Rav Moshe Weinberger says that the word הלוואי contains almost the same letters as אֱלִיָּהוּ because, when we say, “Halevai such-and-such should happen”, we really have to have the same level of emunah that we do regarding our belief that Eliyahu HaNavi will be coming soon to announce Moshiach!
I recently switched jobs and my former 18 minute (each way) is now a drive of, no less, than 40 minutes each way daily. It’s taken some getting use to, but I happen to enjoy listening to shiurim and also music (90% Jewish music and 10% non-Jewish).
Just last week, on RavMosheWeinberger.com, they reduced the price of shiurim credit to 99 cepts per credit and also started offering 50 downloads per month for only $6.99. That’s right, you can download 50 shiurim a month for the low price of about 14 cents a shiur. You can even roll-over unused credit to the next month. This is incredible and for me, means I can actually learn more Torah from Rav Weinberger and also catch up on a bunch of shiurim series that I’ve been hold off on purchasing.
I even figured out that if I drive on the non-toll roads about 10 days out of the month, I will have actually saved the same money as I’m spending on the the monthly download fees. Of course, this means that it will take a little longer to get to work those days, but that’s more time to listen to shiurim!!
Please spread the word about this great offer and go check out RavMosheWeinberger.com.
 |
| Photo from RavMosheWeinberger.com |
RavMosheWeinberger.com is offering an excellent series of parenting shiurim as free mp3 downloads, here. Just scroll to towards the bottom of that page to get shiurim 1-10 of “Inspired Parenting”. I own the cassettes and have listened to them over and over again. I can’t even being to say how important theses shiurim are in terms of understanding the partnership with Hashem a parent has, the reason why you were given the children you have, and how to really give over Toras Chaim. Here’s a little info about the shiurim (from the back of the cassette binder):
In the summer of 5760 (2000), Rav Weinberger conducted a series of special shiurim for parents seeking chizuk in that area of life that is most crucial and challenging.
Using as a base text a recently published kuntres (treatise) of Rav Silverberg from Yerushalayim, Rav Weinberger teaches taht the only way to rasie inspired children is by becoming insprired parents.
As in all of of his shiurim, Rav Weinberger taps into the vast reservoir of Chassidus and Machshava to take us on an exhilarating journey into the world of inspired parenting.
Again, the shiurim are available for a limited time here.
RavMosheWeinberger.com is offering a special free downloadable shiur, titled “Spiritual Growth Begins Beneath the Surface” on their website, here. We’ll worth checking out!!!
Starting the Wednesday, December 14 at Ohel Shalom, 2949 West Touhy Ave, Chicago (SE corner of Touhy and Sacramento) at 8:30 is a new shiur given by Rabbi Daniel Raccah that I am very excited about.
Rabbi Raccah will be teaching Messilas Yesharim with the commentary of Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh. I’ve heard some shiurim from Rav Weinberger based on this sefer, but I am uber-happy to have an opportunity to actually learn it inside with a tremendous Rav like Rabbi Raccah. I have been hearing about him since I came to Chicago and was zoche to hear him speak this past Shavuos. This blurb was emailed to me:
 |
| Royalty free graphic from here |
I recently listened to a shiur by Rav Weinberger that was given to a group of women in Waterbury, CT. I think the content, messages, and stories (the “jukim” story, the “Lost Horse”, and the “I know the Shephard” story) are similar to a shiur from 2008 posted by Dixie Yid. The shiur, titled “Chinuch & Chanukah: Chinuch with a Heart” actually starts about 50 seconds into the recording and is available here. The shiur revolves around the difference between “teaching” and “giving over” Torah.
Rav Weinberger tells mentions an important article on chinuch that was published in Hakirah, The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought by Dr. Aharon Hersh Fried. The article, titled, Is There a Disconnect between Torah Learning and Torah Living? And If So, How Can We Connect Them? A Focus on Middos is available for reading or downloading here.
What follows in my transcription of Rav Weinberger telling over a story that was included in the above mentioned article. Any mistakes in writing down Rav Weinberger’s words are mine.
Some years ago, in Rav Reuven Feinstein’s yeshiva, there were two boys who had an argument. What happened? Let’s call them Reuven and Shimon. Revuen lent his tape recorder to Shimon and Shimon dropped the tape record and it broke. And they were arguing. Revuen said, “I lent you the tape recorder and you broke it. You have to get me a new one.”
Shimon says, “It wasn’t my fault, it was an accident.”
And they were arguing and decided that they would go to the Rosh Yeshiva, which is a good thing. They went to Reb Reuven Feinstein, they went to the Rosh Yeshiva to ask him what’s the halacha then. This is what happened. Rav Reuven Feinstein was absolutly astonished by the question. Not with nachas, he was astonished. He said, “You’re learning all year since September, your learning the gemara. Everyday you have charts on the blackboard. You’re learning the gemara “Bava Metzia” that teaches that when someone borrows something he’s responsible when it breaks. If you borrow something you’re responsible.” Rav Reuven was so distrubed by this. He couldn’t understand how’s it possible that the boy, how could he not know that? That’s all they’re learning and they’re getting 100s on their tests. שואל חייב באונסין , it’s a gemara. It’s all over the gemara. If you borrow, you’re chai’ev (responsible).
So, he was so upset, Rav Reuven went to his father. He went to Reb Moshe, Zecher Tzaddik V’Kodesh L’Vracha. He went to Reb Moshe and he asked, “How can it be that the boys did not know that?”
So, Reb Moshe said, “Because what they’ve seen in their lives has no relationship to what they’re learning in yeshiva. It’s completely irrelevant. They do not see their parents living the lives that they learn in the seforim, nor do they see it so clearly in the yeshiva.” That’s what Reb Moshe said.
They would never dream of making a connection between what they learned all year and how to practically live. It might have been taught, but it wasn’t given over.
 |
| This is legit. Found here. |
This past Shabbos Bereishis I was at Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY (well, actually I was there starting on Hoshannah Rabbah and just got back very early Thursday morning) and wanted to share a small part of what remember from Rav Moshe Weinberger’s Shabbos drasha. I take all responsibility for any mistakes and lack of fully explaining any ideas given over by Rav Weinberger.
Rav Weinberger started off mentioning that from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Hoshannah Rabbah we have 51 days. He then quoted the 4th pasuk from the 4th perek of Bereishis:
4. And Abel he too brought of the firstborn of his flocks and of their fattest, and the Lord turned to Abel and to his offering.
ד וְהֶבֶל הֵבִיא גַם-הוּא מִבְּכֹרוֹת צֹאנוֹ, וּמֵחֶלְבֵהֶן; וַיִּשַׁע יְהוָה, אֶל-הֶבֶל וְאֶל-מִנְחָתוֹ.
The pasuk says “Hevel haivee gam hu” to teach us that Hevel didn’t just bring his karbon, but he brought gam hu “also him[self]”, giving 100% of who he was.
If you give someone a present, just to be yotzei by giving a gift, it’s isn’t as personal and meaningful as really putting thought i, ento giving someone a present, thereby giving part of yourself to another person. The greatness of Hevel was that he gave himself over to Hakodesh Baruch Hu. Much in the same way that Avraham intended for Yitzchak to be a karbon and, in fact, Chazal teach that even it was as if Yitzchak himself became the karbon.
Rav Weinberger then said he had a machshava based on the 1st pasuk in the 2nd perek of Koheles:
1. I said to myself, “Come now, I will mix [wine] with joy and experience pleasure”; and behold, this too was vanity.
א אָמַרְתִּי אֲנִי בְּלִבִּי, לְכָה-נָּא אֲנַסְּכָה בְשִׂמְחָה וּרְאֵה בְטוֹב; וְהִנֵּה גַם-הוּא, הָבֶל.
Rav Weinberger noted that again we have almost the same loshon of gam hu havel as in the pasuk in Bereishis. If I recall correctly, we can replace “havel” with “Hevel“, and see again that we have to give of ourselves when severing Hashem. with joy and pleasure.
He concluded by saying that a person can spend those 51 days between Rosh Chodesh Elul and Hoshannah Rabbah going those the actions offering up karbonos of Selichos, mikvah, teshuva, davening, mussaf, al chaits, living in the sukkah, saying hallel, shaking our lulavim and esrogim, and performing hoshannos, but if we are not prepared to fully give ourselves, “gam hu“, then it’s as if we aregive a present in a haft-hearted way and not fully giving a karbon to Hashem in the most beautiful way possible. We each have to give of ourselves to Hashem. That’s what he wants from us.
Published in Song of Teshuva, a commentary on Rav Kook’s Oros HaTeshuvah by Rav Moshe Weinberger and adapted by Yaacov Dovid Shulman.
Rav Weinberger tells over the following story (pages 134-135):
When Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik went to a farbregen (a Chassidic gathering) on the occasion of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s eightieth birthday, he was very impressed by the Rebbe’s brilliance and erudition. But on the the way home, Rav Soloveitchik said that there was one thing with which he did not agreee. When he offered the Rebbe a l’chaim (a toast), the Rebbe said, “Now the descendants of R. Chaim Volozhiner and the family of the Baal HaTanya have come together.” Rav Soloveitch said that this was not true. They had come together earlier, when Hitler had put the Chassid and the misnaged (the opponent of Chassidism) together in the same oven. That was when we realized that there is no difference between one Jew and another.
It should not take someone who hates and persecutes the Jewish people to remind us that there is no difference between Jews on the level of the soul. We must appreciate that the sould of every Jew is inseparable from the Congregation of Israel.
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3071793/modern-uberdox?claim=hveg78vm96t”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin
The excerpt below is from, Song of Teshuva, a commentary on Rav Kook’s Oros HaTeshuvah by Rav Moshe Weinberger and adapted by Yaacov Dovid Shulman.
The currents of teshivah- of the individual and of the community- surge forward.
This image of teshuvah as a flowing river comes from a passage in the Zohar: “There is a hidden place, which is the depth of the well. And from it rivers and springs stream to every direction. And that deepest of all depths is called teshuvah” (Acharei Mos 70).
A related idea is coveyed in by the fact that the Hebrew word for “river”, nakhal, is an acronym of the phrase, “nafsheinu khiksa laShem– “our soul hopes for Hashem” (Tehillim 33:20).
The currents of teshuvah flow- within the individual, community and the entire Jewish people- in the form of an inclination to chagne and improve.
Thus, the Gemara teaches that every day a heavenly echo calls out, “Return to God” (Pirkei Avos 6:2 and Hagigah 15a). The Baal Shem Tov explains that this echo is not a loud proclamation, but our inner awareness of teshuvah calling to us.
Rav Kook believed that despite its many detours and difficulties, the world is spiritually improving, and he refused to accept a dark, negative and pessimistic outlook. He saw this return to God as being woven into the very texture of the universe. This view is not unique to Rav Kook. Thus, when people told the R. Yisrael Meir Kagen, the Chofetz Chaim, that the Balfour Declaration marked the beginning of the redemption, he demurred and replied that Creation itself marked the beginning of redemption. (Pages 106-107)
