פרשת במדבר / ב’ בסיון תשפ”ב – מ”ו בעומר
The Book of Ruth begins the story with the statement “In the days when the Judges judged. The Hebrew, though, can be read as “In the days when the Judges were judged.” The meaning is clear. Every decision that the Judges made was criticized. In a society in which the legal authorities are constantly challenged will lose its cohesiveness. We must realize that the law has to be objective, not open to our whims.
פרשת במדבר / כ”ח באייר תשפ”ב – מ”ג בעומר
Today is the anniversary of the Liberation of Jerusalem in 1967. For Jews this was an open miracle. There were many miracles during the 6 Day War and Jerusalem’s liberation was the high point. The question is do we recognize it when God performs miracles for us.
פרשת בחוקותי / כ”ו באייר תשפ”ב – מ”א בעמר
The Vilna Gaon, who died in 1797, predicted that two dates would be important in the future, the 18th Day of the Omer, (that is the 5th of Iyar), and the 28th of Iyar. Today we recognize these days as Israel Independence Day and Jerusalem Day. Both for events that happened in the 20th Century. How did he know?
פרשת בחוקותי – כ”ה באייר תשפ”ב – מ’ בעומר
When a Jewish court was required to hand down a death sentence they would go out to the country and bemoan that breakdown in society. The idea that the crime did not happen in a vacuum. It happened because there is something wrong in society in general.
פרשת בחוקותי / כ”ד באייר תשפ”ב – ל”ט בעומר
Many people blame their actions on others or things. The fact is that we make our own decisions. God gave us free will. It is always our choice, and we suffer the consequences when we make the wrong one.
פרשת בחוקותי / כ”ג באייר תשפ”ב – ל”ח בעומר
The curses of this week’s portion have to do with a breakdown of society. One of the problems is that people say, “that is your truth”. Interesting the Hebrew word for truth, אמת, has no plural. This infers that there is only one truth, not multiple truths.
פרשת בחוקותי / כ”ב באייר תשפ”ב – ל”ז בעומר
When we read the portion we see that God will judge us not so much on how well we pray or perform our rituals, such as the sacrificial service, but on how we treat each other. As the Mishna says the first question that you will be asked in the next world will be “Were you honest in your business dealings?”
פרשת בחוקותי / כ”א באייר ץשפ”ב – ל”ו בעומר
This week’s portion has the blessings and the curses. That if we follow the Torah then great things will occur but if we do not then disaster will happen. The interesting thing is that the curses will be caused by a breakdown in society. God does not have to curse us, we can do that all by ourselves,
פרשת בהר / י”ט באייר תשפ”ב – ל”ד בעומר
The Talmud, Tactate Shabbat 33b, relates that the reason Rebbe Akiva’s students died of a plague was that they did not respect each other. This underlines the idea that even if we disagree we need to show each other respect. To disagree without being disagreeable.