I got this link emailed to me from several people and thought it was worth sharing:
Priority 1’s
Tinok ben Aviva update: R Eytan Feiner has written an update on his son, available to read here.
Last years’ Pre-Pesach Post
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Category Archives: Yom Tovim
Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
Before Pesach, R’ Yisrael was once unable to be present during the baking of his shmurah matzah, in which he was extremely meticulous. His disciples, who has undertaken to watch over the baking in his place, asked him for directions. R’ Yisrael instructed them to be extremely careful not to upset the woman who kneaded the dough and not to rush her for she was a widow, and to upset her would be a violation of the prohibition against oppressing widows and orphans. “The kashrus of the matzos is not complete,” added R’ Yisrael, “with hidurim in the laws of Pesach alone, but with the meticulous observance of the laws of behavior towards other people as well.”
A peak at how I think
Although my wife and I loved the Shaloch Manos that we made this year. I had several other ideas that I knew wouldn’t even make the cut. Here’s one of them:
Nineteen of these:
One of these:
Packaged in this box:
Can you guess the theme?
Purim: Rethinking Last Year
I think the other angle, that both foods can have the same bracha made over them is also worth thinking about. Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, in LIVING BEYOND TIME, quotes a beautiful idea by Rav Hutner z”tl. Rabbi Stolper write (based on Rav Hutner) that “the practice of gift giving and charity is unique to Purim, because it was on Purim that the Jewish people reaccepted the Torah. Unity is a prerequisite to the giving of the Torah. The Torah records that when the Jews prepared to receive the Torah, “Israel camped against Mt. Sinai.” The Hebrew word camped, vayichan, is written in deliberately written in the singular instead of the plural so as to inform us, as Rashi observes, that the Jews assembled at Mt. Sinai “as one man with one heart,” fully united.” (page 264)
Rabbi Stolper points out later that in Megillas Esther (9:23) we have the phrase, “ve’kubale haYehudim la’asos, And the Jews undertook to continue that which they had initally undertaken.” Again, the word ve’kibale is written in the singular. We were again an Am Echad when we reaccepted the Torah in the days of Purim.
This concept of being unified when being given the Torah is so important. IMHO, when it comes to Purim we want to emulate Hashem by giving, as this is one of the most direct ways to attach to Hashem (see Rav Dessler’s Kuntres HaChessed, or Discourse on Loving Kindness). “Man has been granted this sublime power of giving, enabling him too be merciful, to bestow happiness, to give of himself.” (Strive For Truth! Volume I, page 119). This idea of Rav Dessler’s has recently been “given over” and expanded by the author the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh in the translation of video seven, here (link thanks to Dixie Yid).
Ultimately, by giving to another (especially to someone we are not so close with) we are making a connection. We, in essence are looking past the differences that we have on the surface, no matter if those differences have to do with where we daven, if we daven, what we wear on our heads, or where we send our precious children to get their education. While it’s important to maintain one’s uniqueness within the collective whole, the bigger picture is that it doesn’t matter if it’s a Coke or some salmon we all fall into the same category, that being a Yiddishe Neshama.
A Freilichen Purim to you!
Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin of Salant
What a person of midos can achieve during a Purim seudah, a ‘pious’ man without good midos can lose during Kol Nidrei on Yom Kippur.
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
It’s freezing and I can’t wait for Shavuos
24 years ago this Shabbos Chanuka…
…I had my Bar Mitzvah. A few thoughts come to mind:
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I used a manual typewriter for my speech
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When I spoke about this Haftorah and the importance of dedicating oneself to religion I would have never thought that 3.5 years later I would take steps towards a Torah observant lifestyle
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Brown isn’t my color
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I rocked the Run DMC glasses before Run DMC
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The DJ played “Mr. Roboto” and “Rock the Casbah”
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I had a lot of family come in from out of town
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A Bar Mitzvah kiddush meant good cake and not Tam Tams
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When you are 13, Musaf seem to take forever from the Bimah
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That day after shul I went home and played my Atari 5200, this week after shul I’ll learn Chumash with my son
Thoughts from a drive down the street
Monday night, Erev Chanukah , I drove up the ten or eleven blocks to the supermarket. It was dark. Well, with the exception of a few token flashing lights and lawn decorations along the way, maybe a total of 2 per block.
I drove past each home thinking that come Tuesday night on this same avenue the majority of the homes I was passing would have lit menorahs in the windows. In the span of (at the time) less than 20 hours there would be light. I look forward to walking to shul Shabbos night and truly appreciate living in a community with so many menorahs shining out of the homes.
It’s a good feeling to know that soon I would be lighting my menorah. I look forward to it each year. For me there is a connection between the past, present, and future when I light. To be able to attach myself to a mitzvah that so physically represents something from the times of the Beis Hamikdash kind of blows me away. I know that these thoughts are less than original, but this is what I was thinking about the other night. Freilechen Chanukah!
Vayeira’s message to former Kiruv Professionals
This was originally posted as a comment I made on Rabbi Without A Cause’s blog, here.
My shul’s Rav based his second day Rosh Hashana on something taught by the Rav Soloveitchik, who asks what happened to Avraham after the Akeidah?
All we know is that he went to Ber Sheva and settled there. After Akedas Yitzchak, the Torah doesn’t record that Hashem speaks again with Avraham. What was he doing? Rav Soloveitchik answered this question as follows. After a lifetime of serving Hashem, teaching Torah, and converting hundreds to monotheism, it seems that the Torah tells us that Avraham ends up he living in Ber Shevah among is his family, his nephews/ nieces and their children. Avraham mostly spent time with his family and helping to strengthen their yiddishkeit.
For me this really hit home. I spent 12 yrs involved in kiruv and communal work. Like many of my former friends and former colleagues, eventually I chose to leave that velt for the ‘private sector’. The people I’ve known who have left outreach are amazing people. The kind of people that organizations really can’t replace. I think that what Rav Soloveitchik is telling us is that while working for klal Yisrael and for a kehillah is very important, when you stop, life goes on. Family is what matters. You can be a shiach for Hashem and m’karev tens if not hundreds of individuals, but if you are not successful with your own family, then how successful are you?
To take 15 minutes and sit and bentch word by word with an unaffiliated teenager is a great thing to do. To take time and do Chumash homework with your own kids is just as chashuv. Gut Shabbos Kodesh.
This d’var Torah is being given over Zecher Nishmas Dan Haleiv ben Aharon.
The Adventure of the Observant Jew
I spent alot of time (mostly Shabbos afternoons in high school) reading Sherlock Holmes (especially the Annotated Sherlock Holmes (two volume set). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a way of writing and letting us see most of what Holmes saw, but not quite the whole picture until it was explained by Holmes. Sherlock’s keen sense of deduction and obervation are legendary.
A classic example would be from the beginning of A Scandel in Bohemia:
“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
“Frequently.”
“How often?”
“Well, some hundreds of times.”
“Then how many are there?”
“How many? I don’t know.”
“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.
We are often referred to as ‘observant Jews’. ‘Observant’ is defined as:
paying close attention especially to details
quick to notice; showing quick and keen perception
law-abiding: (of individuals) adhering strictly to laws and rules and customs; “law-abiding citizens”; “observant of the speed limit” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
I guess, it’s true. Compared to other groups of Jews, we, ‘Torah observant’ would fall into the above definition. I’d like to focus on the “quick to notice; showing quick and keen perception” aspect of being ‘observant’. The leaders of previous generations were not only Gadolim in terms of their Torah knowledge, but were extremely sensitive to the world and people around them. I admit, sensitivity to the individual within Yiddishkeit was one of the things that constanly blows me away. I humbly offer three examples for you to think about and maybe even discuss at your Yom Tov table:
In the last years of the great 19th-century thinker Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, he asked his grandchildren to take him to see the Alps. When questioned why at such a late age he wants to go sightseeing, he answered: “I am worried that after my life I will go up to heaven and Hashem will ask me, “Samson, warum hattest du nicht gesehen mein schonen Alpen?” Samson, why did you not see my beautiful Alps?” (Based on the Artscoll biography of RSRH).
Once, Rabbi Dov Ber, the Alter Rebbe’s son, was studying late at night, his infant son in a cradle nearby. Rabbi Dov Ber was so immersed in his studies that when the baby fell out of the cradle he did not hear the child cry. The Alter Rebbe was also studying in another part of the house. But he heard his grandson’s cry and quickly went to pick him up. “You must always hear the cry of a child,” the Alter Rebbe rebuked his son.
Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, the Bais Halevi, was once asked the following question: Can a person fulfill the mitzvah of drinking for cups at the Pesach seder with milk, instead of wine? The Bais Halevi answered no and then gave the individual who asked him the shi’lah a large sum of money. Later Rav Soloveitchik was asked why give so much money, if all the person needed to buy was some wine for the seder. The Bais Halevi replied, “Because he asked about using milk for the seder, that must have meant that he didn’t have enough funds for any meat, as well.”
We do observe. Hopefully it’s the right things. The beauty of Hashem’s world, a child in need, an opportunity not to embarrass someone is dire straights.
I was recently asked, what I found to be a difficult question. “What excites you?”
I was caught of guard and really didn’t have an answer at the time. It bothered me. I have a lot to be excited about. It’s stories like the ones above that excite me. It’s hearing good news about my kids being sensitive to others in school that excites me. It’s Lightning McQueen realizing that sometime you win even though you don’t come in first place that excites me. It’s the way I feel when my neshama know that I’m doing the right thing that excites me. It’s the smell of fresh ground coffee on a Sunday morning that excites me. I realized that it was difficult for me to initally answer that question because I really don’t take as much time as I should to be observant of my surroundings. This is something (along with several other things) that I am working on during this new year.
Sukkos excites me. After spending time in shul of a beis midresh davening we are commanded to leave our homes and venture outside into the world. We take our all of the feelings from Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and bring our families outside the safety of our homes. The message of the above three stories is simply: Look around. See and listen to what is around you and show koved to all that Hashem as created. I wish you an inspiring Sukkos.
