Priorities

Hi,

"Reish Lakish said (based on Tzefaniah 2:1): First improve[lit. decorate] your own actions, then improve the actions of others."

(Talmud, Bava Metzia 107a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Who is supposed to teach our children?

Hi,

"Education of children is only the task of the parent; this is relevant to no one else."

(Tosafot Yeshanim to Yoma 82a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Honoring Gd, Honoring Parents

Hi,

"Honoring one's parents is greater than honoring Gd, for Gd instituted greater requirements for their honor than for his."

(Talmud Yerushalmi Peah 1:5)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The difficulty of receiving and delivering rebuke

Hi,

"Rabbi Tarfon said: I would be stunned if anyone in this generation would accept rebuke. If one would say, ‘Take a splinter from between your eyes,’ he would reply, ‘Take a beam from between your eyes.’

"Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said: I would be stunned if anyone in this generation would know how to deliver rebuke."

(Talmud, Arachin 16b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The depressing aspect of Divine Omniscience

Hi,

"R’ Eela was climbing a ladder in the home of Rabbah bar Shila when he heard a child read, ‘The Former of mountains and Creator of wind, who tells a person his prattle.’ He said, ‘If a servant’s master can even tell him his prattle, does he have any recourse?’

"What is ‘his prattle?’ Rav said: Even the extra prattle between husband and wife is told to him when he dies."

(Talmud, Chagigah 5b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Rebuke in private

Hi,

"When one person sins against another, and the other rebukes him in private, then he can apologize, and the offended party can accept his apology and make peace with him."

(Sefer haChinuch 239)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Rebuke

Hi,

"How do we know that one who sees his friend act improperly should rebuke him? It is written, ‘Rebuke your friend.’

"If he rebuked him and it was not received, how do we know that he should rebuke him again? It is written [a second time], ‘You shall rebuke’ – in any case.

"Should he do it until his friend’s face changes color [in shame]? No; it is written, ‘And do not bear sin for him.’"

(Talmud, Erchin 16b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Gd says, "Grow!"

Hi,

"Rabbi Simon said: Every single grass has a force in the heavens which strikes it and says, ‘Grow!’"

(Midrash, Bereishit Rabbah 10:6)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Building up the land of Israel pre-Mashiach

Hi,

"Now we pray every day: Let our eyes behold Thy return to Zion in mercy and if we believe our own words, then upon whom will the Divine Presence become manifest? Upon the trees and the rocks? Therefore, as the first step to the beginning of redemption of our souls we must return to the Land twenty-two thousand (Jews), the Holy One Blessed Be He to cause the Divine Presence to descend upon them. This most certainly will be followed by His showing us and all of Israel beneficial signs…

"More so, the redemption from Egypt brought the people of Israel to a good and spacious land, one whose wells were already dug, and whose vineyards and olive groves were already planted. Yet, because of our sins, the Land is now empty and desolate and we must, for this redemption, build the houses and dig the wells and plant the vineyards and the olive groves."

(R' Yehudah Alkalai, The Third Redemption)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The Joy of Israel at our return home

Hi,

"It is known from the Sages that our mother, Zion, cries and wails for us; we are her children, and she waits for us to return to her.

"‘With my own flesh I saw my Gd.’ In 1942, before Pesach, a horrifying decree was issued by the accursed wicked ones in in Slovakia, to kidnap Jewish girls from age 16 and up and bring them to a cruel land, an unknown place. Until today, the fate of thousands of pure Jewish souls who were brought there is unknown; Gd will avenge them quickly. There was then a great fear in the Jewish camp, and I know of one who wished to save his young daughters lest they fall into this wicked trap, and he tried to cross the border with his daughters. This was Chol haMoed Pesach, and he promised his wife that he would send a message by telegraph from across the border when he arrived, letting her know that he and his children had arrived safely at their destination. The mother sat in her house with her eyes failing with worry, anticipating at every moment the arrival of the happy news that they had crossed the border in peace and arrived in a safe place. But the father and his daughters were caught before they could cross the border, and they were brought to a city near the border and jailed all through chol hamoed and through the end of Pesach, and they were in great danger of being sent to a cruel land, in accord with their practice of punishing for flight. Anyone who fled and was caught was sent to a cruel land, in a manner which was yet more cruel than that used for others sent there. This became known to his wife, to the mother of the daughters, and we can only imagine the bitter emotion that overtook their mother and turned her joy at their flight into grief, and her Yom Tov was turned to mourning, Gd save us, for her husband and daughters. She sat and wept all through Yom Tov without halt, and the world actually turned dark for her; one cannot put into words her depressed state, when she learned what had happened to her husband and daughters. She knew what awaited them.

"But remember this man for the good: The great and righteous man, who served Gd with true self-sacrifice in the fullest sense of the world, who in this time endangered his life, the great and pious Rav Shmuel Dovid Unger, head of the Nitra community, who did not rest and was not silent until he had redeemed these three captives at a great price. They went free and could return home to their house without any obstacle, on the last day of Pesach. They let this woman of bitter spirit know immediately, by telephone, that her husband and daughters had emerged free, and would return home the next day, isru chag, in peace, and without obstacle.

"There is no need to tell the effect this great news had on the spirit of that bereft woman, knowing that her husband and daughters had emerged from between the lions’ teeth in peace. From that moment she waited with eyes failing with worry for the moment when the father and daughters would return to her home. The next day she did not have the strength to wait for them at home; she sat at the entrance to the yard, her eyes looking out for the moment they would come, and when they came and she saw them she burst out in a cry, pouring out all of the awesome emotion in her heart. She could not produce words of thanks to Gd for the magnitude of the miracle performed for her and for them, from the outpouring of feeling in her heart. One who did not witness the moment they actually met and saw each other again, mother with her daughters, after they returned from such a horrific captivity, and the mother’s weeping when she saw that her daughters had returned home, and the joy of the mother of children at that moment, never saw a feeling of joy.

"Therefore, since I know of that illumination which occurred in our days, so I imagine and describe the joy of our mother, the Land of Israel, when all of us will return to her after such a horrific captivity which we have experienced at this time, and the amazing joy which the mother will experience with her children, meaning Israel with us and us with her. Therefore I have named my book, “The joyous mother of children.”"

(R' Yissachar Techtel, Em haBanim Semeichah, Prologue)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Women's love of Israel

Hi,

"Alternatively, this is why the Torah specified that the Spies [who rejected the land of Israel] were men: The sages said that the men hated the land of Israel, and they said, ‘Let us set our heads in the other direction and return to Egypt.’ The women were the ones who loved the land, and they [the daughters of Tzelafchad] said, ‘Give us a share in the land.’

"Gd said to Moses: In My opinion, knowing what I see in the future, it would be better to send women, for they love the land and they won’t speak disgracefully about it. Send them for yourself, though, according to your opinion, for you believe these men are righteous."

(Kli Yakar to Bamidbar 13:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Usury

Hi,

"Rabbi Shimon stated: Those who extend loans with interest destroy the world to a greater extent than they benefit, and declare our master Moshe to be foolish and his Torah to be false. They say, 'Had our master Moshe only known that there was a profit in this practice, he would never have forbidden it!'"

(Talmud, Bava Metzia 75b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Being a good guest

Hi,

"One who enters a house should not say, 'Give me something to eat.' Rather, one should wait for the host to say, 'Eat.'"

(Talmud, Derech Eretz Rabbah 8)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Inside and Outside

Hi,

"[The Torah says, regarding the Aron (Ark) which held the Luchot (Tablets):] 'You shall coat it with gold, inside and out.' Rava says: Any Torah scholar who is
not the same inside as he is outside is not a Torah Scholar."

(Talmud, Yoma 72b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Sacred meals

Hi,

"Rabbi Shimon said: If three people eat at a table and do not speak words of Torah, it is as though they eat from the offerings of dead [i.e. idolatry]... But if three people eat at a table and they speak words of Torah, it is as though they eat from Gd's table."

(Pirkei Avot 3:3)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Divine mercy and circumcision

Hi,

"And why is a child circumcised at eight days? Gd had mercy on him, to wait until he has strength."

(Midrash, Devarim Rabbah 6:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Inertia

Hi,

"Nothing is as dangerous for man as routine."

(R' Menachem Mendel of Kotzk)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Building synagogues vs. Saving lives

Hi,

"Rabbi Chama bar Rabbi Chanina and Rabbi Hoshia were walking among the synagogues of Lod. Rabbi Chama bar Rabbi Chanina commented to Rabbi Hoshia in admiration, 'How much money my ancestors sunk in here!'

"To which Rabbi Hoshia replied, 'How many lives your ancestors sunk in here! Weren't there people to support in the study of Torah?'"

(Talmud Yerushalmi, Peah 8:8)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Yerushalayim: The place of Gd's rest

Hi,

"For Gd has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His dwelling. 'This is My resting place eternally; here I dwell, for I have desired her.'"

(Tehillim 132:13-14)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

A bow to the importance of superficiality?

Hi,

"'And the kohen who is greater than his brethren [Vayyikra 21:10]' - This means that the Kohen Gadol must be greater than his brethren in strength, beauty, wisdom and wealth."

(Talmud, Yoma 18a)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Teaching our children moral sensitivity

Hi,

"The task before us is multifaceted. As those who educate towards yirat Shamayim, we must communicate the message of the akeida—boldly, loudly and clearly. On the other hand, as those who do seek to ingrain moral sensitivity in ourselves and in our children, we need not dismiss the ambivalences, the difficulties and contradictions (at the initial level, surely). We need not wish away Avraham’s three days of spiritual groping. We need not dismiss the wrestling and grappling as being a reflection of poor yirat Shamayim, of spiritual shallowness, or of a lack of frumkeit. Inasmuch as goodness itself is an inherent component of frumkeit, the goodness which is at the root of the problems, struggles and tensions is itself part of yirat Shamayim—and a legitimate part. If the sense of moral goodness is legitimate, then the questing and the grappling are also legitimate."

(Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Being Frum and Being Good: On the Relationship Between Religion and Morality, http://www.vbm-torah.org/archive/develop/06develop.htm)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

True spiritual liberation

Hi,

"On the first night of Pesach we tell the story of a long search by man for Gd, of Gd responding to the inquisitive search, of Gd taking man, who longs for Him, into His embrace. At the Seder, we try to stimulate the naive curiosity of the children and thereby make them Gd-searchers. The quest for Gd, along with the acceptance of the commandments, is the true spiritual liberation."

(Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveichik, "Exalted Evening," pg. 28-29)

Good moed,
Mordechai

Earning a Living, Splitting the Sea

Hi,

"Rav Shizbi said, citing Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah: Arranging a person's livelihood is as challenging as splitting the Sea [was], for it is written (Tehillim 136), "He provides bread for all flesh... He split the Sea into pieces."

(Talmud, Pesachim 118a)

Good moed,
Mordechai