush, whose turns had come to be the ranking arch anti-Semites of that time.

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DVAR TORAH: THE ANGELS AMONG US
RABBI S. WEISS

Our Sedra of Mishpatim shows Judaism’s “sensitive” side. How we must respond to the needs of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the disenfranchised, even the slave and members of the animal kingdom.

But the Sedra’s closing section seems, at first, to be of a completely different flavor. It contains several mysterious episodes: First, Hashem says, “I am sending an Angel to protect you; respect him, for My name is in him.”

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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.