Our parasha relates (Devarim 31:16)

And the LORD said to Moshe: "You will lie down to rest with your fathers and rise up, [then] this nation will follow the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and transgress the covenant I made with them.

The Gemara (Sanhedrin 90b) understands this verse as alluding to techiyat hamaitim (resurrection of the dead), for HaShem gives Moshe notice of his imminent demise, "You will lay down to rest with your fathers," followed by the words "and rise up".

However, the pasuk is problematic, for it brings together the greatest act of chesed by HaShem - resurrection of the dead, with the foulest act of betrayal that man can perform - the rejection of God in favor of idolatry.

How are we to understand this?

The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal, inevitable tendency of all things to decay. The rate of decay is expressed in terms of a property called entropy, thus the eventual entropy of all matter into chaos - tohu vavohu.

This phenomenon of decay, while it may take many millions of years to express itself in nature, exists in a very rapid form among people and societies where it is called "social entropy". It refers to when the orderly system of a society degenerates into its maximum state of entropy called "anarchy".

The pasuk "And the LORD said to Moshe: "You will lie down to rest with your fathers and rise up, [then] this nation will follow the foreign gods of the land they are entering," is describing a unique period in history when decay and its opposite - resurrection - will proceed side by side; the one rising ever higher in kedusha and spirituality with the other descending into unfathomable chaos.

We are witnessing such a phenomenon before our very eyes - decay into chaos and at the same time regeneration and resurrection.

When nations compete with each other to attain nuclear weaponry rather than cooperating to raise the moral and material standards of life, we are in the maelstrom of universal social entropy.

When the majority of the world’s nations automatically raise their hands in approval in any vote to condemn the Jewish state, we see a regression to Noach’s pre-deluge times.

When over 70% of Jewish weddings in the galut are only 50% Jewish - with the other 50% a gentile partner - the entropy of Jewish existence is catastrophically high.

In the United States, the point of no return of assimilation has been crossed, when today in any counting of Jews, whether it be 5 million or 4 million, half are non-Halachic, having been converted by reform and other jesters or recognized by them as Jews by virtue of having a Jewish father.

This is the fulfillment of the second part of the above verse "... [then] the nation will follow the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and transgress the covenant I made with them."

Now with regard to the first part of the verse, "You will lie down to rest with your fathers and rise up" deals with techiyat hamaitim - resurrection. It, too, is being fulfilled today before our very eyes in every minute of our lives.

It is the dead, dried bones of our nation coming back together in Eretz Yisrael as predicted by the prophet Yechezkel (chapter 37):

So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone

(The earthquake was the Shoah that traumatized all the Jewish communities in the world. And the many bones - so apart but now fusing together - are the Jews from over 100 galuyot (lands of our exile) gathering in the holy land of Israel.)

I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.

(And they came and built a land. They drained the swamps, built homes, roads, factories, planes and ships, an army, navy, air-force, submarines, orbiting satellites, skyscrapers, banks, hospitals and much, much more. But many of those who returned had suffered so much that there was no spiritual breath left in them.)

Then HaShem said to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord: From the four winds, comes breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.

So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

(And Torah scholars came from the four corners of the earth to breathe into the people the spirit of the Torah and the Torah became exceedingly great, with batei knesset and yeshivot dotting the land.)

Then HaShem said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.

Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.

You shall know that I am God, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people.

I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and you shall know that I, God have spoken it and performed it, says God.

(And the Jews in the lands of our galuyot, whose "bones are dried up" and whose hope is lost and are cut off, they too will one day merit spiritual resurrection on their return to Eretz Yisrael, for only here can there be techiyat hamaitim).

This Shabbat will be the final one of the year 5770.

Every week I have tried in my humble way to open up a small aperture in the hermetically- closed hearts of unfortunate Jews who, through no fault of their own, have fallen under the influence of charismatic leaders who cherish the galut and scorn the daily miracles our Father in Heaven showers upon His people in Eretz Yisrael.

Perhaps the best way to summarize all I have tried to say is a quote from the Midrash Halacha (Sifray, Devarim 90):

Rabbi Yehuda Ben Betaira and Rabbi Mattya Ben Charash and Rabbi Hanania nephew of Rabbi Joshua and Rabbi Jonathan were leaving to go to chutz la’aretz and came to Paltom. They remembered the land of Israel raised their eyes and tore their clothes and tears ran down their eyes, and they recited the verse (Devarim 11:31) And you shall inherit the land, and dwell in her, and fulfill there all the commandments of the Torah. The rabbis then declared that to dwell in Eretz Yisrael is equivalent to all of the mitzvot of the Torah.

Part B:

As I write this, our Prime Minister is in probably the most unenviable position in which an Israeli leader can find himself. Binyamin Netanyahu is trying to repel the onslaughts of the present American president and administration in Washington to force him to place his neck - and ours - in a noose.

Were I in his place, and if I would have the ambition to be one of Am Yisrael’s greatest leaders of all time, I would take advantage of this opportunity to pronounce before the entire world the following.

"The God of Israel has returned His people to a meaningful part of the Promised Land - including Yehuda, Shomron and the Golan, as stated in the prophets. We have begun to settle these areas and await God’s continued kindness to His people, when He will restore to us all the area of Eretz Yisrael, stretching from the Euphrates River, beginning in Turkey and spilling out into Shat Al Arab - the Gulf of Arabia - down to the Nile River in Egypt. We harbor no ill will towards the gentiles who are presently in the land, and they need not fear as long as they do not entertain any national claims or aspirations on the land. There is not, nor was there ever, nor will there be an entity called "Palestine" or Palestinian people. These are illusions that exist only in the psychotic minds of our deadly enemies and "friendly" enemies. I call out now to all Jews, wherever they may be, to return home to share with us in the absolute mitzva of preparing the land and the people for the future appearance of HaShem in Zion.

And at the end of this pronouncement, I would politely depart from my hosts and return to Yerushalayim.

Herein lies the distinction between mediocrity and genuine greatness.

Shabbat Shalom

Ketiva va’chatima tova - May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life in Eretz Ha’chayim - the Land of Life.

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

As in most years, the parshiyot of Nitzavim and Veyelech are combined on this Shabbat, the final Shabbat of year 5770. What is it that connects them?

I suggest that there is one primary theme which runs through both readings, and it is the fundamental lesson which we must internalize before we step into the dock on the Days of Judgment: The Jewish People are One.

It begins by stating emphatically: “You stand here today, all of you – from the elders to the babies, from the heads of tribes to the water-drawers.” The “heads” reach the highest heights, while water seeks its own, lower level.

“And not just you who are assembled here (are part of this covenant); but also those who are not here!” (The Jews who have passed on, and those yet to be born).

“Then G-d will gather all of you together, from the farthest reaches of the world, to be consolidated within one Land, where the Mitzvot may be fully activated.”

And then the penultimate Mitzva of the Torah – Hakhel – whereby the King assembles everyone – men, women, children, converts – to hear selections from the Torah.

And finally, the last of the 613 Commandments: The obligation for each person to write, or participate in the writing of a Sefer Torah, the letters of which stand for the totality of the nation, the words and laws of which are the “great equalizer” affecting each and every Jew alike.

The second Sedra of Shabbat begins, “Vayelech Moshe,” and Moshe went. But where did he go? Some say it was to invoke the blessing of the Avot, or to the Bet Midrash or even to his death. But Ibn Ezra interprets the statement quite literally: Moshe went to visit each and every shevet to say goodbye.

But could this be so? To traverse the camp Moshe would have had to walk 12 parsa (46,000 meters or 28.6 miles!).

Could a man of 120, who had much to do this last day of his life, really cover so much ground?

I suggest that he could - and did. For Moshe wanted to emphasize – with his last great act in this world – that all of Bnei Yisrael equally deserved to be recognized and honored: The scholars of Yissachar, the businessmen of Zevulun, the soldiers, the farmers, the water-drawers and the high officials. Like true curators of art, Moshe understood that the value of a painting lies not in its size, but in its substance. And so each Jew has infinite value.

Where did Moshe go; where has Moshe gone? Hopefully, his spirit of unity went into each and every one of us.

SHANA TOVA TO ALL!

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WHAT ARE THE SPECIAL LAWS OF ROSH HASHANA?

Answer: On Erev RH (this Wed.) men customarily immerse in a Mikva. Hatarat Nedarim (release from vows) is said before 3 people, and an Eruv Tavshilin is made (so one can cook on YomTov for Shabbat). During the 10 Days of Repentance, special inserts are added to the Amida and Birkat HaMazon; Avinu Malkeinu is said each day.

The central Mitzva of RH is to hear the Shofar. Women are not technically obligated, but do receive a Mitzva for hearing Shofar. The 2 days of RH are considered 1 long day; we don't prepare for the 2nd day on the 1st. A new fruit is eaten 2nd night; women should wear new clothes as well for Shehecheyanu. Tashlich is said Friday, or anytime through Hoshana Raba, at a body of water.

Special RH foods: Apple in honey, the head of a fish/lamb; round chala; pumpkin; leek; rimon; beets, dates. Also - we recommend raisins and celery for...a raise in salary!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Our parasha lays down the details of the bikurim mitzva. The growers of any of the seven species of flora which are indigenous to the Holy Land bring samples of them to the Bet Hamikdash where they are placed down on the lower step of the large altar. The "donor" then declares before the officiating kohen a short synopsis of Jewish history as follows (Devarim 26)

Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: "The Aramean (Lavan) attempted to destroy my father (Ya’akov) and he went down into Egypt with few people and lived there to become a great nation, powerful and numerous. The Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey".

This declaration is intended to ensure that the Jewish people will forever be conscious of HaShem’s past and present protectiveness of His nation Israel.

The allusion to Lavan, Ya’akov’s father-in-law, and the early hospitality of the "friendly" Egyptians is intended to ensure that we never forget the evil intentions and acts of yesterday’s enemies and that we must be mindful of today’s "friends" who have the potential of being our enemies of tomorrow.

To remember and not forget is a characteristic of the Jewish people. We forever remember our friends and never forget our enemies. It is a command of the Torah to remember the evils of Amalek, but also to be kind to the nations that aided us in our times of strife.

It is a necessary part of Jewish education to learn the history of our people. Who were our ancestors and what did they do to cause the Creator to enter into an eternal covenant with their children whose centerpiece is the holy Torah? What about the wanderings and the return to Eretz Yisrael, where we established the Jewish monarchy, the two Temples and their destruction, followed by our 2000 year exile and return home?

To be aware of our history is to become connected with all our rabbis and kings, saints and soldiers. To forget who we are and from where we come is the "cutting of the ribbon" to the exit door from Judaism.

One small example:

On Monday night of this week, our national all-star basketball team creamed the national all-star team of Latvia, winning by 35 points. So what?

When I heard the results on the news, it immediately brought to mind another basketball game in that part of the world. It was held in 1941, between the Lithuanians (who together with Latvia and Estonia comprise the Baltic States) and the occupying German army. Just to refresh our memories, the Baltic peoples are among the most incorrigible anti-Semites that slither on this globe. My mother a"h, who was born in Dvinsk, Latvia at the time when two Torah giants resided there - the "Or Sa’mayach" and the Rogechover Gaon, made a count of 200 of her relatives in Dvinsk and Riga who were murdered by the local Latvians before the Nazi invasion. On the tenth of Tevet, the general Kaddish day, I recite kaddish for the 200 members of my mother’s family and the hundreds more of my father’s family, who were murdered in the region of Galicia, Poland.

Returning to the basketball match of 1941, the prize that was awarded to every member of the winning team was the opportunity to shoot ten Jews.

The events surrounding that basketball game were detailed in a 1948 book by Josef Gar, a Lithuanian, describing how the victorious Lithuanian team herded Jewish residents into a tower, where each player took his turn to shoot ten Jews.

This was a little "spark" in time. One incident in the innumerable sadistic acts of evil perpetrated against our people - the winning prize in a basketball game was to shoot Jewish people!

We cannot perform the mitzva of bikurim today because the Bet Hamikdash is still in the planning stage, but we can and must abide by the spirit of the mitzva - to remember the evils done to us and to prepare for the day of retribution.

When one considers the evils done to us over the generations for which the perpetrators will be punished in this world or the next, one immediately thinks of Germany, Spain, Poland, Russia, Arabs, Romans, Greeks, and so on. But these players are only a small part of the larger picture.

The Gemara (Avoda Zara 71b) states that any Gentile who causes tza’ar (pain, hardship, embarrassment, ridicule or any emotional distress) to a Jew has perpetrated a capital crime and will be punished accordingly, either in the halachic court of this world or the heavenly court, a bit later.

This is the most powerful expression of HaShem’s love for the Jewish people I have ever seen!

So the lesson gleaned from the mitzva of bikurim today regarding the enemies of Am Yisrael is "Never Forget and Never Forgive. Retribution is coming"!

Part B

We are approaching the new year of 5771 with no small degree of apprehension.

Iran’s threats of nuclear war against Israel.

A substantial military force of Hezbollah terrorists on our northern border and Hamas on our southern one.

To the Southwest lies Egypt with the largest military in the Middle East, just waiting for President Mubarak to leave the scene, and then the Moslem brotherhood will assume power. This would then complete the surrounding of Eretz Yisrael.

The Iranians are supplying Hezbollah via Syria, and the Syrians themselves are entertaining nuclear ambitions.

The United States is no longer the automatic safety net for Israel against the fury of the Security Council, as if the US was ever a reliable ally in the best of times!

The Europeans, who break out in a rash when the name of Israel is mentioned in any positive manner, have to be kept at arm’s length from any position of influence in the Middle East.

With half the Jewish nation in the galut, some of whom abhor the Jewish State, and most others who have no particular interest in Israel, our aliya pool is almost dry.

Russia, which cannot free itself from its traditional hatred of the Jews is still smarting from the military defeats we handed it in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Russia will attempt every way to harm the Jewish State.

And China will sell its soul to anyone with raw material to feed its hungry manufacturing sector.

All this "bad news", and more, as we approach the new year is reason for us to be highly optimistic, as we learn in the Book of Melachim (Kings 2, chapter 14). The TaNaCh records some of the deeds in the 41-year reign of the king of the northern tribes, Yeravam ben Yo’ash, who was far from being a tzaddik.

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years.

He did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.

He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

The LORD had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel was suffering; there was no one to help them.

And since the LORD had said he would not blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

As for the other events of Jeroboam's reign, all he did, and his military achievements, including how he recovered for Israel both Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Yaudi, they are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel.

Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel. And Zechariah his son succeeded him as king.

Who was this king of Israel Yerovoam the Second?

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, no less than his namesake Yerovoam the First.

Yet he restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, as predicted by the prophet Yonah, and he recovered for Israel the cities of Damascus and Hamath

These were no small achievements for a man who was evil in the eyes of HaShem.

So why did he succeed so overwhelmingly?

The answer is stated there: HaShem saw that the Jewish people were suffering, with no one in the world to help them. And HaShem was duty bound by virtue of His sacred covenant with the fathers of the nation and the people at Mount Sinai to care for and protect the Jewish nation, He had (as it would be) no choice not only to save the nation from oblivion, but to expand its borders and make the nation wealthy.

So, on the threshold of the new year of 5771, as we search the horizon in frustration and disappointment for a glimmer of justice from some enlightened nation, the Jews in Eretz Yisrael are assured to be blessed by HaShem.

We already see the first signs of great material wealth, with the discovery of huge energy sources. The economic recovery of Israel is foremost in the world, and there is a feeling of optimism in the air. HaShem will arrange that our enemies will destroy each other. Aisav will challange Yishmael, as the Moslems contest with the Christians for hegemony over the world.

As we continue to succeed and thrive in Eretz Yisrael, the goodness of HaShem will become apparent to all the Jews of this land and they will return to the Torah.

So despite the stormy clouds of strife above and around us, we will gain height to see the light above them, as the navi says in the haftara of Shabbat (Yeshayahu chapter 60):

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and His glory appears over you."

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Sandwiched around the Blessings & Curses in the center of this week’s parsha is a walk through Jewish history.

The Torah bids us to “take stock” and to remember how it is we got to where we are, recalling the trials & tribulations we encountered along the way, from Lavan to Egypt.

The end of Ki Tavo mentions the many miracles which G-d performed for us in the wilderness, and then makes a specific, pointed reference to the war against Og king of Bashan and Sichon, king of Cheshbon.

Now, I can understand why we mention Mitzrayim and Paro and the desert experience. But why emphasize the fight against Bashan and Cheshbon? Were they so important?

Rav Kook enlightens us. Bashan and Cheshbon were the last barriers that stood in our way before the conquest of Canaan; once they were vanquished, we were able to enter the Land and make it our own.

Says Rav Kook: In order to come into Israel, we had to battle against not just Chesbon, but our Cheshbonot (calculations)!

Because a person can always come up with an excuse, a rationalization, a reason not to fulfill any Mitzva.

• Kashrut? Outdated, illogical.
• Shabbat? Inconvenient & financially detrimental.
• Fasting 7 times a year? Distasteful!
• And living in Israel? Well, we have oodles of excuses to steer us away from that particular Mitzva, tho it is considered by Chazal to be equal to all the others in the Torah.

On a recent trip abroad, I spoke (as always) about the Aliya imperative. Many people used the issue of parnasa to explain their non-compliance. So I “gently” countered that a Jew of faith believes that Hashem, and only Hashem, determines the level of sustenance and prosperity meted out to humanity. It is not in our hands at all.

And so the next argument was Family: “How can I leave all my loved ones behind?”

“This is indeed a valid consideration,” I replied, “but tell me something: If a large company in Singapore, Shanghai or Sydney offered you $1 million dollars a year to relocate there for a decade, would you turn it down? Would you refuse to leave your family? Or would you pick up and go, leaving your family behind; or at the very least give it serious consideration?”

Warns Rav Kook: Where Mitzvot are concerned, don’t make so many cheshbonos, just do it! If G-d commanded it, it must be necessary, it must be possible, it must be rewarding.

As for Bashan, don’t be a "byshan," don’t be embarrassed to stand against the crowd and proclaim: “I love the Mitzvot, I love Israel, I believe in G-d.”

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WHAT DO THE INITIALS OF “ELUL” STAND FOR? (BESIDES “ANI L’DODI V’DODI LI”)

Answer: Our last Torah Trivia generated lots of good answers:

DB said (among others), (U’Mishloach Manot)”Ish L’Rayahu U’Matanot L’Evyonim” (Esther 9:22) stressing chesed between Jews;

LL added Echod L’Olah V’Echad L’Chatat (indicating our emphasis on atoning for sin during these days);

BG mentioned, among others, the word Lulay (which is Elul backwards) found in the Psalm “L’Dovid” which is recited all through Elul.

There is also Shmot 18:7 "Vayishalu Ish L’rayayhu L'Sholom," the first letters of which unscramble to spell "Elul," and hint at the minhag that when writing a letter to another Jew from Rosh Chodesh Elul til Hoshana Raba one should add wishes for a good year at the beginning or end of the letter.

And my favorite? YSAW said: “Ani L’Uman V’Ishti L’Chamati!” (“I am going to Uman and my wife is going to my mother-in-law’s!”) Say it ain’t so, please - stay here in Israel, help OUR economy - not the Ukrainians' - and spend YomTov with your spouse and kids!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

I'm a Writer by profession and Researcher by nature so I may have gone a bit overboard during our pre-Aliyah investigations, but I believe all that work paid off in helping us pin down the perfect place for our family to settle in Israel.

How does one go about researching communities in Israel while living in another country (especially if you don't have family or friends living there)? I'm sure there are multiple options in answer to that question, but for now I'll share with you my method - draw as much information from the Internet as possible and NETWORK with the people in your target communities.

The Nefesh B'Nefesh Community Database is a great place to begin. In addition to containing general, employment, education, transportation, olim services, cultural and housing information, if you scroll down the community stats column you will often find names, e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers of community representatives who are waiting to answer your questions and put you in touch with people who can help you. Community web site address and chat list information are also included, if known. Through those links lies a wealth of information and photos.

The majority of community chat lists (I started with http://groups.yahoo.com and found multiple lists for all communities I was interested in) will allow you to join if you tell them you want to do so because you are considering making Aliyah to their community and would like to use the list to obtain the information necessary to make that decision. Once on a list you can search their archives for answers to your questions, submit your questions to the list, or just sit back and monitor the conversations that that are of interest to you that take place between residents.

For example:
I changed my mind regarding my number one choice of community (that had been based on previous Internet research) because the residents had serious complaints on their chat list about electrical and Internet service outages, problems with Egged transportation to/from their town and mail delivery issues perceived to stem from political problems. The people were very helpful, warm and welcoming during our pilot trip, but because my income is dependent on Internet access and electricity for my computer, I scratched that place off my list.

We decided to settle in Ma'ale Adumim because it offered:

1. Quick access to the Holy City of Jerusalem
2. The perfect climate for asthma sufferers
3. A strong, warm and friendly Anglo base of new and seasoned olim
4. Housing prices that seemed a bit more within our budget than Jerusalem
5. A great support package from Misrad HaKlita including additional financial incentives, our own personal Aliyah Counselor who helped us through all the "first steps", extended day school, and extra ulpan hours

We landed, were greeted by an incredibly wonderful landlady and spent our first year enjoying life with our new friends and "family". It was a dream come true. Almost...

During the time between our pilot trip and Aliyah flight, the Hi-Tech market suffered and many people in our professions were unemployed within a few months of our arrival. For an entire year my husband looked for work in the Jerusalem area, while I managed to pick up a few overseas freelance gigs that didn't pay enough to keep us afloat.

As our Aliyah Anniversary approached I began to panic (my husband tends to be oblivious to our financial status so he wasn't terribly concerned). A recruiter informed him that in order to secure work we must move to the center of the country - and the man suggested Ra'anana because of its large Anglo population and support services.

I resisted because I had heard rumors about the high cost of living in Ra'anana - and the humid weather. And so we wasted time (ours and that of kind people we met through chat lists) visiting places like Ariel, Rechovot, Petach Tikva, etc. No place "fit", I didn't want to leave Ma'ale Adumim. But as time went on - and our bank account neared the zero mark - I finally gave in and agreed that we'd settle in Ra'anana.

Finding an affordable apartment in Ra'anana proved to be a major challenge as we travelled back and forth by bus (3+ hours round-trip). After a couple weeks of viewing places with a very patient real estate agent named Ruth, we settled on the first apartment she had shown us - a 3 bedroom on the 4th floor of a building on a street that runs parallel to the main drag.

The next challenge was and coming up with the money to pay a moving company! Fortunately we managed to obtain a gemach loan through a connection of NBN's and I tried to put on a cheerful face as we moved. It was a huge "leap of faith" because my husband still didn't have a job offer, but the recruiter promised that he would soon after he had a coveted Ra'anana address. And the man was correct; the job offer came a few weeks after we moved in.

So the story should have a happy ending right? Not exactly... I enrolled in ulpan, Yisrael started school, Michael was working, we had all the shopping conveniences anyone could want, there were a variety of shuls to choose from and plenty of English speakers around but I was miserable. The air bothered me - I have asthma and the humidity was so bad that I had difficulty breathing outside of my air conditioned apartment. This, along with our financial situation, severely limited our social activities.

And then there was the robbery... the worst part of which was learning from others in the center of town that this is a common thing that many of them had experienced more than once! The fact that this violation of our privacy and possessions happened while we were happily enjoying Shabbat with friends in Ma'ale Adumim caused us to reflect on the choices we had made...

- Had our decision to move to the center of the country for work been a good one?

- Had our impression that we were taking a leap of faith in doing so actually proven to be a lack of faith that God would provide parnassah (livelihood) in the Jersualem area?

- Had we, perhaps, taken for granted the gift of Ma'ale Adumim?

Heavy questions, the kind that can't be answered for certain in this life.

That was a turning point for us as it caused us to reassess our priorities with respect to housing, lifestyle, quality of education, etc. Overall, Yisrael and I were not happy in Ra'anana (Michael is more flexible in his expectations), not because it isn't a good place for new olim to settle, but because it wasn't the right "fit" for us. However, while living there, we both had managed to acquire employment - and thank God, mine provides flexibility in schedule and ability to work from home full-time.

In May we decided to move back to Ma'ale Adumim, despite the fact that it means a 2 to 3 hour round-trip commute for Michael every day (BTW, I think he's a great guy for making this sacrifice for us). We then embarked on the stressful task of finding an apartment in our price range in the neighborhood where we wanted to be - and fortunately found one a few weeks before our lease expired.

The lesson I have learned throughout this challenging year has been that when we don't put complete trust in God, and instead try to force things to happen the way we think they should, we set ourselves up for much stress and heartache.

I am truly thankful to be back home in Ma'ale Adumim. THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who have welcomed us back!

Shabbat Shalom!
Tehillah

P.S. I am now a Volunteer Pre-Aliyah Counselor for Ma'ale Adumim, so if you are in the research phase of choosing an Aliyah community, I will be happy to answer any questions you might have. Feel free to write

This week’s message is dedicated to two Octogenarians plus (may they live to 120 years) - Mrs. Feige (Fran) Rudman, Rav Natan and Rachel Lobel's mother-in-law and mother respectively, who has come on Aliya; and Mrs. Leah Rachel (Lillian) Lippman, mother and mother-in-law of Dr. Moshe and Orli Abels, who is here now and has fallen in love with the land.

Our parasha opens with Am Yisrael going out to wage a milchemet re’shut (a non-compelled war) and closes with the ultimate milchemet mitzva (obligatory war) - the destruction of Amalek.

We will return to this later...

The Gemara (Megila 16b) uses the term:

Old wine that provides pleasure for the elderly

Why does the Gemara limit the pleasure of old wine only to the elderly? Aren’t there many young people who enjoy a good glass of old wine?

I suggest the following explanation:

Many elderly people are sidelined to a spectator status after experiencing decades of participation in active life and society. Often, depression sets in, with the feeling that their importance has diminished to the extent that they are more a burden to society and family than an asset - their future is behind them.

Many older people are resolved to the feeling that this is the fate of all things old in a world geared to the young.

The rabbis, in their great wisdom, were teaching the elderly an enormous truth in life which transpires in a wine glass.

An elderly person sips a glass of old kiddush wine, and it is good and sweet. Suddenly, he realizes that "old" is not necessarily equal to worthlessness. On the contrary, just as old wine has greater value than freshly-produced wine, so too can the lives of old people perform functions in society which the young are unable to do.

Our Jewish great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers have always been held in high esteem and love for their chachmat chayim (life’s wisdom), but much more so in our time. For they perform, effortlessly, what is probably the highest and most eminent function possible. They are the living proof - indeed the only tangible, irrefutable, undeniable proof - for any objective mind, that God exists and that He is a religious Zionist.

The Midrash Tanchuma (parashat Noach) and other sources cite three righteous individuals who saw their former lives destroyed and rebuilt again through HaShem’s mercy.

Noach lived in a highly developed society. He saw the world utterly destroyed, and then merited to live after the deluge to experience humanity flourishing once again. Daniel saw the first Temple, then lived during the seventy years of its destruction and merited to see the rebuilding of the second Temple. After living the good life, Eyov (Job) then experienced the death of all his family, abject poverty and sickness, and then saw his life rebound in all its glory.

Today’s elderly are living proof and irrefutable testimony that HaShem is the God of Israel and that we are His chosen nation.

Octogenarians of sound mind can tell you what Jewish life was prior to the Second World War. One did not have to be an observant Jew to have been aware of the strength of Torah in Eastern Europe and in most Jewish communities in Moslem lands. The Jewish genius was recognized even by those who hated us for it, and there was a feeling of pride in belonging to the Children of Israel, whose roots went back 3500 years.

Then the heavens fell from their pillars and the Jewish people were engulfed in devastation. When the air cleared in 1945, and we counted our losses, the enormity of the Shoah became unescapably clear. One of every three Jews who were alive on September 1, 1939 was murdered, so that the Jewish people were then less than 12 million in the world.

Pride turned to shame. The Torah was trampled upon with the destruction of the Torah centers of Europe. The sackcloth replaced the talit, when it became known that the ten thousand Jews who were murdered daily in Auschwitz alone joined with the ten martyred Torah giants who were murdered by the Nazis of their time.

People asked, "Who will and who can resurrect the Jewish spirit and reinforce our belief that we are HaShem’s chosen people?"

But the elderly of today join with Noach, Daniel and Eyov in forming a very elite group of Jews who saw the Jewish world brought to its kness, but miraculously spread its wings to gain ever higher levels of Torah and faith in HaShem.

One need not do more than be aware of their presence and then realize that that elderly, venerable man or woman is living testimony of the living God of Israel.

The miraculous rejuvenation of our nation occurred after the defeat of the German-Amalek with the rebirth of Medinat Yisrael. The greatest proof that the Creator exists and that the world is determined by His will is the improbable survival of the Jewish people, as stated by the prophets.

The younger generation that has not personally witnessed the extreme changes of the last 70-80 years in Jewish history can indulge itself in the false "luxury" of bashing Medinat Yisrael - from the black-garbed chareidi communities of the galut (of whom some make pilgrimages to Ahmadinejad, the neo-Hitler of Iran), down to the majority of US Jews under 35 years of age, who reportedly would not feel any great loss if there would not be a Medinat Yisrael.

I suggest that they sit down with the "old folks" and learn from them the wisdom gleaned from personal experience - what it felt like to be a Jew without Medinat Yisrael and what the Medina has contributed to their lives.

Amalek of the parasha is not a myth. He is alive. He is present in Islam and Christianity. He is forever planning, contriving and designing to destroy the Jewish people wherever the Jew will be found - at Ground Zero; in Deerfield, Michigan; in the White House or the UN. Amalek constitutes an ever-present danger to the Jewish people, regardless of whether the individual Jew is a Torah-observant person or if he is a sworn athiest.

The Medina was restored to Am Yisrael to be, among other reasons, the Noah’s ark for our people, at a certain point in the near future.

When my mother was ninety, she told me that, inside, she feels the same as she was at the age of 18. Sit down and glean the wisdom of our "old" 18-year-olds. You will go away a better Jew.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010

For (too many) centuries, much of the Torah existed only in the abstract. Many Mitzvot applied only in Israel, or when there was a Bet HaMikdash, a King, a Kohen Gadol etc, and could perhaps be studied, but not fully practiced.

While we still have not yet returned to a complete world of observance – B”H we are well on our way! – we have reclaimed our one and only Land and now can both practice and appreciate some things for the first time in 2000 years.

Thus we can literally apply the lesson in our Sedra’s first pasuk: “When you go out against your enemy…”

From here we derive 2 crucial imperatives vis a vis our adversaries:

1) we must “go out,” i.e., pro-actively seek out the enemy and vanquish him before he does us
and
2) we must treat our enemy as our enemy. Normally, we would exercise mercy and forbearance, for we are a merciful people. But when facing an enemy whose goal it is to obliterate us, we are forbidden to show mercy, for it will surely cause innocents to die.

Fittingly, our Parsha ends on the same note with which it started:

Wiping out, completely, our arch-enemy Amalek.

But even as we are commanded to be tough, unforgiving and even brutal against our foes, the month of Elul – during which this Sedra is always read – implores us to show overwhelming love and conciliation to our fellow Jews.

As we know, the “code word” of Elul is “Ani L’Dodi V’Dodi Li, the phrase formed by the initials of the month. But this phrase is puzzling and quite awkward, and does not translate well at all. In English we would say, “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.” But it seems forced, as if a word is somehow missing from the phrase.

I want to suggest that this is exactly the point! There indeed should be a verb in the sentence, such as “Ani mavtiach l’dodi, ani shar l’dodi, ani notayn l’dodi, etc. (“I promise to my beloved, I sing to my beloved, I give to my beloved,” etc). But any verb, while adding an action, would also be limiting, as if to say, “I do such-and-such for my Beloved, but that’s all!” By leaving the verb out, it is as if we are saying, “I do _________ for my Beloved.” Now you go ahead and fill in the blank, for whatever you name, I am prepared to do it for Hashem, and He for me!

We’re all familiar with the adage, “Only love can conquer hate.” The Torah clearly disagrees, for we are commanded to hate evil and battle fiercely to remove it from the world. But loving those who are NOT set on our destruction – particularly our fellow Jew - and loving G-d is a sure way to guarantee that we will be blessed by Hashem and prevail over our enemies.

***********************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WOULD IT BE PERMITTED TO MARRY AN EGYPTIAN CONVERT TODAY?

Answer: In our Sedra we are commanded to remember the evil deeds of those nations that persecuted us, including Moav, Amon, Edom and Egypt, and not allow them “to enter the assembly of G-d.” So what if an Egyptian wished to convert today? Would we allow that, and could he or she also marry into the Jewish faith?

The Rambam rules that the Egyptian of today is not the same Egyptian as in Biblical times.

Sancheriv, king of Assyria, displaced the indigenous populace of the nations he conquered and replaced them with peoples of other conquered nations (so as to remove locals from their land and thus limit their will to rebel). (Note the dissimilarity between Egypt’s Sadat and Mubarak!)

And even if the person in question IS descended from the original Egyptians, we would follow the majority, and assume he is not. Thus it would be allowed to accept and marry such a convert, if he sincerely joined Am Yisrael.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

The underlying theme of our parasha is the establishment of an ordered Torah society and its religious and social elements.

Among the parasha’s mitzvot - local and national courts of law and the requirement to accept their decisions, the monarchy, appointment of the tribe of Levi over sacrificial matters, authority of the prophets, cities of refuge, respect for personal property, laws of witnesses and waging war.

Humans beings who live in disorderly societies or those devoid of laws and mores will eventually regress into primitive conduct matching those of the animal world. Hunger, lack of suitable living quarters, unemployment etc., combine to drive otherwise normal people to perform acts of extreme cruelty beyond the imagination of the civilized mind.

The three letters Nun-Chet-Mem serve as the root for all Hebrew words denoting consolation and solace. The first of the seven haftarot of consolation that we begin reading right after Tish’a Be’Av begins - "Be comforted, be comforted my nation."

The mitzva of comforting mourners is called niechum availim and people who are called Nachum, Nachman or Nechama are more prone to have calm and serene personalities, except one man named Nachum the Prophet.

Nachum prophesied during the reign of Ahaz (B.C.E. 743), or the latter half of the reign of Chezekiah (about B.C.E . 709). The subject of this prophecy is the approaching final destruction of Nineveh, the capital of the great Assyrian empire. Nineveh was a vast city and centre of the civilization and commerce of the world. But Nachum describes it as a "bloody city all full of lies and robbery" (3:1). One hundred years earlier, the prophet Yonah was instrumental in bringing the inhabitants of Ninveh to repent for their sins, but soon after they reverted back to the crimes and corruption of pre-Yonah days.

Ninveh was destined to be destroyed by the Medes and the Bablyonians as punishment for the wickedness of its inhabitants, as stated in the book of Nachum (2:11):

The city will be empty, devoid of human life and disordered. The heart (of the observer) will melt. He will be gripped with weakness, and fear will fill every loin, the faces of all will be as black as the pot

So the question arises - Why was this man, with the name Nachum, meaning consolation and solace, chosen to be the prophetic "vehicle" to deliver the prophecy of God’s wrath and ire?

In truth, Nachum brought a message of immense consolation to the people of Israel, when he prophesied the destruction of this cruel enemy of our people, who had exiled the northern tribes of Israel. For our consolation is derived from the utter destruction of those who would seek to destroy Am Yisrael.

Great parts of our world today are not far from what Nachum had predicted for the evil doers of Ninveh.

The city of Moscow, capital of Russia, is the most populous on the continent of Europe and the seventh largest city proper in the world, with a population of over ten million people. It is home to many scientific and educational institutions, possessing four international airports, nine railroad terminals and the world's second busiest metro system.

But Moscow is in danger of disintegration and destruction.

The city is ringed with about 1,000 fires that poison the air and raise the temperature to over 40 degrees centigrade. The sun beats down on it mercilessly, and with no rain in sight, the population is close to madness with no place to escape.

But the worst is yet to come - radioactivity - from the many research and military sites surrounding the capital, as well as from the exploded nuclear reactor in Chernobyl. The Russians are completing the big nuclear reactor in the Iranian city of Nataz - so HaShem will let them enjoy some the radiation they are creating.

Most, if not all, of the foreign embassies are closed and the diplomats who are privy to the pending disaster have returned to their respective lands.

The huge floods in Pakistan, due to abnormal monsoon rains, are affecting over 10 million people with 6 million in immediate danger of starvation. The situation has reached such proportions that the central government can no longer cope and there is danger that this nuclear Moslem nation might fall into the hands of the Taliban.

China is dealing with huge mud slides, as mountain slopes melt and surge into the low lying cities. Large portions of Portugal are burning out of control, as is eastern Australia.

The list of tragedies is long and depressing, with more to come on any nation that acts or endorses acts aimed at harming the Jewish State.

I do not cry over what is happening to nations that are overtly and covertly enemies of the Jewish people, but I am pained to think that the Jewish people who live in those countries are also destined to suffer. A Jew in Moscow today cries over opportunities missed to come home, as do many other Jews in other parts of the world who see their societies crashing down financially or physically.

The saying goes, "It is never too late," until it becomes too late.

Shabbat Shalom,

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

“Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof - Justice, justice you shall pursue….”

So begins a long section of our Sedra emphasizing the moral imperative to pro-actively seek righteousness, the path of Truth, & justice in all its forms. Of course, the question is, why the double-use of the word “Tzedek?”

Chazal provide numerous answers: Any time a word is doubled, it indicates the added importance of that concept. It can also mean that one has an obligation to seek the highest form of justice, e.g. to request halachic guidance not from just anyone, but from the most erudite of Talmidei Chachamim or the most reliable of Batei Din.

Others suggest that “tzedek, tzedek” warns us that justice must be meted out to, and by, both the collective and the individual. A government must never consider itself above the law, nor may a single person say, “What does it matter what one human being does or does not do?”

But there is yet another approach to “tzedek-squared.”

For there are actually two sides to the law: the Letter & the Spirit. It’s fairly obvious to any Jew of faith that if the letter of the law is being compromised, the spirit by force becomes hollow. Thus someone who smokes on Shabbat & claims he is thereby exercising his spiritual sense of “Oneg Shabbat;” or one who wears a Talit & kipa, and signs a Ketuba (or officiates!) at an intermarriage would obviously be guilty of more than just employing a mixed metaphor.

But the converse is true, as well. Even if the letter is intact, there must be a matching spirit to go with it.

Davening is great, but if you do it so loud that you disturb everyone around you, what merit have you gained?

Learning Torah is vital, but if that learning results in your neglecting your spouse or your children, have you really performed a Mitzvah? Have you achieved tzedek?

Rav Nachman Kahane tells of a Jew in Chutz L’Aretz who justified his non-Aliya by stating to him, “The Halacha does not require me to spend more than 20% of my assets on any (optional?) Mitzva, which is what I would have to do if I moved to Israel.” Rav Kahane responded:

“The next time I am at a military cemetery, I’ll remember to tell the chayalim buried there that they overpaid – they gave a lot more than 20%.”

The Arizal was one of those unique Tzadikim who could look at a person’s forehead & see a letter inscribed upon it which indicated the true righteousness of the person.

Elul has now begun; so when the Divine Postman comes our way, let us be sure that our countenance shines with both the letter – and the spirit – of the law.

************************************

Question: WHY DO WE SOUND THE SHOFAR DURING ELUL?

Answer: Our sounding the Shofar beginning 1 Elul and ending at the close of Yom Kippur signals a 40-day period of introspection and Tikkun/fixing our errors (the basic components of Teshuva). These 40 days relate to the 40 days Moshe spent on Har Sinai as he accepted the Torah; we now renew our own commitment to Hashem and Torah.

The Shofar is a spiritual wake-up call; its very shape signals that "what is said here comes out there!" It heralds the coming of the King and reminds us of Avraham and the ram and the need to sublimate our own will to that of Hashem, as Avraham and Yitzchak did; and to try to perform Mitzvot M’Ahava (out of love), the hallmark of Avraham’s approach. Shofar is related to the Hebrew word, l’hishtaper, to improve oneself; that is the essential challenge we face each New Year as we refine and redefine our behavior, andconsider our special role in the world.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

In the parasha, Moshe turns to the nation and says (Devarim 10:11-13):

And the LORD said unto me: 'Arise, go before the people, causing them to set forward, that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give unto them.'

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul

To keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command you this day for your benefit

The Gemara (Brachot 33,b) is uncertain about what Moshe was thinking when he chose the phrase, "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways etc.," which seemingly portrays fear and awe of HaShem to be a trivial act:

Is the fear of God a trivial matter? Did Rabbi Chanina not teach in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai that the most precious possession in HaShem’s treasury is the fear of HaShem?!

And the Gemara replies:

Yes! For Moshe (to fear and stand in awe of God) was an effortless act (so for him the choice of words was not out of place).

My understanding of the emotional scene is as follows.

The human body is by far the most interesting organism in the physical world. No other organism can come close to the number of ways the human body has been examined, researched, lectured upon, dissected, invested in, photographed, portrayed, sung about, etc. But there is one part of the body that seems to have fallen under the table, escaping the invasive probing that has been accorded to more "interesting" organs.

I am referring to the metzach - the forehead.

The initial importance of the forehead is found in one of the special garments of the kohen gadol (high priest) - the tzitz which was worn on his forehead.

I recall that as a young boy, my father z"l told me that when one tells a lie the letter "shin" (for sheker - a lie) appears on his forehead. After empirically proving to my father that it was not true, he explained that the letter indeed appears but only special holy rabbis can see it.

This explanation took on greater meaning when I later learned in my studies that the illustrious Ha’Ari Hakadosh of Tzfat was able to identify one’s neshama by reading the signs on the person’s forehead.

In addition, the Gemara (Shabbat 55a) records that HaShem commanded the angel Gavriel to go down to Yerushalyim, prior to the destruction of the first Temple, and place on the foreheads of the righteous the letter "tav" in ink and on the foreheads of the evildoers the letter "tav" in blood.

We can understand this in terms of our technical world, where the forehead is the LCD screen of the neshama (the soul). It can reveal - to those who are merited with the ability to read these secrets - the soul of the person, his great deeds and great sins and even his future.

I would explain, simply, that Moshe had the ability to read the "letters" of the foreheads of all the Jews standing in front of him. Moshe knew what each and every one of them had undergone in order to reach that special moment. Moshe knew them personally, the men, women and children, and knew that they were endowed with the love and awe of HaShem. He knew that these qualities would be the ones to stand them in good stead during the challenges awaiting them when they crossed the Jordan River, onto the western side of Eretz Yisrael.

Today, few rabbis, if any, are able to decipher the images on the foreheads of people. So, in order for us to appraise the yirat shamayim (fear of God) in a person we need realistic, substantial, substantive and tangible evidence.

Impressions, appearances, genealogy, aura, bearing, demeanor, looks and mannerism of people can conceal their real thoughts and intentions. And this applies to all sorts of people, leaders and followers.

However, there is one piece of evidence that can do much to prove what a person really believes - it is his physical acts.

To preach about ahavat Yisrael, when the speaker does not give substance to his words with actions, is hypocrisy.

To recite the second chapter of birkat hamazon (grace after meals) thanking HaShem for presenting us with

"A land that is desired, good, and spacious"

while building communities, shuls and yeshivot in the lands of the galut and not living in the land of HaShem reveals a big letter "shin" (sheker - lie) on one’s forehead.

And the chapter continues:

As it is written: and you shall eat and be satiated and bless the Lord your God for the good land that He has given us.

Blessed are You HaShem for the land and for the nourishment.

Meaning: At the end of every meal where bread is eaten, on Shabbat, holidays, weddings, britot, and all the holy Torah simchot, the participants bless HaShem for giving them Eretz Yisrael. But how can one say this when refusing to live in the "good land"?

This is when a big letter "shin" appears on all the foreheads of the rabbis, talmidei chachamim and every Jew who feels the need to eat.

And this "shin" does not stand for shtreimel or sheitel - it stands for sheker.

Another big "shin" is found under every chuppa in chutz la’aretz. At the next wedding you attend in Boro Park or anywhere else in the galut, take a moment out from chatting to your friends and pay attention to the fifth of the sheva brachot (7 blessings recited after reading the ketuba):

Bring great joy and exultation to the barren one (Yerushalayim and Eretz Yisrael) through the ingathering of her children amidst her in gladness. Blessed are You HaShem, Who gladdens Zion through her children.

You might be meritted to notice the big "shin" (sheker) appearing on the forehead of the man who is blessing HaShem for bringing in His children to Zion.

Those who live in Eretz Yisrael, but make every effort to escape military service under the guise of learning Torah, mental unbalance, or under-motivation, or any of the many excuses used by the observant and non-observant who want a free ride in life, will learn eventually that there are no free rides. In the world of absolute truth, where sheker has no place - HaShem metes out to each one according to his real thoughts and actions in this world - to the last exact drop.

How it hurts to hear people say that on military memorial days here, it is a rare sight to see a chareidi family standing by a grave. It is a bad thing to say and even more monstrous because it is true.

Davening, learning and shiurim, these are essential parts of our Judaism, but they remain as a body with no neshama when they are not translated into actions.

HaShem created four worlds: Olam Ha’atzilut, Olam ha’briah. Olam Ha’yetzira, and the most physical of the four, our world - Olam Ha’asee’ah" - the world of activity.

To escape one’s responsibilities is bad. To transfer those responsibilities onto the shoulders of others is worse. But to live off those shirked responsibilities is evil.

To remain in chutz la’aretz or to be here and not take part in the rebuilding and defense of HaShem’s holy land and let others serve as the "donkey" that will bring the Mashiach, is contrary to the letter and spirit of Moshe Rabbeinu. As he was departing from the nation he so much loved and sacrificed for, he said in our parasha:

And the LORD said unto me: 'Arise, go before the people, causing them to set forward, that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give unto them.'

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

With the juxtaposition of these two verses, Moshe is in fact telling us that the true fulfillment of the verse: "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul" is when we "go in and possess the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give unto them".

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Our Sedra is truly eclectic: It talks about Life & Death, the supremacy of the Land of Israel, the laws of Kashrut, the Jewish holidays, idolatry, tzedaka, sh’mita & much more.

But what connects all these varied topics?

I want to suggest that the key pasuk comes right smack in the middle of the parsha (14:1): You are children to Hashem your G-d; you shall not cut yourselves nor make a bald spot between your eyes for a dead person.”

I’m guessing that you’re not quite sure why davka this oblique verse is so key to understanding the Sedra. But consider it’s message: First, we are G-d’s children. He loves us, He cherishes us, He wants us to be whole – not cut up into pieces (body-piercers please take note!).

But the word titgo’d’du, cut up, has another clear meaning.

We are not supposed to divide ourselves into rival, disparate cliques (“g’dudim”) which separate one Jew from another. Our strength lies in our commonality of both dogma & destiny, past & practice, friendship & future. The more we “cut ourselves off” from our co-religionists, the more estranged we become from our Father, the more our collective family suffers.

We also are warned not to create a “bald spot” between our eyes. One of the most important qualities of a Jew is to have an “ayin tov,” i.e. to see others in a benevolent fashion, to look upon our neighbor favorably. The fact that we have 2 eyes, & not just one, metaphorically allows us to see both sides of an issue, & judge favorably.

Our entire Sedra, then, is devoted to bringing the nation together. By establishing standards of proper behavior, including the way we eat & the way we celebrate. By promoting charity, which binds the rich to the poor. By instituting the Sabbatical year, when debts would be forgiven. And by stressing the centrality of the Land of Israel, the Great Equalizer that incorporates each & every community of Jews within its borders.

This Shabbat we shall bentsch Rosh Chodesh Elul, a month symbolized by the month's initials: “Ani L’Dodi V’Dodi Li” – I am my Beloved’s & He is mine. The marriage motif is prominent during this time, as we pledge our eternal love to G-d.

At a (Ashkenaz) wedding, the kalla circles the chatan seven times, reminiscent of when Yehoshua circled the walls of Jericho.

Through marriage, by sharing our love with another, we can break down the barriers of loneliness & isolation, “cut” through the walls which divide us, & see one another - & all the world – with loving eyes.

What better way to insure our blessing for the New Year?

************************************

Question: WHEN IS EATING ALLOWED ON A FAST DAY? (OUR LAST TORAH TRIVIA)

Answer: We had asked when it was permissible – even obligatory! – for a healthy person in no danger to eat on a fast day.

Some answers: A first-born who attends a siyum on erev Pesach; the Sandak or others at a Brit, a non-Jew, etc. But all of these people, while they MAY eat, are not REQUIRED to eat!

So NM suggested a surgeon who has to perform a major surgery on a fast day, and BG suggested a soldier who is on active service that day – both these answers are acceptable. But I was looking for another approach:

If a person forgets that today is a fast day, & he makes a bracha on a particular food, then he suddenly remembers that it’s a fast day, there is a dispute about what he should do. Some say he should not eat, but others (inc. Rav Ovadiah Yosef) say he should eat a small amount (ideally less than a k’zayit) so as not to have said a bracha l’vatala (using G-d’s name in vain). He may then continue his fast as normal.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Disclaimer:
This procedure is intended for those of us who made Aliyah from northern climates. If you came from a hot climate, kol hakavod - you probably don't need to follow these steps!

1. Carry a laundry drying rack INSIDE your home.
   

   *** WARNING: If your racks have been outside in the sun for many hours, you may need the assistance of pot holders to accomplish this step.***
   

   
   
   

2. Quickly close the door and the blinds to block out the sun.
   

   *Note: you can skip these first 2 steps if you were smart enough to think about the possibility of scorching hot weather in advance and already have racks inside.

3. Open the rack as close to the door as possible without blocking your ability to open the door later.

4. Hang the laundry on the rack.
   

   

5. When all laundry is safely secured to the rack, fold one end of the rack over to help prevent tipping as you slide it outside.
   

   

6. Now this is where speed and coordination become extremely important... In 30 seconds or less, open the blinds, open the door, rush the rack of wet clothes outside (if it helps, imagine you're a child playing choo choo train...), brace it with a few chairs to prevent the furnace-force winds from blowing it over and run back inside (securing the door and blinds as quickly as possible).

   

• IF you already had one load of laundry drying outside for more than 30 minutes, chances are it's dry and needs to come in before the sun bleaches it. Sooooo... try to accomplish a switch of the two racks in 10 seconds or less and rush the dry clothes inside before the above securing the door step.

  

7. Now that you've gotten the laundry safely inside, set the air conditioner to the Jet Cool setting (18 degrees C / 64.4 F) and stand in front of it for a few minutes to refresh and motivate yourself for the next step.

   

8. Open the end of the rack (you did fold it over to prevent tipping before rushing it in, right?) and remove and fold the hot, dry clothing.
   

   
   
   *Note: if you begin to overheat from handling the clothing you have two options: 1) stand directly in front of the Jet Cool bursts from the A/C while completing the process or 2) place the rack in line with the A/C flow and come back in 30 minutes to complete the process.

9. And if you forgot and left the clothes pin bag outside (like I did), DO NOT under any circumstances open the blinds and door to get it before it's time to bring in the next load! Just pile them on top of a Keter or table and deal with them several hours after the sun goes down.

   

I managed to finish two of my four loads today before I was scolded by a friend who has lived here for 30 years. Actually, the scolding came through her soldier son who recently completed his full-time service in the IDF... he told her this morning that it is unsafe for her to run the washing machine on days when it is critical for the country to have all the electricity it needs to run air conditioning.

In the two years I've known him, this young man has learned so many valuable lessons from his experiences in the army I love this country!

In our parasha, Moshe Rabbeinu reveals to the Jewish people that in the aftermath of the aigel hazahav (Golden Calf) episode, HaShem was so "disappointed" with the Jewish people that He voiced His intention to send an angel to accompany the Jews on their journey, because HaShem Himself would no longer do so. The Almighty even referred to the Jewish people by the uncomplimentary term "am keshay oref " an unbending (stubborn) people (Devarim 9:13):

And HaShem said to me "I have seen this nation to be unbending".

Moshe countered HaShem’s criticism of Am Yisrael with his defense argument, as brought in parashat Ki Tisa (Shemot 34:9):

May HaShem walk with us because they are an unbending (stubborn) people

How odd! The very same accusation that we are a am keshay oref - an unbending stubborn people - that caused HaShem to want to distance Himself from us was used by Moshe to convince HaShem to stay with the people!

I submit:

The literal translation of the three letter word aikev, the name of our parasha, is the heel of one’s foot and used figuratively to mean "in the wake of". The three letters also serve as the root of the word "eekvi," which means "to be consistent," as in the act of walking where the heel consistently follows the sole.

The Torah is teaching us that consistency is a basic uncompromising, requirement in the service of HaShem.

HaShem accuses am Yisrael of being am keshay oref - a stiff-necked, bullheaded, cantankerous, inflexible, insubordinate, intractable, rebellious, unmanageable, unreasonable nation, unworthy of HaShem’s presence.

Moshe agrees, but retorts with another list of characteristics which are the positive side of the keshay oref coin: determined, firm, fixed, tough, relentless, resolute, and unshakable; the positive qualities without which it is impossible for a people to fulfill the goals of being God’s chosen people.

Moshe is saying to HaShem that, with a little patience, the Jewish people will turn their innate stubbornness and inflexibility in avoiding the Torah into defense of the Torah, thereby spearheading the goals of God in a world of evil.

There are people who react to some sudden traumatic stimulus by attaining a very high degree of spirituality, but the descents are as sudden as the ascents.

An authentic life of Torah is not based based on quick shortcuts to holiness, but rather the long haul commitment to follow its seemingly rigorous laws and constrictive life style. This requires tenacity, determination, firmness, relentlessness and absolute resolution.

The authentic Jewish life is not supported by acts of convenience. The breakaway movements of reform and conservatism set their sights on a Judaism of convenience. The reform deny all of the restraints of the Torah, and conservatism seeks to bring the conveniences of life into the Torah (Why walk to shul when you have a "rabbinic" dispensation to drive there, as long as you make sure not to take the rabbi’s parking place). Both will fail, but not before debasing and distorting the spiritual lives of millions of holy Jewish souls.

Torah true Jews fulfill the demands of the Torah even when those demands are challenging and difficult. We do not succumb to the seductive calls of a pretty house in the country.

With this in mind, how do we picture our father Avraham? A kind old gentleman with a winning smile, not very different from the rebbe who heads a shtieble on Avenue in Flatbush, or some rosh yeshiva in LA who, after saying tachanun on Yom Ha’Atzma’ut, holds his disciples spell-bound as he expounds on the principles of absolute emuna (belief) in HaShem’s paternalistic and eternal caring for His children Israel?

I don’t think so!

Avraham was one tough, inflexible, insubordinate, intractable, rebellious, unmanageable, uncompromising Jew.

He was not soft spoken or endearing when he destroyed all the idols his father, Terach, had manufactured (Midrash). He was not forthcoming and sweet when he preferred to be thrown into Nimrod’s fiery furnace rather than renounce his belief in a monotheistic God.

He was unshakable and resolute when attacking and destroying the nations of the four kings. He was determined when holding the knife in the fulfillment of HaShem’s command to sacrifice his son Yitzchak on the altar of Mount Moriah, and resolute when sending away Hagar and Yishmael into the desert.

This same steadfastness in the fulfillment of God’s wishes characterized our fathers Yitzchak and Ya’akov and our holy mothers Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, Leah, Bil’ha and Zilpa , their twelve sons and all authentic Jews till this very day.

This week, my wife and I had the unique opportunity to participate in a ceremony that revolved around someone very close to us, which was held in an advanced army base near Azza.

We met with the General of the Southern Command, the division commander, colonels and soldiers of many ranks.

They all had beautiful Jewish faces, but some with scars which hinted at the experiences they encountered in defending the Jewish people in our holy land with their bodies.

These were tough Jews, ready to enter into all the dangers necessary in guaranteeing our return home.

Many wore kippot, and the army chaplain informed me that all the meat is chalak (glatt) and the required tithes were given from all necessary foods.

The most imposing building on this sprawling base was the beautiful bet knesset with its halachic high mechitza.

These holy Jews, from general down to privates are an essential and integral part of the Jewish am keshay oref.

It was for the sake of Jews like this, and indeed all the Jews in Eretz Yisrael, that HaShem appreciated the amazing truth in Moshe Rabbeinu’s argument, that for the sake of those who will be aekvi’im (consistent) in their obstinacy and stubbornness in the advancement of HaShem’s presence in this world, that HaShem should remain in our midst.

HaShem agreed. And it is His presence among us that permits our survival in this hateful, anti-Semitic world and to renew our holy covenant in Eretz Yisrael after 2000 years of galut.

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Our Sedra contains the source for the best-known & only Biblical bracha: Birkat Hamazon. This rather long & poetic blessing is not just a way of saying thanks for our sustenance, but is a whole walk through Jewish history & custom! Israel, Jerusalem, the Exodus, Brit Mila, Eliyahu HaNavi & the Geula & much more are all included here.

The pasuk commands us: “And you shall eat, and be satisfied, and you shall bless G-d for the good land which He has given you.”

The phrase “and you shall be satisfied,” is perplexing, for we know that even if one eats a rather small amount of bread, he must bentsch. Perhaps the meaning is that one is obligated in Birkat HaMazon only as long as he is still full & satisfied; once he becomes hungry again (standardized by the Rabbis to be after 72 minutes), the obligation to bentsch has lapsed.

But clearly, there is another dynamic at work here. The Torah is telling us that the ability to acknowledge and thank Hashem is directly connected to our appreciation of Him and all that He does for us; our “satisfaction” with our lot in life. An unsatisfied, unhappy person cannot truly bless G-d.

And so, later - davka when discussing the Land of Israel - we are told: “This is a Land where you shall not eat your bread b’miskanut,” – like a miskayn, a nebech. For you see, just having the bread, just having the parnasa, is not sufficient. One must also feel that he has been blessed. He must eat his bread, so to speak, “with relish,” with grateful appreciation for all the good that has been bestowed upon him.

Our Sedra also discusses the miraculous Mahn that sustained us for 40 years in the desert. The pasuk says, mysteriously, that the Mahn was given “to test & afflict us.”

The Rabbis explain: Since the Mahn only lasted for 1 day (or 2 days over Shabbat) we had to have faith that G-d would fill our basket each and every day, though it would empty out each night. That was the “test.” Those who lacked faith and worried incessantly about where tomorrow’s bread would come from, were the “afflicted.”

When I assumed the role of Rabbi at a certain shul, I checked all the cabinets in the kitchen to be sure all items were kosher. But one cupboard was locked, and no key fit. This belonged to the shul’s shamas, a Shoa survivor.

When I finally managed to open it, I found stockpiles of food, mostly spoiled and well past their expiration date. After years of deprivation, the shamas, sadly but understandably, had secreted away supplies, so he could rest at night, knowing there was a reserve of food, in case his ran out.

May we be spared all future Shoas, and may we eat our bread with satisfaction, secure that we have earned sufficient merit to ensure a steady, Divine flow of daily bread.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE “ASHER YATZAR” BRACHA?

Answer: The Sages of the Great Assembly (410-310 BCE) compiled this unique blessing, praising G-d for creating the human body with such perfect fashion that each organ does its job with precision and& perfection. We say this bracha not only after going to the bathroom, but at the beginning of each day, indicating its overall message. The bracha marvels at how the human body operates, with orifices that open and close when necessary, combined with hollow pipes and organs that fulfill their function. Were one of them to be ruptured or blocked, we would die.

The Chafetz Chaim says reciting Asher Yatzar with the proper kavanah has the power to help one to maintain a healthy body. Hanoch Teller tells of reaching fellow Jews by pointing this Bracha out to them and illustrating how the human body is a miraculous universe all itself, indicating G-d’s glory in each and every facet of daily life.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Our parasha opens with Moshe’s admission that he prayed to enter Eretz Yisrael "va’etchanan" times (515 in gematria - the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew letters), but HaShem denied every plea.

Why was entrance to the Promised Land denied to the great Moshe Rabbeinu?

The following is an excerpt from my book With All Your Might (Parshat Korach 5769):

It is apparent that the Creator imbedded absolute laws into the affairs of human beings, as He did with the "immutable laws" we find in the various disciplines of nature (physics, chemistry etc.).

One of the "laws" governing human affairs is that no man can bring about two revolutions in his lifetime.

Noach saved humanity, but then fell into disgrace and did not merit being the progenitor of the Jewish people.

Avraham established the Jewish spiritual presence in Eretz Yisrael but was unable to eradicate idolatry from the world.

Yitzchak showed us the path to mesirat nefesh (the ultimate sacrifice of one’s life for the ideals of Judaism) but did not father the twelve tribes which began the nation of Israel.

Yaakov established the foundation of the nation through his children but then died in the galut of Egypt.

King David established the monarchy but was unable to build the Beit HaMikdash.

And in our times, Menachem Begin as the head of the Irgun Tzeva’i Le’Umi (Etzel) expelled the British from Eretz Yisrael, but instead of realizing his stated aim of bringing about peace, he created the abominable precedence of Israeli retreats from our holy land.

In addition to all else that our rabbis have said on the subject, I submit that Moshe fell victim to the immutable "law" that limits a human being to a single great revolution in his lifetime.

The revolution that Moshe effectuated was that the intimate and personal relationship that existed between the Creator and our fathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov would now be re-established through the Torah on an individual basis with every Jew - as emphasized by the Torah’s recording of the exact number of men between the ages of twenty and sixty - 601,730 (Bamidbar 26:51).

The second revolution - the one that was denied to Moshe - was the transformation of these 601,730 individuals into a nation to be called Am Yisrael, which will become the chosen of all nations. Now, since the basic tenet of nationhood is possession of a defined geographical area, had Moshe entered the land he would have succeeded in performing more than one revolution in his lifetime - the creation of the Jewish nation - which is the sole prerogative of the Creator.

This week’s day of Tish’a Be’Av marks the 1940th year from the destruction of the second Temple.

This day is infamous in our history, and its very mention arouses within us emotions of depression and sadness for what befell our nation. This day saw the refusal of the Jews to enter the Promised Land at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu. The two Holy Temples were destroyed, as was the metropolis of Betar at the time of the revolt against Rome in 132-135 C.E., and the Temple Mount was plowed over with salt to prevent its future use.

The Spanish Inquisition began on Tish’a Be’Av as did the outbreak of the first World War.

The day also arouses ominous and pernicious fears of what it might yet (God forbid) have in store for us, due to our failure to live up to HaShem’s expectations of His chosen nation.

I say "chosen nation" because this issue ranks as the "mother" of all sins in our generation; the one which, God forbid, might bring down large segments of our already diminished, shrunken nation.

The irrefutable sin is the refusal of millions of Jews in the galut to recognize the fact that the Jewish people are not just a religion, but that we are God’s chosen nation. The nation that was forged by Yehoshua bin Nun when he led the Jewish people into Eretz Yisrael and liberated the land from the idolatrous Canaanites.

The academically accepted definition states that "nationhood" constitutes: a defined geographical area, common language, designated national goals, shared responsibility, mutual interdependence and perhaps some more.

Jewish nationhood includes all the above, with two additional factors that do not, and cannot, exist within any other national group.

1- We did not achieve nationhood through the accepted, evolutionary stages of family, tribe and nation. We were coalesced, fused, bonded, sealed, integrated and synthesized at one precise moment by the Creator to serve as His personal representatives in this world.

2- The Jewish nation as a whole, is collectively responsible for the spiritual compliance of every individual within the nation. This was the major implication of the ceremony that was held in Eretz Yisrael, by the mountains of Grizim and Eyval near Shechem (Rashi Devarim 29:28) which transformed the individual intimate relationship with HaShem into a relationship that merged every individual Jew into one exclusive, distinct, unique, and unrivaled nation.

Let us see how the Jews in the galut rank in Jewish nationhood.

1- A defined geographical area: The defined geographical area that was established by HaShem for us is Eretz Yisrael. A Jew who is not in Eretz Yisrael surrenders a major facet in his ties to Am Yisrael.

2- A common language: Our language is Ivrit. What can we conclude from the fact that the vast majority of orthodox religious mentors in the galut cannot hold a conversation in the holy tongue over the level of a five year old Israeli child?

3- Designated national goals: The national goals of the Jews in foreign lands are the same goals of the gentiles in those lands. The Jews serve in their armies, pay taxes etc., just as their gentile neighbors, and very often go further in their personal sacrifices in order to prove their allegiance to those lands.

4- Shared responsibility: If one does not live in the Jewish homeland he cannot share in the responsibility for its future beyond writing a conscience ameliorating check.

5- Mutual interdependence: It is comforting to know that we have AIPAC and other friends in high places that come to our aid, but when push comes to shove it is us and our sons who keep the Islamic-Nazis at bay.

Have galut Jews considered that:

It is conceivable that one day the interests of the United States could run counter to those of Israel, as has been already expressed by General Petraus, US commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, that Israel’s position vis a vis the Arabs is endangering US troops in Afghanistan?

And it is conceivable that good American Jewish boys will be drafted into the US army and sent to implement Pax Americana in the holy land?

And it is conceivable that your children and grandchildren in the armies of the galut will be targeting our children and grandchildren here - because you chose to make them good citizens of a nation that is not the nation of Israel?

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Our Sedra contains perhaps the two best-known credos of our faith: the Ten Commandments & Shma Yisrael.

Yet there are a whole lot of other, less glamorous but equally valuable treasures hidden here just below the surface. Let’s examine just one of them.

Moshe Rabbeinu, as one of his final acts in the last month of his life, designates 3 cities east of the Jordan to be used as Cities of Refuge, where accidental murderers can seek asylum for their crimes. But, as we know, the east bank would be home to just 2 ½ tribes – Reuven, Gad & part of Menashe. Why would they need 3 full cities, as many as served all the other 9 ½ tribes?

Rashi addressed this question & concluded that there must have been a preponderance of man-slaughterers among these 2 ½ tribes. But how did that happen?

Our first impulse might be to say that the decision of these tribes to live apart from the nation at large had a negative effect on their moral standards. Or perhaps their self-proclaimed desire to seek “greener pastures” & to pursue wealth may have muddled their priorities.

But while this makes sense, we also must remember that these tribes complied fully with Moshe’s demand that they take up arms together with their brothers west of the Jordan & fight alongside them in order to liberate Israel. In fact, not only did they equally participate in the seven-year war against Canaan, they stayed an additional 7 years until the land was allocated & divided! Wasn’t this exemplary behavior on their part, to be commended & praised? Why should they have suffered because of it?

I suggest that Reuven, Gad & Menashe may not have done anything so terribly wrong. But their being away for 14 years caused their children to grow up without a father!

Lacking that paternal influence, the next generation may not have had the highest moral code & regard for others, resulting in a laxity of behavior that contributed to a preponderance of accidental deaths in their midst.

At a Pidyon HaBen, the Kohen asks the father if he prefers keeping his son, or would rather give up his son for service in the Temple, while retaining his 5 silver shekels.

But the question is totally absurd; a first-born cannot serve as a Kohen, even if the father is willing to give him up!

But the Kohen, as spiritual guide, is trying to teach the father something very important here: “Now that you are starting a family, choose between the kesef & the kinder; you can’t always have both.

Decide where your time, energy, creativity & love will be centered.”

The Torah is telling us, in dramatic fashion, that getting our priorities straight is a matter of life & death – for us & very possibly for everyone else around us.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TU B’AV?
(the 15th of Av, occurring this Monday) ?

Answer: The Gmara Ta’anit states that no holiday was as festive as Tu B’Av (and Yom Kippur!).

Among the happy events occurring on this date:

1) The generation of the desert, ordained to die out before entering Israel, would lay down in graves each year on Tisha B’Av, & 15,000 would not get up. But the last 15,000 were spared, & they realized they were out of danger when they saw 15 Av’s full moon, clearly indicating that Tisha B’Av had come & gone.

2) After the terrible civil war over the incident of Pilegesh B’Givah (see Shoftim 20), the Tribes were forbidden to intra-marry with Shevet Binyamin; this ban was finally lifted on Tu B’Av.

3) The many Jews slain at Betar during the rebellion against Rome were finally allowed burial on this day. Their bodies miraculously had not decayed, prompting the Bracha of HaTov V’Hametiv recited in Birkat HaMazon.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

HaShem arranges the world so that we can learn His ways from even the most prosaic of life’s situations.

I received one of the foremost lessons of how HaShem relates to Am Yisrael while serving in Tzahal. After completing basic training, I was assigned to an anti-aircraft battalion in the air force where we had to take a course in identifying all aircraft in the Middle East: combat planes, supply transports, helicopters, commercial planes etc. The first lesson dealt with identifying aircraft without the help of instruments. The instructor’s iron rule was that when one hears a jet aircraft, don’t look to where the sound is coming from, because the plane which is flying at close to the speed of sound is long gone from there. Look in a wide perimeter away from the point of sound.

Or another source of this chochma is the simple game of pool, where one is required to knock the balls on the table into one of the surrounding pockets with the use of a cue stick. A beginner will hit one of the balls with the stick at an angle that he hopes will put the ball into a pocket. A more advanced player could hit ball #1 so that it hits ball #2 into a pocket. A champion can hit one ball into another so that the fifth ball down the line will go into a pocket. A veteran spectator at champion tournaments never looks at the first or second ball, because he knows that the target ball is far away from where the apparent action is.

A similar lesson that precedes the two above appears in the Midrash Raba (Bereishiet 85) in its description of the episode when the brothers sold Yosef into slavery:

The tribes (brothers) were occupied with selling Yosef. Yosef was occupied with his loin cloth mourning sack and fasting. Reuven was occupied with his loin cloth mourning sack and fasting. Ya’akov was occupied with his loin cloth mourning sack and fasting, Yehuda was occupied with finding a wife. And the Holy One Blessed Be He was occupied with creating the light of the Messiach.

Here we learn that none of the major participants in the episode looked beyond their immediate needs to see where all of it was leading. HaShem’s intentions are not to be found in the immediate realties of our lives, which are no more than individual billiard balls on the table. No man using his mental faculties alone can predict where HaShem is taking the world. The only source of understanding the spiritual world is through the words of Chazal as they guide us through life.

With that having been said, there are some insights that I have relating to what is now transpiring in our lives, in the spirit of HaShem’s billiard game.

The first is the World Cup (world soccer championships) just completed in South Africa. There were some interesting moments, namely when Spain played against Germany, and many people told me that they saw it as the Spanish Inquisition vs. the German Shoah, and wished a curse on both their houses. It was estimated that over 2.5 billion people viewed the games.

Now, what is behind this sport event and others like it that has a Godly input with a Jewish output?

From our Torah point of view, the games are totally irrelevant. What is relevant is that these games and others like them have produced the technology and knowledge necessary for billions of people around the world to view the same event at precisely the same time.

This is a major prerequisite for the next stage of history, when, as predicted by the prophets, HaShem will re-appear and prove to the world that we are His chosen people.

Fifty years ago the majority of the world’s population never heard of the Jewish people nor of the State of Israel. No more. Today we are in the headlines of almost every newspaper and news program from Somalia to Tierra Del Fuego.

Billions of people staring with adulation at adults kicking or dunking a ball into a net, for salaries of millions of dollars per year, leaves one to ponder why indeed did HaShem create the world?

Too many people, including leading religious leaders, fall prey to the illusions of here and now and irrationally overreact.

If you believe that HaShem is the master of our fate, then give Him a chance to complete the seemingly difficult situation at hand.

Our return home arouses mixed emotions. On the one hand we are witness to an unending array of miracles; but on the other hand, no one can explain why HaShem assigned Jews who were non-observant to establish the Medina.

My stand is quite plain. Give HaShem a chance. What was begotten in war and bloodshed in 1948 in a tiny sliver of land on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, with six hundred thousand Jews and too many Arabs, will, with patience, metamorphose into the land and life foreseen by the prophets.

Its borders will stretch from the Euphrates to the Nile, as promised in the Torah, including present day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, much of Iraq and the entire Sinai Peninsula.

All the Jews in the world will be here, under the reign of the Davidic kings, the Sanhedrin, Bet Hamikdash, and the law of the land will be the Torah.

It will not happen overnight, and it will require the united efforts of all Jews who sincerely believe in the Torah as expressed by their living in the Holy Land.

Peace and serenity will reign.

In summary: Don’t hide in the physical galut or in the galut of your imagination. The seemingly peaceful life in every galut, as well as the present difficulties in Eretz Yisrael are both a mirage. Look to the future through the looking glass of the prophets - that is where the real world is.

B: Don’t lie to HaShem

There are three stages in the teshuva (repentent) process: 1- to admit the sin before HaShem, 2- to feel remorse at having sinned, 3- to vow never to repeat the sin.

One who desecrated the Shabbat by having a great time on the golf course followed by a delicious treif meal, must verbalize (privately) before HaShem what he had done. He cannot then say to HaShem, "The game was murderously boring and the food was atrocious - all in all it was a terrible day!". That would be to lie before HaShem. The way of a ba’al teshuva is to admit that the sin was pleasant at the time, but state his profound anguish, to the depths of his soul, that he had disobeyed and angered God, his father.

After we have established the moral, ethical and halachic value of honesty, picture the following scene.

This year, a man is asked by the religious court to explain the sad look on his face, and the man replies that it is the result of the dire circumstances which are present in the place where he lives.

He says that his city is "laid waste, despised and desolate. It is desolate of its inhabitants and foreign troops occupy her".

At this point the judges’ hearts are breaking, and they ask him where does he live? And the man replies, "In Jerusalem".

At this point the judges accuse him of contempt of court for blatantly lying, because every neighborhood of Yerushalyim is alive with Jews and Jewish life. "Desolate?" Try to find a parking place in the city.

The above is an imaginary situation, but the reality is much worse. Because the above description of the holy city by the lying man is only part of the unhappy description of Yerushalayim that we, honest and decent people, state in the "Nachem" addition in Mincha service on Tish’a Be’Av.

Indeed, the very sad day of the ninth of Menachem Av, witnessed many of our national calamities, beginning with the refusal of the Jews to enter the Promised land at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, and later in our history the destruction of the first and second holy Temples, and other heartbreaks. But does that justify the stating of untruths before HaShem?

The formalistic halachic reply is that we do not have the authority to make changes in the liturgy.

However, I fear that there is a much more devious reason among many people. It stems from the inability of these people to internalize the fact that Jewish history changed gears with the establishment of the Medina. That the Medina is the "hand of God" and, as such, requires our participation in its functions and institutions until the time we can institute the Torah as the law of the land.

How much easier it is to wave away all the responsibilities of being an active participant in the national renaissance of our nation in Eretz Yisrael by simply sitting on the ground and crying how terrible it is to live in Yerushalayim.

After the Six Day War and liberation of Yerushalayim, Harav Shlomo Goren zt"l, as well as other rabbanim, composed more realistic texts for Nachem.

This year, as in the past, I will recite the updated version of Nachem as suggested by the Temple Institute based on the Yerushalmi, in order not to feel deceitful before the God of emet (truth).

May Hashem in our time open the eyes and hearts of our leaders to bring us to the "promised land" of appreciating and loving our Father in Heaven for what He has done and will yet do more for his chosen people.

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
Copyright @copy; 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Cost:

We verbally contracted with Stanley after he came to our apartment a few weeks before our move and walked through writing down everything he saw – he was the only mover who came to our apartment, everyone else tried to give us telephone quotes and I wasn’t comfortable with that. I wanted a mover who was able to assess with his own eyes the amount and types of items that needed to be moved. He quoted us 2800 NIS for a move from our 4th floor Ra’anana apartment to a 3rd floor apartment in Ma’ale Adumim.

A week before the move I sent him an e-mail telling him that we were not moving to the original address on the 3rd floor, but instead to a duplex on the 2nd and 3rd floor a few blocks away. I provided him with the new address. He said the price would remain the same. A few days before the move I still had not received a written quote from him so I sent him another e-mail. He wrote back acknowledging that he would be moving us for 2800 NIS.

They arrived 30 minutes late with a truck that was too small.

My husband told them it was too small and they denied it. Three hours later they broke the bad news that they couldn’t fit everything in their small truck, they needed to get a second truck and that was going to cost us a minimum of 1000 NIS more. Since we did not purchase additional items between the time he did his assessment and the day of the move, we argued that this was his problem and we weren’t willing to pay more. He had his men stop working. He called his office. His office called us… Bottom line, we either agreed to pay or they weren’t going to complete the job.

In the meantime, he had a man with a crane downstairs “on the clock” – at least an hour passed between the time he made his announcement of the truck being too small and the time a second truck arrived. When he mentioned (the day he provided me with an estimate) that he might need a crane, I told him that the company who moved us into that apartment didn’t use a crane, they used the elevator – and whatever didn’t fit in the elevator they carried UP the stairs. He assured me that the crane would be included in his price.

The second truck was unloaded onto the sidewalk and I was told that I must pay that driver 1000 NIS in CASH, he wouldn’t accept a check or give a receipt. I didn’t think I had that much cash on me (because the ATM had been out of cash the night before). He told me if I didn’t have it that I should go to an ATM and get it right away because the driver would begin charging me by the hour while he waited! I managed to scrape it together.

THEN Stanley came in and repeated over and over “this is not good”. What? He didn’t like that we had two floors, carrying our things was going to wear his guys (strapping young Russians in their 20s) out. He wanted more money.

Twelve hours after their arrival, Stanley announced that they were finished and I owed him 4000 NIS for the move + 500 NIS for tips + 750 NIS for the crane!

I argued and wrote checks as had been originally agreed. He refused to give me a receipt and wanted me to leave the “Pay to the Order of” blank.

Rude:

They took coffee and cigarette breaks several times per hour. I told them no smoking IN the apartment, so they stood in the hall with the door open (I kept closing and they kept opening) and we suffered through clouds of smoke rolling in. I told them I have asthma and their smoke made it difficult for me to breathe – they ignored me (and they understood English quite well, but I still told them in Hebrew anyway).

Unprofessional and Careless and Unethical:

Stanley’s men were like bulls in a china shop.

They attempted to remove the legs from our dining table with a power tool – after my husband clearly instructed them that the legs DO NOT come off but the table top does. They didn’t wrap our dining chairs at all because they ran out of wrap and padding! Table and chairs are scratched and they refused to do anything about it – they even denied there were any damages.

We had two IKEA metal wine racks - I say “had” because they ruined them… my husband was about to disassemble them when the mover told him that he moves these things all the time. When he carried it into our new apartment, it was completely mangled and had pieces missing and the guy proceeded to slam it on the floor in an attempt to “fix” it! Again they would take NO responsibility.

I could go on and on with a list of damages but I’m sure you get the idea…

I offered to pay them extra to remove old sofas that had been left on mirpesets by the landlord (sofas that cats had lived in) and they threw them off the third floor mirpeset crashing to the ground and seriously upsetting our new neighbors!

All of our boxes were labeled in Hebrew and English with the room they needed to go into. They repeatedly ignored our directions and put boxes wherever they pleased (often on the wrong floor).

They left everything in chaos – boxes stacked neatly in some places and THROWN (and some broken) haphazardly around making it very difficult to find things. But more importantly, the chaos they created covered up the fact that they had tossed most of our camping gear and several boxes under and on the side of our staircase. These were all things that should have been carried up to the storage room. We won’t know the full extent of all damages and/or losses until we’re able to unpack everything.

When my husband complained that hardware and parts were missing from things, he was told to go out to the truck to inspect and see that everything had been taken out (but not the second truck that had left earlier). When he insisted that they pay for the missing parts, one of the guys reached into the bushes and pulled out the hardware and handed it to him!

Bottom line:
– They didn’t complete the job.
- The work that they did was of very poor quality.
- They refused to take responsibility for damages.
- They don’t provide receipts (which are required by law in this country) so they are not operating legally.

Beware!

Of all human frailties, the one most likely to cause us grief and suffering is our compulsion for great expectations (Charles Dickens, in 1860, authored a book of that name, tracing the life story of the orphan Pip and his attempts to become a gentleman).

The greater one’s ability to envision and project, the greater his capacity to expect and to become overwhelmed with disappointment. It occurs in one’s professional life when the "dream job" turns into a nightmare or when the idealization of a future blissful life with one’s "soulmate" turns into "sourmate".

Can we find a similar phenomenon in the spiritual world? Does HaShem react as would a disappointed person? Are there unfulfilled great expectations in our relationship with the Creator, when we fail miserably in His eyes?

There certainly are!

At the end of parashat Beraishiet, the Torah relates HaShem’s disappointment with the human race which He had created (Beraishiet 6:6-7)

The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe out mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — from men to creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them".

In our parasha, 42 camping sites record the 40-year trek of our forefathers in the desert. The original plan was to bring the Jewish nation into Eretz Yisrael in only 11 days after the exodus. However, our rebellious conduct caused disappointment in the heavens, and the rest is sad history.

Great expectations replaced with great disappointments are commonplace to this day, because people never learn.

We, in Eretz Yisrael, expected that the establishment of an independent Jewish State would create a tidal wave of religious Jews eager to continue our religious-national life, that was so abruptly cut off 2000 years ago with the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash. Little did we realize how deep the galut was embedded in the consciousness of the Jews.

The knowledge that we were now the masters of our fate, no longer under the "protection" of the Czar, the King, or the President, loomed too large for the dwindled, shriveled feelings of inferiority that the galut had inflicted upon our once proud self-esteem as God’s chosen people. Most of those who did come were escapees from intolerable societies. Relatively few have come from the free countries of the world.

Religious Jews in the galut were also disappointed. They expected that the chalutzim, who were for the most part non-observant people who did not say "Shema Yisrael" when they were dying from cleaning out the malarial swamps or when fighting off the Arab murderers, would suddenly throw away their hoes and plows and become the new Chafetz Chaim or Chazon Ish when the Medina was declared. That didn’t happen.

So the stage was set for many religious leaders in the galut to rant at the "goyishness" of the Jewish State, and hence the necessity to remain in the galut and build all the trappings of Jewish life there. So the Jews replaced Be’er Sheva with Dallas, Texas and Ashdod with Denver, Colorado to serve as the new Jerusalems until the Mashiach will send limos to bring them home.

So now Chabad houses dot the Jewish-American scene, as well as kollels, day schools, shatnez laboratories, ritual baths, sheitel (wigs) sprucing shops. You name it - it's all there for your religious convenience.

All this, plus the added incentive that their sons will be able to sleep every night between two clean sheets without the "annoyance" of having to serve in the army.

About this time of year, my personal disappointment with my fellow Jewish brothers and sisters from the galut reaches its peak. We are now entering the season of tourists from the various galiot, which often coincides with parashat Matot, as if the Torah planned it this way.

The parasha records the places where the Jews encamped. Just to quote a few:

They left Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

They left the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.

They left the Desert of Sin and camped at Dophkah.

They left Dophkah and camped at Alush.

They left Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

They left Rephidim and camped in the Desert of Sinai.

They left the Desert of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah.

They left Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.

They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah...

It reminds me of the present-day tourists.

They left Ben Gurion Airport and camped in Jerusalem. They left Jerusalem and camped in Bnei Brak (where a cousin lives). They left Bnei Brak and camped near the Dead Sea. They left the Dead Sea and encamped in the Golan. And so on and so forth but not actually reaching the number 42 of our Biblical ancestors.

Then comes the emotional moment of parting usually occurring at the Kotel.

My brother, Harav Meir Kahana ob"m, once described those emotional, moving scenes in a great essay entitled "Goodbye Wall" in Tishrei 5738 – September 1977, as follows:

They come in all sizes and shapes, complexions and complexes, in fusion and confusion, from East and West and North and South. They are Jews; they are tourists; they come to see it. The Wall.

They come with beards and kaftan – direct from Williamsburg; they come with Rabbinical Council mustaches, from Flatbush and Kew Garden Hills; they come with black yarmulkas to signify Agudah and knitted ones to shout their support and empathy with Zvulun Hammer; they come with no yarmulkas and are given them by their local American Jewish Congress tour guide; they come with no yarmulkas and wear the cardboard type that the keepers of the Wall dispense; they come with whatever they come with. To see It. The Wall.

They come with familiarity (some having been to Israel seven, eight, ten times), having reached the rank of resident tourist. Usually these are Orthodox Jews who come up to the Wall with confident strides as if to shake the hand of a familiar acquaintance. Others are not sure just what they have to do, how they are required to act, and they stand uncomfortably and nervously, glancing about to see what the others are doing. Still others stand, just stand before the Wall – thinking, meditating, praying, talking, whispering, weeping. And then they leave.

They have been to the Land, been to Zion, been to Jerusalem, the Holy City, and been to see it. And then they leave.

They leave behind their money, their tour guides, their little notes they wrapped into a small ball or wad and left in the crevices of the Wall. They leave the Land and Zion and Jerusalem, the Holy City, and the Wall. They go back to Great Neck and Boston and Los Angeles and Miami and, of course, Washington Heights and Monsey and Williamsburg and Boro Park.

They leave Old Jerusalem for newer ones and the Wall for Wall Street because they must. To see Israel is to enjoy an experience beyond comparison. To see Jerusalem, the Holy City, is to gather a treasury of memories beyond price. To see the Wall is to experience a thrill that is indescribable. But everything has its time and its place and all good tours must come to an end. Israel is the finest of all places to visit, but it is not for them to live there. And so they leave.

The beards and the beardless, the Orthodox (ultra and modern), Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanist, agnostic, atheist … They leave. For "home." And I often wonder: When they came, they ran to say hello to the Wall. When they leave, do they make a point to say goodbye? And, indeed, how does one say goodbye to the Wall?

What does one say to It? Does one stand there and daven Mincha, pray the Afternoon service that says: "And may our eyes behold Thy return to Zion … " and then say to It: "Well, I suppose I have to go now. The business can’t shut down for more than three weeks. Take care of yourself and let’s hope that He returns soon …?"

Does one shake the Wall’s vegetation in lieu of a hand and does one kiss it – kiss it goodbye? If one knows that the Shechina, the Divine Presence, never left the Wall, how does one say goodbye to Him? What does one, who is leaving Israel for the Exile that we are told finds him with no God and worshipping idolatry in "purity," say to the Divine Presence at the Wall?

I suppose that it is all this that finds most people leaving Israel without saying goodbye to It. I suppose that especially the ones whose heart and conscience are not as stone, cannot say to the Wall whose stones are as hearts: Goodbye, I am violating a basic tenet of Judaism; I betray my land; I go back to the fleshpots and materialism of the Exile and thus forsake you.

But I also wonder what the Wall says and thinks as It watches the Jews who come to visit as casually as if they were taking a trip (as so many more do lately) to Puerto Rico and Spain and Aruba and Rome. I wonder what It thinks as It looks at the hordes of tourists who come to touch It, fondle It, kiss It, stare at It, memorialize It in their film (still and motion) – and then go back to the lands that they consider their real homes. I wonder what It thinks as It watches the Jews pray and sway and bay at it. I wonder what It thinks as It watches the ritual and idol worship that has been built about It by the American Jewish Congress, the Ministry of Tourism and the UJA. I wonder what It thinks as It watches the Orthodox from New Frankfort on the Heights and the majesty of Crown Heights and sees all the "religious Jews" on their 3 week vacation before returning to idolatry.

Surely, this last remnant of the Temple, in which preached the Prophets who inveighed against hypocrisy, remembers their words and repeats them to their descendants. Surely it repeats the words: "When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more vain oblations, it is an offering of abomination unto Me; New Moon and Sabbath, the holding of convocations – I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn assembly … " (Isaiah 1: 12)

The Wall looks at those who come to honor It and at that very moment plan to betray the Land and abominate it by leaving for an Exile they call "home" – and repeats: "Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (Samuel 1, 15:22). They leave the Wall for "home." They refuse to dwell in the Land of this Wall. It knows that that which they plan – peace and security in the Galut – will never be. It knows that if they reject the Wall of the Almighty, that there will be other walls for them: walls of fire and walls of prisons and camps. The Galut is one huge wall for the Jew – though he refuses to see it.

If one comes to the Wall late, very late at night and listens carefully, very carefully, he can hear the Wall. It weeps softly to itself and says: "Woe unto my people for their humiliation of the Land…" And it seems to me that the Wall would prefer that those who say goodbye to it, would not bid it hello.

I have often stated that there is uneven distribution of historic responsibility in our generation, when so much of the future history of Am Yisrael is being carried on the shoulders of the few in Eretz Yisrael.

But the truth is that it was always that way. The cry of Moshe Rabbeinu when he saw the Jews revelling before the Golden Calf, "Mi LaShem Ailei" - whoever is for God, let him come forth to me - reverberates through the generations. It was always the dedicated few who ensured the survival of our people by their willingness for self-sacrifice.

The others can draw strength from the great English poet John Milton (1608-74) who wrote in his poem entitled On His Blindness,

"When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide... They also serve who only stand and wait".

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Barring incidents of accidental death or premeditated murder, when is the moment in one’s life that can be pinpointed as the beginning of the death process?

Some claim that we begin leaving this world at the very moment we arrive here. While others set the time at around 18 years of age when the body begins to lose more cells than it produces.

Whatever the answer, the exception is Moshe Rabbeinu, regarding whom the Torah writes (Devarim 34:7):

Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not dim nor was his strength weakened.

The Torah testifies to the fact that Moshe was as physically vigorous and mentally astute at the age of 120 as he was as a young man, and showed no sign of aging.

So when did Moshe Rabbeinu’s death process begin?

There are several other issues that require clarification:

1. Why were Moshe and Aharon denied the privilege of entering the major sanctity of Eretz Yisrael, and condemned to die in the lesser sanctity of the eastern side of the Jordan River?

2. The episode of Korach and his followers occurred in the second year of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. The very next parasha, Chukat, propels us fast forward 38 years when the Jewish nation is about to enter Eretz Yisrael. There is a 38 year blackout between parashat Korach and parashat Chukat, when the Nation was encamped at Kadesh Barnea, of which we have no knowledge. Why?

3. In parashat Chukat, after the demise of Miryam and the disappearance of the ubiquitous well of water, the people came to Moshe with a request for water. Moshe is furious to the point that he calls them "Hamorim" - rebellious people. This reaction was far different than Moshe’s reaction 38 years before, when these people’s fathers requested water and Moshe did not speak harshly of them, but rather brought their demands before HaShem. Why?

4. In parashat Chukat, Hashem commands Moshe to speak to a certain rock. Moshe disobeys the command and hits the rock, as he did 38 years previously. Why?

5. HaShem appears to Moshe and Aharon and informs them that their conduct at the rock will precipitate their death outside the primary area of sanctity on the western side of the Jordan River.

   Hit the rock or speak to it - from the point of view of miracles it’s all the same. So why were Moshe and Aharon condemned to die without crossing the Jordan?

6. Thirty eight years previously, Moshe was commanded to hit the rock to bring forth water. Why did HaShem change the method now?

I submit:

After the death of the generation that left Egypt, and after 38 years of Torah study under the tutelage of Moshe, HaShem tells Moshe that the Jewish people have changed. The message is no longer a heavy handed, dictatorial leadership as expressed by hitting the rock, but a leadership that explains in Halachic terms how the nation should conduct itself.

But when Moshe heard the ungrateful, angry demands for water he recalled the same blunt, irreverent demands of their fathers 38 years before. In Moshe’s mind nothing had changed, despite the 38 years of Torah study. The rejection of HaShem’s intimate relationship with Am Yisrael as expressed by their demand to return to Egypt, reminds Moshe of the cries and threats of that day long ago. And in Moshe’s mind this rebellious conduct must be answered in the same way it was answered 38 years ago - by hitting the rock.

HaShem appears to Moshe and informs him that indeed there is little apparent change in the people - but the reason for their stagnation is that in the mind of this second generation there is no motivation to change. For they see in front of them the same leadership under which the sinners at the Golden calf were killed. The leaders who oversaw the demise of 600 thousand Jews who had sinned by refusing to enter the land. The leaders who were born in the exile of Egypt, and in the mind of the people nothing really happened to initiate change.

HaShem informs Moshe and Aharon that as long as they continue to lead the nation, the slavery experience of 210 years would always loom large in the national consciousness, and this inferiority complex would prevent them from achieving spiritual greatness.

Hence, in order to enable the nation to reach their potential as free men and women, a new leadership must be installed, and that reality predicated the demise of Moshe and Aharon.

The rudiments of the Torah, as well as the nation’s new status as HaShem’s chosen people were grasped intellectually during the 38 years of study under Moshe and Aharon; but the implementation was held back as long as the slavery experience was still ripe in the nation’s consciousness. In the minds of the "new born" Jewish nation, the staff in the hand of Moshe was a substitute for the punishing rods in the hands of the Egyptian overseers.

HaShem knew that the long and arduous road that lay ahead for the Jewish nation in the coming 3500 years, must begin with a healthy and proud Jewish nation liberating the Promised Land under the flag of the Torah. Moshe’s staff, in its time, was necessary, but a people now under the dominion of Torah law required a new relationship with its leaders.

One thing is certain: in life nothing remains the same. The challenges facing Am Yisrael become ever more complex, as our existence in the world of Yishmael and Eisav becomes ever more threatened. New leaders ascend the platform of history to guide Am Yisrael in our difficult up-hill journey towards that yet unknown goal that was set by HaShem for His chosen people.

To return to the question of Moshe’s Rabbeinu’s demise...

We can define the exact moment of the onset of Moshe’s leaving this world. When Zimrie ben Salu sinned in public, Moshe stood by not knowing what to do. At that moment Pinchas recalled what he had learned from Moshe himself; that in this circumstance the sinners must be killed.

When Moshe lost his intimate connection with HaShem just at the moment when the nation needed him most, that was the sign from HaShem that the end was drawing near, and the time for Yehoshua to lead the nation in the liberation of Eretz Yisrael had begun.

We would all agree, that in our time, the multitude of religious leaders, each preaching his personal divergent truths is tantamount to no leadership at all.

I am skeptical if a "world outlook" (hashkafa) of many of today’s religious leaders, formed and anchored in the thinking of our eastern Europe or north African or Middle Eastern galut experiences, holds the answers to the problems facing religious life in today’s Medinat Yisrael, with the return of Jews from 104 different countries.

What are the qualities of the "leader" that are so necessary today? The answer can be gleaned from the words of Rambam in Hilchot Melachim chapter 11:

If a king of the Davidic dynasty, who is erudite in the Torah and performs the mitzvot as David his father, both the written and oral Torahs; and influences the nation to return to the Torah and leads in fighting the wars of God, than he has the status of Mashiach. And if he succeeds in defeating our enemies and rebuilds the Bet Hamikdash and gathers in the remnant of Am Yisrael then he is certainly the Mashiach.

From here we learn that the much sought-after leader for our time, is 1- a talmid chacham, 2- a political figure, 3- a truly religious person, 4- a military man, 5- a charismatic person.

• A talmid chacham means a person who has a wide and intensive yeshiva education.
• A political figure implies a secular education that permits him to walk in the great halls of the world’s capitals.
• A military person implies military experience on the highest level.
• And a charismatic personality describes a person who is comfortable with all segments of our society.

If you were assigned the task to find a person who fulfills all the requirements as outlined by the Rambam, where would you look?

Would you start your search in the Ner Yisrael yeshiva in Baltimore? Or would you waste your time searching in the Satmar yeshiva in Williamsburg or in Square Town? Would Teaneck answer your needs? Or the yeshiva in Lakewood?

Could you find "the man" in Bnei Brak or in Meah Sha’arim? Searching all of the above, I believe, would be frustrating experiences.

The first two I would begin with are Harav Avichai Ronsky, former chief rabbi of Tzahal and his successor Harav Refael Peretz.

HaRav Avichai Ronski was appointed to the position of chief Army rabbi from his seat as the head of the hesder yeshiva in the settlement of Itamar, in the Shomron, and upon concluding his tenure of four years, has returned to the yeshiva. He reached the rank of colonel while serving as a soldier and commander in the paratroopers, and was raised to the rank of brigadier general when becoming the chief rabbi of Tzahal.

The incumbent chief rabbi, Harav Refael Peretz, attained the rank of colonel while serving as an air force pilot. He headed the hesder yeshiva in Atzmona before becoming the army’s chief rabbi, and is now a brigadier general.

There is another colonel (infantry), who I prefer not to speak about; in any event, he is not in the running for Mashiach because he is a kohen.

Dear Reader;

By now you will have understood where this week’s divrei Torah is going.

If it is demonstrations, power plays, monetary shenanigans, political intrigues that interest you, you will find many people with whom to vent.

But I suggest that you associate with the future leaders of our nation. Bnei Torah who learn and fulfill the Torah in the most serious manner. People who dedicate their lives, in love, to the rebuilding of our beautiful, beloved Eretz Yisrael and the revival of our people here in accordance with the Torah.

People who implement the principles and details of the Torah in every walk of life - education, industry, agriculture, the military, social interaction and all the other facets of modern life, which bring honor to Hashem - this is what chazal called "Kidush HaShem."

Shabbat Shalom,
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Parashat Balak 5768

We know that Hashem created yesh mei’ayn (something from nothing), but what was that "something?"

The Torah opens with the spirit of Elokim merachefet al penei hamayim -- hovering over the waters. Are we to conclude from this that there was "nothing" and suddenly POP there was water? Not exactly!

Physicists have concluded from the efforts of 100 years of modern physics, and formulated most succinctly by Albert Einstein in his equation E=MC2 (energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light), that all matter is no more than condensed (concentrated) energy.

For instance, in one kilogram (1000 grams) of pure water, the mass of hydrogen atoms amounts to just slightly more than 111 grams. And the amount of energy in just 30 grams of hydrogen atoms is equivalent to burning hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline!

Energy is force.

Three examples to explain what this means:

1. Stretch out your hand while holding a book. Your hand should begin to get "tired" after about a minute (ask a kohen who has to hold up his hands under a heavy talit while the chazan takes his time cantillating the words). If you would do the same act on the smaller-size moon, it would take several minutes before you would feel the effort. On the larger planet of Venus, you would not be able to even lift up the book.

The difference between these solar bodies is a downward force or energy called gravity. Now, no one understands why gravity does what it does, but we know that it is a function of the size of the particular body mass. The larger the body, the stronger the gravity or force.

2. Take two magnets, hold them an inch apart with equal polarity (north to north and south to south), and then run your finger between them. You will feel the energy pulsation between them.

We don’t understand that either.

3. Pick up a feather. It’s quite light. Now pick up one of the steel beams supporting the Empire State Building. It is quite heavy. Both are less than 1% matter and 99.9999% empty space. The entity which keeps their matter together is the energy or force holding the miniscule iotas of matter together. What you feel when touching an object is the force holding the less than 1% of matter in the object.

The atomic bomb is the release of the energy within the uranium isotope 238. If we could release the energy holding together the wings of a butterfly or a drop of water, we would get the same explosive results.

But the problem is that no one knows what this energy of force is, and what caused it. This is the secret of creation.

Hashem created force or energy from nothing, and a miniscule part of that energy contracted to create atoms, and the atoms combined to create molecules and hence we have "matter."

This is the cutting edge of today’s physics, beyond which scientists have not been able to advance. However, where physics ends, metaphysics begins; and that's where rabbis can make suggestions based on the Torah and Kabbala.

What is the core or basic structure of the energy or force, which is the physical basis of our existence?

Hashem created "something" from "nothing," that is to say, that what was created did not exist before. But since God by definition is the totality of all things -- the perfect wholeness where nothing is omitted -- what could be created which did not exist within Hashem, and which is the basis of all energy and force?

One thing did not exist, and that is called ratzon or desire. Hashem by definition has no "desire," since He is the totality of whatever is, and lacks nothing.

Ratzon or desire is the energy which underpins all existence. The ratzon that Hashem created is the ratzon to exist. Ratzon is the essence of all matter and the energy which drives people to action.

Adam and Chava had within them the potential for desire; but since they were in Gan Eden where existence is perfect, they never felt desire. The expulsion from Gan Eden was the inevitable result of Adam and Chava’s discovery that they desire and, therefore, are lacking.

The essence of all things, beginning with the energy or force which condensed into matter, and ending with the desire within each human, is the ratzon to be what was prescribed to exist by the Creator.

What does this mean and what does it have to do with the prophet Bil’am?

Balak of old, the King of Moav, was a great deal smarter than the evil men we have to deal with today.

Balak knew that militarily there was no way he could defeat the Jewish people, so he sought to upgrade the level of engagement from the physical to the metaphysical.

Towards this end, he had to bring in the only man in his time who was connected to the source of the metaphysical -- and this was the prophet Bil'am.

Rabbi Yochanan (Sanhedrin 105:b) reveals the workings of the malevolent mind of this arch anti-Semite, Bil’am. Behind the impressive rhetoric were the most menacing and forbidding thoughts against God’s chosen people.

Bil’am looks out over the Israelite camp and says:

And Rabbi Yochanan explains what Bil’am really meant:
How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
(May they not have synagogues and the Divine Presence should not dwell among them)

Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters.
(May their monarchy not extend, and may they not have olives nor vineyards, and may their kings not be prominent)

Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water.
(May they not have succession of kings, and may their kings not rule over other peoples)

Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted.
(May their kings be weak and their enemies unafraid of them)

Like a lion they crouch and lie down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?
"May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!"
(May they never be confident as a lion, and may those who curse them be blessed)

If we consider all of Bil’am’s curses together, they create a definite pattern. He wanted to see the Jewish people and our leaders as being meaningless, sordid, cowardly, irrelevant, immaterial, inconsequential, insignificant, nonessential, peripheral, pointless.

Hashem reversed his curses and blessed us to be a great, monumental and historic nation -- the soul and conscience of humanity.

Notwithstanding these blessings, Bil’am’s curses have had an impact on us, as R. Aba bar Kahana says in Sanhedrin 105b:

They all returned to be curses, except the curse to abolish our synagogues and yeshivot

But I am not sure that this is an accurate assessment of today’s reality.

It would not be far-off to say that even our houses of prayer and yeshivot are infected with the curse of mediocrity -- if not worse.

The curse was that the people of Israel will not have the desire to be anything more than irrelevant. The innate desire for greatness, which Hashem placed in every Jew when we received the Torah, and the energy to rise above the mundane and achieve greatness, have dissipated into mediocrity.

The energy to achieve more than mere existence is lacking in most Jews today. We have all seen photos of Jews in the shtetls with the peddlers selling herring in the marketplace, and the cart pushers rushing to their destinations. They were satisfied with the life they led. Each had his little shack, a little income, his shtiebel to daven in three times a day -- what was missing? If the day passed without being beaten by the local Gentiles, it was a blessed day.

Did they ever dream that the Divine prediction of the prophets would be realized, and that the Jewish nation would return to our ancient homeland? Where were the dreams of the Beit HaMikdash rebuilt anew on the Temple Mount; the Sanhedrin in the Lishkat Hagazit and the restoration of the Davidic monarchy? The Jews of the shtetl could not break out of the limited ambitions imposed on them by the galut.

The Jewish energy was depleted in the security of the shtetlekh.

But are we any different? The homes we own in the galut are not the shacks of the shtetlekh, but the mind set is the same. Millions of Jews are seduced by the security of their four walls, a little nest egg in the bank and a 9-to-5 job. Where are the big dreams of God’s Chosen People?

Are the yeshivot educating their thousands of students to dream the great dream? Are they being taught the details of the Beit Hamikdash and its service? Do they know the history and geography of God’s holy land? Are the yeshivot preparing their students for the day when we will have to take over the leadership of this land?

Bil’am succeeded more than he could ever have hoped. By staying in the galut, the Jew is renouncing and abdicating the great energy of holiness which is his God-given gift.

You are no more than the desires of your heart, just as everything else in the world.

Where do your desires take you -- to be part of God’s greatest miracle since the Exodus, or to cling to the mediocrity of your lives in the exile?

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

The events of our Sedra this week are chillingly prophetic of the current crisis in Israel, and thus offer crucial lessons for us as to how to respond to the drama unfolding before us.

Moav & Midian are long-time enemies of one another, and yet – in order to destroy Israel - they forget their past differences in order to forge a most unholy alliance. Indeed, take the last two letters of Bilaam and join them with the last 2 letters of Balak and you get – Amalek, the arch-enemy of the Jewish People!

Of course, it would have been infinitely more productive and proper for them to bless their own nations, rather than curse ours. But our enemies have always chosen to spend most of their time blaming everyone else for their problems, rather than using that energy to solve them.

Unable to defeat us physically, they embark upon a strategy of delegitimization. They will denounce and defame us, screaming from the highest cliffs to all who will listen that we are a different breed, a threat to humanity, undeserving of being part of the community of nations.

Of course, the Almighty knows the truth, and He changes these curses into Brachot. Are we “a nation that dwells alone?” Yes, we are, but that is a crucial key to our survival; by not mixing or melting into the world at large we maintain our particularity. Is it true that we “ do not compute among the nations?” Yes, but that means the norms of the world don’t apply to us; we skew all the graphs & defy all the odds as we march on throughout history. Are we “rock-like,” stubborn, unmoving? Yes, we certainly can be, but that, too, explains why we stubbornly survive and our enemies cannot dislodge us.

In the end, when the curses do not work – just as the current campaign of demonization against us will also ultimately fail – Balak and Bilaam devise a new plot, even more diabolical than the others. They will seduce us into turning away from Hashem, worshipping all manner of false gods and succumbing to our baser lusts and desires.

This, in turn, will create a schism in our nation and that disunity will have dire consequences for us.

Here, indeed, our adversaries have located our Achilles heel. When we fragment into different camps, we are made vulnerable. When we throw stones at each other, we open the door to being stoned by our enemies. When we fail to close ranks and instead take the side of our enemies – indeed, there were/are Jews who question our soldiers’ behavior on the ship, or even agree with Helen Thomas’ vile diatribe! – we sap our strength and validate their racism.

The end of our Sedra finds Pinchas stepping forward to end the madness. In reward, Hashem gives Pinchas what He calls His “Brit Shalom.”

The message is clear: Only when we are bound by one covenant of brotherhood will we find peace.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WHAT ARE THE SPECIAL LAWS OF THE "THREE WEEKS?"

Answer: This coming Tuesday begins the 3 weeks ("Bein Ham'tzarim") from 17 Tamuz - 9 Av, commemorating the breach of Jerusalem & the eventual destruction of the city & the 1st & 2nd Batei Mikdash. Other tragedies also occurred on 17 Tamuz, including the breaking by Moshe of the 1st Luchot & the suspension of the daily offerings in the Bet HaMikdash. In order to limit our Simcha, we do not have weddings during this time; we avoid live music; we do not take haircuts; & we refrain from saying the Shehecheyanu blessing on new fruits or clothes, (except on Shabbat). All foods & drinks may be eaten until the 9 Days,
when mourning intensifies & we refrain from meat & wine. Even greater sadness is displayed in the week when Tisha B'Av occurs, &, of course, on Tisha B'Av itself.

Tuesday’s fast begins (in Ra’anana) at 3:45 am & ends at 8:09 pm.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Abadi Bakery
Achiya olive oil
Achva (halva & cookies)
Adanim Tea
Adir plastics
AFIC mineral products
Amgazit gas products
Aroma fresh spices
Ay Tech computer accessories

B & D (juices, rice cakes, natural spreads)
Beigel & Beigel (pretzels)
Beitili furniture
Bianco cleaning products (NIcole, Scotch-Brite)
Brita water filters

Carmel Carpets
Carmel Wineries

Fibertech Piping
Fried blankets, towels
Fried Produce (nuts)

Gazoz carbonated drinks
Golan Dairy
Golan Wineries

HaSharon Fruits

Intellinet security & marketing

Lipsky plastic piping

Maya (spices, dried fruits)
Mei Eden mineral water
Mineral Kar
Multi-Lock

Nahar HaYarden (Jordan River dates)

P.V. Ran plastic & paper
Palphot student aids, greeting cards
Progressive kitchen utensils

Rav Bariach Locks & Doors

Schick Design furniture
Shamir salads
Super Drink
Supergum rubber, plastic, insulation

Taaman (chocolates, canned foods, juices)
Tal-El recycling
Tara Dairies
Tekoa mushrooms

Tzuriel cheeses & yogurts

Zrichah Industries
Zro'ot Barkan (electronic product stands)

Thanks to Ruth Siegman for organizing this list.

The world is a beautiful place. HaShem even "went out of His way" to present us with super luxuries, such as music, trees and flowers, colors and smiles.

But then the pinnacle of His creation - Man - went ahead and violated the seven basic Noachide laws, to such an extent that HaShem saw it necessary to destroy every living, breathing entity at the time of Noach.

No sooner did the family alight from the ark when one son, Cham, perpetrated a heinous crime against his righteous father, for which Cham and his offspring were cursed to be forever on the lowest rung of social strata.

The next thousand years found humanity repeating the sins of their notorious ancestors, and were it not for the exceptional characters of Avraham and Sarah, HaShem would have punished the world again.

The lesson we are taught over and over again in history is that human beings, without Torah, will always seek the lowest level of civil conduct. Murder, promiscuity, idol worship, theft, embezzlement, slavery, abduction - the list goes on unabated - are all condoned in the name of God by this or that religion.

So much so, that even the good that nations perform are considered to be sinful, as the Gemara (Bava Batra 10b) states:

The good that nations do are themselves sinful.

For there is always an ulterior motive when nations are seen to do some good for others. Some call it "national interest",++ others call it "foreign policy". Whatever the label, it is always hypocrisy.

So what is HaShem waiting for? The world would not be any worse off if there was no North Korea, or no Al-Queda. No normal person would shed a tear if a major earthquake would swallow up Sudan or some African country where machete-severed limbs are pilled high in the city square.

So what is HaShem waiting for? The answer can be found in parashat Chukat.

HaShem informs Moshe and Aharon that for all their blood, sweat, and tears that they shed in order to turn the Israelite slaves into a coordinated, united nation under the Torah, they will be prevented from entering the Promised land. Their behavior at the "water rock", when Moshe hit the rock instead of speaking to it, is reason enough to prevent the two leaders from crossing the Jordan River.

It would seem a bit disproportionate that hitting the rock instead of speaking to it would incur the drastic punishment of breaking the hearts of Moshe and Aharon by depriving them of the only wish they had - to enter the Promised Land.

But here we learn a lesson in the way HaShem judges His world - that reward and punishment are tailor made for each individual.

Were we to do what Moshe and Aharon did, it would not make a ripple in HaShem’s world; but when great men digress, even an iota from HaShem’s directives, the universe trembles.

With the same exacting discretion with which HaShem weighs and measures the sins of every person, including ultimate tzaddikim like Moshe and Aharon, so does He relate to the GOOD deeds of every man. Nothing is lost or overlooked. Every deed, intent and emotion is taken into account when HaShem judges His creations.

When contemplating the retribution exacted by HaShem to the Egyptians, Philistines, Babylonians etc., we would have expected that in 1945 God’s wrath would have descended on Germany and its Polish, Ukrainian etc., allies not any less than what was done to Sodom and Amora. But it has not yet happened.

We were expecting God’s zealous anger to rip apart the former Soviet Union to the last bottle of vodka for what they did to our people. But that is not happening.

We are hoping that our Father In Heaven will smash the evil adherents of insane Islam; but the days pass and it is not happening.

My conclusion is that HaShem is not interested at this time in "piece meal" retribution against Islam and Christianity. He is waiting for these people to cross the red line of evil and then take retribution on a global scale.

So again the question arises: What is HaShem waiting for? Is there yet not enough evil in Islam and Christianity to tip the scales in the direction of the midat hadin (the heavenly quality of justice)?

I submit:

The gentiles owe the Jewish people a huge religious, moral, intellectual and social debt; for without Judaism they would still be swinging from the trees. Yet they betrayed us with their pogroms, forced conversions, inquisitions, gas chambers, and much more.

However, there are three nations to whom the Jewish nation owes an historic debt of gratitude. And it is the merit of their past magnanimous attitude to us that is now preventing the Quality of Justice from repressing the Quality of Mercy in order to inflict punishment on the Christian and Islamic world, at large.

The three nations are Iran (ancient Persia), Turkey and the United States!

Cyrus the Great, emperor of ancient Persia, granted the exiled Jewish people a charter to rebuild the Holy Temple. After Cyrus’s death, the charter was repealed by Achashverosh (of Purim fame) but was restored by King Darius (Daryavesh). Ezra and Nechemia eventually rebuilt the Holy Temple on the basis of that charter.

The Turkish Empire absorbed a great many of Spain’s exiled Jews. The Jews were permitted religious and social freedom and succeeded in establishing a vibrant Torah committed community there.

The United States permitted the entry of 2 million Jews who fled from Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. America granted the Jews a safe haven from the many despots who rose up against us at that time.

The merit of these three nations and their gracious hospitality towards our people is preventing the Quality of Justice from prevailing over the Quality of Mercy.

Until now - that is!

Turkey and Iran have recently joined forces to become the leading enemies of the Jewish State. They both seek to initially delegitimize the State of Israel; then to deny our ability to defend ourselves and thereby abolish our very existence.

As this is transpiring - day by day, hour by hour - Iran and Turkey are quickly chipping away at their accumulated historical merits. The nuclear intentions of Iran and the cynical, calculated, irresponsible acts and lies of the Turkish Prime Minister are very quickly gnawing away any reward accredited to their nations.

The third nation, the United States, is the last hope of the gentile world to resist the onslaught of the Quality of Justice. But their situation is becoming more precarious daily, as the policies of their President steer that nation into conflict with the State of Israel.

So now we can understand what is behind the headlines of the papers. Christianity and Islam are capable of humanitarian acts, but there is always present a deep ingrained hatred for the people that brought God into their lives.

When the day of reckoning does arrive - and it will - the only safe haven in the world for Jews will be Eretz Yisrael, as the prophet Ovadia (1:17) says:

"The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess its inheritance."

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

“And Ahron died….and the king of Canaan heard and went to war against Israel.”

The Gemara in Rosh Hashana connects these two seemingly disparate events in our Sedra: As long as Ahron was alive, the Clouds of Glory protected us like an invisible shield; with his death, the clouds dissipated and we were vulnerable to attack. But let’s look deeper into this.

Ahron’s great talent was making peace between people, particularly those at odds with each other. He was able to succeed at this because he, like Moshe, was extremely humble and did not consider himself better than anyone else. This is exemplified by his selfless acceptance of Moshe, his younger brother, as leader of the nation.

The protective clouds provided in his honor are called Ananei HaKavod – literally, the “clouds of honor.” By teaching others to honor their fellow man, he was instrumental in creating a beautiful, holy environment that was loved and safeguarded by G-d. (Note that Rabbi Akiva’s students died for “not giving kavod” to one other).

But when Ahron died, the great role model of bein adam l’chavero (good relations between people) was gone, & the people’s respect for each other went into decline. This led to arguments, strife & machloket - and eventually war. As such, our Parsha sadly but perfectly fits into the pattern of dissension that runs through the complainers of B’ha’alotcha, the slanderous spies of Shlach and the rebellion of Korach.

The lesson presented here should be painfully obvious to us. We are now caught up in a worldwide vortex of Jew-Israel hatred (which are, of course, one and the same) that may lead to violence and, G-d forbid, war. Where it will all end up, only Hashem knows, but where it begins is clear as day: it begins with Jew vs. Jew disrespect.

The fact that we argue with each other is not necessarily or inherently destructive. After all, the Gemara is all about “argument” and the staking out of different positions, in order to arrive at the ultimate Truth.

But how do we argue with each other? Do we honor and give credence to the other’s position, or do we dismiss it out of hand? Do we accept that there may be more than one way of looking at things, or do we insist that ours is the only opinion even worth considering?

The Sages tell us that the reason Jewish law generally follows Bet Hillel & not Bet Shammai is that Bet Hillel always considered, and articulated, the views of Bet Shammai before going on to express its own. It was truly a Torat Ahron, an approach worthy of Ahron, and one we should diligently pursue today – before it’s too late.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WHY DO WE USE THE MOTHER’S NAME FOR A MI’SHEBERACH FOR THE SICK?

Answer: It is most appropriate to pray for the well-being of another person (Jewish or non). We saw in Parshat B’ha’alotcha that Moshe prayed for his sister Miriam’s recovery from tzara’at (“Kail noh, r’fah noh loh”- please Lord, heal her). The G’mara sees from here that one need not mention the ill person’s name (as the name “Miriam” was not named), but others say this is only if the person is in our presence. Otherwise, we should use their name & that of their mother.

One reason for using the mother’s name is that we are appealing to the nurturing, compassionate, “female” aspect of G-d. If the mother’s name is not known, the father’s will do fine. We should bless a sick person when visiting them as part of the Mitzva of bikur cholim, using G-d’s name & including all the sick, so as to enhance the prayer’s acceptance. One example: Hamakom yerachem alecha, b’toch kal cholay Yisrael.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

In this week’s parasha, Korach contests the choice of Aharon to serve as the world’s first Kohen gadol (High Priest). Korach and his followers were severely punished, with Korach being swallowed up into the bowels of the earth.

The rebels were punished to such an extent that one might even say that it was disproportionate to the severity of the crime. Because Korach did have a claim of sorts, because the appointment of Aharon could have been construed as an act of nepotism since there were other people who were apparently as worthy as Aharon for the position.

So, why was Korach punished so severely?

I suggest:

In addition to contesting the appointment of Aharon, which was the decision of HaShem, Korach was a traitor.

At that time in our history, the Jewish people were in a very fragile position with regard to their transformation from a motley, disorderly assembly of ex-slaves into a nation of 12 distinct tribes under the rule of the Torah.

It was a time for unity, not for separatism and schism, regardless of the high ideals of the separatists.

Korach was the first cousin of Moshe and Aharon, so the betrayal took upon itself a more severe aspect of betrayal.

In a just society, crimes are punished proportionate to the evil that was perpetrated. But when the crime carries with it the additional aspect of betrayal, then the suitable punishment is exponentially more severe.

HaShem has no patience for betrayers. He deals sternly with them, to the extent that they face extinction, whether the betrayer is an individual or a nation.

The ancient Egyptians enslaved the Jewish people as they turned their backs on the memory of Yosef, who saved their nation from starvation and death. The Romans came to Eretz Yisrael at the invitation of Yehuda Ha’Macabee, and in time they turned on us and eventually destroyed the Bet HaMikdash. Spain, Portugal, Germany, England (and I hope not the United States) and many more, in their irrational hatred of Jews burned our books, our homes and our bodies, when they so conveniently forgot that we had made them into the nations that they became.

Today, at this dangerous juncture in the history of the State of Israel, and the Jewish people at large, wherever they may be, we are being harangued by most of the world for our chutzpa of not lying down passively under the executioner’s knife.

With the aid of God, we will overcome this insane wave of hysteria. ++ However now is the time for all Jews to unite, despite our personal preferences of right and wrong.

As in the words of the prophet Yirmiyahu (30:7)

How awful that day (of Gog and Magog), none will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved (by HaShem).

We will be saved by HaShem, but the world at large will be made to pay a huge price in human lives.

This is the time for all Jews, regardless of their personal feelings or thoughts, to state publicly, "My beloved State of Israel, right or wrong"!

This applies not only to the leftists in the State of Israel, who would return us to borders that invite our enemies to attempt to destroy us, but to Jews the world over. A Jew who is a citizen of a foreign country, nevertheless remains tied by the bonds of history and religion to the Land of Israel.

A Jew who does not defend the State of Israel at this time is a traitor to his nation; not any less so than the traitor Korach in his time.

A Jew who marches with Moslem madmen in New York, London etc. or a Jew who holds up a placard saying "I am a Jew but not a Zionist", or a Jew who travels to Teheran to kiss the arch rasha (evil person) are all candidates for the fate that was meted out to Korach.

No less culpable is the religious leader in the galut who is passive in his support for the State of Israel, as he ignores the greatest miracle in 2000 years in his weekly sermons.

In fact, any Jew who does not identify in the most personal way with the Jewish State, in general, and especially at this time, is considered by the God of Israel as an "outsider".

How do I know this?

The Midrash (Devarim chap. 2) relates that when Hashem denied Moshe entrance into Eretz Yisrael, even after Moshe’s demise, Moshe asked why would Yosef’s body be permitted to enter but not his? And HaShem explained, that since Yosef acknowledged that he was a son of Eretz Yisrael when he told the royal baker and wine steward "I am a Hebrew (Ivri)", he would merit to enter the land; whereas Moshe, who did not correct the daughters of Yitro when they introduced him to their father as "an Egyptian man" would not.

The obvious question is that both Moshe and Yosef told the simple truth. Yosef, who was born in Eretz Yisrael identified himself as an "Ivri" (from the land of the Hebrews). But how could HaShem expect Moshe, who was born in Egypt, to identify himself as an "Ivri"?

Now, if the question is obvious, the answer is blatantly clear.

HaShem was telling Moshe, and Jews forever, that a Jew wherever he or she would be born, is a son and daughter of Eretz Yisrael.

We are now approaching the time when the fulfillment of the prophecies will be daily events, as with the words of the prophet Yeshayahu (33:21)

There (in Eretz Yisrael) the LORD will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams (HaShem will protect just us as great bodies of water prevent the enemies from invading). No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship (flotillas) will sail them.

Shabbat Shalom,

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

As we all know, the Torah is very selective about what information it chooses to share with us. Often, it is hard to comprehend the narrative strictly via what appears in the text. But, thankfully, we have the Oral Law, the Midrash & other sources to “fill in” the missing blanks.

Korach’s rebellion against Moshe is a case in point. What was it that motivated Korach to go against a personage as great as Moshe, who was his own cousin, to boot! Was it out of an elevated sense of fair-mindedness and democracy, a conviction that leadership should be shared among the masses, rather than restricted to just one, elite family?

The Medrash enlightens us: Korach acted out of an oversized, inflated ego. He saw in a prophetic vision that he would have an illustrious descendent – Shmuel HaNavi – who King David intimated was greater than Moshe & Aharon put together! So he said to himself: “Why am I playing 2nd fiddle if I could be conductor?”

But there is another sub-plot going on here that I call - with apologies to Dr. Seuss - “the Spouse in the House.”

The ladies play a major role in the lives of all the Torah’s families: Sarah directed Avraham vis a vis Yishmael; Rivka helped Yakov become the next leader, while Rachel & Leah orchestrated the birth of the 12 Shvatim.

In our Sedra story, it was Korach’s wife who “egged” him on against Moshe. “You are an elite leader in Israel,“ she told him, “and yet you are relegated to shlepping the Aron whenever Moshe blows his horn! Is that the sum total of your greatness?!” Her biting words encouraged Korach to rebel; in the end, he lost it all and the “yoke” was on him.

Now the flip side: Ohn was one of Korach’s co-conspirators.

But his wife was smarter. “What do you think you’ll get out of this insurrection?” she asked him. “If Moshe will be deposed, Korach will take over, and you’ll still be an also-ran!” So she gave him a little extra wine for dinner, he fell into a deep sleep, and when Korach came by to collect Ohn for the rebellion, she sat outside the tent with her hair uncovered. The holier than thou Korach – he could bring down the whole nation but wouldn’t dare see a woman with her hair uncovered! – turned around and went on his own - not Ohn - way. And so Ohn was saved.

Think about it: The fact that our wives generally do not seek notoriety verifies their veracity. Because they are not glory-seekers, we can be sure they are voicing their opinions l’shma, for the right, intrinsic reasons, and not due to some hidden agenda or lust for power.

The only question is: Are we fulfilling Hashem’s directive of Sh’ma B’Kolah – listening to her voice?

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: SEPARATING SIAMESE TWINS: WHAT IS THE HALACHA?

Answer: In 1977, Siamese twin sisters were born to an observant couple in New Jersey. The twins, essentially, shared 1 heart & doctors quickly noted that if they were not separated, both would soon die. Since separation could save Baby B, whose body had the majority of the 6-chambered heart, Rav Moshe Feinstein, after intense deliberations, made a decision. He ruled that it was permissible to end the life of Baby A (who doctors said could not live for 12 months) in order to possibly save Baby B, who had a chance to live a full life.

While it is generally prohibited to choose 1 life over another, if a person is either causing another to die (“rodef”) or is “designated” for death, by man or G-d (e.g. subject to capital punishment, or unable to survive a year) then the choice may be made. The surgery was performed. Baby A died immediately, Baby B survived the surgery but died 3 months later.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Part One

The first blessing of the Amida prayer (Shemoneh Esray) ends with the sentence:

The King who assists and rescues and protects. Blessed are You God the protector of Avraham

The qualities of "assists and rescues and protects" that are attributed to HaShem in His relationship with the Jewish people have the ring of a secondary role for Hashem, while the primary "players" are the Jewish people. HaShem "assists" the Children of Israel to prevail over our enemies but it is we who have to inflict the coup de grace. HaShem "rescues" us, but only when the situation into which we have maneuvered ourselves is so dire that we can no longer save ourselves.

HaShem "protects" us from the enemy, but the implication is that the enemy still exists.

HaShem maintains a secondary "behind the scenes" role for obvious reasons. In the way He created the world, where Man was given free will to decide between good and bad, Hashem cannot be conspicuous, nor can He be totally imperceptible. The Creator maintains an opaque posture, where one who wishes to be conscious of His presence can do so, while one who denies His existence can do so as well.

We have in our parasha a classic example of HaShem’s guardianship of the Jewish people, even while we are incognizant of it.

The pasuk says (Bamidbar 13:32):

And they defamed the land they had explored before the Children of Israel. They said, "The land we explored devours (kills) those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.

Rashi explains: "The land we explored devours (kills) those living in it." The scouts reported seeing numerous funerals all over the land and concluded that the land was not conducive to human settlement. When, in fact, HaShem had prepared those forty days when the scouts were to be in Eretz Yisrael for the death of many people, so that the goyim would be too busy with their dead to pay attention to the 12 strangers among them.

Here the major "players" were the meraglim, but they were able to go about freely and return safely to the Jewish camp only because HaShem protected them from behind the scenes.

We are witness today, as indeed we have been for the last 62 years, just how HaShem "pulls the strings" behind the curtains to "assist and rescue and protect" His children in Eretz Yisrael.

There is now an episode of activity by "Jew haters" who, under the flag of human rights and compassion, seek to break Israel’s closure of the Gaza-Hamas terror entity. Our holy soldiers sent 9 terrorists to their heavenly fate, and the nations of the world all stood up on their hind legs to bark against the State of Israel.

HaShem started to rescue us long before the episode became a reality. The major nations are so busy with their own problems, economic and otherwise, that they have no time to translate their barks into bites.

Obama, who so loves the Arabs, is so up to his neck in oil clean-up and the mess in Afghanistan, that he can manage only a mussar message to our Prime Minister. The United States’ involvement in fighting Moslem terrorists 12,000 kilometers from their shores makes it hypocritical to criticize Israel’s life and death struggle against Moslem terror of Hamas and Hizbollah right on our borders.

The European community is facing a hard future, with each individual member nation drowning in their own tzarot (troubles), so that they have no time to sit and plan how to dissect the miniscule State of Israel. Especially when the Moslem creep is spreading over every inch of their continent, not much different from the Egyptian plague of frogs.

Egypt is preparing for war with its upper Nile neighbors over water rights, who claim that the agreements of 100 years ago giving Egypt 90% of the Nile waters is outdated.

China is the referee struggling to keep the two Koreas from mangling each other.

Russia is sidelined by our Foreign Minister, Avigdor Liberman, who tells Putin and Medvedev a few off-color jokes in Russian, while finishing off a bottle or two of vodka as the matter is pushed under the rug.

A warning to the world: If you persist in your anti-Israel actions, provocations, threats and condemnations, the God of Israel has many "messengers" to divert your attention from Eretz Yisrael.

They come by many names: Katrinas, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, oil spills, melting icebergs, floods, tornadoes, cyclones, drought, viruses, forest fires, collapsing structures, rising waters of the oceans, not to mention nuclear power plant explosions, radioactive leaks, AIDS, and cancer. As chazal say HaShem has many messengers.

The Miraglim were great talmidei chachamim who were certainly aware of how HaShem constantly guards us. Their sin was to deny the People of Israel the knowledge of this basic component in the holy covenant between HaShem and the Jewish nation. The Miraglim did not want to enter the land, so they misrepresented and misconstrued the facts in order to keep the people in galut.

Sound familiar?

Part Two

The Hebrew word morasha means inheritance, heritage or birthright. It appears in the Torah only twice, once with regard to the Torah and the other with regard to Eretz Yisrael. In Shemot 6:8

And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as an inheritance. I am the LORD.' "

And in Devarim 33:4

The Torah was commanded to us by Moshe (from HaShem), as an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.

Now, if a known and venerated rabbi would announce that the study of Torah and the fulfillment of its mitzvot, which are our sacred inheritance, are:
1) not in effect until the Mashiach appears, or
2) there is no necessity to study the Torah or keep the mitzvot, but whoever does so will get a voluntary mitzva, or
3) it is prohibited to study the Torah and keep the mitzvot;
the reaction of our intuitive, natural Jewish instincts would be to reject the man and disqualify him as a halachic authority, because the Torah is a morasha - an eternal inheritance of the Jewish people .

Two short anecdotes in this week of parashat Shelach:

1- A friend of mine was in a chassidic shtieble in Flatbush, two years ago. The "rabbi" spoke Shabbat afternoon close to one hour on the subject of the Miraglim - without even once mentioning Eretz Yisrael!

2- Another friend returned from Flatbush where he heard the drasha of a "rabbi" on parashat Shelach. The rabbi spoke about the mitzva of tzitzit at the (parsha’s end) without mentioning the tragic national disaster when 600,000 Jews died in the desert because of the miraglim.

The message that reeks out from the words of these two "rabbis," who represent many others like them, is that Eretz Yisrael is totally irrelevant to the lives of the Jews in the Galuts. It is a non-place, somewhere in the neighborhood of Alice’s wonderland.

Other spiritual mentors will tell you face to face without blinking an eye, that the mitzva of living in Eretz Yisrael is:
1) not in force until the Mashiach appears, or
2) there is no necessity to go up to the land, but whoever does so will get a voluntary mitzva, or
3) it is prohibited to live in Eretz Yisrael until the Mashiach appears.

Of course, one who possesses an intuitive, natural Jewish soul will react by feeling that the mentor has lost his mind or he is a fraud, because, like the Torah, Eretz Yisrael is an eternal inheritance of the legitimate, genuine Jewish nation.

But the question is: What is behind the anti-Eretz Yisrael feelings of many of these spiritual mentors? What brings them into the camp of the modern day Miraglim?

At last, I found an honest man who openly states that which I knew all along, but did not have the audacity to say - the ideological or rather lack of ideological motivation behind the fact that only a small percentage of America’s religious Jews have come on aliya or even visited the holy land.

He is Rabbi Ya’akov Kermaier, spiritual leader of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue, and I am sure that he would not object to my quoting of his words as they appeared in the "Young Israel Viewpoint", spring 2010.

The rabbi writes regarding what he believes is the sustainability of Medinat Yisrael:

"I do not believe that we have any guarantee that the State of Israel will not fall. Of course, Israel is an exquisite gift from G-d, and this is so even if the State is stripped of its messianic implications. But we are not prophets! We have no Divine assurances."

Put aside all the drashot, and pesukim, and the three volumes of the Satmar Rav’s "Vayoel Moshe" etc. It comes down to the one issue that stood between Yehoshua Bin Nun and Calev Ben Yefuneh on one side as opposed to the other ten scouts. What does HaShem put into your heart?

Do you see yourself as tiny chagovim (grasshoppers) cringing in front of the giant enemy, as the Miraglim felt. Or do you possess courage based in the belief in HaShem’s compassionate mercy towards His chosen people?

The rabbi is correct in his observation that we have no prophets today, but for one simple reason. When things are so plain as to be seen by anyone who wishes to, there is no necessity for a prophet.

We have witnessed in Eretz Yisrael miracles of greater magnitude than many in the Tanach. The miraculous military victories, Yerushalayim and the Temple Mount, the rebirth of the yeshiva world after the Second World War, the fantastic economic growth, ingathering of Jews from over 100 countries and their successful absorption, rebirth of Ivrit as the language of the land, our army, our air force, our navy with its submarines from where our sons daven to HaShem from places deeper than Yonah the prophet.

The list goes on and on, and all these things could not have come about without the very intimate blessings of HaShem. If someone doubts if we have come home for good, then he can also doubt if he is alive!

The very idea that Medinat Yisrael might not survive is a busha (shame) for anyone who harbors such a thought.

I would go one more step: Every young man and woman in the galut, who has received a proper Jewish education, is required by the Torah and the dictates of a Jewish conscience to come home and take part in the renaissance of our people in the holy land. We are laying the groundwork for the future Bet Hamikdash, as well as the rehabilitation of the Jewish nation from the mental and spiritual diseases which infected us during our 2000 years of galut.

To turn inward and be concerned with one’s personal career makes one a charter member in the Meraglim club. It is a busha - shame.

My heart goes out to the Jews in the galut. Because more than they are in the galut, the galut is in them. Fear, trepidation, anxiety, ever doubting their relationship with our Father in Heaven - all these are the symptoms of the galut mentality.

In this week of parashat Shelach, let every real, genuine Jew still in the galut make a resolution to begin implementing:

L'Shana Haba B'Yerushalayim! Next year in Yerushalayim - for ever!

Part Three

How fantastic are the ways of our God.

As I was closing this week’s divrei Torah an announcement came over the radio, that the gas find off Haifa is actually 30% larger than first estimated.

It will now supply the gas needs of Israel for the next 100 years. This was followed with another announcement that there is another well which is estimated to be twice as plentiful as the first, making Israel a major energy supplier to our friends.

Immediately the pasuk came to my mind (Shemot 1:12):

And as they were cruel to them (to Israel) to that degree did they (Israel) increase and expand.

Yesterday we were the villains of the world. Lo and behold, Israel will soon have many many friends.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Our dramatic Torah portion of Sh’lach – dealing with diatribe against & defense for Israel – begins with a listing of the spies (M’raglim) sent to scout out the Land before its conquest.

We are told that Hoshea’s name was changed by Moshe to Yehoshua, adding the letter “yud” so that the first 2 letters of his name would be “Yud-Heh,” the name of G-d.

But why was Moshe concerned only about Yehoshua?

Why did he not also pray for the other "good" scout Calev, so that he, too, would be strong enough to withstand & counter the spies’ verbal assault against the Land of Israel?

I suggest that we must look to the lineage of each of these two heroes for the answer. Calev was descended from Yehuda. Yehuda stood up defiantly in defense of Binyamin in Egypt; he spoke out with conviction in the episode with Tamar; his most illustrious descendant David stood tall against the giant Goliath, mocking him before defeating him. And so Calev had the “courage to cry out” hard-wired into his genetic makeup.

But Yehoshua was different. He was descended from Yosef, and before him, from Rachel. The same Rachel who held back and was compassionately silent when Yakov wed Leah. The same Yosef who held back in Egypt and did not reveal his identity to his brothers; and who never told father Yakov what really happened to him in the pit, at the hand of his siblings. He had the same DNA as Esther, who, in the Purim story, hesitated from declaring that she was a Jew and remained silent until the very end.

Yehoshua, like Yosef before him, was characterized by restraint and self-sacrifice, a by-product of his tremendous humility (the same humility which allowed him to faithfully serve Moshe Rabbeinu as his Shamas for many years). It was this trait – humility – which Moshe sought to ameliorate by including Hashem’s name within that of Yehoshua.

Moshe, the humblest of all men, certainly valued the midah of humility; he embodied it! But he also knew that humility has its limits. When attacked personally, one can be self-effacing and passive. But when Hashem – or His precious, holy Land - is under attack, one must be vocal, vociferous and vehement in its defense. This was Moshe's intent: By making "G-d" part of Yehoshua's very name, he would now have the added energy to put his humility on hold and fight back, for the glory of G-d.

Once again, alas, Israel is the subject of vile and vicious slander for the “crime” of defending our shores from murderers & terrorists. In a world where black is white and good is evil, Israel is continually, hypocritically singled out for condemnation by the worst offenders of human rights and human dignity.

We therefore - each of us in our own way - must not be silent, but must boldly speak out and say the truth. We must do our best – for truth is the greatest victim – to stand up for what is right and lay the blame where it squarely belongs. For our names, too – all of Yisrael – begin with the Yud of Hashem and end with G-d's name ("El") and thus confer upon us all the quality of courage.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: MAY A NON-OBSERVANT KOHEN BLESS THE PEOPLE WITH BIRKAT KOHANIM?

Answer: The Shulchan Aruch (OC 128) states that a Kohen who worships idols is prohibited from duchening, even if he later does Teshuva, as his being the conduit for G-d’s blessing is inappropriate. The Mishna B’rura extends this prohibition to one who is not Shomer Shabbat. However, numerous Poskim, including Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igrot Moshe, OC 1) disagree & permit any Kohen, no matter what his level of religiosity, from delivering the blessing. In fact, not only does the act of duchening allow him to perform a Mitzva unique to his lineage, but it may spur him on to do other Mitzvot & increase his spirituality. As such, we should actually encourage such a Kohen to duchen! As Rav Moshe writes, “One should always push others away with his left (weaker) hand, but draw them near with his right (stronger) hand.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Our parasha describes the procedure whereby the Levi’im became consecrated for their holy calling in the Mishkan and thereafter in the Bet Ha’Mikdash.

At one stage in the process, Aharon, the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), was required to physically lift up every Levite off the ground.

This ceremony appears to be strange, to say the least.

I submit that there was profound meaning in this act.

People fulfill many tasks in life, with most going through no-choice motions. There is the man and there is his profession, and they rarely coalesce into one. Most people in the work place look at their watches often to see how close it is to 5:00 PM when they go home and "begin to live". There are very few professions, if any, where the initial excitement and thrill of being accepted in the field does not erode over time. Teachers are prone to fading quickly; physical laborers would choose a desk job if they could, without realizing that the man behind the desk has not yet reached utopia.

How does one actually circumvent the curse that HaShem put on humanity when He said to Adam "By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread"? (Which is the prime reason for our reaction to the way most of us feel towards our labors.)

The answer is in the way we incorrectly understand and articulate the way we describe our functions in life. One might say "I am a doctor", meaning that his profession is the healing of the sick and that’s the way he gains his livelihood. But he does not mean that his essence is being a doctor. The same holds true for every profession, where there is the man and that which he does in life.

HaShem’s intent with the levi’im was not merely the appointment of religious functionaries. The task of the levi’im in the desert experience was to lift and carry the vessels and other elements of the Mishkan when travelling from one encampment to another. Aharon was commanded to lift up the levi’im, thereby transforming them from "carriers" to become one with the very vessels they were commanded to lift and carry. They were not vessel carriers - they became vessels themselves.

The kohanim went through a similar process of becoming one with the very essence of their functions. Kohanim were appointed to offer up the sacrifices in the Mishkan and in the Bet Hamikdash. When they were consecrated to perform these functions it was necessary that they become sacrifices themselves. Hence the two oldest sons of Aharon - Nadav and Avihu - passed away in a heavenly death at the consecration ceremony of the Mishkan. They themselves became sacrifices and with them all other kohanim, who became more than mere functionaries who offer up the offerings.

The kohanim and levi’im were not professional Temple functionaries, as a doctor who is a man with a profession. They became part and parcel of the Mishkan itself.

The lesson we learn from this is a profound one with many implications.

There are people of the "Jewish persuasion," that is, people who practice the religion of Judaism as defined by the dictates of the Torah. Then there are people who are defined as Bnei Yisrael, who are, in their essence, living Torahs. Like the levi who is a living, breathing "vessel" of the Mishkan and Temple, and the kohen who is a living, breathing sacrifice, Bnei Yisrael are living, breathing Torahs. They are the personification of the three commands:

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might

How does one become an entity undivided from the Torah?

It does not happen easily nor quickly. It is the consequence and outcome of a life totally dedicated to HaShem.

It cannot happen in chutz la’aretz. There the klipot (surrounding shell) prevents the absorption of kedusha (sanctity) which is the DNA of being a Ben or Bat Yisrael. On the contrary, the tuma of the goyim engulfs and besieges the Jew as it permeates into his soul through conscious and unconscious osmosis.

To become one with the Torah, a person must live in the land where the Torah was intended to be kept. A fetus can grow into a healthy human being only when the environment in the mother’s womb is conducive to its development. A sick mother will give birth to a sick baby. A foreign, gentile environment will produce underdeveloped Jewish souls.

In Eretz Yisrael one is engulfed in kedusha. The agricultural laws influence the food we eat. The air we breathe and the holy language we speak surrounds us. The Shechina (holy spirit) of HaShem that has never left the Temple Mount projects itself into every corner of the land and in everything one does.

True, that one can live a non-Torah life in Eretz Yisrael, but that is like a healthy pregnant mother who consciously takes drugs and alcohol despite the best medical advice given her. The baby will be deformed. But a mother who lives by the rules will merit to holding her beautiful and healthy offspring.

The Gemara (Sanhedrin 93a) states that tzadikim (righteous persons) are greater than the angels. The intent is not to be a practicing, orthodox Jew for whom the Torah is just one more facet of his busy life. It refers to people who are Bnei Yisrael in its fullest sense - people for whom the Torah is the very essence of their being.

Shabbat Shalom,

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

The upcoming World Cup of Soccer and Parshat

B'ha’alotcha: Is there a connection between the two? Of course there is! This Sedra is known as the Mitlon'nim ("complainers") and we Jews, at times, can be world champions in the art of complaining (e.g. "Such poor food, & such small portions, too!"). We can be experts at finding fault.

But what did we have to complain about while traveling in the desert?

Our food fell from Heaven, the pillars of cloud and fire protected us, Moshe Rabbeinu himself taught us Torah, our clothes miraculously grew with us; life seemed ideal and idyllic.

So why did we kvetch so much? Why did we turn up our noses at the Mahn which fell from Heaven and say, "We remember the fish we freely ate in Egypt..." What are we, seafood lovers all of a sudden? And is Egypt famous for its fish??

The commentary Kli Yakar tries to make sense of it all. He says the real issue in our Sedra is the challenge of balancing Passion and Principle. On the one hand, we definitely need passion in our lives, as it provides drive, energy and enthusiasm, all qualities vital to the human condition.

On the other hand, our passions - if left unchecked and unchallenged - can be the single greatest source of our sins. The incident of the quails - when we ate to excess with obsessive, wild abandon - and the Sedra's closing episode - where Miriam and Ahron, unable to control their impulse, speak out against Moshe - demonstrate passion's dual-edged sword that must be carefully controlled.

At the root of the peoples' inner restlessness, say our Sages, was the structure of family purity and the restrictions on marriage that now applied to Bnei Yisrael. No longer could we cohabit with just anyone, in or out of marriage. ln a veiled code, this may be the meaning of the verse, "We remember the daga (fish);" as in "V'yidgu l'rov” - you shall multiply greatly," (fish are a metaphor for procreation). The discipline of the Mitzvot regarding sexual behavior meant that “free” – unrestricted, unbridled – relationships are inappropriate for a holy people like Am Yisrael.

The Mahn, no matter how it may have tasted, always looked the same, and so we soon got bored with it and craved real, succulent, juicy meat. Life in the desert – especially since we did not work there – could become terribly tedious, and so we turned to gossiping about others, speaking lashon hara and minding other people's business. “Idle hands are the devil’s tools.”

The challenge of life is to approach each day with zeal, enthusiasm and passion. But that vital energy must be channeled and expressed in a holy, dignified way that perfects our Neshama and emulates our Creator. Getting a “kick” out of Kedusha (holiness) is the real “goal” to shoot for.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: AS A REALTOR OR AS AN OWNER, MAY I SELL AN APARTMENT/HOUSE IN ISRAEL TO A NON-JEW?

Answer: The Torah forbids selling a house in Israel to a non-Jew under the prohibition of "Lo Techonem," do not give them a piece of land (in Israel) to settle upon. Some authorites say this only applies to seeling to an idol worshipper (& so some say there is no prohibition to sell land to a Moslem, since the Rambam, among others, rules that Moslems are not considered idol worshippers, as they believe in one deity. The Chazon Ish disagrees with this, & says that since others (e.g. the Radbaz) ruled that a Jew must agree to be killed rather than convert to Islam, this infers that the Islamic faith is also considered a form of idol worship).

The Netziv, in his commentary on B’har, wrote that if a Jew must for some reason sell his house to a non-Jew, even to one who is not an idolater, then his extended family has a Mitzva to try to redeem the property to keep it in Jewish hands. If the family is unable to do so, the Mitzva would then fall on the community.

(courtesy Rav Dov Lior)
___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

Our parasha brings together in one giant leap the spiritual dregs of our society and its creme de la creme. On one extreme is the sota, the married woman, whom her husband has valid reason to suspect that she was unfaithful, and at the other extreme is the nazir, the God fearing person whose spiritual thirsts are not satisfied by the accepted demands of the Torah and who seeks to be even closer to HaShem by voluntarily imposing upon himself additional restrictions.

In both cases, the nazir and the sota, must eventually appear before the kohanim in the Bet Ha’Mikdash.

Why?

I suggest:

Both have sinned, albeit on opposite ends of the halachic spectrum. The immodest behavior of the sota that gives legitimate reason for suspicion is her sin. The voluntary severities of the nazir imply that what HaShem had decreed in the Torah is insufficient for the spiritual needs of man. This too is a sin.

But they both are partners in a common sin, because the sad fact is that the nazir and sota "eat off" of each other. The highly religious person sees the indecent conduct and unrestrained conduct of the immodest woman, and in acts of introverted spiritual self defense closes himself off from social interaction. The woman who is more open to the world sees the anti-social behavior of the nazir and in revolt distances herself from religion in general, thereby acting in even more immodest ways.

This vicious anti-Torah cycle is breached when both are restored to normal Torah behavior. The nazir at the time of termination of his vows, when his hair is properly cut and may again drink of the grape, both of which are social nuances. And the suspected adulteress who returns to normal marriage conditions after fulfilling her obligations in the Temple.
How unfortunate we are to be witness to this phenomenon on a daily basis, where the proverbial head chases its tail around a tree, never stopping.

The leading families in the galut communities do not consider aliya because their spiritual mentors never raise the matter. Shabbat drashat are taken up with the subject of how to be a better Jew and closer to HaShem. For example, by not speaking during the Torah reading or some other essential, indispensable issue for the future survival of our nation.

The spiritual mentor, who feels happy and secure in his role as God’s envoy to the community, does not consider aliya because he has fulfilled his commitment to the Jewish nation’s renaissance in Eretz Yisrael by sending his son to learn for one year in the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, or has a married daughter living in Bet Shemesh. In addition, it
is quite obvious to him that the Yiddishkeit of his community is dependant solely upon him. And if he should leave then the walls of the local shul, mikva and day school etc., would come tumbling down and "all the king’s men would not be able to put it together again".

So, the "head" chases the "tail" and the tail pursues the head, just as the nazir is empowered by the sota and the sota is invigorated by the nazir.

Who will break the vicious cycle of the God fearing communities in the galut? I doubt that it will be a sudden intellectual realization of the error in their clinging to the punishment of exile, nor will it be a bolt of lightning that will illuminate the heavens, as at the time of Mount Sinai. It will most probably be an unhappy conclusion stemming from a charged national and social atmosphere that will create a most uncomfortable feeling for Jews in the galut.

It would be set off by an accusation of dual loyalty, or the pointing of a governmental finger in the direction of certain leading Jewish figures in the banking and investment sectors, or the quintessential Jewish scapegoat who is to bear the Magen David, the cross, and the crescent on his shoulders.

This situation, coupled with the possibility that Medinat Yisrael would not be able to absorb a large number of olim in a short period of time, would create a bottleneck of catastrophic proportions for Jews having to leave the lands of their birth.

Like the nazir and sota, who eventually present themselves before the kohanim for spiritual renewal, the Jews in the galut, whose very presence there, is an aveira (sin), as attested to by the prophet Yechezkel, will merit their spiritual renewal only when returning to Eretz Yisrael.

Yesterday is long gone; today is passing by the second; and who knows what tomorrow might bring? The choice is out there. To be nazir or sota or to be the son and daughter of Am Yisrael who has come home.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5770/2010 Nachman Kahana

Does G-d pray? Now, our first inclination to this strange question might be to say, “No!” After all, G-d is perfect, lacking nothing; for what could he possibly pray? Yet the Gemara in Brachot says that Hashem does indeed pray! And what is His prayer? “May My attribute of mercy overcome My attribute of anger, & may I judge humanity with an extra measure of tolerance (lifnim m’shurat ha-din).”

This will help us answer 2 problems from this week’s Sedra. The first deals with the Nazir. He becomes a “holy man,” pushing society away by abstaining from wine, avoiding contact with the dead & allowing his hair to grow long. He will thus become estranged from others since he looks odd, cannot join in for drinks at parties & cannot even attend family funerals. Without these “distractions,” he will now be free to devote himself entirely to G-d.

And yet, says Rambam, he must bring an offering at the end of his N’zirut to atone for the sin of separating himself from the community. His intent may have been noble – he wanted to be holy - but why didn’t he, like G-d, engage in self-discipline & self-control in order to reach his goal? He should have gathered his courage to perfect his soul among the nation, not by secluding himself on a man-made island of isolation beyond the waters of temptation.

And then we have the Birkat Kohanim. As beautiful as this blessing is, why is it not bestowed upon us by Hashem Himself? Why must it be routed through the conduit of human beings, if it clearly emanates from Heaven? The fact that the word “Hashem” is the only word common to all 3 parts of the bracha indicates that G-d is the one true source of all blessing; so why involve the Kohanim at all?

But here, too, Hashem’s prayer helps us understand. If we want to receive Hashem’s approval & blessing, we must learn to function in a G-dly manner. And that begins by working on our Midot; by overriding our inclination to anger & heightening our sense of compassion. And we do this by relating to other human beings & judging them with more tolerance & patience. This is why we connect to the Kohen & why the "pre-bracha" for Birkat Kohanim ends with the word, “b’ahava – with love.” Love is the key.

If G-d prays, as the Gemara says, to whom does He pray? The answer, of course, is to Himself! And while we certainly pray to G-d, at least a part of our prayer must also be directed at ourselves, as we ask Hashem to give us the will & the strength to raise ourselves up, to overcome our negative tendencies and to engage and interface with others in a holy, empathetic fashion.

Sometimes the old cliches are the truest: G-d helps those who help themselves.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: MEZUZOT AND MOVIN' OUT: CAN I TAKE MY MEZUZOT WITH ME WHEN I LEAVE?

Answer: If a person moves out of his home or apartment and the incoming tenant is Jewish (in Israel, this would be assumed to be the case) it is best to leave the Mezuzot in place and not take them with him. But if the incoming tenant is a non-Jew, one should take the Mezuzot off, so that they will be treated properly.

However, even where the new tenant is Jewish, the owner of the Mezuzot is entitled to ask for the fair market price for his Mezuzot, & is only obligated to leave the parchment – not the case - on the doorpost. He can substitute whatever cases he wants, & take his own cases with him. If the new tenant refuses to pay, the owner - if he has taken a deposit - may deduct the Mezuzot's value from the deposit. If not, he should leave at least the parchment that is on the front door, & trust that Hashem will repay him for his meritorious act!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il

This week the nation was under the protective cloud of our collective memory of the miracles which HaShem performed in the month of Iyar 5728 (June 1967). It is called the Six Day War. But in fact the war had been won in the first two hours of Monday morning, when our air force destroyed the Arab air forces in six countries of the Middle East: Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. So a more appropriate name would be the Two Hour War, or perhaps the War for Yerushalayim, when we crossed the frontier of human emotions to become more spiritual creatures than mortal people.

The week began with an "aliya" of over 40 rabbis, roshei yeshiva and great poskim who ascended the Temple Mount, as stated in Tehilim 24:3

God’s Mountain and who shall arise in His holy place

The appearance of so many Torah leaders served as an emphatic statement to the world that Yerushalayim, the seat of the previous Holy Temples and the future Temple, is the possession of the Jewish nation alone.

But perhaps the most effective and emphatic statement to our enemies, and there are many of them, as to our preparedness and willingness to defend this land are the more than one hundred thousand young people who made their way through the wide streets of the New City to fill the narrow alleys of the Old City, on their way to the Kotel plaza.

This year marks 43 years since the Six Day War, and Yom Yerushalayim, the anniversary of the city’s liberation always falls on the 43rd day of the Omer counting.

Whenever I recall the amazing, unparalleled events of the Six Day War, to which I was witness, an inescapable question always arises. It took Yehoshua Bin Nun seven years to liberate an area many times smaller than the one that Tzahal liberated in six days. Moreover, Tzahal of 1967 was not the army of today. It was small, poorly equipped, where the Uzi with a range of 300 meters, at best was the standard small arms. We did not have the planes of today, nor the ordnance; and worst of all, the nation was not in the mood for war.

Yet we were witness to miracles, which the tzaddik, Harav Yechezkel Levinstein, Masgiach of the Ponevitz Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, at a lecture in the yeshiva at the end of the war, equated with the enormous miracle at the Red Sea. And perhaps the greatest mind teaser is that HaShem performed these miracles for our nation where many are not conscious mitzva observant people.

I suggest... The Zohar hakadosh (the holy) teaches that HaShem used the Torah as a blue print when fashioning a creature that would be physically, mentally and spiritually capable of executing the mitzvot of the Torah. And the result is us.

Out of the many hundreds or thousands of possible senses, HaShem saw that for performing the demands of the Torah, five senses would be sufficient. So He endowed us with sight, hearing, smell, touch and speech. But HaShem was careful to limit the range of these capabilities, so that we would not see or hear that which is beyond our limited world.

In order to comprehend, create and project ideas, HaShem gave us intellect which expresses itself through two avenues: words and numbers. We are incapable of thought in any other media aside from words and numbers, for even intuitive thoughts are expressed in our minds through words.

But there is a basic difference between words and numbers, as different as the two pedals in a car - the accelerator and the brake. Words are the accelerators and numbers the brakes. Words can project the thoughts of man to infinite heights or to the lowest regions of evil.

Words such as love and kindness have no limitations, because by their very definition love and kindness, if limited, lose their inherent identity. So too with words like hate and revile, which when limited take upon themselves different identities.

In contrast, numbers by their very essence are modifiers. Ten is no more than ten, and ten to the hundredth power is huge but no more than what it is.

The word "Stars" as a concept is infinite, but "the stars" is finite, as the pasuk says (Tehilim 147:4):

(God who) counts the number of stars, and calls each by name

And the next pasuk:

Love is in the air! The Shalosh R’Galim definitely have a love motif: Pesach represents the courtship between Am Yisrael and Hashem, as we followed G-d the Chatan wherever he led us, just as a Kallah follows her Chatan into uncharted territory. Shavuot symbolizes our marriage, while the Sukka is our personal “yichud room.”

Two primary Shavuot symbols personify the wedding of G-d and the Jewish People: Har Sinai was the “chupa” under which we stood, and the Torah is the Ketuba which defines the mutual responsibilities which the partners promised to always uphold. And the witnesses to the ceremony? Why, Heaven and Earth, of course!

But there is one more element which must be included. Every marriage ceremony revolves around the crucial moment when the Chatan gives the Kallah something of value. At one time, this was a coin worth at least a p’ruta; today the universal custom is to use a golden ring. This, in legal terms, is the “consideration” which indicates that the Chatan is serious about going through with the marriage.

So, I ask you, what items of value does the Almighty offer us in return for “our hand?” What has such worth that it can effect a relationship that is everlasting?

I suggest that G-d presented us with not one, but two special gifts under the Chupa. One was a full set – no, not of fine china! – but of the priceless Mitzvot. And the second item of inestimable value was the promise of Eretz Yisrael. These two possessions lovingly handed over to us were eternal reminders of G-d’s love for His people, as well as the “dowry” which nourishes us throughout history and perfectly embodies our mutual admiration and affection.

Perhaps now we have a deeper insight as to why we read the story of Ruth on Shavuot. Yes, Ruth was to become the ancestress of David HaMelech, and yes, the story does take place during this same season of the year. But it’s much more than that.

You see, Ruth had a burning passion for these 2 pillars of Jewish life. She wanted desperately to keep the Mitzvot – ALL the Mitzvot, not just those which a non-Jew is permitted to observe. And she was determined to keep them in Israel, not in exile in a foreign land. To accomplish that, she was willing to give up her royal Moabite status, endure great hardship and deprivation, and place her trust firmly in G-d.

She is, therefore, a model for each and every Jew.

“Shavuot” has a double-meaning. It stands for “weeks,” the 7 weeks from Pesach to Matan Torah. But Shavuot also means “vows” or “oaths.” The love of Hashem’s law and the love of His land are the vows of marriage we all must take if we want this marriage to last.

************************************

ASK THE RABBI

Question: WHY IS THE NIGHT OF SHAVUOT (THIS TUESDAY NIGHT) CALLED "TIKUN LEIL SHAVUOT?"

Answer: The word Tikun means "fixing." By learning Torah deep into the night on Shavuot and sleeping less, we "fix" 2 flaws that occurred at the original Matan Torah:

1) Instead of eagerly anticipating the giving of the Torah, many people complacently went to sleep early!

2) At Har Sinai, we wanted to accept only the written Torah. G-d had to lift the mountain over our heads and threaten us before we would also accept the Oral Law. Thus we concentrate on studying Talmud in our Shavuot learning to show our acceptance of Torah sheh’b’al’peh. While many do stay up all night, others learn into the night but go to sleep at some point, in order to have proper kavana for the morning Tefila. The Zohar notes that Shavuot is the wedding day of Israel and HaKodesh Baruch Hu; our hours of Torah study constitute the “dowry" we bring to the marriage!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Rabbi Shmuel Weiss is the Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. If you would like to subscribe, advertise or sponsor an issue of the JOC's weekly Parsha sheet, please e-mail jocmtv@netvision.net.il